brickshooter

I wonder if the kid has mental issues. But it seems like he doesn't want to be there. And it's unfair to Holley to have to baby-sit him, particularly when she is paying for training. The Sensei should boot the kid.

One major problem with sparing as a beginner isn't just the lack of control. It's adopting crappy techniques by habbit that's almost impossible to get rid of later on.

One thing that MMAjim brought up that was kind of funny was that the average person will gas out in about 30 seconds on the ground. From numerous you tube videos on real fights, I also noticed that the average person will gas out after 30 seconds of swinging while on their feet. So 30 seconds seems like the average amount of time a non-trained person will last before they become nearly self-incapicated. Puts an interesting viewpoint on the term "defense" in self-defense.

Seems to me that JJJ is sort of like MMA without the heavy sparing. But then any two training partners could agree to do heavy sparing. There's no rule against that. IMO, the weakness in JJJ is that it seems to lack a foundation whether it's striking, throwing or mattwork. Whether BJJ can take the JJJ guy down will likely depend on how much the BJJ guy personally trains in take downs, and how much the JJJ guy trains in takedown defense. But let's just say that wrestlers don't think much of BJJ takedowns. And in most MMA gyms, wrestling take downs are the standard. And as far as I know, some BJJ schoold have adopted wrestling takedowns. Others have added more judo throws to daily training. And still others stuck to the original BJJ takedowns. There's a lot of variation depending on the school and organization.

Personally, if I tagged some kid by accident the 3rd time, I'll ask the instructor to give me a new partner because our skill levels are too far apart for mutual benefit.

IMO, chief instructors are pussycats while teaching at seminars. But I'd be cautious when training in their hombu dojo.

On second thought, scratch what I said about making your own poor-mans gear. Just go over to the nearest MMA gyms and buy some. Most of the recreational MMA guys are wearing massive gear. (Interesting enough ... even though they're not even sparing full contact, LoL.).

The $1,500 model or the $2,000 model? LoL. I've only seen photos and videos of their gear, but it seems overkill. There's a lot of padding in non-vital areas such as the chest. Other areas such as the back of the knees aren't protected. Perhaps a better way to go is to rather than pad the body, pad the striking tool such as the fist, elbow, knee and feet. What does it matter whether the body or fist is padded as long as the point of impact is padded? But I wonder whether one can put together a poor-man's version with a chest guard from the TKD guys, a face mask & throat guard from the Kendo guys, and leg gears from the MT guys. It may get 80-90% of the coverage of the Blauer gear at 10% the cost.

A couple of years ago I visited a women's self-defense course given by affiliates of law enforcement. They gave self-defense instructions then used one instructor as a test dummy. He was padded up from head to toe, copmlete with face shield. And the ladies took turns beating him up. Only problem was that the padding was so heavy, he looked like Frankenstein with very limited mobility and even less visibility. In other words, the intent was for him to simulate an attacker. But the result was that he limited to being a moving punching bag with legs and arms. From that I realize that sometimes by eliminating one problem, we create others. So while I think it's a good idea to use maximum protection to simulate a no rules situation, particularly from a marketing point of view, we shouldn't supplement nor lessen the drills of Kata.

Not a problem. Do each Kata 20 times per day.

Because he is an adult, politely explain it to him that he's hurting you. If that doesn't work, forearm him in the groin to assist his comprehension.

Yes, I noticed that Euros like longer tops. Is it the cooler all-around weather? Enoeda wore longer tops UK. But Nishiyama wore shorter tops in the US. I use a Muegen gi with a longer top with shorter sleeves, and the rest of the class looked at me funny. They all wear shorter tops with longer sleeves. Muegen advertises the shorter tops as "traditional" cuts. LoL.

I think that there's something wrong with Holler's sensei to allow a 10 year old boy to be kicked in the head multiple times.

Am I the only one smelling something funny about earning a blue belt by video? Not questioning the body of knowledge offered. But questioning the belt factory marketing.

We went though the most intereting drill the other day. It was a 3 on 1 attack, and one of the three attackers used a tanto (wooden knife). The short of it was that I was stabbed multiple times. Defending oneself versus 3 is bad. It's really bad when one attacker was armed even if none of them were trained strikers. However, I had to stay within the confines of Aikido rules. There were several times where I could have saved myself with a back kick or side kick to the 2nd or 3rd attacker while my hands were busy holding down the 1st attacker.

I believe in pressure point defense. Self-defense doesn't always involved defending yourself versus a gorilla on drugs. Imagine your irate girlfriend or mother flipping out and attacking you. Would you punch her in the throat? My problem with pressure point defense instead is that much of the pressure point is hidden behind clothes. So in the time I actually feel and find the pressure point, I could have put that person in an armlock or strangulation hold. I could also see a favorable way to use pressure point defense versus the gorilla on drugs. Strike at the pressure point at 100% intead of a tap-tap here, tap-tap there.

I don't suffer from bleeding and scarred knuckes. In fact, I'm careful to use plenty of hand lotion after makiwara training. That's after carefully washing my knuckes and checking for cuts of course.

Not yet. Your ankle needs rehabilitation. If you took a week off, take a week to strenghten the ankle. In other words, do ankle lifts. Then stand on a balancing board. Then ice the ankle down. Check for swelling. Do it for a week. If you don't, you're asking to re-sprain it.

In private, ask your instructor to pair you up with less chatty people next time.

An athletic 145lbs is borderline weight to knock most people out with bare knuckles. You just need to incorporate impact training (punching bag, punching blocks, makiwara, etc) into your training. I would argue that you can be much lighter than 145 pounds and still knock people out. Here is a quote from an article that I read some time back. "A study of seven Olympic boxers in weight classes ranging from flyweight to super heavyweight showed a range of 447 to 1,066 pounds of peak punching force. Energy transferred from punch to target varied widely depending on how heavy the boxers' hands and gloves were, how fast they punched, and how rigidly they held their wrists. The three flyweights, interestingly, delivered more oomph than all but the two super heavyweights." The full article can be found here: http://www.connectsavannah.com/news/article/102548/ Given that a quick search of the internet will reveal that it is generally agreed that 400 pounds of punching force to the temple will knock just about anybody out, I think that it is safe to say that even a very small person (flyweights are a maximum of 112 lbs) can be a force to be reckoned with, given they have put in the effort to get good at punching. Also, I don't claim to practice karate in it's entirety, but I do study it to an extent, and I don't really think that the "fist chamber" was ever supposed to have anything to do with the generation of power or development of technique in beginners. Rather, I suspect that it was originally intended to be used in a grabbing and pulling manner on the opponents sleeve, lapel, and maybe even bare arm. This is further supported by the fact the the word "Hikite," which is what the "fist chamber" is actually called, translates to "pulling hand." A source to support this includes Choki Motobu's book “Watashi no Karate-jutsu" where Motobu demonstrates the naihanchi kata and then shows some applications. In the applications, Motubu can clearly be seen using the hikite found in the kata to pull his opponent by the arm into his punch, elbow, or block. I am not sure, but I think it was he who said "Never bring your hand back empty." Well, I have to be off to class. Best wishes. Problem with the lightweight test is that in actual matches, I rarely see lightweights knocking anyone out despite having picture perfect techniques. IMO, the lighter a person, the better his skill needs to be. And in an actual fight where both attacker and defender is constantly moving, it's very difficult to pull of a perfect strike. Re the chambered fist. The hitkite hand is universal in every Karate style. But Karate was designed so that a single motion often represents several applications. Therefore, IMO the hitkite hand doesn't preclude the using the chambered hand to generate power particularly since it's being used by the non-striking hand. Currently, I believe that some Shukokai and Shotokan (Asai) schools do use the chambered fist to exaggerate upper body rotation during training in order to generate more power.

IMO, in a real fight it would be wise to finish the attacker as fast as possible because while you're going to get cute and dance around him and show off your skills, he'll have time to pull out a knife and cut your liver out. Well duh Name one martial art style that advocates drawing a fight out to a long tedious unnecessary altercation. Again another marketing gimmick where people dont use common sense when thinking about it: "we train to end the fight quickly" EVERYONE trains to end the fight quick Most martial arts that is performed in a sporting environment result in measuring one's opponents out, especially whe one wasn't able to scout opponents in advance. Consequently those who participate in these sporting events develop the habbit of taking their sweet time feeling out their opponents regardless of what they officially preach.

One can stretch the toe on a casual basis. If one is sitting at one's desk at work, take off the shoes and curl one's leg back while stretching the toe on the ground. I find that this safer than putting 100% of one's weight on the ligaments surrounding the toes. In reality fighting, it all depends on the shoes. I wear formal shoes to work. Formal shoes have naturally hard capped toes. If I have to kick, the nose of the shoe will act as a nose of a hammer. On the other hand, it's impossible to curl one's toes in running shoes.

If one is kicking air at full power, then one has to focus on retracting at full power. In other words, focus on pulling the leg as fast as kicking out. Otherwise, one is at risk of hyper extension since there is nothing (heavy bag) slowing the leg down before the joint locks out. In addition to the hyper extension issue, the leg is also susceptible to a hamstring pull because it's being extremely stretched with full force. And be careful to ensure that the knees are naturally rotated. For example, the snapping side kick can be hazardous because the knee was not designed to move sideways.

MMAJim. I think you're mistaken about the chambering of the fist in a Karate punch. It's simply a training tool to train muscle memory to ensure that the body starts into the target before the punch. It's the same concept as a boxing cross or hook. The body goes into the target before the hands. But instead of the punching hand cocking at the shoulder, Karate cocks the hand at the midlevel - the waist. In theory. Because in reality, it doesn't really matter. The Karate guy is concern about upper-lower body rotation and weight transfer. Not chambering, not fist rotation. However, one thing that is interesting is that MMAJim did have traditional Martial Arts training. Yet his instructor failed to explained this to him. So I do understand his skepticism of traditional martial arts instruction. But how could you blame MMAJim if one thinks about the level of instructions nowadays, particularly here in the United States? We hav self-promoted 30 year old "grandmasters," and 40 year old "supreme grandmasters" executing flawed technique while armed with very mediocre understanding of the basics. BTW MMAJim. Enjoy MMA for now. I suspect that in about 5 years, we're going to see McMMA Gyms supplementing the MdDojos. And it'll be very difficult to find decent instructions. Just my 2 cents.

IMO, in a real fight it would be wise to finish the attacker as fast as possible because while you're going to get cute and dance around him and show off your skills, he'll have time to pull out a knife and cut your liver out.