Aloha Everyone,
Last night we took the class into the parking lot. It was pretty dark, just a couple of overhead lamps. We parked a couple of our cars (older, almost beaters) together like in a parking structure, enough space to get in and out of a vehicle without too much trouble. Uniform of the day was street clothes, shoes, cups (of course) and sparring gear.
We began by discussing the problems with combat within this space, different options, mindset. As always, we emphasised situational awareness. The single largest advantage the bad guy(s) have is suprise/ambush. That suprise freezes us up for a second or two, enough time for the bad guy to gain a tactical advantage like distance and/or position.
We ran a couple of half speed drills one on one, defender getting out of a vehicle, approaching his vehicle, opening his door. Then we stepped it up to some combat speed with contact.
Next we added another attacker. Then one attacker has a knife. One attacker tries to get into the car with the defender. Car jacker.
We ran some kidnapp drills with our two teenage students.
Finally, we moved to an open space in the parking lot and ran some ball bat drills.
All of it good stuff, plenty of contact, even some blood on the asphalt (mine).

Sijo would have been proud.
We found that each attack was different, each response needed to be different. Because we train Kajukenbo we were able to adapt and flow from one move to the next, using parts of one technique with parts of another. That's one of the beautiful and powerful advantages of Kajukenbo, as opposed to some other systems/methods. We train to ATTACK. Immediate, violent, devasting.
We also mentioned that one very important survival skill is to run away when possible. It's interesting to note that none of us chose to escape, even when the opportunity presented itself.
All in all a very good night of training. Lots to think about for next time. Oh yeah, and next time the yellow training handguns come out. Good times.

Greg