Alan Armstrong

Welcome george45 to KF.

how about Ip Man 1, 2 and 3?

"No Retreat No Surrender" Would also be a Dojo movie worth watching. Dealing and coping with typical teen problems issues with family, love, friendship, values and rivalry.

Admittedly I'm a dyslexia type of martial artist, pictorial descriptions helps with my understanding and comprehensions. What would Bruce Lee use to replace his water analogies?

Practicing techniques and stances, knowing how to move and the rest of it is fine, but training for the 4th dimension "timing" is far more effective than most people realize, so as my reflexes aren't what they were, knowing when and how to strike has become more acute, accurate and beneficial.

Filing down my fangs will not make me in to a herbivore or a vegetarian, have too much Tyrannosaur Rex DNA in my strands to change.

There is an understandably, mostly Japanese bias towards martial arts on this site. "I know what I like" standpoint, that interprets in to "I like what I know" There is much 'organized despair' in martial arts; to quote Bruce Lee's words and perspective. As Bruce Lee was searching out the truth in what works and what doesn't. He was training with all intensity and in all honesty to be as perfect as possible physically as well as to express himself as a human being transcending race or style. Sadly these higher levels of understanding are very difficult to grasp as a young martial artist but not impossible. (Perfect training will result in higher results) Martial artists in the past trained diligently like today's Olypic athletes. This is how Bruce Lee transcended martial art mediocrity. Personally I no longer spar with individual or play fight... I train to win fights.

Sun Tzu (the great Chinese general and strategists) wrote "The Art of War" some 2000 years ago. Still relevent today, his writings are important if it involves any type of strategy. Chinese martial artists draw from his infinite wisdom. Bruce Lee's water analogy with martial arts is an adaptation of Sun Tzu's writings. "To win without fighting" is another insightful comment from Sun Tzu. Bruce Lee, quote, "The Art of Fighting without Fighting" Real gorilla warfare battles have been won due to Sun Tzu's time less wisdom. One on one confrontations can benefit from using and understanding Sun Tzu's writings, all it takes is a little imagination. Is Sun Tzu relevant to you as a martial artist?

I'm saying martial arts is not based on car maintenance logic, unless the exception pops up and there is a martial artists that is also car maintenance inclined. Let's see it the other way around, would you want a mechanic using martial art logic to maintain your car? Yes there are many martial artists that do practice their style in a garage. Human body mechanics is more applicable to martial arts than car mechanics.

Like "The Last Dragon" idea. Bruce Leroy; how original and entertaining that movie is. Who's the master?

What if the would be attacker is reaching in to his jacket or pocket to pull out a cigarette box or a Mobile phone? If someone is giving me some verbal insults and the opponent reaches one of his hands in to his pocket then that is the moment to go for a knockout! Had a person that wanted a fight with me, I simply said " well you had better take off your nice jacket and we can get to it" As soon as his jacket was halfway off, trapping himself, I pounced on him like a Tiger... Picking the right moment to pounce is knowing how to win in an instance.

A spanner is a tool used to tighten up a bolt on a car or bicycle wheel. Using the right tool for the job is logical for car maintenance. Martial arts is not based on car maintenance logic, certainty not Chinese martial arts, that are based on animal fighting virtues. Using a crescent kick on an opponent that is bent over would be appropriate; could cause a KO without much difficulty.

To strive for perfection if it is attained probably not. Many years go while attending a TKD school, I had fellow students telling me that they are not in to martial arts as much as I am. It was if this was a way to excuse themselves for their martial art inadequacys. They obviously didn't feel as if they were good enough, to be black belts. The TKD school had some serious internal issues, with students not feeling confident enough to defend themselves on the street. So the instructor started throwing in some simple self defence wrist locking techniques during class. Also held a Saturday morning self defence class to appease those that felt inadequate. I believe that the students actually growing up in martial arts that joined at a young age was their parents choice. So martial arts for them was a type of sport like soccer or baseball. My parents didn't pick martial arts for me, I consciously made my mind up, this is what I want to do. To be a martial artist; parents choice or personal choice, which one out of the two will strive for perfection and which one will not?

Being something other than martial arts I would be a dancer/teacher Hip Hop to Batuka to Flamenco. Real story: Was attending a Zumba class and arrived early. The class before was a Karate class that was in progress, so I just sat down and watched. A black belt came up to me and asked if I would be interested in joining in on the class. I said no, I'm just waiting for the next Zumba class. He asked me again to join in on the class. I said OK. I didn't let on that I'm a martial artist, the black belt thought that I was just a Zumba dancer. So we were doing some one step sparring techniques. The black belt was getting very impressed on how quickly I caught on. I just didn't have the heart to tell him that I'm a martial artist. So I played along doing the karate moves but with a flowing dance style. The look on this black belt's face was priceless, he was in amazement. He started to tell me that I would be good at martial arts. Then he asked if I would be interested in joining, he was very convinced that I would be terrific at karate. Oppps! Perhaps I had taken the joke too far, then he handed me all the details to join. I thanked him and sat down again, while they bowed out.

Is being a vegetarian a good thing? Had a teacher that was a vegetarian, that owned a cat. That attempted to make the cat a vegetarian also. The cat died of malnutrition. As monks that are pacifists don't eat meat. Yet the animal fighting styles they emulate are carnivorous. The praying mantis takes it a step further and eats it's own kind. Big fish eat smaller fish and birds of prey eat smaller birds. They really take this saying seriously "you are what you eat"

The video using a crescent kick, folloed by two short range punches to the mid section followed up by a foot weep, is not exactly following the Shotokan way of "the kill" All that the defender needed to do would be to bounce himself forward a few feet, without doing anything else and the attacked would most likely be bounced away, to end up sitting on the floor.

Agreed: Salt is gone!!! Sugar is gone!!! Did you know that one of the worst offenders of obesity is orange juice. So out with the enemies and in with the friends. Foods martial artists should be eating. Seeds are good. They help to fix micro fibres. Papaya and pineapple are good for helping pain receptors. Perhaps this is why Muay Thai boxers can punish their shins so much when training. Cooking in an iron wok puts the needed iron in to your food.

Agreed. And kicking a bag with the crescent kick really changes that whole thing up. Practicing in the air and with paddles, you get the follow-through. On the bag, you don't.Same as any kick or strike really. Need some sort of feedback. Anyway, how about this as a nice, non-head shot, application for the crescent kick: We use the same in TKD as well.I have seen this application. Its usually when the lead hand is holding something, like a weapon. If you can be quick with that foot, it can be used to close, like he did, and you aren't head kicking, so you won't be telegraphing as much. I liked his video. I watched a few others, and I like what I see. I went ahead and subscribed. Thanks for the tip, Danielle. Incidentally, Henry Cho's books on TKD also take a more "Shotokan" approach to sparring. This crescent kick combo technique is used against an opponent from the same style, would this technique be effective against other MA styles or a bigger opponent? Or a smaller opponent for that matter?If an opponent is just going to stand there and let you do techniques on him without any reaction whatsoever, well then it's not a technique, because he is behaving like a crash test dummy and the attacker might as well attack a mannequin in a store front window, as the result will look the same. This exact technique was practiced in a TKD class. I was the one getting my arm kicked, it didn't work on me. So the instructor replaced me for another student to carryout the demonstration, that was willing to humor the CI. People don't realistically fight in these rigid positions because if they do, a cresent kick and a few punches with a quick sweep will most definitely finish them off!

how do you know insects don't taste as good as a steak? Deep fried cicadas for example are supposed be pretty close to lobster (which coincidentally were once upon a time the food of poverty). ....and, have you substantiated this yet???? Never had the opportunity but I'll give anything a go at least once. Fried cicadas, locusts, even tarantulas are popular street food in places like China and Thailand so if I ever get to go to that part of the world I wouldn't say no to trying them. Though actually thinking about it, I would bet nearly everyone on this forum has enjoyed insects as part of their food at some point in their life. Anyone who has had foods containing the red colouring E120 or Carmine has as it is made from ground cochineal insects. Also shellac (used as a glazing for sweets and pills etc.) is sourced from bug excretions. Interesting that little Lac Beatle, it buries it's head into a tree for most of it's life, eats the sap and excretes the shellac. Then the shellec, because it is edible, is coated on to M&Ms to make them nice and shiny.So if it wasn't enough that chocolate contains insect fragments, can just imagine legs and antennas, bug eyes and wings all suspended in a chocolate sweet, coated in lac Beatle excrement. Point being, that we usually don't know what we are eating. Consider for a moment, that in the past, we would drink the milk from one cow. Today with dairy farming, all that milk from a heard of cows is all mixed together. We could be drinking the DNA from 40 cows in one glass of milk. The same for chicken soups, that one cup could contain the DNA of 100 chickens or more. Just some food for thought, getting hungry yet?

Practice makes perfect or should it be perfect practice makes perfect. Doing the same thing incorrectly time after time is not productive. Alternatively practicing correctly for short amounts of time is more productive. Each martial art uses body mechanics differently, what is correct in one style is wrong in another. At times moving contrary to the way one believes that they should move. Nothing is more evident than with styles that need to use relaxed muscles. With internal martial art styles, without the key ingredient of relaxation of muscles, no matter how many years that person practices, it will never be perfect. Choreographed katas can also be a practice makes perfect trap. One to one training is a way to perfect a student more rapidly. Techniques done correctly or perfectly put less strain on the body and clearly improve a student's abilities. I am not against group training but some one to one tuition should also be considered for everyone, otherwise they will be only practicing to make perfect and never succeed.

Agreed. And kicking a bag with the crescent kick really changes that whole thing up. Practicing in the air and with paddles, you get the follow-through. On the bag, you don't.Same as any kick or strike really. Need some sort of feedback. Anyway, how about this as a nice, non-head shot, application for the crescent kick: We use the same in TKD as well.An outside to inside cresent kick to the opponent's lead arm could work, if the opponent was stiff and grounded as in the video clip.Mind you any technique would work on an opponent that was as stiff and grounded as in the video clip. Techniques such as shown with this video are very ideal looking against a consenting opponent. A none consenting opponent would make the technique to look less than ideal.

Has anyone here considered that makiwara practice is counterproductive? A board planted in the ground with some rope around the top, is an inexpensive training apparatus but is it just used out of tradition? Is the makawa out dated technology or is it so perfect that any changes to it's design would be taking a step backwards? Do sports/science medicine officials recommend or condone using makiwara board training?

To Sensei8, replacing sugar with honey is a good thing; as long as it is done in moderation. Had my fair share of battles regarding food. Having a sweet tooth, a proper reasonable diet was out of the question. We are bombarded with food temptations at every turn. Festive occasions are the worse, with Christmas soon upon us, just thinking about it, I feel the calories wanting to cling on to my waist. As martial artist we train to defeat human opponents, we also need to fight unhealthy food temptations. Having bad eating habits doesn't effect all of us the same way, depending on other factors that are usually related to how active a person is. Knowing how to use "the after burn effect" to one's benefit can go a long way in keeping fit and trim.

Agreed that the same strictness of policy is not needed for military and Dojos. Was only pointing out the reason for discipline regarding hygine in both aspects. All training facilities for martial artists are not standardized for cleanliness, therefore personal safety and awareness of potential health issues, should not be overlook or ignored.

What I do remember being told about the seminar was, they made them all train very hard. My Sensei was big on kickboxing as I was only a skinny yellow belt. Kickboxing was a very young sport in the late 70s. I was a fan of kickboxing for awhile. Kickboxing was born in the same time as the disco era, so it was dance to kung fu, funky style.