What Should We Do If Someone Challenging Us For Duel

Based on my experience and many cases in my country: Never accept any sparring / duel fight challenge outside formal fighting tournament event.

Duel fight challenge in real life is totally different with video game or anime. In real life, there are lot of cheating often done by the challenger.

For examples:

- In 2009, Muay Thai was became trend and booming in my country. Sadly, not all Muay Thai gym owners are good person, many of them also doing ilegal side job as hired thug.

Those bad Muay Thai fighters often challenging other “rival” dojos to show off their “power”. In several cases, they also using iron plate filled Boxing glove or unpadded Boxing glove to kill their opponent (like Luis Resto and Panama Lewis case).

- Many barbarian Silat schools are also often brawls each other on street and ilegal duel fight. In many cases, the dueling fighters often using hidden weapon like pocket knife or spiked ring to piercing their opponent.

- When 1 dueling fighter cornered, his friends will come suddenly (mostly riding motorcycle) and will start attacking the rival school. The duel turn into ordinary gang brawl.

"Then what should we do if someone challenging us for duel?"

- Reject and expel him outside from our dojo. Martial art is just for cardio exercise and self defense.

- If they won’t leave, call the security or police. My Karate sensei doing this once when some Muay Thai thug came to his dojo.

- If those thugs start attacking, then it’s time to show them what we got from our training. It’s self defense situation, of course police will arrest them for assaulting our “private property” first.

Why Forced Mixed - Hybrid Martial Arts Are Bad

There are lot of martial art dojos / schools / organizations which mixing techniques from various unfitting fighting styles into their training nowadays. For examples:

- Teaching Sambo throws and Muay Thai strikes all at once in one training day forcefully.

- Teaching Qin Na jointlocks and Kenpo strikes all at once in one training day forcefully.

- Teaching Karate Kata dances and kickboxing strikes all at once in one training day forcefully.

- Teaching Jujutsu submissions and Karate strikes all at once in one training day forcefully.

- Teaching Aikido throws, Collegiate Wrestling pins and Taekwondo strikes all at once in one training day forcefully.

- Teaching Pencak Silat dances, Wrestling throws and Jeet Kune Do strikes all at once in one training day forcefully.

Well, i will not mention the name of those bad dojos one by one here (too tiring because the are too much nowadays), but you can recognize it by watching how they training at the dojo.

Why (forced mixed) hybrid martial arts are bad for our safety?

Training at force-mixed hybrid dojo is worse than someone who doing cross training at 2 dojos in same time period:

- The students will be confuse because there are no focus - no clear goal in training. In real street fight, they will frozen - can’t do anything because their brain and reflex aren’t trained.

- Overtraining symptoms like confusion, failed to focus and injuries are often happen. Of course because their training duration at dojo is 1-2 hours longer than training duration at normal dojo.

- Wasting time and money for nothing, that another disadvantage from training at those dojos (they often give us expensive training fee to make their dojos looks exclusive).

Bruce Lee once said: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10.000 kicks once, but i fear the man who has practiced 1 kick 10.000 times”. Focus is everything in martial art training.

Focus and concentration are extremely important in martial arts for a variety of reasons, including improved performance, self-defense, and mental discipline. It allows practitioners to execute techniques precisely, respond effectively to opponents, and maintain composure under pressure.

Mastering just 1 useful punching technique is far far better than mastering 100 useless punches.

Self Defense Against Multiple Attackers

There are 2 tricks to survive against multiple attackers, still better than do nothing:

- Hit nearest opponent first, mastering elbow-knee strikes & “dirty tactics” (like pressure point strikes or even bitting) are very helpful.

- Always moving. If you see any chance to escape, then run immediately (fighting is only option when you can’t run).

Dumbbell Training

Dumbbell training can significantly enhance the performance of martial artists by building strength, power, and endurance.

Integrating dumbbell work into a martial arts routine can improve balance, coordination, and explosive power, crucial for striking and grappling.

How to train using Dumbbell:

- Repeat every moves 10 counts repetition slowly. Be careful, start from lightest weight and don’t force yourself.

- If you feel strong enough after training for many weeks, add the count to 20 repetition.

- If you feel stronger enough, add the count again to 30 repetition.

- And if you feel stronger enough, the you can switch / add to heavier Dumbbell (don’t add the weight too much, don’t force yourself). 30 repetition is maximum count to doing weightlifting training effectively.

My Martial Art Background & Reason Why I Love Martial Art

People often asking about my martial art style, they also often asking how i know so many martial art theories.

I started my training since 5 years old, here the complete list of my martial art training experiences:

- 1996: Taekwondo.

- 2003: Karate Kata (focus on martial dance choreos / Kata).

- 2006: Karate (focus on fighting tournament / Kumite).

- 2009: Aikido & Kenpo (the dojo have 2 classes, i learn them both).

- 2012: Boxing, Kickboxing & Muay Thai (the club have 3 classes, i learn them all).

- 2017: Jeet Kune Do.

Outside of those dojos, i also learn other arts from my friends, open training - seminar events and various tutorials from internet. Like Kungfu, Kuntao, Wei Kuen Do, Tui Shou, Catch Wrestling and more.

Why i love martial art so much?

As 90s kid, i was raised by various martial art themed media on wuxia TV shows, video game, tokusatsu, anime and manga.

 

 

 

Not only for hobby, martial art is needed for survival here. Crime rate in my country is very high, the only way to survive is all people work and fight together to protect our town, village and neighborhood (especially to protect our children, we also teach self defense to our children).

My dream is watching all children live peacefully, play happily, healthy and also strong like Arale Chan and Ninja Hattori (my childhood heroes).

Vital Point Targets

When we fight against bigger opponent, we don't need forcing ourself to hit the opponent's head area. We can also strike the body, groin and leg vital areas.

Wei Kuen Do

Wei Kuen Do (滙拳道) is a modern Kungfu style created by Leo Fong in 1973. Mix of Boxing and Jeet Kune Do (截拳道).

Leo Fong was boxer who also Bruce Lee’s good friend and Kungfu student. Bruce Lee encouraged Leo to emphasize his extensive Boxing skills in his own personal style of Kungfu. Since Bruce Lee death in 1973, Leo Fong has continued development of his new Kungfu style. The result is Wei Kuen Do, which translates to “Art of The Innovative Fist”.

Is It Possible To Learn Self Defense Without Sparring Fight?

Based on my experience: Yes.

If anyone tries to convince you that you cannot do it, remember these: There are lot of legendary martial art masters who successfully did solo training and research alone, to improve their skill or even create new martial art style.

- Miyamoto Musashi spent 2 years seclusion in forest to training Kenjutsu alone. He perfected his signature dual wielding swords technique (Nito Ryu), won many battles and duels, and became legendary swordman in Japan.

- Masutatsu Oyama spent 3 years alone in a forest, training Karate by himself. He came down from the mountains, beat all challengers in open MMA tournaments against challengers from various dojos, then founded his Kyokushin Karate school.

- Ip Man spent years alone, training on a wooden dummy, defeat many tough challengers and became one of the best known Wing Chun Kuntao Grand Masters in history.

- Zhang Sanfeng lived in the mountains for years to created 2 new martial arts, Tai Chi Taolu and Tui Shou. Now millions people on the world practice his arts.

- Tadashi Sawamura spent his time to training his Karate and Boxing skill in mountain alone, created his own Kickboxing style to revenge against Muay Thai fighters who defeat him in MMA tournament before.

History is full of people who disappeared for long periods of time. They lived in seclusion to improve theirselves. After that, they became great figures we knew today!!

Honestly, sparring fight and fighting tournament are can be counter productitve for real life - street self defense training aspect. Why?

Most pro fighting clubs like professional sport Karate, Taekwondo or Boxing are only focus on fighting tournaments nowadays. They only focus on sparring fight training using fighting tournament format. Sadly, they lack of self defense techniques training which needed in real street fight for survive, for example: Finger Stab, Chop Strike or Groin Kick.

Well, if you have a source of information to give you a guide for your martial art training, you can train at home. And if you are self motivated (as opposed to group motivated) personality, you can succeed. Persistence and motivation are the keys to such success.

Cross Training: How Many Fighting Styles Should I Learn?

People often asking me these:

"How you learn so many martial arts without overtraining?"

"How many fighting styles should i learn?"

First, i learned many fighting styles one by one for years, not trained those all in same period.

For example, i learned Jeet Kune Do in 2017 (asked by my friends to train together for fun) after i graduated from Kickboxing club in 2013. I never joining / training at 2 dojos in same time to avoid overtraining problems (unfocus, confusion, fatique and injury).

Second, learn 1 fighting style is already enough. Honestly, i only training 1 fighting style when i training alone at home in holiday. This “Secret” style is my primary fighting style, because in deep of my heart i love this fighting style so much.

I also had the experience of being held at knifepoint by a robbers on the street. Do you know what happened? I can only remember a few martial arts moves in situation between life and death like that.

My brain work slower when surprised while facing dangerous armed opponents suddenly like that on the street. Luckily my subconscious safe my life because it still can command my body to fight back using a few fighting techniques (to be honest, those few techniques are my most favourite).

Focus in 1 fighting style is better than training in 100 fighting styles for nothing. Learning few fighting techniques you like is better than learning millions techniques that you can't remember when you face real robbers.

But if you wanna try cross training so much. Let me give you some advice.

First advice, you must have 1 martial art basic first. Before doing cross training, you must mastering 1 fighting style first. If you master 1 martial art, then learning other martial art style will easier like playing (because you already know the basic principe of martial art training right?).

Second advice, you must learn new martial art which have different focus – different skill with your old martial art. For examples:

- After mastering kicking art like Taekwondo, you can try learning punching art like Boxing.

- After mastering punching art like Panantukan, you can try learning kicking art like Savate.

- After mastering balanced striking art like Kickboxing, you can try learning soft throwing art like Aikido.

If you do cross training at new martial art club which have same focus with your old martial art, that will wasting your money because you will not learn new martial art knowledges much. For examples:

- Taekwondo experts who cross training at Taekkyon club is useless, because both fighting styles are focus on kicks.

- Kickboxing experts who cross training at Wei Kuen Do club is useless, because both fighting styles are focus on balanced strikes.

- Greco Roman Wrestling experts who cross training at Kurash club is useless, because both wrestling styles are focus on high throws.