Bon

Only two arts ? Currently, I train in BJJ. I've trained in freestyle kickboxing as well. I also plan to train in : Muay Thai Boxing Judo Anything that has some nice techniques

Assuming this holds true. WTF !? You said systems are complete. Or, do you mean 'Aikido' is the only complete system you'll ever need to learn ? It seems to me you don't like the popularity of the groundfighting arts and that you think your wristlock would be able to take a resisting attacker to the ground. Just because something is created for self defense doesn't mean it caters for ALL situations. Many of these styles only just touch on some aspects, or don't even have them at all, while they are the focus of other styles. Let's put it this way. Do you think if I studied Aikido for 6 months, I would be able to defend myself ? Most certainly not and I have studied akido, not for that longer period though. By the same token, what makes you think the equivalent time spent on grappling/striking in one art is enough for self defense should you come into a situation which requires it ? Yes, which is why you create your own art through cross training, making it complete. Againt someone who has spent 2 years training purely groundwork ? Don't fool yourself, man. Me and you both know if you were to find yourself against a BJJ practioner on the ground, you'd be dead meat and that your ki wouldn't blast them off you.

Hmm, I wonder if people who say 'it's the fighter' are the people who don't believe in cross training and that they can stop a fight from going to the ground against a skilled grappler. That being said, I've probably said that myself at one time or another. Paradigm-shift. Yes, it comes down to the fighter - whether he/she will train for as many situations as possible, including striking, grappling, weapon training and pre-clinch. Hence, their art(s).

That's true. Why else would people cross train ?

If I get someone's back, I should be able to slap on a rear naked choke.

Damn, I can't wait to go to uni so I can become a professor and call myself Dr.Bon!

Perhaps you should read more and learn the difference between 'to' and 'too'. If someone like you has the patience you study akido, I'm sure you can take 10min to read some posts.

I wouldn't think joint locks would be something good to learn for self defense quickly, they take a lot of practice to be able to perform on a resisting opponent. I would say elbows, headbuts, knees, bites, jab, cross, front kick, thigh kick, side kick, roundhouse, back kick

Rofl, ownage and a half.

See below, I think your statement is a fair indication of you and your arrogance: "This does not appear true at all. Your ego appears highly tied into other's opinions of you." Also, 'Me thinks thou doth protest too much!' is a very cynical response which made no point, it was just a personal attack on Jade_Lotus. You mean hypocrite ? Yes, that's exactly what you are. I assume you know what that means, despite the fact you've contradicted yourself ? I'll give you an example, just in case you don't. If I was to say you're a bad speller, making it a personal attack by telling you to go back to grade 2, that would make me a hypocrite because I criticised one of your statements which had no point - it was just a personal attack. To suggest there is more than one solution for every situation and criticise someone for stating their solution is a contradiction on your behalf. Do you even know what the outcome of the situation was ? How do you know the guy who attacked him didn't come off second best ? I would assume someone who's attacked off guard would come off second best.

I think running at an attacker is foolish. Why then would you suggest running as the be-all and end-all and have a hissy fit when he suggests other options ? So you'd rather stay and fight them instead ? Very logical. In this situation, you could be possibly running for your life, while in comparison they're running for a few lousy dollars - too much effort & work on their behalf. That doesn't dignify a response.

If you want self defense, I think you need to able to strike and grapple. If you have the time and money, consider taking two arts, an art that deals with striking and an art that deals with takedowns & groundwork. As an example, if you're looking for a boxing gym, look for the gym with cauliflower ears and broken noses! IMHO (in my honest opinion =p), self defense == hardcore training!

hahaha, that's such shit!

lol, I liked your opening sentence, KickChick. Thanks for the info! By the way, congratulations on getting your 2nd dan. How was the test ? Lots of hard board breaking ? =P

hehe, BJJ, which is why I train it. I choose BJJ 'cause you can finish someone who has no knowledge of ground fighting in a matter of seconds, with little effort and choosing the amount of harm you do to them.

This is mainly for KickChick - anyone else is welcome to contribute as well. I'm wondering if there's a diet you can follow to increase your academic performance, especially while studying 10+ hours a day for over a month ? I have my final exams, which determine whether we get accepted into University or not in starting in less than 3 weeks time and will go for about 2 weeks. I'll still be training during my exams too, so I should be reasonably fit.

Nah, I do BJJ. Tapout does Sambo, haven't seen him post in a while though.

No, it cuts the flow of blood off. If you can't get under the guy's chin, apply it across their jaw, it's really powerful choke. Make sure you don't have your hand of the non-choking arm up too high on their head, 'cause they can pull your hand off. If you release it immediately, as soon as they pass out, they'll come back 'round pretty quickly with no damage done to them. If you hold it after they've passed out (about 10-15 seconds), you can cause brain damage and I think you have to hold it for 3-5min to kill them. There are methods of trying to revive them, but there's no evidence it works better than laying them on their side. If it's just you and the other guy with no one else around, lay them on their side and make a run for it. Personally, I wouldn't lay them on their side, I'd hit 'em a couple of times so that when they wake up, they'll remember it.

Clinch as I know it is when one guy is close to the other guy and is holding him in close.. You know how you see thai boxers 'clinch', or even boxers when they're fighting ?

I think I heard someone on this forum say before that martial artists are a different breed of people. Who agrees ? I don't mean to imply that martial artists are better than people who don't do martial arts, but, generally martial artists always seem to want to help people which is what sets them apart from other people. I notice at school, the people I am 'friends' with and co-students especially are competing with me in math and physics, the subjects I believe we should be helping each other with the most in. The marks we get from our final exams depend on how well our school does as a whole, so I still can't understand why people try to be so detrimental of others' study and motivation to study and lie about the study they do. There's one girl who's a math goddess and me and a friend asked for help with simple integration, her reply was 'you can't ask the teacher?', she then unwillingly wrote out the solution. I go to the dojo, where I'm surrounded with people who want to grow and help people grow, then I go to school where people are trying to stop people from growing, while they grow. I now find myself not socialising with people from school because I don't like to be surrounded by negative energy.

No, he's not talking about UFC style combat. Btw, he can strike too! He's more than proficient in other striking arts apart from BJJ. I think you missed the point if one person wants to clinch, it's gonna happen. Why don't you do what he said and offer a training partner 10$ if he can clinch you within 10 seconds of a fight. Watch the way a fight escalates, you see one guy talking trash to the other guy, they generally get pretty close and push and shove and unless they both train in some kind of striking art, more times than not, they're gonna go to the ground. I saw this happen many times on the weekend. I've only just realised how important the pre-clinch part of the fight is, this is what determines whether you fight or not.

I've been to two of John Will's seminars, anything from him is very high quality.

The shortest guy I grapple with is the best, his technique is awesome and he has total control over me - he throws me around like a rag doll despite the 40lbs + difference. He can literally roll me around as he wishes to do do. In comparison to grappling with a taller guy, I feel his weight on me more, but I don't feel him controlling me with technique, he controls me with his weight more - he can hold me in a position, but can't roll me around like the smaller guy. There's a huge gap between skill, so I don't know if I can make a generalisation off that. Passing a tall guy's guard really is a bitch though, especially when they use the butterfly guard and not the closed guard.

" 'I liken the common approach to martial arts training to looking at an elephant through a keyhole.' Our points of view would differ depending on which part of the animal we saw. Seeing the trunk, we would think the elephant to be like a snake; seeing the legs we may think it to be like a hippopotamus, and so forth. As martial artists, many of us are faced with this selfsame problem. On our journey toward becoming more complete and effective martial artists, we need to step back from that keyhole, open the door and go inside for a better look. The aim of this brief article is to introduce the reader to a more complete picture of the fight dynamic. Let me put it plainly. A fight can often be broken down into three parts; the beginning (the scary bit), the middle (the hopeful bit) and the end (the rolling around on the pavement bit). No seriously; to broaden our understanding of the fight dynamic, it is absolutely necessary that we undergo training and practice in each of these disciplines: Pre-fight Skills - Post-fight Skills and Post-clinch Skills. Skill in one of these areas, does by no stretch of the imagination mean that we have some kind of 'skill by default' in another. To be forearmed is to be forewarned -as they say! Pre-fight Skills: these are the set of skills that provide us with some sort of strategy before the fight begins; or at least, before actual blows are landed. In other words, those skills that allow us to handle the pressure as the situation is suddenly thrust upon us or as it is building up. It is while working on our 'pre-fight' skills that we will develop our 'fence'- as Geoff Thompson has coined it. We will also develop our 'initial shot' and our verbal skills whilst working our pre-fight strategy. Thinking about it is not enough, just as thinking about a right cross is not enough; we have to practice, and practice well if we are to become proficient and skillful at the pre-fight game. This is where we will also learn about adrenaline-dump; what it means to us and to our opponent. We should develop some management strategies and put them into practice. The pre-fight phase is where many, many fights are lost or won. Best Bets: Geoff Thompson's books and videos on - Fear - The Fence - The 3 Second Fighter - etc. Post-fight Skills: these are those sets of skills that by far, the majority of martial artists are constantly working on. That is, how to hit, kick, elbow, knee and head-butt along with how to not be hit, kicked, elbowed, kneed or head-butted. These are those skills that every martial artist, to varying degrees of effectiveness, practices and develops. Unfortunately, they often do so, to the exclusion of both 'pre-fight' and 'post-clinch' skills; leaving them susceptible to a rude and painful awakening when their first real fight comes along. In short - post-fight skills are those skills you will need to employ if the fight has kicked off, you are still standing, as is your opponent, and you want to hit him more times than he can hit you. Best Bets: Whatever you are doing can probably be made to work, if you train hard enough and actually hit things during your practice. If you are short on time though; boxing and kickboxing will provide you with the best return on your investment of time. Post Clinch Skills: these are those skills that you will need to have after you and your opponent have clinched or have hit the ground. Clinching and grappling, and this still seems to come as a bit of a surprise to the majority of martial artists, happens in many, many instances if the fight is of the no-rules variety. The problem that martial artists are confronted with is that they spend a lot of time sparring, and whilst sparring, no-one clinches, and they are understandably left with the impression that grappling just doesn't need to happen if they don't want it to. Well; that's because the other guy your sparring with, is probably playing the same game you are. Test it out; offer last weeks sparring partner ten bucks/dollars/pounds/reindeer or whatever you use to buy Geoff Thompson's books with, to see if he can clinch you just once during the first 10 seconds of your next match. So you'll lose your ten reindeer, and Geoff will miss out on another sale, but you will possibly have gleaned an important bit of info - yes, grappling is almost inevitable if your opponent wants it that way. So if you haven't knocked your opponent out in the first few seconds of the fight, you are probably grappling by now! Best Bets: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (no, I am not impartial) So there we are: Pre-fight ~ Post fight ~ Post Clinch … a little work on each of these areas will stand you in better stead, next time it happens 'for real'. If I had to prioritize - and I only had time to work two of the three areas; for reality-based self defence, I would choose Pre-fight and Post-clinch. " - John Will ( https://www.bjj.com.au )

::edit::