Vital Point Targets

These are vulnerable points that cause intense pain when struck:

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).

Is It Possible To Learn Self Defense Without Sparring Fight?

Based on my experience: Yes.

Some ancient medieval fighting styles like Japanese Koppojutsu and European Nahkampf are originally taught as self defense skill for real combat only (no sparring fight and no fighting tournament permitted by their masters), because their focus on lethal techniques training. Although those ancient martial arts never do any sparring fight, they still effective for real combat and already proven in historical warfares for centuries.

There are also 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.

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 can you learn so many martial arts without overtraining?"

- "How many fighting styles should i learn?"

First, mastering 1 fighting style is already enough.

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

1. You Must Mastering 1 Fighting style First

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

Martial art training is like cooking course: After you mastering how to make 1 menu then you can learn to cooking other menus easier, after you mastering 1 fighting style then you can learn other fighting styles easier.

2. Never Train 2-3 Different Fighting Styles In Same Training Period

Never joining / training at 2-3 dojos in same time to avoid overtraining problems. Like unfocus, confusion, fatique and injury.

Even real world champions learned their fighting techniques one by one for years focusly and not learned those all at once in one day forcefully. For examples (you can read their full biographies on Wikipedia more completely):

- After mastering Karate, Lyoto Machida learned Brazilian Jujutsu.

- After mastering Kickboxing, Bas Rutten learned Catch Wrestling.

- After mastering Brazilian Jujutsu, Nick Diaz learned Boxing.

- After mastering Boxing, Vitali Klitschko learned Kickboxing.

- After mastering Boxing, Benny Urquidez learned Kenpo.

- After mastering Karate, Joe Lewis learned Jeet Kune Do.

- After mastering Karate, Bill Wallace learned Kickboxing.

Taekkyon

Taekkyon (태껸) is a Korean fighting style created by warriors of the Silla Dynasty (57 BCE - 935 CE).

An indigenous Korean martial art focus on unbalancing, kicking and tripping opponents.

David vs Goliath Situation

Situation where a fighter’s height is shorter than the opponent’s shoulder line (or even the hip line).

In general martial art tournaments, classes divided based on body weight, not height. That why “David vs Goliath Situation” often happen everywhere, not only in real street fight situation.

The fact is, every sizes have their own strength and weakness. For examples:

Tall fighters have longer reach, they can hit shorter opponents from long range. But their fatal weakness is they can’t protect low area well (bowing / ducking to covering your low area is more difficult than protecting your head).

Short fighters have shorter reach, they must closing the distance first to hit taller opponent. But short fighters can moving and slip easier than taller opponent, so they more agile in close range combat than tall fighters.

So the conclusion is, win or lose is depend on your skill (and luck).

How To Make Martial Art Belt

There are 2 martial art belt models, Japanese (Obi) and Chinese (Dai):

Good martial art belt is made from 100% fabric, it should tie our hip (to secure the trouser) softly,  not disturb our movement or hurting our body. We can also make it by ourselves using cheap cloth at home (ancient warriors also using normal - daily cloth back then).

Overpriced martial art belt sold at expensive stores are made thicker filled with long rubber strap inside without logic reason (maybe to make it looks cooler or expensive?). Those expensive - hard belts knot are always opened itself during training, we could never tie them tightly because those rubber belts are too thick, this rubber belt also disturb our movement and hurting our hip. Very very annoying.

Proper Glasses Model For Martial Art Training

Before you buy some glasses, always check the temple tip design first.

Based on my bad experience, straighted temple model is very horrible. Even glasses sport strap doesn't work for martial art (martial art training is different from other sports, your head is moving and shaking a lot here).

Another thing you must check before buying glasses is the paint. Never buy shiny painted plastic frame like this:

Unlike normal painted plastic frame, this shiny painted frame can't hold on your wet - oily skin. When your face sweaty, this thick painted glasses will slippery and fall (just like straight temple model, this slippery painted frame also designed for fashion only).

If you already bought this thick - slippery painted glasses, don't worry. Scratch the inner nose and temple part using small piece of soft sandpaper. After the slippery paint (that shiny paint) gone, now your glasses will hold on your oily skin well like normal painted plastic frame (be carefull, don't scratch the lens!!).