Wim Demeere's Blog

Martial Arts, Self Defense and a Whole Lot More.

How to make absolutely sure you get your ass kicked

by 18 Comments

Here’s a video showing some behavior that always baffles me: Just as a guy who’s harassing a woman is about to leave, she does everything she can to make sure he kicks her ass. Case in point:

To make my opinion absolutely clear: that guy is an asshole. Regardless of what the woman said or did, he’s an asshole for landing that leg kick. He could have broken her knee or leg, she could have cracked her skull, etc.

That said, the woman isn’t entirely without an important part of the responsibility for why it all turned out the way it did: with her ass getting kicked. Here’s how I see it: [Read more…]

Kuntao-Silat Training on the Heavy Bag

by 6 Comments

Here’s a video of me doing some Kuntao-Silat on the heavy bag. Normally, you train these arts with a partner but that doesn’t always work out. So I started experimenting on the heavy bag and finding ways to practice these techniques alone. In this video, you can see some of my personal training. This means a number of things:

  • This is not an instructional video. I’m not teaching anything here, I’m training, I’m working on my personal development. So don’t read anything more in it than that.
  • It’s freestyle training, not working on a curriculum. So I’m going with what I feel like going instead of working on specific techniques. Not that I don’t do that, on the contrary: I practice the curriculum from these arts a lot more than I train freestyle. But in this clip, I’m just mixing things up a bit.
  • My main Silat and Kuntao teacher is Bob Orlando and you can see this in the way I perform the techniques. I do have some other influences in my training so if you see stuff that is different from what Bob does, that’s where it comes from. Again, I’m not doing curriculum work here, I flowing and mixing all those influences.

That said, here’s the video:

 

Some more information:

  • I work a lot from block left. The reason is simple: most people are right handed. So the odds of them using a right handed attack are pretty high. Then it only makes sense to practice defensive techniques against such attacks more often than other things. [Read more…]

MMA Soccer style, part 5

by Leave a Comment

It’s been a while since I had a new entry in my MMA, soccer style series but this one sure fits in there. Take a look:

Now he doesn’t get it quite right as his leg is too extended before he does the flying kick. But other than that, this has all the elements of a a killing blow. He targets the neck just right to create the kind of whiplash that does terminal damage. Just look at the way the guy’s head snaps when the kick lands.

Also, don’t forget that soccer player wear studded shoes. So the impact point is really small and made of metal which means minimal energy bleed and potential puncturing.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: soccer is a thug’s sport.

.

Bill Kipp’s Fast Defense Gladiator Suit.

by 4 Comments

While I was shooting my new videos with Paladin Press, I had a chance to meet up with Mr. Bill Kipp, the founder of Fast Defense and play around with the brand new Gladiator Suit.

First, let me say that Bill is a great guy all around. I had a blast talking with him about self-defense, martial arts and a bunch of other topics. He explained to me how his Fast Defense program works and it’s a great way to train. I’ve done scenario training with the Red Man and other suits in the past but this Gladiator suit is the first one that really let me cut loose. Here’s a sample of what it looks like:

 

My first couple of shots were tentative but in the last few ones, I put a bit more power. Now I do indeed manage to strike Bill down with the left elbows but that’s mainly due to the angle of the technique, his stance and me outweighing him a bit. He did not fall because he was dazed by my elbow strike.

As you can see when we turn the tables, I take a couple of good elbows too. The result: zip. Nada. Nothing. It feels like you’re hit by a huge pillow. Or like somebody shoves you. But that’s about it. No pain, no “flash” as the impact lands, no grogginess, none of that. [Read more…]

Video update: It’s a wrap!

by 1 Comment

A few hours ago, the Paladin Press video director spoke the magic words: “It’s a wrap!” Only a few minutes earlier, I was hitting my demo partner full power in the face with punches and palm strikes fter I rammed him into a dumpster. He was wearing Mr. Bill Kipp’s latest Gladiator suit, so he was just fine. But still, quite a contrast going from full-bore fighting to the next minute saying thanks to everybody for doing such an outstanding job over the last four days of shooting.

Pretty much everything went the way it should. Here are some highlights of my trip so far:

  • Once again, my flight to Denver was delayed. Thunderstorms this time. As a result, I’d been up for 24h before arriving at the hotel. Not really a great way to start but at least I had the next day to recover.
  • We got in all the information that I wanted to include for the Conditioning for Power video. There’s a chance we might have to cut some parts because we ran over the maximum length for one DVD. I tried to keep it under that limit but it didn’t turn out that way.
  • I had less trouble with my back than I had feared. Just before leaving for the US, I was forced to do three sessions at the chiropractor just so I could walk without pain, let alone do any exercise. Considering that, it went well enough.
  • For the Combat Sanshou: Tiger and Snake video, things worked out well too. My demo partner, Brian, went above and beyond the call of duty as he had to take some hard shots from me. So props to him for sticking with it for the whole four days.
  • Meeting Mr. Kipp was awesome. He has a wealth of experience and offers a unique product with his Gladiator suit. He wore it for and I launched full power elbow shots at his head; he just shrugged them off. then I put on the suit and he launched a bunch of shots; same result. I could feel some sort of shock wave but other than that, I was fine. Awesome training tool!
  • He was kind enough to lend it to me for the last day of the shoot. I had planned to do some scenarios for the Combat Sanshou video so the suit was perfect for that. Originally, we were going to use a chest guard and some headgear. It’s better than nothing but it isn’t great because you can still injure your partner if you crank up the intensity. With the Gladiator suit, I didn’t have to hold back. At one point, I was pounding my Brian’s head into the floor with punches, as hard as I could. Afterwards, he was just fine, told me he hadn’t felt a thing. I looked at the footage and it does indeed look pretty spectacular.
  • After the shoot, I got to shoot some guns, which is always fun. I really like the .45 but the most impressive firearm was the elephant gun: a slug as big as my finger and quite a bit of kickback. It’s probably luck but I did hit center mass, which was exactly what I had aimed for.

I’m now off the clock and am enjoying three days of fun with a bunch of friends at the annual Animal List BBQ. It’s going to be a load of fun training with people like Peyton Quinn, Iain Abernathy, Kris Wilder and many, many more. Good times ahead…

Popular posts

Recent Posts

Search this blog

Custom Search
Google