brickshooter

Is there also a style difference between the Carlos school and the Helio school? I was under the impression that Helio focused more on pure grappling strategy, whereas Carlos cross trained more and incoporated more strikes, which ironically is what Jiu Jitsu was before the popularity of Judo killed it off in Japan. The whole family incorporated strikes. Hence Vale Tudo Well that's competitive training for those who wanted to compete in Vale Tudo. But I was referring to the daily training syllabus for the average BJJ practicioner under either the Helio lineage or the Carlos lineage. I think they took a different path. It's not just a rivalry between the uncle's school vs the father's school. There was actually a stylistic difference.

Is there also a style difference between the Carlos school and the Helio school? I was under the impression that Helio focused more on pure grappling strategy, whereas Carlos cross trained more and incoporated more strikes, which ironically is what Jiu Jitsu was before the popularity of Judo killed it off in Japan.

Eye poking, biting, groin grabbing and brick bashing don't really require practice. Also I have had people (some supposedly skilled some not) try to eye gouge in a fight and grab at my groin. I've also been kicked in the groin. I wouldn't rule them out but not exactly high percentage moves. Is it possible that you drew an incorrect conclusion? Eyes and goin are extremely vunerable targets, hence all combat sports ban them. But they're low percentage because they're small targets centered on the body, so they're easily defended. More difficult targets generally require more practice to attack them. Not less. They're more vunerable. Not easier to hit. About your skilled opponents, you know your opponents better than I do. But it is a possiblity that they claim to be skilled in eye and groin attacks because they were shown the technique at some time in their lifetime? I think you need to actually ask them a little about their actual training rather than take their word for it. I think that most people incorrectly assumes that eye and groin attacks require no practice. Then without practice, they try doing it doing a fight and fail. Then they assume that it's false target. But the reality is that their lack of training failed.

Is it possible that the early MMA groin attacks seemed ineffective because all fighers wore a titanium cup and fighters were punching the cup? I don't know about others, but I can withstand a full kick from the front angle with my cup as long as it doesn't shift on me. Come to think of it, it's more effective if my opponent grab the cup and pull it to one side, rupturing everything underneath.

I was 10 years old. My father said it was time to start martial arts training. So the next day my adult cousin came over and built me a makiwara. And off I went training with other cousins. So for me, the MA has always been about recreation like others who grew up in a golf family all played golf. 30 years later I still start the day with a couple of Katas to stretch out my aging bones. I've trained in Shotokan, Itosu, TKD, boxing, wrestling, judo, and aikido. Not because I want to be some ultimate fighter. But because schools keep on popping up and closing down near my home. If I was a golfer, I just want to play golf ... regardless of the course.

Honestly... because I have inadvertently rubbed my testicals agaist my opponents during ground work, I could understand her mother's point of view. (no jokes please).

I can't think of a MA that disallows it. Even the sporting competitive ones.

On the street, I'd imagine that the average attacker will look to ground and pound their victims. They're unlikely to be a sophisticated BJJ or Judo guy. So in addition to what has been suggested, I'd also add some defense versus the ground & pound particularly versus bigger opponents since street attackers tend to be bigger than their victims. And it wouldn't hurt to add a basic ground game such as strangulations, armbars, etc. Some of the techniques are so natural that a person can retain it for a very long time with very minimal training. But the whole point isn't to stay on the ground. It's to shock the attacker so that one can get up asap.

Seems like when Kanazawa was out of the country, a rival faction took advantage of the situation and pushed him out.

I think it's a balancing act. More "real" sparring result in less safety rules. Less safety rules result in more injuries. More injuries result in less sparring. And now we're back at square 1. The student had a great one "real" training session. But he's not training for 3 weeks because he's injured. So the goal is to adjust the sparring session to lower the risk of injuries to a reasonable level. Yet keep the sparring reasonably realistic. I think we need to start by asking ourselves what we'll learn with sparring. Many people think it's power strikes. Personally, I think it's timing, distancing and range. Hence I think that power could be develope by other means (heavy punching bags). Because I think that timing, distancing and range is developed with continuous uninterupted training, I'm in the camp that would advocate less contact in sparring in exchange for more sparring time. Caveat - I think that students can get the most out of their sparring if done under the close supervision of an instructor who gives immediate feedback. Too often, sparring means the instructor says "go!" And the entire class go at it while the instructor takes a break from teaching.

IMO, the 40% contact is plenty. You can cultivate power in you techniques when hitting the heavy bag, hitting pads, makiwara...

Ego + money. It's the same with all organizations. Same reason the Gracie family split. Same reason martial arts organization and non-martial arts organization splits. Once in a while, there is a philosophical difference. But it's usually ego and money.

IMO, the semi contact sparing is probably the optimal type of training. No contact often turns into point-tournament sparing which focuses on speed at the expense of power techniques. It does end up a tagging contest. Not only offensive techniques suffer. Defense suffer as well when fighters resort to "slapping" away attacks rather than actually blocking. Full contact often requires heavier gloves which changes the way one strikes. And the amount of injuries one sustains often interupts training. So it's counterproductive. The reality is that I've yet to find a gym that actually does "full contact" sparing. Anyone notice that MMA fighters and boxers look "pretty" before a professional fight? That's because they don't actually do "full contact" sparing even though they do "full contact" fighting.

I only did full contact when I later moved on to boxing. And even then, it was really semi-contact. In other words, you hit the other guy just hard enough so that the both of you know what it could feel like. Apparantly, this is how people train in boxing gyms. And I heard that this is how they train in MT gyms too. People don't go 100% full contact unless they're being paid money. I think that the biggest challenge is controlling one's own fears about getting hit. But in reality, it's not all that bad. It's more about the fear factor than pain factor. I believe that this is also the training under Kyokushin. It's not full 100% full contact that one sees in tournaments. After all, it is a difficult thing to actually try to harm one's friends in the same class.

Yes, wrestlers and boxers definitely count as a martial arts. If the goal of a sport is combative, it's a martial arts regardless of its origin. But regarding wrestling as a popular sport, I think it comes down to the area of the country. I grew up on the West Coast. And I remember that it was very difficult to recruit for wrestling in highschool. We had about 3 x people try out for water polo than wrestling. (Water polo is like soccer, but played while swimming). But as I understand it, it's very popular in the midwest. I think most of the NCAA wrestling champs generally come out of the Universities from Oklahoma or Nebraska. BTW, West Coast teams generally dominate in water polo. LoL.

Wrestling is the 6th most popular school sport in the united states. There are over 9500 sanctioned schools. It's actually quite likely you may come across people with a wrestling background. While you're right about the rankings. I wonder how much there is of a drop off between the big three (baseball, basketball and football) and wrestling. For example, if football got 40% of the athletes, baseball got 35%, basketball got 15%, soccer got 5%, swimming got 4%, and wrestling got 1%. That means that wrestling is the 6th most popular. But it's still only going to get only 1% of the student athletes.

Well I thought other posters did a solid job giving opinions on techniques. But I wanted to address the mental aspects of fighting a wrestler. It seems that wrestlers have an "offensive mentality." Once you take them out of their focus on shooting your legs, you really put them in an position that they're not trained for. That is defending strikes. While I know that wrestlers can deal with pain, it seems that taking a punch to the face is a different type of pain than facing an armbar. IMO, they get a little "discouraged" after taking a punch. So IMO, the best way to fight a wrestler is to actually take the offensive? Kind of counter-intuitive... and scary. LoL. But waiting for them to shoot is... allowing them to get real comforable in their game plan.

Actually, very few universities give out wrestling scholarships in the United States. And there is no professional wrestling ... other than fake entertainment. So you are as likely to face a wrestler in a real fight as you would a gymnast ... even in the United States. The reason you're seeing so many American wrestlers in the MMA is that there is no professional sports for those ex-college or ex-highshool wrestlers. So they flock to the MMA. In fact, if there was no MMA gyms to train in, ex-wrestlers have no real place to train.

After watching the last Lesnar fight, I'm incline to think that one has to be a good puncher. And one has to punch the wresler early to put some fear into him. As big as Lesnar was, getting punched a couple of times did put the fear of God into him. Going back to the old Liddel vs. Ortiz fights, it was the fear of Chuck's right hand that kept Ortiz from committing to the shoots. But allowing oneself to be backed into a corner is a bad idea. Maybe it's a good idea to close the distance and force the wrestler to shoot, rather than keep on backing up into a corner. What do you guys think?

One could argue that more than 90% of the people has zero training. So technically, 90% of fights could end up on the ground by simple incompetence. It doesn't mean that the person who has striking-training will be taken to the ground 90% of the time. But the public is generally stupid and can't think for themselves.

Haha aint that the truth He's not doing it right. He needs to re-describe the MA as "cardio-kickbox" or "authentic Tai-bo." I get a ton of interest, particularly from women when I tell them that my Shotokan-cardio-kickbox really works my thighs and buttocks. And what's awesome is that I don't have to feel self-conscious because my loose-fitting white cotton-canvas sweats are covering my buttocks when I work out. Women actually fine me very sensitive for a muscular guy after I tell them I do MA.

IMO, all strikers need to learn escapes more than they need to learn ground fighting. And I think that escapes is what all BJJ beginners focus on.

I've never seen any statistic from any reliable source that can back up the statement that 90% of all fights go to the ground. I grew up in a tough neighborhood and saw fights all the time. From my own personal experience, roughly 1/2 of the fights end up on the ground.

I think it comes down to the style. When I box, I lift my heels because I'm already in an upright stance. It is the only way to shift my weight into my punches. I literally "drop" my body weight from my shoulders into my target. Can't do that with my heels planted. But when I'm doing Shotokan, I plant my heels. The reason is that I start with a lower base than boxing, and I'm exploding off from the ground to drive my hips into my target. Can't do that with heels up because the ankle acts a shock absorber. The other reason I resist heels up in Karate is that I'm always petrified of eating a foot sweep being that I'm also a judoka. But I think one can get away with a heel up if one is "big." Being only 170lbs., I'm going to get run over by the 200lbs guys if I don't have a solid base to push off. Even if I miss, I won't get run over by the 200lbs guy when our bodies colide if my heels are planted. It's the same with kicks. Karate promotes pushing off of the ground to maximize weight transfer. MT promote stepping in with the pivoting leg to maximize weight transfer right before the kick. While TKD promotes pivoting on the ball of the foot to maximize torso rotation. Personally, I don't think the heel issue matters with kicks. Because kicks are 3-7 times as strong as punches, timing is more important. So just make sure you land your kicks even if it's sloppy. My 2 cents.

I think that BJJ practicioners can make a better point by simply stating that all MMA fighters regardless of their background, train in BJJ to survive, then point to the UFC poster on their wall. That is far more impressive than any personal statements degrading other martial arts.