The Sword Hand

In martial arts training, there are many myths.  Most of what one sees in films and on the TV, both in use of weapons and in the use of bare-handed techniques, is total nonsense as it's totally lacking in real commonsense principles.  This is why when one enters into the military, one is taught to discard whatever one has previously learned in the usage of firearms and to begin training anew from scratch; as combat is so very different from recreational use of weapons.  The same applies to all of martial training.  What one sees in sport fencing isn't how swords are actually used and what one sees in the mixed martial arts type competitions isn't how one actually fights.  Combat is very different from any sport.  Let's take a small example and see how this all works.  Bare-handed techniques come from using a sword.  Sword thrusts are considered to be finishing moves and are always proceeded by cutting applications to the tendons and arteries; so that the enemy is rendered weak and vulnerable, before the final actual thrust is made.  A sword thrust is made with the sword blade horizontal and never vertical.  Why?  Because, in order to get power for the thrust, the shoulder and elbow (thrusts are made through the elbow joint and not through the wrist joint as in sport fencing), the elbow and shoulder must be descended and not be raised.  If the thrust is delivered with an elbow turned outward (as it would be if the thrust were made with the sword in a vertical position), the tendons and the arteries on the inside of the arm would be exposed to a parry by the opponent.  So, a thrust is made with the elbow turned downward and with the sword horizontal.  This position then allows the body to descend under the opponent and also gives a much greater reach to the lunge for the thrust.  The strike that's delivered by the fingertips in bare-handed fighting follows the principle of the sword thrust.  Fingertip strikes are usually delivered to the bladder, kidneys and throat.  Regardless of the target, the strike ought to be delivered with the palm up and in a horizontal position.  Just like the sword!  Let's perform an experiment.  Try striking with your fingertips at some imaginary opponent.  Do it with your palm turned in many different positions.  You'll find the only position causing your whole body to slide forward while you're performing the strike is with your palm facing up and horizontal to the ground and with your elbow descended.   As the sword is used, so shall the limbs be used.

Internal vs. External Energy

The question of internal vs. external is a common one in the martial arts world.  There is only internal energy.  What is commonly called external energy is simply force, which is never ever the proper response to any attack.  The proper response is to direct the energy used in the attack back into the attacker.  You use your opponent's limbs as weapons against him or her.  This can only be done if the defender assumes an oblique angle against the attacker and issues the response to the attack in an arc rather than a straight line.  This is why in the Celtic systems, arm strikes are delivered from the opposite shoulder and leg strikes are delivered from the opposite hip.  The strike is delivered in such a way that the striking limb of the defender deflects the opponent's strike while simultaneously delivering the defender's own strike into the opponent.  As in all the Celtic systems, the response comes from the use of the sword.  In sword play, the goal is to cut without being cut; to strike without being struck.  This is the same goal as all other martial arts.  It does you no good to deliver a blow and to suffer a blow; to simply trade blows.  That's external and it's frankly stupid.  By delivering a strike from the opposite side of the body of the limb being utilized to deliver the strike, the body must turn; the torso must twist.  This turning and this twisting is what gives power to the strike.  It also moves one's torso out of the way of the opponent's strike, thereby allowing the opponent's striking limb to bypass the defender's torso.  The defender's torso has evaded the opponent's strike.  That's the internal power and it's the only kind of power that ought to be used in any combative situation.  That's the reason power in the Celtic Systems resides in the knees and elbows.  Even though the strikes are mainly delivered with the forearms and the shins, the forearm is used as an extension of the elbow, while the shin is used as an extension of the knee.   The strikes are windmill strikes, with the axis at the elbow and the knee and the blade at the forearm and shin.

Westie Way Revolving Arms

Our planet is crowded.  Too crowded.  There are too many people and too few jobs. The only entities still hiring are armies.  Many are poor and desperate.  Desperation leads to despair and despair leads to violence, both against one's own self and against others. Violence is often both psychological and physical. Since so many are in such great despair today, best to prepare for the violence that's to come.  It's coming and that's why we study martial arts.  Remember, no martial art that closes the hip and shoulder joints has any value whatsoever. Watch what the masters of the martial art you propose to study actually do with their shoulder and hip joint when performing.  Study only those arts that require the hip and shoulder joints to be open and that emphasize elbow and knee strikes, as that's the real way fights are actually done. To throw and lock any person, movement of the waist is essential; so the art that is studied must always employ waist movement.  Your elbows and knees are used like windmills in fighting.  In order for this windmill motion to take place, the waist has to move to give power to the revolutions of your limbs.  Always note that whatever system one chooses to continue studying, the study must be active.  You actually have to do it. Videos and books are certainly very useful as pedagogical devices for correcting whatever you are doing wrong; but to do it right, you actually must do it. Arm revolution in the boxing style I learned as a child is very different from that of other boxing styles.  My boxing style comes from the use of the Celtic sword, which has an unusual shape. The Celtic sword is a saber. It's about the same length as is the cutlass, but its blade arc curves opposite to the curve of a scimitar, the Near Eastern sword.  The curve of the Celtic sword is shaped more like the Gurkha knife, in that its cutting arc is shaped inwards, like a sickle. The shape originally came from the knife used by fishermen to gut their catch. Unlike other sabers, both sides of the curving portion of the blade are kept at a razor sharp edge---giving swordsmen opportunity to cut with either side.  This is the reason all the strikes in Celtic boxing are delivered with shins and forearms.  The shins and forearms are used like sabers. The non-curving straight portion of a Celtic Sword isn't sharp...it's kept purposely dull...thereby allowing swordsmen to assume double-handed grips whenever it's necessary.  In the Celtic boxing style, the inside hand (called the "shield")  revolves in the opposite direction from the outside hand (called the "sword"). Think of raising up with a shield to block an opponent's lunge while striking simultaneously down with a sword.  Note blocks are delivered vertically (and not horizontally), usually against an opponent's tricep or bicept, to temporarily paralyze the opponent's arm. Since the Celtic stepping footwork requires assuming a forty-five degree oblique angle on the diagonal, towards the opponent (the diamond-stepping), the inside hand's function is slashing the opponent's attacking arm or leg.  This slash-block causes the opponent's limb to pass by the defender's body, opening up the inside line for attack.  Celtic boxing allows for attacks with the legs very similar to savate---Irish Step-Dancing evolved from sword usage.  To give an example, say the opponent throws a punch straight at a defender's heart wih his right fist:  the defender's inside arm slashes the opponent's arm slightly above his elbow joint, either upward in a clockwise direction or downward in a counter-clockwise direction; so that the defender's front foot can step to the outside of the opponent's front foot, thereby allowing the outside arm ability to attack the opponent's flank from a position that doesn't readily allow the opponent to counter with his other arm (because the defender's torso is now beyond an opponent's reach with his other arm).  Strategy here is to close in on the opponent from an oblique angle to prevents him from easily replying to any attack. Again, it all comes from sword-work.  Of course, the opponent could then spin, but the spin would expose his back and spine as he revolves. Celtic boxing allows attacking the back of an opponent (the entire body is a target). When I was growing up on tenth avenue in Upper Manhattan, this particular boxing style was called the "Westie Way" because it was practiced along the far West Side of Manhattan in the bars that mainly serviced the Irish stevedores who were working the docks.  It originated in the counties of Cork and Kerry around the South-West coast of Ireland, and was carried to America by Gaelic speaking immigrants fleeing the Great Famine shortly before the American Civil War, and then was carried back to Ireland by Irish veterans of that same US civil war, founders of The Brotherhood, Clan of Gael ( which was originally started in Five Points), predecessor to the IRA. They were deported because of an aborted attempted invasion of Canada, then British crown owned.  On most Friday nights in Manhattan when I was a boy, in the West Side Irish Bars, there would be "sawdust bouts" where fierce betting was done on the bare-knuckle fights, all strictly illegal of course; but the cops were all Irish and "on the Pad," their protection from any inquiry being paid for by the pub owners.  Police were poorly paid then and needed the extra pay from bar owners. This post concludes the answers to all the queries received from the few readers of my two Kindle books.  Hopefully, both books and this blog have been of help to some.  I've tried to explain how things are the way they are and why things are the way they are, as well as give a glimpse of the future.  I have visions and most don't.  As for physical training, the Celtic Martial Arts classes are given once each week at 440 Lafayette Street in New York City, downtown Manhattan at Astor Place, from one to 3:30 on Sunday afternoons in Studio# 4C on the fourth floor. Charge is $20 per class session.  Related videos are under HEARTHEALING on YouTube.  Just to let subscribers to this Blog know, I'll only be posting poetry on the blog from now on...life is a quest to find one's true destiny; then, once found, to fulfill it...this I've done--I can write now as well as anybody ever coud; so now I'm busy working on my paranormal fiction future fantasy series, entitled:  "In Dreams They Are Remembered." Anybody who has read both my books and this Blog will already be familiar with the mythology background for the series. They contain the answers and solutions to everything, and I do mean every-thing!  It shall be available on the Kindle for a price of less than nine dollars per novel. Amazon Kindle receives instant wireless access around the world, so anyone anywhere interested in the fantasy series can download all the series' books at any time. The fiction fantasy series is a paranormal romance and an action-adventure set in the future, dealing with the impact from a revelation of ancient mysteries from the Upper Palaeolithic Age of Old Europe.  But to return to the crowded planet statement (projected to be over nine billion), ever since the nineteen-forties warnings have been issued concerning uncontrolled population growth which very few nations have heeded, with the most prominent exception being mainland China. Today there are too few jobs to support the burgeoning population in some countries, the United States being an obvious example: In the US, twelve percent of teen girls become pregnant and give birth before being eligible to graduate from high school; and this is now occurring while the US national unemployment rate exceeds ten percent. The result is: eleven percent of the US population depends solely on governmental social services to pay for its shelter and upon receipt of food stamps to pay for its sustenance. Another four percent of the American populace is either incarcerated and confined within a prison or is out on parole or on probation, or was previously incarcerated and now unable to find work because of a long history of incarceration; making a total of a full fifteen percent of all Americans who are presently supported by government, whether that be at the state or federal level (usually both).  The result of all this support is a national debt that exceeds thirteen trillion.  Any state whose govenment doesn't pro-actively fund the promotion of sterilization, abortion and birth control can't survive. This is because, inevitably, its employed tax base drastically decreases, while appropriations of monies for more and more social services in support of its indigents and its unemployed greatly increases. This scenario is what's happening in America now; it's the reason behind America's problems, so look for the future of humanity elsewhere. America has terminal dementia! Why?  Aside from this failure to control and curb its population growth, America's continuing fruitless engagement in stupid, foolish, unnecessary, pointless foreign wars means it's losing the better, bolder, more courageous portion of its populace. Bankruptcy in states isn't just monetary, it's moral too.  America is dead.  It's moribund, a zombie nation. It's lost its best. And when any state loses the best part of itself, it's done. It's gone. It's time has past. Where then should we go...recommendation: Nova Scotia. Move to Canada. There you could employ the very best strategy there is for fighting, which is: to avoid it!  Well, that's one location I would recommend---Nova Scotia means New Ireland. If you believe you've got just one life only, you're mistaken; as you've got so many...life isn't an "or" thing; it's an "and" thing...so live them all. NOW!

Physics of Confrontations

One of the common problems that one runs into today is the meanness of men. For instance, in the United States alone, there are over seven hundred thousand individuals who are registered as being sex offenders. These are mainly individuals who have been convicted of a felony sex crime, usually rape. The problem with sex offenders is that they are recidivists and so tend to commit the same sort of offenses over and over again. Sex offenders run in families. If the father was an offender, the father's offspring tend to be offenders also, and there is strong evidence of a genetic predisposition in offenders. They commit sex crimes because of who they are. Almost all sex criminals carry a blade or a knife of some sort in order to attempt to intimidate their intended victims with the real threat of potential disfigurement. This is not an idle threat; as all rapists are misogynistic, they hate the women that they rape. The training necessary to survive such encounters, when they occur (and they do occur), involves the use of the forearms, elbows, knees and shins as striking weapons. All of the techniques involve protecting the inside of the legs, the abdomen, the ribs, the inside of the arms and the torso itself from being slashed. Higher level techniques involve guiding the path of the bladed weapon into the attacker's own body, but such techniques require frequent practice to properly utilize them in confrontation; how one practices is how one will act in confrontations. The reason practice is so necessary is that one has to position one's own body to the outside of the arm holding the bladed weapon to avoid being slashed, and this positioning requires very quick, very precise stepping. It's only with daily practice that the correct stepping can be achieved.

Upper Body Arm Applications

Fighting weight is all-important in combat as it affects your speed of response to an opponent's movements; not just in footwork, but also in arm-work. No matter what your frame or your height, do not exceed 200 lbs; as if you do, your reflexes shall be much slower. In combat, one strikes fast and quick with anything one can find, including one's mind, which is the most potent striking tool of all. You have to out-wit your enemy if you want to survive. Usually, when one fights, one will use one's shoulders, one's elbows, one's forearms, and one's hands to strike with. Very rarely are your fists utilized (we are speaking now of the type of fist that's mainly used in non-western boxing---Eastern Boxing---and not the Celtic Fist which is very different indeed); except when one is striking the insides of the arms of the opponents, in order to paralyze them. Striking surfaces of the hands are the heel of the hand and the edge of a hand, plus those three second knuckles: of the forefinger, the middle finger and of the ring finger (this is the Celtic Fist). If one is using an arm to strike, the strike is delivered from the pocket of the opposite arm. This is completely different from what one sees in Eastern arts. How to find this pocket? Well, if one tries to shrug a shoulder, and then moves one's chin in the direction of that shoulder's shrug, one shall find a small cavity inside the shoulder of the arm that is being shrugged. By using this arm pocket, any strike with the opposite arm causes a diagonal swing with that arm, while one's torso turns away from the diagonal swing; in the exact opposite direction of the swing! If the swing is to the right, the torso turns left. If the swing is to the left, the torso turns right. This comes from usages of a sword. The idea is that the torso turns away from an opponent's possible strike when delivering one's own strike; thereby, protecting the torso from possible penetration by the enemy's sword. This is a very important aspect when one strikes with the limbs of the upper body, whether that strike be delivered with one's shoulder, elbow, fore-arm, or the hand. The torso must turn away from the strike. It never turns towards any strike. In addition to granting greater protection for the torso, the strike is able to penetrate further. It's given greater reach. One flings arms away! Any time your arm is thrown out towards an opponent, and your torso doesn't twist away from your opponent; you're in much greater danger of being struck by your opponent. Now, this axiom does not imply to one's vision. Keep both eyes on an enemy at all times: Don't blink. Don't close them. Fore-arm strikes are delivered against the sides of the neck and of the head, while elbow strikes are to be delivered against the base of the skull and to the opponent's throat. The heel of the hand is used against the opponent's fore-head and his heart, while the edge of the hand is used against the opponent's spine. The Celtic three-knuckle fist is used as a slashing weapon against the sides of an opponent's body; to ribs and kidneys, and also against bladder and testicles. Remember all strikes must always be fast and quick and on target.

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!

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing: The Three Tines

The Celtic Fist in the Conn Style or in Wes tie Wall-Fighting (as it's known in New York City) is formed and made by bringing the ball of the thumb over to cover the nail of the ring finger, the finger that's next to the small finger, the pinkie finger. By pressing down upon the nail of the ring finger, the knuckles of the second joints of the middle finger, the ring finger, and of the index finger, will, all three knuckles of them, be pressed forward. This fist configuration of the three knuckles is called: three tines. This name comes from the shape of a spade that's used for the cutting of the peat-turf. And this is exactly what these three knuckles are used for: cutting and splitting---exactly then as my family's fish-head sword is so used, and it's very different from other styles of the bare-knuckle-boxing. The strikes are utilized against the opponent's body as if one were loudly rapping or knocking upon a door (that door being the torso of the opponent). By the way, the word is Wes-tie and not Westy. The reason is: one ties up an enemy by the combination of blows; clinching is a very clever methodology for locking with one's fists.

The Celtic Sword of Conn: The Fish-Head

There are many different styles of Celtic bare-knuckle-boxing. The one I know is from the Clan of Conn from Ballydavid Head. In New York City, this style is called Wes tie Wall-Fighting, and it's been modified from our old Conn Style (the main difference between our family style and the styles of other families, is that our style is a sloping system---it was developed to fight on the slopes of the hills and mountains of West Cork and Kerry against invaders) for the alleys and the air-shaft passageways of the City's tenements. It employs lots of difficult footwork, like leaps and hops and jumps. The actual techniques in the Conn style come from the usages of the sword. The swords that were used by my family are not the ones that are normally depicted as being Celtic. Those swords are fine weapons, but they are not the ones that my family used; usually those weapons are various modifications on Norse or Norman swords, which was a Viking weapon, or on various Teutonic and Germanic swords. The sword that my family used is called the fish-head or salmon-sword, and like its name, it is shaped like a fish swimming. It looks very much like the Iberian Falcata, except the hilt on the sword is not open. The hilt is entirely enclosed, so that the sword is gripped much like the lever on a lever-action Winchester rifle, four fingers on the inside with the backs of those fingers making contact, with the thumb on the outside. The reason for this particular grip is so that the sword can be shook when it makes any cut, rather than having to make a big swing with one's entire arm to achieve that same cutting action. This shaking action causes the sword to make a stabbing, as well as a cutting movement, with just a very small downward inclination of the elbow, rather than using the entire shoulder. The sword will literally leap forward, as an extension of the arm. This action is the whole basis for our style of bare-knuckle: three knuckles leap forward by a shaking of an elbow to knock on the enermy.

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing

One of the questions asked in the recent survey taken of readers is: Why do you people spend so much time studying martial arts? Well, the short answer is: It's fun. The long answer is that we each feel we are morally obligated to protect our own persons and those persons whom we're responsible for, emotionally; and, also, martial training is necessary for character development. Which martial system one studies is dependent upon one's age, gender, physique and skill level; as just as not every religion is right for everyone else (and for some, no religion is right), martial systems are all designed as they are, in order to meet expressed needs of very specific groups. One has to find what is the right one for oneself. But there is an even broader question and that is: What impels us to study any martial art? Self-survival is the straightforward answer. We believe that the inclination to violence is a genetic trait. Note that the word is "inclination" and it means the inclination could be controlled within some beneficial environment. However, in the United States, for instance; a million and a half children, at an early adolescent age, have one or more parents currently incarcerated and are now being brought up by close relatives, usually a grandmother. These children have exhibited very violent and destructive behaviors. The fact that a parent is in prison for violent behavior is an indicator that the parent's children will exhibit similar traits. These adolescents have already left the public school systems prior to the end of the ninth grade, usually by their fourteenth birthdays. By any standard, these are unemployable persons who won't be able to learn a trade or a skill. So, their only means of earning a living is by illegitimate methods; mainly by aggravated assaults upon others. It is because of these persons we should feel a moral obligation to study and to learn martial art systems: We want to survive.

Bare-Knuckle-Boxing

My original intent was to post the entire content of the 16 GB bare-knuckle-boxing videos onto YouTube, but some of the material in the videos might not be all that appropriate for the public. Some of the club members thought it would be better to post the content to the Blog, and I also agree. That way it's all in one place. However, just like YouTube, there is a time limitation of ten minutes, which means that I would have to chop the segments up to post them. So, for those who might be interested, we'll put the whole thing onto a DVD or on an SD card. That way you have it all. I'll still post those ten minute segments of video up onto the Blog, but it'll be a while until it's all edited. Hopefully, everyone will get there copy. It's been fun working with you all. Thanks everyone.