Punchdrunk

Karate Mom, there are no easy answers. It is a constant rebalancing in my home. Consequently i train intensely when my wife is willing but usually temper it with periods of pulling back. In addition to asking for understanding from your hubby you might want to talk to your teacher about ways to continue your martial progress while incorporating down periods for marital health. It is always hard to have a passionate pursuit outside the home when your spouse doesn't.

I am tired of the "it is not a real fight" argument against competition. Of course it's a real fight. There's a person opposite you and they are trying to hurt you. Every "real" fight is different. In a bar you might not be able to kick at all. You might be on a slick street, so you slip and immediately grapple. You might break your hands and only be able to kick. You will have limitations of some sort no matter where you fight. Competition just sets the parameters of those limitations at the outset. Unless you are planning on getting arrested for assault competition is the best way to see how your skills hold up during stress. You find out what you need to work on. Most importantly-win or lose- the kind of intense training you do for competition will make you a better MA.

Jab. It starts everything off. It shuts everything down.

360 major kudos! You aren't a nail. You are an anvil! Hammers may beat on you but you will out last them all.

Just like I said Kensai, cool responses.

Tenacity. Whether you are technically outclassed, winded, offbalance, in a bad positon or just taking an old fashioned whipping, the quality of not stopping no matter what. All time favorite example is Jack Dempsey climbing back into the ring after Luis Firpo knocked him through the ropes. Dempsey KO'd Firpo in the very next round. Marciano, Frazier, Holyfield are all great examples of this.

I like pride a lot. They just seems to make the best matchups. BUT myNHB favorite is KING OF THE CAGE. They have a home base and create a good mix of house fighters, big name stars - like Shonie Carter and now Dan Severn, and youg up and comers, grudge fights and titile bouts. I like the independent feel it keeps while it is moving to an A class promotion. It also seems to have a strong draw to nonMMA fans. Near Chicago the Iron heart crown is putting on better fights all the time their October 26 card will be outstanding. Of course in my totally biased opinion - SHIDOKAN the triathalon of martial arts - is the best.

Thanks DD athose are exactly the kind of stories I come on to these forums to learn about and enjoy. I think Bruce might have been a sought after trainer for MMA fighters. He had already started improving his grappling with Gene LaBelle before he died. The NHB and Vale Tudo boom would have given him an opportunity to test his theories on a big stage. He would have been to old to fight himself so he would need students to fight for him.

Right again, Leaf.

I believe there is some weapons work but only for black belts and it isn't mentioned much to us lower ranks except in how weapons relate to kata and kihon. Principle rather than use. Didn't Kano and Osensei both develope their styles as off shoots from jujutsu? Did they have the same teacher? As innovators from similar backgrounds and times they would either have great admiration or dilike for each other. Do you know anything about their relationship?

Knew you did something before Aikido. Just a little too balanced yet pugnacious not to. We study classical kihon but most of the classes are a little more fight technique oriented. We parry and slip punches. We work a lot on shin and knee blocks for kicks. Execute those properly and the kicker will truly wish they hadn't. We work on counters combinations. As to high kicking - sure we work on kicks to the head but usually only after we have set them up with leg and body shots. Low, low, high or low left / high right. The majority of damage is done by taking out the legs. We also work off the one handed grab and striking or sweeping from the blind spot. The name Shidokan means "those who live and train together in the way of the samurai".

Shidokan Karate It was founded by Kancho Soeno(a student of Mas Oyama) about 25-30 years ago. It is a constantly evolving mix of techniques but it is founded on Bareknuckle Karate, Thai Kickboxing, and Grappling. I also study BJJ with a Carlson Gracie sr. student every week. I got into this only a little over a year ago. I had my first PKA style(no leg kicks or knees) kickboxing match last month. In training we spar a lot in the bareknuckle style (no punches to the face, leg kicks, knees and kicks to the head allowed), kickboxing, boxing, grappling gi and no gi, we work judo style throws and wrestling takedowns, and yes we do kata as well because it is anything but useless. As a kid I boxed from age 10 - 22 and wrestled for a couple of years in high school. More than you wanted to know I'm sure.

Money and Time. Money. Boxing has powerful sponsors and many more of them than any MMA organization. Money gets air time. Time. As late as the 1920's boxing was still illegal in many states. With time, came understanding. As companies saw how many fans boxing had and fans grew up to become legislators and people of influence, a large part of society accepted boxing from the top down as well as from the bottom up. The good news is that bareknuckle boxing through the late 1890's looked a lot like MMA of today. Stand up grappling and throws were as common as punches. From 1780's thru the mid 1850's some matches even had three parts 1)boxing 2) wrestling 3) cudgel or cane fighting. Truly mixed martial arts! It looks as if now we are just completing the circle and MMA may become a mainstream sport yet!

Anyone who thinks their one style is the only way has been living under a rock or does get out of their home dojo much. It sounds like both of our pet peeves stem from lack of respect. Whether it is a lack of respect for another style or the lack of respect of a senior student for the education, developement, and safety of a student who is either junior or at a physical disadvantge to them. Braggarts and Bullies. They are a huge reason many of us first got into the martial arts. Every school has them for varying lengths of time. In Aikido's favor, there seem to be fewer from this style than most. As I said the negative of Aikidoka's I've run into seems to be a lot of untested true believers. Clearly, I am not directing this at you Kensai. As to older practitioners. There was one 70 + year old Aikidoka originally from Japan but teaching in Milwaukee. I wish I could remeber his name. I saw him give a demonstration. He seemed to be made out of bamboo. When he threw the uke sailed light but landed very hard. Hmmm, maybe I'm just not old enough for aikido yet.lol.

OK, Kensai, we have discussed this before but it is fun to talk about and you always have cool answers, so what the heck? The aikidoka I have personally run into fall into two camps: 1. Intellectuals who could not punch their way out of a paper bag and seem to be stimulated by the idea of being in a martial art that won't violate any of their lofty notions about pacifism, world peace, etc. They are rarely people who have ever been in a physical confrontation and do not live their lives in a way that would ever cause them to be. Some of these folks stay with aikido for a while because there is so much interesting theory, and the stories of O Sensei are charming, and they get to experience just enough physical discomfort to feel that they really are involved in a legitimate martial art. All of the objections to the style's comparatively "heady" approach have logical and extensive rebuttals that keep this sort of aikidoka from ever questioning the validity of their training or their fitness to defend themselves. This sort of practitioner is really caught up in the mystical qualities of ki or chi or qui or however you spell it. They are sproutsy or new agey and in case you can't tell already - I find their smug self satisfaction mildly annoying. A lot of actors get in to aikido briefly and the dilettantism is really offputting. This first type of aikidoka usually loses interest about the time they find the next bright shiny object that captures their attention or when they discover how much time, exertion, and sacrifice it takes to develope those magical powers. 2. This type are composed of policemen, bouncers, and accomplished martial artists from other disciplines. They are atrracted by the highly effective "come alongs" and other joint locks that allow them to incapacitate an aggressor wihtout striking or acting in a manner that is perceived as aggressive. This group is much like O Sensei. They have been invloved in many conflicts on the street, in the ring or on the mat, and they want to learn the power of aikido's prinicples & gentler but effective options. Enshin karate uses aikido's principles to heighten the effectiveness of a more aggressive style. Guess which group I respect more. Few dispute aikido's power, but many of it's novice acolytes put off outsiders when they prosthelitize about the power of their style yet none of their training looks anything like a fight to those of us who train in striking or more "rough and tumble grappling arts." Ok it sounds negative again. However, I hope you see I have a great deal of respect for the style. I have looked into it more since the last time we talked. It is just some of your junior aikidoka I could do wihtout.

I'm with martial artist on this one. If someone throws a wide left hook it is a big neon sign saying "STEP IN AND BELT ME WITH A STRAIGHT RIGHT!!!" It is scary how well it works. Throw that right inside their hook nice and straight and you will beat them to the punch. This is where the phrase comes from. Obviously if you are talking about wide right hooks throw a straight left. The quickest distance between two points is a STRAIGHT LINE. Your cross or jab or front kick if you are adept enough and prefer will land first and take the steam out of the punch that is on the way. If you are punching your hand should coming right back to guard position so the punching arm will block the hook even if your blow doesn't interupt it's motion all together. You can't really throw the right inside his hook and actively block the punch with the same hand unless your hands are faster than Floyd Patterson. If you cross your hand over i.e. left hand covering the right side of your face as you punch with the right, you are leaving yourself open on the side the next blow will most likely be coming from. If you are kicking, don't drop your hands! The wide punch probably won't land with full power but why take a hit? Besides you should be throwing something behind the kick for insurance. One hit one kill doesn't work that often against drunks and tough guys. Unless your Mas Oyama. IF and this is a big IF, you SEE the person throwing a wide looping punch, you want to step inside their power whether you choose to block the blow or strike inside it's arc. The reason is that stepping or leaning back puts you at the point of the blows greatest power if your opponent is moving forward which they usually are. This is why Muhammad Ali's greatest weakness was to left hooks. Doug Jones, Henry Cooper, Joe Frazier all dropped Ali while he was leaning back from hooks. Ken Norton broke his jaw with one in the same way. If Ali couldn't float away from hooks it is not likely we can. Stepping inside the hook is like being in the eye of the storm. However, you can't step in passively. Even if you choose to block that first swing as you step in (you'll probably just be checking the inner part of the arm not blocking their punch) immediately start firing counters of some kind. palm strikes, headbutts, double leg takedown, a hip throw. grabbing and biting, it doesn't matter as long as it is direct, immediate and inside your opponent's extended arm. You are inside and have the advantage for a split second don't let it pass and don't let up until it is over. If they didn't want to get hurt they shouldn't have swung at you.

Authorita, Sak has both a training video and a novelty joke training video. i think they are both in Japanese. You can usually get them at an auction site relatively inexspensively. If you get them, let me know what you think.

Old timers like me are too wrapped up in aches, pains , and tiger balm to remember how frustrating being a transitioning adult can be. My sympathy for ya sis. If you can, you might try an online auction place. Sometimes you can get cool fights used for not much more than it would cost to rent them. Develope some shopping kung fu.

I agree with you 360 roundhouse. Teachers like the GRacie family have a huge impact that carries on generations after they have gone. On the other hand fighters like Sakuraba show that no matter how great the style or the fighter, there is always someone out there who has the effective counter. One of the attributes that Sak has that I think works against the Gracies so well is his sense of fun. He is the only fighter I have ever seen who makes the Gracies work harder than their opponent. That comes as much from his playful attitude as it does from his incredible skill. Always before we had seen the relaxed Gracies letting their earnest opponents frustrate and wear themselves down before the submission. Sak takes that calm to a new level. Like Muhammad Ali he's not just calm, he seems to be in a state of joy when he fights(except against Vanderlai Silva). We have gone a bit far afield of the topic but I just got all the Pride tapes and I've been looking at the Sak vs Gracie(s) fights. Wow.

Hey Ramcalgary, I didn't mean to dis you partner. Let me ask. Is it particularly the ground and pound type fights like Mark Coleman and Kevin Randelman are famous for that you don't like? I found that when the UFC started being dominated by wrestlers who had great takedown and positioning skills but only minimal submission or striking skills it did get really boring. Now however we are seeing a whole new generation that are cropping up like Robbie Lawler (UFC is pushing him really hard on it's Fox sports channel broadcasts) who started training because of the exciting early UFC contests. They are the first generation of American fighters who have grown up with mixed martial arts. Lawler's fight with Aaron Riley looked like a Muay Thai match with submissions thrown in. Exciting strikers like Vanderlai Silva, Kazushi Sakuraba, and Shonie Carter etc. who also have dynamic aggressive, go for the submission not stall in positon type styles are what makes the latest round of MMA fights more exciting than the ground and pound bores of only a couple years ago. These last few guys and their peers have been around for a while but now that NHB is featuring weight classes more prominantly these non juggernaught size fighters are getting more and more notice. As in boxing it's the lighter weights that tend to turn in the more consistently exciting bouts. What was the last MMA event you saw? You can give it another look for free this Sunday if you get Fox Sports Channel. You might be pleasantly surprised. Then again I don't like coffee or beer no matter how good they are to someone else. Vive le difference!

At our recent belt test our Shihan told us the Black belt test consisted of 10 rounds bareknuckle (similar to Kyokushin or Enshin) style sparring 10 rounds Muay Thai sparring 10 rounds grappling + conditioning + kihon drills + kata I'm years away and already feel like I'm a little behind in my training for that day.

Boxed from 10yrs old to 22 years took a 15 year break Now for the last year - Shidokan karate (bareknuckle karate, thai kckboxing, grappling) I take submission grappling with Shonie Carter and study BJJ at Shidokan's South side Chicago dojo.

Good thought Leaf but I don't think we are talking about trolling for barfights by shouting "I can lick any man in the house". Just preparation for a little semi friendly athletic competition. The sparring is critical. I had to stop for a few weeks before my fight because I had a job that took me out of state and no where near any potential gymns or training partners. I worked out a lot but the effect on my timing and distance were nearly disastrous. Not sparring enough before the bout made it much harder.

LOL at Kickchick. I think she's picked FOX network's next ratings winner.

GReat interview. It really shows you how effective technique is against size and strength. Particularly if your training 6 days a week! That always seems to be the "secret" doesn't it? Also Royler's site looks pretty cool.