Cory Reynolds

I'm a point fighter too, and that's the way that I use the technique that I use It's a little unorthadox, but it works for me. My shoulders do move, only in a reaction to what my hips are doing. They don't telegraph my actions, but more of follow after the kick has been thrown. And my spine must be made of jelly, because I don't bend over very much to counter balance my high kicks. I hope I don't end up with back problems in the future

Even if you're the fastest fighter in the world, it won't make a lick of difference if you don't have something going on in your head to make it effective. Even the best fighters physically will crumble if they don't have the mental skills to create a strategy to match whoever they are fighting.

This is where you have to draw a very wide line between sparring and self defense. Sparring, especially point sparring, is mostly possible because it has rules to prevent many injuries. A couple of these rules are 1.) usually no grabbing the legs and breaking them you catch them and 2.) no full contact kicks. Sparring is a game of tag. I want to hit you ASAP to score a point, while remaining within the rules. Even if you hit me after I hit you, it's ok, because if my judges are paying attention they will most likely see that I hit you first. Those are some of the rules. In the street, there are no rules. And IMHO, if you're not training to grab people's legs, you're not preparing yourself for those people out there that think that they can get away with a kick to the head in real self defense.

I feel that the physical development can't occur without the internal/mental happening first. You must learn to think, act, and control your own body which is a level of discipline that only your mind can enforce. Even very simple things like correctly stepping back into a proper fighting stance requires a ton of thought for most beginning students. For a lot of students, just getting up enough courage to step into the school/dojo for the first time takes a ton of effort. While both are important, I don't think that physical can occur before internal.

Thai round kicks are generally done this way. While they may be more powerful, they are slower and telegraph the technique (turning the shoulders, etc) way too much. My rear leg round kick begins by coming straight up through the middle like a rear leg front kick. Then at the very last moment, when my knee is pointed at my target, I explode with my hips to turn my hips and my leg over to connect with the kick. My shoulders have little to nothing to do with the kick, so they don't telegraph my actions.

My opinion almost exactly matches Spinning's statement. Except for the last part about the side kick. IMHO, when your round kick is completely extended, your hips should be turned over into the same position as when doing a side kick. Otherwise you're not really doing a round kick, you're doing something inbetween an round kick and a front kick which is an easy bad habit to get into. This causes a loss of power in both your hip rotation, and your line of fire.

I think the word "studied" is being used very broadly in this instance. While Bruce Lee worked out and discussed techniques, ideas, etc. with many, many people, that doesn't mean that he necessarially "studied" their martial arts in the way that the term is normally used. Otherwise I could boast that I've studdied Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Boxing, Kickboxing, Muy Thai, Judo, Ju Jitus, BJJ, Kung Fu, Ninjitsu, JKD, underwater basket weaving, etc, etc......

Come on, you're talking about exercises that are used to help you get better at Aikido. Are you suggesting that you get down and kneel when someone attacks you? I didn't think so. The principles CAN work from any position, but that doesn't mean that you would want to do them from any position. And Seagal learned the latter form of Aikido that is characterised more by the use of physical body power combined with the redirection principles used in traditional Aikido.

My common mistake is being to nice to the people that I'm sparring.

Be careful with those fakes, the high hand to mid kick is one of the oldest in the book. In Wing Chun we do the same thing whether it's a fake or the real thing - we kick/hit you - if you're in range. So you kick/hit without blocking first? Or do you block first and then attack? Also, isnt attacking your opponent if they're in range just a given? the latter involves changing the direction of a kick or strike mid-way through the stroke - a little harder to counter. Hmmm, sounds like basic faking to me. Appear to go one direction in the attempt to deceive and then redirect to go another? In fact, only going half way is going to totally give it away. Why react to something that doesn't appear to be a real threat?

They surely have to mean JKD instead of TKD, someone really messed that up.

Yea, that's it, "They Call Me Bruce." You have to like movies that are so stupid that they are funny to appreciate this one.

Joint locks are commonly used in many different kinds of martial arts. It's a technique, not an actual form of martial arts. Grappling usually begins standing on your feet and then commonly both fighters end up on the ground. In classic Aikido, the defender always remains on their feet, only in more recent times when some jujitus restraints have been added to some styles of Aikido has this changed SLIGHTLY.

I guess we deffinately use the term differently where I train. We call it a fake, as in faking your opponent into thinking that you're attacking somewhere, then when they lower their guard you attack somewhere else. Or faking by moving your body in a certain direction, etc. [ This Message was edited by: Cory Reynolds on 2002-02-26 14:14 ]

I'm with 360, the Best of the Best movies (1st and 2nd ones at least) were very inspirational to me if only in the area of motivation. Has anyone seen "I Am Bruce?" Terrible movie but so funny!