TechniquesAs the name implies, 52 Blocks has been described as adefense based countering fighting style. Thats a little misleading though because as its taught and displayed today, I would say its 50/50 defense / offense in application. The blocks themselves are intended not only to defend but to inflict injury at the same time. To any of you who had ever punched an elbow, youll appreciate the gravity of a fist landing on hard bone.This often results in fractures to the metacarpels. This can also occur to punches landing on the head, which is why palm strikes are the preferred method of striking to the head in hand to hand combat. Slaps are used in 52 Blocks street fighting moves. Its an ever advancing method involving dynamic torso twisting, tight footwork, shifting stances, and a natural flowing pressure-fighting feel. Some of the blocks or moves are: Skull and Crossbones Close Door Open Door Triangle Train Black Man Rising Kiss and Catch Scoop against shank g-lock The pants leg flip Shaolin blocks Secret g=mc lock Defense against an uppercut Circle hands trap Hook and take down. Open gates (buttefly) and take down. Choke out The shank Gun disarming Slap hands etc.Prominent New York trainer, Lyte Burly maintains that 52 Blocks is 90% elbows. Unlike the stiffer approach though used in Muay Thai, 52 requires fluidity of the shoulder joints and rotator cuffs. This is achieved by daily mobility exercises that increase and maintain that suppleness of the joints.Footwork and body MovementsAlthough developed in close quarters situations, such as crowded and cramped cells, it does have footwork and evasive moves of the head. It is common to hone reflexes and condition the defensive movements through highly repetitious fear drills and dodging moves.Elbow and Forearm Blocks

Theseare the predominant guard techniques employed. This gives an interesting insight into the origins of the style, as it is thought that shackled slaves employed this form of protection when beaten. With the hands tied elbows and forearms were all that was left to defend with.Jab Catch and Elbow Block Combos

These techniques really highlight 52s defense emphasis. The one pictured above is a counter to a jab / straight right combo. The jab is caught and then the elbow presented to spoil the incoming straight right.Punches and Arm MovementsWhen you see a display of 52 Blocks, there sometimes appears to be an unnecessary amount of arm motion. These movements are not always employed in actual fights, but are often just drills that aid the student in becoming at ease with his bodys natural movement patterns.

It is not a hard fighting method, despite the ferocity of its blocks. There is no kata employed as such, as in traditional karate, but an improvisational form of blocking patterns is used as a form of shadow boxing.Haymaker punch(more often called theOverhand Rightin MMA) is often used in 52. Why? Consider a situation where a man is waving a knife in your face. Your backs up against a wall. At some point though, you getthechance to throw something at him. You want to go over his hands, rather than take a path that could land your knuckles on his blade. So the Haymaker is the obvious choice. Rashad Evans used the Haymakerin his UFC match against Chuck Liddell. This punch is Liddells favourite, his trademark almost. But Evans beat him at his own game, throwing one at the same time Liddell did. Evans landed a fraction of a second earlier, and knocked Liddell out.Catching Punches52 employs a lot of techniques that involve a sort of hybrid of blocks and holds. These are designed to simultaneously defend,immobilize, and set up counter attacks. They are useful in real lifeselfdefense, and in mixed martial arts competition.

Practitioners sometimes refer to these techniques as catching punches. There are several techniques but the most famous is the kiss and catch which made Mother Dear famous. The move involves catching a haymaker or wild overhand throw. The opponents arm is then locked and a counter to either the head or body is dealt as the locked arm ismaneuvered to open the opponent up. It can be used against jabs too, but requires speed and accuracy. Its a dangerous one for the novice as the back is exposed to a degree.The New York Jiu-Jitsu ConnectionIf you have ever learnt Jiu-Jitsu (the original Japanese style, not Brazilian/Gracie Jiu-Jitsu), you might have noticed a lot of similarities with the blocking-holding moves in 52 Blocks. This is an odd relationship because Jiu-jitsu has almost became extinct in Japan. It is a lost art and no longer passed from generation to generation. A lot of you reading this wont know too much about the original Jiu-Jitsu as its been overshadowed by BJJ. When you mention Jiu-Jitsu people think of the ground game they see in MMA. However,original Jiu-Jitsuwasprimarily a stand-up fighting art.

So where is the New York connection? Enter Professor Kiyose Nakae. Back in the 1940s and 50s he was considered the foremost instructor of authentic Jiu-Jitsu in the world. Seeing that the art was dying out in his native Japan, he moved to America and set up in New York City circa 1908. There he taught thousands of private students, and also the armed services and police department. He was like the original Bruce Lee, in that he shared a previously secret fighting art to a western audience. Its not surprising then that his influence on the New York martial arts scene has permeated 52 Blocks. My father was a student of a student of Nakaes,the author of the book Jiu-Jitsu Complete. Below is a photo ofme with the original hardcover published in 1958.

Rhythm, Synergy and Spatial AwarenessCoaches of the art maintain that paying attention to your own rhythm is vital. Without this, the essential synergy needed cant be developed. The aim of this is to fight with natural, rather than contrived body movements.At its core, 52 is an up closeinfightingsystem. Among coaches, the analogy of the phone booth is used. This is to make students aware of the space they need to focus on in order to judge their opponents angles and movements. To this end, sparing often takes place in corners, stair wells, and roped off areas of not more than a few square feet.Although the style is often slated as dirty boxing, it isnt if looked at from an MMA perspective. Most trainers deny its dirty boxing but instead an effective form of self defence. They insist that it is as valid a style of martial art as boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Muay Thai etc.Capoeira, and 52 BlocksSome people have said there are organic connections between Capoeira and 52. However, there are big differences in the techniques employed. For example, there are no roundhouse kicks, amadas (spinning back circular kick) or 45 degeree kicks in 52 Blocks.There may have been a point in history where the two were similar due to the trafficking of slaves from Africa to Brazil and the Southern States of America. But as the two styles stand now, they are miles apart.The Migration of 52 Blocks fromthe Prison System to the GymSome say this style has died and is no longer being passed down. The reason stated is that disputes in prison are seldom sorted by fist fights nowadays. Ive asked ex-inmates about this and been told its generally true.. Most disputes are settled by merchandise (money, drugs, phones etc, all being exchanged to cool things off). Or a straight shank in the back of the neck.

The Death of Fist FightsUp until the late 80s though, it was still common to sort out a problem with your hands. Straight fights between two inmates, with a nod from a prison guard, were an accepted way of resolving issues. There was a code of conduct and the acceptance of defeat and victory that put an end to the matter. But Gangs and their ever growing use of weaponry on the outside ended all that. Nowadays, weapons are improvised from a variety of objects, including tuna cans, plastic chair legs, bone etc., in order to fashion tools that draw blood. And that is the bottom line.Fist fights, if they do occur, are usually started by first timers who dont have too much of an understanding about prison politics. Wanting to make a rep for themselves, they lash out when provoked. The consequences are usually dire. As the gang system controls most aspects of prison life, what takes place on the street, is merely transferred inside, but with a change of weaponry. So instead of a drive-by shooting, someone just walks up behind their target and an improvised knife does the business. Its an unemotional solution to a problem. Nothing but business.So if the days of honour among thieves are dead and buried, has 52 Blocks, aka Jailhouse Rock, ceased to exist? Well, thanks to the current popularity of mixed martial arts, it has found a way back from near extinction. Its thriving in the boxing gyms and public parks of New York City.Lyte Burly and 52 AODOne of the mostprominenttrainers on the scene isLyte Burly. Burly (who teaches in and around Tompkins Square Park,Manhattan) is pushing 52 into a broaderMMA technique. His new take on the style -52 AOD(Art of Defense) fuses it with the kicking aspects of Muay Thai, tae-kwon-do and wing-chun, and the ground fighting of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.

The logic behind this appraoch Burly takes is that nowadays men do not usually call each other out, and fight with fists like they used to. Things are more sneaky andvicious. If you went to ground in an honour match years ago, youropponentwould do the decent thing and let you get back to your feet. Not so today! Youre more likely to get a kicking while you lay on the ground at best, and a knife in the back of the neck at worst. Or even shot.So Burly looks at things holistically. He takes theBruce Leeapproach in using what works and discards the rest even some of the more traditional 52 moves. The core elemental values of 52 Blocks are still there. Especially the rhythmical body movements. To this end he employs tai-chi, so his students can learn energy flow and leverage.Daniel MarksMarks is a scholar in the truest sense of the word. An accomplished fighter and trainer himself, he is on a mission to preserve 52 Blocks as an integral part of African American culture. He has been researching it andpiecing together the bigger picture since he

first learnt of the style during his military service. He teaches the style, its history and culturalsignificance in New York and beyond. He compares it to Jazz, believing it is just as integral to Black American culture as the music form. He has lectured at Black History conferences to this effect.Daniel Marks runs the 52 Blocks Preservation Program which helps helps ex-offenders re-integrate into society. It does this by an education program which helps them set themselves up as 52 Blocks instructors. Marks employs his professional social work experience to aid them in avoiding the too often easy path back into crime.

Born Justus (BJ)BJ is is a fight trainer. He spent 33 years of his life behind the wall as he puts it. So he is wellacquaintedwith the prison fighting styles that predominated back inthe60s and 70s. His take on 52 Blocks is that it is boxing taken to another level. He claims that a lot of the methods seen now, were created by boxingenthusiastsduring the 1960s and 70s. These fighters worked offboxingas a foundation, and a lot of the techniques they created were a fusion of western boxing and eastern martial arts such as Karate, King Fu, Stato etc. It was a quest to find the perfect defense,andto break the accepted methodologies and rules employed by boxing trainers of the time to take fighting to another level.

BJ saw that boxers were trapped into fixed ways of fighting and training. His take on 52 is that you should be able to throw ahookor ajabfromanywhereand still maintain guard, by the use of elbows and forearms. His philosophy is based onmentor-shipand brotherhood. He believes in passing on the art form free of charge, andencouraginghis disciples to do the same.