Chapter 18 – What Makes Us Different ?
In our martial art careers, just as we want to protect our families, we also want to protect our respective businesses. In the 40 years that I have been training martial arts, I’ve seen some very original people in my days. People that we would now look at and regard as pioneers. However, each of these pioneers, has had detractors, each of these pioneers has had imitators. Although they say imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. In the business world, imitation can dilute and minimize us.
Reality based fighting, is the hippest and easiest venue to teach, and unfortunately the easiest venue to imitate.
And when one is imitating you, the actual things that they are imitating are the finishing moves. Think about it…what do you think of when you see an arm lock on the ground. Most likely that would be jiu-jitsu. What do you think about when you see, a knee to the face out of a Thai clinch, most likely that would be Thai Boxing. Or perhaps what do you think about when you see a bite on a face, I would say your first instinct would be Kinamutai. However, in all of these cases, each of these folks, performing these finishing moves, could be librarians, who have never thrown a punch their life. Anyone can imitate finishing moves. However, what they can not imitate, are the attributes, and skill set that it takes, to proceed the finishing moves.
So therefore what makes us different from our imitators, are the amazing drills, that were passed on to us from Bruce Lee and Dan Inosanto. And when we do our techniques, we do them out of these drills. If we are going to do a headbutt, or if we are going to do a knee, or if we are going to do an elbow, or a pac sao, or a savate kick, each of our techniques are being done again out of one of our drills. Which drills are we referring too? Chi-Sao, Hubbad, Sumbrada, Numerada, Serrada, etc… If we are talking about self-preservation, we are now referring to doing things out of MMA.
The implications behind these statements are as follows: While you are working, whatever specific technique, say a pac sao, If you are doing this out of MMA, this fella could be kicking your thigh, jabbing your nose, shooting for your legs, etc…You must have all of these answers, in other words, you must know MMA. So getting back to what makes us different, think of each of these drills as a different canvas, to paint your picture on. Our imitators, maybe able to imitate a Pac Sao, but they can not imitate a Pac-Sao out of MMA!
Our imitators might be able too, imitate a Savate kick, however, they can’t imitate it out of Serrada. Our imitators, might try to imitate a bite, however, they can not imitate it out of the canvas of Jiu-Jitsu. So at the end of the day, it is not the techniques, that will bring you to the forefront, but the body mechanics, footwork, all of the other attributes and the knowledge of each separate canvas, that make us different. Without these canvases, one can imitate but they can never duplicate.
See ya next week !
Please check the Table of Contents for links to other chapters of this Online Book.
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