Kinomutai

3 Tips From Kino Mutai

In the last 20 years, the ''no rules'' and ''no holds barred'' tournaments like the Ultimate Fighting Cham­pionship, have elevated ground fighting and grappling arts into the limelight. You can now find Jiu Jitsu and other ground fight-ing art-based schools in most cities around the United States. These ground-based schools have added to not only the martial arts world, but self-defense as a whole by widening people's techniques and defense strategies. The problem is that practitioners can easily put blinders on and believe their art is ''the best'' and that all fights should go to the ground.

However, in reality, people who only focus on the ground can find themselves in trouble out in the street and in real life situations. Environmental elements such as asphalt, ice or debris can make any Jiu Jitsu black belt think twice about going down to the ground. But, even more so, the reality of weapons and multiple attackers can make grappling the ultimate wrong defensive choice.

Another problem is that learning dozens of joint locks, chokes and submissions can take years of lessons, which most people don't have time for. In these instances, one can short cut these moves, as effective as they are, and escape them with a little­known secret of Kino Mutai.

Kino Mutai is a Filipino Art using three techniques that can help you out of an attack. Although there is much more to the art than these three moves, these alone can spoil most attackers who try and take you to the ground. One of these techniques includes biting, using the incisors or side teeth, to bite soft tissue areas such as the neck and even inside of an opponent's thigh. These areas cause both rapid blood loss and immense pain. Obviously, we don't want someone else's blood in our mouth if we can avoid it, but if we are de­fending against a seri­ous life or death attack it's worth it to make it home to your family.

Eye gouging is the next of the three tools, where a person uses their thumbs to gouge into the attacker's eye sockets. There are few targets that can cause attackers to abandon their on­slaught as much as when a defend­er counter-attacks with going after their eyes.

Finally, pinching painful targets such as the back of the arm and groin, can motivate an attacker who takes you down to the ground to get off and get away quickly. Use several fingers to pinch these areas hard to increase the pain and reaction.

Furthermore, another important key to using these moves is that we make them uninterrupted. For example, if we bite someone the moment after eye gouging them, the psychological effects are terri­fying, while once again increasing damage by being able to continue the technique with impunity. Positioning your body properly to bite a target without the opponent being able to stop it can turn the tables on the attacker quickly. Us­ing these tips can outsmart even the most skilled ground fighter at their own game. Fighting smarter not harder is the name of the game and Kino Mutai can give you the tricks to do so.