[Arthur]

I've been avoiding posting on another thread here for about a week But this one seems to have some room for serious discussion and some so0cial smooth over

Scott Sonnon explains in Fisticuffs that "casting" strikes can be used for striking and grappling simultaneously without distinction. Can anyone explain this?

At the risk of sounding like an elitist snob... I really don't understand how this can be avoided. "Inertia is!" To see grappling and striking as separate and distinct, seems like a lot of effort directed towards a non-logical goal.

From what I got out of it, casting is a fast strike carried out by torquing (I know it sounds bad, but it's not) joints in succession enroute to a target.

I disagree. IMO, speed has nothing to do with it, and sequenctial muscular recruitment is more important than "joints" per se.

Casting (from what I understand) is when you put your arm out, enroute you'd turn your elbow, wrist and palm a second before making contact, creating twice the amount of rotational force into the area.
I don't mean to be calling one of my "homies" out in public,but I disagree. Let's talk about it in class. FWIW, I think I saw Mario hit you with a fair amount of casting strikes last Saturday. He likes the casting strikes you know.

Which is a good way to follow up with a "I'll hit you different" kind of punch. *winks at DCohen*

LMAO!

In his tape "Fisticuffs" which I just got to look over from my Systema instructor, he demonstrates some interesting and useful strikes, as well as drills.

ooh thats me... I feel famous now. Seriously though... its a good tape. Plenty of nice material on there.

However, some of the strikes and movements he does are too "Boxer-esque" and prone to creating a situation when you square off of someone
Displaying RMA for a variety of audiences is always difficult. That which you'd show to RMA practitioners is the opposite of what you'd show to non-RMA practitioners. Its a pain in the ass and it sucks.

Systema tries to move on multiple planes

Systema always moves on multiple planes... and from what I've seen so does ROSS.
Yes, casting are good strikes, but I've felt whipstrikes that were twice as hard.
Don't mean to picking on you... but I guarantee I can let you feel casting strikes that are twice as hard as any whip strikes you've felt. For the record and conversation, with a little bit of experimental attitude in mind... I hit you after class on Saturday with a one inch strike... was that weaker or stronger than the whip strikes you've felt? The mechanics were casting based.

On to annoying someone else

I would like to clear up the difference between Casting and Whipping because there is solid science behind why casting is preferred by RMAX.

The best teacher I ever had (9th and 11th grade English) always said... the beginning of wisdom, is the definition of terms. Its easier for me to respond to "Irish_Blood" as he is now in my classes and I have a sense of how he views and approaches things... but I realize that as I go forward with this discussion Mr. Chomycia and myself might have very differnet definitions of the same terms.
I have found their are several differnt versions of whip strikes floating around. even within the Systema community, let alone the rMA community... their are multiple versions. I agrtee that the vast majority of whip strike training I see is injurious to the joints. Though I would add that their are methods of throwing whip strikes that circumvent that issue. Of course that change starts to put them in the realm of the casting strike... albeit on a wider arc than normally shown.

There is one more advantage to a casting strike and that is since your movement is more sophisticated and the energy more dispersed through your joints, this type of striking is more sustainable and less likely to cause the practitioner problems later in life. For those of us who want to train for a long time that is an important factor considering that the longer you train the more likely you are to accumulate injuries.

This is a really important point. Much of the whip strike practice I've seen, will leave the practitioner crippled after a period of time.

I find this comment has no relevance other than to try discredit someone's point of view on a particular strategy.

Then you should look more deeply. There is a history of cyber war between Systema and ROSS. Those of us that were their when those wars were in action, have reference points that can influence what we think and how we perceive things. This is a good place to write about this... to address this... because I KNOW Irish_Blood had no intention or thought of malicious content. I think if you ask around the ROSS community you'll find a consensus that my students are some of the least likely to make such comments with an agenda. Such tactics simply won't be tolerated at my school.Likewise the ROSS practioners that take place in class have built up some pretty loyal ties among the students, and I don;t think the students would attempt to attack their classmates.

In fact it is impossible for human beings to not move on multiple planes.
I agree wholle heartdly. Though I must admit some people try their damnedest to do so.

Tension in striking is necessary to minimize trauma in the joints, the question is how much and when.

This comment I have issues with. First there is that issue of term definition again. What is tension? There is muscular tension, The tension derived by contraction in an agonist... and their is mechanical tension. mechanical tension being a pulling force put on musculo-skeletal tissue. Without knowing which we are talking about (they manifest as direct opposites) we really can't have a meaningful talk on the subject. On the other hand, I can hit with a lack of either and make it hurt pretty darn good.

First off, this was not a bash on RMAX. I've bought a good amount of videos from Mr.Sonnon and got a lot out of them.

I'd have to second that.
During training we saw them as "rope punches" because of how they moved toward the target.
Good stuff Irish_Blood. I like to see you thinking in terms of simple machines and their componenets.

Good point, but whip strikes delivered from the shoulder can be done off balence also.

I agree... and if understood properly... from many points.

Interesting! Do you have any reference for this? Or any more material on it? This might be something I should bring up next time in class...
Please bring it up. Many classes before you joined I brought that up. I'm always happy to talk about it some more.

Arthur