Women Close Combat fighters of America's Civil War

During the American civil war (1861-1865) saying the war is hell was first spoken, and with good reason. All battles was a meat Grinder and even the winner would take large losses. Each battle boiled close fight, despite technological advances, and only well-educated and incredibly courageous survived. Not all those who fought was, however, men. There were women, who were motivated by patriotism and a sense of adventure, who dressed as men and joined the fight. These women would fight bravely, and serve.

The war was a mixture of new weapons, old strategies and fanatical patriotism and the results were devastating. Almost all generals on both sides were trained the exactly the same and used the strategies and tactics created by General Napoleon Bonaparte. The problem was his ideas were difficult to understand, and it was easy to make mistakes. To make things worse was the set up for a second time. Soldiers fought in closely packed groups and was devastated by new and deadlier weapons. If you managed to get past all the various weapons had you still take the enemy in close combat.

Policy set aside, it took an awesome amount of courage to enlist and fight. While a number of women are helped by nurses and spying on, other train frontline positions. There is at least 400 cases in the Union's Army of women dressing as men to battle. There were also a number of Southern women joined the fight for the Confederacy. Some were caught right away and sent home, but more than a few experienced their share of struggle. The men they served with often times kept their secret, and treated them as comrades.

Pennsylvania native Mrs. Francis l. Clayton merged with her husband in 1861 and fought together in 18 battle. She was wounded three times, captured once and so her husband die by Stone River. After that she told her chief officer who she was, and she was sent home with full honnor and went home to bury her husband. Another married couples served at Antietam where the wife was recognized for bravery and promoted in its two years of service. An officer reported that a corporal under his command, which had been promoted to Sergeant and had served the goodly in Fredericksburg returned home after the birth.

Those who survived the shot and shell of a civil war battlefield had still to be included in the handout hand fight with the enemy the worst conditions. It took everything a soldier had to survive on the battlefield, and both women and men gave it all they had. Today women serve in many positions in the United States's military and police officers and instructors is martial arts. Women come a long way, but many still do not think they belong in battle. Some seem to believe women can not aggressive enough, or worse-that a life of a woman is worth more then the life of a man. Perhaps not all women are fit to serve, but not all men are either, and we must never forget those who served valiantly before.

Captain Chris Pizzo has dedicated his life to not only spread "truth" about martial arts and self defense, but also to teaching the very same simplistic and easy-to-learn answers he discovered after nearly stabbed to death during a road rage attacks. You can learn more about him and take a no-obligation "test drive" of his award-winning Close Combat training system completely free at http://www.CloseCombatTraining.com

Learn how to kick: Kicking effectively in a self-defense or Combat Situation part 4 of 10

This 10-article series will deal with the various components that must be Add be calculator, when considering the use of a particular kick in a combat or self-defense situation. These ten components can also be used by the tournament competitor, although certain segments should be changed slightly for the tournament aspects of kicking, rather than the more intensive nature in order to use a kick or kick in battle. Although all of these individual components is important, is the most effective when combined together and utilized properly executing a kick.

Although I am only going to discuss one of the components in this article, here is the complete list of all ten of them.

1. Your kicking ability

2. Your intended use

3. Environment

4. Telegraphing

5. Striking the Implementer

6. Striking correct objective

7. Initial impact

8. impact

9. Deviation or follow-up action are

10. Return to the fighting position

Component four; Telegraphing:

Telegraphing can and will take many forms. Most are subconscious nature, while the other is done deliberately, but inadvertently. Most people would not not and deliberately telegraph their intentions to their opponent, but end up doing so in any event, primarily due to lack of proper training. What I would do in this article is to present you with the most common forms of telegraphing when kicking and the three most effective ways to eliminate them.

Verbalizing:

Verbalizing your intentions is usually done by opening your mouth and declaration to your opponent that you want to kick his ass or words to that effect. This not only telegraphs your intentions to your opponent, but it can also be used against you if your opponent decides to take you to the Court on a civil case after the dispute has arisen. It can also be used against you, if the authorities are involved and it turns into a criminal case.

Your foot and what comes out of it can be one of your greatest assets, or one of your worst enemies. So instead of opening your mouth and tells your opponent your intentions are keep closed and let him wonder.

Eye Contact:

Ever wonder why the United States Secret Service agents wear sunglasses? No, it is not to look cool or really to keep the Sun out of their eyes. Although it is the original purpose of the sunglasses. The Secret Service's primary purpose is for wearing sunglasses is to keep people from seeing where and what their eyes see. This gives also disable the perception of that they are looking everywhere at once.

One of the most common telegraphs a person want to do is to look at part of the body, to which he intends to strike on their opponent. This is a dead giveaway and should never happen, unless you are able to carry out deceptive strategy.

Ideally, your eyes focused on your opponent like a flashlight with mid light centered on your opponent's upper chest. While your peripheral vision scans his whole body like the external view of the flashlight. At no time should your eyes be focused like a laser beam on a single point of focus.

Facial Expressions:

Have you ever heard of a person has a "poker face?" This means that the person concerned does not give off any signs of emotion, betray his emotions. This is quite common in poker players and should be one of many goals, you will want to strive to reduce the chances of accidental telegraphing your intentions to your opponent.

Keep your face so cold and emotionless as face on a Granite statue.

Shoulder, Arm and upper body movements:

Hunching over the shoulders and torso in the waist is often very good indicators that a person gets ready to kick. Another is to lower hands before kicking in.

Always see yourself in the mirror and look close to yourself and what you do before and during the opening of your kick. Write them down and then remove them.

Finally, your goal should be to have a ' poker body ' go with your poker face.

Shifting your weight:

If you are a relatively inexperienced on kicking in, you will almost always telegraph your intentions to kick by significantly shifting your weight onto your non-kicking legs. This is almost always accompanied by a reduction of the hands.

If you are an experienced kicker, there should be no noticeable difference in your weight distribution on the eve of the kicking. This is of course dependent on you executing each component of kick correctly.

Improper opening of Kick:

This is usually done by either one of two things; not set up your kick with another technique prior to initiating the, and/or lifting your legs with your thigh muscles to kick rather than correctly takes advantage of your foot and ankle to lift your legs up.

The 3 most common ways to eliminate Telegraphing:

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

1. Practice the correct technique:

This is pretty much a no-brainer here. If you have a 99% of properly kick and 1% incorrect, so you have an incorrect kick. You must practice (regularly) to each component of kick correctly and with correct mind-set, in order to achieve the maximum amount of productivity and efficiency out of your kick.

2. Practice with a competent education Partner:

You partner can and will have a different perspective on you and your kicking skills and will be able to critical feedback necessary for you to improve these skills. Have a good training partner is invaluable to improve your kicking skills, so when you find one, do not take them for granted.

3. practice in a mirror in front:

The mirror is without doubt my favorite piece of equipment for use in order to improve the effectiveness of my spark. Should your goal is to be able to perform your kick the impact before the note in the mirror that you actually have kicked. Of course this is not easy to do, it should not.

Ideally your kick strike your opponent before he sees it, and before you even realize you have cast it.

Shawn Kovacich have practicing martial arts for over 25 years and currently holds the rank of the 4th degree (Yodan) black belt in Karate and Tae Kwon both Do. Shawn has also participated in such prestigious full-contact bare border karate competitions as Shidokan Open and Sabaki Challenge, among others. In addition to its many holdings is Shawn also a record holder of two time world for endurance high kicking certified by Guinness Book of World Records. Shawn is the author of the highly acclaimed achieving Kicking Excellence Series and can be reached via his website at http://www.kickingbooks.com:

Click the following link to learn more about Crescent Kick,: Crescent Kick