Born in 1968. Started his MMA career in 1997.  He had a total of 5 championships on two weight categories.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Couture

So don’t worry about taking up a martial arts class because of your age. This guy is STILL fighting people half his age in octagons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-bYCXv0DKI

http://v.ku6.com/show/kSEmm7YAkmSERG9L.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNwqXqeQylY

I don’t teach high kicks. Neither WT nor Escrima has them and for me they don’t make sense.  I see the question a lot though. Depending on the source the question is phrased differently.  Generally it is “Why are pro fighters in rings and octagons use it, and why no one is taking advantage of those disadvantageous kicks?”

Well the answer is: “They often don’t do high kicks”. Wait wait before you start sending me all those wonderful high kick knockout videos and Youtube links let me explain.

Fighting, just like computer security is a black art. Until someone takes advantage of your mistakes or something bad happens to you –like an injury– it’s not a mistake. Basically if you can get away with it everything is fine.

Of course that’s not the way I teach my students nor the philosophy of the martial arts we teach, because real life self defense is a different ball game  (no rules, no referees, no gloves, no weight classes, no guarantees of one on one or fist to fist fight,…) but that’s another article for another time.

Returning to the question, the people who often ask that question are the people who only watch highlight videos. First of all highlight videos are not matches they are merely glimpses and cutouts of several matches probably span through the entire career of a fighter. And most of them are just knockout hits. Although the one punch knockout is not a myth it’s not always the case, so there are several punches, kicks and tactics that lead to a KO or TKO. So seeing the last high kick (the eye candy) with the blood and KO could be fun for the whole family. But it does not necessarily mean that that fighter was using that a lot or that was the whole match. It’s like chess, the fact that queen did the checkmate move does not mean that you mostly played with the queen whole game.

Why do they use it? Well first of all they are entertainers. Just like many other athletic events  they have to keep crowd happy and entertained. If you entertain more people will tune in or buy the tickets will make it an industry and also to a fighter that creates a fan base, people love winners but love flashy winners more. Many people who watch these things don’t appreciate the timing, distance, rhythm,.. of those fighters. They often respond to cinematic moves, blood, interaction between the fighters, display of domination over the opponent. High kicks are often a good way to achieve all the above and if you land it nicely it can do some serious damage.

How do they get away with it? That’s a bit more complicated.

First of all the trend in rings and octagons especially in the popular (heavyweight) divisions is stationary fighters during exchanges, meaning they don’t move around a lot while hitting each other. Moving in those times require agility, explosiveness and timing which consume a lot of energy. Only the athletes with very high endurance can afford those in a ring. A street fight is merely 6-7 seconds, a match could very well be 15 minutes. So energy is crucial. Unless the fighter has a glass jaw it can survive a couple of hits from an opponent in his/her division as long as he/she keeps the guard up. So why waste the energy you could use it on heavy blows.  If the opponent is not keen on countering then hit it with the hardest stuff.

Second, there is always physical and psychological dominance. Fighters who step into any international major league event are not wussies. But some of them are more intimidating than others (extraordinary strength, experience,…). Especially after a few rounds of getting pummeled most fighters will go back to defensive to recover. Thats when the dominant side does more fancy stuff spinning backfists, high kicks,… It’s career builder, get’s the crowd going and surely will put your name and video somewhere on the internet.

Go to Youtube and check full matches.  Try to find a match tournament or a title match (not show matches). Until one side clearly dominates the other you are not going to see a lot of high kicks but as the match progresses when one side takes the initiative and the other it wobbly and tired then you will see lots of fancy stuff.

Their response has been interested, positive and very encouraging.  Soon I’ll write a bit more about my experiences and what I’ve learned from them.

One response I’ve heard from them has been “We really want this, there is a huge need for it, but we want the classes taught by women for women only”.

This an understandable response, very understandable indeed. Given the fact that some of the students might have undergone some kind of traumatic experience with men. Physical and/or psychologically. And it may the best way for some women here to be introduced to martial arts and I am not dismissing this.

But if you want to make progress in martial arts, learn these skills and learn them in a way that they will be useful to you in an emergency women have to study and train with men, however psychologically difficult this may be for women with firsthand experience with violence it still is a must.

There are many reasons for this.

First, the most I mean MOST of the instructors in Turkey are men. This is something I want to see changed in the future but it won’t change until more women get involved with the martial arts here in Turkey.

Qualifications, experience and knowledge count a great deal in martial arts. People who have no experience of the martial arts may not realize just how much they count. Perhaps they think these skills can be learned quickly and easily and there are few simple tricks and secrets when you learn them you are bulletproof.

It’s not quite like that. It isn’t easy and it would be completely dishonest to pretend that it is.

Martial arts environments in Turkey are male-dominated, and often very macho. As women keep telling me it is a off-putting to them.

But a macho male instructor who really understands the stuff he is teaching, and has many years of realistic and rational training, teaching and fighting is more use to anyone –including women– who wants to learn self defense than a sensitive, kind and gentle female instructor who is unqualified to teach. Would you choose an unqualified surgeon or an unqualified airline pilot because they are nicer to be around? Nor should you choose a martial arts instructor on that basis. You are asking this person to teach you how to save your life. This is a serious thing– although studying martial arts can be a lot of fun.

Don’t get me wrong I am not saying there are no highly qualified female instructors in the world or women don’t make good teachers or fighters. But if there are any in Turkey, please get in touch with Claire. She has been looking for you and she hasn’t found you yet.

Even more importantly, women have to learn how to apply these skills against men. I still haven’t met the woman who doesn’t go out late at night because of the teenage girls who hang around in the corner and terrify her. Victims of domestic violence and honor killings are not killed or abused by their sisters. To learn how to defend yourself against a man, you must practice defending yourself against men. Regularly and realistically. If you can’t execute the techniques you’ve learned against men in your classes it won’t be realistic to expect to apply them against real male opponents that want to hurt you while you are panicking and lost in the chaos of the encounter.

You need to know what you’re studying really works, and to be experienced in applying it to people who are bigger and stronger.  ”You play the way you train” they always say in sports, and they are right. You need reflexes deep in your muscle memory and in your psyche and those reflexes have to say, “This is a man, he is bigger and stronger than me but I’ve dealt with it in the class, I have the confidence that what I trained and the way trained will work against this”.

So, for the first few weeks, single-sex classes might be fine. They might help women get comfortable with the idea of doing a martial art.

But ultimately, they are not what I advise. And I hope to create an environment in my classes that’s comfortable enough for women that they are not necessary at all.

But do keep in mind none of these tips and ideas are a substitute for the real thing -a realistic martial arts training.

• Use the city for reflections. Windows and mirrors can show you whats behind you or around the corner. Street lights, car headlights often cast the shadows of people behind you from meters away, if you know where to stand.
• Work on your peripheral vision. See what’s around you without focusing on small details.  See the colors, movements people. You can practice this on your everyday life. It will give you higher awareness.
• It is not a good idea to listen to ipod in full volume while you are walking alone in a dark alley.
• Did I say walking alone in a dark alley? Don’t. Take a cab, you are not spending unnecessary money or being lazy. You are paying for your security.
• Late night rides in a cab? Make a habit of writing down the license plate each time you get in.
• When confronted by a threat most people tuck their heads down, raise their shoulders and look away. Three body language moves that inform the other side that you are scared and they control the scene.
• When you feel somebody is up close to you, don’t walk faster or look away, run if you believe you can outrun him, but if not slow down and confront him. By being unpredictable and confrontational you can keep the initiative.
• When you confront the threat face to face, body language is often the key. Try to be calm, assertive, be in control.
• A street encounter is like a poker game where the defender is slightly in disadvantage. Basically nobody knows what the other has (a police badge, a glock, a knife, serious martial arts training, a violent crime record,…) but by playing smart and keeping a poker face you can bluff your way out of it.
• Learn Martial Arts, realistic Martial Arts.

Choreographed exercises do have their own benefits as well. It gives students a good endurance exercise. It allows them to learn a new movement (lots of repetition of the same thing). And also it gives the student an idea about the principles on that particular martial art.

But a technical series is like a phrase book. You can check a phrase book to see what the language is about (even though you will be exposed to just  a minimal portion of the language). And sadly a real street fight is not like asking for a sandwich or where the toilet is. It is like a hot political debate where two speakers are constantly asking each other questions and answering the other side. Trying to find openings. “Pummel the other guy with questions he can’t answer, until he can’t take any more“. A phrase book has little, almost no use in things like that.