A little creative mixing in the martial arts

Folks,

You may be looking at this and asking," is Anthony crazy?" "Yes", but I have real point this time. Kinda. Anyhow, all I hear is about how "this doesn't work anymore" or " that is out-dated." Well, there is some truth to some of it, but then a lot of that is just nonsense coming from the unenlightened. And who am I to say that? Why I am a legend in my own mind. DUH!

Anyhow, let me school you. I have seen some traditional Kung Fu schools, gwoon practice chi sao. For those of you who dont know, it means "sticky hands" and is a popular exercise in a lot of Kung Fu schools, particularly Wing Chun. It helps you to redirect people's hands from your center-line, as well as develop sensitivity. It has been pooped on by a lot of people outside of the Kung fu community and even by *gasp* mixed martial arts competitors.

Now, I am a huge fan of booing a lot of the crappola that goes on in my beloved martial arts universe. Likely as not, I will continue to boo it until I lose my voice forever. But folks are way off the mark on this one. There are a lot of uses that folks are over-looking entirely. Since I am all about helping, I am going to lay it out for you.

In grappling with a gi, a LOT of effort is put into securing a good grip. Believe me when I tell you, a good grip can really ruin your day. It limits your movement, and generally makes for an unpleasant grappling experience. Now here is where it gets good with Chi Sao. A person who is either in the mount position, or using their guard can do serious work with Chi Sao. First of all, from the mount, a person may try to push you off of them. If an armlock is not the best idea at the time, you can simply move their hands in such a way so that they cannot buck you off. If they cannot reach your center line, their chances of moving you are not real good. They are pretty bad actually.

From your guard, you can do all sorts of cool things. You can redirect their hands so that you can get the kind of grips that YOU want. Once you can achieve a proper grip, submission holds and sweeps are a lot easier to score. And with a higher percentage of success as well.

There are also wristlocks to consider. Now, I have heard a LOT of Bjj guys and MMA guys talk big crap about wristlocks. About how they don't work against a resisting opponent, and how they are next to useless in a real encounter. Now before I get all into their collective Kool-Aid about it, I have a suggestion. Go check out a man named Fredson Paixao, a bjj expert. He is FAMOUS for tapping out bjj black belts with wristlocks from all positions. I dont know how he manages to do it to everyone, but it is worth a looking at. I also dont know how Marcelo Garcia arm-drags people who are expecting him to do it, but he does.

Point is that people get struck rather easily in their ways, and are REALLY resistant and reluctant to change. I always say if you are hunting an arm, and that doesnt work, hunt the wrist instead. Seems simple enough to me, but I am constantly amazed by people who have never tried it, even when they were in a position to do so. It is all about creativity people.

Now I could go on and on about this, but I seem to have lost my steam for it. Instead I am going to figure out how I am going to creatively pretend I am working out while wolfing down a hoagie and cold Gatorade. AHH creativity is good!!