thx

you lied to us. Lied to us all.

But you must realize there also isn’t exactly a “right” and “wrong” way to do certain techniques. Most of the time it really does matter if someone is larger or smaller when they are performing techniques. Although I agree the techniques we had Natali perform wouldn’t exactly work, if I or Ross were to perform them the outcome would be different. The reasons obviously being:
1. We are both larger and stronger
2. We both have been training in specialized techniques and footwork for a number of years now
The key element being the hard work and attention to technique.

As for your comment about the ear slap, this technique was not working very well for Natali for a few reasons, again bearing in mind she’d seen the technique only a few moments before.

One key point for that technique to work is to get to the inside, especially if you are a smaller person. She was having trouble stepping in closer which is a necessity when performing this technique. Also she doesn’t understand how to generate enough power to truly make this work.

For this particular technique to work it is necessary to cover the ears although cupping them probably won’t work as well as having open hands matching the centers of the palms to the ear openings themselves. Also the way this technique actually works, is the fact that it can build up pressure within the ear canal. Maybe not always quite enough to burst the ear drums, but certainly enough to ruin someone’s equilibrium temporarily.

While I don’t agree entirely with Ross’s explanation regarding why this technique works, if you research a little bit about the ear drum, you’ll see that it isn’t a very strong part of the body. In fact it can easily be perforated when there is just simply too much noise. But you’ll also see that just a simple slap to the ears can certainly rupture(or perforate) the ear drum.

Again, we appreciate your comments about our site, it means people are actually watching us! I understand your concerns about our techniques in this particular video but I hope you aren’t falling prey to a common martial arts mistake. This mistake would be to misjudge the effectiveness of a different style simply because it is a different one or has techniques that may not be recognizably effective from the outset.

But either way I just want to make it clear that this site isn’t meant to be a serious training/teaching tool for the martial arts. Ross and I only wanted to demonstrate some interesting techniques and have a little fun in the process. Although we like to explain a bit about how these techniques work, we don’t want anyone to think that they could actually use them without proper training in the basic foundations of martial arts.

I do feel however that one major mistake we made was to not explain that these techniques won’t work if you aren’t instructed properly and if the time and effort isn’t put into to practicing them. But we will begin to post video responses soon to help everybody understand the gravity of self defense and martial arts technique.

Thanks for watching!
Josh

P.S. here’s a couple sites that talk about injuries to the ear drum
http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/DS/00499.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/ask_the_doctor/eardrumperforated.shtml

The static wrist grab will not work as indicated, plain and simple. Look at how Natali is implementing it with her whole arm in a circular swinging motion (meaning the power comes from her shoulder and upper arm strength). The power for this technique should come from the wrist, which acts as a fulcrum as it is turned over the top of her attacker’s wrist. We use a similar technique in Aikido. But, this technique comes from the wrist and will not work as shown.

The moving wrist grab technique is simply dangerous and clearly has no basis at all in street use. Using the momentum of both individuals traveling in opposite directions should be used to enhance the power of the fulcrum at the point of the wrist. At that point in time, the attacker’s energy as it is in opposition to your own, is your advantage. Telling a woman of Natali’s size (or anyone for that matter) to stop, reverse the momentum, and then actually turn their back on an attacker, exposing themselves in such a way as they could easily be choked, is completely mad. If Natali had’ve kept walking and turned as her wrist turned over the top of her attacker’s (as the static hand grab should be implemented), no additional effort would be needed.

And finally, sorry guys, but the so-called ear drum bursting technique is ridiculous. You have to hit someone reasonably hard to burst an ear drum and someone of Natali’s size is never going to move fluidly from the choke block into such an ear slap. The best bet is to block the choke and plant the knee immediately into the family jewels.

Great idea for a site. But, please, put some real street technique out and not the fanciful dojo techniques that are so popular today.

Check out the Tuesday, December 11 2007 new channel (it is your first 4 episodes btw.) Id just like to see you guys in a little better resolution.

http://www.getmiro.com/