Strange and Rat's Excellent Adventure

A Couple of Ugly Mugs


Hell, I knew I was in for it.
He's bigger than me.
He's about 16 years younger than me.
He's a Texan.
He's a 5th Dan and practices Judo and Aikido.
He's capable of holding large quantities of alcohol quite well.
Oh, and I forgot to mention he's a magician.

Yes, He is often known as "Sensei Strange" at The Dragons Orb Website.

Strange and Rat have been long-distance friends for a while. We have traded compliments and barbs and like many of us on martial websites, we became friends.
Strange (His parents call him Eric) is on the journey of the warrior. Much like a hero in an ancient epic quest, Strange is wandering from Texas, through Oklahoma and to the far outskirts of the Dojo Rat Empire on a remote island on the Canadian border. He is hitting Dojo training on the way everywhere.

So Strange has been on this tour of drinking engagements disguised as martial arts seminars.
That works for me. When he showed up the first night, we had a nice mellow BBQ party which included a bunch of old people as well as a few local drinkers. We filled the Saloon and played into the wee hours.



Strange admitted to me that he was on a mission.
Agents deep within the New Confederacy had sent him up here to take me out.
Apparently, they were pissed off at me mocking Chuck Norris and that I had coined the term "Republifucks" to describe over-the-line so-called "Conservatives".
It seems they were truly pissed off.
Would he have warned me if he was going to kill me?
So I developed a strategy; Take Strange to a sauna /hot tub facility where there were naked hippie chicks.
Great distraction. Worked for a while.
There was only one tense moment where he looped his "Scarf of Death" around my neck from behind. Thankfully, it was a failed assassination attempt.
But for all you conservative guys who consider yourself in the "Republifuck" category, I got the message.
My next plan was to keep him intoxicated.



We toured our secret location and did about an hour of push-hands / kazushi unbalancing on the waterfront at the grounds of an expensive historic resort without getting arrested or kicked out by the staff. I only got knocked down once.
Strange, aside from his youth and size is a superior practitioner. I mentioned he is a magician, and I truly think that has a lot to do with his skill development.
He has the ability to think in non-linear ways in all respects. His push hands are unorthodox due to his Judo/Aikido training. This was great for me. We ran about an hour of standing grappling at the waterfront and then retreated for the comfort of our local Tavern.

It was late afternoon and we drank, snacked and then went back to my Saloon for more food, drinking and training.
Strange clearly outfights me in the clinch due to his judo skills. Our grappling range practice began to include leg traps and punching. I felt the only way I could keep my game going was with some controlled hitting, very soft and changing angles but keeping him off grappling range.
Whew!

We had a fantastic sparring session and after that everyone moved inside to drink in the Saloon and go through Knife stripping techniques.

Random drunk friend training with Strange



I am proud to have connected with a true friend and Martial Brother. He had traveled a long,long way to reach our little island and play.
This is the beauty and wonder of our interaction with others on the intertubenetwebs.
We had a wonderful martial and drinking visit, and I hope for many more;

Thanks Strange!

Sensei Strange on "Parting Wild Horses Mane"

Our buddy Sensei Strange produced this video in response to Tai Chi Chuan's "parting wild horses mane" a while back and is now re-introducing it to us.
I love the production quality he has, it makes my little videos look pretty crappy.
Here's a clarification on the difference in technique with the Aikido he demonstrates.
In Tai Chi Chuan, PWHM definitely rotates the waist throwing the opponent over your leg/thigh. The arm is typically under the opponent's arm. The rotation is the key, and you must be deep into the opponent's center. Strange does a great job at breaking the opponent's structure in his demo.
The curved arm position is called "Peng" or "Ward-off". He uses it correctly when his palm faces himself, with back of hand towards opponent.
When Strange uses his "Peng" arm to rotate or strike the opponent's head/face, it would be called "eyebrow mopping" in Chinese arts. It is particularly effective when used to turn the opponent's head/neck, where the head goes the body follows.
Likewise, if the projection is not over the leg in a rotating motion, and instead more linear, it would be more like "Slant Flying". In the previous Su Dong Chen video I posted he uses it more like that or with a shoulder strike..
It's fun to watch Strange flow through his motions, Aikido is beautiful to watch.

Here's some more of Su Dong Chen working the technique, note that he is using a linear projection, not rotating over the leg as in :parting wild horses mane".
Also note the hand strike set-up and the alternative take downs if things change:


And here's me and Zackey Chan doing a loop drill with this technique a few years ago:

2010 Choke-a-thon

Sensei Strange has started this year's "Choke-a-thon".
Kicking it off are the guys from Kaze Uta Budo Kai, showing some Judo and Aikido choking techniques. You can see the video's at the highlighted link above. Sensei Strange, being a Texan and all, poked Ol' Dojo Rat with a sharp stick to see if I was up to the challenge. At this time, the only choke video I have in the can is one that uses a lock flow to get into the choke. The two chokes I am using are the front or guillotine (I think), rolling into the side or "Hawaiian" choke.
Keep in mind, this type drill is not how you fight, but just getting used to how to switch techniques as an opponent struggles to escape.
Go to the link above to see Kyle and Nick use some of their favorite chokes, and if you leave a comment Sensei Strange may just send you a bottle of his home-brewed Beer!

The Aikido "Release"

In the last post I did on "Structure", Pat from Mokuren Dojo and Sensei Strange made comments regarding the Aikido "Release". In the Saito-style Aikido I practiced for a while, we did not use that terminology. I had asked for video references, and Sensei Strange had a great one.
I really like how they use different tools and weapons to explore how the same principals apply regardless of distance, length, etc.
And I now remember "The Broom Technique".
- It makes for "A Clean Sweep"...

Four Guys I'd Like To Have Kick My Ass

Pat Parker

1. Pat Parker, Mokuren Dojo
Yes, mild-mannered health professional by day, but a terror on the Dojo Mat. Pat was one of the first Bloggers I met through this crazy interwebtube thing. He has put up with my endless diatribes and shit flipping and always remained a gentleman and friend. Pat specializes in Judo and Aikido, but Pat wouldn't be so nice as to use Aikido on me, He would repeatedly body-slam me with powerful Judo techniques until I puked up my last Beer. Then he would carefully explain to me exactly what he did and write it up for his next Blog Post.
I love Pat.


2. Wim Demeere
So for the first time in my life I would actually get on an airplane (no kidding) and fly all the way to Belgium to get my ass kicked by another redhead. They'd better at least have pretty girls there. Wim is an expert in "Combat Sanshou", author of several books and a video series. Wim would probably film himself kicking my ass. His superior conditioning would grind me into a puddle of my own urine while he quoted scenes from Jean Claude VanDamme movies. Then he would take us out for some really, really good local Beers, even if he had to push my wheelchair.
I hope to meet Wim someday.


3. Sensei Strange
Sensei Strange is my distant relative by some freak of nature, my long-distance little Bro. He wrote me to inform me that he is a younger, stronger, and trimmer version of me. Well, then get out there and split some firewood for me, Dude!
When we meet for our match, it will be on Strange's turf. That's because he is a Magician, and he has sneaky gadgets hidden around his Dojo To confuse me. We would face off, he would hypnotize me, and then take the cold Beer out of my hand and drink it himself. Bastard! Before the spell was lifted, he would pull one of those party stunts where he paints Japanese Kanji on my forehead so everyone could point and laugh at me when I snap out of it.
I would spend the next two years on my remote undisclosed Island hideout reading Madame Blavatsky books to steele myself against his Magician's powers.
- Now get out there and mow my lawn, whippersnapper!


4. Loren Christensen
Loren doesn't mess around. He's one of those Rip-Tear-Shread guys. Loren is also a prolific author and video producer. Loren has been training in Martial Arts since 1965, when I was still watching "Sesame Street".
When I was in Portland, Loren was the head of the Gang Task Force for the Portland Police, and was well respected. He's obviously knocked his share of Dirtbags around, so he'd have no trouble with me. When Loren and I face off, I will simply tear off my own ear and bite a large chunk out of my left hand.
Then I would allow him to handcuff me while we had a long discussion about Portland in the good-old-days, and what went wrong in my mis-spent youth.
I would love to train with Loren sometime.

Anybody else up for the challenge? Huh? Huh?...

Sensei Strange Resolves Conflict

I hope everybody can take the time to read this short piece by fellow Dojo Rat Sensei Strange, Here's the LINK.
Strange, who's Mother calls him "Eric", is my long-distance drinking buddy and fellow internal martial arts practitioner, as well as being a magician!
In the true spirit of Budo, Sensei Strange resolved a potentially serious situation with compassion and martial arts skill.
This story should serve as a lesson to the adepts of overkill and armchair UFC-types, please go to the link and have a look.
I shall hoist (another) cold Beer in your Honor, Sensei Strange!

Variations On A Theme

The Dojo Rats

This was such a great opportunity for all of us to share ideas, I know I learned a lot!
Above is my original technique, which I learned from Aikijitsu Master John Clodig many, many years ago. I'm sure it has morphed a bit since he taught it.
My reason for not going straight to a cross-grip as Sensei Strange does is that I am about to get hit by my opponents other hand. I have to beat him to the punch, and begin to generate motion for the technique. Strange comments that he prefers not to change grips, which I can understand.
Now let's take a look at Sensei Strange:

Sensei Strange
You gotta love how these guys adapt and move. As I said above, Strange prefers not to switch grips, which can be risky (changing grips, that is). Instead, he uses a cross-grip to generate motion for the technique.
My only thought about that is there is inherent risk in getting hit by the opponent's other hand, so you really got to start some serious motion with this method. But these guys take the technique further, with different grips and different motion. I love the one at the very end, it has an element of Bagua in it to me.
Good job guys!

Mokuren Dojo
Pat over at Mokuren opened it up to the whole class to experiment with. The students in the White Gi and Black Gi come very close to my original technique, and Black Gi adds some nice touches for the takedown (circling behind opponent, is that Irimi technique?).
-And here I thought Dojo Rat videos were banned in Mississippi! (Wink,wink)

This was a grand experiment, and I hope we all can continue to share these ideas.
Thanks also to the folks that wrote in suggestions.
-Here's what I am going to work on from the suggestions;
Increase motion, work to operate more at arms length (I was a little crowded in Kote Gaeshi), and I think I'll try some alternative takedowns as Pat's video showed.
Sensei Strange: If I go to the cross-grip, I still think I need some kind of minor strike to set it up. With a non-compliant opponent I'm not sure they would let me get the grip without hitting them to loosten 'em up.
Thanks guys!