Telegraphing - What is it?

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I was writing away the other day and looked at it and I’d been talking about telegraphing, and suddenly thought, does everyone know what I’m talking about here?

Probably not, so I’d better briefly go over it.

Telegraphing is telling your opponent what you are going to do, so out on the street, the untrained person who comes in at you, shouts at you, thats the most base obvious form of telegraphing, they are telling you they are going to attack you.

Lets take it with a different example, a punch, you have your fighting stance, you need to be throwing your punches from this point, if you suddenly start to bring your hand backwards to try and generate more power then you might as well hold up a big sign saying “I’m going to hit you now” To anyone who knows what they are doing this is a massive sign.

Kicks, if you are kicking with the front leg, then if you are not balanced properly you will need to move your weight backwards to allow you to lift your leg, your shoulders moving backwards as a pre-cursor to movement, thats telegraphing.

Essentially, you, as a trained martial artist, or rather training martial artist, should be striving to remove all elements of telegraphing from your movements, your strikes, movements etc should come as a complete surprise.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

The Front Snap Kick

Not a kick we actually practise as much as we should, this is the jab of the kicking world. It’s with the front foot, it’s not meant to be massively powerful, it’s meant to be fast and light and it’s aim is to distract your opponent long enough for you to folow up with something else to finish them off.

From your short fighting stance, as was described earlier, you should be able to lift your front foot off the ground without telegraphing your intentions to your opponent, lift your foot up, and bring it to your rear knee, doing this, should point the knee of your kicking foot so it is aiming just above your target, this is pretty important, if you don’t do this then the angles are wrong. Think about it, for most people, your lower leg does not go past the straight line when you point it, and if your knee is pointing lower than your target, it cannot physically reach the target, so lift your knee, and the kick comes out from the knee.

Point your toes, for this target area, the groin, you are striking upwards, going in between the legs, so by pointing your toes you’re striking with your instep, flicking your leg up fast, like the jab this isn’t a power strike, this is light and fast, don’t forget that as you’re training it.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Hypnotize yourself for the Martial Arts!

We spend all this time training the body, years, but in a fight, or even sparring, the mind can get you into so much trouble, yet many people fail to train this aspect of their arsenal and without it, all your years of training could go out of the window completely.

There are many ways you can do this, put yourself in the stress situation time and time again in order to condition yourself to it? Valid, and used by a lot of people, I’m not going to knock it, unless it’s having your life threatened and your family attacked, your wallet stolen, do you really want to put yourself through that time and time again to get used to it? No, unless you’re nuts, though some people work the doors as a way to test it, some prefer sparring, some prefer tournaments, I’m not going to comment on them, not for me, I’ve thought about it, especially the doors, but discounted it, I’ve got another job that probably wouldn’t work well with me being on the doors, competitions have rules and makes it a sport, and that’s not why I do it, if you do, fine, I personally have no issues with that.

An extreme example I know, you could just spar on a regular basis, and when it comes to that time, when Sensei says sparring, go and pick yourself the highest grade, or the one you know will challenge you and work with them, then you’ll learn something, then you’ll start to learn and deal with the fear factor.

One way to deal with the mind is self-hypnosis, I tried it myself and whilst being skeptical at first, especially as the book was from the 70’s and the pictures were hilarious, I thought, I’ll give it a go, and it worked for me so I’ll go through the details of it and see what you think.

You do this, just before or rather as you go to sleep.

• Firstly, most people have a position that is most comfortable to them that they normally get into to sleep, get yourself into that position.
• Second, touch the index finger and thumb of each hand together.
• Third, focus on your breathing, you should be going for full regular breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth.
• Fourth, With each outward breath just focus on another area of your body and relax it, I like to work upwards, so feet, legs, torso, shoulders, arms, neck. You can break this down to really help you relax, for example I do one leg at a time.
• Fifth, By this time, everything should be nice and relaxed, and if you’ve done it right then almost at the point of drifting off. If not, then you need to do it again, do it properly, and probably focus more this time on not letting your mind wander during this process.
• Sixth, Now your relaxed, your breathing is steady, you still have your finger and thumb together, take a breath in, count 10, then on your outward breath just say to yourself in your mind, (My Ju-Jitsu is improving, my punches are faster and stronger) This is an example by the way, you can focus on any specific of your choice, but just one, if you have too many then you run out of breath!
• Seventh, Breath in and count 9 then on the outward breath, say the same thing as before.
• Eighth, you get the idea, same thing, each time, counting down each time to 1.

By the time you get to 1 you should find that you are tired, and in fact after a couple of weeks, you probably won’t get to 4, this is the best way, at this point you are really getting these positives into your sub conscious.

Now when it comes to your sparring sessions, and you are in your stance, you feel the adrenalin pumping, touch your finger and thumb together, this should now trigger a sub conscious association between finger and thumb, positivity and relaxation.

Sounds odd?

Worked for me.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Punching Principles - The Jab

This is a fast strike, it’s done with your lead hand, the one that’s closest to them, and is not deigned to knock them out, too often I see people try to put all their power into this strike and unless you’re Bruce Lee then it’s not going to damage them too badly.

The aim of the jab is simple, it’s a distraction, and a range finder!
It’s designed to take their mind of what’s coming next, If you’re really fast and light on your feet then you can get your body weight behind it as you jump in, but more often than not it’s a fast flick out with your lead hand, aim for a specific target, I prefer the nose, it’s nice and easy to break, and if you make contact then it can be pretty distracting, lots of blood flying, making their eyes water, all things designed to really take their minds off what you are going to do next. It may even finish the fight there, but don’t put your money on it.

Learn to use the jab, keeping it nice and relaxed, always remember, it’s a fast strike, and the best way to keep it fast is no tension in your muscles. Practise different combinations, throwing a number of jabs in quick succession.

Try both stances as well, left hand forwards and then right hand forwards, feels odd, until you’re used to it.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Basics - The Stance

A key part of anything, maybe I should have covered it earlier but you forget that some people don’t know the basics!

Also I will cover myself a bit here, when I get someone new in to class I confess, I don’t jump straight in to criticise them, I like to make things awkward for my regulars, they get too used to people punching from the same stance and I like to mix things up and remember that out on the street, people punch differently and it’s no good out there saying, just change your feet around a bit. You’ll get knocked out!!

In JuJitsu we generally stand with one foot forwards to the other and the back foot slightly out to the side. Which one is forward depends on your main power strikes, if you are kicking or punching with power from the right, and your left is the jab, then your left foot is forwards. This brings your left side, the lighter power but faster strike and block, closer to your opponent.

Your feet, point your front foot forwards, this is for me the best compromise between ability to protect your groin and having the maximum mobility of the hips. Your rear foot point at a 45 degree angle forwards, this again for me is the best compromise between stability with the rear leg and maximum hip movement for power generation.

Try it, stand with your left foot forwards and your right foot backwards, point your right foot out now straight to the side, now try to twist your hips forwards and see how far they move, this is now restricting the power you can generate in your strikes. Next try pointing your right foot forwards at a 45 degree angle and try again, you should be able to move your hips a lot further through. A key thing to note, it should be a pretty much a natural stance, unlike some arts our genreal fighting stance is pretty close, we don’t really have much in the way of deep stances outside of Kata. So go for feet at about shoulder width distance apart.

Weight distrbution, ideally you are looking for a split of about 65/35 with most weight over the rear leg, this gives you some forwards and backwards movement simply in weight re-distribution, it gives you the ability, with practise if you get it right to performa front snap kick off the front leg to your attackers groin with no telegraphing by moving your shoulders backwards.

All in all this has proved to be a good compromise between stabilty, power generation and mobility. Though always willing to try new ideas! We tried one a few years ago where by an instructor said he could protect 95% of the target areas by altering the stance, it invloved pointing your toes in shortening your stance and hunching your shoulders in, the targets were covered but power, stabilty and mobility were affected, badly.

Try it

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Punching Principles Part 3 The Power

So where does power come from in the punch? It’s easy isn’t it, the arm!

Wrong!

Real power comes from the hips!

Back to physics, F=M*A. Force + Mass * Acceleration. Force being what you want to direct into your opponent, Mass being your fist and Acceleration being the speed that you propel your fist forwards. Make sense so far?

Your fist you can do nothing about, it’s that size and that’s it, unless you hold something heavy. so how to increase the force? you increase the acceleration. Still with me?

You know if you pull something with a spring, nothing happens with the first movement then all of a sudden you get the release and it fies forwards faster, you are looking for that same action using your hips.

You need to understand and practise it, your hips move independantly of your shoulders, they are connected but by joints that actually move! I’ll go through it in a bit of detail to see if I can make it clearer, you are stood with your left foot forwards, aiming to punch with the right, left hand forwards, as your forwards guard or jab. It’s a 3 stage movement of your body.

1 - Your hips and shoulders twist with the right side going backwards.
2 - Next your hips move forwards.
3 - You should now feel the stretch at the shoulder, use this to drag the arm through as though it is a spring.

Think of it like you are throwing a stone, or a ball, it’s the same sort of thing, the fist is the last thing that moves, everything else is totally relaxed and drags the fist through, it works faster and generates more power.

Try it and let me know.

Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

We’re Back!

That’s it, holiday time over, its’ back to training tonight, 08/01/08. Something nice and easy to slowly get back into it?

Or some pad work to shock the system?

We’ll see, have to put some photos up for you.

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Tags: jujitsu, jujitsu equipment, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training

Punching Principles - Part 2 - The Arm

This is something key, but quite often overlooked in punching, I won’t go on too much, but it’s mainly the elbow and shoulder I am concerned with now.

Your shoulder first off because it’s easy, well easy to say anyway, keep it relaxed, so many people hunch up their shoulders and tense up, you’re slowing yourself down, reducing your reach.Relax and lower your shoulders.

Elbow, first thing, whatever you do, don’t fully straighten your arm when striking, always keep a slight bend in the arm. When you punch, and you’re nice and relaxed, especially when practising against nothing, shadow boxing for example, then if you straighten your arm fully your elbow wants to keep on going and your arm bends in a way it’s not supposed to. Called hyper-extension, it hurts, don’t do it!

The second one, and it’s a pet hate of mine to do with the elbow is the low punch, straight to the solar plexus or sternum. it’s a straight punch using your arm like a piston with the fist vertical. It’s a nice cose range weapon and done correctly hurts them, a lot. Keep the elbow low and tucked in, I often see people lifting the elbow and turning it into a hook of sorts, why? you’re slowing it down, and not directing the power in the direction you want. Keep the elbow low and push the power straight forwards where it will do most good.

The only other thing I will say at this time about the arm, is keep it controlled. i’m tempted to say keep it tight, but that could be mis-construed as tightening up, and we don’t want that, I mean with a hook for example, keep the circle of the punch tight, keep it under control and deliver more power faster, if you allow it to become loose and sloppy then it becomes just like the ordinary punch from the average un-trained drunken lout on the street, and you’re better than that aren’t you?

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art

Punching Principles Part 1 - The Fist!

First of all I would like to wish all of you a happy new year.

I thought that it would be beneifical to go through some basics, how to hit!

A wise man once said, “When you start to train, a punch is just a punch, then when you think about it, a punch is so much more than just a punch, then after a while, a punch is just a punch”!!

Very true, and I hope now to take you to the second level here, make you think about how you punch to enable you to move on to making it instinctive, so that a punch is just a punch.

I’ve seen so many different ways of punching over the years, some of it completly rubbish! How do you even fold your fist?

First things first, whatever you do, don’t fold your thumb into the grip and have your fingers over the top, it doesn’t project your knuckle anymore, it does however project your finger, and endanger your thumb, so you’re not going to hurt them anymore but are at great risk of damaging your finger and breaking your thumb on impact!

Start with your little finger, folding it into your palm, just about the level of that big crease you’ve got across your palm. Follow on with the rest of the fingers and this should result in a nice firm fist, but not too tight, that leads to tension and less speed. It should also if you look, result in the two first knuckles being obviously protruding, that’s the bit you’re going to actually aim to make contact with.

The angle of the fist in relation to the arm matters as well, too often I see people punching with their fist pointing down, or up, ouch, that will hurt. Why I hear you cry?!!

Laws of physics, you are putting all this force into your opponent(hopefully) you are going to feel some force coming back at you, any weakness on your part, in your striking arm, is going to result in a collapse of your joint. So, if for example, your fist is pointing downwards, then at the point of impact your wrist is actually pointing upwards, this is your point of weakness, the energy is going to end up escaping out of your wrist and the wrist is going to collapse.

Apologies, really hard to explain in words, bur feel free to come back to me later on this.

Angle of fist, some people say your should be at 45 degrees, some fist horizontal, some fist vertical. Easy, depends on your target and your attack!

If I’m going for a straight punch, a cross or jab for example, then I twist the fist, almost spiralling/corkscrewing the fist into my attacker, just a small twist just before impact, aligning my arm, from the two contacting knuckles, through the bones in the hand, the wrist and the ulna of the forearm, so there is no weak point in the strike. If I am going for a hook, then I have fist vertical, it helps me generating the right angles of attack and the maximum power.

Try it and see what works for you.

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Tags: jiujitsu, jujitsu, jujitsu techniques, jujitsu training, martial art