View Single Post
Old 10-26-2000, 01:20 PM   #24
jxa127
Location: Harrisburg, PA
Join Date: Jul 2000
Posts: 420
Offline
I still don't get it...

...but that's probably my inexperience.

It sounds to me like most of you are talking about somebody responding to a strike with a block while striking at the same time. I'm picturing somebody in the midst of a strike suddenly being confronted with a fist, foot, knee, elbow (etc.). If the attacker blocks, it can only be at the expense of his strike. The strike may still come off, but not with the same intensity as before.

Agree, disagree?

Here's what I'd like to avoid: I was at a camp this summer, and we were working on ikkyo. I started out in the normal way -- with an atemi to the face -- and was surprised when the uke blocked it. There were a couple of problems with his approach, however.

First, the way he blocked it, by simply putting his hand up in front of his face blocked his view of me, and would have been an ineffective block if I had been striking hard; I'd have simply driven his hand into his teeth.

Second, He kept anticipating where I was going to hit him. Had I decided to hit him in the stomach or chest, he'd have missed his block.

For what it's worth, I still believe that we work with principles and not specific circumstances. If an attacker blocks my atemi, then that's just one more connection I can use to resolve our conflict. :-)

-Drew A.

[Edited by jxa127 on October 26, 2000 at 01:33pm]
  Reply With Quote