Dog Brothers Public Forum

Hey Gayle,

I am interested in the answer to your question and will keep looking for Crafty's reply.  
However, let me suggest that you pick up a set of the first video tapes while you wait.  IMO they are a great training tool for a "puppy" like myself.  When I ordered them, I was a little worried that they wouldn't be useful since I will likely never fight at the intensity of real contact .  I am glad that I took the risk since I really like the tapes.
The training on the tapes are mostly stuff you can do on your own and I have found (just in the couple of weeks I have had them) that there are some really nice drills.  I get a good work out running through them and practicing with some contact on a BOB (Body Opponent Bag).  It has also helped the Kali that I do in my JKD class immensly.  Some of the drills on closing have impacted my empty hand sparring as well.
The tapes do a great job of explaining why something is important and showing through fight footage how it really plays out, so I feel like I get a lot of the advantage of others experience with real contact even if I  never train to that level.  While real contact experience would probably make things soar in comparison, I feel I get a lot out of the tapes for limited amount I put in.  More importantly, I am really enjoying the training since I feel secure that the techniques have been tested out the hard way (as an ex-boxer/kick boxer, keeping things real is important to me).  
I have no affiliation with the Dog Brothers (never even met one), so I hope you will take this in the spirit it is given.  I am glad you asked your question and look forward to Crafty's reply so that I can think of other ways to work DBMA into my training.

I have been away from Kali and JKD for almost nine years and have just started training again in the last few months.  While catching up on things, I have seen a lot from the straight blast gym guys and other mixed martial artist on functional combat and how many of the energy drills are a waste of time.  Many of their arguments seem to make sense, yet I still have a feeling that hubad and sumbrado have helped me in getting back the motions and flow of combat.  Further, I wonder whether some of the "functional" approaches lead to an early fast learning curve, but then peak (or even the long-term impact of so much contact over a sustained period - I know a lot of punch drunk old boxers).  I have really struggled with this issue and found the traping article by Crafty Dog on this site to be helpful in thinking about my training.  I would love to hear opinions from others, particularly those who have tested their training in real (or at least full) contact stick fighting (I have boxed and kickboxed competitvely when younger, so I have a little better feel for the tradeoffs there) .  Also, it has been several years since Crafty Dog wrote his article, so I thought he might have new views or additional points to make.
Thanks in advance for any help in thinking about these issues and how to adjust my training.