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brazilian or japanese?Both have standing control and ground control techniques. So I'd think if you like jujitsu then either one would be good. (I like both Japanese jujitsu and BJJ.)

Thanks, White Warlock. We now return you to your regularly scheduled thread ....

The one topic which showed him in a fight vs Royce Gracie had lots of people bringing down heat on him. The only reason why I think people stopped questioning him was because he actually came here and responded. but how do we actually know that it's him?He's been verified by the Admin/Mods on various sites; the hardest was Sherdog, because Jason started posting there about a month after someone had snowed them into believing she was Randy Couture's sister or something like that, so they tightened their policies and are now VERY careful. You don't get a Pro Fighter tag on Sherdog unless they're totally convinced, and they really check. If you read his posts on Sherdog and the other sites, you'll see that they look and sound the same. I was involved with getting Jason approved because I train with him and I didn't want him to give up on posting. He figured if people didn't want to believe him, fine, he just wouldn't bother posting; but I'm a computer geek, and I knew he'd be a good resource and interesting poster if we could get him official recognition. If you seriously want to have a good discussion with Jason but genuinely question whether the Jason DeLucia posting is really THE Jason DeLucia after you've researched the other sites where he posts, ask the mods or PM me.

Jason doesn't websurf, so generally he doesn't post until one of us websurfers who trains with him finds something where he could make a good contribution and brings it to his attention. So the best way to get him to participate in a thread is to mention him by name, since it's easy to search for "DeLucia." It only works if you're speaking respectfully, since there's no point in his responding if people are dissing him. You guys have been good about that, which is why he's started posting here and on a few other sites recently.

Just curious, have you ever trained with a tai chi teacher who's also a serious martial artist in the external arts instead of one of those "new age" tai chi teachers who do just as chi gong or like dance? I do, and there's a big difference between my tai chi teacher and the "new age" ones. Because the principles are exactly the same as in the fighting arts; you just wouldn't do them tai chi speed in the ring/cage, and you should expect to be able to fight if the only training you've done is at tai chi speed. But there doesn't seem to be anything written in the books that says you're never allowed to move fast when working on your tai chi techniques; you just train slow to ingrain the movements and develop your internal energy. Jason DeLucia calls tai chi "Chinese Aikido," and as you've probably heard he considers Aikido effective in MMA. I'd say that IF you trained seriously in tai chi in such a way that you had not only absorbed the moves but also knew how to apply them full speed against full resistance, then yes. Of course, there's still that groundwork problem. I don't know of any tai chi groundwork techniques, so if you get taken down you'll be in trouble unless you've crosstrained in a grappling art -- but if you have, your tai chi body dynamics will help you be more effective.

His profile's updated now (Combat Aikido, Five Animal Kung Fu). His website http://www.jasondelucia.com shows which 5 animals, if you're curious. If you're getting technical, he'd have to list other styles including "Pancrase Hybrid JuJitsu" since he was trained and certified as an instructor by the Pancrase organization in Japan. But listing all the styles he's studied isn't exactly high on his priority list. There are actually a couple of threads on https://www.aikidog.com forums under "Jason's Invite" talking about his teachers and arts he's studied.

Like I said, though, you can do the same techniques kneeling as standing and it helps you refine your technique. Morihei Ueshiba and Gozo Shioda and those guys were no fools, they knew what they were doing. If you look at pix and footage of O'Sensei's dojo, you'll see that they didn't have low roofs but they were still training in seiza -- that's because it's good training, not because he was training them all to defend themselves at tea.

Working from seiza (kneeling) helps your mechanics by making you "step" more precisely (you don't have feet to dance around on when you're kneewalking) and by making you use your hips better. Also, less leverage means you're less likely to resort to just arm strength instead of involving the whole body. And you can do pretty much all the techniques standing or kneeling, so you can practice the principles. You don't have to worry about your standing ukemi, either, if you're afraid to fall -- but that shouldn't matter except to beginners or injured people, since you can't do much in aikido if you're afraid to take ukemi.I'll just assume they're doing their standup while you're not watching.

Well, you've got this guy coming at you, right? No way did Morihei Ueshiba and all his guys wait til someone actually hit them -- the moment the opponent starts to move with the intent to attack, the aikidoka moves to neutralize the attack. And that doesn't just mean stop that one attack and wait for the next, it means take action that will stop the fight (without causing excessive harm to the assailant).

He's not all that interested in names. He calls his DVD/video set "Combat Aikido" to make it clear that it's martially effective. But he's said that when you pare things down to their essence, it's the same whether you call it Kung Fu or Aikido. ... You can see a lot of clips of his fights and teaching in the Videos section of aikidog.com On that note, and also in response to Daedulus' post, i refer to an earlier KF article: Lost in Time - The Modern Way It's an excellent article, but not apropos in this particular case. Jason holds his KF teacher in the highest esteem and still works with him. And his Aikido studies have included immersion in everything he can get (books, videos, knowledge passed along from others) of O'Sensei's and his students, encompassing not just technique but also philosophy. And that reverence for traditional technique and philosphy is something he passes along to his students. I'm sure there are lots of MMA fighters who aren't particularly interested in the roots of the arts, but Jason's not one of those. What he espouses is budo.

He's not all that interested in names. He calls his DVD/video set "Combat Aikido" to make it clear that it's martially effective. But he's said that when you pare things down to their essence, it's the same whether you call it Kung Fu or Aikido. You use the basic principles and you're in an improvisational state dealing with whatever your attacker throws at you. There's "entering" in both Kung Fu and Aikido, for instance, and they share other basic principles. Of course, some people watching him say they don't see any Kung Fu in his fights, and some say they don't see any Aikido. But it's MIXED Martial Arts, so to be effective against such a broad range you're going to have to depart from dojo kata to some degree. So he'll do an Aikido-style entering but a Kung Fu style sidekick, but he's not violating either art's principles when he does those or when the fight goes to the ground. You can see a lot of clips of his fights and teaching in the Videos section of aikidog.com

Jason DeLucia is currently teaching Aikido, which is why his site refers to him as "Sensei." HIs Kung Fu training has definitely influenced everything he does, but since he's not teaching Kung Fu it would be inappropriate for his students to call him "Sifu."

I agree on both counts -- the only classes I know of with more than a few women are the ones that are really just martial-art influenced aerobic classes. And I know that growing up, I was never taught how to hit (no wonder they say "he punches like a girl" -- would have been nice for someone to teach us!) and we were never offered wrestling in high school. That was back in the 70's so I'm hoping things are improving. And my big brother had it drilled into him never to hit a girl. That didn't count for sisters, of course, but I don't think he's ever hit any "real" girl. I've had a LOT of catching up to do, and am still fighting that "deer in the headlights" reaction when a punch comes towards my face. And I was resistant to the groundwork when we started it, but it's true that you've really got to know what to do when you wind up on the ground -- just watch some of the MMA fighters and you can see that.

I considered getting one of those fancy chest protectors for sparring (designed by that sparring champ woman, I can't remember her name), partially for protection but also because I thought it would be so frightfully distracting to a couple of the opposite sex sparring partners at the karate school that it would be really funny -- they thrash me every time, so it would be my only hope. But that would be cheating. And so far I haven't gotten really badly whacked in the chest while sparring full contact. Maybe I've been lucky so far, but from what I've felt and seen so far I think that doesn't hurt as much as some of the accidental injuries I've seen some guys get when they're not wearing the appropriate protective gear. Rule #1, learn what safety gear's important (whichever sex you are) and WEAR IT! For your safety, and because your partner will feel awful if you get badly hurt. For my training right now, my essentials are the huge tae kwon do chest protector if people need to practice hitting me, and my shin pads for one of the karate classes. And a good mouth guard depending on what we're working. Do any of you know whether it's more common to have women in MA in the UK than the US? I just ran across a UK MA protective gear site that sells women's pink boxing gloves!

That's why I always grapple in my nice thick aikido/judo gi. Tried it one hot day no gi and it was too yucky. Still, the guys don't try anything inappropriate, and any accidental contact is brief and ignored so it isn't embarrassing. But there's a lot of contact in class and that seems to weed out a lot of women. A female judoka friend of mine (the karate 5th dan I mentioned earlier) told me recently she was grappliing elsewhere with a guy who accidentally got his hand inside her gi and didn't take it back fast enough -- so she whacked him a nice solid elbow to the head. There's a good lesson on keeping focus! Yes, I train with Jason DeLucia and he's awesome -- not just the technique, but he's a really good teacher and can explain and demonstrate the moves really well to men and women. He learned the groundwork right after the first two UFCs and has been improving ever since, and we're psyched because he'll be fighting in England (CageRage 13) Sept 10.

Female viewpoint here (just mine, not a scientific survey): I train in karate, aikido and Pancrase hybrid jujitsu and have done so pretty intensely for about 3 years. Most of the women I train with don't like contact -- my main karate dojo is geared towards tournaments (barely-contact sparring and flashy techniques with no takedowns) -- so even when we practice self-defense it's hard to get them to make a committed attack and that drives me crazy. I started working the self-defense harder with one of the senseis and he was good, kept increasing speed but pulled his punches just before they'd hit me in case I missed. After a while, I was fast enough that I could block/evade every time, but wasn't sure whether it was because he was pulling the punches. And he just couldn't bring himself to really hit without pulling them, because he was afraid he'd crack my ribs (it's happened before, but not from a punch). So I got a tae kwon do vest and wore it, and that way he knew if I missed the block I'd get knocked back but not broken -- after that, we had a lot of fun and I got a lot better. In a second karate dojo I go to where they train more realistically, except for one truly excellent black belt (4th dan), the other females are high schoolers who go through the moves nicely but don't really attack with conviction. I've been working to train my new male partners that I really want them to punch me and I'm not going to fall apart if they make contact. One of them got the point for sure, and I've got the shin bruises (and now shin pads) to prove it -- that was great! We haven't had many women in our Aikido/Pancrase classes (same teacher for both, Jason DeLucia) and with one notable exception (4rd dan tae kwon do and tough as nails) the other women who've shown up in class are afraid to make contact, don't know how to make a committed attack, can't bring themselves to punch straight at someone and act weak (they might be, but I don't know because they're afraid to get in there). They do OK at the standing Aikido moves as long as there's no atemi (striking) involved, giving or receiving. But they are afraid of the groundwork we do, which is too bad because most women have no idea what to do if they get taken to the ground and that's a bad situation as far as self-defense is concerned. And they don't want to cut their nail short so they have these long talons; but at least since they won't get close they haven't raked anyone. I love training with the guys. I'm pretty small (125-130 lbs) so there's only one guy within 15 lbs of me. The deal is, the big guys are supposed to use only technique instead of muscling when they work with me -- as we all know, if you've got two people at the same mass the one with better technique will win, so improving technique is good and the guys tend to muscle each other. I'm also really flexible, pretty quick, and pretty good at chokes (still need to work on my hand strength, though), so I can escape from positions the guys can't get out of and give them ways to practice they wouldn't get with the other big guys. And I generally work with the newbies, male or female. The women generally don't want to work with guys anyway and aren't as afraid of me (and I always go easy with them til we find out how they do). When new guys come to class, even if they're big if they don't know any techniques I can generally submit them in the groundwork and that's always fun and is a big surprise for them. So: I like working with the guys and I think any of them would tell you they like working with me. And I'd be happy to work with women if we found some willing to give committed attacks and really make contact standing and on the ground -- there just aren't many of them around.