Now I am going to talk about trapping. When you are training your trapping techniques please remember to train them as you would apply them in a real confrontation. By this I mean do not take any short cuts in your training. When you are in a "street confrontation" you will fight the same way you train...so if you take short cuts on the mat the will show up in your fighting. When performing a trap...lets say the first motion of pak sao(pak sao means to "slap" or "jam" your opponents arm) you want to make sure that you pin his arm to his body and you hit him with enough force that he has to take a step back in order to maintain his balance. When Bruce use to do a pak sao on someone he would give them shell shock....from hitting them so hard. If you want to feel a good example of this then make it out to a Larry Hartsell seminar and touch hands with him. You will walk away from there with a new found appreciation for trapping. You want to pak with your body weight and energy going into your opponent. Another good person to feel this on is LaDell Elliott who is our newest member. I trained with LaDell at  his place up in Tulsa several years ago and let me tell you...this brother can trap. He is VERY good in the trapping range and when he does a paksao on you..you can not help but take a step back. Again Cory and I are going to have a video posted soon that shows the basics of trapping and go all the way up to advance trapping on the ground.

I haven't jumped into this thread simply because I just couldn't think of anything to say.  Well after a bit of pondering, I thought of one very important thing that I would like to expand upon.

I'd like to make it clear that, although you can do so, the intent is not necessarily to knock the person completely back.  (Tim didn't say this was the intention and I am simply adding to what he is saying; so don't take this as me disagreeing.)  As Tim said, the idea is to knock them back enough that they lose their balance for a moment.  At this point, they are now fighting two opponents; you and themselves as they now have to recover their balance while trying to fend of your following attacks.

At the same time, you don't want to knock them so far back that you have to engage them yet again; essentially having to continuously chase them.  Sure, this might be effective in the fact that if you are hitting them hard enough to cause them to fumble backwards; which would be very painful.  But, one of the most difficult things to do is get past the middle range.  So once your able to bridge that gap, why do you want to have to do it yet again?  This of course is assuming your intention was to enter into the "grappling" range; which to me seems to be one of the most effective reasons to learn trapping.

There are two things that stick in my mind in regards to trapping and they both come from Larry Hartsell.

• "Seek safety in the heart of danger." (Paraphrasing) -- Larry Hartsell
• "There's a saying in Wing Chun that I like: Once you have him, you keep him." -- Larry Hartsell

These two statements resonate with me every time I reflect on why I engage in training the trapping range.  Whether it be Jun Fan Gung Fu (Jeet Kune Do) or Filipino trapping, to me the concept is still to bridge the gap in order to enter into grappling range (or more specifically, in order to be able to initate a controlling position while standing or some sort of takedown).

I hope that is some food for thought and encourages further discussion...

Well well well.. the trapping issue. I love this subject and this range of combat. I just happen to live with a Wing Chun man and talk about trapping. I really like the blast in! and sink your wieght in the punch! concept.( most of the time hitting and pin/deflecting at the same time)  it works. and anything that works in a fight is good.

As Tim said " When you are in a "street confrontation" you will fight the same way you train"  I have been in more than a couple of street fights and I will say that in a fight - seldom do we rise to our highest level of exspectation but, sink to our lowest level of training - a quote from Sifu Hartsell I believe. And I 100% agree.

Since I am a JKDc man I really like to balance things and be well rounded. If I need to crash in! and pin arms, knock back, knock down, off balance, ect.. then I want to be able to do that. If (as in Wing Chun) I want to keep my guy in range so I don't have to chase him down, then I bridge the gap, fill the emptyness, deflect/supress if need and shift stances to keep centerline. I never plan to trap ( or seal ) it happens only when it needs to and is done in transist. First rule of trapping = Hit Hit Hit.

That's all I have now.

Tracy.

Alright...! Now we are getting into some good conversations. I love trapping....I love to train it and spar it. I agree with Tracy and Eddie in the fact that you will spend hundreds of hours training your trapping which in a real fight will last only a second. Which is all you need.  When you perform a trap it is most likely one of those things that will happen and after the fact you will ask someone.." hey did you see what I did when I crashed in" because it is muscle memory and you will do it out of instinct. Trapping is really great as a transition to grappling. If a guy throws a jab or better yet a "cross" this is perfect for trapping...jam his arm and hit- step up into him and go right into a really good take down. Next post I am going to talk about the tie up range which is my FAVORITE area.

Keep posting brothers.

Ben and Tim.

I've been in so many situations and in each one that ended up on the ground I always had scrapes and abrasions and a lot of soreness the next day.  We don't normally train on asphalt or gravel.  But the important thing is that we train and maintain a level of fitness so that your flexibility and balance will help keep you from more severe injury.  I've just recently gotten into the trapping and grappling and I love it.  Now, I personally never want to go to the ground, I am very tall and its a long way down there, but that's where most of the fights end up.

Tim, you said you never know what kind of weapon the other person may pull out.  When I was a rookie officer my partner and I  were chasing a guy for a minor traffic violation when the decided to run.  After a short car chase he turned his car sideways and we were able to pull him out of the car and as we attempted to arrest him he resisted and we took him to the ground while fighting him.  Well lo and behold there I am on my back with the bad guy in a top mount (I didn't know any of that then, and thank goodness neither did he).  All I could do was take my flashlight, you know the big long one thats like a club (ok, it is a club with a light on the end) and wack him on the head as hard as I could.  He jumped up and ran off with us chasing him.  We couldn't catch him but I found out two things later: one, he was wanted for Aggravated Robbery, and two, as he ran away he ditched the gun that he was carrying.  I learned a lot that night and thank God that I lived through it.  When the bad guy was arrested the next week the arresting officer did tell me he had quite a gash on his head. (I wonder how he got that?)

Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.  You never know who or what may confront you.

Eddie, thanks for the post. You are right in saying that drills are drills and combat is combat and you will fight like you train. Drills are used for making you better...as a way to enhance your skills in a certain area. We all have to train drills but at the same time we have to keep in mind that they are only drills and if we really want to get better then we will have to at some point spar them. If you want to improve your trapping then spar it. Get out on the mat with a willing partner and let it go. Try pulling off a trap against an opponent who is boxing...against someone in the tie up or even on the ground.

Train Hard and Train Smart...but Train.