tallgeese

today- 2.5 mile run light chest/tris Long gun shoot at the range. Did the qualification with rifle and shotgun as well as the less lethal. Worked shotgun manipulation drills for about 50 rounds as well.

The goal is not to keep the separate in your response pattern. That should integrate. What I'm talking about is not talking out of turn in a second instructors school until you have the kind of peer relationship with him to be able to do so.

ps1 is on the mark I think. Go in and check it out, wee what his classes are like and if they would fit your learning style. Good luck and keep us posted.

today- 2.5 mile run chest/tris- light 10 min on Boomer repping the open guard movements from last night.

I'll go with the opinion of giving it a whirl if you've got the interest and time. Keep them separate in each respective class and you'll be fine. That means no "in TKD we do it this way...." statements. The key is interest. Don't cross train just to cross train. Look at your goals and see where you want to go. Pick arts and schools that will help you with those goals. For instance, if you want do train in more ranges of fighting, perhaps two hard striking arts won't get you there. If you want softer movements, then two hard styles might not be the thing, ect. Now, if you want to really look at those combinations of arts, defiantly do it. Just make sure that it's getting you to your goal. Good luck, let us know how it goes.

I'll take the dissenting opinion on this one. Check out the Goju, if you like it and have the time do it as well. I'm a fan of cross training and you'll learn alot of softer, more circular concepts in Goju that might compliment your shotokan well. Here's the thing, when you're training at the respective schools keep them seperate for now. That will help you keep each system straight and you'll avoid irritating the respective instructors. As you progress in both, you'll start blending for your own personal response pattern. By then, you'll have been around long enough that this sort of individuality will be expected. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira...Nogueira Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva .........................Silva Chris Leben vs. Jake Rosholt ..........................Leben Nate Marquardt vs. Demian Maia .....................Maia Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski .............Vera Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Chris Tuchscherer ............Gonzaga Ed Herman vs. Aaron Simpson ........................Herman Michael Russow vs. Justin McCully ...................Russow Todd Duffee vs. Tim Hague .............................Hague Mark Munoz vs. Nick Catone ...........................Catone Marcus Aurelio vs. Evan Dunham ....................Aurelio

Having just done seminar work in Aikido and trained with Hapkido people, so take my feeling with a gran of salt, it sounds pretty much on the money from my perspective. It the projection observation you make that makes the joint manipulation I study much more akin to your CH than Aikido. In a combat situation, once you lay hands on someone you have a certain degree of control or potential control of them. If you send them flying away from you, no matter how impressive the throw, you lose that. Now they can decide to pick up a bottle or get their folder out. If you control and manipulate, you can better contain factors like that. It's neither better or worse, just different based on what your needs and interests are.

The principle is the same kind of movement that we use. There are slight variations but it's the same core idea. The drag of the following foot prevents your stance from getting drawn out and unusable. I tend to be more frontal and have my feet more in a shoulder width posture. Yes, it will open the groin a bit and present more of a frontal target area. My JKD friends are correct. However, it also give you easier access to your cross and the wider stance makes it easier to cut corners with your center under you. It also lets you sprawl easier. Still, it's a fundimentally good pattern. Mobility is king, and this kind of step keeps you that way.

BJJ nite: Worked out of the open guard posture. Really drille specifics on it's positioning. Followed that with sweep from there and transitioned into taking back. Free roll for 45 min at end of class. Spent time working the above in free roll. Had good success, and found that it was a good in series with a half guard offense.

There is a good article on iniating the double and single leg from the clinch on grapplearts.com right now.

Welcome to KF!

Friday- two sessions: 1st- 30 min of takedowns from standing. Focused on breaking down the double leg and then the high single. 15 min. putting them to work in limited engagement sparring for takedown. You tend to land in half guard sometimes after these, so then we drilled a half guard offensive series for 15 min. Finished with 45 min of free roll. 2nd- Drilled side control postures and transition work. 45 min of free roll. Sat- Sat on a testing board for brown belts in my primary art. I ran the focus mitt section of the test. Got to play for sparring, weapons sparring (knife and club), and spontaneous attack/defend drills. I really got to try the knife scheme I'd been working on against some good guys and it went well. Generated some good intrest. Finished with rounds of free roll to exhaustion. Did find time to drill a new guard attack that I learned as well as sweeps from the seated position and open guard.

I do feel like I've quickly made substantial progress. The coaches are great and I've really been able to break things down and get into the fine points of it. Pure BJJ is much more in depth than covering it for MMA. It's also, my opinion alone here, superior to the shootfighting I'd done before in regards to ground work. I've really gotten into it. The hardest part has been to slow things down and really get precise with everything, but the effort is paying off. I've also spent more time doing it during my class time. With another comp coming up it's been easy to justify. But I'm defiantly putting alot of focus into it right now. But it's going really well. Thanks.

today- BJJ nite: Drilled passes from open guard while we're standing. Worked a series of three options. Drilled then with options to either take far side armbar or slide to side control depending on one of two actions given by the partner. Free roll for 45 min. I was able to use some of the half guard series that was new to me we worked last week and tried my hand at the new passes of the night.

I really do like small joint manipulation. That being said, it's kind of a secondary tactic for something like this. If an attacker has laid hands on you like this, he's started the aggression, I'm under no stipulation to not hit him. Depending on what he's trying to do with the hair grab, because it's usually a tactic used to accomplish something else, no a damage movement itself, you can hit him about any way you want with more guaranteed reaction than a wrist position. Not to mention that if I tie up both of my hands on one of his, I've given up any other defensive movements I might have had. This is really important it he's decided to try and hit me with his other hand. If he's trying to pull me somewhere, a common tactic with a hair grab, then I've further attached myself to him. Not a great idea if your goal is to escape. So, personally, I'd seek another avenue.

today- BJJ nite: Drilled passing the open guard and spider guard. Worked arm bar off of spider pass. 30 min free roll.

I disagree on strongest desire. It is decided by who is more willing to harm the other and who has the beter tools to do it.

The best way to practice, that's a good follow up. Like has been said, make sure you get with a senior student or instructor to get some specifcs on how everything works. When you drill solo, it's really important to hit the specifics, the small details. This is where you can really gain some ground. Slow, precise movements are good. Really think about them and make the reps perfect. This goes a long way. I know, you want to train for speed. "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast" is a good mantra on this front. By ingraining smooth, correct motion you really build in speed.

High kickers have been around since the beginning, you just didn't see them start to be really effective until you have some skilled kickers figure out the best ways to set the kicks up until more recently. Additionally, they also had to figure out what types of opponents they could use them against and not get taken down. It's part of the evolution of the art. Yes, there is defiantly and "art" all to itself. And it serves it's purpose very well. There's nothing wrong with that. The tools might not be different, but the methodology in which they are taught is drastically different than most ma classes. As is the reliance on live training. It's the matter in which it's put together that is different. What we are seeing is the birth of a new, popular art based on those thing that do make it different. It's one that's focused around practical application in an unarmed venue. It's exciting. It will continue to evolve and grow as it goes. It's probably like witnessing the birth of JKD back in the 70's. Will mma continue to be outrageously popular? Maybe and maybe not, but it's impact will continue to be felt even if it wanes on ppv sales. Just look at the impact it's methods have had on even trad schools at this point and the amount of cross training it's generated. Will it go away? I doubt it. No more than JKD has.

This is an interesting thing you guys hit on above. It occurs just based on how close one is to substantive framework of an art. I've done alot of stuff in the ma's over my life, and I've trained with practitioners of TKD and karate of various lines; and unless you're into the principles behind things, then they do seem quite similar. Let's face it, in most cases, when you walk into one school or the other, what they are doing look about the same. Kata is kata to people who don't know which are which. Even to me one pretty much looks the same as another until you get into the softer arts. The punches are chambered and delivered in a similar fashion and the fine points of separation will usually be missed by people outside the art of each. So, it's a very similar skill set. Even to those who train. Now, it's what goes on behind the scenes with those tools that makes the difference in things. This is why training around a good principle core can make all the difference in effectiveness. Without making judgment on either, because quite frankly I don't have the background to and I've seen individuals out of both pedigrees be exceptional fighters; but with the same basic tool bag it's what drives those tools in the way of strategy and principle that will be ultimately more effective. This provides framework for a fighter to operate and train around that will guide his progression rather than just giving him a handful of movements and a "good luck". This sort of thing might not be obvious to one outside each system, but it's what will make all the practical difference to one inside.

That's a bold post, RW. It's also one that I tend to agree with a majority of the time. No, it's not always true, there are a great many trad schools out there that turn out guys who can really take care of themselves. But mma does offer a reality check in many cases that some other school never offer their students. Note again, I didn't say all. To the early Gracie bent, we've moved away from those initial rules, and that movement started very early on. I think that time limits might have been the first thing to get added that probably wasn't int he best interest of the Gracie clan. The format has continued to evolve to this day. I also agree with bushido man, martial arts are about fighting. That's it. It can be covered in the trappings of whatever you like, but at it's core, it's a fighting system of some sort. Let's not forget that in most cases the actual systematization and moral trappings came later, after the initial use of whatever was being done in combat. With respect Justice, I'm not entirely certain as to what movements we're talking about in your post. Your argument might have merit, but I guess I'm just not seeing a set of examples. I think it's a valid discussion we're having. And probably with less sniping than any other board you'd find it on. Good thoughts.

Still, it's an expression. One typically based around the fact that men typically have more upper body musculature than do women, hence, they often have more powerful strikes. We're talking on averages here, not pitting the top ranked women's boxer against joe average guy. I get keeping the customers happy, gotta do what you've gotta do. I threw something similar out around some of the women I train with once and when they laughed about it I came back with the fact that they hit more like guys. It was a funny thing across the group. Each dynamic is different, though. Today, I can see limiting stuff like that. Hypersensitivity is the name of the game these days. Or, maybe it's just my lack of. Either way, it's one of those things that makes me glad I don't teach commercially.

today- back/bis/abs 1 mile run

Simple drill with a kick shield. I plant it against the partners shin and teach them to point the knee towards it and put the kick in properly. Then, have the bag holder move. They rep that awhile then do it vs. shin gear only. That day, I make sure they work it in sparring. This is, of course, assuming that they've already got a bit of movement skill built already. At this phase, we'll talk about picking it up to the groin and abdomen. Some of the more athletic guys might try it during sparring.