From: ras@athena.mit.edu (Richard A Shandross)
Subject: Re: Getting to grappling range.
Keywords: grappling, judo
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 18 Nov 1992 17:40:17 GMT

I'm surprised nobody flamed me on the following:

In article <1992Nov15.182628.666@athena.mit.edu> I wrote:

>As for kicks, I think it depends on the speed of the person's kicks, and how
>rooted he/she is in delivering them.  If the person is slow, one can get
>directly in to grappling range by jamming the kick at its inception.  If the
>person is not stable in the supporting leg, the kick is weak and one can likely
>take much of the impact in an unsensitive area, such as the thigh or even the
>side of the body though the latter is a bit of a gamble.  (The best bet for a
>weak high kick is to catch it on the arm or with the hand, and keep moving
>forward - you will unbalance and probably even topple the kicker.)  Don't
>rush in testicles first. :-)  If the person is fast and strong, you can do
>the dodging and entering trick I mentioned above for handwork.
>
>Rich
>
>

It was a pretty poorly-written article.  My only excuse is that I wrote it
after 3 all-nighters in one week.  So let me clarify a few things:

      1.  I was referring to sparring or similar two person exercises, NOT 
street fighting.  In the former cases you have a chance to see how strong a
person's kicks, stances, and structure are.  That doesn't take too long to do,
by the way. 

      2.  When I referred to jamming the kick, I meant getting to it before
it has power.  Ideally at the leg lifting stage, where the person's momentum
is more up than out, and if they aren't strong stance/structure-wise they are
also pulling back a bit so as to balance themselves.  Practically speaking, the
first few inches thereafter can be ok *if* the person's supporting structure
isweak (all too common).  The kick's power is not much developed at that point,
then, but there certainly is some risk involved.  Looking at the physics:
without a stable connection to the ground to push off of - ie, they are
balancing as opposed to rooting/centering - the only power in the kick is the
momentum, and it takes distance to develop that momeentum.  
        Also, at the very end of a kick, where the person's energy is spent,
one can sort of "attach" to the now-harmless striking surface and redirect it
back towards the body.
      Meeting force with force is contrary to Tai Chi principles, and I don't
recommend it.  The point is that it's not really any force to speak of in the
cases I mentioned.  In any other case, one should yield - avoid the blow if
possible, "roll with it" if you are struck.

      3.  I was definitely out of it to write that one should consider taking
any kind of hit to the unprotected side of the body!  I don't know *what* I was
thinking; bruised ribs are not fun, and I think the kidneys are a bit more
important than a sparring match. 

      4.  This jamming stuff is most likely not going to be applicable when
you are dealing with someone who's whole art revolves around kicking, and they
have some skill in the art... TKD, Muay Thai, kickboxers, whatever.


Jeez, I gotta stop working so much!

	Rich
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