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Back on Track
First off I try to stay anon on sites like this for one reason. The sheer number of unstable people on the web. But it has a added advantage. If I'm a nobody then people will be skeptical and only be swayed by my opinion if it makes sense to them. Where if I were some big shot with credentials they might follow me even if it didn't pass the smell test. (I am only speaking about myself. I am not claiming to be a big shot in any way. Or trying to impugne anyone else in this comment.) Also when I speak of my betters I am in no way trying to put words in their mouth. If mentioned by name it will only be in two cases. If its something from a seminar or on a DVD. In both cases it was put out in public and should be ok to mention. Please allow that my memory may be off or I may have misunderstood the lesson.
Now the question was Trapping Does it work? The short answer is maybe. First we have to clear up a few things. For me when talking about trapping I look at it maybe differently than say someone else.
Trapping to me means the range. Maybe to some it means the classical trapping hands. But to me that would shift the question to wing chun. IMHO trapping range is the least understood and hardest to train. And it lends it self to the highest failure rate of the 4 ranges. I've made the comment about usually the people that knock JKD/Kali simply couldn't do it. I stand by that but it need some explanation. Just in JKD you have 4 ranges to train Kicking, Boxing, Trapping & Grappling. You can make it real simple striking & grappling. But lets look at the 4 ranges. This is not meant to be exhaustive just and example. Well leave Kali alone as its more complicated IMHO.
Kicking has
Highline, Lowline, power kicks, snap kicks, harassment kicks, spin kicks, jump kicks, combinations, footwork & defense of all them.
Tools- Foot, Toe, Shin, instep, heel.
Boxing has
5 basic punches, loads of combinations, footwork simple & complicated, simple & complicated defense, counter punching, stop hits.
Tools- Hand, fingers
Trapping has
Most strikes can hit. you and your opponent are able to dish out the most damage here.
Tools - foot, shin, toe, instep, knee, hand, head, elbow/forearm, hand
Grappling has
Most of the strikes from grappling but they are harder to pull off as they can tend to be smothered.
Tools - Heel, hand, fingers, teeth, knee, elbow/forearm.
Now looking at all of this can anyone honestly say that everyone they have ever worked out with or trained was good at all 4 ranges or everything in each range. We all have our strong areas and weak areas. EF talked about a visit to an old school and a lack of progress. This can be it. I've said that you have some schools and instructors not training a progression just re training the same 2-3 years over and over again. So they get to a point and never get any better.
Also even if you have the best instructor(s) in the world some people are going to just naturally be better at some areas than others. So if you train one area and don't get good and move to another area and say kick ass. It is more likely you are just better in that area than others. I could make a great case for how worthless high kicks are. I could back it up with my own training experience. But the truth is I'm just not a flexible person.
So anyone who wants to say explore trapping. The best advice I can give is look for training and advice from someone who is thinks its valuable. Ask yourself would you hire a plumber who didn't believe in indoor plumbing. No matter how good of a case they made for outhouses. Or a roofer who claimed you can't stop all the leaks no matter what you do. Of course you wouldn't.
If you want to train trapping here is the rub. While you are training the basic & advanced traps, learning hubud, chi sau and the rest of the things in trapping range. You have to seriously train at least boxing & grappling range. All three would be best. You don't have to be good enough to enter a ring in long range. And you should focus your grappling on blocking a takedown and what to do if it don't work. Simple basic things. By the time your other ranges are ok your trapping should be good enough to start functionalizing it. The following Sifu's Vunak, Tackett & M. Denny would probably be a good place to look for advice on this.
You need to be good enough in long range to survive and enter trapping range. And you need the grappling to avoid takedowns and survive if you screw up.
And lastly the biggest mistake I've seen IMHO is people equate trapping with the fantasy (usually used to discredit it) of combat hubud or chi sau. In training the mix is supposed to be something like 90% trapping 10% hitting. In a fight it should be 10% trapping (or less) and 90% (or more) hitting. You are not planning to trap in a fight. You are going to hit. When something gets in your way remove it, go thru it , or go around it.
And on the trapping drills (or any dead drills). They are fun and useful at least in the beginning. They build coordination, confidence, muscle memory. But they made up over 60% of my training for the first 3 years.
Tangent: I had two mentors. One who was a seminar instructor (got his cert long distance) and one that moved to train under directly under his sifu. And then moved back years later.
And looking back on it I think my growth peaked or at least was not as much from them. The thing that changed my training drastically
Disclaimer: I am not advocating anyone do the physical end of this with out qualified instructors involved.
My regular instructor was very good. He was more on the self perfection side. He built up my technical side with I think more dead drills than live ones. When my other mentor moved back he was training me in a knife drill I had done many times. Some would call it a two person form. In the middle of it he pulled out a real knife. I freaked he talked my thru it kept me doing the drill. My heart was racing, all the effects of fear. But it was the same drill. Done a tad slower than with a wooden dagger. He explained to me that now when I do any drill try to juice up my mind the same way. It's not as good as the real thing but you get more out of the drill than just going thru the motions. Anything you can do to force more intensity out of your brain will greatly improve your dead drills. Mike Tyson used to hit pads visualizing punching thru an opponents head. Arnold used to visualize orgasms when he pumped.
Hope this helps anyone the way it helped me.
First off I try to stay anon on sites like this for one reason. The sheer number of unstable people on the web. But it has a added advantage. If I'm a nobody then people will be skeptical and only be swayed by my opinion if it makes sense to them. Where if I were some big shot with credentials they might follow me even if it didn't pass the smell test. (I am only speaking about myself. I am not claiming to be a big shot in any way. Or trying to impugne anyone else in this comment.) Also when I speak of my betters I am in no way trying to put words in their mouth. If mentioned by name it will only be in two cases. If its something from a seminar or on a DVD. In both cases it was put out in public and should be ok to mention. Please allow that my memory may be off or I may have misunderstood the lesson.
Now the question was Trapping Does it work? The short answer is maybe. First we have to clear up a few things. For me when talking about trapping I look at it maybe differently than say someone else.
Trapping to me means the range. Maybe to some it means the classical trapping hands. But to me that would shift the question to wing chun. IMHO trapping range is the least understood and hardest to train. And it lends it self to the highest failure rate of the 4 ranges. I've made the comment about usually the people that knock JKD/Kali simply couldn't do it. I stand by that but it need some explanation. Just in JKD you have 4 ranges to train Kicking, Boxing, Trapping & Grappling. You can make it real simple striking & grappling. But lets look at the 4 ranges. This is not meant to be exhaustive just and example. Well leave Kali alone as its more complicated IMHO.
Kicking has
Highline, Lowline, power kicks, snap kicks, harassment kicks, spin kicks, jump kicks, combinations, footwork & defense of all them.
Tools- Foot, Toe, Shin, instep, heel.
Boxing has
5 basic punches, loads of combinations, footwork simple & complicated, simple & complicated defense, counter punching, stop hits.
Tools- Hand, fingers
Trapping has
Most strikes can hit. you and your opponent are able to dish out the most damage here.
Tools - foot, shin, toe, instep, knee, hand, head, elbow/forearm, hand
Grappling has
Most of the strikes from grappling but they are harder to pull off as they can tend to be smothered.
Tools - Heel, hand, fingers, teeth, knee, elbow/forearm.
Now looking at all of this can anyone honestly say that everyone they have ever worked out with or trained was good at all 4 ranges or everything in each range. We all have our strong areas and weak areas. EF talked about a visit to an old school and a lack of progress. This can be it. I've said that you have some schools and instructors not training a progression just re training the same 2-3 years over and over again. So they get to a point and never get any better.
Also even if you have the best instructor(s) in the world some people are going to just naturally be better at some areas than others. So if you train one area and don't get good and move to another area and say kick ass. It is more likely you are just better in that area than others. I could make a great case for how worthless high kicks are. I could back it up with my own training experience. But the truth is I'm just not a flexible person.
So anyone who wants to say explore trapping. The best advice I can give is look for training and advice from someone who is thinks its valuable. Ask yourself would you hire a plumber who didn't believe in indoor plumbing. No matter how good of a case they made for outhouses. Or a roofer who claimed you can't stop all the leaks no matter what you do. Of course you wouldn't.
If you want to train trapping here is the rub. While you are training the basic & advanced traps, learning hubud, chi sau and the rest of the things in trapping range. You have to seriously train at least boxing & grappling range. All three would be best. You don't have to be good enough to enter a ring in long range. And you should focus your grappling on blocking a takedown and what to do if it don't work. Simple basic things. By the time your other ranges are ok your trapping should be good enough to start functionalizing it. The following Sifu's Vunak, Tackett & M. Denny would probably be a good place to look for advice on this.
You need to be good enough in long range to survive and enter trapping range. And you need the grappling to avoid takedowns and survive if you screw up.
And lastly the biggest mistake I've seen IMHO is people equate trapping with the fantasy (usually used to discredit it) of combat hubud or chi sau. In training the mix is supposed to be something like 90% trapping 10% hitting. In a fight it should be 10% trapping (or less) and 90% (or more) hitting. You are not planning to trap in a fight. You are going to hit. When something gets in your way remove it, go thru it , or go around it.
And on the trapping drills (or any dead drills). They are fun and useful at least in the beginning. They build coordination, confidence, muscle memory. But they made up over 60% of my training for the first 3 years.
Tangent: I had two mentors. One who was a seminar instructor (got his cert long distance) and one that moved to train under directly under his sifu. And then moved back years later.
And looking back on it I think my growth peaked or at least was not as much from them. The thing that changed my training drastically
Disclaimer: I am not advocating anyone do the physical end of this with out qualified instructors involved.
My regular instructor was very good. He was more on the self perfection side. He built up my technical side with I think more dead drills than live ones. When my other mentor moved back he was training me in a knife drill I had done many times. Some would call it a two person form. In the middle of it he pulled out a real knife. I freaked he talked my thru it kept me doing the drill. My heart was racing, all the effects of fear. But it was the same drill. Done a tad slower than with a wooden dagger. He explained to me that now when I do any drill try to juice up my mind the same way. It's not as good as the real thing but you get more out of the drill than just going thru the motions. Anything you can do to force more intensity out of your brain will greatly improve your dead drills. Mike Tyson used to hit pads visualizing punching thru an opponents head. Arnold used to visualize orgasms when he pumped.
Hope this helps anyone the way it helped me.
Glad to hear it ghost
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