Mu-shin Instructor Training

It's almost impossible to defend yourself at too close a range; our reaction speed is just not faster enough: think sucker punch or headbutt. Therefore, maintaining a distance that gives you a fighting chance is often the most understated skill when defending yourself. 

Reacting quickly to create distance and form a strong stable ready stance sends a clear signal to your attacker: You are trained and you are ready!

Defending yourself at a very close range as previously stated is almost impossible, and violence doesn't always build in a way that allows you to predict its coming. With increasing stress and mental health disorders in the general population, the probability of an unprovoked 'lashing out' is now very real. 

Protect your head is the key to at least surviving the first attack and being in a position to react to the rest of the attack. The elbow shield is simplified and can be drilled so it become your instinctive head protection reaction. 

The third version of the elbow shield allows for compression in the rear leg (3rd principle of power.) That energy has to go somewhere, so we begin to drive it forward using our front hand to strike. This is where we introduce the old boxing maxim 'punch with your feet,' referring to the important role that footwork plays in driving power into your punches, especially your jab cross. 

Control the distance you control the fight. Footwork is the ultimate skill. Let's face it, you cannot get hit or grabbed if you are not there. At this early stage of footwork development we simply want to make ground forward by stepping with speed whilst maintaining stability. 

The backward step gives you another split second moment to prepare and respond, its key to maintaining distance and compressing power into the rear. 

Forward and back are both the skills of a trained and untrained fighter. What gives you an immediate edge over the untrained is your ability to quickly move off the line of attack. The simple step left or right is the start to developing that skill. Add that to your forward and back capability, then you have the L-shape.

Compressed to forward motion, allows us to take our striking to a powerful level, or scientifically put, combining elastic potential energy with kinetic energy is a reckoning force!

The perfect jab has both these elements, and so does the cross strike, but additionally you can use rotational force with the cross to drive with even more power and speed. Enter the 2nd principle of power. 

Here's the conundrum, you need to be light on your feet to move quickly, but you need to be rooted to the floor to strike with power. Do these conflicting principles clash?

Actually, no! This is where a higher level of footwork must be developed to understand why martial arts is both fast, powerful, and also stable and unyielding.

Stepping off the line of attack is important, and so is pivoting, as it allows you to swivel quickly to align yourself with your attacker. Forward, back, step off and now pivot gives students a lot of flexibility and fluidity when moving, but most importantly allows them to keep the correct stance whilst moving and therefore maintain stability at all times.