OK, I smell a new meme here. Marks has a post up about the two worst martial arts techniques of all time. It appears that this blog started it all.
Here are my two:
1. Punching an incoming punch or kick
I’ve never actually seen this taught as a formal technique or self-defense step but I’ve heard it mentioned in tae kwon do, kung fu, and also have heard it as a possibility from a karate guy. I’m sorry folks but this is just a bad idea!
Don’t believe me? Hold your arm out straight and make a fist. Now make circles with the arm held out straight. This is the range of motion you are trying to cover. Yes, a straight punch is straight and can be telegraphed. However, good luck trying to hit such a small spot if it’s coming at you full speed. Worse still, even if you hit their fist or kicking foot your probably going to hurt yourself as bad as you hurt them. And bending down or dropping low to hit a foot with your fist is just dumb. As evidenced by the above photo, it opens your head up to a hammer fist, rear kick, knee, front choke, etc. Worse still, who is going to stand their like a dummy while you drop low to punch their foot?
If you want to check a punch try using an arcing elbow strike. Mui Thai, the Filipino arts, and even karate or tae kwon do have versions of this. If you miss your face is still mostly covered by your arms.
2. Rising block knife defense
Just go to 1:09 of this video to see why this is a bad idea.
There you have it! So what are your two worst martial arts techniques?
-BCP
IIRC, Dominique Valera used to punch into the other guy’s incoming fist back in his point fighting days (70′s) . Never tried it myself.
Wim
Come to think of it, in my no so illustrious TKD tournament days I would do a lot of punching to accidentially”pop” an arm. Sometimes it would force the opponent to back off so I could kick again.
Maybe call punching a foot the worst and rank fist as second? It just seems to me that there has got to be a better way.
Similar to Mark’s post where he criticizes the x-block. I actually used that block in a TKD sport setting and like it!
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Ok, we learned a xingyi technique from the Horse form that uses the knuckles of your fist fingers, like knocking on a door, to rap against the opponent’s small metacarpals of his closed fist. That is just to hurt and bring down his guard, potentially breaking the metacarpals below the ring and little fingers.
But hitting an incoming punch with your fist is about as rediculus (sp?) as Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile defense…
Backfist: if you miss, too much risk of the block — or hitting something hard, like a jaw — damaging your small bones and/or nerves on the back of the hand.
–GG
There is one that’s even worse: trying to block an incoming strike with a stick or baseballbat with your forearm (hardwood travelling at full speed hitting the bones of the forearm). The second is the bad habit of stepping through on a punch (oi-tsuki in Japanese martial arts) while leaving one’s other hand at the hip instead of guarding the face. This is totally telegraphic and leaves every target open while covering none. Oi indeed, too bad this is drilled ad nauseam through kihon in nearly every karate dojo worldwide.
I’m very interested in karate or taekwondo versions of the elbow technique mentioned.