Kuma

Sure would. It's their knowledge I'm after, and if they can deliver as an instructor then I don't care what they look like.

I don't know about that for certain; an example would be a guy like Kimbo Slice. His fitness levels accounted for the brief level of success that he experienced in MMA. People are also fond of saying that "there is always someone stronger," but there is often always someone that is more skilled, as well. I agree with BM. If you have a good amount of fitness you would be surprised what they could do. A good example of that is Brad Imes from the second season of TUF. He hadn't even been training for one year in MMA when he got there, and he did a decent job. You take a well conditioned student and one that's in poor shape and train them both in the same things, you will see a dramatic difference.

In the words of the great Vince Lombardi: "Fatigue makes cowards of us all." Skill is definitely important, but without fitness it's useless.

No doubt, I think so too. Really, any art can be learned/taught in such a way to fight underneath a variety of different rulesets. I didn't mean to come off as ticked off or obnoxious, apologize if I did. I just wanted to show how the different rulesets made the arts evolve into what they are.

There are actually a lot of differences, especially in regards to how they evolved to what they are today. From my understanding, the Olympic style of TKD sparring began around the 1960s when they started fighting with chest protectors on and scoring matches similar to a boxing match. Apparently though this wasn't too popular as Choi Hong Hi didn't like this as much like Funakoshi he didn't want people sparring. Now they have the current WTF rules with the headgear, chest protector, and shin pads and whatever else they use. From this link (ftp://users.primushost.com/members/j/m/jmont/tkd/2005_wtf_rules_int.pdf), it says you can use fist techniques against the body but only to the chest protector, which in this ruleset makes it useless with the chest protector on as what's it really going to do to your opponent? Also, they give 1 point for striking the trunk and 2 for the face, so if you want the most points you're constantly going to be kicking anyways. You're also penalized for leg strikes and cannot use knee strikes. Not sure what their best scoring techniques are, but comparing theirs and Kyokushin you can see there's a difference. Since you also get points per technique, this is where you see the running kicks and the multiple kicks with one leg come into play. Kyokushin kumite came about a bit differently. Oyama was the opposite of that mindset: he wanted it to be as realistic as possible (hence, "jissen kumite") and did not want any kind of protection to be used whatsoever. They fought that way for some time, including bare knuckle strikes to the face, until there was a stir for the way he was fighting due to illegal prizefighting rules in several countries (where bare-knuckle fighting fell under that definition). Also dental bills can get kind of high too, I imagine. Oyama had the choice of adding protection to fight that way, but Oyama decided to simply eliminate hand and arm strikes to the head so they could continue fighting full contact without protection. Kyokushin sparring is decided on an "ippon" basis, or full point. You score an ippon if you score a technique that drops your opponent for more than 3 sec or your opponent gives up. You can also score "waza-ari", half point, by knocking your opponent down or sweeping them followed up with a non contact strike. If it goes to "yusei", the fighter with superior skill and spirit will get the decision. Most wins are decided by kicks or knees to the head, body punches that knock the wind out of your opponent or break their ribs, or kicks to the legs that make your opponent unable to continue. Since there's no points awarded other than those that knock your opponent down or make them unable to continue, exchanges can be vicious. You can also see a type of Kyokushin fighter who would never do well in WTF rules: one who stays in close, punching and kneeing with the occasional low kick but never kicking above the waist. All techniques are allowed except the following: # Hand or arm strikes to the face, head, or neck # Kicks to the groin. # Head thrust or butts. # Kicks to any part of the knee # Grabbing or holding an opponent or his/hers DOGI. (Though some tournaments, i.e. the Sabaki Challenge, now allow this.) # Elbow strikes to any part of the opponents back. # Striking or kicking an opponent who has been downed, unless the attack immediately follows the sweep or downing techniques in which case contact is not allowed. # Making an attack from the floor after having been downed by the opponent. (This should not be confused with an opponent defending himself whilst on the floor). # Failing to obey the referee's instructions during the bout. # Any other techniques or practice that the referee of the contest shall decide is improper or unfair. So it's interesting to see where two arts began at about the same area, but they've evolved very differently. You can see the differences in the two videos below. Interestingly, I saw no punches in the TKD sparring. TKD Sparring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhJ5HGPS158 Kyokushin Sparring: As a final video (this is not to stir up style vs style drama), this is what appears to be a Kyokushin fighter against a WTF fighter. I think the main reason why the WTF fighter lost is due to the lack of punching they typically do, he didn't have anything useful once they were up close which is exactly where jissen kumite tends to be.

As for the TKD Times article, by 1966 Mas Oyama had already been promoting his Kyokushin style for 13 years. He was in the Japanese Army at age 15 (1937) so by that time he had already been living in Japan for close to 30 years. He had already done fights and seminars all over the world and had become very popular. It's easy to see why he would say no. All that hard work to get to where he was, only to give up yourself to another?

Mas Oyama was looking to popularize his own karate style, Kyokushin, so I'm pretty sure he refused as he didn't want any part of it. Mas Oyama wanted Kyokushin not to become like a lot of the other mainstream arts of the day and by going to TKD he would have to adopt their sparring style, which goes completely against his idea of jissen kumite and his reasoning for creating Kyokushin in the first place.

Definitely check both out. As for the mix, sounds like a good one to me (but then I'm Kyokushinkai which is a mix of those two, so maybe I'm biased )

You do? I disagree... I don't have to have anyone give me their wrist(s). Actually the point of it was "Disrupt them a little bit, actively give your wrist to them to grab on to, then do one of your wrist grab escapes to attack them with". I'd have to disagree with this theory. Seems like you're overthinking it too much. The average person isn't going to grab your wrist unless they want to prevent you from doing something with that hand, such as drawing a weapon or say opening a door. I think this is a low percentage theory in my opinion.

My thought on this: sure we don't carry swords anymore, but if you're going to carry a handgun it pays off well to know how to escape a wrist grab that's preventing you from drawing your firearm (which a savvy fighter can do).

Congrats

I am personally still involved in the study of Sanchin and do it daily. When I was recently deployed to Iraq, I made it my goal to focus entirely on Sanchin and did it 3x a day, every day, for my entire deployment, not to mention times when I would break parts down and really try to work on a specific principle for it. Isometric exercises are typically static, but in some cases (like Sanchin or Harry Wong's "Dynamic Tension" books) they can be done through a movement to strengthen each portion of the movement. Isometric strength training is one of the quickest ways to build strength by utilizing your own muscles as resistance. Sure, Sanchin elevates your blood pressure. But so does any kind of physical activity. The average person will be able to do Sanchin with no physical problems whatsoever for a long, long time. If you have high blood pressure or an iffy heart already, might want to check with your doctor, but aside from that there is nothing wrong with it.

What does this mean to you? You can learn the techniques, but you cannot really understand the beginnings of what the art has to offer until you understand the PRINCIPLES behind the techniques.

I've been training a LOT of tonfa lately and it continues to amaze me how awesome this weapon is. I wish we did a lot more with it in Kyokushin.

Mine was an interesting conversion. I first got into MA because I quite simply wanted to be involved in combat sports. I went through the whole kickboxing and NHB thing and enjoyed it immensely. Somewhere, however, I did a total 180 and now I train primarily for self defense and consider myself a traditionalist. Whereas before I would poke fun of those who did kata, kata is now one of the parts of karate I truly enjoy and see many benefits to. Whereas before I was all about MMA, now I see much more of what karate truly has to offer.

I have minimal experience with breaking myself, but I'm in agreement with DWx. I feel breaking is good for focus, commitment, and self-confidence as well as conditioning your tools.

You sure can. Think about football players. Some of those guys are enormous, yet still very agile and quick and can see an opening and take it. Both just require training and patience to get. Just work hard at it.

I agree 100%. Admittedly I tend to roll my eyes a bit at arts that proclaim it takes 10 years to get good at it, because what if you don't last that 10 years because you get into a fight today? A person can become competent enough to defend oneself in approximately 6-12 months of boxing training, yet it takes someone else 10 years to do so? Obviously it's the training METHODS rather than the art itself. This is where a training partner or an open-minded sensei comes into play. Going back to that chudan soto uke to straight arm bar example, I'm sure there's some individuals in karate circles who will disagree with me immensely and some who may have never even considered that as a possibility. For some, they don't look any deeper than the outside. But let's say you wanted to train in that straight arm bar idea. Grab a partner and get at it! Do them stationary and then in floor drills, then start slowly going through the mechanics of it. Once you get the mechanics down, go a bit faster. Once you can adequately do it, start utilizing it in a sanbon kumite and ippon kumite mindset. Eventually get to the point where you can use it in sparring, but with control (it puts a lot of pressure on the elbow and injuring all your sparring partners means no more extra training for you for a while too). You now have a viable working technique which you can have well ingrained in just a matter of weeks or months depending on how much effort you put into it.

Would those in law enforcement say that, in their experience, the ones you find who resort to bullying and starting fights rely more on brute strength, initimidation (by their attire, loud swearing, size), and maybe knowing just the sucker punch and the front kick? If so, I can see MA training, as Kuma said, as an advantage, important in dealing with an assailant. Most scraps I've been in or seen (Youtube is a great resource for this kind of thing actually, as you can see what others do and learn from their mistakes as well as from their successes), most fights tend to begin with a few roundhouse swings at each other only to result in sloppy wrestling. A few guys I've spoken to who have done some serious time have said high school wrestling skills were often the best tool in your arsenal. The "ground and pound" we see in UFC is also a popular tool in prisonyard fights and bar brawls. If the fight didn't result in a quick KO, it was usually either broken up quickly or the victim was most likely the one to get the worst of it. However, in cases where I've seen or studied about where the victim fought back successfully, the victim often came out on top. It's moreso the fear of acting violent rather than violence itself that seems to be the victim's biggest weakness.

I am a big fan of uke waza (blocking techniques), and I feel that in many ways they are more effective than striking techniques. Bear with me here. I'm a fan of the philosophy that a block should also be an attack. I've done a bit of kote kitae and sune kitae to know that a good hard block from a well conditioned limb can be devastating. A good strong block can sometimes take the fight out of your opponent right then and there. Naturally your block won't quite look like that you see in kihon, but the mechanics remain the same. I do believe that the traditional uke waza do have their merits however. Take chudan soto uke, what many would consider a basic block. If you compare the mechanics of chudan soto uke with a standing straight arm bar (the hikite grasping the wrist and the block at the elbow), you'll see they're extremely similar. In many cases you can see numerous applications for blocks in this manner. Here's an article that addresses this somewhat. Naturally I don't agree with everything he says or does, but it is a good article nonetheless. http://www.iainabernethy.com/articles/Lawrence_Kane_8.asp

I'm a police officer and I get to utilize my MA training almost weekly. I can definitely say that yes it works, since there is a huge majority of people out there who don't know how to fight well in the first place so by you training you'll already have a big advantage.

This might also be beneficial for nooob. Here are some videos of the different types of kumite so you can see where the progression begins and you can determine how far you would want to go. Some arts don't include all of these either. Sanbon kumite - three-step sparring. You defend against three prearranged attacks then quickly counterattack. It's all controlled. Ippon kumite - one-step sparring. Now you just defend against one attack and quickly counterattack. Again, all controlled. Kiso kumite - prearranged sparring. The attacker will attack with a series of prearranged strikes and you will defend against them. This is where it tends to get more indepth as they vary strikes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPRLaxZX4Bg Jiyu kumite - free sparring. This is where many schools vary. Some will just free spar without contact.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGayLIJPf4c&feature=PlayList&p=91D61DC972627F75&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=46 Some will spar with protection for points.... Some will spar with headgear.... Jissen kumite - full contact karate. This kind of training is only available through certain styles which is what initially draws those wanting to train in it there in the first place. There is those like Kyokushin or Enshin who spar with absolutely no protection whatsoever.... And there is styles like Daido Juku which does have protection but makes up for it with headbutts, judo throws, and groundfighting.

Ancient Egyptian wrestling. You can see lots of techniques still used today. http://www.pyramidofman.com/blog/images/BeniHassanLarge.jpg

I hate to be "that guy" but although certainly a testimony to his toughness there is some far more amazing fights where one of the fighters were unbelievably messed up but still fought on and won. Like Gille Le Guigou (who despite two broken ARMS still fought on and won his match against a Japanese kickboxer). That's just crazy. If you want to just go on sheer toughness alone, Jess Willard the boxer takes the cake. He fought on to the 3rd round despite a broken jaw, broken ribs, a broken nose, and a broken eye socket. Ouch!

What, no shoteis?