All Things Martial Arts: Micro lessons, ideas and food for thought on all things martial arts!

By Ryan Towers

"What you discover and create is more important than technique"
Guro Dan Inosanto

Micro lessons, ideas, experiences and food for thought! Increase your martial arts knowledge with this little book of big ideas, every page has something different to offer. The main goal of this book is to give great and contemporary ideas that can aid the development of martial arts enthusiasts of all ages and abilities.

Whether you are a complete novice or a black belt, young or old... this book will give you food for thought and teach you a plethora of methods, technical and tactical ideas as well as principles. It also discusses the pro's and con's of different martial arts topics whilst raising questions in the you that you may never have thought to ask your instructor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Sep 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9781365748554

Book preview

It’s not about how hard you hit it’s more about how well you hit and the precision of that hit.

My inspiration for this book is drawn from something my Father said to me as a young martial artist. It stuck in my head principally throughout years of continued training across a vast spectrum of systems and styles. It is my hope that some of my teachings in this book, can be passed onto whoever seeks martial arts knowledge. Ideally you will take something from this book that may change the way you apply martial arts to the real world and maybe even life just as I have!

Learn how to strike with as many parts of your body as possible, from the hands and feet to the shoulders and forearms. Your mind is the weapon, your body is just the vessel that holds the tools to get what the mind needs done.

Cross-training in different styles and systems will give you both inspiration and new tools to develop. For example, Tong Bei Quan Kung Fu has various ways of using parts of the hand to strike, Kali uses lots of body parts also… the list is too large to recite here.

In some systems even the chin is used but I will leave that for you to judge.

Martial Arts is more than simply orchestrated violence.

It is a form of communication between two human beings that is older than any spoken or written language on earth. Every action invokes reaction, every reaction then invokes further counter action. Just as in the act of speaking, every movement has a distinct meaning. If you see martial arts or combat as a conversation, then you may well just be better off at understanding the dynamics at play.

Punching straight into the hip socket will cause an opponent to bend forward, allowing you to apply a finishing move. This is a useful tactic to bear in mind… especially for street self defence applications. This technique is not widely used in competitions, probably due to the Boxing belt line rule or the risk of punching an opponent’s groin in MMA competitions.

In contrast to that, if your goal is to manipulate a person’s posture so that they leap forward and upwards. Strike with a single knuckle to the kidney(s) for maximum effect. This should invoke a jerking reflex that will give even weaker smaller people an advantage.

For self-defence try and use your environment as an opportunistic weapon where possible, smash your attackers into walls and hard into the ground.

Additionally, grab anything nearby that can be fashioned into an effective opportunistic weapon.

The trick to not telegraphing a movement is to explode from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. Do not load up the movement. Also, for maximum effectiveness focus on correct body mechanics.

For maximum effect allow as much weight transferral into the movement as is required. Note I Say, as is required because too much weight transferral is bad for many reasons and too little an amount is like overcooked spaghetti… it just lacks structure and substance.

A rear naked choke does not need to be performed with both arms, it is much more efficient and worthwhile to use one arm correctly.

When this method is employed, you essentially allow the free arm to do much more especially when facing multiple attackers or a weapon threat (hopefully not at once). Self defence aside in a grappling context you can use this to choke your opponent whilst also attacking with the free arm