Kirves

I remember seeing the HFL "Power Punching" video, I don't recall it actually teaching anything but the best way to do normal punching, so PP was just the title of that video. But about the actual question... I have seen some people do that same thing, but I have never heard of anything that would support such practice. On the contrary, everyone skilled in punching (like boxing instructors, who should know) always stress the importance of quick return of the hand. Remember, you fight as you train. If you train to stick the hand out and keep it there without pulling it back immediately, that's exactly what you'll do when crap hits the fan. A component of proper punching is of course, to strike "through" the target. That should be a given. Usually you don't need such special training for it, just punch through the bag, through the mits and through the sparring partner when you punch. Otherwise your punch will be a weak snap.

The base art Bruce used/developed was Jun Fan Kungfu. It is separate from JKD which is a concept, not a style per se. The only person ever to receive instructor certification in JKD from Bruce Lee is Dan Inosanto (click here for his website). Inosanto has given instructor certificates in JKD Concepts to several students so now there are lots of slightly differing JKD organizations with differing goals. Some of the main ideas behind JKD is to find what works for you, not just believe what your instructor(s) tell and never be a slave to (bound by) a single tradition. Tha aim is to be skilled in all ranges of fighting, not specialice on one or two ranges. Competition fighting is not a goal, realistic street defence is.

Shootfighting, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Systema to name a few good options.

I would also recommend Loren Christensen's book "Solo Training". It's great reading and has lots of ideas.

I was talking strictly in the sense of this topic, I do believe pressure points can be used in a fight, but not without touching them. I have seen Dillman teach pressure point fighting, and whenever he taugh actual fighting with them, he touched them. My guess is that the books you mentioned also show touching the points, or are the fighting techniques "no-touch" also? My guess is they don't show no-touch knockouts as actual fighting or self-defence moves.

Well, if you could do it (I'm not saying it's possible, just saying if it were), you wouldn't have to do it that often now would you? Heck, I'd like to have the ability to do it once a week at will!

Ahem... You missed the obvious. We are not talking about pressure points when we say they aren't for fighting. We are talking about no touch knockouts.

There are some cases where people have shown the ability to increase the amount of adrenaline in their blood at will. This was done with auto-suggestion, i.e. mild self-hypnosis. It takes training, at first by real deep relaxation hypnosis and eventually it was shown that just like any auto-suggestion, the depth of the hypnosis could be cut with each session and eventually they can psyche themselves up without real hypnosis, just truly believing (or making their subconscious believe) they are in mortal danger and get their psyche into rage/fear combo. I have no idea how many were in the test, or where the test was referenced, it's been a long time since I heard about it on some tv document, nor do I know how long it took to train, was it ten, hundred or thousand sessions of hypnosis. I myself have been to some courses on self hypnosis for quitting smoking and that kind of purposes and a slight case of getting into "state" while wide awake is usually reached in about a week of daily practice sessions. But those are just states for making an urge (to smoke, to eat, what ever) go away, so I don't think that can be compared to a mental state where you actually make your subconscious believe you are in mortal danger enough to release adrenalin. I have seen and tested how to suggest pain, cold or heat out of your mind, but even those cases would not work in a fight, there's a need to be able to "enter the state" where you are in control of your subconscious and at least I wouldn't start practicing that when facing someone who wants to rip my head off! Just something to wonder about.

I would recommend anyone really interested in this to read Donn F. Draeger's trilogy "Martial Arts and Ways Of Japan": Part 1: Classical Bujutsu Part 2: Classical Budo Part 3: Modern Bujutsu and Budo Part 1 explains the history of the samurai arts and part 2 explains how the classical jujutsu came to it's current form a couple hundred years ago, weapons being less of a focus anymore. Part three tells the story of karate, judo, aikido, shorinji kempo and modern jujutsu. I suggest reading them from the beginning to learn lots of interesting things that will help the reader understand the things that happened later.

Hmmm... How do you practice judo randori without groundwork? A silly idea. Of course judo has groundword, or it's not judo.

I would advice contacting a well respected MA organization for possible recognition of your art by their org. Of course many orgs are just bogus, but if you can get "approved" by a well known org it will make your life a lot easier. Here in Finland, there's a very good and popular jujutsu style called Hokutoryu. It is a modern mix of juko-ryu jujutsu, kickboxing, kyokushin karate and other styles. The founder went to his superiors in the world jujutsu federation and asked for approval. His stuff was revieved and approved. Now the style and it's belt ranks are valid in international jujutsu events without any hassle. And nobody is talking crap about the art behind his back - that's a good thing if you are aware of some arts and styles which are constantly doubted by other students... Similarly, Pellegrini got the Korean Kido organization to approve his Combat Hapkido as a valid hapkido style, so nobody doubts the validity of his style. In short: cover your back.

I agree with the article. About the styles and going beyond one's own... Some extremely traditional styles frown on students who go to study other styles but most won't mind. Remember, Yip Man's style is only one of over a dozen very distinctive styles. I recommend the book "Complete Wing Chun" to anyone who hasn't read about the different styles. It is a very comprehensive and doesn't teach techniques at all, but tells about the different WC lineages. Highly recommended!

Well, the good news is that bjj is a lot like judo, so if you only learn judo, it will help you when, after the 6 months you go learn real bjj. There are some differences of course, one being that in judo often the objective is to pin the opponent down, while in bjj the objective is submission. But these are not really as clear cut as I made it seem.

I never understood these contracts, are they really so common somewhere you have no choice but to join a club where you have to sign one? I would never sign that kind of contract if I had any choice at all.

BTW: how much of the advanced bunkai have you been taught? I'm just asking this to understand on what level of kata understanding are you making this comparison?

Inosanto explained the etymology of the word in his book "Filipino Martial Arts". I don't remember the explanation any more, but it told where and from what word in which language it was derived from. Kali isn't a word understood by any of today's language (in this sense, of course some language may have a word kali meaning something, but that's beside the point), but it is a derivation of another similar word from an ancient language (or something like that). If someone here has that book, please check it out!

My guess is that the tkd tournament rules don't really cater for infighting and because the tkd organizations are trying very hard to make tkd into a unified Olympic art, they focus quite a bit on tkd tournament stuff.

Which fights? Usually when I see or am part of a fight, I don't even know what the other guy has or hasn't studied. How do you know who win most fights? Are there some statistics? Have the police written in their reports what arts the suspects have trained in and who won? Or are you just talking about tournaments? And to someone who said sparring is better than kata, who the ffff said kata is to replace sparring? It's like saying "you shouldn't do heavy bag work, because sparring is better" or "you shouldn't work with focus mits, because the guy who spars will beat you". Only a narrow minded person thinks doing one exercise kicks the other exercise out.

I disagree. Usually shadow boxing is not designed to work as a notebook of a master's teachings. Usually a combo in shadow boxing is there for a single reason, it is not there for example for three distinctive interpretations for differing situations. Kata is something you need to interpret with expert guidance, shadow boxing is not interpreted and is usually something you do yourself only to better your skill, not to study it's meanings and interpretations.

And the reason for this is clear. The designer of the kata poured some decades of experience into hundreds of techniques he geniously planted into a dozen or two moves. You are supposed to keep the whole form to preserve all the techniques, so they won't be forgotten. If you leave some part out, you may also leave out something you didn't yet know about. Also, often the moves in a kata come in specific order for a reason. First there's a lock and then another one. They could have been put anywhere in the kata, but they come in a specific order, why? Because the designer of the kata wanted you to remember that if lock #1 is countered, lock #2 is usually a natural option to the other direction. Thus the kata is not just individual techniques but also shows you options and principles that work in certain situations.

Kata is a catalog of techniques. It contains literally hundreds of techniques and principles and it was specifically designed to work as a notebook of those techniques and principles. Shadow boxing on the other hand is a dynamic solo exercise for training your combinations against imaginary opponents.

Well, AFAIK the idea is not to punch the guy totally out of the blue, he is making his move, you just don't know what it is. If three guys are cornering you and it is very obvious what they have on their mind, your best bet is not to stand there waiting "who's going to attack first". You'll be toast if you try that. It is obvious what they are up to, their "first move" is already the fact that they corner and threaten you. When they get close enough, you may be wise to drop the first one, "by surprise". If the guy's smart, he won't even be surprised, but usually he will because he'll be expecting you to act like a sheep not a lion.

I like Inside Kungfu (esp. because of Burton Richardson's "Offerings"). Earlier I was a fan of M.A. Training but now I haven't read it for a decade or so. Anyone know if Inside Karate is as good as Inside Kungfu?

'Unstoppable Phoenix of the East'

If you are taught the proper application (bunkai) and lots of time is spent training them with a partner, then yes kata is worth every minute. If you don't seem to get that much application training, then I'd limit the kata time and work more on other, more lively stuff with a partner.