Warp Spider

Geez, talk about pimping the pankration program.

I'd have to say bags/other people (willing people preferably ) are way better than using the air. The air is fine for when you are first learning a technique but things such as balance will not be accurately simulated by attacking air - when you strike something solid it can prevent you from losing your balance where a "missed" move could move you off balance. It's much better for combinations for that reason if you are hitting something.

Well, actually, your punches and kicks GAIN strength as they travel. Your muscles contract, accelerating the mass. At some point, the apex is reached and your limbs will begin decelerating. Your fists/legs do not start at their peak velocity and decelerate. High kicks and punches also have their place due simply to the target. Punching down will generate more power because you don't have to fight gravity, but how effective is punching someone in the knee? A high kick or punch can be used to attack the head, and head hits have a tendancy to disorient and stun the victim.

I believe atheism is the "I don't know how the universe works, and frankly, I don't give a crap." school of thought. That's how I'd define it at any rate. However, most "atheists" I've met actually believe in Oblivion as opposed to simply not caring.

I never said they were bad in the ring, or even bad fighters in person - just that a real fight would be different and would likely play out very differently than the same fight in a UFC arena. I imagine that the majority of fighters in the UFC would be pretty good in a real fight as well - but that doesn't mean that UFC is an accurate simulation of fighting - it's a tournament, and it's meant to be fair. Real fights aren't fair. One person invariably is in a better tactical position, be that proximity to potential weapons, height advantage, natural hazards, etcetera. In UFC there is no leaping up on a table to deliver a low kick to the face - no having a bottle smashed over your head - no pool cues in the back from someone's buddy - no accounting for surprise - no bricks to throw - nothing. Believe it or not, most fights don't start on a timer with both persons staring at each other waiting to start. If a person actually wants to cause you harm there's a good chance they won't "tap out" when you have them in a position to break their arm or are causing them serious pain. After all, they may be trying to kill you - why should they believe that you'll stop because they cry uncle? Instead they'll probrably find something nearby on the ground to hit you with using the other arm. Maybe they'll throw dirt in your face or even bite you. (Although it's considered fighting dirty and not allowed in UFC, biting is in effect an additional striking limb, and most holds do not offer any protection against being bitten.) And guess what - falling on a mat isn't that bad. Falling headfirst or facefirst into pavement or any kind of solid floor generally has quite an effect on the hapless victim. I agree that you probrably would find very few volunteers to participate in "real," no holds barred fighting. You would also have difficulty finding someone to insure it, seeing as at least one party would be almost guaranteed to be seriously injured, potentially crippled, in every fight. That sort of tournament is not likely to happen.. but until it does, I think it's hardly fair to say that one art is more effective than another under circumstances that don't even approach those of any real altercation. That's like saying my car is faster than a porche because it would fall faster when driven off a cliff. Yes, it would move faster... but that doesn't make it a simulation of an actual race. Similarly, one fighter may submit in UFC, but that doesn't make it a simulation of an actual fight.

Umm.. no offense, but you're wrong. This is sheer logic. Flex your muscle. Now wrap a comforter around it as many times as you can. Your arm should now be at least twice as thick. Flex again. You'll find you can't attain as small an angle at your elbow joint. Your flexibility has a soft limit in the joints that can be altered with stretches. It has a hard limit where the two things that are jointed collide. Attempting to move beyond the soft limit causes you to "feel the stretch." Attempting to move beyond the hard limit causes actual pain as your are attempting to crush your own flesh in the biological nutcracker you've constructed. When was the last time you saw a bodybuilder walk on his hands with his legs wrapped behind his head? I dare you to find a guy over 250 pounds that can.

Depending on the relative heights and your level of flexibility.. If you are the same height or shorter you could crouch under the roundhouse, then when it passes over lunge upward to flip them over. This requires a good bit of flexibility to crouch low enough without catching the roundhouse in the head though. If you are taller and can jump high you could skip over the leg and do a kick to the face. If you can't jump that high or crouch that low I'd recommend backing up and then chucking something heavy at them. Alternatively, you could back up, then rush them as soon as the leg passes you and go for a spearing tackle. I don't know how legal these moves are for tournaments, however.. I understand they want you to do moves primarily from the art you are studying as opposed to tackles.

UFC is lame. Next time you get in a fight tell me if it's in a square arena with no obstacles and a padded mat. Professional wrestling is more realistic - at least they sometimes pick up chairs and bats.

What farmer? I don't get it. What's the relevance of this to the thread?

You might want to consider that not everyone on this board is from the same country. The laws will be different in most countries. In Canada, your foot is a deadly weapon, regardless of training, if it strikes another person's head. Breaking a person's arm is breaking a person's arm, whether you do it with an arm-bar or a crowbar. Similarly, no law says you can't defend yourself with a submachine gun, if it's self defense, it's self defense. You would get charged for carrying the submachinegun, unless you had an appropriate license to do so, but not specifically for using it in self-defense. "Self defense" is not a crime, it is a plea. You can be charged with anything, if it's self-defense, you'll be found not guilty. (in theory) The distinction with training only comes into play if you are determined to have been an antagonist and are found guilty of a crime, in which case whether your hands would be considered deadly weapons depends on whether or not the judge/jury felt you had the reasonable capacity to kill a person with your bare hands.. which most black belts probrably do. I do believe that some places will register their black belts, as in case you ever flip out and start attacking people, it would help the police take appropriate action (likely opening fire or at least using batons) instead of attempting the takedowns that the police are trained in. (which are likely inferior to those a black belt would be practiced with.)

How about you test the brown belt's against people at the same belt level to determine if they should advance? As far as I understand it, a practitioner with a black belt is supposed to be able to fight better than a practitioner with a brown belt.. so then theoretically they should be able to have good success sparring against all of the other brown belts before advancing. It seems logical to me.. you could periodically hold a "tournament" of full-contact sparring and the best could be promoted a rank - obviously if they won they know what they're doing.

Alternatively you could get a job and then you wouldn't have to break the law, risk viruses, and play crappy ripped versions. In addition, with many pirated games mods will not work. (there are exceptions to this however)

Spray a crapload of raid behind the bed and see if it stops. If it does, it was bugs. If it doesn't... try another can.

Being able to take solid hits in vital areas doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Ki. Harry Houdini could do it too, and he wasn't a Ki practitioner. Well, until he got hit by surprise and died as a result. (Technically it wasn't proven that having his appendix ruptured CAUSED the appendicitis that he died from soon after, but I'd say it was extremely likely the cause. )

I believe the traditional way to block is to deflect the person's limbs by guiding their forearms away, but that could work too.

The relevance of this thread to Ki seems limited, but at any rate - humans already use 100% of their brain. The statement that they only use 10% refers only to the volume of space that the brain occupies and that in theory a brain 10 times the size could be crammed into that space if the human brain didn't have so much "filler" in it. That does not mean that the remaining 90% can be unlocked, any more than I can unlock the power in my car doors to make it go faster. Only the engine generates power to the drive wheels, and although there is wasted space in there that could house more engine, that requires the actual addition of more engine, not the "unlocking" of engine that's supposedly already there. As far as the bit about lifting the car goes.. it is possible, it's called shock and it's been known for a long time. Whenever a human being suffers severe trauma (usually injury) they enter shock which overrides their bodies natural responses to pain, etc. to allow the person to escape danger. A good example of this is people who are in car accidents. Many times a person will emerge from their vehicle, clearly in very bad shape, walking around normally worrying about their car. The shock lasts only a few dozen seconds, however, and then the person, who felt fine, collapses to the ground as their brain's built-in "safety limits" kick back in. As for the mentality of thinking you can't do something.. well... falling 3 meters isn't that bad if you are in good shape, and many kids are. I fell from the roof of my school and barely felt it. Breaking boards or concrete slabs has nothing to do with "thinking you can," there is a specific technique to it that is completely unrelated to Ki.

I wouldn't really worry about which is better, short or tall, because your options for changing your own height are extremely limited. Although it is not technically impossible to have your height altered through cosmetic surgery, I imagine the time spent in recovery would be better spent practicing.

... When I took Karate blocks we first did a few straight punches, then some kicks, then about three types of punch blocks. I am quite confident that punches can be blocked as I have done it numerous times. Generally speaking you can work a counterattack into the block. However, like they said in that movie, "the Karate Kid," "best block is no block." Dodging the haymaker is probrably the best solution. This could be combined with an attack of some sort if you are sufficiently skilled to do so, but as mentioned earlier, the capacity to counterattack while dodging the haymaker implies that you are more skilled than the opponent, which may well not be the case. Usually a skilled opponent would not use a haymaker but that is not to say that it would not happen. If you can land a good square one to the target's head it's almost a sure knockout, or at least enough to stun the person for several seconds.

Pressure points hurt, but for the most part aren't particularly injurious. Pain can cause submission or distraction, but if a person is intoxicated/high or simply a focused attacker, pain will not stop them. In my opinion, trying for pressure points isn't worth it. "Sure it hurts, but you have a footprint on your face. Was it worth it?"

I think that cross-training is very important - if not to expand your own arsenal at least to get a thorough understanding of what's out there. It's possible that another martial art will contain a manuever your art has no counter for - it's much better to discover this through cross-training than in a competition or in a real fight.

It's worth noting that boxers/kickboxers/muay thai-type martial arts numb you to pain big time. Do you think boxing gloves are full of padding and foam? They're there so you don't break your hands. Look at how many times a boxer gets nailed in the face with full force without flinching. It barely has any effect. An experienced practitioner of muay thai probrably wouldn't feel a thing if you hit them in the shin. Hard work (which is what generally causes large muscles) will have a similar effect. The best approach against large, muscular opponents is arm-bars, etc. Large muscles restrict your flexibility making these attacks more painful. Large muscles tend to be very hard so unless you can punch rocks with full force and not hurt yourself, you will hurt yourself more than you hurt the target if you punch them.

I think some of you might have a flawed idea of what a knife fight is like - others seem to know what they are talking about. As someone who actually practices knife fighting as an offensive art, allow me to give you some insight into how one might defend against such attacks. Grabbing his arm and disarming him? It works great! In fact, a friend of mine who practices Jiu Jitsu wanted to demonstrate his disarm and ended up slashed (with the practice knife thing) across the jugular, stomach, face, and a half dozen times along the wrist and forearm. Versus A Skilled Attacker ----------------------------- Most knife disarms revolve around you being able to at least decently access the knife hand. The techniques most of the people on this topic have described would be useless. A slashing attack can be executed in a tiny fraction of a second with practice - you cannot even see the blade in motion. The rest of the time a skilled user will be guarding the blade either close to their body or by using the knife defensively. How do you expect to block or grab the arm? Most knives weigh very little and do not make a slow, fluid arc like in the movies. A knife attack by a skilled user cannot be seen coming, unless you are already crippled and they are going to plunge the entire blade into you. By the time any skilled attacker were going to execute a move like that you would likely already have both your wrists cut as well as your throat. Skilled knife users do not have to "wind up" to cause you a fatal injury. They generally do not go berserk and go into a flurry of stabbing attacks or slashing attacks. It's worth considering that knife fighting is a martial art just like any you practice, and your opponent may well have trained as hard as you have. Any distraction technique will not cause them to lose their focus. This, coupled with the fact that their blade is far better at causing harm than your hands are, makes nearly any martial artist outclassed versus a skilled knife wielding opponent. You might as well attempt to fight an electric fence, only instead of an electric shock, you'll be mortally wounded every time you go close. Versus an Unskilled Attacker ----------------------------------- If your attacker has little to no practice with a knife, you at least have a chance. They may hold it in front of them in an attempt to ward you off. This is the only position that can effectively be disarmed. Fortunately, this is the position most commonly assumed by inexperienced knife fighters. The techniques people have listed in this topic may have decent success against this this stance. However, you still stand a good chance of being cut. Some will hold it above their head to bring down on you when you come close. This is fairly simple to defend against if you are much stronger than the attacker. If you are not much stronger... well.. it's still better than the alternative, getting a knife plunged into your back or skull. Against any other stance, you are almost guaranteed to be injured, likely severely. If the knife is sharp, (and most are) and swung hard, it stands a good chance of going DEEP. If it hits your arm it may go right THROUGH. Fortunately you can block or dodge this type of attack if skilled enough. Quick attacks are extremely difficult to block or dodge, but fortunately you can survive a few of them if you have the outside of your arms turned toward the blade. Versus Multiple Unskilled Attackers ---------------------------------------- Things don't look good. If you're all alone and they want to kill you, at least try to shout some good last words. Versus Multiple Skilled Attackers ------------------------------------- Pray. You're dogmeat. Now, the way to defend: First try to determine if the other person has any skill with a knife. If they pull out the knife and hold it in one of the positions described in the unskilled portion, they are probrably unskilled. If they are skilled, you probrably will not know that they have a knife until you feel something cold on your skin, but they may pull it out and hold it in a combat stance. You can USUALLY identify a skilled attacker who has pulled a knife because they don't generally screw around and play with the knife - they will be in position long before you are in range. Firstly, RUN! Why do you think soldiers carry knives? Because they are deadlier than an assault rifle at close range. Would you try to fight an attacker with an assault rifle pointed at you? Failing that, if you cannot run because you are trapped, an injured spouse/friend is unable to escape and you will not abandon them, etc, try everything short of fighting. If they want your money, hand it over. Failing that, if they just want to cut you for the heck of it.. try to determine how badly they want to hurt you. If they are clearly going to attempt to kill you or someone near you, fight with all you've got. Skilled knife fighters will generally only pull out the knife when they intent to kill you. Many unskilled users will use it only as an intimidation tactic. In that case, stalling for time is the best. They may eventually get tired of harassing you and leave you alone. If they see their intimidation is not working, they will often get frustrated. Sometimes an unskilled attacker will genuinely attempt to harm you. The only good advice I can give there is to try the distraction technique described above. If they are attempting to cause you actual harm getting the first strike may make the difference. If you can surprise them by attacking suddenly mid-sentance (assuming you are within appropriate range) you may be able to cause enough harm before they get re-oriented to remove their knife or cause them to drop it. Being surprised will loosen their grip greatly. Being subsequently clobbered/hit/thrown will often cause it to fall from their hand. Remember - most street fights will not end in your death even if you lose. Knife fights can result in your death even if the other person did not mean to kill you. A grazing blow/near miss with a fist or leg you will barely feel. A grazing blow with a sharp knife can easily cripple you.

Well... the English language is defined by those that speak it. Just because someone publishes a dictionary does not make their interpretation of a word more correct than any other given persons. A common set of definitions is generally accepted for the sake of more efficient communication, but it is by no means a requirement. For instance, some dictionaries have been updated to include such "words" as "dot-com," "bling," and even "McJob." These were words, with meanings, before the dictionary was updated. (Granted, I do not consider any of those three to be actual words, and I usually ignore people who say them, but I recognize that they still carry meaning to those that use them.) It seems that you and DarkClyde disagree on the definition of the term "Master." I personally would define a "master" of something as someone who could command or use that thing at a whim - to that end I would say that a person had mastered Ki (assuming it exists) when they could create, shape and form it at a mere whim, requiring no actual effort or investment on the part of the user. A ki ball seems to be a popular example of shaping Ki, so I would say that when a person is capable of generating one without meditation, without putting their hands together - all they have to do is think about it and it's there - then I would say that that person had mastered the technique of making a ki ball. Similarly the ability to knock over cards at a distance would be mastered when a practitioner was capable of doing so merely by thinking about it - theoretically the act could be performed even if completely paralyzed.