What martial arts uses your opponents force and pressure points?
by mmafan on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | 6 Comments
What martial arts uses your opponents force against them and/or uses pressure points?
For using opponents force against them, the best martial arts would be Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or Judo. Pressure points are used mostly in japanese martial arts, the most common of which would be ninjitsu.
Lots of styles use the principle of your opponent’s strength against them. Just off the top of my head: Aikido, Judo, Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling and Dumog.
Most of the arts I’ve just listed are categorized as ‘soft styles’.
I’m currently in Judo and Brazilian Jujitsu, and basically all the throws in Judo use your opponents momentum against them. the submission moves are joint manipulation along with wind and blood chokes. Even though i haven’t taken it myself i also hear that Akido focuses on joint manipulations and using your opponents momentum to throw him. I would recommend wrestling but until you start competing and training with people who are skilled in it you see more out muscling than fineness.
All styles I know use your opponents force to at least some extend. If a martial art only depended on your own strength then there wouldn’t be a lot of advantage for a person like me who is not particularly strong. So I try to borrow some strength. Timing a kick or punch on someone who is coming in and using their momentum to make your kick/punch stronger is part of the art. Also a simple thing as stepping aside and letting a charging opponent pass by you and maybe even helping them run into an obstacle (like a wall) behind you is also using your opponent’s force.
The same goes for pressure points when striking, blocking as well as when doing arm bars.
Hapkido. Hapkido uses many pressure points. In Hapkido, rather than directly oppose your opponents force with your force, you simply redirect it, much like Judo. But Judo doesn’t use pressure points. Pressure points is only a small part of Hapkdio, most of it is striking, punches, kicks, knees, knife hands, throws etc. The main point is to gain the advantage by moving around and controlling your enemy and to redirect his force rather than oppose it.
Many Traditional MAs use pressure point attacks and use their opponents force against them. I practice Chen Taijiquan and it uses the opponents force against them, pressure point attacks, joint locks, throws, kicks, and strikes.