Blocking and Parrying in Asian Martial Arts

There are days where it seems that martial arts students of today did not learn the same things that we have learnt back during the 90's.

The first time I saw a post of Facebook of someone saying that blocking does not work I wondered how that person fights then...

The second time I saw a post saying blocking does not work it was in the Karate Nerds Facebook group. While I can expect that these groups can also have members who have not attended a single class in any martial art before I was still surprised to see the post in a Karate group that has lots of active Karateka.

If I have to think of a reason why this line of thought is emerging I would guess that it is because MMA has given us fighters from different disciplines like boxing which relies a lot more on evasion and body positioning than deflecting punches and kicks.

This is fine. Evasion is the king of defense techniques because it leaves both hands and feet free to counterattack. 

One must understand, however, that fighting arts of China and other Asian countries were often not invented only for fighting unarmed assailants or for sports purposes.

In boxing keeping an area covered up is sufficient protection against a gloved fist. I am sure that there are also boxers whose forearms are strong enough to hurt the fist of an adversary who happens to punch that forearm instead of the face or body.

Bring weapons or simply just greater strength into the picture and that forearm will not be enough, though.

From another perspective- if you are fighting in any kind oft tournament then it is indeed so that the one who wins is the one who hits the most and not the one that blocks the most.

If you happen to be the one who took the initiative and got control of the fight- good for you. I can understand then that you do not need to block.

If your opponent, however, got on the offensive before you- you would like to know how to turn the tables, don't you?

Now- instead of saying that blocking does not work, I'd rather tell you WHEN it won't work. That way you will know when to block and how to use blocking to your advantage.

First off- you cannot block an attack when you are preoccupied. Sure- you can stand still in yoi during ippon kumite practice or during a demonstration and your opponent can attack and you will flawlessly block and counterattack. During free sparring, however, you find that you get hit. Well- let's look at this in perspective. You get hit while you are:

-thinking of attacking;

-busy attacking

- busy blocking somewhere else

-busy moving

-busy panicking

-being angry and thinking about that

or busy with anything else when you are being attacked.

Fighting like a Kung Fu or Karate expert requires a calm and EMPTY mind. I know this is a weird concept to many people and even black belt Karatekas and Senseis have told me that they don't fight that way, but still- thought slows you down a lot.

Wing Chun experts will tell you that they don't guess where they are going to get hit. If the hand comes to hit them their hands or forearms immediately meet the attacking hand to deflect or trap it. 

In Karate we see that a master blends with his opponent the same way in which an Aikido master does. The appropriate block meets its corresponding punch without any hesitation or delay and without the master thinking even acknowledging that it is doing so.

If you are a Karateka THIS is the purpose of your ippon kumite training. If you are a Wing Chun student- THIS is why you practice Sticking Hands or Chi Sau. If you study any other discipline and do not know what Ippon Kumite or Chi Sau is I can understand why you don't know how to block.

I'll just say that the bottom line of all this is that you should know how to practice blocking if you want it to work.

Then- you also need to fight with the correct mindset. 

You will then understand why a karate competitor is sometimes wary of just attacking an opponent who stands waiting calmly. 

Well... That's it for now. Have a great week and train well! :)