If you spend long in martial arts, particularly among traditional styles, you will eventually see a demonstration of rope technique (typically with a martial arts belt). A wild attacker begins with kicks and punches, and ends up thrown, choked and tied up.
How realistic are these techniques? Usually not very. As is often the case in martial arts, key principles get diluted and lost over generations of concepts being passed down. In the end, rope technique often has the “shape” of the original application, but has lost the key tactics that make it effective.
Chief Master Instructor Ken Corona brings these tactics to teaching rope techniques (Po Bak Sul). But is a rope a practical weapon? In short, the answer is yes. Here is why it is taught at Sulsa Camp:
- Ropes are abundant environmental weapons: Don’t have a rope handy? Take off your belt. Pull the laces from your shoes. Grab a phone charger cord. Use a bicycle chain. Grab a towel or shirt from your gym bag. Objects that can be used to apply rope techniques are all around you!
- Ropes can be used offensively or defensively: Ropes can be used offensively to whip, strike (yes, strike!) and garrote. Defensively, ropes can be very effective at blocking and deflecting strikes, controlling an attacker’s weapon arm, redirecting an opponent into a takedown, and neutralizing with arrests and chokes.
- Ropes can be combined with other weapons: Master Corona is particularly fond of using a knife with a rope!
In the upcoming Sulsa Camp (April 6-7, 2019) Master Corona will be teaching rope technique, including offensive and defensive use of the weapon, as well as tactical application of rope combined with knife.
If you haven’t signed up, do it now by clicking here! We hope to see you there!
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