Big session today at the dojo. O-sensei, Master Bellman's teacher who promoted him to 10th Dan, was conducting a clinic. It started off with a simultaneously touching and unsettling greeting from the OCD green belt. He called me Sempai which is acknowledging subordination to me and a relationship of mentor. I didn't know he was that deep into the Japanese cultural thing.
O-sensei asked for some attacks to defend against and I asked about some of the groping attacks I used as examples in self defense for women. They were gropes of the buttocks and a hand on the thigh. As expected, he had a unique take on what to do. I'll give it some consideration. He is really big on the small elements that are often entirely overlooked. One such was energy loss from crossing the center line of the body. I know that the arm loses strength once it crosses over the sternum but he demonstrated how even if you cross the opposite hand over the center line it affects the other hand's strength. Likewise if you are holding something like a weapon in the other hand. Your concentration on that weapon holding hand weakens the opposite hand. Another one of the subtleties are is distraction. Movements in the peripheral vision cause a momentary hesitation or weakness to exploit.
He talked about how some movements involve the biceps and some the triceps, the latter of course are stronger muscle group. I have been to one of his clinics a few years back and I now wonder if my own inclination to use examples of strength and strength curves are a result of his earlier seminar. Later I asked about some club attacks that are adaptations of some baton techniques I used as a cop that I learned from Tak Kubota's techniques. All together a great session.