Liver Punch

8/1/11 5, 3 Minute Rounds of No-Gi Grappling with strikes. One hour of Muay Thai Clinch Drills, assorted pummeling, and takedowns. 5, 3 Minute Rounds of Muay Thai Sparring, 50%

We're currently waiting on a steel ball to get here. I'm dealing with the Chinese on this part of it, so it's slightly difficult/amusing. It's coming from some factory in rural China that seems to have an X in place of every vowel that would make it an otherwise pronounceable name. Anyhow, once it makes it here, it will have a week or two at the machine shop, and then it'll be back to me as a (hopefully) working prototype. The steel ball is a pretty inexpensive investment (aside from shipping), so if I can locate an American company in the Midwest that has what I need...machine shop work on it shouldn't cost that much. We should know more by the end of this week.

7/27 Got to grind on BJJ Blue Belt testers for about an hour.

7/26 Free Roll 1 hr Shadowboxing 5 Rounds Thai Pads

7/25 Stretch 15 Min Clinch work 15 Min Clinch work with knees 15 Min Clinch work with knees and trips 15 Min Clinch work with everything from un-engaged 7, 3 Min Muay Thai rounds, 50% Power

I'm not sure that traditional boxing is the best thing to attempt to employ in MMA. A boxing stance doesn't do much to protect you from kicks or take downs. I'm sure there's a Muay Thai forum in Thailand or Holland where they're complaining about how the quality of kicking and clinch work in MMA isn't the best. I know a lot of BJJ guys who say that 90% of MMA fighters "on't do Jiujitsu right". We've seen pro-boxers get out struck in MMA, bro kick boxers get out kicked, and BJJ black belts get submitted = all by people who "lack in pedigree and technique. The rules and environment change everything, and punching - at its core - is just a way to hurt someone by hitting them. Chris Leben and Wanderlei Silva have racked up lots of knockouts without pretty technique. I'd say that the best technique is the one that works.

If you add eye gouging, fish-hooking, and biting, you've sorta got an early UFC. I just have a hard time seeing some members of the Gracie family not pulling guard against an unskilled opponent. If we're discussing a fight where we've got more real life variables like weapons and multiple attackers, nobody would deliberately get into a fight. If we could theoretically gather the data for all the fights on Earth, I don't think most of them are on-on-one contests. I don't even think most of them would probably involve willing contestants on both sides. My guess is that if you get into a fight on planet Earth, that on average it is a lot of guys attacking one person. They're watching their victim, stalking them, following them into a poorly-lit area without a lot of prying eyes, and robbing, raping, or killing them. I can't imagine living in a place like Rwanda and being worried about a one-on-one fist fight outside the local Catina. It's often hard for me to imagine a fight that doesn't involve someone like me in a one-on-one contest. But certainly in a violent attack (especially against a child or woman) with multiple attackers and no fair warning, the ground is big trouble. Even someone well versed in ground fighting is in trouble if he gets knocked to the ground in a dark place with several guys surrounding the victim. Edit: For the record, I think youtube is a lousy measure of anything. This study does mention "However, what was probably the most important finding in this study is that if you are untrained and are the first person to end up on the ground in a fight there is a good chance that you will lose and the best you can hope for is that no victor can be declared." So, it technically does address that this data is intended for average morons and not most people on this forums.

Ken Shamrock joined the WWF/E way after he had already established himself in the MMA world. Ken Shamrock established himself in the MMA world after establishing himself in Pancrase, which was after he's been a professional wrestler on the Georgia/South East regional circuit.

To avoid having to make a deal with Maglite, you'll probably have to build your own flashlight. That may be our best option however. By making a deal with Maglite, we would be giving our product name recognition and the quality that comes with maglite. I'm all for the path of least resistance. Teaming with maglite would still make us rich - although my standards aren't all that high. Bu rich, I mean anything more than $250.

We've all learned something here today then, haven't we. Also, I think that DWx is taunting my love of the UK and my inability to go there with this thread. Also Barmy - which means mad - which means crazy.

Or perhaps you've never stabbed anyone in the butt?

Many, many things to address here: I vote the we just call it the smashlite, because it's a play on the maglite, and maglite only has one "g" in it. This should take care of any legal concerns. (it won't) I fully endorse the smashlite and all of its various sub-models. I would propose the addition of a "Smashlite for Her", which would be avaliable in pink and purple, and a "Smashlite for Hunters" that would be avaliable in camo, and perhaps with a red or green led and/or lense filters. We'll need good lobbyists, because: if smashlites are outlawed, only outlaws will have them. Three less successful models should also be produced: Smashlite for Pets - it has a built-in lint roller on the shaft. (Billy Mays would've been perfect for the infomercial) Wilford Brimley Smashlite - It's got a built in "diabetus" tester. Smashlite for Chicago Residents - Because defending yourself and owning a weapon is illegal there, it's just a cardboard tube with a light on one end, and a rape whistle on the other. Building a smashlite out of steel would allow it to be built to a multitude of specifications. A maglite is just a very, very simple circuit. Because it operates on batteries that just have to be configured in a straight line, you can run any maglite, on any size and number of batteries. You could take a 1.5" steel tube with a wall thickness of .25" and run A-cell batteries in it. The only requirement is cutting threads that match a maglite head and tailcap. You can even cut the knurling into the tube and powdercoat it to look authentic. Depending on wall thickness, it would be incredibly heavy and durable. In reality, a project like this would actually be much easier than my current undertaking. While we're on the topic of combative flashlights - here are some pictures of some custom machine shop work: 1D Stubby lights, custom pattern cutting, and a few of them are internally modified to run different styles, and sizes of batteries. They also do custom bezels, LED battery monitors, glass breaking tips, and emitters that make things much brighter. The possibilities are pretty much endless. http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/5.jpg http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/4.jpg http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/3.jpg http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/2.jpg http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/1.jpg

I know that both myself and Groinstrike are big Top Gear fans. Aside from boots, bonnets, hoods, and trunks. Gearbox=transmission Saloon = Sedan Car Park = Parking Lot Wing = Fender Estate = Wagon Spanners = Wrenches Lorry = Semi (or tractor in the NE) Ariel = Antenna Bump Start = Push Start Cat's Eyes = Road reflectors/ Bots Dots Zebra crossing = crosswalk

I completely agree. If this were for myself, I would have the machinist cut a new flashlight shaft out of steel and then powdercoat it. This would give me a flashlight that was more than three-times as heavy as a stock one. I would then fill it with the heaviest batteries possible (because when a battery contains lead for example, it's heavier than an equal sized piece of steel.) The end result would be something that was a maglite in appearance, but would weight several pounds, and certainly pass visual inspection. However, we're dealing with a group of people who frequently travel with guns and build giant un-wieldy spears, flails, and other ridiculousness. It's a matter of building a flashlight with a ball hitch on top of it (for whatever reason). We'll build something concealable later...

Alright, I am in the process of acquiring two mild steel 3" balls from a supplier in England. They are "grinding balls" that are used in a ball mill, and because they do not have to fit a precision device, this will knock down significantly from the large ball-bearings I had intended to use. I've got some photos of some very cool maglite work that the machinists I've been in contact with have done. I'll post them later - I plan on buying an item or two, and I think Tallgeese will be pretty happy about the uses some of them might offer.

I think that three is the standard. You need an art that allows you to defend yourself on your feet, and art that allows you to control where a fight takes place, and a fight that allows you to fight on the ground. Without something from those three categories, I think you're missing a big part of your ability to be combatively useful.

I completely agree. Here is a very rough idea of what the final product might look like. http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/Prototype2.jpg

Spin the wheel make a deal resulting in a coal miner's glove match perhaps? Alright, maybe not so much that...Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura as the best 2-man announce team ever has a special place in my heart. Go Snooooka!

Update: I've found someone who can do this at a fairly reasonable price. He is currently about 3 weeks behind on work, but I have been in contact with him and submitted a drawing of what the final product would look like. It's looking like early to mid-august should give us a working prototype. I've increased the size of the attachment to a full 3" so aluminum might be the final choice for it, I'm still on the fence on that. That aside, it's just a matter of waiting now. Edit: With the 20% increase in size, Steel would now weigh 2.766 lbs, and aluminum would weigh .96 lbs. If anyone has any input about which would be more combative efficient...I'm all ears. 2nd Edit: A fair amount of this is going to be machined off, so the initial weight of the ball is irrelevant outside of calculating final weight. I'm guesstimating that about 25% of the sphere's volume will be removed. That would give us about 2.075 lbs. if made out of steel. The original weight of a 2.5" steel ball was 2.32 lbs, so with final machining, we will be under that weight. Aluminum would weight somewhere around .75 lbs. after machined. I'm still open to suggestions on that particular part of the project. 3rd Edit: For anyone remotely curious about that this is going to end up looking like, this is a link to the schematic that I sent the machinist. I took all the measurements from the stock flashlight cap with a dial caliper and micrometer. I've maintained the maglite company tolerances, thread count, and retained the open space where the o-ring goes. This should allow everything to function as it would stock - with a proper fit and water tightness. http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/gdiel1/Print.png

I think the positive aspect for teaching kids is that you've got like-minded people to train with when they get older. I was lucky enough to train at our dojo when we had children's classes, and it was great. You always knew that when the adult classes thinned out, you could bring up people from the younger classes who were stylistically and physically ready. If whoever runs your dojo is looking to do martial arts full-time, it's a huge moneymaker. If you look at a magazine like masuccess, you'll see schools that are teaching 3000 students with after-school care and the whole like. They're becoming very, very rich because of programs like this. The tradeoff, of course is that little kids are a bit of a pain. Teaching kids wouldn't be my first or second pick, but having those classes is both a good way for younger instructors and lower ranks to start teaching. If you can avoid the children that inherently come with a children's class...it's win/win.

I vote for this.

So, I started the day off with some No More Heroes 2. It's one of my favorite games ever...it's the place in the world where Star Wars, Anime, Professional Wrestling, Violence, 8 Bit Video Games, and Adult Content meet. But then, my attention turned to Madworld. It's a pretty sick and twisted game. I was going to post the gruesome fashion in which I killed a bad guy on there, but it almost certainly is too violent for this forum. Ahhh, violence...

The smashlight attachment has been officially submitted to the professionals. We'll see what sort of responses we get. Edit: It's looking like a little bit of lathe time and an appropriately sized steel ball will be the way to go. Outlook is positive.

Most of these guys can punch and kick as hard as they can, and have enough control to make sure that when the strike lands, it isn't damaging. If they decide to not slow down, the opportunity for them to cause damage is great. The have amazing timing, agility, and speed - and a brain that has been taught to operate in a way that understands human movement, anatomy, and ring presence. They know how fast to move to close distances, and they understand angles of attack. All of this makes them pretty good at moving around and understanding the "battlefield". Those "fake" punches, kicks, chairs to the head, and "bumps" aren't always as smooth and "fake" as they'd like. They get punched in the face by accident and under less accidental circumstances. The land wrong after falling from high places, and all sort of other nasty things. They do this night after night - some of them 300 nights a year or more...they're tough. My recommendation? Get in a fight with a professional ping-pong player instead.

I've been doing some measuring, and it looks like a 2.5" diameter ball will be perfect for our purposes. That gives us a circumference of 4.71", and a volume of about 8.2 cubic inches. This size won't be too over-sized, and will still have a good amount of weight to it depending on the material. As for the material, I was looking at lead, steel, aluminum, titanium, and brass. Our attachment would give us the following weights: Steel - 2.32 lbs. Aluminum - .8 lbs. Brass - 2.52 lbs. Titanium - 1.33 lbs. Lead - 3.35 lbs. Titanium looks super attractive, but isn't exactly cheap in giant ball form. I think steel will give us the best performance for its size and still be manageable.