The Best Technique

By Sabunim Steven Gallagher

I have been asked by many people, during class and seminars, what is the best block and the best strike. In all honesty, if you ask 100 practitioners no matter what style, the answer will change from person to person. Even with that being the truth I thought it would be fun if we took a few minutes to look at each question and maybe come up with a unified answer to each. If you are a practitioner think about your blocks and strikes, most of us will think about our favorites. For those of you who are new or do not train take a minute to just relax and clear your mind, we are about to fill your cup with some good information.

Most of us are taught blocks when we first start our training. There are two kind of blocks, Hard and Soft. For you non-trained readers a Hard block is usually described as bone to bone. A good example is a low block, where you use the forearm to block with. A soft block is described as muscle to muscle or bone. A good example is a palm block, where you use the muscle in the palm of your hand to block with. No matter who you talk to you will be told it depends on the strike being thrown at you that determines what block you use. This is a very true statement, but isn’t there one block that can be used against a wide range of strikes? Could it be the low block? What about the high block, out to in / in to out middle block? Maybe the palm or the knife hand block? Why not the X block? With all these block we have in our arsenal can one be the best? The answer is No! One block can not and is not better then the rest.

What about our strikes? Is there one that is better then the rest? Now when it comes to strikes you have your feet, knees, elbows, hands(open and closed), and your head to use. What determines what strike you throw to your opponent? Is it his/her stance, their block, the last strike? The answer is yes to all three, your actions are determined by their actions. The question is this “Is there a punch, open hand strike, or kick that can not be stopped by any block?” Again the answer is NO!

In 19 years I have had the honor to get to know some great practitioners of many styles. This question has been apart of some of our conversations, alone and in a class setting. In all of those conversations I have only heard one person tell me the best answer to the best block question, that was my instructor Mr. Sutherland. He told us that the best block was to not be there, this lesson was part of understanding our rules. Rule six says “ Never put yourself in a vulnerable position.” As far as the best strike answer goes, I like to think that the best one is the one that convenes your attacker to walk away.