In part one of “How to train on a slippery surface“, I demonstrated training on a slippery tiled floor. The video quality was pretty poor because of the low lighting so I decided to give it another try during daylight hours. This new video still isn’t all that great because my cellphone only records at 15 frames/second. So it looks choppy. Can’t help that. Anyway, here’s the video:

As you can see, I didn’t fall once. Ha! And for the smarty-pants among you: I didn’t fall when the camera was off either (though you should have seen me sliding all over the place when I walked to my car last week…) .

Whether you fall or not isn’t all that important anyway. What counts is that you try to push the limits of your martial arts or self defense skills and explore new ways of doing your techniques while you’re sliding on ice.

Some background information:

• There was no plan. I was just having fun experimenting, trying out techniques. I mixed combat sports techniques with self defense moves. Why? Because I felt like it. That’s all.
• The high kicks were for fun, not for practical use. Fun, but also to see how far I could take it before I lost my balance. So don’t go thinking I’m advocating high kicks when you fight on ice…
• The surface was cut up. This wasn’t a nice, smooth ice rink. The ice-surface was irregular form where cars had been driving all over it. Most of it was slippery as hell with here and there a small spot where it wasn’t as bad. But I wasn’t looking down so I didn’t know where those spots were until I stepped on them. That was part of the fun.
• I’m wearing normal shoes. No fancy soles or anything, just regular Nike’s. Speaking of wardrobe: I look like the Michelin man because I’m wearing loads of layers; it was frikkin’ cold!

So what worked?

This iced up parking lot was very different from my humid garage floor. Some things were similar, others different. Some thoughts: [Read more…]

Ever since I started reading martial arts and self-defense books, I saw one piece of advice come back over and over: don’t always train in the dojo or gym, go train on a different surface and in a different environment. Being somewhat inquisitive of nature (OK, I just want to know everything.) I did just that many times and one of my favorite challenges was experimenting with how to train on a slippery surface.

You don’t always fight on a perfectly dry and solid surface. In real life, you fight wherever you are when the bad guy decides to take a swing at you. That could be:

• On a wet, tiled floor like the one in my garage.
• In a bar where the floor is full of spilled drinks and other fluids (you probably don’t want to know which ones…)
• On wet grass.
• On snow or ice. If you’re really unlucky (or Swedish… Hi Paul, hi Mark!), on both at the same time.
• In the sand on the beach.
• In mud.
• Wearing shoes with crappy soles that make you slide all over the place but you have to wear them because they match your new suit and if you don’t, your wife/GF/significant other will be on your case about “that time you wore those awful shoes” forever…

With some imagination, I’m sure you can find even more more situations where you’re on a slippery surface and there’s nothing you can do about it. If you have to defend yourself right then and there, here are some questions you first have to answer in training:

• Which techniques can I do without slipping and falling?
• How are these performed differently from when you do them on a normal surface. (Hint: there will be differences…)
• Which techniques are still possible but with some specific technical adaptations?
• Which are out of the question?

You’ll probably answer these quesitons differently than I do and that’s perfectly fine. We’re different people with different skills, preferences, etc. The key issue is that you do ask these questions and find the answers that work for you, before you need them in the street.

Here’s how I do it:

[Read more…]