For martial arts and based on emergency department police assault & tournament fight injury data 

Book Contents (213 pages in total)

Section A:    Medically relevant outcomes of Street Fights - the data!  

“Practical martial arts” defined by medically important  injury rates 

A1    What is practical in Martial Arts & Self Defense? Use data!     

A2    The data on Choking and Strangulation Techniques

A3    The need for Break-Fall Techniques?

A4    Statistics on Grappling Techniques

A5    Statistics on Striking versus Grappling Techniques

A6    Group Assault

A7    Sharp & Blunt Objects as Weapons

A8    Martial Arts “Budo” training - “All roads lead to Rome” 

Full contact fighting vs. point fighting vs. & evolution of the 

traditional martial arts 

A9     A brief evolution of martial arts

A10   Karate as a case study on the history of Okinawan forms, sports martial 

          arts & their relationship to self defense

         A11   Jack of all trades and master of none – inner strength in technique

                                        – karate, kung fu, kick boxing, MMA & boxing

        A12    WKF & Shotokan point style systems and their impact on bunkai 

                                        & self defense drills

A13    Combative scenario flow charts for fighting

A14    Sports physiology & modern competitive fighting approaches

A15    WKF & other tournament medical reports

A16    Moving beyond just block counter

Section B:    The Psychology of Violence – attacker and defender considerations

B1   The Psychology of self-defense and attackers 

    Psychological Theory behind Self-Defense= 

B1.1   The Psychology of self-defense and attackers

B1.2   Importance of preparation and training

B1.3   Dispelling some myths about self-defense 

Applied Psychology in Violent Encounters 

B2.1   What makes you a target?

B2.2   What are the situations to avoid?

B2.3   Pre-encounter awareness

B2.4   Recognizing the type of criminal

B2.5     De-escalation, not backing down & knowing when to back down

B3        How to use the eyes in the pre-fight & fight: 

             technique detection & influence opponents

B4      Attitude once an assault has begun – tying ancient budo  

            philosophy to modern psychology

B5     The stress response to extreme danger & how that effects fighting 

           capabilities

Section C:    Commentary on The Law and Self Defense considerations 

C1        Foreword by the primary author, Jason Armstrong

C2        An Overview of law considerations by Adrian Cartland

Section D:    The Medical & Physiology mechanisms of techniques that according to 

                        statistics are  more likely in street fights.

The mechanics of a knock-out – physiology & medical outcomes

D1.2    The difference of not seeing it coming - “The King Hit”

              - the importance of the jaw and neck muscles

D1.3    Rotational force is a key in knockouts

D1.4    The back of the head as a target

D1.5    When the chin is struck directly from the front

D1.6   Knock-out via the temple region

D1.7    Where to strike the jaw and the outcomes

D2    Damaging the jaw bone and jaw joint/hinge

D3    “Ground and pound” – knocking out people on the ground?

D4    Diagnostics to prevent follow-on injury for martial artists after concussion

Striking people in the temple region and other possible skull fractures 

Impact & throw derived whiplash

The nose as a target 

Injuries to the cheek region 

Attacks to the ear

Tooth damage or loss: What to do before arriving at the dentist 

Strikes to the eyes

    D11.1   Eye injury types related to strikes 

D11.2   Detection of incoming attacks & psychological considerations 

Throat & Carotid Strikes

D12.1   Blood choke versus air chokes 

Striking the ribs & stomach region

D13   Ribs and pneumothorax

D13.1   Striking the liver or spleen

D13.2   Striking the solar plexus, why it hurts & why you cannot breathe 

Impacting the Kidney region 

Bladder ruptures & contusions

Hematomas - using thigh or calf kick as an example

Section E:     Medically relevant issues related to long-term martial arts training

                        - but not likely to be related to serious street fight outcomes 

Elbow injuries related to reverse joint locks 

     Punching with snap and elbow lockout

                           - is it the traditional way to do the technique? 

“Ude Tanren” – Bone, arm, hand and leg conditioning 

Damage to the testicles 

Back pain related to martial arts training

                            - linking it to fighting stances, stretches & everyday posture 

Damaging the knee 

Broken fingers and toes 

Ganglions 

Herpes Gladatorium 

Staphylococcus Skin infections

Section F:     Mapping a curriculum to address your sport & the street fighting data

                        - a case study with karate compared to modern fighting styles

Considerations in sports & traditional curriculum design to ensure

             a coverage of the medically important techniques 

Example belt test curricula with a data map to the top 7 street injury types

              F1   Relevance to street scenarios while holding to an art’s “tradition”

              F2   Curriculum focus versus diversity – evidence based practice (EBP) 

              F3    A gender based curriculum?

              F4    A note on kicks

              F5    Drills, Bunkai examples & their relevance to the street

              F6    Examples of common kata bunkai trends that are not justified

              F7    Sample curricula focused around the Top 7 most likely techniques

                               - white through to black belt curricula

   References

   Tables & Figures list         

   Contributors Include: 

       Dr. Jonathan Shirley (M.D.), Dr. Matthew gentner (Oral Surgeon) 

      Dr. Jason Amrstron (Ph.D.), Lee-ann Barkhuizen (specialty nurse)        

       Dr. Sarven McLinton (Psychology), Greg & Jaki Scovell (Taekwondo & Karate), 

       Adrian cartland (Lawyer, Karate & MMA)

About the primary author:

In producing this text Dr Jason Armstrong, 7th Dan, has brought together 3 clinical contributors and 3 martial artists. Jason himself has fought in a full contact MMA event in Japan, and has been studying martial arts for 25 years. He has held national titles in both fighting and forms, lived in Japan for a number of years and currently holds a 6th degree black belt in Shito-ryu Karate and a Shihan title.

At the time of authoring the book, Jason worked as the CEO of Medeserv, a medically focused IT company which provided clinicians with ongoing training for practice registration – the company was wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Queensland.