What's the difference between furious & fizzle?
In a word, injury.
You can have the most wicked, lightning-fast technique on the planet, but if the end result isn't fight-ending injury, then it's little better than a parlor trick. That's not to say that technique, in and of itself, is 'bad'--a technique that gets that injury, repeatedly and reliably, is pure gold. You can bet your life on it.
The question is, how can you tell the difference? Easy. The crippling, fight-ending techniques are the ones that target a specific square-inch of vulnerable anatomy and then wreck it so it can't do it's job anymore. We're talking about the burst eye ball, the crushed throat, the blown-out knee. None of these things are going to be able to do the important job they're supposed to do--these injuries degrade the man's ability to function normally. As you shut him down you save your own life.
You can ask these questions about any given technique you know, or are shown:
- What specific square-inch of him does it effect?
- Is what's behind/inside that square-inch important for him to function normally?
- Does the technique wreck it such that it'll only recover with medical intervention?
If you're not sure about the first one, the other two are moot. If you can't answer the other two specifically, by way of physics and physiology, you probably shouldn't bet your life on that technique. I know I wouldn't.
Another interesting exercise you can do is seek out video of fight-ending injuries that happen in the ring--they're typically viewed as unfortunate and sickening 'accidents'. But we can learn an awful lot from them. Look at everything that happens up to the actual injury--techniques are flying, the competition is fierce--but no one is getting injured beyond those things that the resolute can 'walk off': lacerations, contusions, pain and other non-specific trauma. It's when the specific trauma occurs that things change dramatically--competition ends, the fight is called and medical aid rushes into the ring. Often, people walk around stunned and confused at what's transpired.
What's to be learned from this tragedy?
We can look at what was different when that specific injury occured. What set it apart (other than the result) from all the ferocity of the preceeding competition? You'll find, in general, it was bodyweight through a specific square-inch of important anatomy. And that anatomy gave out in a body-rending, mind-shattering injury, changing everything suddenly and irrevocably. It literally ended the fight.
This is where we have to start if we're talking about violence where your life is on the line. That fight-ending injury isn't where we're going, or what we're trying to do--it's where we start.
And if you're not starting there, you can't bet your life on it.
Chris Ranck-Buhr
Master Instructor
Target-Focus Training
Labels: competition, injury, technique
posted by Chris Ranck-Buhr @ Thursday, August 30, 2007
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