Steve,

Is that Russell Stutely stuff really that effective? He seems to be hardly touching the guy!

I know Russell knocked an online detractor on his ass at SENI 05, for which I will eternally owe him my gratitude.

Okay, I'm not here to promote or detract from Russell's skills. I went to one seminar and later bought a few dvds then practised a lot.

Russell can hit very hard with not a lot of effort. At a seminar I went to, I held one of his white pads and he elbowed it in such a relaxed manner, but it went straight through me.

I was a bit sceptical at the time. I wasn't 100% sure of the effect that the pads (styrene blocks) we were using had on the impact. However, it was more that I was seeing something that sort of turned a lot of what I thought knew on it's head.

So after almost ignoring what I had seen, I tried to make it work for me. It took a while for me to refine my action and I did get some of his dvd's that helped as well. I don't claim to be able to hit as hard as he does, but I can hit a lot harder than I used to and it now just seems common sense.

With regard to the pressure point knockouts, at the seminar I was at, we didn't do full KO's but we did stagger each other and did a particularly nasty poke to the bladder area. The effect on different people did vary to a certain extent.

I'm not totally convinced that the average person can use some of the pressure point stuff in a real fight. I still think gross motor impact skills to the opponent's head is the way to go for self defence.

I found Russell to be a nice guy from the one time I met him, but I think that the promotional stuff that the dvd producers put out is way over the top. However they seem to do that for all their clients, not just him.

I think the missing one might be body alignment and connection to the ground. Rootedness in internal martial arts & bio-mechanics to us westerners lol

Try this link very informative on body alignment, bio mechanical feedback, optimised core integration strength,

http://www.vorticity-martial-arts.com/ocis/ocis.html

Pike
http://www.balintawak.co.uk http://www.balintawakarnis.eu http://www.balintawak.biz

Thank You Pike will check that one out later

Here's a clip of Mick Coup discussing and demonstrating the theory of striking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Syhm3Sq2Sk

I think the most important factor is timing. If you swing a punch without driving with the hips and rooting your stance you will feel like you just hit a brick wall with a metal bar(slightly exagerated) but you feel the virbration through your body when its wrong. You body must work together and the mroe precise the timing the more power in the punch. This can be added to close punches or stepping punches, some moves and stikes will be more effective than others but the soft effortless but powerful strike comes from timing.

You need to practise form and stikes to get timing. Even that russel guy is timing his hits. The body works together in every way.