White Warlock

welcome 3g

I was educated to the concept that there are very few actual learning disabilities, and that what is most commonly labeled as such is actually learning incompatibilities. I.e., there are different ways of learning and most instructors (and the general education system as a whole) apply the 'most common' education formats. That which works for the majority, but which is clearly unfair to the minority. Take, for instance, left handers and how they were treated for centuries before someone finally put their foot down on the subject. I'm left-handed and i actually was forced to write with my right hand by not one, but two different teachers. That's two years of my life where i was being 'punished' for being a left-hander. Granted, this was in the late 60's, but the left hand / right hand dilemna was only recently resolved, and yet it is far more 'obvious' than that of tactile vs auditory vs read/write, etc. Consider this and then consider whether a child who doesn't do well in school is actually at fault... or simply being handed a complex by the status-quo.

Fight their fight, you lose. The "what if" mentality is what gets many people to think 'defense.' It's not a good way to think. You have to accept the fact that you might get hit a few times, and just get down to business. I noted you have wing chun and aikido listed as your styles. The appropriate action would have been for your friend to change gears, and take care of business. On a note. When you're practicing with someone, they are in the 'share and share alike' mentality. They're not in the sparring mentality. So if you were practicing wing chun, and then decided to escalate on him, he very likely just didn't make the transition out of 'maintaining respect' and ensuring your safety. This happens a lot and it is unfortunate. Not unfortunate that he didn't switch, but unfortunate that you capitalized on the trust. My recommendation... don't do that. If you are training, then train. If you wish to spar, make sure your partner knows this in advance and you have both stipulated what the rules are going to be. Your action pretty much switched training to sparring, without defining the rules, and therein posed a dilemna in your friend's mind of, "what am i allowed to do" rather than "what should i do." Be aware of the difference here... for it is huge.

Welcome Spin. Nunchakus are one of my favorite weapons. I prefer 'applicable' techniques over flash. Will check out your site.

WolverineGuy makes a very valid point. The weight of the barbell is not even remotely important in comparison to proper form. Don't go for weight, go for burn. What you're feeling doesn't sound like burn and i'm in agreement with Thuggish that it sounds like you're injuring the adhesion of your muscles to your bones (i.e., what happens in shinsplints), rather than building your muscle strength. Aim for a lighter weight, focus on proper form, and you'll get a much healthier burn.

Hehe, always and never. I always worry about it after i get a new injury and forget entirely once i step on the mat. But, the truth of the matter is, most of my injuries were received 'outside' of the mat. The facts are, regardless of whether it is martial art injuries or daily life incidents and accidents, you will obtain them. The best you can do is care for your body, go to your doctor when something breaks, and keep on going. To worry resolves nothing, but it sure does waste a lot of energy.

Ah, okay... found what the tangent to this thread was all about. There are a multitude of different jujutsus, some drastically different than others. The main difference seems to stem on what they concentrated on. I.e., whether they focus on throws, locks, strikes, or groundwork. A side. Helio Gracie learned from a Japanese jujutsu instructor living in Brazil, as did the elder Machado. This small niche of students found that specializing on groundwork made a huge difference when it came to dealing with challengers (mixed martial arts), and thus bjj was born. But, there are many jujutsus in Japan that focus on groundwork (and did prior to the bjj fad), so it is unfair to say that the Gracies or Machados created it. All they did was work on what was previously created by Japanese masters, and essentially put their name to it. Just to smack this one down. judo, as i was earlier reminded, was born from 3 different jujutsu systems. Aikido, on the other hand, was born from aikijutsu (not jujutsu) and incorporated kendo techniques. Also, there are strikes in aikido. Strikes are often included as a precursor to a technique, as a means to disrupt or to create imbalance. Essentially, aikido is the art of capitalizing on imbalance, whether the person is imbalanced by their own actions, or whether the aikidoist induces the imbalance... it is relevant only in the respects of what techniques would be applied. Also, momentum is not quite the right word, and is only slightly less correct than calling the strikes in karate a use of momentum. A stationary target can be confronted by an aikidoist and the generation of motion in the uke can be developed, rather than encouraged. More appropriately, it should be called 'accelerating motion.' An aikidoist capitalizes on, or creates, imbalance and then encourages that imbalance to create motion. He then further encourages the motion, accelerating it. And in many, but not all, techniques he then interrupts that motion by posing either an immovable force or a contra-motive force (clothesline anyone?).

There's Gracie jujutsu, Brazilian jujutsu as taught by the Machado brothers, a small handful of other respectable bjj groups, and then there are a lot of posers attempting to capitalize on ignorance.

I truly doubt something like that will be made. Extremely hard to referee, huge possibility of serious injury, and it will be tough finding 'skilled' fighters willing to rely on others (the vast majority are lone wolves).

I'm 40. My injuries are the only things that are holding me back. Once i'm fixed up again, i should be fine for another 20 years or so. As you get older, you don't heal as quickly and your body doesn't condition as well, but that doesn't mean you're out of the game. I've found that as i've grown older, i rely more on thinking, leverage, and positioning, and less on brute force. Those who can make the transitional dependency from body to mind will continue to train. Those who cannot, will not.

My absolute best bag was my military duffel bag that i converted to a punching bag. I filled it with a mixture of sand and mattress foam (cut up into itty bitty pieces). Dang thing weighed a ton, but it was great. I put an extra layer of foam and foam fragments at the bottom of the bag, knowing that sand would eventually succumb to gravity.

Actually, i think san soo would be well suited to this, but i'm biased. I can't recall any system other than san soo that drilled in reacting to multiple-adversaries. On the other hand, i can't recall any system that drilled in co-op reactions to multiple adversaries. Seems the smartest tactics in this would be for the majority of the group to act as a wedge, segregating one of the opposition, and have a two-man smackdown team to take him out... then continue the process. Taking out the weakest link first will allow for the wedge to work like a charm. Sun Tzu's Art of War is running around in my head at the moment... hehe.

Your kempo is a good system. Would love to gleen from it. Was that a question? lol, just messing with you about your punctuation. Poway is near where i have my office, but it's relatively far from where i live. Planning on getting together with lazy scholar and possibly setting up a regular workout time once things calm down here (busy trying to keep my friend's small business from going under). Tell me what you're thinking of.

My intro http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=12269

That is not what i experienced, nor is it the case traditionally, from what i understand. This would be the case with silambam. What needs to be stated right off the bat, is that kalaripayit is mostly a study in Indian spiritualism (not the right word, but it's what most people associate these things with). We spent a significant amount of time talking, postulating, and warming up. The majority of the training, when we went into it, didn't really feel like a martial art training in the normal sense of the word. After a full month of blissful massage, i spent an exhorbitant amount of time posing (wish i could all it something else, but that's what it felt like and that's what it is called) and performing motion drills (doing so helped strengthen my knees, as most of it was with bent knee). Eventually () we began the drills, which felt more like yoga on steroids, with aggressive exercises (obviously, i'm simplifying... but not by much). There are two styles of kalaripayit. Northern and southern. Northern is more flashy and incorporates high-flying kicks and such. I was told that silambam branched off of this style. I practiced southern styles, which is cruder and more focused on muscle/power. Using my range comparisons, northern empty-hand would be 2-5 and southern would be 1-3, with a little bit of 0. Weapon ranges, of course, cover almost all ranges. Warm-ups, motion exercises, animal stances (poses), footwork drills, a very low center, far too much stretching for my liking (i do not like stretching, mind you), and controlled, but full-contact sparring were the norm. I did not encounter any katas, although i understand some masters teach them. There was some good learning from all of it, in that it opened my eyes to many things i had not previously perceived. I'll get into that more later, as it really doesn't have to do with kalaripayit, per se. More like my interpretations of things i learned in that time, which i find universally applicable and 'different' than what is generally taught in other systems. Suffice it to say, kalaripayit is 'real,' in the sense that what they practice does work. I also found this site, http://www.indiatraveltimes.com/kalarippayatu/ , which gives interesting information on kalaripayit. A lot of what is being discussed there i don't recognize, which causes me to think i didn't learn enough, or what i learned wasn't entirely traditional. Doesn't bother me though. What i learned was beneficial to me at the time.

Interesting. And you live in Galesburg, Illinois?

Thuggish, i'm going to have to agree with angelica's statement. In the arts you mentioned, your opposition tends to dictate the amount of energy you apply... so if you're lazy and undisciplined, these are good systems to get into. Most traditional arts emphasize discipline, self-discipline. If you're approaching it well, you will push yourself, rather than require opposition to push you. Last, to make your arguments by posing 'katas' vs bags and sparring is entirely unfair. Most traditional arts incoporate sparring, bag work, and other things you stated as 'only' belonging to modern arts. As well, there are moments in so-called modern arts that emphasize solo practice on technique... that's a kata.

More aptly DLopez, it's interesting to see how the 'rest' of the world has developed their own distinct styles when you consider they were 'based' on these styles (kalaripayit and silambam).

Agree with Jerry. To take a demo and place it in an armbar, is to take it out of context. The unbendable arm is a 'demonstration' of a principle that does have application, if incorporated into your entire mindset. It is not limited merely to the arm, nor... in application, is it blatantly exploitable.

Bah! Go out there, make a thousand sit-ups and jump in the next UFC next week. Sheesh, it's just surgery, where they chop things up, tie them together and leave their signature on your bones. No biggie. Hehe, glad it went well and don't be in a hurry to get back on the mat. Let your body do its job, so that you can later do yours. (we're all so loaded with advice, eh?)

Excellent point Michigan. There are exceptions to this, on both sides of the fence... but they are exceptions.

Bah! You're right. I hate it when i get stubborn. Almost all of my mat-induced injuries were from wrestling and judo, so for me to argue this point further would be hypocritical. On a side, my reference to competitions were in regards to full-contact, wrestling, judo, or mma-type. I competed once in point contact, and never again. I never entered forms competition. No interest. I suppose, subconsciously, i do not include point and forms as 'martial art' competitions... although that is clearly not nice on my part.

Is there 'any' ritual in boxing, wrestling, bjj, or shootfighting? In the context of my usage, i was referring to them having ritual... but i think you missed the word i used prior to the word "degree" - "traditional systems hold to philosophical roots and incorporate a degree of ritual" The important part here is having philosophical roots. The amount of ritual is not nearly as important as the philosophical mindset stemming from an adherence to ancient philosophies (i.e., philosophical roots).

These are stick drills from kalaripayit.