SevenStar

the connotation of sport is irrelevant. judo, muay thai and bjj are all sports, and I would pick them to win over most TMA any day. As for tkd, not all of it trained in the way you have experienced. I know this from experience.

most likely teaching judo, bjj and muay thai. I'm already headed down that path currently, and most likely it will not change.

as any thai boxer will tell you, there's a knee for all occasions - long knee, short knee, skip knee, diagonal knee, jump knee, side knee, etc. the same goes for elbows. You have to be able to control the distance. If you can do that, then you can use them effectively. dont' limit yourself to a knee to the groin - target the kidney area, the thigh, the stomach... if their head is too low when they duck, or you have them in plomb and their head is low, knee or jump knee.

aas much as you can - some schools don't offer classes everyday, or even three days a week. practice outsitde of the school is a MUST in all cases.

and sano, in most venues, when you fight full contact, you do wear some sort of protective gear, even if it's nothing more than gloves and a mouthpiece.

and vash is correct, full contact doesn't denote full power.

That's hilarious. Granted, there are some things you may not feel, like a shot to the groin, but with others,it's unavoidable.

for jujutsu, it depends... are you referring to japanese or brazilian? grandmasterchen described brazilian, a few others described japanese.

um... shuai chiao is 5000 years old. thai boxing is not the oldest MA.

nah. heavy arm is the chinese theory of making the bones more dense (from impact) and seating more "strength" in the tendons.

depends on the striking style. many striking styles have several sweeps, but as you said, not as in depth as arts like judo or shuai chiao. judo has a segment of techniques (ahi waza - foot techniques) that are geared toward this. okuri ashi barai, de ashi barai, hiza guruma, sasae tsuri komi ashi, ko uchi gari, ko soto gari, ko soto gake, o uchi gari o soto gari....

I'm surprised this hasn't been asked, but what kind of spin kick? one defense that will work regardless of the type of kick is moving in. by moving in, you jam his kick before it is able to reach it's full power. It will also make it easier for you to off balance him and throw him to the ground.

look into chinese heavy arm training. iron palm and other exercises are designed to seat "strength" into your tendons. The theory behind it is that punching with the muscles will place unnecessary tension in the strike, which will slow it down and also detract from its power.

that's too isolative - when building strength, the key is to do compound exercises. On a strength program, the only two of those exercises I would do are the bench press (flat) and the military press.

I'm in the gym 5 days a week. I'm in class 4-5 days a week. I spend anywhere from 30 mins to an hour in the gym, concentrating mainly on power exercises - bench, squat, deadlift, etc. I also do a few pretty boy exercises. I'm in bjj pretty much every night for 2 - 3 hours. judo twice a week for 2 hours muay thai twice a week for 2.5 hours. In addition, every night when I get home, I hook up the cables and do 300 reps of tai otoshi, followed by sweeps practice, pushups, shadowfighting and various other exercises.

http://www.ironmind.com/

not at all. the two blend nicely and help with your bjj clinch work. Being that I also train bjj, the time limit on the ground is annoying, but other than that, It's easy to fight within the rules.

Another thing to consider is the type of bow. For example, in both muay thai and longfist, you bow a different way to different people based on their status.

you took the words outta my mouth (of off of my keyboard)

*re reads the title of this thread*