Last week, we went over the basics of catching an incoming punch as a defensive maneuver. It’s a technique so ridiculously simple, it’s a wonder that more mainstream martial arts don’t teach it as the very first defensive technique to new students. All you do it put up one hand and intercept the incoming strike, akin to the act of catching a baseball. Once you’ve done this, you need not worry about any kind of counter strike, because you have the advantage in this situation of being able to use the muscle power of your entire arm while the opponent cannot. Once the strike is caught, you are a such an advantage that you can simply toss the hand back at your adversary, or if it is an especially dire situation, simply crush their fist in your hand like an aluminum can. This should take most of the fight out of your opponent, if not all of it.
However, even the few martial arts that do teach catching a punch as a defensive technique almost always overlook the opponent’s follow-up strike. All of them, that is, except for the street lethal art of Ameri-Do-Te and it’s founder, Master Ken. As the most powerful martial artist to ever live and the world’s only 11th degree black belt, Master Ken’s training began immediately after the cutting of his umbilical cord. After devoting his life to mastering every martial art ever conceived by man, Master Ken began to strip away the weakness of each while retaining their respective strengths, and thus the undefeatable art of Ameri-Do-Te was born. This eclectic approach to combat is also the origin of the saying popular among Ameri-Do-Te students, “Best of All, Worst of None”. Unlike the amateurs attempting to pass themselves off as qualified teachers in the art of combat, Master Ken did immediately move into developing the perfect defense for a follow-up strike after devising the Ameri-Do-Te method for catching a punch. Like all things Ameri-Do-Te, it is what Mr. Miyagi once described as a “No Can Defense” technique. However, before attempting this technique, please be sure to visit Enterthedojoshow.com to receive your Orange Belt certification, thus making you qualified to train at this level. Also, please be sure to film your first attempt and send it to Master Ken straight away – as with the first technique, if this is your first time trying this defensive maneuver, Master Ken guarantees you’re doing it wrong.
