joesteph

I knew about him being an officer in Louisiana, and this link is to a better video than the one I saw. If you poke around the site, you'll find one of the links is to him teaching martial arts to the police. Thanks for the posting. There are several interesting videos there.

I remember a guy who carried a pocket baton, one that when closed would fit within his coat pocket but, when telescoped open, gave him a longer reach to break bones. I can understand someone wanting to protect himself, but it was the way he spoke about it that caused me to feel he wanted someone to start with him. Back in the VHS days, I got a defense against the knife video by Marc "Animal" MacYoung. He took a small bladed knife, maybe only a couple of inches long, and made slash marks against a large hanging chunk of beef. He never stabbed, slashing each time, and he "killed" that stand-in for human flesh.* Granted, it was before 9/11 and box cutters seen as weapons, but that demonstration says to me that you don't need something Rambo would carry. *Edit: MacYoung pulled the slashed areas open afterwards, not just to show the depth of the wounds but the width of them. Wicked.

When my father suffered a stroke, he had a problem with balance and coordination that required physical therapy afterwards. While in the hospital, the physical therapists were including Tai Chi in his recovery exercises. There was nothing fancy, like "The Snake Creeps Down," but he was doing certain movements that got him out of the hospital, out of physical therapy, and allowed him to be coordinated enough to drive his car around town. I've studied Tai Chi, and you don't have to be a believer in Eastern philosophy to perform it. Frankly, you could begin with Tai Chi as an intro for your body making martial arts movements, and then decide if you'd like a more "with gusto" art.

Welcome to Karate Forums!

Welcome to the forums!

Congratulations, Jay!

I haven't been in kata competition, Blade, so I can't offer advice, but I can say good luck. Nervous excitement sounds like a good sign to me that you'll do just fine--and will enjoy yourself while competing.

Congratulations!

In the short term, I had a pain in the palmheel of my right hand. I spoke with the nurse before seeing the doctor, and referred to karate and the makiwara board. When the doctor spoke with me, she was familiar with this type of injury. There seems to be a small bone in the palmheel that she placed her finger on immediately, and explained how it's slammed when impact is repeatedly done against such an object/training device. The left hand didn't have it, but it would likely develop the same injury if I continued such strikes against the board. We spoke of the area at the base of the "pad" where the knifehand edge meets the palmheel. That can really take it. I skipped the makiwara board for a good month, then redirected hard strikes so that that spot struck the board. To do it, there's a kind of turning of the hand, like 45 degrees, looking like it's between a knifehand and a palmheel. No problems for either hand developed. Although I don't strike the makiwara board any longer, I've kept that kind of palmheel strike for the chest of the opponent, practicing on BOB, and I believe that it's capable of fracturing the sternum. If the sternum isn't hit, but the pectoral muscles are, I still feel it'll be a strong blow.

You might be interested in this Human Weapon video posted on YouTube. It's called "Bokator: Double Elbow Slash": Note the opening wrist seize to ensure control for delivery.

Great news, Highlander! Congratulations!

My teacher suggests that if you're close enough for a hook punch, you might likely be close enough to use the elbow instead of the first to perform that hook strike. When working on some self-defense moves, she showed me that, instead of using a fist for an uppercut to the jaw, I could use my elbow for that shot. In either case, it would be polite of you to help your adversary pick up the pieces of his broken teeth.

Congratulations, Blade. I took a good number of Central and Eastern European History courses for my BA in history. That was back when there was a USSR. Since you majored in history and Russian, I wondered if you've ever visited Russia. I did in 1999. Moscow and St. Petersburg.

If you go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQD9kf1xAhU you'll see a fine Revolution of Kicking upload. At 3:22, it specifically homes in on the supporting leg.

Thanks for the info, Yas. It's important to me not only as a martial artist, but also as a social studies teacher. I had come across the "compulsory" reference at some point, likely last year, in an online article about black belts. When I double-checked what you'd said, nothing online came up about compulsory JJ in Japan.

I imagine 3rd kyu is the same as 3rd gup, a red belt level in my art that is below dan, but usually means the person is interested in reaching dan level. Is she actually there for self-defense, Inubis, or could she have thought of self-defense when she started but, over the time it took to reach 3rd kyu, she would rather do a martial art as a hobby, an activity? Does she actually want more promotions? Is she satisfied where she is? What does she like when in class? How long has this been going on, since day one? If so, this is the kind of person that she is. She may not want anyone's well-intentioned help with the fighting aspect. The more she's pressed, could you simply lose her as a student, one who became uncomfortable in the training hall?

Congratulations!

This made me think of Phillip Starr's Martial Mechanics, which Kuma had posted about (first page in this thread). I re-read pp. 17 (Focused Impact) and 20 (Snap-Back Impact). Regarding Focused Impact: When contact is made with the target . . . It doesn't penetrate deeply nor does it snap back quickly. The power of the blow is focused through, rather than on, a particular point. The shocking force of this kind of blow will penetrate deeply into the interior of the opponent, causing severe internal damage. Below this portion of the text are drawings of a water-filled balloon being struck by a fist, the struck area dented in, the opposite side bulging out. Obviously, the force went right through. This makes me think of a fighter in orthodox stance firing off a perfect-form right cross to the solar plexus. Like the photo of Joe DiMaggio called "The Swing," everything is thrown into it; there is no snap-back, and a tremendous amount of force is generated. Regarding Snap-Back Impact: Although they're in contact with the hard surface of the target for only a fraction of a second, these whip-like techniques create a very sharp and focused form of shock. . . . This is due to the large amount of force generated due to impulse . . . Italics in text; reference to Chapter 6 in the book is made regarding impulse. There are drawings below this portion of text showing a water-filled balloon being struck by a fist and having only a slight dent made in it, but the second drawing has the fist retracted and a large bulge formed where there had been that small dent. While this obviously makes me think of a backfist, which lashes out and retracts just as fast, I also think of a well-executed jab to the face of an opponent, done not just as a setup for the cross punch, but performed rapidly and with damage in its own right in mind.

Are you turning the knee of your supporting leg enough, Kyk, so that there's not so much torque on it? This YouTube video: has a presenter who especially refers to the knees (and foot position) at 1:14+. The video's a bit dark there, compared with better lighting in other parts, but he makes up for video quality with what he says. I know the best-claimed way to kick, say it's a roundhouse, is to turn the supporting leg/foot with the kick, but some people turn their supporting leg/foot a fraction of a second before they fire it off, and their knees thank them for it.

Hi, Ichi_Geki, and welcome to the forums! It looks like you've experienced a good bit of Japanese, and some Korean, karate, so you must have been exposed to a lot of kata. I imagine that you've found similar bunkai from different styles, but is there a style whose bunkai you feel is unique, or contains unique applications?

DWx, do you think that if someone intends a punch with snap that, consciously or unconsciously, that person is actually delivering the punch at a greater speed than one intended with push? An example would be that I'm delivering a snap punch to my opponent's face, as opposed to a push punch to his midsection. Do you think that I am, consciously or unconsciously, punching faster and pulling back more swiftly with the snap punch than with the push punch, the latter which I expect to end its forward motion within the opponent before pulling back?

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Great to hear you returned, Kez. Enjoy!

When I weight-trained, I followed the Mr. Olympia (higher than the Mr. Universe), and Coleman was the winner year after year. At a height of 5'11", his competition weight was 280 (incredible, as most other competitors were about 240), but he kept his muscular definition. Off-season, his weight topped 300 lbs. I a man of Coleman's solid mass can't be "defused" through non-violent methods, I can only guess at a strong kick to the knee, such as the JKD front kick that turns into a side kick ("screwdriver" as it's been called on YouTube), or a JKD-style side kick that's downward on the knee to cause maximum joint damage. Then run for your life. If such a man is reaching for you, finger Chin-Na, as my self-defense jujitsu sensei showed me, would be to seize at least one finger of the moving hand (you'd better be fast!) a split-second before seizing the wrist with the other hand, and do a downward movement to break the finger. Again, you then run for your life. If it's a punch or kick coming, the best you can do, as I see it, is evade (I don't know if you could successfully block such a powerful thing) and escape. Whatever the aerobic ability of such a large man in terms of chasing after you, it's likely that if you run he'll won't follow. There is a caveat here. A track coach who had coached at my school in the past has trained football players, large men to be sure, in sprinting. The chances of someone who's large and has sprinting training, such as a football player, being able to catch you is there despite his bulk.

He would have not had bad relations. US presidents of either accepted or rejected certian "gifts" from people-countries over time. When I graduated from college in 1973, the guest speaker was then-Senator Bill Bradley, who received an honorary doctorate. The practice of conferring honorary doctorates preceded my graduation, and it continues till today. Organizations, such as DWx's example of the ITF, confer their own honorariums. In my hometown, Hudson Boulevard was renamed John F. Kennedy Boulevard back in the 1960s. Neighboring Jersey City renamed Jackson Avenue Martin Luther King Drive in the 1970s. Universities, organizations, and governments have their own protocol. Personally, I'm glad there's a system in place. Whoever agrees or disagrees, that's each person's right, and I see this thread as reaching the point of agreeing to disagree regarding President Obama's honorary black belt.