delta1

Treebranch, if you were replying to me, you missed my point entirely. I think we are pretty much in agreement here. If you weren't replying to me, sorry. But we are still pretty much in agreement. Like anything else, the athlete would stand a much better chance of surviving a knife attack if he trains for it. But even if he doesn't train specifically for that, most of his skills from the ring would transfer IF he is able to make the necessary adjustments impromptu and under stress. The possibility of a knife is one of the reasons an mma type or grappler would not do something like tie up or start rolling around with the opponent as a primary strategy.

Angelica, welcome. And good luck with your tournament!

In civil court, they will apportion guilt and that determines each parties liability for the dammages. Rob got 1 G, the bully got the other.

I think a certain ammount of ego is necessary to be a good martial artist. The problem is that people don't learn how to control their egos, or else they are too self centered to try.

You made two big mistakes, both of which placed you in the role of agressor. First, you not only verbally accepted the challenge, you called him on and raised the level of conflict with your statement. Walking away was a good thing (though it's not allways necessary to do that to stay within the law). Then, if he attacks, you can legally defend yourself, and if he gets hurt as a result then you are still ok with the law- unless... This brings us to your second mistake- you went too far. You are only allowed to defend yourself with enough force to stop the agression and insure your safety. A bully trying to intimidate you, then delivering such a sloppy attack that you easily defeat him, generally doesn't warrant the level of response you took. Even if he started it, once he quits or is incapacitated you can no longer strike. If you do, you become the agressor. If you really want to know about how the law effects you in a fight, I recomend you get "The Law and Martial Arts", a small book by a Judoka who is also a trial lawyer. I believe his name is Carl Brown. He gives a really good view of the legal principles you'll have to deal with.

I'm a believer in cross training. But you just can't compare what two trained athletes in the ring with rules do to a street encounter. A well rounded and conditioned athlete would fare better in a street encounter than most, but I'd bet he'd adjust his tactics to the different environment and circumstances. He'd use more devastating options, and the goal would not be to get a subission. And in a seriouse fight, I doubt if he'd take it to the ground as a first option. There are a lot of effective styles, a few effective fighters, but there's no one most effective anything. Just my opinion.

This is actually the main reason I was asking about stances. The back stance, for example, often telegraphs a kick. But I've fought a few TKD guys who know how to use that stance to set up options, like foot maneuvers, feinghts, checks and throws. You can do all that from the modified fighting stance, useing the same principles and concepts found in that back stance (which is what I'm comfortable with since I fight from a neutal bow). I see fewer practical uses of the front stance, outside of training basics and principles that will transfer to the fighting stance. But in situations where it will work, it can be awesome. Like if you get inside your opponents guard and check his weapons, step in between his legs into a front stance. Get close and occupy his space. Your lead leg will slightly buckle his knee outward (I'm thinking of his trailing leg here), destroying his ballance. Now, pivot your stance 90' as you simultaneously thrust a heel palm strike to his jaw. This works even better if you get outside and step behind him, then pivot the stance with a heel palm to his jaw. Sweep! Being new as a student of TKD, I sort of wanted a few opinions from others with more experience and who might have been trained differently. How do you guys make traditional stances work for you? Or do you just abandon traditional stances and use a modified fighting stance? Thanks to those who've replied!

Depends on the arts and how well they are integrated, and the instructor and how well he understands what he's teaching. There are a lot of schools out there which just throw a few styles together, with no understanding of the principles or concepts that make the styles work, and so have trouble making them work together. On the other hand, I've seen some very effective hybrid styles that bring multiple arts together and make them function together smoothly and effectively. The people who put this kind of program together have a solid grounding in principles and put a lot of work into their style. Your post sounds like your school might be the first example, but since you are new to martial arts that might not be the case. Give it some time, see how it goes. Then, if things don't start to fall into place or the styles don't work together for you- and if your instructor can't help you to see the connection- find another school. Good luck!

My religion is being a (!), but I'll answer you any how. Qi is not a religious exercise. God put it there, and some people choose to develope and use it. Of course, you can worship anything you want, even your qi. That would make it a religion, and provide the rest of us with a lot of laughs at the same time. Can you see yourself, in a suit, going door to door, spreading the word that "Your QI is the path to salvation!"? No? I wouldn't worry about it too much, then.

Jussi, I agree with you. Just wanted to take your advice and expand on it a little. Sometimes people get the notion that having a weapon makes them invincable, or that it solves all their problems. I've run across this attitude a lot with firearms, but those that think this are the ones most likely to cause themselves a lot more problems with any weapon. You, and maybe even most of the posters here understand this. But I'm allways surprised at some senior martial artist telling me that any punk with a gun makes their ma practice useless, or that you should forget your ma skills and just get a gun if you really need to defend yourself. (Note: those are almost verbatum quotes from a couple of very high ranking ma's on different occasions.) Nothing could be more wrong. Any how, I just thought I'd throw it out there, even if it is stating the obviouse to some of you.

Good advice, as far as it goes. But I'd consider carrying and possibly using any weapon to be a martial art itself. If you ar going to carry it, you should become proficient in using it. Otherwise odds are good it may be taken and used against you. Also, carrying a firearm carries more responsability because of its potential to harm others if you do have to use it. In my opinion (and I've been a gun nutt all my life), proper use of a firearm requires every bit as much skill as any martial art, and more knowlege than most. Another thing to consider about carrying weapons is the legal implications. Carry laws varry from place to place. But, aside from that, if you are armed there is no longer any such thing as a minor incident. Because of the potential for him to take your weapon, you have to treat any fight as extremely seriouse. You have to protect that weapon at all costs. He, on the other hand, has no such consideration if he chose not to carry. If you pull the weapon and can't show a credible reason to believe you were threatened with seriouse injury or death, you become the agressor. If you don't deploy the weapon and he closes with you or stuns you, he has access to your weapon. Point here is that weapons, while a good tool if necessary, and if you know how to use them, can also set you up in a real delima. I'd definately try this. You may be able to start a group of more seriouse students who do tain more realistically, under his instruction. If not, a change of schools or even styles may be a good option. You might also consider starting an independent group of interested artists from different schools in your area who want to train a little harder than the average.

Concentrate on the muscles of the lower back, just behind the lower tan tien. The hula moves you describe comes mostly from concentrating on, and exagerating, hip movement. When you move from the waist, the upper and lower body is in ballance, and you can make all your movements both more relaxed and sharper at the same time. That question shows a lot of insight. Hopefully this will help.

I just read one article: I have to disagree here. The author started out on a good line of thought, but here draws the wrong conclusion by taking that thought to an extreme. You can learn a craft or skill, but to raise it to the level of an art necessarily implies creativity. The true craftsman is one who knows his basics well enough that he can be creative as well as effective. The main thread of this article is whether kata is the art part of the martial arts. It isn't the kata that is the art, it is your interpretation(s) of kata, which takes a fair ammount of understanding and creativity. In actual use of your art, say in sparing or in a fight, you'd better be creative! Odds are that no kata, one step, technique, or drill has ever went exactly like what you'll face when you square off with a live opponent. If you can't be spontaneously creative, you're beat. You may have learned all your basics to perfection. You might be able to do all your kata without missing a beat. But if you can't creatively put that knowlege to use, whether in a fight or in competition, you are not an artist in the sense of being a craftsman in the martial arts.

TKD and Tracey's Kenpo- now that's an interesting combination. While Tracey's Kenpo is a Parker based style, they do things a little differently than American Kenpo. For one thing, they have a tendency to rush through their techniques (they say they are 'more dynamic'). But they do have a respectable system, and can be very effective. My question would be how they combined the two arts: first how they unified the principles and concepts and how much of each they teach. But a more sticky point is how they were able to do that with the Tracey's blessing (if in fact they were able to get that). The Tracey bros. were pretty exclusive, from what I've heard and read on their website, and didn't take kindly to mixing arts with theirs. Tracey people tend to think they havethe one true way sometimes. On the other hand, Kenpo and TKD are easily unified and, I think, make an excellent combination. So I'd say look into it and see. Just don't sign any contracts until you are sure. Personlly, I wouldn't sign a contract any how, but especially not until I'd been with a school for at least a year. By then you should know. Some things to check: Are they teaching concepts and principles, not just moves? Do they spar regularly, and sometimes with contact? Can the students explain what they are doing in the ideal (learning) phase of a technique as well as the what if phase, where things can go wrong? Can they do their techniques under an attack with street force and variables? Can the students explain the principles used in the TKD one steps, and tell you what types of actual attacks those moves would work against, and why? Can they turn a one step into a useable, street effective move, and use it that way? Can they interpret a form/hyung as more than a serries of moves, or the old cliche' of a 'mock fight'? Good luck, and I hope this works out for you as it sounds interesting.

On "the street", I'm willing to bet number one is a simple trip as the guy is backing up.

Excellent point! The elbow is one of your most effectiveweapons, and extremely versatile. It is awesome to add flow to a combination, eliminating wasted movement and cutting your follow up strike time to less than half. Your jab-inward elbow is a good example. Also effective is a jab-upward elbow, and the path as well as the final position of that strike doubles as a clearing block. Elbow strikes are also good to convert and salvage a missed or blocked strike. Instead of rechambering from a failed strike, you can often simply colapse the elbow as you continue forward pressure and get an effective strike out of an apparent failure. Elbows are also a good lead weapon for in close strikes, and set up strikes like a returning elbow or backfist, again using the return motion instead of wasting it on a rechamber. Sometimes, if I feel ornery, I'll drop an elbow strike off something like a wall block- say against a roundhouse kick. Gives your opponent a charlie-horse, and something to think about before he tries to kick you again. Good topic! Let's hear how the rest of you use elbows.

I have to wholeheartedly agree. Not only that, it would be counterproductive, since some applications only become clear as you study further and advance your knowlege, which implies studying other katas as well. Are you sure he didn't concentrate mostly on that one kata but continue studying others as well?

That's ok, your words generally make good sense! Enjoyed the description of your style.

Welcome, Kai. I'm just starting a Freestyle YKD class myself, but my base is American Kenpo. Useing theprinciples I learned in Kenpo, I'm finding a lot of good stuff in TKD for solid fighting techniques. If you're looking for a second style to put with TKD, I'd suggest you try these guys: http://www.karateconnection.com/ You could studythat at the same time as you take TKD from another school, and you'll find the two will combine very well. More importantly, the principles you'll learn there will directly apply to TKD, allowing you to better interpret the hyungs and one steps as practical fighting applications. Looking forward to talking with you here.

Welcome aboard! What style of Kenpo?

I'll go you one better than that! I've made comments on one thread and had my own opinion thrown back to me as sage advice on another thread the next day! The worst thing is that in the new context, it showed a complete lack of understanding of what I was originally trying to say. Makes you want to !

I think the point was that, since he alluded to some internal politics, he didn't want to state the name of the school or people and dishonor them. It wasn't important to his question, so he just called it Bushido, indicating a Japanese style, and left it at that.

I think that finding another good school and doing your best there would also honor your sensei and headmaster, possibly more than going in their style on your own. Also, there never seems to be a school as good as the one you had to leave (regardless of the style). But there are some good ones out there. My advice is to find one and do your best there. And when they ask you where you learned to move like that, or how you learned to hit with such power, honor your teachers by saying "I studied Bushido under... !"

I'm in the same boat, but I didn't want to sound like a (?), so I didn't say anything! But now that you've said it, just what are/is 24fightingchickens? And, since the topic here is cliches', if you've never had to fight a chicken, don't go making stupid comments about them. They are BAD!

http://www.ltatum.com/TipOfTheWeek.html Also, do a search fo Dog Brothers Martial Arts for FMA techniques. Rule 1: Nothing is free. Rule 2: If it is free, it's probably worth the price. But no matter what style you choose, I don't think you'll get very far, or learn anything very well, if you don't get good personal instruction. There are several video courses out there- look in any issue of Black Belt Mag and get out your credit card. But even with those, you'll need a training partner and you'll need to spend time, regularly, just like in a regular class. Sparing, in a reality based style, is an important tool in developing fighting skills. But there are rules, otherwise you'd loose training partners pretty fast. Mixing styles at a begginers level, especially without a good instructor to guide you, is not a good idea. You don't have a good enough grasp of principles to make that work. Weapons are just an extension of basic empty hands fighting, so without a good grounding in basics you won't be able to make the staff work for you, and in a different style it would confuse you. If you can't go to a regular class, I'd recomend an abreviated video course in some reality based art, like: Combat Hapkido, IKCA Kenpo, SCARS, Krav Maga. But plan on later getting to a good school. If you just don't want to go to a regular class, then forget the martial arts and start running with a bad crowd. You'll learn to fight- and none of that sissy sparing with rules and all !