Reklats

Then just give him your damn wallet. But what if he's a terrorist exclusively out to kill me for Allah? Since you're in the street already, find a piece of broken glass and try to grapple on it.

Exactly Treebranch. Punching air instead of a bag teaches people to internalize the punching force and reduces power.

Sorry, my first post wasn't clear. Here's an analogy: Lets pretend there are two race cars that have to go a quarter mile as fast as possible, then stop in the next 100 yards or they go off a cliff. One car has normal brakes, the other car has brakes AND a parachute to slow it down. The chute equipped car can be going faster when it crosses the finish line because it has better stopping ability. The other car has to start slowing down sooner if it wants to stop in time. The same thing applies to hands and feet. If you're used to punching a bag you learn to keep accelerating your fist until it hits the bag and stops. If you're used to punching air you're used to beginning the deceleration of your hand early so you stop before your arm reaches full extension. Or like Hugh says you punch your joints apart. I didn't literally mean "accelerate through the bag", I meant "mentally accelerate until the last possible moment." I expressed it poorly though.

Dude, you're arguing with a 13 year old tkd white belt. I know a muay thai practicioner and I would NOT like to stay clinched with him, but if he had to fight from his back he wouldn't know what to do.

When you punch or kick a bag, you accelerate your limb all the way through the target. Then your limb hits the bag and stops. When you practice the same strikes with exertion against the air you're subconciously stopping your limb by the time it reaches point of imaginary impact so you don't fall over/lose your balance. All your strikes become internal forces, or tutu fairy dance moves, if you will. Unfortunately I've seen people where this is their primary way of training punches and kicks. Then they side kick the bag and fall over.

All I said originally was that punching air with a vengence (aka tae bo) hurts power.

They don't shadowbox to develop power. I'm not a boxer but I believe its more of an exercise to work out combos and rhythm.

I agree. The first 5 or so UFC's were great in their unique style vs style way.

You mean he did kata? E x c e l l e n t. Why all the Royce vs. so and so matches? How old is the man now? 40 something?!? How about something that'll REALLY never happen, like Ortiz vs. Liddel

I didn't mean for that statement to be all-inclusive of everyone that posts here. However the martial arts practicioners who I do know make this relatively clear to me. Did you read my post before you replied? I disaprove of your attacks on her writing style because in doing so you ignored the points she was trying to make. However, in re-reading the thread from the beginning I'll admit that I overemphasized teh amount of personal attacks on her. She is arrogant, but I think something has to be deserving of respect before you can disrespect it. My first post was about the top four articles. She doesn't use personal attacks to take away from someones otherwise good point. That's the difference.

I think they bring up great points about how stagnant a lot of martial arts are becoming. I did taekwondo for a year, and wasted a year learning what I could've absorbed in a couple months in another art, without all the baggage of useless techniques. If anything your responses are an example of why this happens. Rather than address the points that she makes in her articles you attack a weakness of her presentation (her arrogance). You bring up the (same old) complete * excuse ways out to explain her comments. She's "disrespectful" seems to be the one right behind arrogant in frequency used. I think she's a person who is committed to martial arts (3 black belts, and 4 years apiece IS par for the course out there) and is expressing her opinions about some serious problems with martial arts today. Most of you people refuse to even refute her points. I should've been more specific and pointed to a particular article instead of just a link to the page. SOmeone even attacked one of the non-martial arts related articles! Red herring anyone? I think the people who are ultimately disrespectful are the "masters" and the teachers, senseis, whatever, who teach garbage and exploit the name of martial arts. They prostitute these mockeries of martial arts to people who don't know any better, which seems to be most people. Especially in these traditional forums I see so many people with listed styles that were once probably deadly arts, with lots of tradition behind them. Now they're taught a shell of the former art. They memorize dances, they learn terminology, they don't really learn how to fight, and they THINK they're getting the whole deal when they're not. The worst ones are the people who blindly defend what they're taught, who are foolishly loyal to the "masters" who've betrayed them the most. It makes me sick when people immediately resort to personal attacks before it occurs them to think about what she was trying to say, and to at least think about how or if it applies to what they're learning. Instead they choose to don blinders, and run obliviously down the path towards a worthless trinket black belt. Yours in only two years if you pay the "examination" fees.

Wow, it only took two sentences for you to be a hypocrite.

Punching or kicking air hard trains you to decelerate your limbs early which hurts your power. TAKBULLDOG - get the hell out of there before you waste any more time. As for the gun/knife thing: Realize that every person who's ever committed a murder in a fight in the last hundred years has claimed self defense. The police/judges/courts hear this every day. If you REALLY look at your chances, the probability of killing someone and getting away with it is almost zero. It has to be amazingly clear cut to get away with a self defense plea. Courts have no problem sentencing people who killed defending themselves.

I bet its really funny to watch someone use that. Someone trying to fight off a swarm of killer bees comes to mind.

I think its a good point- most traditional places spend tragically more time than its worth practicing fixed patterns instead of doing things that would really help them.

I just randomly found this site while surfing around during a break from studying. I read one of these articles, then read all four, and realized that this person states my beliefs PERFECTLY, and more eloquently than I ever could. What do you guys think? http://sezme.twistedpair.net/subindex/kar_ind.htm

A shootfigher is more rounded.

What? Blocking with the part of your foot full of small bones hurts less?

Since this is gonna get closed anyway, I vote a 12 year old who drank 3 cans of red bull could beat ANYONE doing EITHER style. Ernesto Hoost? My moneys on teh middleschooler.

Bleehehhhhhh

I'd really have to believe a threat before I went into "kill while I have the advantage" mode. Or it'd have to be someone I really didn't like.

Excellent.

TKD is better than nothing. I did TKD for a year before I saw the light. The big things I had to change was learning to do a Thai kick with momentum instead of a flippy tkd roundhouse, and keeping my head protected from punches as well as kicks. Well, and to kick with my shin instead of my instep, and to never try and turning back sidekick someone, and to eliminate crescent, hook, and wheel kicks from my arsenal... ok, I changed a whoile lot of stuff, but it still helped me more than if I had done nothing.

To a grappler: But what about broken glass on the ground?!?

I thought you asked me a question.