Liver Punch

White Yellow Orange Green Purple Brown Brown/Stripe Brown/Another Stripe Black

My understanding is that this is correct. However, I've found very little documentation on any inexpensive swords existing of any type. Does this mean that if one could not afford a katana or wakizashi, they were left to polearm and other types of weapons for battle?

19" - it's square though, I haven't graduated to a state where widescreen computer monitors don't drive me nuts. I've got a TRS-80 with a 12" monochrome screen. It's prety sweet.

I think that for the most part, the martial arts community has agreed with the idea that no one style is perfect, and that the combination of techniques that apply to a specific situation is almost always the best route to go. This is particularly the case in what makes up about 1/2 of my martial arts world: the sport of MMA. What I'm seeing on the Amateur level almost exclusively, and at the professional level to a huge extent, is that they are mixing a standup ingredient with a grappling ingredient, and sometimes adding in one range of clinch fighting. I think that, to a point, this is a huge misinterpretation of what you should be as a (mixed) martial artist, and what one's system should be as a whole. I would define myself as a Muay Thai practitioner. I would do so based on my time spent under a Kru learning Muay Thai techniques, wearing what I originally despised (and have come to love) in thai shorts, and my constant defense of Muay Thai as the hands down single greatest striking art in the known universe. But if I endlessly define one style of anything as the "best", I'd be violating my own rule that you have to borrow from everyone to end up with something that constitutes complete. It turns out that I wasn't taught Muay Thai at all. Sure, all the good stuff is there - the brutal kicks, the elbows and knees, the clinch work...all of that. But then there's all this other stuff that's absent from most traditional Thai fights that I watch. My elbows are pulled in and my hands cover a severely tucked chin, I throw an abundance of "fancy kicks", have head movement, feints, and a variety of other stuff that's been taught to me that I'm supposed to do. (Versus charging in and hammering on people, which I often times prefer to do) So, with all of this in mind for some time, my question for the rest of you strikers here, what styles do you mix into your striking art? What blends, mixtures, and combinations do you find effective, and what have you discarded as ineffective for you personally, for your application of martial arts, or as just plain worthless.

^^I was told that my previous name was much too long and caused all sorts of havoc on the moderator side of things. Or perhaps there's a CIA tie-in involved here, and they felt that I couldn't be controlled. You can be the judge^^ 12/29/2010 8:00 AM: Weightroom (insert weightlifting complaint here) Shoulders, Biceps, Grip Strength, Abs 9:00 AM: Plyo boxes, burpees, balance exercises, tire work, wall sits, a few other terrible things. Noon: Snorkel on, cardio circuit. Jumping rope, thai pads, animal drills, treadmill, battling ropes. 3:00 PM: Grappling with strikes and grappling with strikes from takedowns for about an hour and a half. 5:00 PM: 5 Minute Live Rounds - Boxing for 5 rounds, Kickboxing for 5 rounds, and Muay Thai with takedowns for 5 rounds. Exhaustion and injury sets in....sleep time

This has been my week off specifically for training purposes, this is basically the workout I fit into a normal day when I'm preparing for a fight (MMA). 12/28/2010 8:00 AM: Weightroom (oh boy) Grip strength, legs, and abs. 9:00 AM: Plyo boxes, burpees, balance exercises, other assorted plyometric drills. Noon: One mile warm up jog, put on my snorkel and ran stadium stairs for 30 minutes followed by a sprint circuit consisting of a 100M, 80M, 60M,40M,20M, 200M. 3:00 PM: Jiu Jitsu with a gi, worked on a lot of fine points to guard passing, about 30 minutes of gi grappling followed by about an hour of no-gi grappling. 5:00 PM: Pummeling, boxing with takedowns, 5 - 5 minute rounds of MMA...exhaustion sets in. Sleep time.

This is why we're all supposed to speak the same language. Can you image what kind of mistakes were made when communication consisted of a series of grunts?

We have a box full of just about ever "Black Belt" Magazine, and a host of others from the entire 1980's and there seems to be a big stretch in there where this was a super-hot topic of debate. If you want to prepare for any situation, regardless of what your individual art is or what that particular situation is - you have to simulate it in as real of a fashion as possible.

Capes rule! Perhaps a some sort of "Count Dante Tribute Cape Kata" should be created. Any takers?

I feel your pain. I'm 6'1 with a 29" inseam and thighs that aren't proportionate to my waist. What I end up with in pants are something that's way too long, too tight in the thigh region, and too big in the waist. The region of the pants from the top of the leg to the top of the waist band is always really tall too...odd. In the Gi region, my short arms require modification, and the length of my torso ends up rendering the Gi almost too short. Being irregularly shaped sucks. What I have found is that BJJ/Judo stuff fits me way better than any of my traditional, lighter weight uniforms. Good luck with it.

Foreman - hands down.

That just made me think - all students, as a requirement for Blue Belt testing under Saulo Ribeiro, are required to have been choked out. Like, all the way out.

If someone is bigger, stronger, and more skilled - yeah, rolling with them is usually a loosing battle. Personally, I'd set a goal of being able to break their guard and a second goal to not get swept. When training with people much more skilled than me, I find it important to turn it into a game of acheiving small goals, untill of of my small goals have snowballed into being able to hold my own against them.

I think the problem here lies in the fact that all zombies won't tap if you rip their arms or legs off - which makes them honorary members of the Gracie family. However, if a zombie has you in his guard, a can opener might actually work in detaching the head from the body. Neck cranks are your friend in this situation.

Shields, spears, staffs, ill-fated nunchucks. I'm making something into a shank almost all of the time. How traditional would we consider pyrotechnics?

I think that all of this has a lot of context. A punch is a tool. A submission is a tool. A bite is a tool. An eye gouge is a tool. A wrench is a tool. I wouldn't bite a bolt, or use a wrench to secure a takedown. I wouldn't bite someone just because they tried to punch me - that's stupid. If I ask the average male if he needs to practice throwing a punch, his response would be "no". Anyone can throw a "haymaker" with enough force to hurt someone. Does that mean that time spent working punches is wasted? Of course not. I can most likely out strike, out wrestle, and out grapple everyone I pass on the street every day. Does that mean my punches, kicks, takedown, and grappling don't need to be practiced and advanced? Of course not. The question becomes the, what am I - the martial artist - training for? Are you training for MMA? Then anything illegal is a waste of your time. Are you training for a kickboxing? Grappling isn't time well spent. Ultimately, if you're training for the worst case scenario and everything that leads up to that, then you should be training: Cardio, strength, kicks, punches, takedowns, clinch fighting, grappling, locks, holds, multiple attackers, evasion tactics, fighting under duress, defending yourself after being hit, or maced, or with one arm out of use, and the offense and defense of knives, guns, improvised weapons, and others. Can you hit something the size of a quarter with your finger in a real life scenario, something like an eye? Can you hit a man in the groin from any position, regardless of motion and terrain? If you don't practice it, the answer is "I Don't Know". And I don't know is a terrible answer for a life and death situation. Personally, I don't want to strike the groin, I don't want to gouge an eye, I don't want to break a bone, and I don't want to take a life. To be honest, I don't want to get in a fight at all. Almost all of the time you can avoid a fight period. But this notion that "if I can poke them in the eye, I'm certain there are other more broadly applicable things I can do that are just as effective." is naive. I'm not certain what will be available to me in a situation that I cannot foresee. If I knew for certain what was available, I wouldn't be in that situation. If the lives of my family are being threatened and I have to eliminate a target with my bare hands quickly, nothing is more effective than taking his sight. Does that sound extreme? Yes. Should we as martial artists be prepared for the extreme? I thought that was the idea behind all of this. I train, typically, 6 days a week. I lift weights, I run (often times up and down a hill with my nose plugged and a snorkel to restrict my breathing) I work all aspects of striking, takedowns, grappling, locks, holds, and weapons. I practice with my knives, guns, clubs, and other popular weapons, as well as realistic improvised weapons. I practice these things in all situations imaginable. I train for single attackers and multiple attackers. I train to escape, to control, to disarm, to hurt, to mame, and to kill. I have all of those tools in my toolbox, and as a martial artist, my goal is to have a big enough toolbox to be prepared for every situation possible. If you want to be able to defend yourself to the best of your ability in any situation, and you're not practicing the techniques that you might need to end a life-threatening situation, you're fooling yourself and you're fooling your training partners. I compete in every combative contest I possibly can, and it's a good experience builder, and it prepares me for a lot that real combat has to offer. But the next time you watch MMA, see what happens when someone with REAL EXPERIENCE does when they get hit in the groin or poked in the eye. I wouldn't call a grown man begging for a time out and pulling his knees to his chest DANCING per se, but that's just me.

It's the age old psychology question of nature vs. nurture. I think it's a bit of both. Some people could do it and never like it, they could hate themselves for it. Other people seem predisposed to taking a shine to it.

I think that zombies, or even better, ninja zombies should be the gold standard in natural disaster preparedness. That sort of scenario requires mental and physical conditioning, self defense training, weapon training, survival training, and just about everything else you can imagine. Ultimately, if you're prepared for zombies and ninja zombies, you're prepared for anything that's actually likely to happen. Just something to keep in mind next time you're training.

For me, it all depends on the school and the dicipline. In a dojo where being family friendly is the number one goal, he might get talked to and if it happened again, asked to leave. In a lot of schools everyone would just stop sparring with the guy. In a Muay Thai, or MMA type of school, the instructors often run guys like that into the ground repeatedly while explaining the reason for doing it. I suppose talking to the guy in a calm manner is step number one...