sensei8

Well...as wishy washy as this sounds...My students make me good! A good martial artist has the ability to see the Yin within the Yang and the Yang within the Yin. My students help me to see that both the Yin and the Yang are seperate although interwined because one can't be without the other. A martial artist learns to accept life in it’s totality with it’s ‘advantages’ and ‘disadvantages’. Aside from the skills of self defence, Martial arts paves the road to becoming a better person.

Well...my tenure as the November 2009 Member Of The Month is nearing an end. It's been both an honor as well as a priviledge. I pray that I've not let anyone down and that I've not made KF think that they made a mistake when they selected me for this honor! I've been in great company having been listed amoungst past Member Of The Month inductee's. Good luck to the December 2009 Member Of The Month as well as future awardee's! Again...I thank you all!!!!!!!!!!!

Yepper!

I've been before, but, I don't think I'll be back there anytime soon and not at all in 2010!

Not as of late! Imho, any Kata that's been "tweaked" can't be called traditional. But, I'm sure it depends on how one views the word "traditional"!

You forgot your signature Kata...Haku Tsuru! I'm just funning with you!

I employ my HIPS! No hips = Nothing! Drill until the cows fly over the moon, but, without proper hip usage, nothing is all one will achieve. Everything must be in concert: start and end at the same time and traveling the same course: Out and back. I wish I had something long and fantastic to answer your question, but, I'm sorry, that's all I employ, it's just that basic and it's just as specifically speaking as I can be!

I'm for being physically fit at all, but, how does one being able to do 150 push-ups and/or the like equate with being able to do effective techniques? I've not done 1 push-up and/or the like during any testing in my past 45 years in the martial arts, nor have I ever required any of my students to do the same because if I can do the push-ups but I can't do any effective technque(s) effectively, then, I just might as well learn to run a marathon so that I can outrun my attacker.

Was the 22% gratuity supported/protected/enforced by some law? If so, then, imho, your student who is a police officer that flashed his badge...is he now above the law?

You know, this is just me and I like the Code of Bushido, but, I love and obey God...ONLY!

No, but it can make someone note that there's something there to be aware/forewarned about. The possibility that this very large person might be able to pick up the Empire State Building like it was just a feather or that this very large person can crush the Empire State Building like it was a piece of paper...well... it's a possibility that I can't ignore. I'll only know for sure when the very large person and I engage one another in combat.

Sherdog.com! OK! I'll try that. I do my own research on-line just as you've listed above, but, not with sherdog...so...I'll try that. Besides, I was sure that Ortiz was going to win no matter what stats were telling me, but, sheech, I went with my emotions over stats......DUH! I'm such a dork!

Please let us know what happens.

Doubt it...don't doubt it. Believe in it...don't believe in it. That's the prerogative of every martial arts practitioner. Nonetheless, you've had and I've had students from time to time doubt the effectiveness of some technique that you/I were teaching them, but, once you/I told the student to fight/resist you/me with their every being no matter what, then, you/I would prove its effectiveness and that that technique CAN work. At that very moment, that's when your/my student became believers of that technique. BTW, you/I were once THAT very student until our Sensei made you/I believers too. You/me/our students were doubting Thomas' more times that we care to remember, but, you/me/our students only doubted any technique until our Sensei emerged us in the waters of that technique. After that, you/me/our students came out baptised believers of that technique. After all...Why would I teach my students ineffective techniques? I WON'T and I DON'T!!!!

Seems to me that everyone's forgetting about ones driving base: the front leg and the back leg while in a stance. What are those legs doing all the while when someone's executing, for example, a reverse punch? Crudely, their pushing/driving the body forward, which is helping to amplify that punch. Snap or follow-through are both still dependant on one of its crucial and important ingredient: the driving base. We have to also appreciate that the difference between these two types of technique is not that one is done more quickly than the other and not that a thrust is held out while a snap is pulled back immediately. Realistically, because of the lightness that is inherent in snapping techniques they may well be quicker than thrusting ones but that should not influence the intent. Every technique in Karate should be intended to be as fast as possible. That's why I believe that, while Kata is still very vital to the three K's, Kata teaches us to pose the technique(s) in a deliberate pause; this is wrong and this pose/pause makes that particular technique(s) in Kata totally ineffective! Not because I say so, but, because posing/pausing a technique(s) goes against natural laws and the like, imho. Regardless of whether it’s a snap/follow-through (strike/thrust) with either the foot or the hand, for it to be truly effective and efficient the return course must also be the same. When we send out a punch with the elbow behind the fist we must take care that the elbow returns first with the fist following. This sounds to be very obvious, but, it's frequently not done. Therefore, if the kick/strike/punch starts its life out as a thrust it must return as one. So, if a technique starts out in life as a snap it must return along the same path. This makes it possible to have a relatively effective hit along the entire course of the technique and not just at the end. Of course, without the hips, everything in the martial arts is quite mute!

Again...the stripes and/or the belt don't indentify whom I am as a person and/or as a martial artist. No! I'm defined by my inner-content not by my exterior-context! For as crude as I can put it, and I'm speaking of myself...I'm not a clown who wears costumes and the like. NO! I'm a person first, a martial artist second, and in that, I'm a person who wears a belt with rank stripes.

Romanticization! I concur with this thought/label. I believe in the Code of Bushido BUT I DON'T practice the romanticization of it. That/those can be saved for...a movie out of Hollywood, but, not in me and not in my martial arts and not in my dojo!

That's a good point! Bruce did say the following.... "I have not invented a "new style," composite, modified or otherwise that is set within distinct form as apart from "this" method or "that" method. On the contrary, I hope to free my followers from clinging to styles, patterns, or molds. Remember that Jeet Kune Do is merely a name used, a mirror in which to see "ourselves". . . Jeet Kune Do is not an organized institution that one can be a member of. Either you understand or you don't, and that is that. There is no mystery about my style. My movements are simple, direct and non-classical. The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune-Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune-Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Kung Fu, the less wastage of expression there is. Finally, a Jeet Kune Do man who says Jeet Kune Do is exclusively Jeet Kune Do is simply not with it. He is still hung up on his self-closing resistance, in this case anchored down to reactionary pattern, and naturally is still bound by another modified pattern and can move within its limits. He has not digested the simple fact that truth exists outside all molds; pattern and awareness is never exclusive. Again let me remind you Jeet Kune Do is just a name used, a boat to get one across, and once across it is to be discarded and not to be carried on one's back."

Thanks Patrick and right back at you and ditto to everyone here at KF! Now the fun...leftover mania heheheheheheheheeheeeeeeeeee :::BURB::: Excuse me; sorry! Someone pass me a toothpick please!

What does that question have to do with anything? So, let's say, for grins and giggles, that every technique ever thought of in the martial arts hasn't been used per your question. Has every technique in Shotokan, for example, been used per your question? Does that mean that that/those/these/them/this technique(s) should never be considered or tried? And, if not, should 'it' be thrown away with the bath water? The only thing that matters to ME is this: Is the technique effective? If it is for ME, then it stays. If it isn't for ME, then it goes. I'll determine its effectiveness or the lack thereof through the many trials and tribulations that surrounds each and every technique within the martial arts. Not my Sensei, not my association, not the Founder, and not any other martial artist/person. Me and me alone!

Brian, This will satisfy the University's insurance requirements? I hope so!

This includes martial artists who think pressure points will work and martial artists with many levels of dan. Why say this? What's your point? I do believe in pressure points and I've many levels of dan.

It's not complacency at all, imho, to believe in ones ability while using such tactics and the like. I make the technique work; the technique is dependant on ME, no matter the technique!

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a snapping wet towel? Well, that's a crude explanation of the bold type above. If that wet towel doesn't snap back to serve its effectiveness, well, the only thing the wet towel will do for me is...well...get the other person wet.

Great. So, being a trap shooter or sniper, doesnt mean you can hunt either. But, it doesn't mean that you can't. Being familiar/trained, to shoot a gun in this example, would give an edge over someone who isn't familiar/trained at all. Aquiring the training is only half/part of the solution! Ok, I'll go back to my corner!