I think having balls is one thing tdi & lexmas but its heart that makes a fighter. The best way for me to 'neutralise' an opponent is for me to take the fight right out of him(spirit, heart, whatever). It usually only takes one blow to certain vulnerable area. Hence my like for pressure point fighting.
Lexmas: I think you are emphasising my point and i do agree with you about a lot of arts being aesthetically pleasing/exhibition value rather than having true use when it counts/pragmatic.
The vicious ones are not only stupid half the time but there some who do truly have the heart and you would have to be extremely wary of them. There are rajpots in every walk of life.
TDI: Seen the arses of practioners of various disciplines go many a time. Effective people have been ringers and people who are, shall i say 'seasoned', people who have been exposed to the feelings of fear and adrenaline before. Others are just frozen in their paths with the viciousness that an assault brings.
I will state again and reaffirm: Whatever it is you practice, are a student of, unless you pressure test it or it has been pressure tested, IT IS USELESS.
Adz: I agree with the natural aspect of timing, balance and distance that just cannot be taught. Some people have it without training, what some people for years try to achieve but never will.
What you learn in the ring/dojo has to be adapted to apply to the 'real world'. No sensei/sifu/shidoshi/master instructor can teach you that.
Thank you all for your input and everything has been noted to look into.
There is an account(asked of him in his words) of applying an art to pragmatic use when it mattered wrote by a friend of mine who has read this thread when forwarded to him. Thought i would share it:
"Well a friday night off from the door, hell I earned it. Dealing with dealers, hoodlums, townies and social pond life can sometimes get you down, anyhow me and the lads from training decided to have a night on the beer, out of town somewhere miles away, no one would know us or me or so we thought, I'm going back a few years now I was a sixth kyu in ninpo, never the less still sixteen stone of rugby and one ugly face lol!
Bolton was the town we picked for a beer. All went well, other doormen can sense when you can do a bit or if you do the door, through the way you talk to people, nice, courteous and polite. Pub after pub, beer chasing beer, till we went to the local night club. Appropriate as it is now deep down under bankcrupt, it closed about 4 years back.
The place was huge, I had only been in twice, the eye candy was good to look at, too good at times, you often found yourself being stared down by some meathead as you was eyeing up his girlfriend never the less.
Maybe it's me, maybe because of my size, confidence or aura, hell take your pick, some people become babe magnets me I was a 'sh!t-magnet'. Yes, I can be in a buliding and within 10 minutes I'd have trouble, all I wanted was a beer.
Anyhow we was rambling through the crowd, the others upfront when I got spun round. I dropped left leg back into a subtle hira ichimonji, only to have some village idiot who was mad as a wasp cursing and swearing.
This is where your training now comes in, and it's amazing even more how it works when your plied up on beer.
Village Idiot swings at me( *** knows why I didn't even know him). He threw the predictable right hook, I shuffled back as he came, the punch sailed past my right hand, as I was still in hira no kamae, I shifted into right leg forward midji ihon no kamae, followed through with a front kick to uke's(Village Idiot) exposed knee. As he crumbled I dug a deep shako into ukes neck and politely told him to f**k off. And I let uke go. Nearby there was two bouncers not worth their salt, watched (amzaed I think) how I handled the situation and started to laugh. Now if the village idiot wasn't mad enough to begin with, he was now a whole angry swarm off mad wasps. His pride and esteem had been destroyed in front of his mates, he needed that back. He picked himself up from the floor and grabbed the nearest thing he could get, a bottle of blue WKD. GAME ON. This was no Playstaion, no X-Box now, this was combat.
The Bouncers who were laughing before and only 10 foot away ran off. It was me and him with a bottle.
There I was stood in shinzen, for what seemed like an eternity, I was waiting for the storm to break, to hear the thunder, I found that when in fighting you hear nothing, all the shouting, screaming, music, everything goes away all you can hear is your heart pounding away in your chest as your adrenalin goes through the roof.
Uke lunged at me, swinging the bottle in an arc for my head, to those watching it was a blur, to me it was precision, I moved outside of the attack, I mirrored my attacker, ending up behind him, a quick happa to his ears, rocked him, and if that didn't hurt the koppokens to the neck sure did, he was in pain and he was frightened, he jumped forward trying to get some distance but leaving an arm outstretched for to long only invited a right handed ura gyaku, into a take ori, while firing boshikens with the free hand into uke's ribs. Ever see a rabbit caught in the headlight of a car, this was it. But the coupe de grace was changing the right handed take ori into my left hand omote gyaku pinning uke to the wall and struck the veins on his neck with ura shuto.
Uke was gone out cold, and the bouncers that had ran off were now running back with another two. Reinforcements. how long had this assualt taken from start to finish. 10 seconds tops, 10 seconds is a long time in a fight, but not a long as the one coming up.
The Village Idiot was shell shocked, hell I did'nt care, one of the doormen grabbed me I shifted into a left leg ichimonji, folding his arms as I moved in ihen. The bouncer was perplexed, he didn't know what to do as I had pinned his foot. One of the original bouncers was shouting saying 'I was cool' it was the other guy who started it. I held onto the bouncer for a few seconds more nodded at him and let go. I said to the lads I was with and to the bouncers I'm going home and preceeded to walk off.
I was angry. Hell I was livid a perfect night out was ruined, we walked to the exit, we must have been 12 meters from the door when I got shouted at by a bouncer who was running towards me. I stopped, he stepped up "Can I have a word mate" ***** I knew what was coming I do the job.
" I can't hear you" I said, the nugget was stood infront off a speaker, I pointed at him to stand to the side so I could listen to him.
"You've been fighting, you've got to go"
"Look I didn't start it, but I'm going home, sorry about it, i understand I do the doors myself.OK I'll see you later, Follow me to the door if you wish, I'm going"
And I turned my back on him to walk off in the direction of the door.
"Your going now!!"
Then the punch came from behind. It was probably the worst mistake anyone could have made. I went with the blow, I staggered forward and felt him grab my left shoulder with his right hand, I immediately backstepped throwing my left arm over his right, stepping forward threw number 1 into ganseki nage, number 2 grabbed from behind a naked choke hold, I hooked into the crevice of his elbow with my index finger, turned into the choke(musodori) throwing number 2 to the floor. Number 3 came with a lunging grab, I took the gift of the hands coming at me, stepped to the side, throwing his arms into a circular motion, throwing 3 into 1. number 4 was crafty, he came at me with a coma geri for my right leg, I never thought it would ever work in training, but I delivered a Hicho from kihon happo, sending 4 off balance taking his leg from him. It was at this point I was overmanned 5,6,7,8 came from out of nowhere, grabbing hold of my arms and shoulders, now a trick from karate if you did not want to move was to dig your legs into the floor, forcing your weight down and into the ground while tensing your entire body. I became immovable, They was screaming at each other to move me, other were sreaming back that they could'nt, I then relaxed and dropped to the floor. Collateral damage as bouncers piled into each other, I came out applying hon gyaku's, take ori's, standing on ankles and knees. I got kicked through an exit door by number 9. It hurt, I agree.
one rule by british law is that a bouncer cannot hit a reveller, they have to be ejected off the premises by minimal force, the days of thuggery gone in big clubs, or should be.
A Bouncer striking a Doorman is war.
I held no guard, no kamae until he came, the left leg dropped back into ichimonji as my hands came up as he grabbed my shirt a right boshiken slammed into his throat, this kitten wanted to play, only he was playing with a lion. 9 was gone, on the floor spluttering. 10 was fat, overwieght, he grabbed my right arm and tried to arm bar it into an ura gyaku, I turned into the lock folding his arms up with my elbows, pinned his feet and sent him to the floor.11 was in front of 2,5,7, the exit corridor we was going down was only 2meters wide, so 12 blokes brawling, you only have three attackers at any one time. I was almost at the door, when 11 threw the last punch, welcome to the world of properly applying a mushodori, I will always remember that scream of pain as I left the building with the bouncer tied up. I threw 11 back into the crowd of p*ssed of bouncers.
Funny how you react in a post conflict as well, the lads who was with me that night, where was they you ask when I was battling with the staff. Watching and laughing. Typical.
I ended up walking to the front of the building asking the main bouncer for the manager, wanting to know why Bouncer 1 had punched me in the back of the head when I said I was leaving on my own accord. While talking I was also talking with my hands, palms open, making me look passive, yet still having a guard, out of the blue the main bouncer hit my right arm, why I haven't a clue but the last thing he saw was a shikaken entering his left and right eyes.
Another good tip for all you people, if you get the chance is to train the Police it comes in handy. As does CCTV. The main bouncer got a warning, bouncers 1,9,11 lost their badge.
I didn't go back for a year, but when I did the remaining doorstaff could not look me in the eye and all the barstaff knew me by doorname back home."
I can verify this, ninjitsu 101 to the unfortunate team of d****
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