Kirves

In Okinawa, one master said that a martial artists should not write books on martial arts until they have 40 years of training under their belt. Same goes for modifying stuff, they don't understand it properly enough to make major changes. Okay, 40 years may be a bit over stretched, but gets the picture. When someone makes changes to his art after learning only a few years, it usually means he drops the stuff he has yet to understand or learn how to use. Thus he is forever stuck on second grade. Just my 2c.

I'm looking for a book about Korean martial arts in general, not a particular art, but the whole history and curriculum of different Korean arts. Can you recommend any?

Yeah, try the internal arts.

The damn French were probably teaching the Five Elders of Shaolin! I knew there was somethin' rotten in that story!

Oh, C'mon, isn't it true that the gi will shrink when you train in water? And after very dirty training you have to wash it extra warm and it'll shrink it more? No? Okay, I'll shut up...

Just go on as if nothing happened. It should not affect your concentration or focus.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we also use a hired hall, and in there are brushes available. Just ask the janitor or the cleaning lady. It takes less than five minutes, usually the floor is clean before the last one is out of the dressing room. BTW: The reason we train outdoors so much is because we use a hired hall. We don't always have access to the hall when we'd like to and we can't afford to hire too many hours anyway so we train once or twice a week freely outdoors to accommodate our budget (and to make the training more realistic).

That is very true. I for one, saw the ads for Gracie Action 1 for years on in Black Belt, never thinking twice about them. They were just like any other ads and I wasn't interested. Then I read a book by Chuck Norris and he said his friend cohersed him to go see a BJJ club with him while on vacation, Norris went and said they were amazing, yet I thought nothing of it. Then I saw Paul Vunak say that he got interested in BJJ when he noticed that people with 6 months of BJJ training easily beat up black belts of various arts. At that point I got interested enough to rent the UFC-1 video and the rest is history. It finally sunk in that you have to know how to handle ground fighting too. If it weren't for the Gracies, it could have been for decades before it would have happened like this. I mean, we have had these NHB events all this time, but before Gracies and their UFC, not that many of us traditional MA:tists were that interested in them.

Well, doesn't it tell something that I really have to imagine it? 'Coz I've never seen that. It may just be in your imagination that if you don't constantly wash the belt it will turn into some green slimy oozemonster! Lucky you don't train in the same dojo I do. We often train outdoors and our gis and faces get very dirty from grass, mud, sand and whatever the ground happens to contain. Usually 1-2 classes a week are done outdoors, sometimes on lawn, sometimes on asphalt, sometimes in woods, during winter in snow or on ice and during summer sometimes we try fighting half immersed in water. This is lake, sea or river water, not clean pool water. Check the colors of the knees and backs of these gis: http://home.swipnet.se/~w-41385/Sum01.JPG http://home.swipnet.se/~w-41385/Sum04.JPG Do you really think that the belt is the most dirty thing you encounter in these kinds of training sessions?

There are different classes with slightly different rules. There's a 0-3 years of Hapkido training class, 3-5 years of Hapkido training class and over 5 years of Hapkido class. All with their own weight classes too. For example, ground fighting is forbidden in the 0-3 years class. And some of the protective gear is mandatory, some optional. There are more to the rules than this, but hope this clears up why there are some differences.

I think everyone who is serious about JKD should read it. It shows where it all came from and gives a good base for evaluating the other stuff on JKD.

An excellent discussion forum with lots of JKD and MMA buffs is at https://www.defend.net/deluxeforums Go check it out!

Sorry I can't help about Nebraska, but as far as JKD is concerned, you are probably in good company when seek out some Freefighting, NHB, Vale Tudo and such open tournaments. They allow all-round all-range fighting but have different rules each, so check out what events like these are available and check out their rules.

I might add some info as the text on the page is all in Finnish... Most of the videos are just interesting fight footage, but there are some specific videos that may need some presentation: video 2: just shows that one from the club whose page this is, won video 4: illegal punch to face Also, groundfighting is allowed by the rules, but unless something really happens (holds, locks, submissions, chokes...) the referee will stop it. You can see this once or twice in the videos.

Washing the black belt was a habit invented by Americans so their belt would look as old and grey as those who got their belt 10 years ago. Keep washing your black belt and in 3 years you are walking around with a white belt again!

Either you had quoted the bad post, or you used sarcasm which often is misunderstood on forums like this.

Sometimes the modern man can be a bit overprogrammed for all this hygiene stuff, we have all the "anti-bacteria" dishwashing detergents and what else, even though all studies show they are detrimental because human needs it's natural environment with all its bacteria. It is often funny how someone is so afraid of his own sweat on his belt, while at the same time having no trouble wrestling with a dozen people on the backyard lawn with god-knows-what on the earth there!

Our classes always begin with sweeping the floor clean.

Yes, Okinawan Karate was a civilian art, but I thought this discussion had already spread over art/country boundaries as we deduced that an "American Karate" doesn't have to have much to do with Okinawan Karate anyway (I myself said these kicks weren't in Okinawan Karate). About Kungfu, I just say, go see some more kungfu books from your local library. There are hundreds of Kungfu styles. In at least dozens or even hundreds of them these kicks are found. Or heck, go see a Chackie Chan flick. And Bubishi: it is just the notes of one Kungfu style transported to some Okinawan masters.

Vietnam has a tradition that looks a lot like Taekwondo/Hapkido mixture (lots of high kicks). There are different styles, but in every style I've heard of, they've had the word Vo in there and often either Viet or Vietnam too. I knew one guy who had trained in Vo Vietnam. I've seen a video about African M.A. I believe it was from Unique Publications. The Jeet Kune Do guru Burton Richardson talks and knows about some african arts and teachers too so go see his website or contact him https://www.jkdunlimited.com.

For those interested in Japanese martial arts history from ancient times til today, nothing beats Draeger's trilogy 'The Martial Arts And Ways Of Japan', consisting of three volumes: 1. Classical Bujutsu 2. Classical Budo 3. Modern Bujutsu and Budo For those into chinese or Wing Chun history, some great enlightening reading: Complete Wing Chun. I don't do WC but I love this book! And I think everyone who is serious about any M.A., should read Bruce Lee's Tao Of Jeet Kune Do. Anyone into Mixed M.A. or is even interested in that phenomenon, the best package is "Fighter's Notebook". Also, if you're interested in the mental aspect of budo, I am quite fond of Chuck Norris' "The Secret Power Within", it is not that serious attempt at being a Zen guide as some try to be, it is more of an autobiography with glimpses to what Norris has experienced and how he has felt Zen and Budo have helped him understand life in everyday situations.

At the moment (I'm really contemplating on my future training so things may change any time soon) I'm studying an "old-school" karate from Okinawa. It is not the Americano traditional, where you stand in line punching air, I mean the "Okinawan traditional" where it's all fighting and no rituals (Remember that the whole idea of doing stuff while standing in line like you were doing army exercises was introduced by the Japanese, it wasn't part of Okinawan training where it was done in a more relaxed friendly group manner). Our style has few old katas and we train their techniques near full contact all the time. We have stuff from low kicking (we prefer to keep kicks low, my favorite kick is the "thai-roundhouse" as it is usually called) to groundwork (yes, complete on-the-matt-wrestling). I have used Marco Lala's videos as home reference tools and most of his stuff goes right with the style I train in.

Well, side thrust and roundhouse are definitely old. Centuries old. They are just not found or used much in styles which were designed for armor, but in styles/areas where armor wasn't used, they are commonplace. Ridgehand and jab are also basic karate stuff. Ridgehand is just ura shuto (ura=reverse, shuto=knifehand). There can only be reverse punch when there is the leading punch too, otherwise the whole word "reverse punch" would be an oxymoron. It is true that these techniques are only found in katas and old prearranged kumites after a few years of training, so unless you have reached black belt level or near it (brown, maybe blue) in a traditional art, you wouldn't know it. Remember, there are people in the world who train traditional arts that did not come filtered through the US. I have studied a style here in Finland that came directly from Okinawa, no roundtrip through US, the style is only now beginning to spread to the American continent (and slowly too). The style also does not do tournaments because of it's traditions. It has all those techniques in it's katas. The style is very proud of it's lineage of unchanged katas and techniques for over a century. PS. In Okinawan karate side thrust was not used, thus you are correct about that. But in Korean arts (like Taegeyk) and Chinese arts (like Kungfu) it was common.

Hmmm... Where have you seen a traditional dojo that teaches fighting with flying kicks? I haven't. Every one I've seen has been a modern one. And what's wrong with kata? Kata is a book of techniques. Right now the biggest selling MA books are BJJ and NHB books, why is that if books/notes are not good. Of course, if you imply that the McDojos that only do kata and nothing else, then I agree - it's like someone training BJJ from books alone. But if the book is just used as a source of new ideas that are trained in full contact live training, then I don't see your point. Kata = a book = source of ideas for training. In classes I take, we do kata for 15 minutes to warm up and remember stuff, then 1h 45min is done training some stuff with hard contact.

Maybe so down there in the Southern Asia. Up here in the north of Scandinavia we live at the chilly tundra level and wear coats year round. You can easily apply any gi methods to a leather jacket.