brickshooter

I find that the tying the belt around a tree (or door) to simulate uke's arms helped me greatly.

After a nasty incident with the kettle, I now do only the Tekkis in the kitchen.

This may be the case. But do we really want to see? A street fight, or a competition where these guys can come away and compete again in 3 to 6 months? For real. We could take away the Dog Brothers' headgear and kempo gloves and replace their sissy shock knives with butcher knives, too. Everyone involved dies, but it's real. Yep, good points. I was also thinking that Judo competitors don't compete on concrete, so why would MMAers need to compete on concrete to make Judo more viable in the UFC? Judokas compete on mats because their rules dictate a win with a successful throw, which had it been on concrete would likely be a knockout. If MMA stands for Mix Martial Arts, shouldn't the rules allow an even level playing field for all martial arts? IMO, MMA rules penalizes Judo. Secondly, MMA markets itself as the closest thing to reality fighting. Well, to a Judoka, that's true only if people generally strip to their underwear before a fight. And they agree only to fight on grass.

Is this is for safety reason since BJJ involves immediate physical contact with a partner? If you teach students first with attacks, I could see students injuring their training partners because they haven't learned the limits of the human joints. I notice that more experienced players often easing up on partners even before they tap. They tend to ease into a lock rather than snap into it with full force.

huh? Woops sorry. Someone else posted a video to some karate movie and I was commenting on the previews. This should teach you a fine lessson. Do not break boards with your head when you're young because it'll eventually catch up to you!

The Go-T mustasched hot headed villian is a Shotokan practicioner. The baby face good guy looked like a Goju practioner. The high kicking fighter who fought the Go-T villian looked like Kyokushin.

I would teach a little of both at the same time. The reason is that this isn't rocket science. One can reasonable teach both an attack and a defense in a 1 hour span. The other reason is that attacks and defense compliment each other. And the last reason is that teaching one without teach the other may be confused for incompetency to which the student may walk out and never return. Students are students, but they're also paying customers.

If we use a cement floor and put people in gi, I think that Judo will have a major impact in MMA. If we remove gloves, I think fighters will change the way they punch.

I've a feeling that you're holding your breath during kata and not noticing. It's a natural tendency to do this when exerting maximum physical efforts. So like everyone else said, make sure you breath out strong upon executing a technique. Then relax and inhale. One excercise you could do on your own is to "grunt" on every technique. If you hear yourself grunting, you're breathing. Can't do this in the dojo of course because it's extremely rude. But it should work well in the privacy of your own home. BTW, start practicing breathing with your mouth almost closed during kata. It's a bad habbit to open your mouth wide to breath as in doing ordinary sports. The reason is that you would be practicing leaving your chin exposed to a counter attack.

IMO, it's important to make sure that you grab the target's sleeve first to miminalize your risk of his counter-attack. And disguising your distance with your stance is important. BTW, tuck your chin in just in case. But techniques used in combinations tend to be more successful.

I prefer the techniques that help the falling. The reason is that it gives me more flexibility. I could run. Or it could buy me time so that I could pick up a chair or a club.

Pick a kata, any kata. Do it 10 times when you wake. Then at night about an hour from your bed time, do it again 10 times. In about 2 weeks, your legs will be strong enough for regular training. Your instructor will also be impressed with your progress.

IMO, it's very good bunkai for competition. But not too good for every day training as it requires a lot of athleticism that many folks don't have. And some of the jumps are risky from a self-defense aspect. However, if one were to make it self-defense which thereby simplifies bunkai as much as possible, one would be coming in last in competition or be expelled for boring the judges to death.

I'm guessing that if it was slowly done, then Wado wanted it to be a more complicated technique than a mere strike. Armbar? Some exotic strangulation?

I still saw an awful lot of takedowns and ground fighting in Pride. Head stomps are dangerous, but Fedor was pretty much the only guy to win using them on a consistent basis. If you're fighting Fedor, well you're likely to end up on the ground one way or another. For the majority of fights however, people weren't afraid to take it to the ground. If head stomps were allowed, you wouldn't see people turtling or just laying there on their backs. You would still see a lot of takedowns and ground fighting though. You also glossed over the part where I asked, how a striker would get a superior grappler to the ground? You mentioned sweeps and trips, but how exactly do you pull those off against someone much better at them than yourself? Punch. After connecting or if he backpedals, you sweep. If in a clinch, apply knee strikes, once the defender raises his one knee to block a follow up attack, you sweep. Or in the alternative, if caught in the clinch grab his collar and uppercut. If you sense him looking to the ceiling because of your uppercut, you sweep.

Sorta. A lot of the Karate techniques are taught differently at different levels. As a novice, it's a pure block. At the intermediate level, it's a strike to the limb. At the higher level, it's a block + a grab + a strike to a vulnerable area. For example, remember the "fencing stance" and the shuto knife hand that looked like a you're holding a knife? As I understand it, you described a shuto block while in a back stance. Very common. Lower level - just a simple block. Intermediate level - strike to the opponent's upper forearm. At the higher level, the foward striking hand first softblocks a head punch. The other hand grabs the attacker's arm and pulls him off balance (kuzushi) while falling into a back stance to use one's body weight. Then the original blocking hand delivers a shuto strike to the carotic artery. But all in one motion. All of the other Karate blocks operate the same way. Lower level - block. Mid level - strike. Upper level - block, pull defender's guard away, strike. Regardless, the mechanics are the same at all levels.

Maybe you can do some kind of marketing promotions to get parents to participate physically. A 3 month training trial-offer that kids can buy and gift to their parents for Christmas?

I agree with RMurray. Pride allowed "kicks" to the head of ground fighters and attacks (knees) to the top of the head. Consequently, ground fighter were extremely careful in their takedowns. And they were reluctant about being on the ground in general. Even the legendary Gracies learned how to fight standing up in order to survive. It was extremely dangerous to be on the ground versus a seasoned fighter. The UFC bans of these head kicks versus ground fighters and top of the head attacks changed the way fighters fought. Even if one gets caught in a spraw defense, there's no danger of getting repetitive knees on the cranium. And without head kicks versus a ground fighter, an attacker must try to punch a ground fighter with his shorter and weaker limb - his arms. If he misses, he's now on the ground with a grappler. The UFC rules protecting ground fighters compelled MMA fighters to focus more on ground fighting. The safety rules definitely shape the fighters.

Ever thought about running a dual class at the same time? I don't know about your floor. But if there is enough room, you could consider running two classes. Children on the left, parents on the right. Probably need to get 2nd instructor for the parents. You could offer the parents a family discount on the pricing. They get to ... fight off diabetes, heart disease, obesity, stress instead of being bored to death sitting in the car. And the parent now have common interest with the child = better relationship. You get more revenues, better loyalty from your students since they can motivate each other.

You need to sell it to the parents better. What's their take? What's their angle? And no, their children improving is not a benefit. What do the parents get out of this? Because frankly, you're assigning homework to the parents.

Funny, but back in the 80s, the old shool guys used to tell us the same thing. "It was much tougher back in the '60s and 70s." Personally, I see better athletes nowadays. But the level of toughness isn't the same as it was in the past. In the 80s, I trained with bikers and cops. And I was a young teenager back then! Seems like martial arts folks are getting younger and younger. And it's not just because I'm getting older.

I'd pretend that I'm also a boxer. Then I'd get in up close and personal, grab on to their clothes and not allow them any room to transfer weight into their punches. Then I'd sweep or throw them. Then punch them while they're on the ground, which in my books is the best way to punch a boxer. Yeah, their hands are that dangerous when they're standing.

Personally, I avoid focusing. The reason is that I lose peripheral vision and I'm more vunerable to circular attacks (round kicks, hook punches, etc). A lot of Kyokushin fighters flick their hands during kumite. The moment you get suckered into looking at their flicking hands, they launch a circular attack. The time between you looking at their snapping fingers and their attack coming around is about 1/2 a second. But it's all that they need.

I never liked the re-breakable boards much. They hurt even if you're successful.

I like you tube. It gives me a perspective from Karate styles other than Shotokan. The thing I don't like about it is that we often find competition footage. And competition Karate is often different from actual daily Karate training.