tallgeese

Considering their mission, I doubt they had any sort of real "uniform". More likely, they wore whatever aided in their cover identity, or allowed them to blend into the rest of the population the best. Black clothed and masked individuals do tend to lift suspicion. Probably something they wanted to avoid. I'd agree with Justice as well, whatever they did as far as unarmed work probably was a form of JJJ. Again, I doubt they initally had any uniform standard of unarmed training. Most likely it was whatever background training a particular individual had with formal instruction focusing mainly on esponage and stealth which was apparently their primary job description. All else was likely secondary in importance.

Agreed. I'd say the state of the practice has already very much tilted in that direction. The base practices might be slightly different but the basic premis of a true "MMA" class is common. As bushido man points out, some will be more recreational in nature. Others will turn out good locllevel competitive fighters and then there will be elite gyms and training facilities. The whole gambit. So I do see the need for trad traning slipping for MMA competition. I do think that you'll still see fighters coming into the circuit from trad backgrounds. Either avanue will work. Some coming out of certain arts will have an eaiser time than others making hte adjustment. For instance, a fighter out of MT or BJJ will probabaly face an easier transition just do to the training and high amount of crossover value. I do think that too many new people, who enter either way are wanting to fight too soon these days. Get in, get s ome time on, have a few bad sparring days and some heavy contact. Sharpen your game and then look at taking fights.

The thing about blocking and covering can probably best discussed in context of the contact and protective gear level. Everything looks sharper in a semi contact setting, or at least cleaner. But there is a world of difference in surviving between the two. That's where the mindset become so important, and behind that the training methods used to prep the two sets of fighters. An attacker, committed 100% to hurting you is much more difficult to cover from than one constrained by contact limits. Fast blocks become less effective if they fail to stop incoming power. That's why you see MMAers using a zoned defense pattern more often than not. It's usually more absorptive of power and there is less movement involved with placing limbs in place to take punishment. Speed is great, but speed with intent and power behind it is another monster altogether.

today- back/bis/abs 2.5 mile run

People from here in the states can't even get wrestling right in context. Folk, freestyle, greco-roman; it really doesn't matter what competitive venue it is people just call it "wrestling", alot of them don't even know there is supposed to be a difference. It's not a cultural war, it's just that we as martial artist, can't expect an unfamiliar public to speak our sub-cultural language. Not any more than I can be expected to care about or know who won Survivor last season. It's about what one's into. And most of the public just won't care enough to listen to a dissertation between what they consider to be unimportant facts. And let's face it, to anyone who doesn't practice, they are unimportant. There is no reason they should care. That's our job.

Welcome aboard!

Most of the internal side of things was probably developed later in most cases than the formalized practice of fighting for warfare. It's well documented how the Tokugawa ear regulations effected Japanese arts. In many cases by making them more acceptable to a non-warring society. I think it's fine if one wants to persue those aspects. But there's nothing wrong with getting to the heart of the matter and accepting them as fighting methods alone.

I respectfully disagree. MMAers, especially those of high quality, defiantly demonstrate speed, power and accuracy. You can easily see it in any match that you care to watch that has professionally trained and dedicated fighters competing. As for the linked guys dominating, I don't see it without major modification. The stances are too wide and immobile for defeating the takedown, the hands are often too low to effectively protect the head and mindset counterproductive to success in MMA. Additionally, you'd have to see what ground and wrestling skills they possess. If the answer is none then you've got at least a year of hard work there to get them ready. Not to say they couldn't compete. But to succeed at any level they'd need work and modification.

I'm not too worried about it. Yes, the term "karate" has kind of become the generic term for training in any sort of Asian system of fighting. To people who don't know, it's kind of all inclusive. MMA has become kind of a catch all to define training for that sort of competitive aspiration, but I still hear it referred to as karate from time to time. Since those competitions are heavily popular right now, you hear more distinction with them currently. So, either people will be interested and figure out the difference or they won't and it doesn't matter. Either way, it doesn't bother me when I get lumped into "karate".

Congrats, Dobbersky! Great choice.

That is AWESOME!

am- chest/tris/abs Worked on guard pass series. Both open and closed, focused on repping over/under position on the legs and then both under. Escape by lifting leg and moving around. pm- 4,2 min rounds conditioning and precision work to legs 4, 2 min rounds of MT rounds, inside and out to bag 4, 2 min rounds of putting them in combo to the shields add knee strikes rotate with: 2 min rounds of limited engagement sparring, leg kicks only and knees 15 min of takedown work off of knee strikes- high crotch to foot sweep 15 min of moving to side mount off that attack, partner escapes side mount. 5, 3 min rounds of free roll. Starting from position.

The bleeding knuckles can probably be attributed to slightly incorrect form due to your striking surface being off a bit. Your trainer ought to be able to work with you to correct it. Stuff like that's to be expected early on. In time, you'll stop having little incidental injuries like that. Here's to the bigger question about getting hurt and hurting people. Sparring levels and general contact drills will be different from school to school. To see where you're heading, check out the advanced ranks and see the kinds of contact they're using. It's a good indicator of what you'll be expected to do. I differ from alot of people on this next part. I accept that injury is part of training physical, hands-on skills. You, and more importantly your instructor, should work to limit this but the risk is still present. It's part of the cost of doing business in this field. Training partners shouldn't be trying to kill each other every drill, but contact happens. This is especially true of higher levels with full or high resistance movements are used by your partner. Again, we seek to minimize, but we can never fully mitigate that reality. As to hitting training partners, well, that's just kind of necessary at some level. We learn, in large part, by doing. If you're training to do sd, then in some way you'll need to hit the bad guy. To train realistically, at some point you'll need to hit your training partner. And he'll need to hit you. This is also imperative to developing a warrior mindset. It's easy to say you'll do such and such in the street, but if you haven't conditioned by at least partially doing such actions during training you're not going to be wired to on the street. We don't rise to the occasion, we sink to the level of our training. I wish I could remember who said that. All of training is, in some way, or should be, related back to prepping for combat. By not repping on live opponents, at least in a simulated manner (how many of us really want to rake each others eyes) you're going to miss the major function of ma's. Does that mean you should quite now? Of course not, first off, you'll be amazed at how being part of ma's will change your mindset and worldview. Even if you don't think you can do it now, give it a year. You just don't know. Second up, you might find that you want to focus on some other aspect of the ma's. That's fine too, it's no less legitimate of a pursuit than sd, just be willing to admit it and train for what you want and you will make the most of it. Try sticking it out and see how things go. Keep us posted.

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir............Mir Georges "Rush" St-Pierre vs. Thiago "Pitbull" Alves.......GSP Jon Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago...........Fitch Dan "Hendo" Henderson vs. Michael "The Count" Bisping.........Henderson Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Alan "The Talent" Belcher........Akiyama Mark "The Hammer" Coleman vs. Stephan "The American Psycho" Bonnar.......Bonnar Mac Danzig vs. Jim Miller.......Danzig Jon "Bones" Jones vs. Jake "Irish" O'Brien.........O'Brien Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim vs. TJ Grant........Grant CB "The Dobberman" Dollaway vs. Tom "Filthy" Lawlor.........Dollaway Matt "The Real One" Grice vs. Shannon Gugerty........Grice

Very correct. "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast", kind of a motto at the range. Proper form will lend itself to more efficient movement, which will in turn increase the speed of the motion. If all the fundamentals are good, then accuracy will follow. There is a certain truth to the best way to train for an activity is to do that activity. Certainly you can supplement, but good training will lead to what you're looking for. To supplement, I personally like one of the rubber band harnesses for punching that provides tension against your strike. A few rounds of shadow boxing with one really will work you. Finish out with a round or two without it and you'll feel the difference. The things are kind of pricey, but with some heavy surgical tubing you can make a fairly efficient version for next to nothing. For accuracy, start with focusing your "targeting computer" while sparring. Punch for the temple, the point of the chin, the angle of the jaw, ect. Not just "the head" or "face". Specific focus will narrow down your target. This builds accuracy. Also, a dummy like a BOB is really good for this. It gives immediate and obvious feed back to your stationary accuracy, the trick is then to take that and apply it during motion. But it's still a good building block. If you've never used one, a BOB is real nice to get accurate eye gouges of all sorts at speed without ever worrying about your partner. Just some thoughts.

today- BJJ workout: worked on passing open guard. Repped working over trapped leg and a couple of variations. Drilled armbar from mount breaking the motion down and really hitting the angles. Finished by tying the two together. Free roll for an hour on and off. Still trying to work on things that we train in class, not my fall back movements.

Fundamentals are key. The hottest high speed tactic or the latest super move from Brazil won't mean anything if your fundamentals are weak.

today- 2.5 mile run legs

I agree wholeheartedly, cross training in it will help just about anything. I think it even compliments wrestling skills if one is past a competitive phase with wrestling where getting used to being on ones back would prove detrimental. I've worked with wrestlers a bit in the past few years to get more comfortable with double and single legs and such. The two work together well.

Yeah, I get that. I've always been a big fundamentals guy. It'd be easier if I didn't have a background in grappling in other venues. I'm just used to more free training. Still, I've got a great group of guys to train with in it who are making it really fun.

4 mile run

today- 6, 2 min rounds of rotating thru mitts and ground n pound bag. Used the torso guard with the mits and focused on cutting angles off the cross. SO: jab, cross, slip cross and counter to body. Add power lead. Then, add hook covers at front end and sprawl defense to mitt holder takedown effort. Finish with knees. Rounds on bag included work on knee in and mount position. 15 min drilling choke from the last position of the mitt drill and a few variations. 20 min working guard escapes. 5, 3 min rounds free roll 1, 3 min round of free roll with strikes.

today- BJJ night. Worked on basing in prep to and passing the open guard. Finished string with arm bar. Spent some time breaking it down. Good night, as I had not been exposed to the particular pass we made use of. Several rounds of free roll to finish off.

today- 2.5 mile run

Welcome aboard! Looking forward to seeing you on the boards.