Zimmerman Academy Posts

While studying some Ninjustu books several years ago, one of the books was teaching on different fighting styles. Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. It was because of this that I noted that each person had their preferred method of fighting.

When it comes to sparring and self–defense people need to find the strategies that work for them. While every person may not only fight in only one of these particular styles I hope that this will encourage discussion and consideration of what your fighting style is and what works best for you. Each of these are not mutually exclusive. You can practice more than one and I would encourage people to learn to fight with multiple to be a more adaptable fighter.

Fire

The fire way of fighting is incredibly basic. The idea is to constantly strike the opponent and commit to your strikes even if they are hitting you. I’ve generally found that this is the most natural fighting style for most people. Normally if they break the shock of being attacked it would be human nature to fight like this.

This style of fighting can be severely draining. We have something called the one minute drill that we used to demonstrate this with. Essentially, the practitioner would wail on the pad or heavy bag for 15 seconds with hands, switch to a foot technique for 15 seconds and repeat until the full minute is up. Normally people are pretty winded by the end of this once.

Air

Air is the exact opposite. The entire idea of air is to be gentle and passive. The worst damage that should be caused is a minor stun. While this method is highly ineffective in defending yourself from a true threat I have found two major uses for it. One is in teaching kids how to defend themselves from bully’s in anti–violence programs in schools. These programs make it a lose–lose situation for kids being bullied by punishing the defender if the defender strikes the bully. This means the would be victim gets a harsher punishment for defending himself than the bully gets for bullying. The other use I have found is to keep younger relatives from being too rowdy.

Water

The fighting style I was pretty much conditioned to use since I was a kid is water. The entire goal of fighting like water is to keep all your techniques flowing and fueling the next one. This style of fighting relies heavily on combinations and knowing how to make the most efficient movements to conserve energy while exerting great amounts of force.

Earth

The Earth and water styles of fighting are very similar. The key difference is that while the water fighting style relies on combinations and flowing movements the earth fighting style has no particular order but usually those who fight with it do not need it. My brother is a classic example of this. The first move he makes is to try to lock you down. He will stay there as long as he needs to. Then he will move to the next position he wants to go to until you get submitted.

Conclusion

Each person has their own fighting style. While this is not the perfect analogy for determining how to distinguish the fighting styles I hope that it encouraged thought as to what you’re preferences for fighting and Self-defense are so that you can shape your self–defenses and sparring around it.

While studying the martial arts years ago at my TaeKwonDo school there was a major problem that my dad and I call the factions of the Martial Arts. The factions of the Martial arts are the two major ways to perform the arts. The traditional, unevolved form or the evolved, practical version of the martial art. Students, around green belt would start to decide which of the black belts would be their guide (below our head instructor of course) for how techniques should be done and combative philosophy. At the time, my father and I (although I was not a black belt) were the leaders on the practical side of the war. I still remember when my cousins and friends would rant about which black belts teaching style and philosophy they did not like, from either side. By the end of all of this, my father and I left the school but continued training at home as well as teach Self–Defense at a Church we no longer visit. To give it a happy ending, we did come back to class with the knowledge that you cannot be a complete martial artist without the traditional art.

Note: Since Writing this I generally found that there are three that focus on traditionalism and the arts of the martial arts, the sparring competitors who focus on being the best athletes and the self-defense group that want to teach people to how to defend themselves. All this being said the battle between tradition and adaptation still exists as well.

Using the point my dad made in the car ride home last night, you need both practicality and the primary source traditionalism to become a fully developed martial artist. My father made the comparison of our former Judo instructors. If you were being taught by one of them he would teach you the throw exactly as the textbook teaches it. The other would teach you how to mod it to work with the new competition rules, self–defense, or with your specific body type. If you only followed one you would not have a complete understanding of the technique. Instead learning it from both gives you the knowledge on how to make it look good or work good whenever you’re called on.

The traditional teachings and forms are the art of the martial arts. The practical modifications in self–defense could be considered the science. While I still lean towards the practical I have learned quite a bit from studying the art of the martial arts in the last few months. By the same token you can learn quite a bit about the arts from studying the practical. The forms are supposed to be like fighting about six enemies like in a cheesy martial arts movie; they even attack you one at a time. The part to note is that each part of the pattern is simulating a short self–defense technique.

Within the class now we make it a point to teach others to respect all of the black belts and elites and practice it. Rather than dismissing an instructor because they teach in a way or a philosophy you do not prefer, listen and follow them and pay attention to what they are saying. This is especially important when they are leading the class because there’s the risk that other students will be disrespectful or half commit to the class as well. There is something to learn from each of the instructors. If you learn from all of them you will progress much faster than if you only learn from one.

A.K.A. Honey Badgers and Spiders

When my dad recaps most of my victories in our Jiu Jitsu sparring matches he tends to refer to his mistakes as, “going deeper into my web.” It was then that I even considered this analogy. Spiders like to set up their webs as traps to catch unsuspecting prey and then nature kicks in and they either disable or dismember their prey.

As a personal example, in grappling sparring I tend to make it seem safe to attempt a submission then break free and catch him in my own submission. Then during striking or TaeKwonDo sparring I tend to crowd my opponent forcing them to take a step back. Then I use that opportunity to use a spinning back kick and possibly even land in a way to set them up for another spinning back kick because I will be too close again.

My brother’s fighting strategy on the other hand is the honey badger strategy. There’s a meme going around about honey badgers not giving an expletive and that’s basically the strategy. Not caring and taking the opportunity when it comes. He picks what he wants to do and just does it. If we’re sparring he commits fully to a technique. If something else gets in the way it shouldn’t be and he will try to go through it.

Neither strategy is wrong in and of themselves. I’m faster than my brother and have more technique. My brother is stronger and built in a better way to take the force of his punch going back into his hand should his opponent try to block.  If I tried to use the honey badger strategy I would end up hurting myself because I do not have the strength to just barrel through a block. On the other hand, my brother would have difficulty using the spider strategy since his reaction time would be slower.

In the end it’s up to the martial artist to decide what fighting style to use. These two examples are more or less the two extremes. There is plenty of room in between to create mixed styles to suit your own body’s movement.

First of all the very first thing you need to do is know what not to do. The reason you want to know what not to do is because it’s better to mess up in training than in a self-defense situation. However there are really dumb things you shouldn’t do that people still do. The most important thing in self-defense is that it works. The only thing that comes close is not hurting yourself.

Spin Kicks

The first thing I should mention is no spinning kicks. Spinning kicks are dangerous simply because they are easy to see regardless of how slow your reflexes are. If I see a spinning kick coming at me I can anticipate and counter it. Possibly even talking their back. Which leads me to the second thing you should not do in self-defense.

Give them your back

Don’t give them your back at all. When you get grabbed from behind your back, you can’t do much to them, but they have a variety of attacks to choose from. During grappling sparring for several years my dad always got me behind the back and choked me. I’m surprised it took me this long to figure out that he was able to choke me because I kept giving him my back.

Jumping

Jumping. Don’t jump! Don’t jump kick! When you jump, much like the spinning kicks, it’s easy to anticipate the attack. You can also get cut off in midair, creating opportunity to get injured or worse. If you’ve disengaged and are running and you want to try to jump over something I would still advise against jumping. You’ll lose speed upon landing and take the risk of clipping whatever you’re trying to clear. Just go around it.

Ducking

Don’t duck. When you duck it gives an opportunity to get kicked in the head. A friend was telling me about how boxers dip their heads a little bit left right or down to evade strikes. I wouldn’t recommend it, as it can get you into the bad habit of dodging by ducking. When you duck it’s almost a free ticket for your opponent to knee or kick you in the head.

Spinning Jump Kicks

I don’t think I should have to mention this but there’s one in every crowd. Never and I mean Never do a spinning jump kick of any kind. It breaks three previously mentioned rules simultaneously.

High Kicks

Kicking above the knee isn’t recommended either. They can catch your leg throw you to the ground. If you aren’t injured from the fall you won’t exactly be in a pleasant position.

Go to the Ground (Men with Ground fighting training excluded)

The last don’t is more aimed at the ladies and young children than the adult men but if you aren’t good at grappling you can learn from this. Keep off the ground. Do not let them get you to the ground. We at Zimmerman Martial Arts have our reasons for this rule. I am not being sexist. I want to keep this PG so children can still learn from the list.

Final Note

As the culture finds new ways to attack we have to be able to adapt create new escapes. These are common tricks that may have worked in a previous time but now are more dangerous than just standing there. Maybe you have some things that fail horrendously. If you do respectfully leave a comment below so others can use it.