Hudson

Yeah, those are all pretty much styles you can condition at home. I would also suggest practicing Paper Tent.

I fully understand that, but I'm not quick to anger. I guess that may just be me.

First off, at some point, every black belt was a white belt. I don't know how any of you can say you'd be rude to white belts when you're "tired". You have to understand that a black belt is a useless piece of cloth that keeps your uniform on in some schools, in my old TKD school I had trained with a 4th grader with a black belt. Also, you'll hear people talking about "Black belts are just the beginning of your martial art, not the end.". That is mainly true, except all non-black belts have no right to say it. You can't assume that someone who is lazy in class was lazy the whole way to that rank. You don't know what blood and sweat was poured into making it happen, wether they actually did or not. So never, ever criticize black belts when you don't rank.

LOL Think Piston I don't know how to explain this, but what it means is lets say you have your arm at a 90 degree angle bend, and you want to move your fist straight forward. You must drive from your elbow, pushing it up which will force the fist out. The opposite of this is moving the forearm around, which is bad, no power from this. At least thats what I got from it. You might have learned the same things for thrust kicks both side and front, I know we use that theory in our style.

The arm training is fine, nothing is wrong with strong arms. Especially forearms! I think that on such a high weight low rep type of setup that I would agree with White Belt. Train Tuesday and Saturday, and get plenty of food, you should be well off.

I don't see how the bench press or pushups translate into punching power. If we are talking about a straight punch you aren't developing squat on the bench. White Warlock, yes, I know all about the false Shaolin claims. Unfortunately while some of it may be true you will realize that my post isn't about wether the "Shaolin Monk" trained 500 pushups a day, rather your opinions about 500 pushups a day. Thanks anyway

6x3 on the bench press isn't equal to 500 pushups. Especially at such low reps, high weight, you'd be getting all pumped up and big but would you have the endurance or the muscle density?

I get the impression that most of you expect a street fight to last a good bit. I train to reduce that time so if someone picks a fight it'll be over before you can say "roundhouse"

Hehe, don't take my word for it, I learned that from the Mortal Kombat video games. And who says fighting games aren't educational!

I recently read an article about a Shaolin monk who compared how he trains his Western students to how he was trained. He said that 500 pushups was a must every day and while he makes his students hold a stance for a minute or two at most, he was trained standing on cut logs holding perfect stances for an hour. I myself am getting ready to go to a school in Dengfeng (Or possibly new Shaolin village) and would like to know what you think on this method of training?

Interesting about overtraining by weightlifting and training on the same day. I didn't realize you could overtrain in one day. Before I can advise you tell me about your program - right now I would suggest soing your MA, then whatever muscle hasn't gone to failure, train.

The only way to get a quick start is to attend a great workshop. I recently had the pleasure of attending a bokken workshop and learning more in 3 hours then I ever could on the internet. But to learn Bokken/Katana styles, you need a school and an instructor.

Ninjutsu is all about hand seals that represent animals to summon up tricky moves so you can create shadow clones and shoot fireballs.

Maybe this isn't humor but I sure had a laugh. http://www.kiaigolf.net/

"It's getting dark and cold out." No offense, but unless it's snow and ice, I'm running. Wear sweatclothes. I guaruntee after a minute of good running the temperature is fine. And I know eating early may seem like a sin, but eating breakfast will definately help you lose weight. Set your alarm clock up extra early, make some time, have something healthy (Not coffee and doughnuts.) like muesli, fruits, nuts, etc; Ultimately there is a difference between talking on these forums and going out and training - and I think I'll go do some training right now

During application: "I'm fine, hit me harder!" --> You're killing me but I'm a tough guy. "A belt is just a piece of cloth." --> That black one you're wearing is awfully pretty though. "Before I came to this system, I trained *MA* for a little while" --> For a month. And ultimately: What they do: Kiai. What they're thinking: "WATAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

I can't count the times I've accidentally bowed to people/places. I know at work when I go from the storefront to the backroom it feels like I should be doing something I think I've done a lot of these things, I know at a buddies house once, I went out to get some snacks from his deck but got caught up stretching against the railing! I think the first time I realized I was doing thing subconciously was when I was on crutches and thought about techniques I could use in crane stance with a crutch

Camo belts are definately a no no. Also, showing up to class in a yellow jumpsuit with black stripes will get you laughed at. It's not halloween, stop being an imitation.

I have much respect for Drunken Monkey and MartialMan until they start fighting like children . But, I think it's been established, Pa-Kua/Bagua are definately "kung-fu".

They fought twice, or so the story goes. The first time that Gonnosuke Muso fought Musashi in battle, he was wielding a Jo, but Musashi quickly overtook him and won the duel. It was at that time that Gonnosuke Muso then shortened the Bo into a Jo, giving him much more speed to combat the swords of Musashi. He won this time, and became the founder of Jojutsu.

Well, thanks for the websites, I really wanted a personal account of similarities in the systems.

Heres the way I feel. Ground fighting and grappling are the least uncomfortable places to be to fight. Movement is restricted and then it becomes a fight of power versus a fight of skill. My first defense is of course, to walk away. My second is striking. I know that much of my evasive work is at angles, a lot of sidestepping, and evasive manuevers very likened to Dragon styles. Now, what can someone do to get me on the ground? Sweeps wont work, tackles are too slow, in fact, getting me on the ground is near impossible. If he tries a tackle, I will show him the other use for knees. Or a good strike to the neck. Assuming he does get me to the ground, he may overpower me but I will still be doing striking. Grappling is for sports. Striking is for combat.

It's ok, but I might suggest adding forearms curls, and shrugs or wrestlers bridge to get that neck built up. The chest isn't a big deal, so don't go crazy trying to get it Schwarzenegger sized, theres not much function to it. Abs are important, where are the crunches?

As far as fighting fit, your a lower fat level will help all around. You'll be lighter, speedier, able to get more power, and in tourny cases, fight in a lower weight class. Now, beers and such are just empty calories. I wouldn't suggest getting drunk ever for the obvious reasons, but a glass of wine would never hurt.

It's been said again and again. While a good percent of fights end up on the ground, they all start standing up. So what would I chose? Striking! Even if you get on the ground, there is still a huge amount of striking groundwork, especially in kicks. And if you had an open arm, a strike to the neck, ribs, head, etc; would end it pretty quickly.