Survival Mindset of a Gurkah soldier.
An interesting article about the survival mindset of a Gurkha soldier when faced with overwhelming odds.
It’s what we talk about in Zen Ki Bo: once you understand and embrace the possibility of death in a self-defence situation, you then have the psychological capacity to do what is needed to survive.
Reaction Time – Too close.
This clip demonstrates the issue of Distance and Reaction Time in Self-Defence situations.
We call it the “21 foot rule”. It is a principle used in law enforcement, but it is still relevant to anyone because it deals with reaction- time. In other words, how long does it take you to react to a Threat. Doesn’t really matter what weapon is involved, because the principle is the same.
The 21 foot rule is part of the Zen Ki Bo syllabus.
UFC 116 Lesnar Vs Carwin De-Brief
Brock Lesnar
Heavyweight Championship bout: 
Brock Lesnar (c) vs Shane Carwin (ic)
Lesnar makes his long awaited return to the cage to defend his title against Carwin. The UFC is billing this one as the Clash of the Titans and it’s easy to see why when you look at the size of Lesnar. The ex WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) pro-wrestler has evolved to the UFC. Looking at his sporting history and achievements on wikipedia he appears to be one of these people who excels at anything he turns his hand to; damn him 
Lesnar is one of the only UFC fighters I have noticed that seems to pay close attention to his stance: always maintaining a Tactical-Stance and crab-walking wherever he needs to go in the cage. This is something you don’t often see to this extent. A Tactical-Stance is one of the most important aspects in the Combat System of Zen Ki Bo, where a great deal of emphasis is put on the basics, based on the tried and tested strategy that when a human needs to defend himself he will revert back to the basics, and the stance is the foundation of everything.
Carwin completely dominates the first round with magnificent striking, knocking Lesner to the canvas and continuing to pound him. Most fighters would give up or be counted out in this position but Lesnar somehow resisted it. Wow. He seems to have sustained lacerations to his right and left eye from this onslaught. One of the cuts appears to be over the left eye of Lesner, any fighter will tell you that this is bad news for two reasons, first the ref can stop the fight and second the blood will steam down into your eye making you essentially temporarily blind in one eye.
Coming out for the second round Lesner is much more careful and both men are tired. Lesner does however go in for the take-down and once on the ground rests all of his weight on the slightly smaller man. There is limited striking going on but do not underestimate how difficult it is to have a heavy opponent on top of you.
Quick as a flash, Lesner tightens up the choke hold on Carwin and forces a tap-out, winning the match and maintaining his Heavyweight Title. Its called an arm-triangle-choke in the UFC, but of course it’s taken from the Martial Arts; usually executed in a standing position after moving inside of a strike. It compromises the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain by cutting off one of the ‘blood-highways’ on the neck, or carotid artery. See diagram:
Carotid Artery diagram
In his post-fight speech, Lesner attributes his win to god : “I am blessed by god”.. personally I would have thought it was due to the years of dedication and training to his chosen sport.
The loser, Shane Carwin also thanks “god” in his post-fight speech. I guess that means that the big man upstairs does play favourites?!? Unless he just has a gambling problem..
Undercard: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Chris Leben
Akiyama, apparently the traditional Martial Artist, comes to the cage in his Martial Arts uniform. Leben just comes out ready to fight.
Leben starts the 1st round with some heavy leg kicks (dropping his hands when he does so), but not making significant contact. Akiyama is ‘on the ball’ however, easily evading most of them.
Also worth noticing that Leben fights with his elbows out, which is unorthodox. Part of the 1st round sees Akiyama dominate on the ground. With 30 seconds left in the first, they stand up and resume striking until Leben is taken down again, but with no time left the round finishes.
I was somewhat dismayed to see Akiyama lean in with a single straight-punch to the body, which of course was answered by Leben with a punch to the face. Thats the ironic thing about attacking, it leaves you open to counter attack, so you better make sure your attack is strategic and with Intent.
Half way through the second round sees both men exhausted after some hard fighting. They are still fighting, but with depleted energy.
Hats off to both combatants, they both probably should have been knocked out at different stages but they kept going somehow. Amazing show of toughness – they are earning their money tonight.
It seems to me that Akiyama is the Martial Artist and Leben is the unorthodox brawler. I think if the brawler lands something significant he will probably win, however if that doesn’t happen its hard to match the skill of a Martial Artist. (Ha, just after I wrote that last sentence the “brawler” submits Akiyama with a leg triangle, so there you go!)
Well done to Leben; he did display more “bad intent” and therefore won the day.
Always makes me smile when you have a look at who is in the audience of such events; United States Senator (Nevada) Harry Reid, actor Steve Austin, actor Dwayne Johnson; all people who rely on other men to do their bidding for them and feel tough when they are somehow “associated” with the actual men who are willing to actually fight. Another case of empowerment by association. It used to be the boxing that brought together people from all walks of life, and now it’s well and truly the UFC.
UFC 115 de-brief
UFC 115..
Main Event: Chuck “The IceMan” Liddell Vs Rich Franklin.
UFC 115
Franklin wins by KO with a short sharp right.
It was during an exchange of a flurry of punches including a good right elbow by Liddell. It’s easy for me to say, but Liddell actually inadvertently walked into the knockout punch.
Amazingly, Franklin reveals in the post fight interview that during the fight his lower left arm was broken by one of Liddell’s kicks. Couple of amazing things here, the fact that a kick was responsible for actually breaking the bone in someone’s arm and secondly that Franklin kept fighting and eventually wins after he is well aware that his arm has been broken.
One of the cornerstones in Zen Ki Bo training is the Mindset. Having Survival Intent. This is exactly what Franklin displayed in this fight. Two things will win the day (whether it be real-life or in the cage): Mindset and Training. Franklin has proved that he has both.
Some are already saying that this is the end of The Iceman’s career. I suppose only he can make that decision. Hopefully he makes it at the right time.
Rich Franklin
Chuck Liddell
Undercard: Mirko Cro Cop Vs Pat Barry.
Victory to Cro Cop.
Barry lands a straight right punch early in the first round, which sent Cro Cop to the canvas. It did however do little damage because it was a combination of a slip and the punch.
Then a second knockdown with what looked to be the same punch. Cro Cop gets straight back up, but he is injured this time.
Mirko Cro Cop
Pat Barry
These two guys obviously have the greatest respect for each other, this was evident when actually during the first round they touched gloves and hugged each other after some great techniques. In fact, Cro Cop is one of Barry’s UFC idols.
Dynamic finish with Cro Cop stinging Barry with some good punching, not just landing leather but using real strategy by feinting and causing Barry to react, then monopolising on that reaction in order to counter. Just before the finish, Cro Cop landed multiple blows onto the face of Barry, some with the fist and some with the palm. These punches are not meant to knock you out but instead overwhelm the opponent with ferocity and aggression, usually used as a platform for bigger things. In this case, it was indeed a platform for a rear-naked choke. And once a rear-naked-choke is clamped on its just a short drive down the grey-tunnel until you pass out. Well-earned win Mirko.
At 35 years old, some people have said he is getting too old for the fight game, Cro Cop has said that he is keen to put that straight. He was essentially self-taught whilst growing up in a Croatian village. People used to think he was mentally deranged when they saw him training because they had no idea what he was doing.
This match was also a good lesson to see just how dangerous high kicks can be to the person throwing the kick – what often happens is the opponent shoots in, using that kicking leg as a lever taking down the kicker. Not only is this what a trained fighter will do, but its also a natural reaction, often the person you are kicking can just instinctively just put up their arms as a startle reaction, and if you get caught under the centre of gravity you can easily go down.
I enjoyed seeing some traditional kicks from Cro Cop. During this match we saw him throw an Axe Kick, a Side-Kick and a Hook-Kick. All effective kicks but not seen much in the UFC.
Another point I found worth mentioning and also indicative of the popularity of MMA was that Rory MacDonald (who was one of the fighters on the undercard, Carlos Condit V Rory MacDonald) was brought up actually learning MMA, not transitioning from a Martial Art or other system into MMA. I guess this will be happening a lot more now.
All in all, UFC 115 was pretty explosive and worth watching.
UFC – Rich Franklin Vs Wanderlei Silva. Zen Ki Bo reverse elbow strikes
The fight between Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva at UFC 99 in Germany..
During final stages of the last round, when Franklin moved in behind Silva it became a battle of attrition; reverse elbow strikes Vs punches.
The reverse elbows being thrown in this bout are the same elbows taught in Zen Ki Bo to fight off an offender who attacks you from behind. One of the differences in Zen Ki Bo is that after several reverse elbow strikes to the face/head, you turn around to face the offender and knee-strike him in the groin, then take an eye, thus taking away the offender’s offensive capabilities. This of course is not allowed in the cage or the ring and therein lies the difference between competition fighting (UFC / MMA) and real-life self-defence (Zen Ki Bo).
Only one rule at Zen Ki Bo: “Insist on your Survival”.
Zen Ki Bo - eye gouge
Kick-Ass movie uses Zen Ki Bo style sticks
Tactical Zen student Mike let us know on our forum that there was a movie out called Kick-Ass featuring a character that uses Arnis sticks that we train with as part of our mixed martial arts Zen Ki Bo syllabus.
The movie deals with the main character Kick Ass, who is a picked on kid who decides to become a super hero and fight crime using the sticks. If you’d like to see how effective they can be in real life come down to one of our Zen Ki Bo classes.
Here’s the movie trailer:
