Killer Cyborg wrote:flatline wrote:Damian when your opponent leaves you an opening that you can exploit with a slower attack that's more powerful than normal. wrote:jump kicks are good for closing distances and surprising your opponent. This is taught in every martial art that teaches the jump kick.
I hope that if I'm ever fighting for my life, that my opponent has received those instructions and attempts to follow them.
Out of curiosity, what style have you studied?
http://www.chineseboxing.com/Pages/curricula.htmlKai Sai Kung Fu is a synthesis created by Christopher Casey. I've personally done form work in Tai Chi Chuan (Chen large frame, Yang short form, and Chen sword form), Wa Lu (bridge art), Crown Eagle (Chin na), and Pakua Chang. The synthesis also includes Wing Chun, Hsing-i Chuan, Fukien White Crane, and Boxing so I have studied techniques from these, but no form work.
Conceptually, it's similar to Bruce Lee's synthesis. In fact, last I checked, two of Bruce Lee's senior students were on the CBII board.
In general, Damian is right; jump kicks can be used for both of those things.
What he left out is that it tends to work best on untrained or poorly trained opponents, not well-trained martial artists.
Just about any technique is effective against the untrained or poorly trained. But why would you dare to assume that your opponent isn't at least as trained as you? Why take the risk?
You seem to be basing your views on sporting events where two people of roughly equal weight and training start a fight when a bell rings, but there are other kinds of combat, and most martial arts include any number of moves to be used against anything from a drunken civilian with no combat experience to an armored warrior with a sword or spear.
I am sorry if I gave the impression that my views are based on sport. That is not the case. Training that focuses on competition, even if they claim to focus on self defense, often trains dangerous habits like ignoring attacks that can't be scored or building false instincts about what a "safe" distance is from your opponent.
Looking at the current CBII website, it seems they've removed (or hidden in the members area) the description they used to have of the 10 principles that guide the techniques and fighting theory. A pity. I do see some of them mentioned under the synthesis boards. I've got several books if you're interested.
I have studied videos of boxing, kick boxing, mixed martial arts, and sumo wrestling to try to understand which principles and techniques are present (or lacking) in each. They each offer something to learn
In my experience, if you're good at a jump kick, you can often surprise lower-level opponents by launching an immediate attack as soon as the sparring match begins. Even if your foot doesn't connect, it tends to put them on the defensive, and you can follow up with a flurry of other attacks once you've used the attack to close in.
Once I got green belt*, though, most opponents were able to adequately defend from this kind of attack.
Against a purple belt or above, you had a good chance of coming out behind from such attacks if you try to spring them on a ready opponent.
There are people who can make the most ridiculous technique effective because of natural athleticism, good reading ability, etc. I'm sure that jump kicks are no exception. I don't claim to be particularly accomplished (I am constantly humbled in this regard), but I have been involved in helping others "unlearn" things that they've been taught in other arts in preparation for studying softer styles and have been on the receiving end of a variety of techniques including high kicks and jump kicks. In almost every case, I was amazed at how easily dealt with these techniques were especially given the amount of pride that the students had in those techniques. As a rule, those techniques momentarily gave up the ability to control distance even though their effectiveness is entirely dependent on being at the correct distance. Against an opponent who is changeable and has studied how to enter against his opponent (perhaps this maps to your "green" or "purple" levels?), such a technique allows your opponent to be in control when he enters critical distance.
In my "untraining" sessions, by the time they had recovered from their own technique, I was often in grappling range and sometimes even behind them. You can imagine their surprise to finish the technique to find me inside their guard gently pressing a finger against their neck or eye (no one was ever injured, I promise).
Now, it's possible that my training and natural instincts just happen to be especially good against these particular techniques, but I doubt it. As I said before, I don't consider myself to be particularly accomplished or talented despite the ranking I managed to achieve. I had the good fortune of being smaller and weaker than some of the other students, so I never had the chance to rely on size or strength in order to overcome my poor technique. That almost certainly contributed to my advancement.
That said, I do have a healthy respect for anyone who has any sort of training at all, regardless of whether or not I agree with their fighting theory. One lucky hit, no matter how poorly advised, is all it takes to determine the outcome.
Another use of jump kicks, btw, is jumping out of the way of one attack while launching a counter-attack. This wouldn't work in Palladium rules, of course, but in real life it can be quite effective.
Again, mostly against lesser or distracted/disabled opponents.
If you're fighting ninjas, then yeah, pretty much never use a jump kick.
But if you're only ever fighting ninjas, then I'm pretty curious about what kind of life you're living.
The core of my training and fighting theory is to never take avoidable risks which means you always enter combat assuming that everyone is a ninja and that they have ninja friends nearby.
*(The ranking system was white, yellow, orange, green, blue, purple, brown, red, black)
We had an advisory system that served as a recognition of achievement but, perhaps more importantly, was also an indicator to other students who they should (or shouldn't) be following. The colors were ordered thusly: no sash, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, red, black. Beginners wore no sash. Yellow and blue students had varying understanding and mastery over the core principles. An advanced student was green or above and was expected to have relative mastery over the core principles in isolation and to be developing the ability to apply the principles concurrently. Pretty heady stuff, but amazingly effective. The sash I have in the closet is red which basically meant I was the guy on the receiving end of most demonstrations.
As I understand it, however, CBII has only two official rankings: certified instructor and everyone else. I clearly fall into the later category. I had teaching duties, but I was still years away from being able to attempt certification.
--flatline