Treebranch

Fight Club? Good movie with a Nihilistic message.

Your absolutely right Straight Blast. MA's should make you a better person, not a thug. Confident people don't anger easily, because they don't feel threatened. Just pretend the person insulting you is a child, it won't bother you.

Your welcome Muay Thai. I think another thing for all of us to consider is knowing how to not get into those situations in the first place is very important. You should only use your skills to defend yourself and your loved ones. Don't let insults unbalance you.

Street Fight I agree with everything you said and it was well put. The only thing I would change would be to replace the word "win" with the word "survive". Who cares about winning when your life's on the line. If your out gunned, run.

Muay Thai Fighter, here's a link for Lima Lama. I took this art when I was a kid. http://www.martialartsinstitute.com/limalama2.html

Usually I find that you have to study weapons in order to know how to handle a weapons attack effectively. Yes, I agree stay of the outside.

You have to take their balance while holding the arm in order for the person to not be able to fight back. They still have their other arm and legs to hit you with. So you'd better have the balance in your control.

Well said Daeinwolf. Budo Taijutsu has 9 schools of fighting under one umbrella. The Taijutsu just teaches you how to use your body effectively and efficiently. All the schools teach you different technique, strategies and such. Once your Taijutsu is good you can customize things to fit you. There is so much to learn that you can never learn it all, but dedicating yourself to this type of system it becomes your life style. You can use your Taijutsu everyday.

Well you really need a good balance of both. What good is your striking in the clinch? What good is your striking on the ground, if you don't have the dominant position? What if there is more than one person? What if the other guy is a better striker than you are? It's better to be well rounded. Stand up Grappling is just as essential as striking. In Budo Taijutsu we do everything and it's all important. I mentioned San Soo because it's very similar to Budo Taijutsu, but easier to learn. Strayder Grappling doesn't automaticallly mean BJJ. A good throw can end a street fight if you now what you are doing. I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say.

Kung Fu San Soo you can't go wrong if you want to learn street fighting.

The pics on page one are great, they are all effecting the person balance except maybe for the first one. The major thing to keep in mind is in order to counter the knife and control the attacker you have to control the attacker balance first. The lock won't work if you don't take their balance. Balance means they are stable enough to wiggle out or counter attack. Balance, balance, balance. Locks don't work unless you understand this. Attack the balance. By the way, Street Fighter what style do you study?

Just a question, but how much does Kenpo concentrate on defense against someone with a weapon (not gun)? What kind of groundfighting or grappling does Kenpo teach? Does Kenpo teach you how to use weapons?

The ultimate art won't create the ultimate fighter. There is no recipe for this stuff.

Define Ultimate. I don't think you would have enough time in your life to study the ultimate art if it did exist.

I agree with taking someone to the ground in that situation, but you don't have to go with him. Throw and stomp that way you are safer if one of his buddies decides to help out his buddy. There are 100's of ways of taking someone to the ground while you remain standing.

"What if?" implies thinking. There's no time to think in a real situation. Your body better know what it's doing or you're in trouble.

My personal goal is to learn how to master my taijutsu so that I don't have to fight.

The techniques won't work if you don't have the basics mastered. Throws and locks appear when you know them. Never try to force a technique. Techniques are only there to teach you specific movements so that you are familiar with them so that if they do appear you can take advantage of it. Your body will remember more than you will.

Nicely put Alevensalor. There is more to fighting then just being able to grapple and strike. What do you fall back on when both of those things fail? Learn how to attack the persons balance and it really doesn't matter what the style is.

More importantly, don't give away your fighting style before you fight. Learn to manipulate a persons balance mentally and physically. Be smarter than your attacker. Lure them in and finish it. Also, know when you've been out matched and hightail it out of there. Dumb people have nothing to lose, smart people do. Remember that in a real situation it's about survival, not winning. Your pride means nothing in combat.

No MMA teach you to ring fight. You can't give anything away, especially by going into a stance before you fight. Budo Taijutsu is all about the element of surprise. The goal is to defeat someone without looking Martial Arty. You don't want people to know what you know and you don't want to give it away ahead of time. You start bouncing around like a boxer and you kind of know what to expect. You get in the famous grapple position and you kind of know what to expect. If you put your hands up with the hey dude I don't want to fight you pose. You are ready to go and they don't know it. They attack, they fall, they can't get up and no one knows what happened. That's an ideal fight. I hope that helps. By the way I'm not trying to down play MMA. They can be very effective and are not to be taken lightly, but I can usually spot MMA practitioners from a mile away. That way I can avoid them altogether.

Ninja had bad apples just like Samurai, but since the Samurai mostly wrote the history the Ninja have been portrayed as "bad". Ronin did similar jobs to that of the Ninja and were very good at it. Ninja to my understanding in the provinces of Iga and Koga were not part of the Shoguns domain. They were in the mountains where Ronin and Bandits would often flee from the law. They created certain methods of fighting in order to survive and rarely killed for no reason, there was always a real motivation. They did not want to war against the Samurai and vice versa. Nobody really knows if some Samurai were Ninja or if some Ninja were Samurai. Hattori Hanzo (not the guy from Kill Bill) but the real historical figure was from Iga and recieved Samurai status and was a Martial Arts instructor for one of the Daimyos. I don't know which one, I would have to look it up. If you want to learn a little about the philosophies of the Ninja you should read some of Soke Hatsumi's books. There is more evidence and historical accuracy to the fact that many Samurai did lots of horrible things and Ninja got the bad wrap. Also because of the Ninjas way of fight and flee techniques they were very scary to Samurai and people under the rule of the Samurai. They often used weapons and techniques that the Samurai were unfamiliar with. The way the moved and the way they faught was unorthodox to the Samurai, and that's exactly why they faught that way. The weapons they used were basically altered farming tools and short swords in long scabbards. They were able to draw the short sword faster and at close ranges. They could fight very effectively and their Art was not the art of assasination. The whole "Trained Assassins" thing is silly. The Samurai had assassins as well. The definition of Ninja is not Assassin. Remember the whole Bushido thing came in peace time, so before that it was very different. Samurai were proud people and would kill you or challenge you if you looked at them wrong. Ninja clans wanted to bring as little attention to themselves as possible. You knew who was Samurai and they made sure you knew it. You never knew who was Ninja. It's kind of hard to write an accurate history about people who don't want you to know about them.

Yeah, check Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu or Ninpo Taijutsu. There is no "Pure" Ninjutsu being taught and I don't think there ever was. Budo Taijutsu is an excellent and complete fighting system. The hard part is finding an instructor that teaches it in a linear way. Meaning starting beginners from the beginning and working your way up. You often find yourself starting on stuff you can't do yet and eventually learning basics a little later than you would think. If you stick out it will be well worth it. Make sure they work with heavy bags and do randori.

It's very useful to know good takedowns. A good throw can end the fight.

Aikido schools often teach Iaido. A good kenjutsu school will teach you all the drawing techniques, but I'm pretty sure you will have to study some kind of jujutsu before they let you play with a sword. Budo Taijutsu will teach how to use a sword and lots of other weapons as well along with the fighting ryu. I highly recommend Budo Taijutsu if you want to learn how to handle a sword in a realistic manner. Also like someone mentioned above Daito Ryu Aikijutsu is excellent.