delta1

What styles or subjects are you interested in? Ed Parkers Infinite Isights serries (5 vols.) is good. They are out of print, but you can find them used. Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming has several good books out on Chinese martial arts. Some people don't like him, but I get a lot of good info out of his books. Very well written. Go to any large bookstore and browse, I'm sure you will find something interesting that you can use.

Explain. Some styles, like Taiji, allways try to stay rooted. They are very fast and use different power principles than you are used to. And they are very effective.

I wasn't saying you are a dummy- just making the point that martial arts are as much mental as they are physical. Bookmarks and pause buttons give you time to think, while libraries and catalogs give you access to a lot more to think about.

I have a full beard most Winters, since I'm outside a lot. It's a very practical thing to have in the cold. But... As you can immagine, it can be a real problem in the martial arts. Besides giving an opponent something to hang on to for leverage (and pain compliance, the rotters!), I often have the embarassing tendency of grabing the thing myself when doing things like clearing/escaping headlocks or chokes. Last year I shaved my head but kept my beard. I realy don't want to part with the beard 'till Spring. Any of you have a similar problem?

Don't try to learn the system from your book. Try to get an idea of their principles, concepts, mechanics, etc. Then find a WCer and share some ideas, get him to show you what they do, how they apply what you learned. Then bring it back to your base- similarities, differences, how does your style deal with their approach? There's more to learning another art or yours than rote moves. There's a movie about William Wallace (don't remember the title). One scene comes to mind here- young William is standing by his fathers grave and he longingly takes his uncles sword. His uncle takes the sword back and says "Learn to use this (taping William's head with his finger), then I'll teach you to use this".

Welcome, and hope you get many more years enjoyment out of your art and this board.

Glad to have you here!

We got all types here, so we'll probably get used to you. Heck, most of them adjusted to me without too much trouble.

Welcome. And good luck getting into the arts.

Underdog- my favorite cartoon when I was a kid! Probably before your time, though. Any how, welcome!

Allways good to have another Brit on board.

They put them out because they make money. They make money because they are useful to some people. Both are a great reference source. Also, for those like me who have to travel for private instruction, studying before I go to class makes the best use of my limmited and very valuable class time. I agree that you need the hands on instruction to learn an art, but who said the instructor was responsible for all the work- teaching or learning? Another way they are useful is to give you a different perspective on what you already 'know'. Sometimes thi clarifies things, othrs it may give you a whole new level of understanding. I'll watch videos on other styles, or read books about them, just to see how the other guy does it. I'll allways train or work out with other stylists also, and if I've been exposed to their concepts and principles before it makes the training experience for both of us a lot better. My advice is to expand your library. But, if you decide to get rid of all your books and videos please PM me. I'll pay shipping... .

I love beer. But, everything in moderation. Use common sense- if it effects your training or health, slow down or stop. I stoped for several years once because it was getting to the point it was causing me problems. Now, I'll just have a couple of beers now and again. I really only get drunk once or twice a year. It's good to let your hair down once in a while, and total abstenance can be unhealthy in its own way. But for some, even one is the kiss of death. Use your head before you fog it up and you'll be ok. The best definition of alcoholism I ever heard was on a movie (back before videos). A Catholic priest who counciled alcoholics said something to the effect 'If your drinking is causing you problems and you can't or don't stop, you are an alcoholic.' Use that definition, and the implied philosophy that if it causes you problems in any aspect of your life you stop, and neither your training, health, or social life will suffer. My opinion, based on a few years experience on both ends of the bend.

Guyanson_Mendiola, No, it's the other way around from what I'm seeing both in the books and on the mats. But I'm asking you guys here because I'm new to practicing TKD, and I'm in a very non traditional school. Their fighting stance resembles more a Hapkido stance, or AK's neutral bow. What do you see in your school or experience?

Can I vote "All the above, and more"?

Can you describe what you mean by "countre-leg grabbing"? A full force, properly thrown roundhouse to your midsection from anyone can be traped. Step back away from the kick with your trailing leg and you can take the kick on either a universal block that rolls to a trap, or simply let it come into the gut and make a 'basket' with your arms. Or you can circle the rear arm up to bind the leg between your forearm and bicep. What makes this work is the mechanical properties of the kick. It has max power at about 80% of its arc. After that, it starts loosing power rapidly. Step away and you deminish the effects of the kick greatly. In fact, step far enough and you don't even need to block as it won't even make contact. 'Course, it's hard to trap then too. Now, I'm sure someone out there is about to tell me this won't work. I've stood with my arms behind my back and let TKDers (known kickers) unload full force on me. It worked for me, and now it also works for them.

Sho-ju, you are correct that your blocks are one way to both protect your center line and control your opponents. Even upward or outward blocks clear your center as they deliver and return. A block can also close his center by driving his arm across his body, or open it by moving the arm out. One way WC differs from karate is that your blocks sometimes violate their idea of centerline. Immagine a pane of glass set on end, one edge running from your nose to your navel. Put up your guard and notice that neither hand can cross through thi glass. If you do violate this immaginary plane (inward blocks are a prime offender), you've crossed your own center line. A good WCer will immediately take advantage of this any number of ways to cross you up, tieing up both your weapons while attacking with constant forward pressure. Stances, stance changes, footwork and position also address centerline control. For example, a simple sidestep can put you in a position where all your weapons face your opponent while momentarily placing him so that his weapons on one side are not in play. His center line is facing away in this example. Here again is a big difference in WC and karate. Their stances are designed to keep all four weapons (limbs) toward you and in play. Most karate stances take more of an angle to the opponent, effectively leaving one side and its weapons to the rear. You need a stance change to bring those weapons into play. Different styles have other ways of addressing center line control. AK's dimensional zone theories and control are a natural extension to WC center line theory. FMA's tend to leave their center more open and depend on footwork to control the central line between the two fighters. (Expl: there are three centerlines in a fight- yours, your opponents, and a central line running between your and your opponents center line. Control the central line and you control the fight.) Styles like Taiji yield their center line while allowing, and usually helping, you to over commit yours. It's a good thing to know how your style addresses this concept, as well as how your opponent does it.

Depends on how he grabed it. For a standard grab, fingers and thumb wraped around your ankle, work against the thumb. More likely though, you'll be traped. Try turning the foot and adjusting your stance so you are in the position you'd be in if throwing a side kick. Then withdraw your foot just like rechambering a proper side kick. If done very fast this works. But if your foot drops at all, he'll have you (a proper side kick delivers just like kicking through a tube, and withdraws through the same tube- the foot doesn't drop at all). If it doesn't work (nothing is foolproof), you are in a better position to go to the ground without hurting yourself. I'm a trapper, and I've shown this to several people. It makes them a lot tougher to get ahold of. It works.

I got a couple of books by Jhoon Rhee. His examples of hyungs, one steps and self defenses use a lot of front stances. But in the section on freestyling I noticed that everything starts and ends in a back stance. He transitions through several stances, but never once uses a front stance. He does use a stance change with strikes that transitions through a close kneel or lunge stance, which looks to use some of the principles of the front stance. So apparently the front stance is mostly a training stance to teach principles, correct?

Monk, you nimnle, those aren't coasters- they're patches! On second thought, maybe you're right. Any way, I'm holding out for the Great Senior Grand Master of Styles package.

JKD was Bruce Lee's philosophy, not just his style. From all I've read, he advocated learning a system and tailoring it to yourself. You can't trim away what doesn't work until you've learned it well enough to know what doesn't work. You can't graft from other styles until you have a base to graft onto. And learning what works for someone else will probably never work that well for you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't learn from more than one style at an early stage in your training. But you need a good base art to bring everything back to. And you won't be nearly as successful bringing the principles of different styles together early on as you will later when you have a good understanding of those principles. As to your question, I'd say that if you find a very good JKD school with a varried enough but cohesive carriculum, and instructor(s) who really know and understand the principles of what they are teaching, then that should be as good as any other MMA. But the concerns you raised in your post are extremely valid, and all good things to keep in mind when judging a prospective school. And if it is an option, consider staying with your WC school, at least for a while, while you try out JKD. Oh, and as with all advice, consider the source. I'm probably the worlds worst fence jumper when it comes to getting extra training! But it allways comes back to Kenpo (even my current TKD class).

NEXT QUESTION Good points, guys. But now for the real question: When, if ever, do you have the right or responsibility to take a life? Ed Parker said "You don't have the power to give life, therefore it is not yours to take." While I agree in principle, there are times when I think you may be morally obligated to take a life- though never lightly or if there are viable alternatives. What do you think?

I'm not sure what you mean by "a centered martial art". There are several WC styles/lineages, and I'll leave it to the WCers to give you the specific differences. But all the WC that I've come in contact with does major on centerline control. They find and dominate your centerline, while effectively hiding and protecting theirs. If you can work with a WCer you might find that some understang of their centerline theory will help your Taiji, or any other arts as well.

I can empathise on both counts.I'm just coming back off of down time (medical reasons), and it really sucks! I find that making a nuiscance of myself here helps with that, though. Congrats on the new baby! I just became a grandad at 4:25 yesterday afternoon. My wife is already planning more downtime to go visit. But, like tommarker said, real life comes first. Any how, the timeing is right. These meds they have me on now make me dizzy. So, to celebrate my return (no doubt), we did line drills with a lot of fancy spinning kicks last Thur in class. I allways knew TKDers were evil, but this... ! So maybe a trip to let my head settle down will be good. It'll also give them time to nail the floor down so the class room doesn't tilt and rotate so much.

I'll just ditto my response to aes: You guys must be thinking along the same lines. Good post!