New here and seeking advice

Rofl. As a martial arts snob in my own right, I turn up my nose at the hero-worship of temple martial arts. One of my biggest pet peeves is the wing chun slap fight.

As for pressure points, of course they work, silly. But mostly just in the jaw. If you can A. shoot a double and B. throw a good solid straight right, no temple martial arts goons will ever have anything on you.

I grew up with the flashy craziness of kung fu and that sort of thing, so I'd love it if someone were able to use it effectively in competition. But so far... no dice. The closest is Machida, and I love Machida, but he's done things that others in that world haven't. Like.... win fights. >.>

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I couldn't help but see this thread and notice how some people are equating MMA wins as the pinnacle of combat capability. The "kung fu" stuff of course is rather silly, but I can think of a goodly number of unstoppable martial artists that didn't need to throw down in a boorish spectacle like MMA to demonstrate how balls-out badass they were.

Long story short, I see your loudmouthed MMA champions and raise you one MAS OYAMA.

I will say this not in bragging but as a stated fact on why my character uses pressure points (strictly as an attack not as a method to win). Being that I spent a lot of my life when I was younger getting into fights, I had to learn an effective method. I have used pressure points several times in real life fighting, they are not a one hit move and you are magically down (unless you are really trying to kill someone O.o; ). They simply hurt a lot and can cause a sense of numbness (not paralyzing) that can throw someone off. As for the "pleasure pressure points" I can and have used them several times when dating my ex and a few others, there are simply points and spots in joints, muscles and areas where nerves are bunched up and are much more susceptible to pain/pleasure. Not to mention if taken to the other extreme can cause serious damage to someones joints (which is why i studied pressure points to avoid accidentally doing such things since I didn't like to hurt people or accidentally kill them over a fight). Karate is also principle in using pressure points, just to double check a move I often refer to a poster that hangs in my room with a lay out of the human body and several sensitive striking points. But I completely agree it's not a super power and shouldn't be abused in matches, more of a way to level the playing field when you are not a power house or strong grappler given that you actually have knowledge of what pressure points you are affecting and how. The concept is the same when a submission hold is being placed, you are attacking weak spots and creating stress on your opponents joints, so it's basically the same thing if you look at it that way. (Besides a woman kicking a man in the groin can be crudely considered a pressure point :/ )

Also in my defense I didn't run around like an idiot going "I know martial arts!" and beating up on people. I was a runt who got picked on and later decided to play hero and protect people who got beat up on when I learned how to fight back. So it was mostly playing hero -_-; also I will say pressure points just don't compare to a strong right hook or a strong submission move and shouldn't be treated as such. (Though seeing someone awkwardly react to the tingliness they feel in a struck limb is priceless and makes it difficult sometimes to throw as good of a swing back if it gets to you, I've tasted my own medicine before.)

Kyras, I'm not sure if you're referring to me (I don't remember anyone doing that), but I certainly wasn't implying that. However, I both have no interest in fighting outside of competition, and it's not like people would agree to fight, possibly to the death, without rules, just to practice their martial arts. MMA is a sport, but it's sport fighting.

Anyway, I suppose the most well-tested unarmed combat system for real life non competition fighting around here (states) would have to be... I don't know, whatever they teach in the marines these days, or the seals.