SoonerJohn

Is this a sharp pain or dull throbbing pain?

I've not read the 8 pages so my response has probably already been said. If I got second hand information about what someone said or implied about my instructor, I would not go around making challenges in anger. You need to learn from this, but it will be hard for you, harder than any of your training in fact. As far as Musashi, he had no master nor needed anyone to fight for him. Furthermore, if he knew what he knew when he was old as a young man, he never would have fought all of those death matches. The simple truth he learned through a lifetime of experiences was very tedious.

I still wouldn't discount either approach. The only issue at hand is how practical it is to constantly carry a gun as compared to how practical it is to learn a martial art or any basic disarming procedure. If a guy comes at you with a knife, you simply go the opposite direction while drawing or use a sidekick while drawing. If he has a gun, well, your probably just screwed if he gets the drop on you anyway. If he is close enough to you when he starts to pull the weapon out I'd say disarm him. Personally, I'm not to sure I could successfully disarm someone who had a gun pointed at me unless he was real close or drugged. A simple side step, back step and your probably gonna take a bullet. Of course having a gun gives you no real hope in this situation either unless the guy makes a stupid mistake. A real life story I remember reading was similar to this scenario in that a guy had two assailants approach him with a gun drawn. He had a concealed weapon as well. He knew he couldn't draw his weapon and was forced to take them back to his house so they could rob him. He knew he was in trouble and waited till he could draw his weapon and was successful in killing one assailant and disabling the other. In that situation, martials arts disarming would have been severely restricted and probably innefective. Both have their effective roles its just a matter of practicality. Some people may not be able to effectively learn a martial art and this should be considered as well. Personally, I have a gun, but it never gets taken out of the nightstand anymore. I just hope I have a good pair of running shoes on if a bad situation happens.

Why not do both?

I'd say worst case would be anyone with a weapon. I'd try to control it by keeping something in between us while I tried to either find a path to escape or wait for help while I talked to them calmly and let them feel they were in control of the situation. Now embarissing worst case scenario would be if a woman or handicap person started attacking me. I think I could defend myself well enough, but I would just have to take the beating and would try to get away as soon as I could.

The one thing I've learned about heavy hitters is that they aren't so much concerned about what you are going to do. They are mainly concerned with what their plan of attack is and tend to not pay much attention to your plan of attack. I understand its hard to learn counters when you aren't that experienced, but ask your instructor for some specific advice.

Here is a tip. A measuring tape scares dogs. Pull a length out and wobble the metal up and down. I'm not sure if its the noise or the motion of the tape, but they will back down. A meter reader told me about this, I tried it on my neighbors dog who always growls at me and that dog ran faster than a cheetah.

I think I could do enough to be able to escape a street fighter. If it was a barefisted brawl in a controlled setting, I'd even like my chances of beating him in a fight to domination. Unfortunately, the idea of actually meeting him somewhere else is frightening. It steps out of bounds of what I consider acceptable danger for me to engage. Knives, bats, bottles, etc., really scare me. I've been hit with a bottle and chased with a bat, both are something I don't want to happen again.

Yesterday while sparring I took a hard back thrust kick right to the groin. Anyway, I'm concerned because I still have pain today. Should I get to the doctor? Or is this just left over bruising causing pain?

Instead of using a watermelon, try using a cat! Just joking, I love cats, its just that dogs are better.

You may also be breathing wrong. Read the following link, it has some good info. http://tkdtutor.com/06Theory/Breath/BreathControl.htm More likely you are just not used to the motions. As your body adjusts you will perform them much more efficiently.

It seems it has become the norm now for people I train with to come into training while having a cold. I don't like it, but I don't feel its my place to say anything either. Last year I got a cold from someone during training and had to miss a week. I don't want it to happen this year. So far this year several people have actually been so sick they were coughing quite consistently. I'd admire their dedication, but don't want to get infected. Any suggestions?

Do this with your eyes and see what happens. P.S. Good luck to ya!

Pilates is for you!

Congratulations and condolences. I hate back pain.

I remember seeing a study done on this. It was something like 10% of people would actually interfere, 80% would follow the lead, and 10% would panic or not help. Been a while, so those are just approximations of what the actuall results were. On a side note, I had a friend that interfered in a situation where a guy slapped a girl with full force. He just walked up and punched him with a cross straight to the jaw. Knocked him out and the girl then jumped on my friend kicking and scratching. So sometimes you have to be careful.

It wouldn't really be all that useful, but balance and coordination should be slightly improved. In reality, a few months of BJJ won't do much for getting you on a HS wrestling teams. At least not as an A-team wrestler. Too much experience to deal with. On second thought, I forgot about the lower weight classes. Our squad sometimes had a hard time filling the low weight classes.

Well, he had me laughing.

I remember seeing an interview with Mr. McMahon. He was talking about Ted Turner calling him and telling him he was getting into the wrestling business. McMahons response was, "Thats great, I'm in the entertainment business." Based on that, I'd say that he thinks its not a martial art.

I don't know if its a martial art, but those guys are very athletic and I wouldn't want to fight them.

An old pair of Dan Gables. Wish I could find a new pair.

I think it does cause injuries by lifting too much. I've got rotator cuff problems every so often now from lifiting what I thought was too much. Of course I read the article in Mens Health this month about power lifters and now realize how much of a wimp I am compared to those guys.

Don't focus on it too the point you are missing oppurtunities to strike, but do start to look for openings, or create them. Also remember, your opponent will be doing the same, he could be drawing you with those kicks your doing.

Scientific American had a good article on gene doping about 4 or 5 months ago. It had a picture of a bull that was scary. This thing wasn't going to be punched to death by any martial artists.

Actually, gene doping is already possible but hasn't been conducted on humans. Look for the magic pill to be available within the next 20 years.