Lower Body Leg Applications

There are a great many fine illustrations of various martial applications shown on YouTube, but unfortunately very few of them have much to do with actual close combat. This well might be because of cultural differences. In the Western martial arts, the objective is to kill the opponent without causing serious injury to oneself while doing so. One does expect to be injured in any encounter with an enemy (that's why one avoids such encounters); but when an encounter does incur, one expects some injury. Of course, a better way to avoid injury is simply shun those who would wish to cause injury; but, unfortunately, that can not always be achieved (any person is allowed to use deadly physical force if he or she believes such force to be necessary to prevent imminent serious injury to themselves). The problem of serious injury was the original purpose for writing both my works for The Celtic Martial Arts Club, as the idea was to show how injury can be alleviated and minimized when it occurs; although I did get side-tracked because of all the questions regarding the usage of psychic powers. By the way, I've only seen psychic power used once in a confrontation. That was when my father squeezed a person's heart to stop it during an encounter. This was done at a distance (no touching). I've never seen it done by anyone else, although I do understand that there are some practitioners of other arts that can throw people without touching. That I can do myself, so it isn't that rare; but squeezing the heart to death is. The problem with most of the techniques that one sees on YouTube is the footwork; it's not shown, and it's the most important aspect of fighting. You always absolutely do have to get out of the way of your opponent's attack. When you practice techniques, practice as if your arms were bound to your sides and that they are paralyzed, so that you can't lift them, and simply practice trying to twist your torso in order to avoid any attacks, so that they'll slide pass you. You must position your body at an oblique angle to any attack; so that you could close in on your opponent, while avoiding an enemy's attack. You must never back away from an opponent. Backing away is suicide as it allows the opponent to rush in on you and utilize his full body weight to put you down. What you must try to do is close in on him or her while simultaneously avoiding his attack. Fighting is all about clever footwork. When you turn, always turn on your heels. The reason for this is that it lowers and sinks the hips. This allows you to duck under a strike to your head. When your foot is flat on the ground, the weight is then distributed between the ball of the foot and the heel of the foot. When your heel is lifted, all the weight is on the ball of the foot---never place any weight on your toes. The reason for this is that when weight is placed on the toes, your head will come forward, making an easy target for your enemy. The ball of your foot and the heel of the foot are used to attack the opponent's knee and ankle joints in fighting. They, the heel and ball of the foot, are utilized as if one were slashing with a sword. When an opponent moves in on you, slash his legs with your feet. Try aiming with the ball and the heel of your foot at the joints of the knee and ankle of your opponent's leg. The shin of your leg is used to strike against the calf muscle of your opponent's leg. Your knee is used to strike against the opponent's thigh. Your shin is used against his calf while your knee is used against his thigh; remember, shin against the calf and knee against the thigh! The idea behind all this leg work is to use your legs to buckle an opponent's legs to bring him down to the ground. This is not disparage hand and arm techniques, as one uses them in combination with the legs; but to emphasize upper body techniques can't be as effective unless your legs also are busy with side-stepping and kicking enemies; simultaneously, with your fore-arm, elbow and hand strikes. The lesson here is to use your limbs simultaneously in combinations. Don't rely on kicks. Don't rely on punches. Kick with a punch. Punch with a kick...Not: one, two, three. But: one, one, one!