Martial Arts

• Escrima (also known as Kuntaw or filipino Stick Fighting)
  (I'm on the left here, teaching a young friend the finer points of the sticks)

  	This is my favorite. Fast and vicious. Escrima primarily uses a rattan stick
  that's about two and a half feet long. These flex when you swing them, so when
  they hit something it transfers all that flex energy as well as the energy of
  the hit itself. This can turn bone to powder.
  	One of the nice things about it is that the same techniques you use
  for swinging a stick apply to a knife, sword, or bare hands. Using two sticks
  (or anything else) is a bit trickier, but just takes some practice.
  	If the person you're fighting has two sticks and you don't, you're
  in a lot of trouble. They'll usually beat a staff, nunchaku, even sais.
  Here is a link to one of my instructor's web sites. Check it out!
  

• Muay Thai (Thai Kickboxing)

  	Another fun one! This is best used in close. The elbows, knees, and
  grappling style make it very very efficient if your opponent wants to get
  in close to play. It can do a lot of damage in very short order - and you'll
  frequently take a hit on the way in, just to get close. This can be very
  disconcerting to a lot of traditional styles that prefer to fight at a fairly
  large distance.
  

• Hakko Ryu JuJutsu

  	Probably the most effective of all the arts that I've had some exposure
  to. This is a grappling art based upon non-violence and controlling an opponnent
  rather than killing or maiming him. Once someone who's really studied this gets
  ahold of you, say good night. I have never in my entire life felt pain like
  this - and I've been hit by top NCAA football players in Rugby matches. I
  don't have the knowledge I need to be truly effective with this, but I love it
  and the philosophy behind it. I am hoping to expand my knowledge soon.
  

• Wing Chun Kung Fu

  	This is the one that Fluffy really gets into. I've probably got more
  formal training in this one than anything else, having studied with Garner 
  Train and Steve McClure both. I'm not very good at it - it requires a very
  soft elasticity to the muscles that is difficult for me. However, done 
  properly, it's blindingly fast and extraordinarily lethal. In fact, it's the
  one that Bruce Lee started with. Like Muay Thai, it is designed to work in
  very close, using constant multiple simultaneous attacks to disorient and
  overwhelm an opponnent.
  

• Kenpo

       Kenpo is one I've only recently started studying. My Sensei is Scott Nadeau
   - I used to work with him at UMC. He's got a great sense of humor and an excellent
  teaching style that is somewhat more relaxed than a traditional dojo. Which is
  a MUCH better environment for me to learn in. He has a wide knowledge of
  various styles - and how to get me over the hodge-podge of styles I've been in
  to learn what he wants me to learn.
       Kenpo is a mix in itself with strikes, kickes and some excellent grappling
  moves as well. That is quite likely one reason that I enjoy it so much!
  

• Fencing

  	I had one term of fencing with the Michigan Tech Fencing Club before
  my instructor returned to Germany. I managed to get through riposte' drills 
  with the foil by then. Not enough to qualify as a fencer, but it gave me some
  insight into the techniques that they use and to add some of them to my own
  list of bizarre ideas!
  

• US Army Infantry Basic

  	I was enrolled in Army ROTC long enough to go through Basic Training
  at Ft. Knox, KY (D-18-4-4, 1984). As is usual with me, not enough to qualify
  as a real soldier but enough to learn their weapons, basic tactics, and 
  concepts. I loved every minute of it and thought about making the Army a carrer-
  Then the Navy offered me a better deal, so I stayed on inactive duty (without
  Pay!) for several years, pending my graduation from Michigan Tech. Then I met
  a young lady and realized that I didn't want someone else telling me where I
  was going to live...Ah well.
  

	In case you couldn't tell, I love sparring. I don't have a very good
memory for forms or kata, but I do have pretty good tactical sense. Since my
technique is never up to the par of a long-term student in any particular
style, I have to make up for it with using a variety of techniques, styles, and
tactics.
	I've done pretty well to date. I teach self-defense to my friends with
the understanding that I am NOT a master or qualified instructor in any
given style - But, my students (mostly women) have used what I've taught them
to stay alive and unharmed - in fact, the score so far is Students: 3
Bad Guys: 0 (1 dead, 1 sterile) - these thoughts keep me warm at night!
	Steve McClure has helped
me learn a lot of what I've learned, including introducing me to the two
instructors who've given me what formal training I've had - Buzz Smith in
Traverse City, MI and Garner Train from Flint, MI. Steve's also been the person
who co-teaches self-defense with me (doing most of the formal tecnique and
style teaching while I did mostly tactics and sparring). He's a much better
martial artist than I am with a superior grasp of the philosophy involved.

	My ideas about tactics in fights are a little off the wall. I play 
a lot of mind games to lead my opponnents into unrecoverable errors (see
The Tactics of Mistake by Gordon Dickson). These include basic ideas of
physiology (eye darts cause an involuntary blink), and psychology (the human
mind likes patterns - give it some!) as well as beginning a series of moves
that the fighter is used to seeing - ending with something quite different.
	When it comes to rape defense, I'm quite ruthless. Most of my female
friends have been raped and I have no pity for the animals who commit these
crimes. So, I like to make sure that if any of my students are assaulted that
the attacker won't survive to try again. Not in keeping with the traditions of
martial arts, I know, but as I've said, I'm not a traditional martial artist.
	I train these students to kill as quickly as possible in these
situations - crush the throat, gouge eyes, pulverize the groin or a knee, and
once an advantage - ANY advantage is gained to kill without mercy. These
animals certainly wouldn't show any. I've never had much faith in the
traditional women's self-defense tactic of escape and evade - most men can
out run and outlast most women. Once they escape, they are likely to be run
down and beaten sensless, and THEN raped. Or so I believe.
	Obviously the best defense is situational awarness - don't get yourself
put into such a problem. (Courses such as Impact Investigations' Street
Smarts class are excellent for this) But when that fails, I figure the
best defense - for all women, not just the one being assaulted at that time -
is to remove the threat permanantly. Call it evolution in action.