This is one of those stories that I use to dream about when I was a kid. I use to read about Daniel Boone and Davie Crockett fighting off wild animals and planned how I could accomplish the same thing.

The 12 year-old boy picked up some fighting tricks from the video game “World of Warcraft.” According to the story here, the boy and his sister came across a moose. The moose was going to go after his sister so he use a distraction strategy (from the game) to draw the moose away from his sister!

Picture from http://www.eatonvillenews.net/images/Bob/MOOSE%202.jpg

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When I was a kid, I used to imagine ways to defend myself in any situation. One of the thoughts I had while I was drinking my hot chocolate (no – I was not a coffee drinker yet) was to use it as a weapon if someone attacked! I thought I would throw it is their face and follow up with kicks and punches. Now as an adult I have often thought of what one could do against multiple attackers in cities that frown on obvious weapons.  Here is one video that shows a unbreakable umbrella that can be used as a weapon!

Video from http://www.real-self-defense.com/umbrella.html

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I have noticed that women are interested in learning of other women that can fight a man and win! I have even seen some websites that cater to this jaunra of fight stories. Lets go back to basics and examine this concept. The very basic way to size up fighters are to look at their size, weight and weapons. If you are examining a man and woman opponent, who has reach, who weighs more, who is faster, stronger, has ring savy, and so on. After you determine who has the basic components that wins fights… you can look at who is the better fighter, who can take a punch and dish it right back.

Why do I care? because self-defense and sparring/fighting are not the same thing. All things being equal in a fight or sparring situation – the fighter with the most of the above qualities will almost always win the match. In self-defense the rules are not the same. In self-defense, all strikes are open… for instance if a woman kicks a guy in the nuts, she can break his ear drums or gouge his eyes to ensure her safe departure. The same woman cannot do that in a prize fight. In self-defense a woman is fighting for her life so she will use any weapon at her disposal. Here is a famous video of Joey Buttafuoco vs “Chyna” Joanie Laurer. Chyna is a pro wrestler that thought for some reason being strong and being the equivalent of a stunt woman (I mean a professional wrestler) would some how make her a fighter. Joey is just an average Joe… a guy that has probably been in a few fights in his day but out weighs Chyna and in my opinion out matches her easily.

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I’ve been watching this fighter on a couple of TV channels but mainly on VS I think. He is the WEC (World Extreme Cage fighting) Feather Weight Champion. This kid is exciting to watch because he is a well rounded fighter. He can punch, kick, choke and I love his elbows and knees. I just watched his December 12 2007 fight replay on VS and saw a move I had never seen before. Urijah was fighting this jui jitsu guy Jeff Curran. In the second round, Jeff had grabbed Urijah’s right leg while standing and Urijah brought his left knee up for a face strike! Urijah is a man after my own heart with his extensive use of elbows!

Photo by Traci Retzloff Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COM

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A nurse was attacked walking home after recently seeing Miss. Congeniality. She was in her own world, listening to music. The attacker grabbed her and put a knife to her cheek but this nurse decided to fight back! She stomped his foot and elbowed his face! She had seen the move on Miss Congeniality, the Sandra Bullock movie where a female FBI agent goes undercover in a beauty pageant. I remember that movie well as I laughed when Sandra had a question in the pageant, normally answered with “world peace,” she answered with, ”stiffer prison sentences for repeat felons.” Here is a picture of Sandra Bullock with William Shatner in Miss Congeniality.

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Anyone who has known me for a long time, has heard me poke fun at flying kicks. I had to learn how to do various flying kicks to get my first degree black belt but I have seldom had use one in a fight. I had lots of opportunity to fight for the couple of years I was a bouncer at a bar.

Ok… I can think of one time when a flying kick worked, I was chasing a couple of guys down the street that had thrown something into the bar… startled I ran out and saw two guys running away. I was young and gave chase. They were just trying to get away in a car they had just opened and I jumped the last few feet to smash the car door (with a flying front stomp kick) into the driver. That caught his attention and he had to explain himself. 

Mostly though, I have ridiculed flying kicks because one cannot change direction in the air (a real disadvantage in a fight). Here is the highest flying side kick I could find on the web executed by a William Fincher.

Picture from: http://www.kimsookarate.com/gallery-present/paraKick.htm

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My first experience with a regular karate school was with Tracy’s Karate Studios - San Diego in 1976. I had studied some Okinawan Karate as well as Lima Lama from the base karate club. I knew the basics but did not know how to put kicks and punches together to mount a successful attack. Still, I thought I knew everything but was determined to know more. I saw the Tracy’s Karate commercials that aired during the Kung Fu series playing on TV at the time and decided to give Tracy’s a try.

I called up Tracy’s and spoke to Dick Willett about my interests and he told me to come on down to take the first five lessons – to see if I liked it before I signed up! I went for the initial lessons and quickly was impressed by teaching methods. As I said. I already knew how to kick and punch but I had a problem connecting with my opponents. Dick told me about critical distance and initial movement he had learned from his tournament days and his associations with Joe Louis (the undisputed heavy weight full contact karate champion of the late 60’s through early 70’s) and I was properly impressed! Here is a picture of Dick Willett as I remember him after I started taking lessons.

Picture from http://members.tripod.com/hungahungas/akksandiego.htm. Pictured are Todd McElhinney, Irvin Hoffman, Joe Lewis, Dick Willett, David Hays, & Frank Mafnas (left to right).

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Many of you have been in the situation where you have had to fight or bluff an animal to gain the upper hand. We here at My Self-Defense Blog believe you have to be ready for any situation. What if your plane crashed over Alaska on the way to a karate tournament? How would you eat? And more importantly are you on the top of the food chain? Here is one karate practitioner that has meditated and answered this ageless question.

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