thaiboxerken

Ki and Spirit......... same difference, these are two energies of a supernatural explanation that have no evidence associated with them.

The "unbendable arm" is a myth. There is one million dollars that can be claimed by a person that can perform such a feat.

I know where you can claim one million dollars if you can simply show that Ki is a reality.

Pliometrics has to do with explosive power, not endurance. Jumping drills, for example, are pliometric. I wouldn't really suggest pliometrics for the neck unless you are realy sure you have no problems in that area. However, be imaginative, if you want pliometric drill for the neck, try to keep it with a light load. You can do explosive neck bridges with no weight, for example. If you want to become a better powerlifter, stay with low repetition and high amount of weight. You are trying to stimulate your muscles to grow in strength. When you lift, try to explode with the weight. The explosion is stimulating your fast-twich fibers. When I say low reps, I'm talking less than 8. Also, do 3 or less working sets (not to include warmups). If you really want to get strong, I suggest Dorian Yate's "Blood and Guts". He has some good info.

The best martial art is the one you can make work.

JKD is more of a philosophy of martial arts, however, I think it is necessary to learn what Bruce Lee did in his time to educate one's self on the way that Lee thought. What Guro Inosanto teaches today is much different from what Lee's curriculum was when he died, however what Lee taught when he died was much different from what he taught a year before he died. Simply put, I think Lee was trying to convey an attitude to people, he was trying to tell people to think critically about their martial arts instead of blindly following what they are taught.

Unlike many other systems of martial arts, Muay Thai derived from an actual combat art, Krabi Kabrong. During times of peace, soldiers of Siam/Thailand would have unarmed competition to try to keep up the skill within the army. They tried to keep few rules but enough to minimize the injuries. Today, Muay Thai retains much of the techniques and the level of competition and the rules haven't changed too much. I think it's the combination of the less amount of rules coupled with the origination from an actual warrior art that gives Muay Thai an edge in both martial art competition and in real fights. Of course, a person should trian in more than Muay Thai so that they can deal with grapplers and weapon fighters, but as far as stand-up striking, I think only few arts compare.. and those arts are Bando as well as Panantukan.

I've taken down plenty of Wing Chun guys... that was the poorest shoot i've ever seen from a grappler, he was finished as soon as he decided to grapple. I do know some Wing Chun guys that are hard to take down, but for some reason, they train in BJJ or wrestling as well.. hmmm. I like Wing Chun, don't get me wrong, but I don't think that the art alone will save a person from being taken down from a good grappler. As far as Aikido, every training session I've seen (on TV and in person) has been defending against totally unrealistic attacks, I mean who the heck does a lunging karate-chop these days? Do people really run across a room and lunge at people in fights? I don't think I've ever seen Aikido deal with a good jab or a nice Thai-style kick, do they train against these things? And if so.. would that mean they had some exposure to the attacks and now train how to do it a bit now?

"If you achieved your full potential how would that make you feel? " I dunno how a person would know.. this potential is a constantly changing goal and improvement is always in the future. "If there were no barriers to what you desire, how far would you go? " I'd go to Disneyland! Seriously, if there weren't barriers, I wouldn't go anywhere because there wouldn't be a challenge, barriers aren't things that stop instead barriers are things made to be broken. "If you fail to meet your full potential how would that make you feel, would it worry you and if so why would it worry you? " I don't think I'll feel anything, as I will die before failing to meet that potential.. full potential is unattainable, it's like trying to be perfect.

I think large classes are great because there are so many more people to learn with and from. As long as the instructor is good, I think the bigger classes are nicer. Size of the 'dojo' matters because you need room to train however many students you expect to have. If you only expect 5-10 people, you can have a small place.. when you have 30 then you better have a bigger place to train.

I have a great deal in Tempe because we've merged with World Gym. It's 75/month for unlimited classes in Muay Thai, JKD, Silat, Kali and Brazillian jujitsu in addition to full use of the facility. Sweet huh?

It's athletic entertainment.. I don't see why anyone would call it a sport... In sports, isn't there a competition somewhere?

"So far I don't cross train. The freestyle school that I'm from is already made up of many different kinds of martial arts. " So you only train in one martial art at the school, or do you train in the system which has a combination of many different arts?

"If you feel the need to cross train then surely you feel your chosen art lacking!!, " Don't they all lack something? That's why we cross-train. "You're absoulutely right. Crosstraining is a must but you should at least obtain a black belt in the art that you take first. Or your crosstraining will have no effect because just the basics will mess you up. " I don't believe this is true at all. Didn't you learn math and english in school and still got the basics? I've been cross-training in several martial arts from day one and I find that people that crosstrain learn at a faster rate than those that just do one style. "A lot of people like to take them though just to learn and preserve the actual "art" in the closest to the origional form that they can find. They deffinately won't cross train because they want to keep it as pure as they possibly can, especially if they wish to pass it along to others in the same fashion. " A person handcuffed by tradition is truly stagnating the growth and evolution of a martial art. For something to be considered a martial-art, I feel that it should be alive and dynamic. "On the other hand, for those who truely wish to capitalize on the self defense side of it and feel that what they are studying conflicts with what you see as being real self defense, then why stay there? " Without the self-defense and fighting, a system is no longer a martial art, it is just art. If a person wants to learn just techniques and tradition, fine, but dn't call it martial-art, call it self-expression dancing or something.

I have a couple of 8 year veterans of Modern Wushu that train in our Silat class because they want to learn how to fight. Their instructor has won, as well as his students, several gold medals in China in Wushu competitions.

kicker is correct, kicking bricks and poles is for the "macho" young kid. Wise people don't injure themselves to be tough.

I heard or read a testimony from Guru Dan that Lee side-kicked a heavy bag so hard that it split and all of the rags came flying out.

"Functional Economy of motion Non classical " Any art can be fit into the "JKD" thing, but it must have the first 2 criteria.. the 3rd (non-classical) is a very subjective criteria that I won't even consider. What is classical, what is not? When a person modifies a technique, then it is no longer classical, anything absorbed into JKD will no longer be classical.

I'll never ever let a person punch at me, so I won't even train to parry/block/evade them. Sounds dumb, huh? It's almost as silly as:"and it will be a very cold day in hell if anyone could get close enoough to me in a fight to grapple me"

"..said by the author of the article, that when he practiced this excercise for a few years, when he came to draw punch and he drew it half way in to a person holding a pad, it is said that the person who was holding the pad moved quite a distance wihtout being hit by the punch.." Well yea, we do this in thai-boxing all of the time. We kick the thai-pads but the pad holder is never touched by the kick, only the pads are. Well... sometimes you can feel the kick right through the pad, but they only tell me that to make me feel good when I'm kicking, I bet. If you really mean a telekinetic type of force, then it's BS and I want to see it done in a lab.

Angus.. grow up. This life isn't an a Conan movie where "revenge" will make life better. If anything, someone may end up dead and others in prison. Live and let live, forget about them. If these guys give you trouble again, then you take your revenge, but don't hunt them down, you'll only get in real trouble (whether you win or lose). Use a little sense.

You are correct "JKD" is a concept. You may as well think of JKD as fighting. We are training to fight and trying to find the essence of what works in fighting. There is no "style" just what works. That's the message of Lee. There is no good or bad in a fight, there is only the fight. But, I still feel there should be a little structure for anyone claiming to teach "JKD" and that structure is Jun Fan Gung Fu. Why is that? Because "JKD" is a Bruce Lee thing, and people want to learn how Bruce Lee fought and trained. I teach Jun Fan more for the history and to give understanding of where his ideas came from. I personally wouldn't try to fight like he did, I don't have the attributes. All in all.. shaddap and train!

How does one obtain "Chi" or "Ki"... You can't, such things are not real. Don't worry about myths and just train.

"Anyways, I think it takes immense arm strength to effectivly perform these moves. Bruce lee was not only strong but fast... " Not really, trapping an arm is the same concept as striking the arm. You hit the elbow to pin it for a second while your other fist strikes. It takes very little strength. "The man was just amazing. I wonder what the founders of these martial arts were like.. there must have been some great legends.. " They were just people, like you and me that needed to get a job done. AO.. your technique is probably in Wing Chun and Kali.

I put all the other arts into my own "JKD" and it works well. My personal "JKD" looks very much like Muay Thai. I feel that the Muay Thai stance is superior for people that aren't as quick. When I train, I train like I will be slower and weaker than my opponent. The JKD concepts can be applied to any martial art, and good people can work the Jun Fan material into their martial arts as well. I still call what I teach "JKD" but I also let people know where a particular technique or concept came from.