Kirves

'Ti' is Okinawan (uchinanguchi) for 'te', still meaning "hand". The same syllable as the 'di' in Toudi.

It is good to know that the term bunkai was actually taken to use in the west and not that long ago. On Okinawa, the original word used for the kata application analysis is ti-chi-ki, "the possibilities of the hand". So, on Okinawa you study "the way of the empty hand" (karate-do), which was earlier known as "the Chinese hand" (toudi a.k.a. tode) and the application of the kata is studied as "the possibilities of the hand" (ti-chi-ki).

The choreographer is a famous Hong Kong action film fight choreographer, so it is natural for the action to look Chinese.

I like Loren W. Christensen's book "Fighter's Body". Simple yet smart advice without any of the fads, gimmicks or weird systems.

There are no better books than: 1. BJJ Master Text ( http://www.jiu-jitsu.net/handbook.shtml ) for pure BJJ 2. Fighter's Notebook ( http://www.fightersnotebook.com/ ) for MMA Way better than any of the books by Gracie/Machado people, IMHO. See the review section at http://www.bjj.org/ .

Taijutsu as a generic term refers to body skills, and was often used as synonym to jujutsu and other similar terms, referring to the unarmed methods of several styles (including aikido!). Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu is a modern style of grandmaster Masaaki Hatsumi, who founded it on nine traditional fighting systems of Japan. Most of these systems are "just" samurai arts, similar to other traditional jujutsu systems. Some of the styles also included shinobijutsu - the methods of the ninja. Hence much was made about the ninjutsu aspect of Bujinkan in the early years of 70's and 80's for advertising purposes. Later the name was changed from ninjutsu to taijutsu, because that is more accurate as per what the curriculum is composed of. If you study Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, the average class is quite identical to any traditional (not modern!) jujutsu systems. You'll have to study years until you even hear of the first ninjutsu type techniques, which quite frankly aren't that applicable in basic self defence scenarios. The ninjutsu methods include ways of scaling medieval castle walls, picking ancient locks, etc. Although one can easily assume that the old ninja tactics have a lot to offer in terms of ideas as per how to defende oneself more effectively in the modern world too. Fact is, many people who claim to teach "ninjutsu" have actually very little knowledge of actual ninjutsu, and they are just teaching the jujutsu tactics.

Check this out: https://www.balisong.net

It is true that most recognized arts can be effective if trained well. It is also a fact that quite often a set of training methods follow a given art/style and as such some arts are "better" or "worse" than other arts with similar, or exactly same techniques, if the training methods that are "attached" to the style differ significantly. For example, there are styles that only do point sparring, and styles that do contact sparring. There are differences in sparring rules and so on. Some do predetermined drills, while others semi-free and free drills. All this can mean that two arts with quite similar technique-base can produce very differently skilled fighters.

My sentiments exactly!

Ummm... I still don't think bowler is the best example of a protective stance against a violent encounter, but hey, I am not an expert on bowling so maybe I just don't have a clue.

In a local arnis school where I live, the first belt rank (there are ten ranks until black belt, the instructor's rank) requires sparring, and basic punches, blocks and kicks. So I'd say that at least their style goes to empty hand stuff right from the start.

It is because their strong hand is also the side that is more accurate and skilled. When you need to do something with fine skill, you naturally use the strong side. A bowler has no need to train both sides equally, nor does he need to think about how vulnerable he is with his other hand and differing foot positions. He can do whatever he wants with the rest of his body to make the one arm do it's job the best it can. This is quite a difference compared to fighting where everything counts, not just a part of your body or limb.

It is the primary weapon. The other (empty) hand is the secondary weapon, as are the feet etc. This is the philosophy of all such arts which use the weapon only as an extension of the body, instead of treating the weapons system as a separate animal from the empty hand system (such arts exist too!). For example, in eskrima, you do basically the same techniques, defences and offences, whether you are equipped with one stick, two sticks, one knife, two knives, a stick and a knife, or just two hands. The techniques basically remain the same. There are some disctinct features of course (a knife cuts even farther from the tip of the weapon, stick does not, etc) but these are minor changes to the overall techniques and movement. For example the stick is still held like a sword. You don't hit with it just any way around, but you hit keeping the knuckles forward, in effect you hit with "the front of the stick". This is to keep you from developing bad habits when you use a blade instead. Now I regress... The point is that the systems that usually feel it natural to keep the weak side forward all use a certain kind of "dogma". And that dogma is different from those who feel (because of their differing dogma) that strong side lead is "natural". Good examples were the baseball hitters for the other, and fencers for the other dogma. Both would feel awkward the other way round. If a baseball player tried to keep the bat in the lead side, he wouldn't do that well. On the other hand, if a fencer kept his foil in the rear, he would lose every match he entered. Now this is the whole point of my article: if you try the other approach, you will lose unless you also switch to the dogma and strategy where the reverse system is natural! If you only try the same one-step-techniques "with the left hand" and don't change the actual strategy, you aren't getting the full benefit of the experiment.

Jackie Chan was trained in the Chinese styles which usually don't use belt ranking systems (some do, though), so it is easy to understand why he has no coloured belt ranks.

One thing I must make sure people got was that the main point of this topic (the different defenc/offence dogma between the leads) is reversed for left-handed people. I.e. the whole point is about switching between strong hand lead and weak hand lead, not between right/left lead. If you are left handed, then it is natural to use the "weak hand defends in the front, strong hand counters from the rear" dogma while fighting "southpaw". The paradigm switch explained in my article only applies to the idea of having the usual weak hand lead switched to the more rare strong hand lead. The dogma difference exists between those and is irrelevant to wether you are left or right handed.

Yes, ask the instructor who certified him and then check it from there.

In most judo, you don't practice much strikes. In jujutsu, you usually have strike and weapons practice too. Jujutsu is ok for self defence, but there are many different styles available, some are better some are worse.

LOL, if you want to know if Norris can fight, ask the Machados and Gene LeBell...

There are two issues to this. One is the choosing of targets. Often southpaw styles like the F.M.A. hit the neck, thoat and other such targets where getting maximum power is not as important as the speed of actually getting the punch to go there. Second is that of body mechanics. If you study the leading punching methods of Jeet Kune Do and such, you notice that instead of relying solely on hip rotation for power, one also brings in the forward momentum of the whole body. This adds some power to the punch. Often, when applying the southpaw style, blocks are used less often, and defences tend to become trapping oriented.

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. The Mainstream I don't have any statistics, but I dare say that nearly all students of the fighting arts and sports begin with a style that prefers fighting "left side forward", or usually actually meaning their weak side forward. Many people take this as something that is totally natural. After all they've seen boxing, kickboxing and other sports all their lives and the standard is to lead with the left side. This may also seem natural, because the untrained person usually punches with the rear hand, rather than with the lead hand and they prefer to strike with their strong hand. Thus they keep their strong hand in the rear and the weaker hand in front, naturally. A left handed person, who "naturally" fights the opposite way, is sometimes called a "southpaw" and as such is a rare sight. The Marginale After studying their martial art of choice, most students become aware that there are more approaches to fighting than they had previously thought. One of the biggest surprises to some is the fact that there are several martial arts and styles, that actually prefer the southpaw style. This usually raises a few questions, not the least of which is the simple "why?" People can easily understand why left handed people would lead with their right hand, but they get confused as to why right handed people would choose to do so or vice versa for the left handed people. The Rationale Part of the confusion is no doubt caused by ignorance and people getting different kinds of answers for their questions depending on who they ask. Reasonings for the southpaw style, that I have heard range from: To: And many other explanations. It has even been said that fighting with left-side lead is easier because most people aren't used to opponents fighting that way! It is also true, that the arts and styles that prefer "strong side lead" are usually very weapon based systems. The Filipino arts are known for being weapon based and coincidentally, most of them prefer strong side lead even when unarmed. Bruce Lee preferred to lead with his stronger right hand, because he got the logic from European fencing. Add to this the fact that usually these arts (arts like Filipino Kali/Eskrima or Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do) are usually quite respected for their effectiveness and it is easy to understand why many students at one point or another, during their martial arts career, experiment with the strong side lead way of fighting. The Misconception What usually happens with these people is that they try and experiment, but revert back to their original style, because they cannot make it work or don't see the advantages of the southpaw style. But sadly, this is often the result of not fully understanding the tactical differences between how to actually fight with the different leads. Let me elaborate... The basic tactic used with the weak side lead is to use the leading hand as the primary defense and the rear hand as the primary offense. While it is true that the roles of the hands get mixed somewhat in the heat of the battle, the basic tactic remains "to defend with the lead hand and counter with the strong hand". Now the people experimenting very commonly use this very same tactic while leading with their strong hand and this is where they go wrong. "To defend with the strong hand, and counter with the weak hand" is just plain silly, if you think about it. No wonder most of them revert back to their original style. The basic tactic used with the strong-side lead is, surprise, the same as with the weak-side lead, too: defend with the weak hand and counter with the strong hand! This time only the distancing changes, now you let the attack pass your front hand and deal with it using the rear hand (usually held in front of your torso, instead of the traditional guards too far back either up by the chin or low by the hip) and now your strong hand is very close to the opponent! Usually it hits him while you are still dealing with his attack. This means that strong-side lead is actually a "short cut" to simultaneous defense counter moves, often touted as "advanced methods" in the weak side lead styles. Making it Work So, how does one experiment correctly? The best way is to find an instructor of a style that uses the other method, instead of just trying one's current personal fighting style while leading with the other side. If this is not an option, try to find information via other routes. But, keep in mind that it takes time to try something that is the opposite of what you normally do. Many schools teach their students to be able to do their techniques from either side, left or right, but this is not the same as trying and experimenting a whole new "dogma" or "strategy" of fighting tactics. It takes time and in this case, often makes one feel like a beginner again. All the timing and distancing is a bit off and everything is new for awhile. But no matter which method you currently use and which method you'll eventually continue to use, I urge you to spend some time experimenting with the opposite lead. It may reveal things about you, about your techniques and also prepare you for that possible southpaw that may one day come your way.

Many people start with Jun Fan Kung-fu and mix it with the weapons stuff from Filipino Martial Arts (FMA). Then from there you go do your own thing. Others start from pure MMA and go do their thing. JKD is a personal thing. But as Lee says in Tao, JKD is about ruling in all the ranges. This includes weapons too. Self defence is the focus of JKD. So if you "just do MMA" you miss these important points. I once asked JKD instructor Burton Richardson what was the difference between JKD and MMA and the jist of it was that JKD is about street self defence, and you practice weapons, defence against weapons, defences against multiple assailants, against rape situations (for women that is), defences that mostly enable you to escape rather than dominate and win a match, focus on stuff that is often forbidden in tournaments (groind attacks), and instead of locks, you go for chokes, because a drunk/drugged man may not even feel the pain of a lock/destruction, but he will stop when his brains pass out of oxygen. Hope this clears it up. DISCLAIMER: Notice that I did not quote Burton, just explained what kind of feeling I got from his answer to the question. I do not wish to speak for him and may very well have misunderstood something he said - or remember badly.

LOL, yeah! Taijutsu is basically Jujutsu.

LOL! Sorry folks, but this is just hilarious.

granmasterchen: How important do you feel empty hand skills are for the modern soldiers? Do you train with/among the soldiers with their other service, or are you just a martial arts instructor on the base? *Practice is the key*: Where are you from? How long is the service there?

Wow, now that is an expensive belt. What is it made of, satin? Well, you wouldn't give a $4000 silk satin belt in just anyone's hands would you? Anyone handling such a belt has to be comprehensively tested so he has the skill and finesse to handle and wear the belt without damaging it. Yeah, I will never pay more than a few bucks for my belts, no matter what they're made of. Old fashioned plain cotton is best IMO.