It's one of the moves I call her "Death From Above" tactic.
So seriously...Sweet teenage girl or overblown Xena complex?
6 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Bobbe, You keep this up she just might bet a big head.......na she just the average teenager thar likes to hit people with sticks and stuff! Thanks for all the encouragment and help. Randy
I am assuming that this kid is extremely fast, and that's why the leap works -- she comes in unexpectedly and whap!
Without any direct knowledge of how she moves, it would be hard to judge, but conceptually, the idea of leaving the ground and achieving great height against a trained defender strikes me as a technique best put into the anything-might-work-once category.
Having been in sparring matches with guys who thought that a jumping-flying sidekick was the way to go, I can say I can't recall that one working once, much less twice, against somebody with any training.
The problem is that once you are airborne, your speed is, for the duration of the leap, more or less constant (actually, slowing, due to gravity, but not enough to be a big factor) and that, depending on the distance, too slow against somebody properly set.
In an art that depends on position and not speed, if I get in the proper place first, it doesn't matter how fast you are.
If she can reach me with her stick, I can reach her with mine, and it would seem that all I'd have to do is extend the weapon and she'd impale herself on it.
Maybe I'm missing something. What do you know about this that I don't?
You're not missing anything, but I think some perspective is needed here. Timing in execution is everything, and HOW she applies it, I don't know. This was a Kata demonstration, not sparring. I can tell you that she did a death from above on me with sticks in a combination set-up with a couple of other techniques in rapid succession, and it almost worked. I could see it being effective against someone her age with less experience.
Remember, she's 13. In her age class at tournaments the trick works, most of her opponents aren't as experienced as an adult. If she's fighting YOU, probably not.
But, from an aesthetic point...Isn't that a cool airborne shot? Reminds me of an Avengers comic cover, or something.
While what she is doing is a form, I have seen her make jumping attacks work quite nicely in sparring. She is smart in her set-up though I have never seen her just jump at someone.
My thoughts tend to lean toward the "feet on ground' camp myself, but you can't argue with sucess.
The person who really manages to make this work though is Cole Van Harn (Steve's son) who uses it quite effectivly and uses it on people with a lot more training time in than he has.
I would guess that it is all a matter of how and when to employ it.
I have noticed that the Kalari guys are big on leaps as well and also manage to make it work for them.
Personally, I am much too dignified to go around leaping furiously at people, but it does seem to work when used at the right moment (much like a Flèche in fencing)
Well, certainly when one is young and spry, using such tools is fun, and I don't begrudge her those trampoline toes.
I used to be overly pleased with my flying side kick against the bag, or leaping over a couple of crouched guys to break a board using it.
Looked cool.
And, of course, set-up is major. When I was a dewy-eyed lad, back when the dinosaurs roamed, I had a fairly powerful back-crossover sidekick.
As I am wont to say, I could knock down trees with it, but unfortunately, you could also *grow* trees waiting for it to arrive, so its effective use was against somebody who was distracted and unable to re-focus in the aeons it took to uncork and land it.
One of my more eye-opening realizations when I first saw silat was that somebody paying attention could come over, under, or around that outstretched leg and feed me my head, and that was with one foot still on the ground.
I have seen the tape Bobbe played of Mariah's sparring leap with a stick and it looks pretty nifty. And, as the only slightly-older-than-I-am Mushtaq pointed out, it is difficult to argue with success.
But leaving the ground still seems like something that ought not to be encouraged if there are safer ways to travel.
Of course, I have very little stickwork, and my long blade stuff outside of silat is naught but a bit of kendo, so my sense is that leaping high at a kendo player is apt to get you skewered if he holds his ground.
God had wanted us to fly, He'd have given us wings and feet like parakeets. Oh, wait -- that's Bobbe's feet ...
Wait, she's a teen? Did you say 13? I'm a fan of a 13 year old. Wow... that's crazy! Her spunk is fun and the picture is better than Xena because Xena wears tachy clothes and Mariah is a-freaking-dorable.
6 comments:
Bobbe,
You keep this up she just might bet a big head.......na she just the average teenager thar likes to hit people with sticks and stuff!
Thanks for all the encouragment and help.
Randy
I am assuming that this kid is extremely fast, and that's why the leap works -- she comes in unexpectedly and whap!
Without any direct knowledge of how she moves, it would be hard to judge, but conceptually, the idea of leaving the ground and achieving great height against a trained defender strikes me as a technique best put into the anything-might-work-once category.
Having been in sparring matches with guys who thought that a jumping-flying sidekick was the way to go, I can say I can't recall that one working once, much less twice, against somebody with any training.
The problem is that once you are airborne, your speed is, for the duration of the leap, more or less constant (actually, slowing, due to gravity, but not enough to be a big factor) and that, depending on the distance, too slow against somebody properly set.
In an art that depends on position and not speed, if I get in the proper place first, it doesn't matter how fast you are.
If she can reach me with her stick, I can reach her with mine, and it would seem that all I'd have to do is extend the weapon and she'd impale herself on it.
Maybe I'm missing something. What do you know about this that I don't?
You're not missing anything, but I think some perspective is needed here. Timing in execution is everything, and HOW she applies it, I don't know. This was a Kata demonstration, not sparring. I can tell you that she did a death from above on me with sticks in a combination set-up with a couple of other techniques in rapid succession, and it almost worked. I could see it being effective against someone her age with less experience.
Remember, she's 13. In her age class at tournaments the trick works, most of her opponents aren't as experienced as an adult. If she's fighting YOU, probably not.
But, from an aesthetic point...Isn't that a cool airborne shot? Reminds me of an Avengers comic cover, or something.
While what she is doing is a form, I have seen her make jumping attacks work quite nicely in sparring. She is smart in her set-up though I have never seen her just jump at someone.
My thoughts tend to lean toward the "feet on ground' camp myself, but you can't argue with sucess.
The person who really manages to make this work though is Cole Van Harn (Steve's son) who uses it quite effectivly and uses it on people with a lot more training time in than he has.
I would guess that it is all a matter of how and when to employ it.
I have noticed that the Kalari guys are big on leaps as well and also manage to make it work for them.
Personally, I am much too dignified to go around leaping furiously at people, but it does seem to work when used at the right moment (much like a Flèche in fencing)
Well, certainly when one is young and spry, using such tools is fun, and I don't begrudge her those trampoline toes.
I used to be overly pleased with my flying side kick against the bag, or leaping over a couple of crouched guys to break a board using it.
Looked cool.
And, of course, set-up is major. When I was a dewy-eyed lad, back when the dinosaurs roamed, I had a fairly powerful back-crossover sidekick.
As I am wont to say, I could knock down trees with it, but unfortunately, you could also *grow* trees waiting for it to arrive, so its effective use was against somebody who was distracted and unable to re-focus in the aeons it took to uncork and land it.
One of my more eye-opening realizations when I first saw silat was that somebody paying attention could come over, under, or around that outstretched leg and feed me my head, and that was with one foot still on the ground.
I have seen the tape Bobbe played of Mariah's sparring leap with a stick and it looks pretty nifty. And, as the only slightly-older-than-I-am Mushtaq pointed out, it is difficult to argue with success.
But leaving the ground still seems like something that ought not to be encouraged if there are safer ways to travel.
Of course, I have very little stickwork, and my long blade stuff outside of silat is naught but a bit of kendo, so my sense is that leaping high at a kendo player is apt to get you skewered if he holds his ground.
God had wanted us to fly, He'd have given us wings and feet like parakeets. Oh, wait -- that's Bobbe's feet ...
Never mind ...
Wait, she's a teen? Did you say 13? I'm a fan of a 13 year old. Wow... that's crazy! Her spunk is fun and the picture is better than Xena because Xena wears tachy clothes and Mariah is a-freaking-dorable.
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