SevenStar

for pain tolerance and hardening, kick the bag and trade kicks with a partner. For leg endurance, run, spar, etc.

judo does the same thing.

who said anything about a wrestler south paw? what I said was "I don't agree that that's the same for anyone. A striker does not want to do that to a wrestler, for example. On the street, you want to do what you do best and most comfortably." in response to TB saying "Well the best defense against a southpaw is close the distance, clinch and throw. Oh yeah, that's the same for anyone." that's not ideal if you're a striker who is fighting a wrestler. If you close and clinch, he will maul you.

what organization did he compete under? I can't find anything about him on the net.

since you brought that up, did you see the vid of emin vs. willaim cheung and how horrible their fighting looked?

there's nothing wrong with his comparison - these different styles have different characteristics. Tiger is pure, raw, directness and power. The dragon, as said before is stepping off line, whipping etc. according to the chinese, tiger is a low level style and dragon is a high level. That said though, I personally would prefer tiger.

there are many schools that do indeed only do forms. He's not far off in his assumption. There are CMA schools that do not allow sparring. I've heard of a few japanese schools like that also - traditional jujutsu comes to mind. They never engaged in randori, but the judo guys did, which is why they mopped the floor with them. Today, there are JJ schools that spar (from what I seem to hear, it seems like that's not the majority though) and there are still CMA schools that don't spar. Forms, stance training, iron palm/body, chin na, self defense, weapons, etc...

shadow boxing is an awesome training tool.

exactly. I know someone who war repeatedly being cut by a razor and didn't realize it until after the fact.

That's fine and good but you need to have skills in all ranges. You CAN be taken down. Period. and when it happens, neither a jab nor sidekick will save you. Same goes for a grappler - his ground skills aren't gonna help too much while he's standing.

me? nah, I'm not switching. I intend on getting back into the ring, and continuing to compete in judo and bjj.

personally, I wouldn't do it - here's why...they are both standup styles. lau gar being a chinese art may have slightly different methods of power generation than your karate. Also, you may start to get some of the techniques confused, or only using what you prefer. For example, I was in muay thai when I started longfist. After 4 years of longfist, I was still throwing the thai style roundhouse, as opposed to the way they did it. I still fought and moved like a thai fighter. That's the style I prefer. I can do the chinese forms properly, but when I fight, I'm all thai. As that's what I prefer anyway, I'm now back into thai boxing. That said, you can do both, but to some it may be confusing. To me it wasn't confusing, but I kinda refused to follow the chinese methods of power issuing. In addition to muay thai, I grapple. graplling is "safer" to cross train in, IMO, as there is not alot of crossover between the grappling and the standup.

I don't agree that that's the same for anyone. A striker does not want to do that to a wrestler, for example. On the street, you want to do what you do best and most comfortably.

mantis fights like....well... the mantis. They are all about trapping, locking and finishing. strike comes - pluck it out of the air, attack relentlessly, then finish him. southern mantis in particular is pretty fierce, from what I understand.

fillipino boxing

kodokan goshin jutsu has strikes, as do the kime no kata. They are basically self defense forms.

nah, it's not too complicated. MMA do it. CMA did it back in the day. Let's narrow it down some; Lee advocated using what's effective. let's look at what you need in order to be well rounded - good footwork, hand strikes, kicks, trapping, grappling (standing and ground). Now, find the arts who use those tecnhiques in a manner that's in line with your own personal style. For me, it's judo, bjj, muay thai and shuai chiao. for someone else, it may be catch wrestling, boxing and savate. find what works, get a firm foundation in something, then branch out.

That's too specific. The real question is has he ever fought anyone at all...

it's been shown that once your heart rate goes over 120, everything goes out the window except what's ingrained into your muscle memory. Those techniques that are second nature are the ones you will use. That said, if kicks are ingrained in you, you'll use them - I've used a roundhouse kick in a fight before. I agree with what you said about planning though - that tends to be null and void.

sweet. I gotta check and see hwo far that is from me.

wtf? Where? The closest decent guys I know of are in MS and IL