On Combat Maneuvers

I spoke with a skilled arnisadore on Monday, and the topic of disarms came up.  Back when I did a fair bit of arnis, we trained a lot of locks and disarms, but this gentleman (who had considerably more applied experience than we) was less a fan.  To paraphase:

"Locks and disarms both work very well against opponents of inferior size, strength, speed, and skill than you, but against an opponent who is your equal in these areas, you will almost never succeed.  There is a police officer who trains here sometimes, who is over six feet and has biceps the size of my head.  If I try to put him in a stick lock, he laughs and flexes, and my cane bends.  So once I asked him "Well, what if I hit you in the head with a stick instead?"  And he answered that that would be much more effective.  Striking is almost always more effective.  Don't mess around with fancy tricks; hit him instead.  My disarm is hitting the opponent's hand."

Interesting to see that in this area, 3.x and its relatives are quite accurate.