tallgeese

Circling is a central complainant to sparring, I'd agree. I'd agree as well that a good fighter will seek to move with you. It's part of the dance. To not circle means you're facing an opponent statically, if that's the case, he doesn't need to work to find and hit you. You're right there already. Cutting to the back is a good idea. It can open you to certain counters, true. But by the very nature of what we do any movement should and will open you to counters against a good opponent. Better it's the one's he can't directly look at you to launch. Personally, if I find the back, I'll crash and initiate body to body contact. It's just too good a chance to control. Because of this, I'll typically make the move to back from tight ranges, say off an infight.

am- back/bis 3, 3 min rounds on BOB. Hands, hands/elbows/knees in combo, above w/kicks. pm- BJJ Worked guard passes and butterfly guard pass. Drilled live guard escapes for 6, 2 min rounds. Finished with free roll from position. I'm really focusing on utilizing more relaxed flow and the movements we work specifically in class rather than falling back on what I'm used to.

I'll be honest, it can be a bit frustrating. My goal was to work thru a formal program so that's what I'm doing. But I've been wresting and dong shoot for so long I always want to move faster and free roll more. An I have trained before, just always secondary to my MMA goals. So, it's great, for sure. The instructor is good and I'm getting the whole feel for BJJ as a single art. That's all good and what I wanted. Now, keeping my guys scheduled and working amidst all my own continuing education is going to be challenging. Still, I've been very happy so far.

On another note, Hatmaker's book series is quite good. Good information put logically together in a readable format. Unlike lot's of titles on fighting, they are more than just a litany of movements, they often have drills associated with fight skills. My quibble is the photo quality. But even they are serviceable.

I agree that technical competence is critical. It's the backbone for everything. But without the motivation to apply those technical movements to their fullest they mean next to nothing. It's that part of you that is willing to inflict harm, that is willing to become comfortable with violence that will guide technical competency towards success. I think this is even more crucial in a sd context than any other. Knowledge is highly valuable, but the will to employ it is what wins fights. That being said, all the desire in the world won't help if you're incompetent at a basic level. To stack the odds in your favor, both are needed.

today- 2 mile run chest/tris

There are alot, you'll probably have more luck if you narrow it down. What specifically, or which ones, are you having questions about?

Well, I finally got around to it. After years of approaching grappling from several different angles, I finally decided to get into a formal BJJ program. I've been happy with what I've done so far, but I'm looking forward to taking my game to a new level. I'll have to juggle it with the classes I currently teach, but I think it will be worth it. Anyway, just sharing.

am- Worked with some BJJ guys a couple of towns over. Drilled armbars from mount and worked a back drills pm- mitt work: 6, 2 min rounds of- Basic combos. Add coverage from hooks and low strikes. Have mitt holder shoot and counter with sprawl. Finish by moving into a turtle position. 15 min of drilling advancement from the turtle. move to ground: review armbar from guard, guard escape 4, 3 min free roll.

Welcome to KF! Looking forward to hearing from you.

today- 3 mile run legs

I don't know how it falls in that particular style syllabis, but lots of groups use rounds to the leg. Most will utilize it at a bit deeper range and make use of the shin as a striking surface. The small bones of the foot, or instep, are much more likely to become injured during a kick to a solid, mass heavy target.

It was fun. And no, I, nor anyone else was insured as far as professionally goes. It fell, at least to us, as a bunch of guys working out together, not an "offical" class. We did all have health insurance, being students and all. That got used more than a few times.

It's fun for sure. There is alot of historical back drop and most of the people involved are pretty knowledgeable. There is some loss of actual combat tactics I'm sure. But, it's still a riot to play.

My definition of a club might be slightly different. At least the way my experience worked, we started training and different people taught something for the day, someone else did the next. Then we'd spar, alot. One day we'd be doing knife work, the next an escrima guy would work thru stick training, then we'd grapple, ect. Everyone kind of taught what they knew and we all experimented. We finally registered with the student union, but it was an after thought. That was my club time anyway. It was a ton of fun, very relaxed and I learned a ton, not to mention I got exposed to all sorts of things.

Don't stress too much about not being certified as an instructor for the purposes of running a club while at school. My experience is that these are pretty loose knit groups, if you're not ranking people then your organization probably won't care, or know. Generally, these things tend to come together over a group of friends or similarly minded ma-ist meeting to train on their off time. Slowly, a few others join in and suddenly, you have a club.

I played with a few different styles. If I went weapon shield, I usually fought mace and shield. It worked nicely for my more aggressive tendencies. It was more common for me to fight witha katana length sword since that was the kind of thing I was interested in. I would occassionally fight two stick, but not that often. The the two handed sword really was my bread and butter, however. The only thing I didn't put any time into was the polearms. Now I want to go did my armor out .

Everyone evolves in some way. I can point to a few big moments that kind of affected how I do things now. I was lucky enough to come out of a program that was based around principles rather than rote technique, this made it much easier to evaluate what and how in integrate new skills. The first probably occurred when I started boxing during college. This built on my foundation and gave me more fluid hands and movement. Next, was when I took up my second form of kempo. This was really a mental finishing school for me and really made me understand what I was getting myself into while fighting. Then came my introduction to shootfighting. This would introduce me to the ground game and competition. If was from this that I started to utilize more full resistive, movement based training into my sd scheme. This is a trend that would continue thru my MMA days, getting more refined and finally kind of culminate into my teaching pattern I use today. Finally, for the last few years, I've be shifted towards really focusing on the ground game and integrating it into what I already do. You'll move a bit each time you hit one of these points. If you're structured around a good foundation, with a clear goal in mind, it can really help focus your game. This is where most of the innovation that you will individually do to your personal fighting style occurs. Typically, this happens as you build new patterns of response around your core movements. If you find, thru experimentation and growth, that you core isn't getting you to the goals you have any more then you might end up radically altering your central response patterns and strategy. I've seen both occur to other people. When I look back at testing footage from earlier tests, I can still see the basic premise of my core art. When I look at footage today, I still see that. However, there are certain aspects that have moved around the periphery of this core. Many are simply changes in the way I pattern tools and lots of that goes back to things I've been exposed to while cross training. That's one of the reasons I really believe in cross training, not to throw out all you've done, but to build on it and fill in gaps until you can fully and most effectively meet your goals. By the way... I think we've probably all gotten better taste in music as we go

The type of training, or one's training methods, is one of the most critical components in preparing for the body's reaction to combat stress and it's lead up to a fight. Just stepping on a mat a few days a week won't really get you ready unless you're mentally behind the training. That means, if you're using ma's to prepare for a fight, you can't just look at ma's as a discipline, way of life, or philosophical method. It has to be fight training, you have to accept it and treat it as such. Not just in an abstract kind of way, but in a real in-your-face reality. Train with as many stress components as you can, check out as many video segments as you can that are from actual encounters. Get used to the level of violence that they entail. Pre-combat acceptance of the levels of force needed and mental rehearsal that is realistic in nature will all help one deal with the effects of the body's natural reactions. There's alot that goes into creating a "pre-combat veteran" as Grossman calls it. I'd highly recommend his book, On Combat for lots of advice on the matter. Training will help this kind of reaction for sure, proper mindset and training components will help even more.

today- 5 mile run

Dave Lowery has a book called "Bokken" that is a break down of movement, strikes, and has a few two man exercises in it. It seems authentic and Lowery has a reliable reputation in those areas. I'd recommend looking into it. Darrel Max Craig has a couple of kendo books that are really good as well that might offer you some insight. I found them useful when I was fighting with the SCA.

Welcome to KF! Glad to have you aboard.

I've never read any of his stuff. I'm actually planning on getting some of his work to check out since he's highly thought of here on KF. The tread I was referring to was one I had noticed in the trade mags a few years back.

today- back/bis 2 mile run 3, 3 min rounds on: BOB ground n pound bag drilling on mat Did 3 overall cycles for a total of 9 rounds. Building combs as rounds advanced, included sd striking.

Ok, now I can say I've seen it. Even trained with it, it's a throwback to my systems AJJ roots. The typical entry I use for it is off a knife thrust. It's usually from a low attack and parry with the back of the cross hand. The limb is controlled and the joint position moved into. It's an abbreviated motion, like most of AJJ tends to be. I can say that I've never found it that effective in any other setting. There are simply too many variables and small joint positions, particularly the more complex ones. However, edged weapons change the complexion of a conflict enough that control of the holding limb become paramount, making this sort of position much more attractive. We don't treat it so much as a throw as we do a joint destruction.