Needless to say I’m looking forward to this one because of Machida vs. Rampage. It will be interesting to see how style match up this time. Rampage doesn’t utilize the same technique as Shogun, but he is equally aggressive when he needs to be. It should be a great fight!
Rampage says he wants to go back to his “old pride days.” If those old slams are included, he could wreck some havoc.
Machida’s approach to this fight?
I guess I’m slighted that he sought out Steven Seagal for advice and not me. I am an unabashed fan though, so I hope he rereads my old blog post from after he lost the title!
I’m psyched to see the Penn vs. Hughes rubber match as well. This will be another clash of styles, and in interviews both men seem to be respectful of each other and ready for a great fight.
Even the undercard seems stacked for this one. I’m particularly looking forward to Sotiropoulos vs. Lauzon and the return of Karo Parisyan. What fights are you most interested in? Who do you think will win?
Moai Martial Arts 
I really liked what Steven Segal had to say “Every technique changes from the body position.” My “Bacon Bit” on that one is “Trust the technique don’t change it.” The idea is to trust the technique in it’s “perfect form”. There are three examples that immediately come to mind.
First, the Sanchin strike not dropping and going to the heart in the Sanseiryu 3 shoken series. Keeping the stike’s’ proper form and looking at the angle of the drive in that 45 degree direction against an opponent and simply doing what the kata tells us to do instead of what we think it might or should do. This turns the technique into a much more usable one armed block and strike combo (to the heart through the side of the ribcage rather that the front).
The second example is the end of Kanshiwa where most students bring the shoken into the middle of the chest rather than understanding that the left hand controlls the opponent so that a “perfectly thrown shoken in sanchin” will be delivered to the heart as the opponent is pulled off balance at the focus point of the strike thereby making the strike that much more effective.
And the third is the biggest example in our style: the Wauke block itself. It is a single arm block with a backup, not a double block with a nice round finish! Students inability to perfect the technique is not justification to interpret or morph the block into something that doesn’t work as well in it’s “interpreted form”. This art is based in a thousand year old tradition that even at our deepest understanding only scratches the surface. It can only be sheer arrogance that would let us believe that “our way” is somehow more efficient. By using the backup block piece as the primary block, the student ruins any hope of developing the technique timing and maybe more importantly the counter attack timing necessary to really understand the system itself.
It is interesting, as I reviewed the babble above, that each example brought me to a simpler example and a more basic kata for it’s source. This reinforces that idea “all is in Sanchin” and the best advice for any student is to find “a teacher with a teacher”.
Best Regards,
Michael Bacon
Godan Shoheiryu
Sorry this one was caught in the spam filter, Mike. Thanks for the great comment!
The idea that different angles change the technique is important to many different martial arts. It is especially important to traditional arts like Shoheiryu that emphasis a “one block, one punch, one kick” philosophy because it is through the years of development and training that the finer points of the attack as well as a deeper understanding of the technique are eventually revealed to the student. The wauke block is the best example of this. The danger comes when students (and teachers) change the technique for short term effectiveness by making the backup block the primary block and inadvertently forever steer he student away from one of the most effective movements ever developed. These arts are based in thousand year old traditions and it is highly egotistical to think that a student of a mere tens or twenty years has real insight into a better way to perform the technique. My Bacon Bit is: Just trust the technique, don’t change it!