Liver Punch

I've got little girl hands, so I have to keep mine in decent shape. I'm a very large-framed/heavy individual with very small hands. Small hands + weight and power in strikes = seriously messed up hands. So, I use the largest gloves applicable to my situation, and never thrown a closed fist without protection. My shins on the other hand...

I like having something mesh to put all of my wet gear in as well as letting my leather gloves and protective gear breathe. I also like having a bag that I can put other clothes in or whatever - so maybe instead of my system of having two bags, a nice hybrid of some sort is avaliable. A sackpack is good to keep with your gear to throw something really nasty and snotty/bloody/whatever in. Century has assorted size mesh bags for sale most of the time.

As someone who has spent time in both the MMA gym environment and the "traditional" environment, I certainly have two different policies when it comes to respect. I give much respect based on rank until an individual proves otherwise. I've been to tournaments where a blackbelt - particularly one high ranking blackbelt - was acting in a manner unbecoming to his rank and the nature of the event. Being subjected to him much longer would have likely led to a disrespect of him personally and a challenge in the parking lot. That rare event aside, I would much rather be safe than sorry. In the arts and schools I've been around, Black Belts aren't earned very often, and despite age or size, the guy wearing one is usually quite the bad dude. From the MMA standpoint, respect boils down to one thing for me: You're preparing to step into a cage with someone who wants to cause you serious bodily harm. This person is going to be all over you like a wet pair of jeans and it's my job to prepare you. In an MMA gym, respect often times means subjecting your training partner to long and painful training sessions that inflict serious mental toughness through physical conditioning. It's a lot of fun really...

In our art, testing isn't so much of a super-formalized event (particularly for the higher ranks) as it is a meeting of current students, former students, black belts from near and far, as well as people from associated schools. As grueling and painful as tests are, some of us have decided that we're gluttons for punishment and have therefore come up with an extracurricular activity for nothing more than the fun of it. The idea of the Bujin Challenge is to encompass everything that makes up our system as well as some other things that are just plain cool. So, we take all of that, squeeze it into 24 hours of hell, and drink heavily at the end of the whole thing. It begins with a several mile hike through a heavily wooded area followed by the construction of two camps several hundred yards apart. Once the camp is set up, target practice for firearms, bows, knives, and other assorted items will take place. This will be promptly followed by the running of an obstacle course - the content of which will range from painful to impossible. Once night falls we will seperate into our two teams: each with their own campsite, and all armed with rubber training knives and foam padded training clubs. Night watch will run in shifts and night time attacks will inevitability take place...repeatedly. The next morning will feature a mid-distance canoe trip, an urban run, and then a trip to a warehouse for weapon exercises and tactics. An additional urban run will end at the dojo. Once there it's several hours of holds, locks, wrestling, grappling, clinch fighting, training knife fighting, weapon disarms, and sparring. 24 hours after the event began it will end, and...I'll be enjoying an adult beverage or two.

Perhaps our time, money, and effort is better spent promoting tournaments and competitions. If everyone who is currently a practitioner or is a future practitioner has an obsession with competition, then it won't take a truckload of rocket scientist martial artists to figure out who in the area is a good or bad instructor. Embarassment and shame are two of my favorite tools.

I think a defense or two is in order. Chuck Liddell is the last guy to have numerous consecutive title defenses iirc. Let's not forget that Machida was going to have an era named after him...he was so elusive, used a style that was so unique and effective that nobody would ever defeat him and that he was the future of the sport. Lesnar was the new breed of heavyweight too. He was super-fast, agile, strong, and huge: Lesnar was going to rule as king of the heavyweights forever. The even named a month after him...Happy Brocktober. I have no problems with Jones as a person or as a martial artist, but he could very well be overhyped anything from a little to a lot. Shogun won the biggest mma organization's title at the same age and while he's been a great force in mma, he hasn't exactly been a non-stop worldbeater. If Jones can knock off Rashad, Forrest, and Anderson Silva, I'll never doubt his abilities as long as I live.

3/10 45 Minute Circuit of Death including plyo steps, duck and weave string, squats, running, arm endurance with weights, jumping rope, wall sits, abs, etc. Oh and 6 stand-up rounds that were pretty dang fun.

3/9 Steam rolled beginners in grappling class Assisted in showing a high schooler that a 2 day grappling seminar in the military gives you the grappling prowess of Tank Abbot Grappled MasterPain and Groin Strike Tallgeese, I would probably be game for NAGA if I get over my recent bout with fatness in time. And in response to Groin Strike's liver hating him...my shin is rather fond of his liver.

Pretty much the same as Master Pain, although I think I put in a few more rounds than him. Looking forward to tonight...it'll be kind of like last night, only much worse.

My System? My Style? Right Head Kick

If one has the time to invest and an available teacher, Greco-Roman style wrestling gives you ability to clinch, and from there the ability to gain a takedown. Controlling where a fight takes place is something that wrestlers will always have an advantage at, and Greco tends to be much safer than its collegiate counterpart.

Bujin Bugei Jutsu - 17 Years (minus 5 or so) - 1st Dan Muay Thai - 2 Years Saulo Ribeiro/Marcello Monteiro BJJ - 1 Year - Blue Belt MMA - 1 Year - 2-1-1

The Christmas rush is officially over (I like to keep it going an extra month or so...I enjoy my food a tad too much. So, with that said, I'm have to make fighting weight - which is always fun this time of year. I have an MMA fight in April. I want to keep adapting all of the arts that I train in to fit my body and my style, and eventually have a "system" of moves and counter moves from every position possible. And as far as the "traditional art" that I practice, my goals involving expanding my knowledge base and pushing myself and the art into new territories.

This is exactly right. It's often hard for a lot of people (including myself sometimes) to not use "karate" as a blanket term for "martial arts" - in the United States at least, this is the phrase that's often used to describe martial arts as a whole. The newest Karate Kid doesn't feature a whole lot of Karate, but using the well known term "karate" as well as piggybacking on the previous movies was smart marketing. When people talk about what they do in their individual systems on this forum I often think "wow, that's kind of dumb, doing that will get you killed". But then I usually remember that them doing whatever it is that I find dumb has a purpose and isn't necessarily wrong, because the purpose of their martial art is different from mine. So, to answer the question of "why teach technique that is illegal in matches" you have to ask yourself what the purpose of your art is. If it's to win matches, then learning things that are illegal in those matches makes little sense. If the purpose is to learn a wide variety of things, then perhaps there is a valid reason.

The idea that women shouldn't or can't fight in the sport of MMA is an amazingly ridiculous argument. Addressing the idea of whether or not they can compete at an elite level is entirely a matter of opinion. Many would argue that Kimbo Slice, Bob Sapp, and after his last fight against Matt Hughes even Royce Gracie cannot compete at an elite level in MMA. Are women fighters at the top of their division likely to beat their male counterparts? Likely not. Would anyone on this forum who weighs 145 lbs. do well in a Mixed Martial Arts match against Cristiane Santos? I think the answer is likely not to that question as well. So, it's reasonable to say that a man cannot compete at an elite level by virtue of being a man, and a woman cannot be excluded by such competition by virtue of being a woman alone. Men have greater muscle mass, larger bones, less fat, etc. That's a great argument, and I think it has a great deal of merit. However, it turns out that Brock Lesnar has larger muscles, bones, and hands than Dominick Cruz. That's why the athletic commissions came up with those nifty weight classes - to prevent people with body types that are too dissimilar from fighting each other. It's also why they decided that women should have their own separate divisions. Should women be protected by athletic commissions? The absolutely should be, just like men should be 100% protected. Is it the athletic commission's duty to worry about whether or not a woman can get pregnant while training for the sport? Of course not. Female Olympic athletes in almost every sport have reported the loss of a period, being physically drained, and having to subject themselves to extreme diet. It comes with the territory, and everyone who enters the territory is subject to it. What are we left with then? Female runners and swimmers are typically slower than males in the same sport. Female power lifters are typically weaker than male power lifters. There are very few sports that are highly demanding physically that women excel beyond men in. These women push themselves as hard as they can. They have incredibly controlled diets, they work out many, many hours through the week, they get injured, and they do all of it through the prime of their life - just like female Mixed Martial Artists.

It turns out that the answer to "who can really hang with Fedor in the heavyweight division?" was Fabricio Werdum, who couldn't hang with the UFC HW division.

While I think this is probably a money-making deal... does one have to authenticate a lineage in ninjitsu to make them a ninja?

The are that I'm from is pretty small, so recruiting my training partners in a moments notice wouldn't be much of a problem. I'm also personal friends with the bulk of them, so we're around each other a fair amount anyhow. Selecting the dojo as a meeting place during civil unrest might be one way to make these type of tactics more feasible.

Agreed. He discusses his dual belief in western and eastern religion. He does a dandy good job in explaining his beliefs and how they are complementary, not contradictory.

So, I was watching some Shaolin Monk thing on TV - it wasn't terrible realistic, but it got me thinking about them, and martial arts in general. It seems like most martial arts, despite many of them being created to help people defend themselves against oppressive police forces and invading armies, focus on individual tactics. The most successful armies in the ancient world used group tactics, formations, and different types of weapons/attacks to defend themselves. Am I missing some martial art that does incorporate these? We have touched on and practiced to a small extent - particularaly with firearms - "buddy tactics". Has anyone else here used partner, or small group tactics for self defense? Perhaps a Kung-Fu Phalanx of some sort?

My first reaction to your post was "hit her in the face". I guess I wasn't joking though. If you're training for sport, then most women appreciate a guy who won't hold back. I trained with a 135 pound girl at a major MMA gym who would touch gloves, and then immediately kick people in the head and run them around the mat for 3 minutes like she was king kong. I watched her do this lots of times before I went with her. We touched gloves and I swept her onto her head when she tried it. I didn't pull any punches, and she really appreciated the fact that I'd give her enough respect as a fighter to spar like that. If it's a self defense situation, she's much more likely than you to need to defend herself, so...it's good for her. If she doens't like being treated like everyone else, she can blame Susan B. Anthony, not you.

Knife, gun, club, other assorted and simulated shanks and bludgeoning weapons.

Perhaps this is looked upon as a touch thuggish in these parts, but a few hundred years ago (or yesterday where I'm from) wouldn't someone who knew what they were doing just challenge a guy like this?

We still do the same thing, and it's a super valuable training tool. The type of attack and attacker stand to vary a great deal in regards to knife fighting. If at all possible, I think you should have a knife or a firearm ready to deploy at any moment, with just a seconds notice. The Phillipino arts are a phenomenal resource for blades, but seem to focus on things with a fair amount of length. The offense and defense used in prisons during these types of attacks have a lot of merit to them. I'd gamble on an intelligent commitment versus fancy dancing any day. I'd like to add that assuming I can sidestep an attack as easily as this guy does, slapping and slashing are not going to be my mode of operations. I'd cut his weapon hand and repeatedly stab the ribcage until the threat was no longer present.

I, personally respond with additional forward moving aggression, but my body/fighting style lend itself to that sort of thing rather well.