joesteph

Leg raises Chil Sung E Ro Hyung (first half)

If I understand you right, Aces Red, it's that you're already in a fight. It's not that he's someone to watch out for, someone you keep an eye out for that he'll sucker punch you. You're in an altercation already. It's not clear whether you're outside, inside, or who's around--no one, his friends, a bartender . . . No matter what shape he's in, it's the "combat experience" I'm thinking about. He likely has only a few techniques, but he's very good at them. He'll throw all he's got into a right cross, no reservations, no second thoughts. He'll kick with a front kick, and he's never kicked above the belt unless his victim is down on his knees. Then he's punched or kicked the guy in the face. He'll likely be able to chain his punches, which he'll start off with, say a right, his stronger arm, first, and then if you block it, he'll come with the left--he won't be surprised at the block, and he won't pause with the left. The kick will be for the groin; you're dealing with a primitive mind. I'd avoid grappling, where his friends (of course he has friends; he's a very entertaining guy) can stomp on you. If you fight him standing up, you can keep an eye on him and them, and they'll likely want to watch the show. Personally, I'd make use of whatever self-defense training I have in striking to slam away. My height is 5'6", so I'm going to infight, just like when I spar. Don't stand there and slug it out with him; hit hard and try to be a moving target. You've got knees and elbows, haven't you? Good infighting tools. If you haven't practiced already, then start to practice how to kick low--such as to the knees and thighs. (If your art emphasizes high kicks, I wonder if you'll even have room for them, and the worst would be if he blocks and you go tumbling down.) Go for the targets that end the fight quickly. There are the nose, throat, and knees as number one on the hit parade. A punch or kick to the solar plexus will knock all the wind out of him. If you need to apply a joint lock, don't do it for control because you can't control him; give it the gas. Definitely leave, but call the police, so that you don't have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life. An additional note; something discovered by Marc "Animal" MacYoung in a book he wrote some years back, "Cheap Shots, Ambushes . . ." Once the guy is down, he'll still yell at you, curse at you, even threaten how he'll destroy you. That's one for the psychologists to figure out.

What I'm not clear about, GhostFighter, is why you have to take him down. Do you mean to defeat him? Grapple with/subdue him? You don't take him down, GhostFighter. You don't put yourself in any position in which he can get his hands on you. It's not his striking ability but his crushing ability you have to be concerned with. You don't defeat him. You strike at whatever is vital to his mobility with as much force as possible, and then you get out of there. There are the throat and the knees or both to practice striking at before an altercation; there's also the nose. Practice how to hit and run. He's too strong and likely far outweighs you. No need to fight him; hit him, hit him hard, then take off. Call the police on him; one look at the guy and they'll be on your side. Maybe a night in jail will make him avoid you. Women have to go through this concern when facing an average-sized, average-strength man; you're a man facing a much stronger one. (Me? I'm a middle-aged man who no longer weight-trains, so I learn what self-defense I can to protect myself against predators half my age.) GhostFighter, why do you say in your posting "just seeing him getting angry is very intimidating"? You're not asking a hypothetical question; you're asking about a specific person. When he approaches you, think ahead of time where the targets are; when he's close up, look him right back in the eye, even keeping your hands open in front of you, palms down, but at a 45 degree angle. This defines space and gives you a position to strike from. He'll look at your hands before looking at your legs/feet, so you're poised to kick and he doesn't realize it. Speak firmly if you need to speak, but use as few words as possible. No matter what he says or even asks, he doesn't get more than an "Uh-huh" out of you. Stay focused; his mouth is not your worry, his hands are. Don't let him touch you. If/when you need to strike, kiai/kihap from the diaphragm. Yes, kiai/kihap. Loud. Bullies. Their minds function at such a primitive level . . .

My instructor carries Century, and we talked about how it's easier to clean than other brands. With two seven-year-olds who outgrew the first ones and are on their second set of middleweight gis/dobaks, it pays to have something that you can keep clean long enough for them to grow out of. (I don't want the boys wearing "gray" dobaks!) When receiving a promotion to a new belt color, the belt is by Century.

You should train hard, Shoto, we all should, and you're more prepared than the next guy if you envision that you're actually fighting an opponent. These are the marks of someone who has combined what is artistic with self-defense. Tense? That's something I was told by my instructor's teacher that she's observed in men more so than women. The men tense up, especially all around the shoulder girdle, and we try too hard for power. That takes a long time to control, to drop the shoulders, relax the traps, and not let tension go up into the back of your neck--all things that sap endurance in the long run. We're supposed to have relaxation, then tension, in our blocks and strikes, starting from a relaxed state and moving into the tense one on impact. It's not supposed to be tension at all times. (While I'm up here on my soapbox, I have to remember that I'm supposed to follow my own advice. I find myself falling into this trap, but I catch it and concentrate on relaxation. Not easy.) Shoto, you may be taxing your cardio by the very way you breathe. Tension adds to the problem. Do you find yourself breathing rapidly while you train, or the opposite, holding your breath while you perform, then letting it all out in one overdue shot? That'll take its toll. Do you take in enough air; i.e., do you take in as much as you breathe out, or do you find your intake is less than you're expending? If so, you'll "owe" that air to your lungs, wind up breathing heavily to catch your breath, and there goes your cardio ability. (Yes, I'm a guilty party to doing all of these things. I work on them. After all, what's the use of making mistakes if you don't learn from them?) Barring that you take a medication that affects your cardio (as with me), I'd say it's control of muscle tension and proper breathing technique that you need to focus on for increased cardio ability.

I've read that it's a fallacy that the samurai wore wooden armor. Armor in different societies has often started with leather, to protect the body against slashes, and that metal was the next step in armor technology, not wood. There is no evidence, nor would I expect there to be, that the samurai were behind other societies, using wood before metal. The development of an unarmed martial art flows with one finding himself without his weapon and facing another warrior, possibly similarly weaponless at that moment, but likely with one. Things like this happen in the universe of battle. You fight him, as adeptly and brutally as possible, until you can recover your weapon. The pine boards that we break are, individually, about as strong as a rib. Men who in the past developed powerful strikes against wood were developing powerful strikes against the ribcage and other parts of the skeletal system. This prepares you to fight armorless men. They weren't breaking though metal--we have to drop the fallacy of wooden armor--and all men in a Japanese battle weren't necessarily samurai, just as all men in medieval European battles weren't all knights. Wood breaking does help gauge student progress, like empirical evidence, and it's a psychological lift for the practitioner, especially an up-and-coming one, to possess a tangible result. If we re-read Wa-No-Michi's conclusion, as quoted above, I'd say that, along with gauging progress, it's likely on the mark.

This video was found by a friend from another forum. The demo portion of his "power" is short, but the most "potent" scene is with an individual student. When he fights the challenger, his hands aren't defending; he's "projecting" his power. See what happens when battle-tested.

Next you doubters will claim that a magician can't pull a rabbit out of his hat. I bet you think it's a trick!

I'd like to try JiuJitsu, Shoto, but I've come to realize that I have to learn karate, specifically Soo Bahk Do, with greater proficiency. Is now the time to split my training time? I've found out that I've gotten my promotion, meaning that my orange belt will have a stripe on it, so that I can train for the next color. Hold it! Didn't I just say that I need to learn my art with greater proficiency? I've spoken with my instructor, and she understands that there's a good chance that I will ask to skip the next test, even though it's four months between tests, until I feel I should go to a higher belt--and the greater demands it'll place on me. I'm studying karate-do, not obi-do. (I got that from a moderator in another forum, and he made a good point.) You have to stop beating yourself up, Shoto; it serves no useful purpose and causes you to doubt yourself. If you made a list of your strengths and compared it with a list of your weaknesses, not holding yourself to an impossible standard of perfection, you'll find that the scale tips the balance in your favor. I don't take failure easy either. Why did I major in history in college? Why did I study other, related, subjects, and now teach social studies? Because I found out what I was good at--not perfect at, good at--and capitalized on it. Everybody does this. We work harder at what we find we're good at. If failure doesn't affect us, then it means we never cared about what we failed at in the first place. Whether you realize it or not, you've been "pruning" your life (so have I; so does everybody), casting aside what you aren't good at, what doesn't matter to you, and concentrating on what does. You've built on what you're good at, and being off the mark bothers you. Good reaction. It means you still care. I can't imagine anyone here in the forum who hasn't felt at some point that the martial arts aren't working out for him or her, and likely "failure" has occurred to just about everybody here. We wake up, smell the coffee, and continue on our martial arts journey. There isn't a single negative posting here by forum members that has told you to quit on your art or martial arts; it's all been positive about continuing. Your Sensei, who you know likes you, would be disappointed if you didn't give it one more try. Why? Because he believes in you. Your job now is to believe in yourself.

It should be covered, as the WaveMaster is really a foam-filled target, and you would want to protect it from the elements. I can see putting something like antifreeze in it if water is placed inside; if it's just water, it'll freeze, expand, and then it's goodbye to the base. Sand sounds very good if you intend to keep it outside and not worried about draining it to move it. So, Jack, come winter, spring, summer, or fall, you've got the dedication to be out there hammering away. A karateka for all seasons.

It's perfectly legitimate. The individuals who are his students, those who respect him, work with him regularly, and have fallen under his spell, believe that he can have this effect on them--one that I would not call natural, although he would say it's natural energy transference. The readings that were taken were genuine; if the individual thinks he's been hit by a ton of bricks and falls over, then his body is going to react to it. Note that when he demonstrated on the newswoman, he said he didn't want to perform at a distance, as it would affect her heart; therefore, he tapped the side of her face at a pressure point. She said it as soon as he did it; it's on video. When he went to a Judo dojo, the judoka there said they felt nothing. His claim was that they were athletes and therefore their response--or lack of it--was a reflection of athletic training. What was not said was that none of them were his students, "mesmerized" by him. There are those who may think things like this are cool, but I don't. I don't like this effect he has on his students. Consider: Does anyone in the forum believe in voodoo? I do. It's all psychological to me. If someone comes from a culture in which voodoo is believed in, it has a powerful influence on accepting that it works. If a man is told he has had a voodoo curse placed upon him, he will waste away right until death unless told that the curse has been lifted, prophecy-fulfillment (AKA "wish-fulfillment") alive and well.

At home: Leg stretches BOB: - jabs, crosses, uppercuts, hooks; individually and in combination - open and closed hand strikes other than the above - elbow strikes Ki Cho Hyungs (Il, E, Sam Bu) Pyung Ahn Cho Dan Chil Sung E Ro (first half) Class at night, concentration on working with a partner: - body shielding targets (elbow and kicking strikes) - blocking by redirecting punches - one-step sparring

I teach social studies on the high school level, Truestar. The elective I teach right now for juniors and seniors is psychology. What I do is I let the students know assignments well in advance. In other words, I don't say "Do this for tomorrow," but they look at the left side of the board and see what they have to do for the entire week. This helps them to plan their time, to budget it. It also helps that they have one book at home and one in school. Someone who's absent knows what the assignments are ahead of time, and frequently being home isn't a thrill when you're sick. Sometimes a student is out for two days. Coming back to school to do make-up work is rough because no one has just one class, and the student has to catch up with the old while keeping up with the new. I've found that most students who are out will come to me with their assignments done for me, because the book was right there at home (and there's nothing on TV; one hundred channels, and there's nothing to watch!). The funny thing in all of this, whether for grade school or high school, is that the schools encourage getting involved in activities. Lots of luck when there are only twenty-four hours in a day. One thing, though, Truestar, and this may be a help to you. Do you sleep at night? Don't! Sleep is for lazy people! Give up sleeping at night and you'll have plenty of time for everything from karate to homework to video games. See? A simple solution.

Truestar . . . Get an adult to be there with you, and have it on private property. If it ends that early (and since it's winter, it'll be dark early, so who'll know if it's not a video shot at midnight?), you might be able to get more support than you realize. If not a park, then what private location can you get hold of? I'm trying to remember . . . What was the horror movie that was shot in a large backyard and made a fortune, even though it was really an amateur production and cost practically nothing to make? If they could do it, so can you--and maybe be up on YouTube. Good luck with the enterprise.

Reading Tallgeese's post makes me think of the saying, "People who have nothing to hide . . . hide nothing." Barring being on a college campus, where you might work with campus security and have no problems, it'd have to be rural, and the property-owner would be aware (and guaranteed that no live/real weapons--such as using bokkens instead of swords--will be used). It's difficult to do if not sponsored by a martial arts school, with the instructor--and therefore a legal adult--involved.

The pre-arranged one-steps Bushido Man referred to have, as the next two for me to learn, to block a lunge punch with the outside-inside kick, and then without letting the foot hit the floor, turn it into a side kick. I think it's a training move, that you can have a two-kick chain, rather than against a punch, and I think that Tallgeese's observation is true about the speed of punches and punching combinations. I think both kicks have their uses, but even though I have to learn it, I question swatting/blocking a punch (I wonder if the standard-practice lunge punch is more of a training tool than a seriously expected strike) with a kick. Tiger is right that I'm used to the outside-inside from the past, which has meant, though, that even with all the emphasis on the "new" (inside-outside) kick, the "old" kick remains stronger with me.

I'm not someone who's got a football background, but if someone says the players are in a T-formation, I know where/how they're set up. In today's (October 17) New York Times, right on the front page, is that a high school in California changed its formation to an A-formation, so that every member of the team can be considered eligible to catch the ball. A question is whether this new formation is an evolution of the game or an unfair advantage for the offense that uses it. It also, though, eliminates the need for players who weigh 300+ lbs, as the game is more fluid. The NY Times URL is http://www.nytimes.com and the article is titled "Even the Referees Don't Know Who's Who." Is anyone familiar with this new formation? What do you think about this change in the game?

At home: Ki Cho Hyungs (Il, E, Sam Bu) Pyung Ahn Cho Dan Chil Sung E Ro (first half) Class tonight, assistant instructor teaching: Some work as a class; other work as two groups, higher and lower belts, with higher belts concentrating on one-step sparring under a first dan, and lower belts receiving more individual attention (fine-tuning) from the assistant instructor

To make sure I'm clear, when I say "inside-outside," think of the right leg going up on the left, then across to the right, striking with either the blade or heel of the foot. When I say "outside-inside," think of that same right leg going up on the right, then across to the left, striking with the inner area or the heel of the foot. When I did Tae Kwon Do in the past, I was shown the outside-inside kick by my instructor, but not the inside-outside. It was pretty much that you whacked the opponent on the side of his head, but it was suggested that if you could kick high enough, you could have it come down on his head--my intro to the axe kick. In the art I study now, Soo Bahk Do, I was introduced to the inside-outside kick, with its application as either striking across the face or dropping down on his collar bone as an axe kick. The outside-inside kick has been shown to me as a block against a punch, although it can also be used to drop down on the collar bone as an axe kick, but it isn't emphasized as much as the inside-outside. I've questioned the power I generate in both kicks, that they're not equal. When practicing in the dojang, it's against paddles. When at home, it's been against the WaveMaster, but feeling I'm generating more power outside-inside (the "older" kick) than inside-outside. Now that I use a bag clapper, the very sound of the strike tells me that I'm generating more power outside-inside--i.e., the older kick. Which do you find more powerful, the inside-outside or outside-inside kick? Do you have a preference, power or not?

I'd wondered if all this homework were related to raising standardized test scores, that the school day is extended, not by homework as simple review, but as a nightly project. David's homework is not a problem; he likes doing his first grade homework. Patrick liked doing first grade homework until it got greater in quantity. It makes me wonder if so many kids wouldn't grow up minding homework if it were more limited in sheer quantity. I think the average kid knows it's important, but just not so much of it, please. One night last week, I wrote a note when I saw how late it was that the reason Patrick wrote a list of words once instead of twice was that he had to go to bed. I didn't receive any complaint; Patrick told me nothing was said to him.

At home: Leg stretches WaveMaster: - front swing kicks - front kicks, both lead and rear leg - crescent kicks using bag clapper - axe kicks (I don't kick high enough, but we have to do them in class) - roundhouses, with and without step - roundhouses using shin for impact - side kicks, with and without step - back kicks, non-spinning/donkey-style Class at night with my sons

I'm speaking as a parent of two first-graders . . . My sons, David and Patrick, are special needs students, with David still in a self-contained classroom and inclusion into certain regular classes, like gym, with an aide, while Patrick is in a regular first grade class, with an aide in the room. The homework David brings home may be a couple of pages of verbal skills to do, and a page of math. The homework Patrick brings home is too much in my book. I have to work with both boys; whether special needs or not, few first graders can be left on their own to do homework, if only to understand the directions. The boys go to bed together, so for the third time in the past few weeks, they went to bed at 9:00. After school, which is their "job," as school is expected to be when you're young, they have after-care. This allows them free time to play, to be children, and they have after-care on my custody days that are school days, Mon-Tues-Wed. It's good for them socially as well as blowing off some kid steam. When I pick them up, I bring them home to a small meal, get them dressed in their doboks, and we go to karate on Mondays and Wednesdays--an after-school activity, a sport they do, and an activity/sport is something normal for any child. After karate, we eat at McDonald's, then I bring them home to give them a bath, and . . . I was able to say let them watch a bit of a DVD, and then go off to bed last year, but this year it's enough homework that they often don't have time for the DVD, and if the homework is long enough for Patrick, it's a late bed-time for both. I spoke with two fellow teachers at my high school, one who told me her war stories for her child when he was in grade school, and the other who has a child in grade school now, so her war stories are current events. What's with all this homework, especially with single parent families, both parents working, activities for children after school, etc.?

Salvadore Dali melted timepieces on canvas; Final Frontier melted street signs as sculptures. Just don't melt my ice cream.

Truestar, there's a martial arts school in my hometown, Bayonne NJ, owned and operated by Dr. Austin Wright, Sr. As it says about him on one page of his web site: In 2008 Dr. Austin Wright Sr. received a Ph.D. and Ma.D.Sc., Doctorates of Martial Arts Philosophy and Martial Arts Science accredited by The University of Asian Martial Arts Study. 2008 © Author of Universal Warrior Martial Arts Spiritually, Motivating, Inspiration For Self-Defense The URL is http://www.afterschooluwa-martialarts.com/ So his doctorate (and, if you check out the web site, his background) served to buttress his starting his own system. When I checked out the Bridgeport CT martial arts web page, it contained two Chinese characters and the following: The Symbolism of Wu Dao (The Martial Way) The character Wu is composed of two sections. The lower section means "prevention" or "to stop," and the upper section represents a warrior with a spear. In this sense the character means "stopping a spear." The character Dao means "way" or "road," which is the path one has taken to understand the essence of things. In my martial art, Soo Bahk Do, it's really Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan, with Soo Bahk Do as the art and Moo Duk Kwan as the style--the philosophical end. What's called "Wu" on the site is called "Moo" in Hanja, and the explanation of "Wu" being "to stop" and "a spear" is related to the interpretation of "Moo" as "to stop" and "a sword." They're the same combination-character, made up of the same two characters. It just goes to show you that this program can not only emphasize martial arts as a self-defense system, but martial arts as a philosophy, and who's to say you couldn't double major (which students do with greater frequency than when I was in college) in martial arts and anything from criminal justice to sociology. Looks like you lucked out.

It says in the article, "Good guys going against good guys who both believe in an issue . . ." I think this is more entertaining than the Hulk turning into a "real" monster. This is how a good plot works; friends can be pitted against one another when they have different perspectives. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Donny and Leo clash--and they're brothers.