Wim Demeere's Blog

Martial Arts and Self-Defense Blog by Wim Demeere | Techniques, Books, Podcasts

Sanshou Footwork Drill

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This is a Sanshou footwork drill I like to do in class. It’s not terribly complicated but it’s effective in teaching certain things. Here goes:

  • You do pyramid striking up to five techniques. That means you hit 1, then step away. Then you throw two techniques, start over. And so on until you do a 5-count combo.
  • Every time you finish striking, you try to use sideways footwork, working both the left and right side. This simulates anticipating a countering opponent and getting away from the line of fire.
  • Once you’re comfortable with that, the partner walks forward each time you finish up. He can just walk, spring forward ,extend his arms, strike lightly, it’s all good. This makes the drill a little bit harder because now you have to wait  for his movement to time your side step and its direction.
  • Next round, go for a throw/takedown as he steps in (preferably, he punches at the same time.) Try to not go straight forward for the entry but use the sidestepping or angle off slightly. Anything but a head-on collision.

Here’s me, getting my sanshou groove on in the drill:

I did some editing to only show the parts where I’m working or the video would have been too long. But usually, you take turns being the attacker after you finish the 5-count. The round is 3 minutes long.

Some more pointers:

[Read more…]

Spinning back kick knock out

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Here’s a cool video: a guy does a beautiful spinning back kick and knocks out his opponent during a karate tournament.  Check it out:

What I liked best: how he was sneaky about it.

If you look closely, when he starts the kick, he’s slightly out of range. His opponent spots the set-up and starts by pulling back his head to get clear of the incoming kick. Normally speaking, he’d have been fine. However, the guy on the left scoots forward on his support leg right in the middle of the kick. At which point it’s too late for his opponent to get out of the way or block. Result: instant KO.

Nicely done.

When I started competing, I did a lot of high and spinning kicks. A couple times, I TKOed people with them. This video here reminded me of those fights a long time ago. (Crap, I’m getting old…). I’ll see if I can find a way to convert the VCR tape to digital and put it online.

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How to shadowbox, part 3

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In Part 1 of “How to Shadowbox“, I covered the basic reasons for this type of training. Part Two gave you some examples of how to apply them. But that still doesn’t tell you how to begin shadowboxing. There are so many different things you can do, it can be difficult to find a starting point. Especially if you’re new to MMA, muay Thai, boxing or whatever art you practice.  As you know by now, I like a structured, progressive approach in my training. So here’s an example of a shadowboxing workout.

First, a couple of things:

  • After the warm-up, you’ll work in 3 min. rounds with 1 min. rest. I use my wristwatch, which has a good timer, to sound the alarm in cycles of 3 and 1 min.
  • Be extremely careful about not snapping your joints completely. Don’t open up your knees and elbows at 100% as that can lead to tendinitis, hyper-extension, muscle tears, etc. I usually stay in the 95% extension range.
  • Focus on staying in balance. It’s easy to allow yourself to take a step when your punch drags you off balance, simply because there’s no opponent to punish you for it. But it’s a bad habit to get into, one that’ll cause you pain in a real fight.
  • Train on a stable surface. I sometimes like to train on a slippery surface but that shouldn’t be the standard way of training because it makes improving your techniques more difficult. Find a good floor to train on and wear the appropriate shoes to get the most out of your workout.

OK, here’s the actual work out: [Read more…]

How to shadowbox, Part 2

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In part one of “How to shadowbox” I talked about the different reasons to shadowbox and which mistakes to avoid. Lets take a closer look at those different variations.

Disclaimer: you can shadowbox any way you like. There are no limits to what you can do. But just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. I mean, sure, you can do three rounds of jump spinning back kicks and pretend you’re sparring a tough opponent but why would you? Fun as it may be, it’s not all that realistic.

Now we have that out of the way, how should you shadowbox?

I see shadowboxing as a way to increase my martial and self-defense skills, so I train with that in mind. That means I usually have a specific goal when I shadowbox or several goals. I believe that having a plan for each round is a more productive way of training than just winging it. That said, I invariably shadowbox for a few rounds where I just flow and go by feel, nothing planned about it. That’s OK too. In fact, that’s the whole idea: working towards the point where you can pull it all off without thinking. But you don’t get there without some planned training first, so I like to do a lot of that.

One more disclaimer: Don’t look at the technical details of what you see in these videos. If you do a technique differently, that’s fine. These clips are just illustrations of how you can shadowbox and not instructional material on specific techniques. Substitute with whatever works for you if you disagree with how certain things are done.

Warm-up

In this clip, you see a boxer warming up by shadowboxing:

Some key points: [Read more…]

Guest Post: Mark Mireles on MMA and self defense

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This is a guest post by a fellow author and amazing fighter, Mark Mireles. I’ll do a follow up post in a few days to touch on the great insights he gives here. Enjoy!

The Ultimate Martial Arts Question – Which Came First the Chicken or the Egg?

I’m a Wim’s Blog reader. I don’t say much here on the blog but I read and reflect. It has been said “observe much, learn much, train much”. Sage advice. In my voyaging time, I had the opportunity to follow the thread that outlined the argument between self defense, martial arts training and mixed martial arts.

The discussion was that no matter how visceral and brutal MMA is at the end of the day, it’s a sport that is governed by rules. There were several posts that interjected the fact that MMA does not include weapons defenses and multiple attackers. These are good points indeed. Although the self-defense crowd was very professional, at the end MMA was viewed as sport.

The MMA crowd argued that MMA was an effective fighting system because it arose out of the traditional martial arts. MMA was deemed a modern fighting system that was a sport but could be effectively used as a practical form of hand-to-hand combat. The sum was greater than its parts. Transversely, the traditional form of martial arts was viewed as limited because it didn’t address all ranges of real fighting.

At the end of the day, it appeared that the two groups agreed to disagree agreeably. From my computer (being a voyeur) I thought both sides made solid points and it got me thinking. Contemplating the point of view of both camps, I had the opportunity to witness something and wanted to share it with the “Wim-ers” (yes I just coined us, Wim’s Blog enthusiasts). If you don’t know me or my books let me tell you were I’m coming from.

Mark Mireles (top left) at an LAPD charity

Wim did an interview with me some time ago. If you didn’t read it, let me introduce myself. I’ve been a street cop for over 20 years and been practicing martial arts since 1977. After years of street experience and martial arts training, I came to my own conclusions related to real fighting, training, and teaching. [Read more…]

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