Kuma

If you're fairly new to kettlebells, I'd recommend checking out Pavel Tsatouline's book "Enter the Kettlebell." It has a very good starting routine where you focus a lot on swings and Turkish get-ups.

We were actually discussing this at length on another website, but to save you some time this link might help you out. http://www.orangecountymuaythai.com/muay-thai-shadow-boxing/ Shadowboxing is a very important training tool.

Is this to keep your upper body relaxed, Kuma? When there's a "shrug," I wonder if it interferes with stamina as well as speed. Exactly. If you have it too high, you're going to raise your shoulder and lose a fair amount of power as well as wear yourself out quickly. Just like in boxing, you want to keep your shoulders down.

No knee strikes? And I'm assuming by "Thai kick" he means the low kick to the thigh? My personal five would be mae geri (front kick), mawashi geri (round kick), hiza geri (knee strike), yoko geri (side kick), and sune geri (scoop kick).

Indoors I typically train in my living room or guest bedroom. When I can, I prefer outdoor training. Depending on what's going on throughout the day, sometimes I'll squeeze in a kata here or there. In one of the buildings I occasionally go to, the elevator up to the proper floor takes just enough time to perform Yantsu.

For kihon purposes (which I assume is mostly what this is about), in both Goju Ryu and Kyokushin I was taught to place my hikite near my floating ribs, so that the forearm is vertical to the ground but not so high that it raises my shoulder. I've always thought Sanchin kata was good for this, as the elbow positioning is on the same plane where I like to hikite.

Karate and Judo are a terrific combination in my opinion.

I've been doing a lot of slow squat kicks which seem to be doing a lot of good.

As a 2nd dan, you've probably already done a fair amount of repetitions so I would recommend strengthening exercises like slow kicks and kicking with resistance bands.

Here's a video of a karate fighter beating several Muay Thai fighters: It all boils down to how hard you train and the person, not the style. If you train your karate as hard as you can to maximize your fighting ability, you have the capability to win any fight.

It has to happen once in a while I guess. Admittedly, not many. Like most officers, a lot of the guys and ladies on my shift can fight but not beyond what they really learned in DT. And since we never cover it once you're out of the academy (aside from the occasional refresher training due to new case law) it never really gets used too much. I have a bit of an advantage due to some dabbling in Japanese Jujutsu so it does work for me well, even by myself. Off the top of my head, I can count about 8 times I've used it in the past year successfully. Wow, that's terrific. We get to qualify once a year with our duty weapon and the shotgun at the same time. If you carry off duty, you get an additional day of one year. Patrol rifle requals are every 3-4 months. Other than that, unless you're in a specialized unit, you're on your own to shoot. We're too big to get much else in. I agree. Though over the past year we've had approximately 10 shootings (about 6 fatal for the suspect), we've also had 3 officers get physically beaten by suspects badly. One had to shoot and kill a robbery suspect who was on top of her beating her, one was fortunate enough to have some Good Samaritans get the guy off her before he could disarm her, and one got assaulted and beaten when he was trying to break up a bar fight. This isn't adding in the multitudes of officers who got injured in regular fights. We absolutely need better DT programs nowadays.

That's why I recommended doing it either on non-dojo days or after a dojo session, not immediately before or during the day prior to. I don't disagree with you on that at all.

That's actually from a position paper from the NSCA circa 1993 or so. Here's the actual source: Wathen, D. NSCA Position Paper: Explosive/plyometric exercises. NSCA Journal 15(3):16-19. 1993. They recommend a back squat from 1.5-2x BW and a bench press of approximately BW before beginning most plyometric exercises. A lot of people "jump into" plyometrics without researching firsthand (sorry for the bad joke, but I had to do it) which can be dangerous for them. One of the main dangers touted by most plyometric resources is starting them before developing an adequate strength training base.

It's always easy to Monday morning quarterback, but overall since he got the guy safely and came out unscathed, there's no harm in it now. Once he realized the guy was robbing the place, his initial thought was probably that this guy had some kind of weapon. He didn't know if it was a knife, gun, or what, but a lot of robberies have some kind of weapon involved. When he's closing on the guy with his gun drawn and the robber quickly turns, there's a good chance he could be trying to deploy that weapon. I think sticking it against the guy's head was a bad choice, but so was advancing on him with his gun drawn. However, he did try to make the best of the situation and showed the guy he meant business while he tried to gain some kind of control. Now here's the problem. You can see he's now seen the guy is unarmed, but the officer's gun is still drawn. That's where he decides to throw the guy away from him to get some distance. This was the point where he probably should have reholstered his weapon and gone hands on, but again the guy popped up and the officer closed on him with his gun still out, and then they wrestle a bit while he finally gets his gun back. He is trying to use the suspect's hood to his advantage, which works a bit, and during their fight by the metal detectors you can see him put him in a headlock. Like a lot of officers, he's more a brawler than a well-trained fighter, but that's more on our academies to blame than anything. Overall, he should have probably gotten the suspect on the floor as soon as he could, which he did try. He just doesn't have a lot of training so he just did it any way he could. I will disagree with tallgeese (for once!) and say that I've had a lot of success with straight arm bars, but then I tend to combine mine with a leg sweep at the same time. A lot of guys also tend to lackadasically grab the arm whereas I yank it to extend it before placing the forearm at the elbow joint. This is probably one of my most used takedowns against men and women, big and small. As for the distance, you may want that 10ft or more (21+ feet is even better), the real fact is the majority of officer involved shootings happen within 0-2 yards. You don't always get the luxury of distance. Overall, I'd give him a B-. He got too close with his handgun and took a while to put it away and could have controlled the guy a bit better initially, but he took the fight to the suspect, was aware of what was going on, and did a good job. A B- is just a grade, a situation like that is Pass/Fail and he definitely got the Pass. Nice work to him.

I've always liked Tensho kata for learning how to breathe for karate, as it combines relaxed flowing movements with dynamic tension. All of the previous advice is also excellent.

Check out the book "Five Years One Kata" by Bill Burgar. You might find it an interesting read.

Good post isshinryu5toforever. As an interesting addition, many athletic trainers are actually in the school of thought that too many people start training in plyometric movements before their muscles and joints are ready to handle them. One group recommends you have at least a back squat of double bodyweight at the minimum before beginning plyometric exercise. The stronger a muscle is, the more potential for explosiveness there is as well. That's why you'll see sprinters doing their weight training. To avoid it slowing you down in the dojo, stick to doing it on days you're not in the dojo or save it until after the dojo.

I meant "friendly competition" actually, as there are too many quality posters on here for the few awards there are. I know even making my votes it was really tough, and I wished I could have voted for multiple people.

I'm on a self-made program, but it mostly revolves around benches, presses, squats, and deadlifts.

The competition just gets tougher every year it seems like.

Kyokushin fighters are much like any other full contact style in which, despite the same background, they can have very different fighting styles. Some guys will be very specialized in one area. Yashuri Shichinohe is very technical all over, yet his punches are absolutely terrifying. He practically chases people off the mat with them. Then you have Norichika Tsukamoto whose amazing kicking abilities and combinations are awesome to watch. Though he can punch with the best of them, his kicking ability is awesome. Then you have guys who favor a specific range. Hajime Kazumi likes to fight up close, using powerful punches and low kicks with the occasional middle kick thrown in. He's never thrown a high kick in a tournament, but that didn't stop him from winning the All Japan five times. Or fighters who use their weaknesses to their benefit. Ryu Narushima was always one of the smallest guys out there, but he trained his high kicks so that he could knock out his opponents with either leg, front or rear, at any time. You can have your simple fighters too, like Hajime Kazumi, or your flashier ones, like Andy Hug. Andy Hug had one of the most incredible axe kicks you'll ever see and vicious spinning kicks. Kyokushin is a great art (admittedly, I'm biased). I think if you have the opportunity to at least try a class, go for it just for the experience. It is very different from most other martial arts styles.

Congratulations to all! Fine choices all around.

A lot of important figures in early American history were pretty good wrestlers. Collar and elbow wrestling was very popular, and Abraham Lincoln was a great catch as catch can wrestler.

Hello, I wouldn't get too hung up on words like "Tegumi". After all, its just another way to write "Kumite" ("Te"=hand and "Kumi" (or "gumi" if it follows a word)=exchange) therefore Kumite = Tegumi. And all Karate has Kumite doesn't it? Sojobo I've never heard of Tegumi being considered the same as Kumite. From all accounts I've read, Tegumi is basically a folk wrestling style.

Something people need to keep in mind is that your average well-trained boxer would be very difficult in any kind of fight, irregardless of what kind of tactics you use. It's my personal opinion (and one I've seen proven time and time again) that the average martial artist will have extreme difficulty fighting your average boxer, some to the point where they are very outclassed. In order to really analyze how to fight a boxer, you first have to realize what strengths a well-trained boxer has. 1) They're going to be in good condition for fighting and able to fight for an extended period of time. Most martial artists sadly aren't in the kind of shape the average boxer is in. Physical conditioning plays a huge part in any fight. 2) Their footwork and balance are going to be good, allowing them to run circles around you if your footwork isn't up to par. You can have the most powerful punch in the world, but if your footwork sucks you won't be able to hit diddly squat. The average martial artist tends to have sluggish footwork in comparison. 3) Naturally they will have fast, powerful punches that they throw in well-honed combinations. We may be used to fast and powerful, but a lot of arts are too focused on what I like to call "sniping": throwing out one technique at a time in the hopes that if it strikes it will end the fight then and there. In comparison, combinations are like 3-round bursts from an assault rifle: one of them's bound to hit. 4) They will be physically and mentally tough, used to injuries that will stop the average person from continuing, and be conditioned to take blows from another person. This is also an important part that is often overlooked: a lot of these guys aren't going to crumple to the ground from just one shot. Some of them have taken brutal beatings yet still fought on. 5) Finally, they are constantly training a small selection of techniques against a resisting opponent and in realistic fashion (i.e. padwork and sparring). They are doing what some martial arts have seen to forgotten is an integral part of fighting: focusing your training on actual fighting.