LordBucket

Something to consider: It may not a very well-loved fact, but it has been my observation that training in martial arts school pretty much always includes the teaching of a great many habits and ways of thinking that are downright stupid. It can be many things. Take me, for instance...my first style was Shotokan, and I lost my first fight because of the way it was taught. No...I didn't try fighting in a deep stance, but very simply the guy came in at me from an angle I had never seen before, and I basically froze. He simply walked towards me at a 45 degree angle and dropped to the ground, then in came in and up at me. Simple. Obvious, but because of my training up to that point, I had learned not to expect that. Let's take some other bad habits often taught in schools: Block, counterpunch. Or, punch in sets of three then wait. Sounds really dumb, and it is...and I've seen those patterns in pretty much every school I've attended. A person who simply wades in and alternates punches with either hand as fast as he can and never stops to block or defend himself will unfortunately, often do EXTREMELY well in a fight. Sparring practice at most (no, not all) schools involves memorizing routines that would never actually happen, as well as always stopping after a succesful hit. Both of these are obviously counterproductive habits to learn, but 90% of the schools I've seen train this way. So...who knows what the particular habits may be in the case you're discussing, but it might be that the guy is just rather talented, in good condition, good at learning from example, and never learned any of teh bad habits that the people is fighting did. Bucket Man --------------------------------------------- http://www.freewebs.com/ocmartialarts

Here in California, martial arts studios are almost as common as gas stations. Just off the top of my head I can thinks of places where there are studios in adjacent commercial centers with only one road between them...a two minute walk away. Unfortunately, a lot of them cater to...forgive the stereotype...dumb f*ing Americans. Personally I think that's why there can be so many of them so close. There are a lot of stereotypical overweight, fat lazy slobs who want to feel good about themselves...but are much too lazy, as well as too accustomed to immediate gratification to stay interested in any studio with standards. I once visitied a Tae Kwon Do school, for instance, in which the second highest ranking instructor could not consistently perform a spinning back kick with a straight leg. Maybe one out of three times her leg would never fully extend. You would think that this sort of place would do very badly, but frequently these places do very well simply because they cater to the sort of student who isn't interested in learning martial arts. They're there to be able to say to people 'Oh! I'm a black belt!' and feel good about themselves, so it doesn't really matter if they, or their instructors ever learn to be able to performs manoevers that would be expected after six months of practice. On the other hand, there are some excellent schools as well. Last Thursday night I skipped my Wushu class because of a knee injury and decided to go check out some other studio just for fun. I found a studio (also happened to be Tae Kwon Do) and saw an instructor teaching a children's class with whom I was very impressed. At one point, he was coaching some students on their roundhouse kick, and lightning fast spun his body halfway around (all while looking the student dead in the eye and speaking) and locked his kick up at head height. He held it for a few moments, then rechambered his leg and hips, paused another moment, and then whipped it out again, again paused, brought it back down to the ground and kept right on talking the entire time. Now...you've probably seen this before, probably a good number of you can do it yourself, but there's a certain point of skill at which somebody can do this sort of thing with such absolute nonchalance that it becomes impressive. He was there. He was also excellent with the kids, cheerful and did a good job of communicating his ideas. So sure...there are a lot of McStudio's out here. And there are a goodly number of good studios, and a few really great ones. I suppose that people take martial arts for a broad variety of reasons, and I happen to live in an area where pretty much anything you're looking for can be found, and it makes sense to me that the studio's I consider 'great' would probably be an absolutely dreafull experience to someone who was looking for a different sort of experience. It used to amaze me to see people stay totally loyal to their McStudio even after seeing somebody at half their rank at another studio easily perform manoevers that even their instructors couldn't do. I've seen it several times, though, and it doesn't amaze me anymore. People genuinely get different things out of their studios. Bucket Man

I've mostly managed to avoid the habitual bowing phenomenon, at least in embarrassing places, but I studied for several years at a very early age and somehow managed to get the idea of bowing very deeply ingrained in my head. Probably most of you will know what I'm talking about, but most Americans will nod an acknowledgement, or a hello by quickly jerking their heads upwards. I've always communicated the same with a slower downwards head motion. I must have done it for ten years before I even noticed the difference. It throws a lot of people off. The worst time it happened was in a High School weight lifting class. The teacher gave me an upward nod, and I responded with a downward nod, and he just stood there staring at me like I was crazy. Bucket Man

It was 'before my time' so to speak, but I heard a rather amusing story about a Shotokan instructor I once studied under. Allegedly he went in to a black belt test slightly congested from a cold. Now...remember this is Shotokan and try to visualize it...a cold Saturday morning...three or four guys lined up in seiza on the tatami patiently waiting for the judges to call them up. One at a time they go up, when called and perform their kata. Finally it's my instuctors turn. His name is called, he says 'Hai!' and rushes up and bows before the deathly silent and stern looking judges. There he is, trying to look all calm and meditative... 'Call your kata!' 'San-CHIN!!!' ...and hawks a great big wad of phlegm from his throat across the room right onto the table in front of the judges. Bucket Man

Evasion? Jamming? Why not just wait until he swings and then kick the bat into two pieces and beat him with one? Bucket Man