THE EYES HAVE IT......

An old Armenian friend of mine, now deceased, gave me his hunting/fishing/etc. knife and I put it into a sheath my grandfather had made for me at the shop where he worked......years before this.....and this sheath housed another knife, partly made by me and my grandfather out of an old butcher knife....... My friend, had fled Armenia when the Turks began their controversial and systematic extermination of Armenians, and taking a ship to France, he jumped ship and eventually came to the US where he died........ He worked as cook in a local restaurant where my mother waited tables and where I sometimes ate and 'POP", as everyone called him, became my friend and we often went fishing on the Connecticut River in his boat, which I actually liked rowing more than fishing from it.......it was great exercise....he also had an outboard...but only used it now and then...... This is what he told me once....he had met a Hungarian in the port in France, apparently, and sometimes some kinds of fracas took place in such places as most might surmise......the advice the Hungarian always gave in such fights and bouts and melees,etc. was 'GO FOR THE EYES'! something I had learned from my father who served in WWI....but the difference was, instead of the usual two finger thrust, which is effective, the use of the knife was done......and one could also throw pepper from a shaker,etc. or packet,etc. into the eyes if one wanted to be less lethal.......... There is more to be said on this and some other time I shall discuss this topic further for many reasons......

THE MOST VULNERABLE PART OF THE BODY

What is the most vulnerable part of the body? It might not be what you think it is....but perhaps you might attempt guessing.........I will not supply the answer here now....mention how to think of this and why......this will be in terms of unarmed combat, possible killing arts, and life and death situations, attacks,defenses,etc....................................... If a person will stand before you and merely stay there, arms at the sides and facing you, of course, then ask the very same question....what is the most vulnerable part of the body as you are looking at it and what technique would you use right off to devastate, to weaken, to overcome and perhaps kill the person standing in front of you....you can also make assumptions of his threats, rage, intention to attack and possibly kill you and the like....you can imagine possible attacks he will make,etc. but the idea is to determine what technique and what part of the body must be 'pre-empted' or attacked in order to either defend yourself or attack,say smiling serial killer,etc....? I should be pleased to hear and read your answers to this question and your comments.......thanks in advance..at another time, I will give you my conclusion(s)....

FLESH,BLOOD & BONES-PART III

Striking,kicking, slapping, and attacking the FLESH in an unarmed situation where one is trying either to defend, attack, and also to kill someone,which I have limited to a 'one'on'one' affair....presents special difficulties to those who are not versed in special techniques, methods, systems, and styles or specific arts that allow for this to occur.......and hence, many things will prove extremely useless and ineffective in a 'life or death' situation or a 'do or die' circumstance or in a 'kill or be killed' combat....... Bruises and aches are apt to be more likely in such affairs unless one employs a destructive force and method that affects the flesh...that is, those part of the body that might be considered 'soft,likely, and vulnerable' to such things......provided that the resistance that will arise in such a fracas is prevented, stopped, delayed, overcome, or ignored...... If one then adds to the FLESH attacks,strikes,hits,etc. to the BONES or skeleton, than a better possibility arises to enable a 'victory' or 'conquest' or a 'kill' as the case may be.....But this, too, has some problems attached to it when it comes to being unarmed and attempting to attack the bones...... The third component of this 'three-pronged' attack is BLOOD and this also has specific problems when one is unarmed and confronting a situation in which one can be killed and one in which one must kill. The HARD approach, which is the result of specific and certain training methods and theories, may well work here better than the SOFT methods or approaches....if one does not take into account other factors that can be employed or used....such as, leverage, timing, force, agility, speed, power, etc. all of which are part of the full equation....but which appear ponderous as one thinks about them and theorizes about them, especially in an attempt to create 'maximum efficiency with minimum effort'.... Further discussion of these things will have to be done after this has been considered and mulled over and digested....and one should think or consider and possibly work out certain aspects of this for themselves to better come to an understanding based on experience and movement...if possible, without actually killing anyone at this time......so be warned.....that small efforts may not amount to much and yet, some small steps may be needed......

FLESH,BLOOD & BONES-PART II

We might also term this topic as Blood,Guts, and Bones, as I mentioned elsewhere, and some more 'observations' and comments are in order,none of which will appeal to most martial artists or to others,for obvious reasons. This discussion is limited to consideration of one-on-one defenses and attackes, unarmed, and possible approaches....of which everyone is entitled to their own specific opinion... If you are attacking an opponent,or an assailant/attacker, as an act of self-defense or in actual combat to kill someone(but without weapons) you modes of attack will be limited to certain things and conditions, a great number of factors and situations, no doubt.... If you only attack or strike or hit flesh you will soon see that some difficulties will present themselves. If you attempt to hit and demolish or injure bone(s) other things will arise, and attacking blood(veins, arteries, heart,etc.) will also present some factors so that the conclusion might well be that to merely strike just one component will not always be sufficient and certainly not lead to an easy death or destruction.....So, what is next? It seems logical to assume that an attack involving at least two of these components has a better chance of succeeding and furthermore an attack on all three will be the most successful if the goal is to kill or subdue or injure,etc. The next step will be, if it can be called a step, is to select or utilize effective methods, techniques, blows, kicks,etc. that will involve all three components of blood,bones, flesh as possible and as quickly as can be done..... There are two basic approaches to this and they are well-known and have advocates and partisans and experts,etc. but can be described as THE HARD SCHOOL and THE SOFT SCHOOL.......and the methods they use form the basis of many, if not most, martial arts systems, styles,etc. found in the world today, that is, those that are more deadly and dangerous and therefore, can kill people...... The training in these two methods or approaches varies considerably the more one investigates the killing arts. Of the the two approaches, the Hard School is the more popular and the more followed while the Soft School or approach is more complex and 'flowery' and proceeds along a different line usually....and then there are those who attempt to blend both and come up with various hybrids.....none of these I shall name or discuss beyond the general descriptions I will make use of here in this discussion as most everyone can supply their own examples and favorites...... In the next part, I will try to examine these things but for now it will be sufficient to 'digest' what has been placed here under this topic and the preceeding one on the same subject....

FLESH,BLOOD, & BONES

FLESH,BLOOD,and BONES are the three components that comprise the targets of the human body and compose physical existence for humans,both men and women, and children, something in common with animals, such as, mammals, and bird, etc. These three components, Flesh, Blood, and Bones, follow the LAW OF THREE, which can be symbolized, as many know, by a triangle, but more than this, is the fact that these are the foundation of the ART OF KILLING,whether with weapons or without(unarmed). Since the use of weapons is fairly well-known or common, I shall confine all this to unarmed tactics,methods, techniques, etc. and also restrict it to that of two antagonists, attackers or defenders,etc. that is, one-on-one,with both unarmed. The transformation of killing arts, martial arts, combat arts, warfare,etc. along this line is apparent to many and this means that such things are being transformed from lethal arts to system of exercise, sport(s), recreation, demonstrative, non-contact or semi-contact, or armoured, affairs, along with being placed on various media, such as movies, DVDs and video games and the like: ALL WITHOUT HAVING TO ACTUALLY KILL ANYONE OR TO BE LETHAL IN NATURE......so that people can kill others vicariously especially through fantasy sports, games, without having to suffer any possible consequences or implications....that is, by having killed someone in reality.... This transformation is somewhat inevitable,of course,as history shows that as controls of society become stronger and laws enacted and enforced, etc. a monoploy on the arts is given to certain groups,such as military or police....PART I-BY HALFORD E. JONES, BLOG WRITER 2010....
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TECHNIQUE VS THEORY

DEFANGING THE SNAKE; I have not heard or seen much discussion lately of 'DEFANGING THE SNAKE" which at one time reared its head early on in discussions, seminars, workshops, and articles about stick and knife fighting. This 'method',this 'series' of 'techniques' has been introduced as a conceptual and theoretical consideration by most instructors,'guros',etc. over the years since Westerners becamse aware of various Asian Martial Arts but mainly of Filipino and their related counterparts in certain areas. Simply making the comparison between a stick/knife wielder's opponent,attacker,assailant on a theoretical basis is not sufficient enough to arm anyone against such attacks in any practical manner. This 'concept', 'analogy', or 'theory' or 'description' is actually a series of techniques and skills that must be learned to be useful.

THEORY & PRACTICE: TECHNIQUES & CONCEPTS/PRINCIPLES

Recently, this topic has reared its head on FACEBOOK in several ways all of which are interesting for those who try to understand more and to learn more,but somewhat controversial as will be shown where such impinges on this topic. IT IS TECHNIQUE THAT DEFINES THE MASTER,NOT ;HIS THEORETICAL EXPLANATIONS! The special/specific techniques of martial arts masters(and for that matter of artists,sculptors, painters, craftsmen,writers,etc. are more priized than their concepts AND their masterpieces are more desired and remembered than their theoretical or aesthetic ideas and concepts......for most of humanity......usually.....possibly........ APPRENTICESHIP to masters,experts,etc. whether in crafts or labor or martial arts,etc. always consist of learning and duplicating specific and special techniques and not learning words and expressions of abstract notions. For those who think otherwise, I ask this question.....WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE YOUR KNIFE WOUNDS AND SWORD CUTS,ETC. RECEIVED ON YOUR BODY SEWED UP AND TREATED BY A SURGEON,MEDIC,HEALER,DOCTOR,ETC. WHO KNOWS AND USES ACTUAL TECHNIQUES OF ALL KINDS OR, a person well-versed in concepts and principles who has no real experience or mastery of techniques and fresh out of med/college/etc. studies???????