craknek

Our school is small, and we only have 3 blackbelts. Even then, its worthwhile to stay, because once you get your brown belt, he BEGINS teaching you alot more elements of ground grappling and takedowns, not to mention, once you get BB, he also starts teaching you Combat Hapkido, and some Ninjitsu. I know I will be staying for a while. Our Master is just..awesome. I just told him that I can not attend any classes for like a month and a half, due to work, and he is going to call me back to see if we can organize something with just me and him on the weekend, practicing, so I dont fall behind. Nick

AGAIN...AGAIN.. we have another KICKboxer here who thinks they can punch as good as a boxer. That is like saying this.. a BOXER can kick as good as a KICKboxer. ARGH

Yea, why would Kurt Angle wanan fight in UFC when he can make at least a million if not more a year in WWE... and be a international superstar?? Brock lesnar, same story. He is a NCAA Wrestling Champion, and he is so strong. ON a side note, Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar did fight before, behind the scenes, to show the WWE wrestlers what REAL wrestling is..... Kurt Angle won out of the match =). Nick D.

I think the Martial Arts will stay where its at, or go down, here in the United States at least. I mainly think like this because for the most part we have alot of Lazy people here. I know of a lot of kids who go to classes, and we might only see them once a week, or they may just drop out. Its pitiful. I go to other schools and observe there workouts, to see if I can get any ideas (always trying to better myself) and when I watch the kids do there warmups and exercise, they just lay there on the mat, and these are supposed to be brown and black belts They would rather be at home watching cartoons or something, which i cant blame them. Most adults that I know, can not always find the time needed to give to Martial Arts. I know I get very very fustrated when I can not find time to do what I need to do, because I have to work late, or my wife needs me to do something.... I can not dedicate the 2-3 hours I would like to it each night or day. Besides that, I think alot of the people I have met along the way, only want to get black belt to boast about it, so they can think there a regular Johnny Be Badas.s, and they dont take the art seriously, which means they dont attend regular training sessions,they dont help out new people etc etc. Hopefully, I am wrong and MA will take off to new heights... or maybe we will see a new movements in MA, where you see more and more people who train themselves in a Vale Tudo or JKD kinda concept for real world use and MMA tourneys. The other thing is, I think alot of people dont understand the MA, and when they see people doing Katas or Poosmes or whatever, they think "I dont wanna do that stuff", looking at it as to much work, to complicated, or something they dont see themselves doing. I think thats why alot of people have decided to go to a more real world approach of combat and self defense, which is why BJJ, Boxing, Vale Tudo, even some forms of street fighting have become very popular. If the MA's do stay alive, I believe it will be because of the more in your face arts. Nick

Anyone have website or a listing of different MMA events that happen in Florida? Nick

Besides the speed bag, what else can you do to help your speed for boxing? Nick D.

WOW LEE!!!! So... your saying, that in JKD, anyone can learn JKD?? So, lets say you studied boxing, and lets say a lil bit of TKD, Kickboxing, and Wing Chun and its JKD? Nick

Anyone ever read or practice 'Street fighting'? Ned Beaumont has written several books on the sibject... that mostly uses Boxing and an assortment of unorthodox moves etc etc? Would be intresting to hear more about it? Nick

That is sooo funny Dober. One match.. Severn and Gracie, and now all the JJaholics out there think JJ is better then Greco Roman.... I would have liked to seen that match when Severn was in his prime.. I would really like to see what Gracie would do against a olympic champion like Kurt Angle. In all seriousness, Angle moves like lightning on the mat when he is doing REAL wrestling, and not the fake stuff. Nick

I know some people are gonna laugh.. but Combat Hapkido. Combat Hapkido has all sorts of throws and takedowns, as well as close quarter strikes. Grandmaster Pelligrini also removed most of the useless high kicks and instead incorporated a complete ground grappling system. Many say, for real world use, it is one of the best arts to learn. Its also full of counters which is a good thing. Nick D.

Yea, shoot for a double leg, pray he dont side step and drill you with a right haymaker, left jab, right straight, left hook ohh.. and for good measure, kick you in the ribs. Street style lol. Nick

Is it me, or since Pride FC and UFC, have people really hyped up JJ and BJJ?? I mean, everyone who does JJ swears they can take this person down, take that person down, they swear that there is no defense for a double leg takedown, blah blah blah.... JJ is a good art, no doubt, but they need to pay respect to the other arts. JJ guys make it sound like its gonna be a peice of cake to take someone down.. they do karate?? No problem, ill just do this and put them in a submisson? They do taekwondo? No problem, ill catch there leg and take them down, etc etc. Man, it gets annoying sometimes. I would have to say, shooting in on someone to take them down is a dangerous gamble. Against teh avg Joe, you would probably do it, no problem.. AGainst another martial art,lets face it, maybe not every art teaches Ground Grappling, but they do teach Escapes, counters, and power strikes from within close range. Not to be a retard, but it could go either way. The real bottom line is this... if your art or instructor go over comprehensive blocking techniques... then yea, JJ is gonna have one hell of a time taking that person down. Blocking is more then just swinging your arms around... Blocking could be your style of stance... your movements, your awareness... its all defense. Just be altering your stance alone (like a wider stance), you could generate more center of gravity, making it that much tougher to take someone down from a standing position. By being quick, you could deflect there hands away when they try to grab you... the list could go on and on... Nick D.

No....No. MT and Kickboxers who handstrike as good as Boxers??? Your kidding, right? To say that Kickboxers and Muay Thai, if they were on the same skill level of boxers, would be just as good at western boxing as them... is a joke. Yes, they would be better all around body wise. MT and Kickboxing have to devote time to develop there kicks.. where as boxing spends it all on punching. Boxing... would probably be about twice as good at hand strikes.. as MT and Kickboxing, where as Boxing have no legs skills. I have seen some pretty embarrassing Kickboxing and MT matches where they try to BOX.. and it looks like crap. Kicking... well, there kicking looks great. Boxer vs Kickboxer, I would go with Boxer. Yes, I understand the theory behind kicking in the legs.. but I still think a Boxer would take him.. just to much power and pain behind his punches.... Boxer vs MT- I would have to go with MT, only because MT have those devestating shin kicks.. and knee kicks... if you take that away, then I would say Boxer. Nick D.

Why?? Why are the best fighters in the world? I wanat someone to tell me if what my friend is saying is true, etc etc. Are the best because they take the basics of different martial arts and master them? Are they the best becausethety dont limit themselves to one art, instead they round themselves out?? Nick

Hey, one of my friends who takes Vale Tudo locally, was telling me some intresting stuff about it.... He said, that Vale Tudo is of course a mixed martial art, which means no holds barred. He said tradiationally, Vale consists of JJ, Boxing, etc. He said that it can be a combo of any styles of your choosing. he said that his instructor was telling him that Vale Tudo falls under the JKD concept, in which you find a martial art that suits your needs, instead of suiting the needs of a Martial Art. With that said, he was telling me that he is learning the basics of TKD,JJ,Karate, Muay Thai. He said learning the basics is all you really need to be effective, the more complicated sometyhing is, the less likly you can do it in a real situation. Makes sense, when i watch UFC, I mostly watch the grapplers win by using an Arm Bar or a Triangle Choke, nothing to hard there. So, in all reality, if you adopt the Vale Tudo mentality, you can learn the basics of several martial arts and just refine those skills??? Kinda like someone in thsi forum, there quote says something like, fear the man that has practiced a few kicks a 1000 times, instead of someone who has practiced a 1000 kicks a few t imes. And, since you would be learning basic moves and attacks, you could probably... teach yourself to an extent. At my TKD class, without any prior TKD exp, I am one of the hardest kickers in there, and i just started 2 weeks ago? Why? Because I constantly kicked and punched a heavy bag. People put down Vale Tudo, saying its for people who cant stick with something, i disagree... Vale Tudo is a pretty well rounded art. Whoever said that sticking with ONE martial art.. is the best way to go? Even the phenom Bruce Lee, when he did JKD, kept only the things that benefited him, and did away with everything that didnt. Bruce Lee knew over 26 diffferent styles of MA, does that mean he was a master in each?? No. His main was Wing Chun, but he read about and dabbleed lightly in other forms and taught himself.

Where can I find the different forms needed for belt advancement in TKD? I would like to start studing them now, so I can be prepared for the future. Thanks in advance. Nick D.

The snake style is Called 'SheQuan' or " She Quan' Not sure if there are other snake styles for Kung Fu, but you can find some very limited information the internet about She Quan

I heard mention of Black belts and Dans etc etc..... Kung Fu doesnt have Black belts, they have a ranking system though... but not a belt ranking system... there system goes based off of Levels... so, curious as to why someone would say that they have a 4th level 'Black Belt' for an instructor?

There is a guy here in town who teaches Wing Chun. When I asked him if he teaches Kung Fu, he replied no, I do not teach Kung fu, I teach Wing Chun fighting style. Im curious, what is the difference? Nick D.

Someone who is an avid fan of Bruce Lee, once told me that JKD itself is not a style, but rather a concept. That he created JKD to fit his needs as a Martial Artist... and not him fitting the needs of a Martial Art, which if true, I agree with 100%. Could someone offer me some angles on this concept.

Greco Roman does have submissons. It has numerous ones, My friend use to put me in them all the time. Some of the ones I remember, that he used on me were the Octopus hold, the bow and arrow, and somekind of triangle hold (not the one that gracie did). In greco roman and freestyle you can win by pinning your opps shoulders to the mat for 1 second, or by making them tap. What do you think they are doing on the mat?? Sure they are jocking for power, but they are putting submissons on and teh other guy counters the submisson or wiggles out of it (greco roman teaches you to escape holds and what have you). As for severn and gracie, Severn probably underestimated gracie due to his large size and, Severn, even though in his younger years was a accomplished wrestler, turned more brutish like as he aged. Nick D.

A muay Thai fighter can be alot of people in seconds, including Karate, Kung Fu, JJ, etc etc. the list is endless. MT is by far the most devestating MA i have ever seen. So, yea, you are right, a MT would probably beat a boxer pretty quickly,

You know, people are always talking about JJ and BJJ and Judo... but there is one form of combat that is grappling based that no one talks about.. and it is very very effective. Greco-Roman wrestling. Im not sure why no one pays respect to Greco Roman, I personally think its very awesome. The whole center of gravity they have, explosive moves.. and takedowns... is pretty dam good! tell me what you guys think about Greco Roman. Nick D.

Wow.. thats it? Just hit his knees? LOL, once again, you have to get into striking distance to do that. Now, if you want, you can think that your bruce lee or something and you would hit his knee and bounce out before this guy could hit you... or you can imagine that your leg is so leg and you can stand back 5 ft and kick his knee... but it would not always happen like that BKJ... maybe you would get lucky, maybe you wouldnt. Nick

Nobody take this the wrong way. I am under the assumption that most people have never fought a trained boxer. I am also under the assumption that no one has had to withstand a combo from a boxer.. of lets say light heavyweight and heavier. People talk about kicking someone in the knee, like its so easy. yes, your leg is longer then your arm.. but i do not know many people who really squat down and kick with there leg, to give them that distance advantage. In a standing position, a kick to the kneem, would be at a angle, it almost looks like a 45 degree angle.. which means that the distance needed to hit the knee, would be about the distance needed to punch someone in the face. So, fine, you kick the guy in his knee, but guess what, he crushes you in the face.. in fact, he probably got 2-3 punches off for your 1 kick to the knee.... so fine, he drops to the ground.. and so do you....only you run the risk of 2 other problems.. 1. you could be KO'd, and 2. If not KO'd, you could be wossy.. or have blood running into your eyes (which burns and hampers vision. Once again, it depends on the fighter.. so please please do not try to sum it all up with some comment like, I would just kick him in the knee, like its that easy, as if you wouldnt suffer any dmg. Nick D.