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Q: I wanted to get your opinion on something. In your videos (Rape Escape), you stress the defensive position for women where they are on their backs ready to strike with their feet. I see where you are coming from there and I think that I like that approach. My question is what do you think is best for women who are actively training in the martial arts? Should a trained women still go to this position or use the stand up techniques that she practices in the training hall? Also, you said that you males use that same defensive position against larger opponents. Did I understand that correctly? A: Actually I think the answer to your question is both yes and no. The "defensive position" is great for someone who has NO any martial arts experience for a number of reasons: 1. It gets your head out of the way of strikes; 2. It protects your back from an attack; 3. It forces your opponent to fight an usual level and distance; 4. It keeps your most powerful weapons -- your kicks -- in between you and your opponent. Of course, you lose mobility and the ability to strike with your own hands. I would contend that the same points hold true with someone who DOES have martial arts experience. In fact, this defensive position is what Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu stylists call the "open guard". It's great when you need to fight a larger, stronger opponent or someone who is a superior striker. At the more advanced levels you will be kicking your opponent (something at which you as a TKD stylist excel) or pulling him into you so you can begin to work your grappling and submissions. It's sort of like pulling a non-swimmer into the water with you. You're still fighting, but you have the advantage. I would encourage your trained people to just consider the defensive position as one of the three ranges of combat: 1.kicking range, 2. striking range, 3.trapping and grappling range. So as the fight unfolds, just be prepared for the natural ebb and flow of the range to change in and out. As you've seen in Rape Escape Level 2, I don't necessarily advocate ALWAYS going to the defensive position. And I don't advocate your trained people to throw out what they are good at just to go to the defensive position. The Rape Escape videos are designed to deal with a very narrow niche of non-martial artist females who need something effective that they can work with. I'm sick and tired of all the charlatans out there teaching women crap like the "volcano punch" and putting car keys between their fingers... So that's why the tapes are deliberately narrow in their focus and why the techniques are necessarily limited. The women who have gone through the classes over the last 7 years have proven that they can LEARN, REMEMBER and PERFORM the curriculum in a limited time and under stress. For advanced martial artists and instructors like yourself there are two other Defend University projects that are currently underway. One is directed at cops, firefighters, bouncers, security guards, bodyguards, loss prevention officers, public safety personnel or anyone who needs to defend themselves and control the attacker. The other one is a project designed to effectively introduce and train martial artists to add all three ranges of combat into their sparring. We've had many requests from strikers who want to learn how to incorporate grappling into their training and many grapplers who want to learn how to incorporate kicking and striking into their game. |
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