Pet Peeves Regarding the Uneducated

I have avoided blogging for quite some time but at this point believe it may be somewhat therapeutic.  It is at least cheaper than a shrink and you get to vent relentlessly via the rant and perhaps edumicate someone or even yourself.  Who knows, perhaps someone will give you some feedback and change your opinion.  In the pursuit of my training endeavors, I am more scientist than 'a believer'.  I do not typically take everything I'm told at face value, I try to analyze it, research, and understand things.  As an instructor, I really go all out to over analyze things so that I can present it to my students so that they can understand it.  If I can't explain it, I quest to do so.

The following two Pet Peeves are in relation to Tuite.

Pet Peeve 1: You'll never catch a hand.
This topic comes up constantly, and I feel that the reason is, people learning these techniques learn them in initially unrealistic positions.  An instructor can't show a tuite technique, at least not to someone that hasn't learned the basics, and then throw them into a full tilt balls to the wall realistic situation expecting them to catch the hand.  Usually that first time you used a screwdriver, a hammer, or wrench was not upside down under the dash of a car.  You have to learn the tuite techniques slow.  Both for safety, and just to 'get it'.  We initially teach these techniques, slow, face to face and we all know what is going on.  So people that attend a seminar or are in the early stages of learning, or even see a video on the internet think it is impossible to catch a pushing hand at full speed.  In this described position, yes.  Face to Face, doing these for decades, I would imagine that I would have a hard time catching them 'as trained' initially by the students.  But that isn't reality, nor is it meant to be a reality situation.  It is meant to show the practitioner the angle of attack and familiarize them with the other basic rules of Tuite.  For a student to understand these things, it is easiest to teach them in the exact same manner every single time. 

Let's say for example that we are honing the skills of a new practitioner of tuite, using the Six Basic Principles of Tuite that we teach in our school.  There are lots of 'other' variables out there not listed in the six.  The Principle of X describes the angle of attack that actually puts the pressure on the Ulnar nerve and causes the chain reaction that buckles the knees, raises them on their toes, keeps them pinned, etc.  Well, if we train initially in this face to face position, slow, then when something doesn't work for the practitioner, it is much easier for them to see what they did wrong based on the limited number of variables and the six rules they are trying to understand.  The optimal 'training' position allows this. 

So I believe that people who have not trained long enough with Tuite, which is the American way of course, see Tuite practiced in this basic way which looks like it would be impossible to perform.  I would dare say that if I stood 2 feet in front of Taika that I could push him in the chest before he could get his palm to mine.  I would regret it I'm sure, as he would catch me on the rebound, but these training positions are not normally used for things outside of training.  They are used primarily to learn the basic principles, primarily the angle of attack.

That being said, I can tell you right now that you can catch a push and I have done so, as it was coming forward.  I have done this on numerous occasions from pushes to slaps.  There are tricks Taika has taught and that we've learned over the years to be in the right place when they push, and it is even easier to catch a palm when it is retracting after the push.  Tony and I have been working on Tuite for a long time in the dojo but we have experience in Law Enforcement, Retail Security, and as Bouncers between us.  We know you CAN catch a hand or an arm and most of our altercations have ended in this manner.  With us in real life scenarios using Tuite. 

Grabs are even easier.  When a person grabs you they mean to keep what they have just grabbed for at least a few seconds.  This makes our task all that much easier.

Anyone stating that tuite is an unrealistic art that can't be utilized in real life scenarios just doesn't have enough experience or understanding with it.

Pet Peeve 2: It won't work on someone stronger or bigger than you.
Bio-mechanical rules apply.
General Physics apply.

You can not take these proven scientific facts and just throw them out the window.  Well you can I guess, in your mind, or else I wouldn't have this on my peeve list. If you can move a boulder with a level, you can do an arm bar or wrist lock on someone bigger.  It doesn't matter the size.  I have demonstrated on a lot of very large non-believers in the past.  I'm 5'6.5555" and shrinking.  I've weighed anywhere from 125-145 during my RyuTe® career and most of the real life fights I've had were with big old boys well over the 200 range.  Big muscle bound cops tend to migrate to the Defensive Tactics positions throughout the Americas, and I have trained with numerous Arnold Schwarzenegger types.   These skeptical beings usually start off with, "Try that on me" or "Wrist locks don't work on me."  They end up later distancing themselves from me when it comes to 'pair up time' at the academy or other training events because 'that little guy can hurt.'  I have never had a tuite fail that was executed correctly.  I had the largest cop we had at our patrol division when I first started think it was bull and grabbed my forearm so tight my hand started to turn white from the lack of blood.  This was a huge muscle bound, barbell pumping guy that towered over me.  He was there that day with one purpose; to prove to the entire roll call that my "Karate" was bull.  I simply rolled my elbow over the ulnar side of the wrist at the correct angle and his knees buckled, bouncing him into a table and onto the floor.  The entire roll call watched in awe as the tiny new guy bounced the behemoth to the ground.  They were shocked, but not as much as the guy that I tuited.  He came up to me a few weeks later and said his wrist still hurt and was glad it wasn't his gun hand.  Simple fact about tuite is the more they resist, the more it hurts them.  Well, hurt depends on the person.  The more it DAMAGES them.  If all of their tendons and muscles are tight, the more damage it is going to do.

I did have tuite fail to buckle a guys knees once only to find out that he was a double amputee and had no knees.  He did scream bloody murder and gave up from the pain but it didn't buckle his knees, or at least I didn't know which land fill to look in to see if they were buckled.  Quite realistic prosthetics.  It doesn't matter if you are the biggest, baddest man in the world, if the pressure is correctly applied at that angle your body will sacrifice itself.  It doesn't matter if you feel the pain, your body knows what to do, just like when the doctor taps your knee with the hammer.  It is uncontrollable.  Again, these claims are made by people who don't have the experience with tuite to realize that it does work.

Tuite Doesn't Fail - Practitioners Fail

This concludes today's rant and I do feel much better.