MasterPain

We spar hard a lot. I do think it's a great reality check. There is nothing wrong with a vertical fist, it slips inside a guard nicely and is great in close. A horizontal fist is also great for longer range strikes, and going over someone's guard. I think that stopping a punch 6 inches from someone is a bad habit. I think there are valid arguments on both sides. If you were my student, I would want you to learn my way, then later combine it with what you will. Being non-traditional, I'm sure I would not agree with some of what you've learned before. But here is what I must stress, I WOULD NOT DISRESPECT YOU AS A PERSON. If you feel an instructor is generally rude to you, it is not a good school for you. From what I've seen of you on here, you are not an argumentative person, so I doubt that you are at fault.

Hapkido and Aiki Jujitsu have alot in common. Once I got good at it, I would get together with another bb and attempt to do a little sparring with it. I found it very difficult to apply when not being attacked by a sword wielding opponent. That said, it worked great in situations where the opponent was attempting to draw a weapon (hand gun, knife, sword). That was the design of the art though...so go figure. I've found that I can lock out arms and wrists left and right when sparring unarmed against an armed opponent, but can't land strikes with impunity. With both unarmed the locks don't work as well. I think part of it is that while the end of a stick travels faster than a punch, the weight of the weapons slows the weapon hand. Also there is a mental fixation on the weapon by its wielder. As my buddy said the other day, the left punch is a knife fighters secret weapon.

Good ideas.

Remember to keep your chin low and your mouth shut.

I thought the heel front sounded like a push kick, which is a good distance holder, but I would rather hit with the ball of the foot. Grant uses those a lot. Another kick I think we need to remember is the heel to the kidneys that Royce Gracie did from his guard before it got banned. Those things hurt.

Try taping a piece of paper to a string and hanging that from a door. Try to break the paper with a finger jab. I guarantee it will help your velocity.

Thanks for the suggestion MasterPain. I have considered doing that to also work on my punches too but at the moment time and lack of money means its not really possible. TBH we do get hit quite hard in the face in our point sparring; ITF Taekwondo is pretty much full contact apart from you can't win if your KO opponent. I really think my problem stems from having a high tolerance to pain and being able to roll with the punches. My coach always says I won the fight just not the spar. It just means I'm giving away points. This is one of the reasons I never liked point sparring, especially in the ATA. Tall, quicker guys would just own me because all they had to do was slip something in that made contact to get a point. I can get inside and slug away, but that's no good for a point strategy. To echo was MasterPain suggested, just have some of the training partners ar your dojang spar with you, only using head shots, like a Boxing match. That way, you know everything is coming high, and you will focus more on keeping that guard up. The last time I point sparred, i ran a guy into the trophy table. I lost.

1 mile walk 45 minutes solo escrima with various stick-like instruments, rebar, iron pipe, claw hammer, crow bar. 500 kicks.

Poor trees....

About the whole XMA thing, I must say that combatively, kicks should usually be simple, but when I practice ridiculous jumping spinning things, my general mobility is better. Context is everything.

1 1/2 mile walk with mountain cur dog.(Smokie) 1/2 hour playing tug of war with husky dog.(Baylee) Focused on judo footwork. 50 hindu squats, 50 pushups, 200 crunches.

1/2 hour of abs squats and pushups.

While everyone should be aware of risks, matches have rules to protect competitors. In self defense, the cultural norms have already been broken in the act of attacking someone. In such a situation, it behooves you to know things that can hurt someone.

Same here. Oh it's hubud and lubud, if you want to look them up. Im just following the long storied Bujin tradition of misspelling things. Tradition requires dicipline.

Same here. Oh it's hubud and lubud, if you want to look them up.

It really is becoming its own style, but there are still occasions that you see a textbook (albeit no-gi) uchimata or some such thing that is distinctly from a certain style. I do think Machida has benefited from being a really good karate guy. Nobody knows how to deal with it. I have noticed that almost no one uses sidekicks, backfists or hammerfists much. Their only good from certain angles, so a lot of peopledon't train them. One of my training partners has more or less a Muay Thai striking style, and throws a Goju style sidekick about once every 4 rounds, and it usually lands and hurts. I think someone will come along that uses them effectively someday, and we will see a revival of them.

I'd disagree a bit here. Sure, there is attitude in MMA, much as any athletic endevor. Yes, I'd like to see that change. However, I dont' thing that makes it an unworthy endevor. It's an excellent athletic accomplishment, to compete in full contact. MMA in itself also provides a relitively effective unarmed method of self defense, a major goal of any martial artist. I have a hard time faulting them simply bacause they are based out of a competitive outlet. Competiton is not a bad thing. In fact, it instills some valuable things- the abilty to goal set, pursue via training and hard work that goal, put aside fear and face an obstical in front of everyone. All good things. No, it is not a charater buidling device, but most sport psycologist will tell you that despite retoric, neither is traditional sport. We might teach team work, espirit de corpe, and the ability to perserve in traditional team sports, but we do not teach "charater". I think also, with the advent of MMA as it's own niche art, we need to stop to consider that perhaps we need to make sure that students are training inthe right venue to meet their goals. If a student is bound and determined to fight MMA, then why try to keep in in a traditional karate school. It is not striving towards his goals. Better to refer him to a quality gym more focused to developing and integraing multiple diciplines related to fighting in the ring at those specific venues. Kata is not pushing him towards his goal, nor is time spent in tradional weapons or stances. Get him somewhere he can maximize his time. Conversely, someone wanting to be part of an traditionl linage, who desires a rigid structure of response to attack patterns, like small joint manipulation, or who wants to become proficient in weaponry probibly should be guided away form MMA. It simply won't meet his needs. I believe you missed his point. I think he was saying that there is a stigma attached to MMA now. Some instructors don't want their students competing because they perceive the game as being dirty. This will change as public perception changes, if they will quit making reality shows with fighters acting stupid. I will agree that to compete at high level, MMA training should be the only focus. But for me the couple fights I did were about conquering fear of confrontation. Years in martial arts have made me more comfortable in dealing with people in general, and I am much less withdrawn. Martial arts can build character or turn someone into an arrogant jerk, depending on what they want. And some people just learn to fight better. Character can be built through playing hopscotch if it is the desire of the practitioner. I just realized that I have a funny way of looking at things.

Thats exactly the same reason I got into Martial arts. Except I wanted to be the green one. Maybe one day I will get to play him I did'nt really watch Power Rangers until the last couple years. I was 12 when they got started and was already a fan of more adult oriented martial arts films, so I thought they were for 7 yearolds. Now I can enjoy the cheesiness as well as the martial arts and the freaky interpretive dance of the putties. Now I've been watching Power Rangers in Space, and I'm joining the Astronoma fan club.

I think Tim created Krav Maga in the 80s. Too bad the Israelis beat him to it by 40 years.

Unless you're Fujita.

Bad thing is, combatively speaking, it was the perfect shot, landed clean and would have broken my nose and given you the chance to slice and dice me. If I ever decide to attack my enemies with a spear, I'm going to wear a helmet.

Basically this without the knife.

Gracie's style was superior ON THE GROUND to others at that time. His stand up was nothing but takedowns and a kick that says "please throw me". Ron Van Cleef was a great karate guy, even if he was old, and the fight did not last long enough for age to matter. Ron Van Cleef immediately decided to learn some ground fighting. And the Gracie family learned some striking. Karate could be and is some fighters base art, but must be complimented with sprawls and enough ground fighting ability to get back up. I think there are still more arts there than we realize. The BJJ crowd has added Greco wrestling and Judo. I've heard the arguement that everyone is using Muay Thai, however it's usually Muay Thai with some Boxing and Karate thrown in.

Had good times with weapons and didn't even have to send anyone to the vet. Sparring with double sticks, knives, short spear, and some empty hand with emphasis on trapping range. I even attacked Groinsrike's hand with a metal mesh face mask. My Face to Fist Style defeated him.

Thanks for the suggestion MasterPain. I have considered doing that to also work on my punches too but at the moment time and lack of money means its not really possible. TBH we do get hit quite hard in the face in our point sparring; ITF Taekwondo is pretty much full contact apart from you can't win if your KO opponent. I really think my problem stems from having a high tolerance to pain and being able to roll with the punches. My coach always says I won the fight just not the spar. It just means I'm giving away points. I was always the opposite, I can take a few body shots but hate being hit in the face. I always thought TKD and boxing would make a great striker.