Kirves

Check out http://www.koryu.com/ . It has both, an article about it (link: http://www.koryu.com/library/mskoss8.html ), and also a ryu-ha list. Check out the different ryu-ha from the list and you'll notice that many of them use 'taijutsu' to categorize their unarmed system (example: http://www.koryu.com/guide/shingan.html ). And see any aikido books (or check this out: http://members.tripod.com/~jalrnc/aikido/info-i.html ). Aikido uses 'taijutsu' to distinquish the unarmed techniques from the weapons techniques. Also, notice that none of the nine arts that Bujinkan is based on is called taijutsu, yet the combination of them is... And here's one more link: http://www.hyrusa.com/history.html The link explains the history of Hontai Yoshin-Ryu Jujutsu and if you read carefully, you'll see that taijutsu has been used there too, quite synonymously. First it is used so that the art is previously called jujutsu, then it is renamed to another ryu and it is called taijutsu, then again it is renamed to another ryu and it becomes jujutsu by name again. Then later taijutsu as a term is used to refer to the unarmed methods as compared to the weapons stuff (taijutsu=unarmed, bojutsu=stick fighting, naginatajutsu=halberd fighting and so on):

Whenever we see in our kata-sessions that someone's training "lacks resistance, timing and adaptability", the instructor tells the training partner to start resisting more and instructs them how to adapt the stuff. If you only do the bunkai without the partner resisting it is useless - "a dead routine" as Matt Thornton would say. Anyone teaching like that isn't competent enough to teach karate.

Shorinji-ryu, Gensei-ryu, Gijomonkai, Yuishinkai. And BTW: It's Kyokushin, not Kyukushin.

Sprawl and finish him up with something.

Ever heard of the yakuza? Lots of small time crooks and gangster-wannabes there. Even today the mafia is fully operating in Japan. I just saw a documentary the other day about it. In Hiroshima, there is a yearly "festival", a day when all the youth go out and drink and party. And fight. They fight other people randomly, just muggings. This is because those who draw most attention to their brutality and cold bloodedness, usually get contacted by the yakuza and that's exactly what many of the unemployed or school-drop-out youngsters want.

BJJ does have strikes, but they are prohibited in BJJ tournaments.

Yes, nowadays vale tudo is quite varied, but a few decades ago vale tudo was just about only bjj.

I would not study any mind messing stuff from Ashida Kim. If his mental training stuff is as crapped up as his physical fighting stuff, then you'll mess up your mind big time. His so called fighting methods are a joke, at best. A cruel joke at worst - if you ever end up using them... Unless you believe in Astral Spies and such things, of course. Y Then you're on your own with this one...

Yeah. Well, let all flowers grow. I just loved how the scenes were reorganized to create something else.

Kyokushin has very little throwing. Especially if the dojo is tournament-inclined.

If you are talking about the Bujinkan type ninjutsu, then no, they don't mix very well. Actually, it is well known that total MA newbies learn Bujinkan Taijutsu faster than those who have already acquired certain habits in karate that are no-no's in Bujinkan taijutsu. Th

Yeah, but your karate instructor should've told you that. Especially when he sees you kick or punch a pad without enough power. Or maybe he even can't see the difference or doesn't know about it?

There are lineages of tradition that have proof. For example, Sukunaihayashi Shorin-Ryu (Seibukan) has the certificates from Chotoku Kyan that they have all the bunkai Kyan taught. Not many can say that for their teachings (because many people who advertise they studied under Kyan, only actually did it for a couple of years and now show around a pic of their master sitting near Kyan and say: "see, our master was a student of Kyan!"). A photo of you sitting near some master is no way near the kind of proof if you have a certificate signed by the master saying you know everything he does about the stuff. Someone stayed with Kyan (or Motobu, or any other master) for a year or two. Someone stayed with them for 5 years. Someone stayed with them for 30 years. Guess who of them knows most about the stuff. Kyan developed katas. His students, like Zenryo Shimabukuro learned them and even added his own kata to the pool. Now his son is teaching the stuff, certified by his father that he learned all the stuff Zenryu put in his own kata, and all Kyan taught Zenryo. And they have Kyan's certification saying he taught everythin about his kata to Zenryo. And all who were students of Kyan know that Zenryo was there for the longest period of time. So there can be proof.

If you studied fighting with actual fighting stances, you didn't need to do it for as long. Then you could do two 20 min squat workouts a week to strengthen hips, legs and back. People in Krav maga or Shootfighting schools learn to fight a lot faster than those in Shotokan schools because more time is spend in what actually happens in a fight than in "doing fighting motions in ridiculous stances you can't use in a fight". If you, instead of doing 2 hours of fighting in a absurdly low stance, only do it for 1 and half hours with real fighting stuff, then go to gym twice a week for strength training (maybe 30-40 mins each time), you get stronger faster, you also become a fighter faster and no more time is spent. Probably even less is spent this way per week. But as you said again: you do it to better yourself, that's fine by me. I find the truth in the pudding (in fighting performance in this case) but that is always an individual choice.

But had you been taught to actually visualize the target a couple inches inside/behind the target?

Yes, but they were all styles of kung fu (or wu shu). They only fought over which style was best. Problem is that in Japan there wasn't one single word for fighting, but several. Some people just said they trained in taijutsu fighting, other said they trained in jujutsu fighting. Basically they all meant they were studying bujutsu fighting. Just used a different word. But in china they had only kung fu/wu shu/quan as words for fighting arts.

Someone asked what's the difference between the names. I was simply informing him. Also, in the taijutsu thread, we were discussing about essentially styles of the same art (bujutsu). There some people were implying that the different styles of bujutsu were actually different arts because some schools used another wording on their sign and certificates.

kle1n: you really should believe more in your abilities...

It is the kind of kata that the original designer had real life fighting/combat experience, he designed the kata with an exact real life fighting bunkai in mind and taught it on to his students. Compare this with the modern kata, that are either the traditional kata with the bunkai lost, or kata designed by modern "masters" with no real life battle experience.

Knees, headbutts, elbows and forearms to neck. All these from close up clinch.

I can understand your reasoning with "do". That is okay. But using leg strengthening as an excuse is bad. Back then it may have seemed to be the only way to do it, but in this day and age, there's a reason why boxers, football players, basketball players, wrestlers, judoka and so on go lift weights instead of building their strength standing in a low stance for hours. There are so many better ways. Better meaning = no need to do it for 15 years, and no need to study fighting with bad habits.

Yes, if you hadn't heard about striking "through" the target, there's something wrong with the instruction you are getting. Just my opinion though.

Search knowledgeable instruction. It is easy to mess up your mind with that stuff. Kuji kiri was pretty common between the samurai arts of medieval Japan, that is the "koryu bujutsu". Many ninjutsu styles used it too. Today it is taught in the advanced levels of many koryu styles. Problem is finding one, as they don't like taking in students whose first questions are about such things.

But that's the point. Two hundred years ago they weren't so strict about the names. The things we now call mysteriously "taijutsu", "jutaijutsu", "jujutsu", "yawara-jutsu", "kogusoku", "torite", "wajutsu", "yawara-ge", "koshi no mawari" and so on, were just common names in that country for the act of fighting/combat. English doesn't have that much of different words, but you can say you "beat him up" or you "fought" with the guy, or you "kicked his butt" and so on. Jump forward 300 years and people are arguing which one is better style of self defence, one guy says "beating him up" is best, other guy says "kicking butt" is the best, other guy says "fighting" is best and so on. The old masters would laugh their rear ends off if they knew. People just don't get it that the different terms were all used just about synonymously. Someone wrote to the dojo door "The Fighting Way of The Enlightened Shinto Master" and another one wrote "Wise Monk's Art of Combat". Now fast forward 500 years and people from another country who lack the knowledge of the language are arguing what's the difference between "fighting" and "combat" because the different dojo doors used the different wordings. I bet in the school of the Enlightened Shinto Master the word combat was also used interchangeably with fighting, and in the school of the Wise Monk the word to fight was also used. If a student asked "how do I use this in a fight?" the instructor didn't say "Fool! Gimme 50 pushups! We are studying combat, not fighting here!" LOL!

Sho-ju: An honest question; Why would you want to train for years the kind of fighting stances you can't really fight in, just with the idea that "once I'm a black belt, then I'll train with a realistic fighting stance" in mind? I find it odd, unless you are training with completely other aspects than fighting skills as your priority. I want to study stuff that is directly usable in a fight, not something that after five years, must be modified to be applicaple for fighting. Especially if the reasons are so vague... "It strengthens your legs and hips" and so on. I know lots of more efficient ways to strengthen my legs and hips thank you very much.