tallgeese

Yes, the bars can and do interfere slightly with your vision at certain angles. It's part of the trade off in it's use. It is a good training tool for certain things, like all safety gear, it has drawbacks. And on the second part, yes, a mouth piece is still mandatory with its use. As it is with any head gear.

If making certain that you're rank, ect. transfer each time your moved then hooking up with a school tied to an international organization probably isn't a bad idea. I always suggest checking out each school that you currently have access to by watching a class and then taking a class to make sure it's a good fit with what you want out of ma's. I also encourage people to take a look at the other members there. This will go a long way towards making your training enjoyable, and therefore keep interest up and your progress continuing at a good pace. Good luck and let us know what you decide.

Never had experience with that particular model. I do think that head gear has a place in training, but mainly in heavy contact drills and sd sparring where full tilt elbows and knees to the head are a possibility. I prefer a caged style headgear like pro-force makes. It just seems studier, the down side is the bars can and will interfere with your vision. It's probably no ideal for point or semi contact stuff. If you give it a go, post a review and let us know what you think. By the way, I'd second a good mouth piece. It's probably the most underrated piece of gear out there. Try to get your hands on a custom fit job for best results. It can be a bit high in price as well depending on who does your dental work, but it's well worth it.

Also, bushido man has an article up in that section about breaking down kicking drills. They'd probably help you along as well.

The muscles involved are the hip abductors and the outer head of the quad. But more important to this ability is flexibility, balance and core strength. I'd put more priority on training those facets than sheer muscular work.

today- chest/tris/abs 2 mile run 3, 2 min rounds on BOB. Started hand combos, add kicks and knees, finishing with adding elbows and reciprocating strikes. 3, 2 min rounds of knee in drills and cutting angles on the ground n pound bag. cool down with shrimping drills and hip movement drills on mat.

The gi factor is pretty new to me as well. I like the dimension it brings to the game but it is different getting used to.

today- BJJ night: Worked triangle from the guard. Really broke it down in detail. Finished with movement drills in reference to passing an open guard. 40 min or free roll.

Think of it as continuing education. After doing this for a long while now, I can say I've checked out a thing or two outside my original training hall myself. Finding something new can be invigorating and lead to progress forward for your whole response pattern. Enjoy it and don't feel that way at all. Good luck.

I've thought about this for a while now and still have no answer. Martial arts have been such a major feature of my life now for so long I can hardly define myself without them.

As always, I suggest going to each place and checking out the class you'd be in. I'd even go thru one before committing. That way you're going on more than just the arts reputation or the description on a info sheet. You'll actually see how what they are doing reflects your goals in the arts. This will also give you a good sense of the core group of people there that you'll be part of. You'll be able to see how you'll fit in and get an idea of the dynamic. This might be more important to you, or a bigger factor in your choice than the name of an instructor or art listed on the door. Good luck and keep us posted.

I ran myself into a stupor at work while my family enjoyed a nice fireworks show

Have I run into n expert in joint manipulations, no. Have I used them successfully, yes. Have I had them fail as well, you bet. I agree wholeheartedly that women might face the wrist grab more than men. I think the logic blackxpress uses is sound. I can also say that I've been wresting with mopes before and ended up with my wrist grabbed as a result of the ensuing skirmish. Never intentionally I think, but by chance. I can't honestly say that even in those circumstances I resorted to small going work. I think I by passed it and worked for arm control, don't recall right now really. But I still think that as a base for learning joint work that they are a good starting point.

That's largly due to the fact that everyone has kind of figured out what works. Now it's about applying strategy to optimize those proven movements against a given adversary and his skill set. Occassionally, you will see a moment of innovation or a breakthrough of movement vs. a specific fighter. It's part of the excitment. But the best "high percentage" tools have been field tested by this point and get used regularly. It's part of the movement that's slowly been establishing mma as a style all it's own. There tends to be a cyclical tread with some skills as well. Someone uses a new or less popular tactic. Maybe it's less than "high percentage" normally, but no one uses it; hence no one trains against it. Then a few people get caught in it. Everyone starts training to defend it again and use it and as such, it peaks in popularity then starts to wane as everyone catches on. Then it goes on the backburner once again until everyone stops training to defend it regularly. Then someone will pick up on this and start the whole thing over again. Ankle locks have kind of gone thru this cycle a few times. Good tactics to have, but sometimes less than optimal in execution. You see them come and go and it's nice when someone pulls it back out of the hat and stirs things a bit. Mostly, secondary skills go thru this. Big ticket items, arm bars, ect. tend to have been tested and maintain a "primary skill" classification and avoid this kind of thing.

today- 4 mile run legs

Congrats!

I've seen some sects of Kuk Sul Won that are pretty acrobatic in nature. I'd also look into Capoeria. Maybe ask Justice Zero about it more specifically. If you are more interested in the sheer gymnastics aspect of something, you might check out XMA stuff. I know next to nothing about it, but youtube is your friend in such things.

Well, I've managed to sneak back up to 3 solid and the occasional 4th night. Not bad once I get some bag work and such in on the side.

am- mitt gloves: 3, 2 min rounds working zoned defense. start with hooks, add straight low, finish with straight shots to head as well. Holder feeds for jabs, double jabs, jab/cross at random intervals. 3, 3 min rounds limited engagement sparring working live drilling on the above drills Worked arm grab guard escape from yesterday's BJJ class. Drilled for 20 min. 3, 3 min rounds free roll pm- Mitt work: 3, 2 min rounds. Start jab/cross/hook, add MT round to start and upper cuts to end. Finish with holder initiating a headlock. Trainee works posture and escape with cross face. Takedown finish. 20 min drilling set of guard escapes. 3, 3 min rounds of escaping the guard live 2, 3 min rounds of free roll

It might not be a question of "giving it to them", it just might happen in the course of conflict. As to not getting grabbed too often, I disagree. Lots of guys I go to lay hands on will do exactly that sort of thing, or put themselves in a position to utilize tactics learned from practicing manips from there. As to if they were taught properly or not, Dobbersky, it's hard to tell without seeing how exactly they were taught. That being said, one of the major components to any small joint work is the idea of striking prior to drilling them. This sort of set up will make them much more functional. Even executed properly, I disagree with BB of C, things can and do fail to work. Best to keep this in mind and be ready to move on if something doesn't work out.

There is the basic premise that they are a controlled and relitively easy way to teach new people proper joint manipulation movement. That's not a bad argument as long as from there they are integrated into more realistic patterns. A better argument is from a stand point of the likelihood that a bad guy will grab your wrist, often unintentionally during a confrontation that ends up in body to body contact. This is fairly frequent in cases where things start looking like ugly wrestling on the street. Another, not bad, argument is that often when you start hitting someone, they focus on the weapon at hand that's the threat and will react instinctively to grab and stop that weapon. Sometimes, they will end up with your wrist. The last, and probabaly best in my opinion, argument has to do with teaching small joint manipulation vs. armed attacks. Small joint stuff, say to the wrist, is not an ideal response in alot of cases. It's kind of tough to do and often takes two hands on one to pull off. This usually puts it down further on my list of options to choose from. However; put a weapon like a knife or gun or stick in a bad guys hand and you've changed the game slightly. Now, control of that weapon becomes paramount regardless of what you have to give up to gain and maintain it during the opening moments of the fight. It is in this application that small joint manips, like those learned from basic wrist grabs, really come into their own. And the wrist grab is a great teaching method to get students to understand this and get comfortable with them before putting weapons in their hands. Of course, any of the above arguments are based on the assumption that these skills are taught and drilled as realistic in each step and setting so they can culminate effectively. So, yes, they still have a place.

You really have to look at it on a school by school basis. There's just too much variation even with styles to make blanket statments. As to kid bb's, I suprisingly have no problem with it. But, they need to meet standards and it can't be the same weight as an adult rank.

today- BJJ night: Focused on braking guard via trapping an arm and moving to the side. Worked slightly different leg set up with it than I'm used to to move around the leg. Very nice. 5, 2 mn rounds of working against resistacne to get free from guard. Finished with free roll.

All true. Bushido man brings up another good point about specificity of training. Guys doing the above sort of sparring will get really good at it, maybe not so good at MMA style comps. MMA guys probably wouldn't do well in the comps we're all looking at in the link. It goes back to specifically training for an environment. When I decided to compete, especially when I did it alot, I'd stop working outside that rule set about 6 weeks out. I'd radically cut back everything else about 8 out. This was a bigger deal back before most of the MMA ruleset was codified and every fight or tourney operated slightly differently. You can't expect anyone to simply jump to a different arena and compete at as high a level as they could prior to spending time under those specific guidelines. Some will make smoother transitions based on how closely their previous venues mimic their new one. But there are enough differences that this would take time.

Actually, it's that lack of baggage in MMA that appeals to alot of people. It's solely about fighting.