tallgeese

Yeah, that is a priceless line. I'd definatly find a new place to train, espically if her views are indeed those of the school as a whole.

Excellent point on bringing targets to you. Way better option. As to clothes. Yes, street clothes can be more restrictive. That's why it's imperitive that you practice movements that can be done no matter the attire. That doesn't imply you can't train to kick to the head if you want, but that you should also be proficient with low line attacks. Practice at this heighth is important, the body mechanics are different and you have the opportunity to really drop body weight into the lower leg. This requires practice at that level. Also, you have to program that particular automatic response into your personal wiring. It is useful to practice from time to time in street clothes to get a feel for what it will be like, espically if you've never done it before or been involved in an altercation in the street. As to enviornmental concerns, it would be really nice to choose our ground for these things but often times, we can't. The reality of uncontrolled enviornments means that occassionally you will run into things that disrupt your game plan. You'll trip in a ditch or stumble over a flower bed or end up running into a lawn orniment (my personal nemisis ). It happens. You have to mentally accept the possibility of things going wrong and deal with them. To worry about them during the conflict, rather than your opponent, ensures defeat.

Ah, that just adds some charater to the uniform .

This kind of random thing does happen, with out apparent cause, from time to time. Yes, there was probilily a cause, but it might have had nothing to do with the original poster on this thread. We often make the mistake of assigning people who do things like this our own value system or morality. It's just not the case. People like this (and by this i mean violent predatory types, not confined to any particular race, creed, gender, or other sub-group) are pretty far removed from the world you and I live in, expecting them to act like us, or respond to our sense of logic is not approprite. I think you handled it well, if he's not going to press the issue, leaving the situation is best. I'm not going to try to solve his problems or rationalize his behavior. I would report the incidet to the local jurisdiction and have them canvas around to see if they happen to find him. With luck, he's wanted on warrants (not a bad guess) and can go to jail for a time out. I also agree that assuming that all criminals are dumb is a bad idea. SOme are pretty bright, but let's face it, the stereotype exsists for a reason. What might be more dangerous is assuming that they don't train. They do. Look at a prison yard and check out some of the specimens that it produces. Additionally, these people have been fighting since childhood in all likelyhood and their experiance is probibly much more unforgiving that ours. Violence is not something shoking to most of them, but part fo their life style. In it's own twisted way, it's pretty good training to prepar to hurt someone in a fight.

Mine's from a anime series called Gundam Wing. Tallgeese is one of the large sets of powered battle armor used in the show, and the coolest I think. I'm not a huge anime fan, but who dosen't like giant robots trashing each other?

A verozon LG. It's hardly high end, but it's such a step up from the archaic one I just got rid of it seems amazing to me.

We rarely have alot of people testing at any one time so I can't speak to how numbers influence the process. I'd say that 1-1.5 hours is more than adaquate for yellow, orange levels. 2 for green or purples. Browns should go about 2.5-3. Black is about 4+ hours for the one's I've been part of in one way or another.

Oh, beleive me...I didn't say it was good. I just don't turn it off for some reason .

Ok, I'm gonna sound like a slacker again but here we go... We work almost exclusively out of what we call a Front Fighting Stance. Feet a touch wider than shoulder width, with the left in the lead usually. Front foot is slightly turned in to help cover groin kicks. Back foot is pointed forward usualy up on the ball a tad. Hands are up defensively like a boxer guard. Elbows tight. Upper body is primarily forward, with a slight cant to present the jab better and give less of a forward body target. We might use a seanchin (sp?) stance early on to teach foot work if someone's having a problem. But that's pretty much it. For defense, bear in mind that it's primarily a training tool ranther than a prescribed fighting position. If attacked, you will rarely be in a stance, but rather reacting from whatever body position you were in when suprised. Becasue if you weren't suprised you would have probibly avoided the conflict. Considering that, the ideas you take away from stance training are more important than the position itself. In our case, hands up coverring the upper attack avanues, the elbows tight for midsection protection. The lead foot cover the groin and the body prepares for forward assult to counter the attack. The mobility of the stance keeps you training for fluid movement of action. I would actually bet, although I don't know, that similar things could be said for TMA stances as well. That they are trying to teach practitioners defensive concepts to mentally train themselves with. Could be anyway?

Wow, that's a bummer. I'm feeling for you on this one, and I think ps1 had it right. Oh yeah, and rehearse it a few times as well. Good point.

I agree with bushido man here, "one shot, one kill" kind of strikes are pretty rare in the unarmed arena. Not unheard of, but rare enough. I'd guess that you'd have to beat on each unconcious to do that, and now we move well out of the real of defending one's self. For lethality agaist so many, I'd try and escalte to weaponry.

This is true, fine motor skills decrease with an increase of heart rate that goes with an adriniline dump. Gross motor skills improve up to a point. Once you hit panic mode or "condition black" all performance starts to decrease. That's why realistic simulations to acclimitize the body to the effects of the adrenal dump is important. The more comfortable one is with violence, the less it will cause the heart rate to increase and the longer one will be able to access full gross and fine motor skills. Some studies do suggest that the more engraned fine motor skills are, the more likey one will be able to perform them under stress at a high heart rate. So, rep those that you plan on using to death, make them second nature and increase your odds of being able to perfom them under duress. Again, regualr exposure to realistic fight simulations in key for this type of "stress innoculation" training.

With bushid man here, I'd let acadamia keep philosophy. At it's core, the MA's are about fighting. Now, if you do want to focus on more of a philosophical bent I'd reccomend Forrest Morgan's book Living the Martial Way. It has more to do with warriorhood than philosophy but it strikes me as more to the core of the arts than other works.

Agree. Again, we go back to varriations on a theme. Round, front, knee, for me, maybe side. Now, apply them from a multitude of ranges and heights and for different purposes. Stun, destabilxze center, damage, ect.

I'd try and incorporate it into your current training regime to save time. Try doing things by continous rounds with rest inbetween. Always end with rounds of some form of sparring. Utilize "round robin" type training. One guy in, everyone else (with in reason) get a round with him. Everyone gets smoked doing this. Of course, supplimental swimming, running, ect. will only help.

More important than submissions is body position. This has to be kep for aything else to be successful. I would focus on escapes, posture and maintianing postion first. Definaly sweeps from the guard. After that, a handful of basic submissions will go a long way. Not against a skilled BJJer but for what you're wanting them to do. You'll find that many submissions are simply a variation on a theme. An armbar mechanic is about the same no matter where you apply it from. Now the positions that you can apply it from are directly related to the mat time you put in. Focus on body position first.

bushido man is dead on with his advice about slipping and parrying with strikes. I would go a step furter and say whenever possible, any sort fo blocking manuvers should encorporte some form of slipping or what I call "shucking" motion. Rather than meeting force with force, very short redirections should be utilized with every attack-to-defense contact. This will drastically reduce any the amount of transferred energy between the two surfaces. The example of the high block is the best for this. When throwing an overhead, try to shift the brunt of the attack of to the elbow side of the block. A slight angle in the arm is good for this, as is a stepping motion to the hand side of the block. This creates the effect of "shucking" the attack off to the elbow side. It also moves your head out of the way if the parry misses or is ineffective. Movement of the attack as well as yourself is key in defense. As for the bone/muscle debate. I think it comes down to comfort of throwing it to each individual. Typically, whatever I can put in the way of an attack will suffice.

I think that the difference in a rotational punch and a vertical fist has more to to with matching your strking surface to it's target than anything else. I would venture a guess that most of my strikes rotate, but not all. I've noticed that alot of mine rotate, but only to about 45 degrees or so, it seems the most comfortable. Alot of the rotation out of arts that chamber strikes at the ribs or hip seems to come from the simple biomechanics of transitioning from this ready posture to a striking surface for your fist. If one uses a higher, boxing style guard, it lesses the degee to which one needs to utilize a rotating motion. Most of the power of a strike coomes from the ground up through the hips rather than arm mechanics, putting drills that develop hip rotation much higher on my list of drills to work.

As for breaking yourself of the contact issue, it may take a while. Depending how long you spent in an art that stressed limited contact and how strict they were with it. Spend alot of time on the heavy bag. Do it by rounds with a break in between to regain your wind, that way you can concentrate on applying power throughout the strike and not lose form. Work on the mitts as well, again, focus on striking completely through the target. I always stress that you're not striking at the target, but through it. You should mentally envision blowing directly through the impact sight of the mitt or bag and striking something on the other side. Make certain that you are actually strking in a manner that will give you maximal power. Utilize your hips to maximum capaicty and generate power from the ground up with every strike. Also, practice shifting your wieght while shadow boxing to make certain that you are putting your weight behind every shot. While working on the mitts, make sure you do combinations while moving in a sparring fashion. This will condition your body and mind to throwing strikes with power while in a sparring situation. As always, condition your mind to the contact. You may h ave to work to reset the switch in your head that governs the acceptable rules on engagement for your training. Really focus on turning this up prior to stepping on the mat to fight. And spar, alot. And then spar some more. And Repeat. Get used to the contact and really push yourself to throw the stikes at the same level of impact as your new partners. As for the feeling of exhaustion, I'd say that's definatly normal and nothing to worry about. Also, don't forget that the mental stress associated with a new method of training is also adding to your fatigue levels. This will get better as you gain more comfort in this particular style.

One positive outcome that the MA world as a whole gets from this kind of succession is greater diversity in training methods. Rather than haveing an umbrealla governing body that keeps a tight reign on what is taught, fractures like this allow for growth of the same art in different directions. Each student of any given art has facets of that art that he is more comfortable with than others, certain movments that he can utilize better due to his body type or mindset. When instructors branch off and begin to specilize in these aspets it leads to growth in these areas that comes with increased expeimentation. These innovations and training tactics can then be passed through the system as a whole. The danger of this is that one becomes so focused on one aspect that he forgets to train in the others of the art. The fracturing is also a problem if it is brought on by mere ego stroking. Bearing these warnings in mind, it's probibly not a bad thing that kenpo's succession did not pass to a single successor. The same can probibly be said of JKD, which has produced some increably talented MAist in varying specalities all of which seem to be very useful for defense. I'm not affiliated with the Parker systems in anyway, not have I ever studied them (disclamer there), but I would say to your last question JL that given the current status of it's evolution, it's probibly best not to look for that unifying factor. Let it continue to grow and evolve.

I think I see your point here, and I can agree with it to a certain extent. The skill that the black belt brought to the conflict certainly mattered in his ability to produce results. They were outcome related. As to the situation itself, however, the skill level of the defender (in this case a black belt level MAist) dosen't matter. All that matters is that deadly force was justified. No matter who applies it or how it is applied. This is the standard that the law will look at in judging the incident. So from a situational standpoint the blackbelt level is irrelivent. However, from a functional standpoint of actually applying force, it counted for quite a bit.

Thanks for the reply Z. That was an excellent link, just the kind of thing I was hoping for when I started the thread. It's nice to see such a focus on the mental aspects of defense. Having a series of systemized mental goals that would coincide with the physical training is great, and they are ceratinly well deliniated. I hadn't realized that Wado had such a stong connection with samurai philosphy.

Excellent article with great breakdown of basics. I agree with you're premise of incorporating some type of movement early in a fighters development. The drills 3 and 4 at this stage are excellent as an introduction to this important fundimental concept. Nice work.

Nothing at all seems easy about that . Compariting styles is tough and really of limited value in my opinion. And it's my opinion only. It's much more accurate to talk about comparing fighters than styles. And probibly more accurate than that to talk about comparing training methodology than anything else. That being said, I do think that some movements are more useful in a combat sense than others. However, the difficulty in determining the difference between a less than effective movement and less than effective fighter is considerable. I feel that the major difference in combative, jutsu type arts is not the usefulness of the applications, but the amount of time needed to become proficient based on the method of preparing mentally and physically for conflict.

A UFC no. As for smaller, like minded events, I went to a several as a competitor back in the day. It was long enough ago that the sport was still in it's infancy and most MMA and shootfighting was done in a ring. Since then, I've been to a few regional venues to watch friends fight and I've cornered a few more for fighters that I had a hand in helping with at more local sized fights. One of these days it would be a blast to see a UFC live. I would think that it's more for the atmosphere than anything. Seats have have to be better on your sofa.