Neil

I want some advice on how a shorter swarmer can defeat a taller boxer? Looking at Rocky Marciano, he would put his guard up high, bend his knees as much as he could, and rolled his body up-basically making it as small and as compact as possible. He would then charge in close so he could use his small stoxky arms and fight in-side the oppenant competely mauling him, and making the other boxer useless to use any of his boxing ability. Any other advice on how a short swarmer can defeat a tall boxer woyuld be very helpful and appreciated. By the way if your wandering why I made this post is that I will be boxing now and at 5'7 I am pretty short, but I am quite heavy at 15 and weigh around 73 kg. Neil

The reason Martial Art teachers do not think boxing is any good for the street is that when you put on a apir of gloves you greatly limit your self to a whole host of things that will work in a fight but not in the ring. Fingers in eyes, gripping the ears and ripping them off, ripping the kidney muscle off, thumbs in throat, thumbs under armpits etc. You are never, ever, in a million years every goona fight on the streets like you do in the ring. Fighting is always scrapy. Not even Bruce Lee himself would aviod a dirty fight if it came to a REAL fight and not in the gym. Have you ever seen a clean fight? No, I don't think so. Certainly a well trained boxer would do very well in a fight, and would be much better defending themselves on the street than over 90% of the Martial Artists out there. But the rest of the 10% of what is actually worthy of being called a Martial Art would do much better. A boxer would be good in a street fight only because of his condition to take a bit of punishment, and of course the power of his punches, but thats where it ends. A Martial Artists from the 10% category would instantly stick his fingers in the attachers eyes, foot in groin, bitting his ears off and it will all be over. Boxing was designed for the ring, karate was designed for stopping the violance as quickly as possible and that is why its applications are so brutal. The first knanjis of Bujutsu is 'To stop the spear' or to stop violance, not how to start it. This is why karate is not very effective when made into a sport. Boxing is best suited to the ring, although a well trained boxer woyuld do quite well but ONLY because of his condition and his punch, not boxing ability which will not take place in a fight. Karate's only application is to destroy the oppenant in as quick as time as possible, so you can get home safely. Just thought I might add some 'home truths' Neil

I love border collies they are incerdibly intelligent and very very energetic, they are also the most agile dog! I have seen them on 'Breed all bout it' and I'v also seen it on the National Geographic Channel on the program 'Dogs with jobs which is a half hour program ddocumenting 2 breeds each time, but is really about interesting jobs dogs do that are sent in by owners, thats why you often get the same breeds. Border collies have got everything I want in a dog, except that bit of roughness in a dog - if you see what I mean. I love the attitude very courageous since they manage to herd bulls 10 times there own size and 20 times there own weight! Its just I'm looking for a bit more or a physically robust dog - if you see what I mean. A cross between a border collie and a rottweiler would be perfect!

Well first of all I'm 15 years old so I am already pretty heavy especially for my height, as I get older I will of course get naturally heavier. At the moment I weight about 75 kilos, which is 165 pounds. I am 5'7. I will be very very short for a heavy weight, but I am training to fight in close. I need to 'crowd' the tall boxers just like Marciano who never lost a fight and only weighed 180 pounds. Could I ask what is the minimum weight for a heavyweight fighting under 18? thanks, Neil

Damn it! I still can't decide. Please help me with my quite sad and pathetic problem.

You only have to be over 190 pounds which isn't exactly very heavy is it?

How can one determine natural weight class. Roy jones recently moved up from light heavyweight to heavyweight as one of many examples. Why are fighters concerened about thgere weight and keeping within their division when they could just move up to the next class. And why doesn't everyone just bulk up and get into the heavyweight division. I am starting boxing this Thursday and fight season starts in September so I want to bulk up to the heavyweight division (I'l be 16 then so I have no idea what the minimum weight is for an amateur under 18? thanks Neil

First of all I want a dog as a campanion dog which is what most people get a dog for really isnt it? When I say I want a large robust dog that has the qualitys of a guard dog, what I mean is that I don't exactly want a poodle if you see what I mean. I said I wanted a dog with the potential to be a gueard dog purely for a strong charcter, not to be aggresive. I will NOT use the dog as a guard dog, or dog fighting. Here is what I want out of a dog. I want a dog with plenty of heart and courage, ie I don't want a timid dog. I want it to be very active and want it to get loads of exercise, plenty of challenges, has got loads of fire in him and is loyal. I know there is no such thing as the 'perfect dog' and each dog has got something stronger than the other. So when identifying the qualitys, many dogs can fit them, but some breeds fit certain qualitys like exercise better than others while another breed may have more courage etc. I would have to say the most important quality mentally is courage and enthusiasm. And in terms of physical qualitys I do want a large dog which is robust and very fit. I recently watched this program on Animal Planet called 'Breed all about it' which is a half hour documantary on one breed of dog. The program goes through all the breeds. The last one I saw was on the Rhodesian Ridgeback owned by some famous American footbal player. They are big dogs that look great, really great, plenty of heart and I really like the look of them. But I'm still looking at all the breeds. Do any of you think those breed selectors are any good (where you fill in answers to questions to determine a breed suited to you)? Also can you suggest any good dog forums? thanks Neil

Where was Kylie?

Well I was thinking something more like a Neopolitan Mastiff, Tosa, Rottweiler, Akina,

Anyone here own a dog? I want to buy I dog in the next couple of years when I move out, I know its a long time, but I like to look into different dog breeds since its interesting. I kind of want a big dog although I also like pit bull terriers a lot. Some of the big dogs I like are Akita, rottweilers, boxers, malumate, doberman, mastiffs (possibly), I just can't decide which one I want, and I yes I know its sad that its over 2 years away but I just love looking into different dog breeds. I geus I want a dog really as a companion which I can play with for long hours and take for lots and lots of exercise. I want it to be very courageous and ferocious and not at all lazy (thats why I don't really like Mastiffs). I guess I want it to have the ptoential to be an excellent guard dog so it has all the qualities of courage and toughness although I don't need a protection or guard dog and will not use it as one unless it self wants to be one. Any comments will be helpful. Even if its just posting your favourate breeed and why. thanks, Neil

The old timers used to drink loads of milk and squats loads to get real big. I am still bulking up, as I will start boxing next Thursday I want to continue to eat loads of carbs, modertae ptoein, moderate fats so I can compete in the heavyweight division, which I am not sure of the minimum weight when it comes to amateur boxing for a 15 year old

Its working. I thought yesterday, sod it. So I had some new potatoes and sausages instead of a slad with tuna. I have run today and feel bigger! My body fat has decreeased a bit too rapidly also since I did a lot of abdominal training. Basically matt advises you to cut back on all starchy food and anything processed. Only eat lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, nuts, yogurt, that sport of stuff. Neil

G95champ, I do agree with you that there is a huge shortage of teachers out there but again I can see that you don't fully understand applications. Yes some of your applications are applicable but things like blocking a kick or punch is simply crap. There is no such thing as a block in Karate. There never was. When people teach applications from katas as blocks it just shows how much they know about karate. A perfect example to back this up is what my teacher told me. Take 2 rottweilers and 2 alsations to a park. Get a big juicy steak and throw it between them. Watch how many times they block. Count the amount of times the rottweiler goes Gedan Barai, or the alsation does a rising block. There is no such thing as a block in karate, blocks are seen in kumite which would be better descibed as two man kata, becasue that is what they are. They were and are used as conditioning drills for the movements in the kata. They are not APPLICATIONS to a real fight. Anyone that has been in a real fight will know that there is simply no time to block. Neil

Well I am on a diet by Matt Furey where I just cut down on stachy carbs to lose weight. I will start running as well as get back into training. But as soon as I get rid of my love handles, I will bulk up again. But I think I can bulk up at the same time as minimizing the amount of body fat I put on. I will try bulking up, but coninuing to do loads of running. For some reason bodybuilders advise against too much cardio when wanting to bulk up, except when you run you only burn fat using oxygen. You don't get rid of muscle. So couldn't you conintue to bulk up eating a high starchy carb diet while running and build muscle at the same time as minimizing the amount of fat you put on? This is what I will try. Neil

No, no you misunderstood. When I said big stances I am mainly tlaking of some of the Shotokan teachers out there who are making up to 5ft front stances when they should only be about 3ft asa seen in Funokoshi's books. When I talk of strengh I mean this idea of relaxing and then tensing at the last moment which is what people think is Kime. Kime is simply using enough control to stop the muscle like the arm or leg from locking out. You use kime when you change kime. I did not write it very specifically. Stances whould be pushing into the ground as much as possible, don't get me wrong there this is also a problem, lazyness where people cannot be bothered to push into the ground enough. The more you push your stance into the ground the more energy you get back. When you jump, you get a much higher jump from a squat position than from standing locked out. When you push into the ground you are pushing down with more gravity, which in turn, equals the energy pushing up. But instead of going up you push all the energy over the front leg and direct it forwards. When I say too big stances I mean unnatural stances that actually provide no power and are immobile. They seem to think bigger is better. Thats why in todays karate you see all these great big head kicks and all these flowery movements which have been flashed up a bit. On the question on current stae of affairs, are simply delt with, with masters going up and down the country providing courses and showing people how inneffective there teaching is. My teachers teacher was once having dinner with him with some other karate exponents from all over the country in the Isle of Wight, and Mike Lambert (my teachers teacher) said 'You know what? There is no such thing as s*it karate, theres only s*it out there teaching it. A man called Steve Morris has done many courses and people have admitted learning more from him in the first 30 minutes than they had done in the past 30 years they had trained and taught. And when my teacher passes away I will also contribute my part in this, almost, war against people teaching a very bad version of what they call karate.

Karate today is taught as a recreational, gymnastic sport. Be it the sport martial artists or the traditional. People have no understanding of how karate is applied in relation to fighting. The most importnt thing in karate is kata. Kata is karate. Evereything you need to know is in your kata. Yet over 90% of the world of Martial Arts have no idea how to apply it. Yet they teachapplications from the kata as blocks, counters, high kicks, jump kicks. I just want to cover different aspects of what is taught in Karate today, and comparae what is falsly beleived and what was its original application. Kata: Kata today is simply taught as a a bunch of shapes and techniques. People think quantitiy is better than quality. They take technqiues from the kata and turn them into blocks and such. They think the faster and the harder they do their kata the better it will be. The create huge big stances that forces them to put their bodys in all awkward positions and they require STRENGH to do a kata. Kata does not need any extra strengh such as tensing the body thinking that that will make it more powerful. This is why so many people are having knee and hip replacements all the time. They have no undertsnading of biomechanics. Biomechanics is understanding how the body works and moves. But becasue know one understands this, they are teaching people how to impend their bodys and hurt it rather than enhance it. Kumite: Kumite was used in Okinawa as a training drill to enhance their kata, and as a strengh and conditioning drill. This is another big thing that is wrong with karate. People actually think this is teaching people how to fight! This has nothing to do with fighting. You think someone is gojng to get into a nice stance and come forward with a nice straight punch to the head while you calmly block it out? Dreamers! In old day Okinawa people could not afford training apparutus, and the surfuces they trained on where not suitable for doing push ups, so they used this form of training drill to give them strengh and conditioning. Blocks where used to strenghen certain technqiues, for example rising block, was taught as a block against a punch to the head. This was used to STRENGHEN and CONDITION the technqiue, not as an application. Application: Leading on from the other one, application has to be made throguh some sort of hands-on-approach. In china and Okinawa pushing hands or sticky hands (what the wing chun uses), where used as a method of taking the movement of the kata and putting it into actual application. Most people will have no idea what pushing hands is. Some people think its what the tai chi use as this slow rolling wrists thing. When infact pushing hands is very violant and vibrant. There are two forms of this. There is one where you have one wrist connected to the other oersons wrist and you push back and fourth. The other one is similar to the tai chi one and does not use much strengh, and this time both of ytour wrists are connected. All the original karayte systems used to have this, but mainly only the Goju systems use it, but then only a few people in the Goju systems actually know of it. The whole point in pushing hands is that that you are constantly sticking to the other person, so when he tries to push into you you can FEEL him, and then you can turn movements from the kata and start finding its applications. There is never one applications to one technqieus. There are over a million applications to a front kick, a age uke etc. This is the most natural and effective ways to turn movement into applications, but now no body does it or even knows of it. Karate is very tactile, and has to be practiced up close since any fight is always close. But today many people think that FREE SPARRING is the way to turn movements of the kata into applications. But just looking at free sparring, makes you laught, becasue people actually think that people are actually going to fight like this. I can swear that I have never had anyone start a fight with getting into a stance, and launching an attack like you see in free sparring. Free sparring is to spacious, there is not enough tactility in t to be of any use when thinking in terms of application. It was mainly Nakayama who after Funokoshis death betrayed him and turned karate into a point scoring sport when Funokoshis whish to Nkayama was not to tearn karate into a sport and commercialize it. And yet Nakayama is celebrated as a hero in the Karate world! I could go on all day about this, these are just a few very basic points of why modern karate does not work. I will post more when I feel like it. Please reply back with your opinions although I will ignore egotistical replys from peope who have just read the tittle and have not even bothered to read this little post. Only intelligent replys will be taken in, thank you. Neil

Ghost I do agree with you that all that karate krap about control ise useless, since when do you even want to control a punch? When you need to save your life you want to be poundind into him destroying his body. However. Sparring in terms of two people facing up to each other and performing pucnhes and kicks from a range, scoring points and tickling their egos is not fighting. The whole point of two man kumite was introduced in Okiniwa as a movement drill. When Funokoshi sensei died, Nakayama introduced the sparring as a sport where you score points. The Kyukushin "Strongest Karate" is also a myth, with them apparently doing full contact. Full contact is street fighting. Full contact means anything goes. My teacher proved it wonderfully when he was training in malasia and found a Kyukushin dojo. He was then put into a ring with this guy who sttod well over 6ft tall. He was then told it was full contact. As the bell rang my teacher stuck his fingers in the mans eyes and was immidietly disqualified. Why? I havn't a clue! It was full contact, and yet not even the strongest karate can take it! Sparring taught in old day Karate and what I learn, was and in my class out of a few in the world who actually teach karate, teach it as a movement drill. Sparring has nothing to do with fighting. The closest thing in sport I have seen to a real fight is the UFC. Fighting is a brawl, sparring is not fighting. To learn real applications you have to try it against a live fit opponesnt who is trying to resist, this is not sparring. Sparring is putting your fists up and preparing for a punch up, not a fight. If you think sparring is going to ork in a fight you must have never had a fight in your life! To see a real fight in action, take 2 rottweilers, 2 alsations, get a great big bloody juicy steak, drop between them and watch how many times they block, or sparr.

What do you mean in 'contact sparring'. I assume its the thing where two people join up and spare each other bare-knuckled? The kyukushin do this where the call it 'full contact' soarring where it is nothing more than hitting to the body, so it is hardly 'full contact sparring'. We do a sort of two man kumite, where you hit any part of the body. Has this got anything to do with fighting? No. It simply teaches movement and timing. If people think that sparring of any kind, be it boxing, kickboxing, muay thai or karate kumite is actually going to work in a fight they have got another thing coming. People just don't seem to understand hot people and animals fight in nature. You can even see boxers today who get in scrambles out side of the ring and it looks nothing like boxing! fighting is always close, never ranged. people are coming all over you and you need experiance in practicing applications in class against a live fit opponent who is trying to resist. There is no sparring in a fight. It can be a fun sport, or to teach movement and timing, and to get a bit of conditioning from it, but it will never work in a REAL encounter. In a fight you want to be coming in close, gauging fir eyes, grabbing his pulls, ripping his ears off, biting his nose, ripping his kidney muscle off, smashing your knees into his thighs, smashing the throat. So what do you think would work best when someone has come to pick on you and is starting pushing you against the corner, roughening you up, and just about to head but you? Jump up and down, duck and weave, 360 degree flying back kick, cat stance? Or destroy him with the above information? Neil

No it does not represent the Ju in Goju. Ju or soft, comes form the body being put under relaxed pressure. The body is always hard and soft. It is hard due to all the muslce of the body always being tensed, but it is at the same time under relaxed pressure since the body is under pressure by pushing the shoulders down, rolling the stomach, pushing the lats down, screwing the feet into the down, pushing all your weight down into the floor. This gives a natural tension in the body which is much stronger than forcefully tensing each muscle, also you can keep that natural tension in the body all day long since you are simply creating tension by moving your body in the right position, not actually tensing it. This is what represents hard/soft. there is no such things as a external and internal art. Karate is internal and external, same as Tai Chi being external as well as internal. Neil

Goju Ryu is a very strong style. It i hard soft in terms of internal and external, and many people refer totechniques as being 'soft' techniques and all that krap. But Goju is designed for a very powerful body. Japanese Karate irrespective of style be it Goju Kai, or shorin ryu is NOT a Martial Art. Anything with the suffix Do attached is not a Martial Art. Again this block strike krap is back. There is no such thing as a block in karate! Blocks were taught in old day Okiniwa as strengh and conditioning drills NOT APPLICATIONS TO A REAL FIGHT. Why block the guy when you can smack him? Again people teaching karate these days really does give karate a bad name because what they are teaching is not even a Martial Art. People are so hooked up on styles that when it comes to the street and your blood is pumping and that gang is coming up to you and then you try to defend your self using 'techniques'. There really is no such thing as a techniue, only principles of techniques. Its not about techniques, its about proper attitude. The term Bujutsu means literally 'To stop the spear' or to stop violance. A Martial Arts application is not to learn hot to fight, if you want to learn how to fight go down the boxing gym, karate has absolutley nothing to do with it, karate does not work in fighting karate itself is krap and will never work in a million years. But its application to stopping a fight butt dead is devastating. withen the first 3 seconds of a fight it should all be other. Thats what karates application is all about. And then we get back to all this style krap and people are teaching nothing but a gymnastic sport compromising of nothing but empty shapes and techniques. They can learn a million and one katas but not know the first thing about any of them or any of their applications, they have no idea about biomechanics, psycology of confrontation, bioenergetics, bionomics, straetgies, sports psycology, physiology, kinesiology, stratagems, tactics, movement characteristics, understanding of kata, applications etc All the things above are what a Sensei should know. Sensei means 'Born before' it means a teacher of life and people who spend a few years in a dojo go off and start teaching a style compromising nohing more than a warm up, marching up and down the dojo floor trying to punch thin air as hard as possible, and tickling their egos, do a bit of kata compromising nothin of shapes, and when getting onto apllications taught to block, counter, strike, when really this has nothing to do with fighting or applicatons but are in fact taught as a conditioning and movement drill, nothing more

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My teacher teaches Okiniwa Shorin Ryu karatejutsu katas although the main style he teaches is Okiniwa Goju Ryu Karatejutsu. He also teaches Uechi ryu katas as well. He does not beiliev in styles as they limit you. I don't know his grade in the system but he has trained with the main teachers of Okiniwa Shorin Ryu. I have heard him many times when comparing shorin ryu to goju ryu and I remember 2 example he gave. Goju is like a muddy river with rocks. Done slowly but very strong. Shorin ryu is like a flowing river done very fast. Goju is like an old spring, slightly slow, but strong. Shorin ryu is like a new spring, very light and quick. Once one technique is done it immiedietly flows into another (like a flowing river). This probobly has absolutely given you no information apart from some nice metaphors. But basically he said shorin ryu is desendant from the snake systems of china and is meant ideally for a lean small person. Neil

No! You should never hyperextend anything, especially kicks. Even shotokan kicks which are desighned for log-range do not lock-out. It is stopped just a few inches short of locking out. In Goju it is even closer, only snapping the leg out a bit and keeping a 90 degree bend in for very close-in fighting (telephone box karate). Although the term 'Its not the Martial Art, its the Martial Artist' does have some relevance some Martial Arts are just NOT Martial Arts, especially Taekwondo. Tae Kwon Do is a krappy sport for young athletic school children as a nice recreational sport. It has no real application, and would get smashed in any real fight. This might sound very arrogant, but I prefer the hard honest truth, if something is going to work to save my life. Doing Tae Kwon Do is a nice athletics sport for young children. If you are an adult with a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, you have a black belt in a childrens recreational sport, NOT a Martial Art. The word Martial Art and karate and so on have been so badly familiarised with sport, movies and all the krap teaching today calling what they do (recreational sport) karate that it is bad to even call it karate anymore. Never locl out anything, or hyperextend it. Same with punches. Also the closer you keep something to the body the stronger it is, so it really has no advantage to locking out anything. People in the early days of Shotokan karate always experianced problems until people started to realise that weterners have to stop locking-out anything. Always at minimum kee your arm or leg a few shorter inches from locking out and you will still be able to live a healthy life when you are older.

Don't eliminate all carbs just the stachy carbs, and you'l lose weight garanteed. Low carb diets (atkins diet for example) has recently been in the news, and that this diet is very bad in the long term. Taking away fruits and vegetables is insane! This is where all the vitamins and minerals come from. If you want to lose weight only eliminate the unnatural starchy carbs like pasta, rice, cereals, and yes only 2 vegetables being potatoes and kidney beans simply becasue they contain too much starch, not too much carbohydrate. We need carbohydrates as are main scource of fuel. I have also heard of many boxers trying the Atkins diet to lose weight for their weight divisions and then suffering fatigue in the very early stages of a fight and in training. I don't recommend it, it is in no way a balanced approach.