Fat Cobra

I agree with Spartacus Maximus.

Thanks to all. Good recommendations.

Thank you. Shushin Kobudo looks like a great manufacturer. I will try them.

For high quality wooden Okinawan weapons, who do you all recommend. This is for Bo, Jo, Tanbo, Chizikunbo, Tonfa, Nunchaku, Eku. Crane Mountain was great but they are going out of business. Torii Weapons are good, but what else is out there? -Domo Arigato

I've been a fan since Mid South Wrestling in the 70's. My dad took me to a local event for my 10th birthday, and I saw the Rock and Roll Express take on the Midnight Express. I was in Heaven! I've been to a lot of events in the 90's when the NWO was running wild (DDP, Hogan, Sting, Hall and Nash, Macho Man, etc). I was in the arena when Hall and Nash offered DDP an NWO shirt, and he took it and then Diamond Cutted them! Last year, TNA Wrestling came to town, and I took my daughter on her 10th birthday. We got to take a picture with Chris Sabin (who was the champ) and Jeff Hardy! It was awesome! Since Sting left TNA, I have stopped watching it. I refuse to watch WWE because it's now "Entertainment"! But every once in a while, I'll youtube some old grainy "wrasslin" videos from the old days! I loved Mid-South, WCW, and TNA as well, but I still watch WWE too. Plus I love to see independent shows. I just saw Big Time Wrestling last spring when it came to town.

To answer you question directly: The Good - Hard training and seeing students accomplish goals The Bad - those with potential who give up The Ugly - Fat Cobra!

LastKing, I get many things out of martial arts training. Here are some of them: - Being Part of a Larger Organization - Discipline - Fellowship - Physical Fitness - More Control Over Body and Mind - Constantly Striving for a New and Higher Goal And... - Self Defence Capability.

This is a common argument used to support the claim for the need to train full contact. It is also fundamentally flawed. Allow me to explain why. If the first time you ever get hit hard, it is in the controlled environment of training, then that can only mean that you've never been hit hard in a real confrontation. If you've never been hit hard in a real confrontation, then with respect, any notion of what it's like to be hit hard in a real confrontation and how one would react is pure theory. Someone who has never been hit hard in a real confrontation, by definition, does not have the experience needed to understand how they might react to being hit hard in a real confrontation. If training for self defence, training full contact is not ideal for another reason. You train to minimise the risk of someone knacking you by, having someone knack you. You train to mitigate the risk of a stronger opponent possibly punching you in the head and rattling your brain, a very remote possibility if you know how to avoid trouble, by actually going to a place on a regular basis and actually volunteering to have someone try their very best to punch your head and rattle your brain. Some folks want to train full contact. Each to their own. The information about risks is widely available so they can make an informed decision. But its illogical to do it for self defense. One Kick Wonder, you are discussing things in circles here. If I understand you correctly you are saying that he only way to truly prepare for an attack on the street is to go out and get attacked on the street. Not quite. What I'm saying is that training full contact is nothing like being attacked in the street. The only way anyone can ever know what it's like to be attacked in the street is if that's happened to them. That's not to say that folks should go out and look for trouble. That would be silly. Then you will understand the flaw in the full contact argument better than most. You say that the only way to prepare for being punched really hard is to have someone punch you really hard. But I bet you wouldn't say to your young recruits that the best way to prepare for a determined foe trying their very best to kill you with machine guns and grenades is to go somewhere and have someone fire machine guns and grenades at you with live ammo so you know what it feels like. Actually, One Kick, we do. In order to get soldiers prepared for combat (and I am not talking recruits or basic training, I am talking about once they get to their units), we put them through extremely realistic training. This training includes live fire exercises. No, there is no one shooting back at you, but there is a possibility of soldiers getting shot by other soldiers...and it happens, unfortunately, and sometimes soldiers die. This possibility does not stop us from continuing to do hard, realistic training. We don't shy away from this because of the possibility of someone getting hurt. That would be irresponsible. A leader is not doing his duty if he doesn't train his soldiers hard to get them ready for combat. US Army Ranger school is another example. Part of the mantra of the course is to make the students as stressful and as miserable as possible (via food deprivation, sleep deprivation, extreme stress, extreme terrain, and continuously hard missions) in order to have the students prove to themselves that they are capable of overcoming great stress and deprivation and still succeed. Does either one of these training methods perfectly simulate combat? No. That is impossible, but it is the best we can do. Now I know I am explaining military training, and martial arts schools are not the military. I understand that. I also understand that people train in martial arts for different reasons, which can be as diverse as: wanting to get into shape, join an organization, better discipline, competition, self-defense skills, etc. I personally don't have anything against any of these reasons, but the student must know that sometimes some of these focuses are exclusive of others. If I join a place that teaches cardio kickboxing in order to get into better shape, this is legit. However, I must be honest with myself with the truth that cardio kick boxing is not something that is going to get me prepared to defend myself on the street. Each style is different, and even dojos within the same style can be different. To each his own for what he or she wants to do. My dojo can offer a lot of things: discipline, fitness, joining a larger organization, learning about Okinawan culture, but, admittedly, there may be better dojos out there for these pursuits. My main purpose, and where I focus, is to prepare my students for life protection (self-defense) on the streets. When I teach students how to defend themselves, I am including the ability to take pain as part of this. I put them outside their comfort zone so that they know, when the stress is high, they can overcome. This is not my magical idea--this is proven to be the best way to train by the greatest military in the world (see above). That being said, this training is still controlled. I push things to the limit, but not over the limit. Does this training method perfectly simulate street self-defense? No. That is impossible, but it is the best we can do. You are right when you say a real life situation is a "lose-lose" proposition. No matter how fast or good you are, you are still likely to get hit or feel pain. Part of being able to defend yourself is to overcome this pain. Can you perfectly simulate this in the dojo...no. But you can give your students confidence that they can overcome, in a general sense, by putting them through hard training in the dojo. Look at some of the Okinawan masters. Morio Higaonna comes to mind. His style is Goju Ryu. This is not my style, but I will say they go through extreme body conditioning with Hojo Undo (Body Strengthening exercises) and Ude Tanren (Forearm Conditioning exercises). His hands are like bricks, plus he is in his 80s and still practicing (as many of the Okinawan masters are). Finally, if I see someone with cauliflower ear, or shins that look like they have been conditioned by kicking a rubber tree, or fists like Master Hagionna’s, well, those are people I don’t want to fight. Regardless of who (them or me) can land a cleaner punch, these guys can definitely take pain, and that is something that makes them hard men (and women) and tough in a fight! One Kick, you train for your own reasons and that is fine. If you don't want to train the way I am proposing, that is also fine. Karate no michi.

Spartacus, I agree with you 100%. Well said.

Naihanchi Shodan Tomari Seisan Pinan Shodan Passai Niseishi

Tempest, in a fight, you are correct. A high school (or especially collegiate wrestler) probably has an advantage over a karateka. Why? Part of the reason is that those are competitive combat sports where you have to be an extremely good athlete in the first place to make the team (especially college). These wrestlers train, rather brutally, all the time and compete all the time. But in karate, anyone can join the dojo. There is no "making the team." If you attend and work hard you can progress. Does that mean a black belt is on the same level as a collegiate wrestler? No, probably not, especially in the athletic department. But I am also not expecting them to be. I am not training students to take on collegiate wrestlers, or Muay Thai champions, or MMA bad *. I am training my students to protect themselves on the street. I agree with you that survival is the key and that it takes whatever it takes. Like I said, weapons first, then fists. I spent a lot of time in the Army competing in submission wrestling (my style was Catch Wrestling where inflicting as much pain on your opponent was not only preferred, but satisfying). I have faced my fair share of collegiate level wrestlers, some All Americans. They could definitely out wrestle me, no doubt, but most did not know jack about submissions, either Catch Wrestling style or BJJ style. Now, if I was competing with them and decided to only use my karate could I beat them....No. However, if I found myself facing someone in a street situation where I feared for my life, and the other guy happened to be a wrestler and decided to take me down, would my karate work?....definitely. If he was taking me down he would not have hands free to protect his eyes from getting ripped out of their sockets, or from me elbowing the back of his skull, or from me palming his nose with such force that it shatters, or me pulling a knife, which I always carry 2, and stabbing him in a lung, or ... you get the picture. Those above "street self defense" techniques are not taught in high school or collegiate wrestling.

This is a common argument used to support the claim for the need to train full contact. It is also fundamentally flawed. Allow me to explain why. If the first time you ever get hit hard, it is in the controlled environment of training, then that can only mean that you've never been hit hard in a real confrontation. If you've never been hit hard in a real confrontation, then with respect, any notion of what it's like to be hit hard in a real confrontation and how one would react is pure theory. Someone who has never been hit hard in a real confrontation, by definition, does not have the experience needed to understand how they might react to being hit hard in a real confrontation. If training for self defence, training full contact is not ideal for another reason. You train to minimise the risk of someone knacking you by, having someone knack you. You train to mitigate the risk of a stronger opponent possibly punching you in the head and rattling your brain, a very remote possibility if you know how to avoid trouble, by actually going to a place on a regular basis and actually volunteering to have someone try their very best to punch your head and rattle your brain. Some folks want to train full contact. Each to their own. The information about risks is widely available so they can make an informed decision. But its illogical to do it for self defense. One Kick Wonder, you are discussing things in circles here. If I understand you correctly you are saying that he only way to truly prepare for an attack on the street is to go out and get attacked on the street. If that is what you are presenting, I will say this. First, this was actually how a lot of people in old Okinawa (or in some other countries) did test their skills. Taika Oyata had a reputation in Okinawa of starting lots of bar fights to test his skills. Fortunately, or unfortunately, that is not really acceptable anymore, so the best we can do is simulate in the dojo and simulate in "life like" situations. I will also present you with this. I spent 24.5 years as an infantry officer training soldiers to fight and kill on the battlefield. I also have 6 deployments under my belt (3 operational: Panama, Kosovo, Bosnia, and 3 combat: Afghanistan, Iraq, Iraq) for a total of 3.5 years. It is true, that soldiers who have been to and experienced combat truly know what it is like, and that is irreplaceable experience. However, in absence of an active war going on, we trained soldiers as best we could in "sterile" environments like Fort Drum, NY, or Fort Bragg, NC, or Fort Polk, LA. Sometimes it did not work, and no matter how well you trained a soldier he still did not perform well in actual combat. However, most of the time it worked very well.

This is an interesting post, and it seems to be going back and forth. These are my further 2 cents. There is a difference between training someone for fighting and training someone for self-defense. Fighting is what happens when you square off with someone, get into a fighting stance (whatever yours happens to be) and start slugging away at each other, or wrestling, or grappling, or whatever. To be a good fighter, you need to study Boxing, Wrestling, BJJ, Muay Thai, or some other combative martial art. These martial arts also translate well to those who want to compete in MMA. However...self-defense is a different matter altogether. This is life protection. If I am on the street and someone threatens me, I don't want to fight. I don't want to get in a boxing match or wrestling match. I have no idea how good at boxing or wrestling this guy is. I have no idea if he (or she) has a knife or other weapon in their pocket. And I don't know if he or she has allies waiting to attack. So, in this case I want to take this person out as fast and efficiently as possible. If I have a weapon, I will use that weapon. If not, I will use vital point strikes and joint locks and dirty tricks to incapacitate this aggressor as fast as possible. How do I develop the skills to be able to do the latter? By traditional Karate. I study Kihon, Kata, Bunkai, Kobudo (for weapons), Tuite Jitsu (joint locks), and Kyusho Jitsu (pressure points). We do this in the dojo, but also in scenario based training on the street. We also work on the mindset of our students to instill a Bushido mindset. As our Association President says, "when someone breaks into your house in 3 am, I don't want you getting up and worrying about what technique you are going to use, I just want you to be successful," and, "when you are attacked on the street you know what the best technique is? The one that works." Kata, which I love, gives you the structural integrity, weight lead control, and control over your body. It also gives you bunkai that can be used, and should be trained. But Bunkai is not limited to 1 or 2 set routines for each step of the kata. We are taught that you must adapt the kata and bunkai for your body type and strength. My wife, who trains and is almost half my weight, is not going to be able to pull off the same bunkai technique as me by doing it the same way. She does not have the size or strength. So she must adapt. And if that doesn't work, it is totally ok for her to figure out another interpretation of the bunkai that does work for her. The sensei can help with this, or she can come up with it own her own. Finally, you must still learn how to fight (see 1st paragraph above) in case you need it. But a karateka is not going to be able to fight (as defined above) as well as a competitive boxer or MMA fighter...they just don't get that kind of repetition and training. However, they can get good enough that they can handle a lot of situations. And...they must Bogu Kumite (full contact sparring with Bogu gear or an equivalent) to know what it feels like to get hit, and to get hit hard. The worst thing for anybody is to have the first time they get hit really hard on the street. They may have the best technique in the world, but if they can't take a hit without panic or complete submission, then they are not going to perform successful self defense.

Ha! I like #3...I do that all the time!

It is all about the how and the why. Kihon katas teach you the how. This is "an exercise of habit" (Kaicho Allan Amor's words) where the student learns proper foot work, stance work, hand work, posture.--the principles. In Ryukyu Kempo we call this structural integrity and coring. Advanced katas (we call them Kuzushi Katas) introduce the why. What is behind the meaning of the movements? We introduce the concept, that we call, weight lead into our movements. We learn bunkai for different movements but also learn that more can be interpreted, so as not to be restrictive with the application. There does need to be bunkai associated with different kata movements, at least for us, because we claim to be a life protection art. However, as one progresses in knowledge and understanding, the interpretation of bunkai for a particular kata movement can change, and we are ok with that. Each person will make the bunkai his or her own. In the end...in real life...all that matters is that what you did worked.

Himokiri Karate No...Fat Cobra does not do spinning kicks... However, the strike to the neck with the forearm is one of my favorites.

Aha, but has anyone heard the story about a surprisingly fast martial artist called Fat Cobra.....?????

MatsuShinshii, I agree with your distinction between the two. Some people are predisposed from birth to be braver than others. It is a character trait, much like some are born faster, or stronger, or more intelligent, etc. However, courage is something you can build in yourself and train to make yourself better. The best way to do this is to constantly put yourself out of your comfort zone. Do things that make you uncomfortable so that, once you accomplish the task, you realize you can succeed in this type of environment.

Awesome book! Good for thinking about strategy in combat and in life, much like Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Here is a list: Rex Kwon Do Ameri Do Te Dragonball Z

Tiger Balm is excellent for sore muscles. Dit da jow is excellent for sore joints (especially from joint lock training).

I believe in the crush philosophy for today, but it is all based on the circumstances. Here is my translation of crush as applied in the modern world (in order): 1. Deterrence: Do not put yourself in position to become a victim. This is done through posturing, situational awareness, avoiding certain places, etc. 2. Escape: if you are threatened, and you can get away, then get away. 3. Life Protection Defense: If #1 and #2 do not work then you are going to have to defend yourself. If someone is threatening me, and I have a weapon, I will use that weapon (pistol, knife, stick, rock). I am not going to only counter a punch with a punch. That does not make sense. How do I know if he is better at punching than me? How do I know if he is worse at punching than me? How do I know that he does not have a hidden weapon that he will pull out, or he has accomplices waiting in hiding? I don't. All I know is that he has started violence against me and I must now defend myself. I will then use a "crushing" force to stop him. This does not mean that I am trying to kill him or I will continue to, say, repeatedly stab him if I am using a knife and have already stopped his attack. But I will ensure his threat is nullified. If I don't have a weapon on me, which is rare, then I will use my hands and feet (and my style) to attack vital points and joints to stop him. So, to me this is what "crush" means and I believe it is still applicable.

Visualization, along with mental toughness, is paramount. However, the follow through (action) is what makes it more than dreaming.

With respect, I'll add that to my list of terrible quotes along with, no pain no gain, pain is weakness leaving the body, and fall down seven times get up 8 times. Pain is evolutionary genius. Pain tells us that physical damage is being done. It's message is, 'keep doing that and you will develop life changing injury or you might even die'. Of course we don't learn that message often until we have actually caused significant damage to ourselves. One of the most highly regarded individuals in history, Mohamed Ali, worked through the pain. He realised that to be the best of the best in his game he needed more than the ability to keep punching. He needed to be able to absorb his opponents punches. In his prime he seemed indestructible. Towards the end he could barely even speak. His brain had just taken too many knocks. Sports science has moved on a lot in the last couple of decades. All the old pain related 'inspirational' sayings have long been discredited. Even in the field of combat sport we're seeing a shift towards sensible precautions. Pain is indeed a good teacher. It teaches us to stop doing things that are stupid. One Kick Wonder, I agree with you with respect to us learning about safe practices in training and the ability to understand our bodies and what they are telling us. I also agree that certain old practices were unsafe and should no longer be conducted because they can cause long term physical damage. However...I also believe that one of the most important things to develop is "toughness." The way I define toughness is a person's ability to overcome adverse mental and physical conditions. Being tough does mean falling down 7 times and getting up 8. If you are training for combat, life protection, or some other similar objective, you must train hard (but smart) to be ready for those situations. It is not a good idea that the first time you are confronted with a situation that is emotionally, psychologically, and physically painful is an actual violent and hostile encounter on the street. No matter what skills you may have learned in the Dojo, if you are not "tough" none of this will matter. Part of developing toughness is confronting pain in the Dojo (albeit controlled pain).

Belly fat is good for you. It protects your internal organs from strike damage! So says Fat Cobra!