THE MACHINE-GUN APPROACH

 by Phillip Starr

Quite a number of popular videos as well as “martial arts” instructors who attract participants using what I call the “machine gun” approach can be easily found. They hail from a variety of percussive styles, although quite a number have created their own “highly effective” methods. The “machine gun” method involved striking the opponent many times very, very quickly...kind of like a machine gun but without the same kind of result.

I must say, some of these guys demonstrate speed that is impressive...and that's just what they want. However, because of the high speed of their combinations, no single blow lands with adequate force. But then, maybe they're not concerned with that. I am. If my counter-blows are weak (regardless of how quickly they're applied), I'm in a very bad spot! Secondly, I've never known or even heard of an opponent who just stands there while his intended victim strikes him ten times in machine gun fashion...

The fact is that when blows are delivered in such a rapid-fire manner, none of them can be executed so that they strike with much power at all. They LOOK impressive but that's about their only redeeming quality.

I remember when one of my (older) classmates demonstrated how he could strike me a half-dozen times in a very short time. He was very fast and he meant to intimidate me. And he was successful (I was quite young) until my teacher, who'd observed the whole thing from the corner of his eye, walked over and said, “That's very nice. But I need to strike him only once.” Now THAT was truly intimidating! And true, too.

I'm not denigrating using combination techniques but I insist that such things must be reasonable and truly efficient; not demonstrations of high-speed slapping...