Archive for September, 2008

A female prison officer was able to thwart an attack from a gypsy man in Rome in this story. This Italian lady was also a karate champion. The guy asked for cigarette and then grabbed her neck. Lara Liotta struck the gypsy with jabs, knocking him down. she ran for help and the guy was detained by police. Miss Liotta stated that no one in the plaza came to assist and luckily she was able to fight off the attack with her karate skills.

Anyway my bias is apparent now if it was not before. I think women cops will have a much better chance at any altercations if they become great fighters of whatever martial art of their choice. I also think if women hang their hat on equal employment and do not do the extra work to excel at hand to hand combat, they may have an issue if Murphy’s Law comes into play. My choice would be the extra training above and beyond what the police academy requires.

 As far as I can tell Miss Liotta did everything right, she was in a crowded plaza, approached by a man. She did not have a cigarette and was accosted without warning. She was able to mount a counter attack from her karate training and got away. She found the police who arrested the guy. I think had Lara not had the karate background – she would have been hard pressed to end the attack so quickly. It is sad that people are not willing to assist a lady being attacked in broad daylight. I salute this Italian woman – karate champion for her great application of self-defense! I will speak about karate and women police in this post. Here is a picture of Lara Liotta competing in karate.

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I read with interest this story about a lady karate instructor training her students to take kicks. Apparently she challenged her students to see who could take the most kicks. A kid wound up with blood in his urine and she (the karate instructor) was charged and acquitted of child abuse. In this post I will review this story and point out the pros and cons of some types of conditioning. I will also examine what I think of this case (based on the limited information in the article) as well as what I believe optimal training for children should be.

I remember when I was first starting karate, learning how to punch into pads and toughening my hands in buckets of sand. I had to practice inward blocks with partners so I could block harder. I was taught that the body could be toughened up so one could fight better.  I do remember taking some kicks and punches as part of that process. As I moved to non-traditional styles (Kenpo Karate), I noted the focus went from deadening my senses (ostensibly to take pain) to learning how to connect with kicks and punches. I did not have to break boards but rather score points on my opponents! Here is one video I found of an apparent Muy Tai boy learning how to take kicks and punches.

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I remember watching the Miss America pageants when I was a kid and heard some of the contestants wishing for world peace. I would hear snickers and cynicism about that idea. On the face of it, world peace should be achievable if the worlds peoples were of a like mind. Then I remembered all of the movies I had seen about the good guys and the bad guys and when Reagan was elected – I heard about the evil empire. I soon figured out that this is an us and them kind of world. Maybe I should suspect that kind of reasoning but it makes sense that I am or my country is right and everyone else is wrong – Right?

Ok without expending the scope of this article to world peace, I would like to point out why I don’t really think bad guys will ever all come to the light and become good guys. People just think differently! Some people rationalize bad behavior like I do when I eat meat (by the way I like meat and will probably never stop eating it – but when I can afford free range chickens – I will probably start buying that). It is kind of a law of the jungle – eat or be eaten. Then there those of us that believe civilization has a chance and that some day people will care about their neighbors even if they do not agree with them or their lifestyle. Maybe I am a dreamer.

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