100-Artiste

Bodybuilders train for size not strength. Powerlifters train for strength not size. And martial artists should train for speed, strength and flexibility. To maximise all these things.

I believe using ankle weights for full speed and strength kicks causes hyperextension - ie. done do it. But slower should be fine i guess. But to practice your kick speed you will do fine kicking 1000 times wich each leg every day. Do this for 4 years and your kicks will be fine, provided you concentrate on technique etc.

Nathan i agree with everything you say. But just in case anyone was wondering there are two types of muscles, twitch and tonic. As a bodybuilder the long slow reps will be good as they build the Tonic muscle fibres up, these are good for sustained muscular contraction - what you are practicing. The faster actions will, however, build up twitch muscles which have their advantages - often part of the 'explosive' power and fast muscular contraction that a martial artis is looking for. So high reps of lower weights do have their uses though i guess not for bodybuilding.. Doing this you will build muscle however, just not as quickly but you will gain muscles of a different type. Think about it this way, a tennis player can hit a tennis ball damn hard but couldnt beat the average lifter at lifting a weight. How you lift your weights will influence what 'kind' of strength you have, lifting lots slowly will lead to you getting much better at lifting stuff slowly, lifting stuff quickly will make you better at lifting stuff quickly --. Anyway,. For bodybuilding do what nathan says, some creatine might be nice??

When it comes to getting speed i think it comes down to one thing, practice. (lol) Basically, make sure you have 'perfect' technique first, if you have pretty good technique and your competition is coming up then move onto practice faster. Basically, just kick over and over again trying to make each kick faster than the one before but also keeping technique as 'perfect' as possible. For technique you can kick the air. For speed i reccomend air, bag or makiwara, i know you didnt mention side kick here but you should not over practice this kick against air because it becomes damaging to the joint. When i say bag and makiwara above i don't really know whether you need power in comeptitions because i do Kyukushin mainly and we always focus on speed causing power when we practice. When i say practice i really mean practice. It gets really boring but if you do literally thousands of kicks, without a break, one after the other, non stop, making sure your technique stays 'perfect' then you will get fast, very fast. Remember in the kick that pulling the leg down quickly is also important - makes the kick look a hell load cooler as well. A lot of its psychological anyway, if you want to kick faster, "kick faster" ^_^ I think you could experiment with adding weights to your legs and kicking in water could be good too. But all of these can only be supplements to proper practice of the technique - because after all, by doing something as well as you can, over and over again, you WILL get better. That means spead, power, accuracy, confidence, spirit (etc..) -

I agee that Bruce Lee's knowledge was somewhat limitted and i think he derived these opinions mainly from sparring with people and training with or even training people of different styles. They are really just his views and i would say they are reasonably reliable...although not entirely accurate. It depends a lot on the school and instructor as well.

I agee that Bruce Lee's knowledge was somewhat limitted and i think he derived these opinions mainly from sparring with people and training with or even training people of different styles. They are really just his views and i would say they are reasonably reliable...although not entirely accurate. It depends a lot on the school and instructor as well.

No i'm just informing you of Bruce Lee's (a better martial artist than both you an I - in case you didn't realise) views. He does not criticise the arts directly, he is just stating what he believes are their strengths and weaknesses in a full contact street situation. A lot seems to be said about art's effectiveness in these situations and this is what Lee thought.. As you can see he generally describes them within the context of their own ruleset.. If you don't like what he said then that's fine by me.

I think it depends a lot on the situation (as always!), however, if you are striking to kill then apparently a palm strike upwards on the nose is very deadly. Alternatively to push someone backwards with a hit to the chest (perhaps to buy time..) or maybe just cause they screwed up your knuckes or you do not condition effectively.. Anyhow, i think a fingertip/side hand strike can be very effective in street situation - to the neck, for example. Palm strike does have its uses however - apparently to the sternum it can cause very severe winding.. ..

Just thought i'd put down what Bruce Lee said about various arts: (editted by John Little but from Lee's own writings): Just to fire up a little conversation + it's not a bad analysis of quite a few of the most popular martial arts: He also stated: "Because we have two hands and two legs. Now the unfortunate thing is that there is boxing, which uses hands, and judo, which uses throwing. I'm not putting them down, mind you - but because of stles, people are separated." Street Fighting: Pro: 1) Lack of finesse in structure 2) Efficient sharpeningof "tools" generally lacking 3) Correct mental attitude Western Boxing: Pro: 1) Efficient footwork 2) Variety of punches (jab, hook, cross, uppercut) 3) Shoulder/chin in protection 4) Conditioning 5) In-fighting 6) Head and body movements Con:Set of restrictions and designed to defeat an opponent in a certain manner. Wrestling: Pro: 1) Leg Tackle 2) Uncrispy, economy rush 3) Protective Shell while moving in 4)Strangulation 5) Holds, locks 6) Ground fighting Con: Need to add ..hair pulling, groin grabbing, eye poking, shin pinching (study the old time illegal holds) Karate: Pro: 1) Tool Development: Balance/Form 2) Front Kick (Snap, Thrust) Con: 1) Need to stress greater mobility and aliveness 2) Need to modify upward snap (compare with savate) Tae Kwon Doe: Pro: 1) Leg Flexibility 2) Turning heel kick 3) Head ram Con: 1) Lacks contact 2) Lacks broken rhythm and aliveness 3) Lacks Variety Judo: Pro: 1) Balance 2) Osoto 3) Foot sweeps 4) Mat work (Locks, Chokes) Con: (need to add) Hair pulling, groin grabbing, eye poking, shin pinching Thai Boxing: Pro: 1) Elbows 2) Knees 3) Actual Combat Con: 1) Punching not of a high caliber (left jab is poor, uppercut almost non-existent, hook is inadequate) 2) Gloves prevent use of finger jab and palm smash 3) Lead foot attacks lacking (no knee/shin lead attack and groin attack) 4) No grappling tactics. 5) No 'under the belt' tactics 6) Scientific economical structure is lacking. Plus a lack of sophistication in cadence, timing, broken rhythm. 7) No hair pulling or scratching. Specialized all-in fighting: Pro 1) Poking eyes (long range jab, close range poke) 2) Pulling hair (immobilization, as release, as assist) 3) Biting (as release, to disable, to attack in close) 4)Grabbing groin 5) Specialize in under the belt attack with kicks, strikes, punches and grappling. Gung Fu Styles - Wing Chun Pro: 1) Teaches the economy of straight line 2) Nucleus punching 3) Chi sao - two halves of one whole Con: 1) Over-simplification 2) Lacks Variety Gung Fu Stles - Tai Chi Pro: 1) Estoric 2) The Flow Gung Fu Styles - Northern Styles: Pro: 1) Palm Strike 2) Variety to liberate Con: 1) Needs to add power 2) Needs to be more compact. Western Fencing: Pro: 1) Skillful use of front lead 2) Timing and cadence 3) Foil//saber//epee Kendo: Pro: 1) The Zen Approach 2) The determined clash 3) The footwork Aikido: Pro: 1) The Flow 2) Two halves of one whole 3) The footwork Con: 1) Needs to work on the idea of adding uncrispyness to snap (in their concept of flow) Enjoy.

I believe that Jackie Chan has come closest in terms of movie accomplishment - although Jet Li is superb (and while he isn't much of an artiste a lot of non-MA people think that Van Damme etc. are great) In terms of fighting i would say that Gracie is certainly superb. However, Oyama was also brilliant and often forgotten or not even heard of - he did also start his own 'style' (i know JKD is not a style but a philosophy but you know what i mean) in a similar way to Oyama (Kyukoshin Karate.) Kyukoshin is closest to a new style as JKD as oyama incorporated parts of Muay Thai and Wing Chun into his style - as well as Judo which he was also a 4th Dan in... However, none of these can compare to Bruce Lee as he was both a martial artist and a movie star. He was more importantly very good at both..neither has reached either to the same level as him in my opinion..although there is still time..

I would like to fight them i just wouldn't want the injuries afterwards! If i had to choose it would be the legendary Oyama and probably Bruce Lee. Seeing these two fight a few times would also be interesting! (course it's a bit too late for either of them..)