tallgeese

Fighter...martial artist...all name of the same to me. No, you don't need all that stuff to be complete. At least not for what I want out of the ma's. It happens anyway in lots of cases due to the humility often enforced, ect. Still, it's not a primary goal of mine, nor do I try to make it one of my student's. If it occurs on a secondary basis, then so much the better.

I see a couple of votes for the "no" answers. It'd be interesting to hear any thoughts that are radically different than those we've been discussing, which are variations on a theme. Don't get me wrong, they are important differances, but I'd be curious to hear why someone voted the other way entirely.

Welcome to KF!

Well, stylistically, it's thrown relaxed fingers, slightly bent. Personally, I don't use it much. I prefer the forearm as opposed to a knife hand.

I think that's a given. No one's disputing it. The gist is that the sheer athleticism and size of one of them would be difficult to overcome. Espicailly given the folk/freestlye/greco background that many of them possess.

today- chest/tris break 3, 2 min rounds on mitts- cut angle, combo, increase stirkes, then finish with takedown. cirucit with: 3, 2 min rounds on the ground n pound bag. Constant striking. circut with: 3, 2 min rounds of holding the mitt gloves for the combo. 20 min of working ankle locks from the high single takedown from combo and defenses 6, 3 min rounds of free roll Finish with breaking down armbars from guard that someone was struggling on.

Now that is truely a pet peeve of mine. Right up there with the dudes with "Full Contact Fighter" platered to their car who've never stepped on a mat.

As with so many of my answers ( ), it depends.

I agree about the levels you elect to use. I think you train it because it's a good tool and you could end up at a place to have to use it.

I'm not a kata guy, so I'm not up in the ettiquite of how it's done or should be done. I know that for the few schools in the group I'm part of have altered kata to make them more in line with everything else they do. If it serves your purposes, who cares if it's not proper to a larger body. Now, if part of your purposes in doing the form are advancment under the umbrealla of a larger group, then by definition you'd best not be altering things. I only use "honor" because you bring it up in regards to alteration a couple of posts back. Make of it what you will, that's my feeling. Yes, you're instructor knows more than you *about that art*. As you amass experiance, you'll find things from others systems that might work better. If you want to make the most out of your ma, then you'll modify what you do. No harm there.

I see your point, sensei8. I respectfully disagree, but only by a degree or two. I think we definatly need to understand the consequences of our actions and accept them, not just train to react (which is important in its own right). This does a couple of things. First off, it helps us generate responses to a good level of resonable force. Understanding what occurs helps us to gage responses, not just fall into a one size fits all "gouge the eye" reaction, that might not be proportional to the threat. Reality checks need to occur both ways. First, from the standpoint of being a true "defender". In other words, understanding the moment when you are confronted by sudden, unexpected, violent, aggression and your autoresponses from there. Secondly, from the point of being an "attacker". In other words, if you've survived the inital "defense" point, you'll now become the attacker. Not in legal terms, but in mindset terms. You need to understand what you'll now be doing to this individual with whatever movements you elect to use against him, again, to gage your response to the threat he presented. Obviously, it's best to sort all this out prior to actaully being confronted with a scenario. That way, you can respond on auto pilot and effecicently defend yourself. Except now you're doing it with a full understanding of all aspects of the combat. Secondly, having you're head around the effects of weapons you're using in combat, and indeed violent outcomes in general, you'll be less likely to have adverse reactions to what you had to do later. This knowledge and acceptacne can help to stave off (but not completely insulate one) from PTSD. So, to sum up my feelings, your reactions should be automatic. You should spontaneously react to assult without thought. However, these must be temepered by pre-fight studies in the effects of combat and it's outcomes.

Like bushido man, I started in the ma's long before I was in LE, but I did come into the career later in life after being in another field for some time. Then again, I had been in ma's quite awhile before I fell into my first field.

Modification is how we evolve things, sometimes this happens on an individual basis based on physical abilities. It's not dishonor, nor does it have to be a "loosening" of movement, it's crafting yourself into the most efficient fighter you can be. I do things slightly different than my instructor, based largely on the fact that I don't possess the fast twitch muscle fiber ratio that he does nor do I have the sheer athleticism. One of my students does things a bit differently than I do just because he's 6-3 and 220. These slight changes in either movement or strategy or focus are due to physiological differences and are just meant to capatiaze on our natural gifts and parameters. As far as radically altering gross movements, maybe that's a good idea too. This is where cross training can really come into play and help you find holes in your game or ways to improve it by changing things up. I think that there should be a good reason if your going to grossly make a change to the movements of the system, but there are plenty of reasons that would make it more than acceptable.

We don't utilize it. I think power can be evaluated and demonstrated on bags, shields, ect. Conditioning should occur just so you're actually ready to hit a live object. Sparring is good for this with mma gloves on, as is bag work. That being said, I"ve broken a board or two at demos and such. It can be a bit of fun. I do think that if you're going to do it you should spend time practicing it prior.

That is excellent training. I'll still argue that sparring is an excellent tool as well.

today- abs legs 1/2 mile run on incline

First off, that book is great read and one that I encourage everyone involved with any sort of combat to read. His other books are equally enlightening. On Combat is actually easier to read than On Killing and covers similar ground at times. I do have some issues with some of the research he cites from ealier eras, but he full well points out the problems with these studies. I do think that he is correct, that we can learn from the numbers despite some methodological errors by others. Incidentally, most of the other books he cites in On Killings newer editions and On Combat are good reads as well. Now, the the question at hand. Yes I would, and I think it would be valuable. I do think that one should note the artificailness of the drill in that there is limited "live" aspects to the endeveror (but I'm thinking you could build that in). I'm not sure why I've never persued it. Probibly die to mental rehersals I've done with stuff like this during training. Still, the drill would be a good one. Too often, we all tend to look away from teh viciousness of what we're supposed to be doing. We make it nice and pretty and praise excellent technique but forget what it's all about. If this occurs, one can be suprised by the actaul reality of violence when it occurs. At a bare minimum, mental rehersals should be conducted by the practitioner regularly to train the mind of signifigant violent acts. He's got some good sections about how this should be done as well.

Nice. Good job.

I use almost exclusively the shin to kick with on rounds. I like to think of it as nature's baseball bat. It is possible to break it, sure. But the instances of that aactaully happenining are much lower than the small bones of the instep breaking. Espically if your bloscking with thinks like elbows, knees, and shins. About the only time I'll use a different surface is on different kickes (ie. the front or occassional side) where another contact point is mandated. For rounds, it's the shin all the way. And I tend to delevier it with an intent to drive through. Most of the time I target the legs, so a snapping motion is not helpful.

Welcome to KF!

today- 2.5 mile run abs 4, 2 min rounds 1-shadow boxing, focus on setting up angles, bringing rear hand into play 2-kicks 3-both 4-ground n pound bag Spent some time working my knife project. Have the foot work intergrated now pretty well. It turns out it's alot of upper body movments and shortened aiki turns. Now on to the furter testing phases, if all goes well, I'll start building on follow up.

Working with a man out to coach is a great tool. One that we try to utilize as often as we can. Additionally, it's a good idea to break down whatever happened during a match as quickly as possible to work out errors. We'll go as far to stop a round if it's a real critical problem and work thru it. Maybe even rep a bit with some limited engagment work, then return to the free action. This way you really strive to deal with problems and correct them when the feel is still recent.

Haven't had one of their gis, but I have several other pieces of gear from then and they are well made and hold up well.

Can't help you on the school except to say good luck. And welcome to KF.

My breathing is primarily centered around attacks, and is short and forceful, much like boxing. This has the effect of filling the torso with air and prevents a total loss of wind if countered. I thend to avoid exhalations that are too long or involve vocal componants simply becuae too much force tends to stop movement or focus you almost exclusivly on a single strike. This impeade your ability to strike in combination. I've also studied for a time while training in Aikijujutsu for taking strikes. It's a neat componant to breathing, but one that I've kind of moved away from since I found it's application in movment based defense patterns less than ideal.