isshinryu5toforever

If you can give a definitive answer to all three of those questions, you could probably write a doctoral dissertation on the subject of modern Japanese and Okinawan karate.

Going where they are comfortable is great. I encourage it. People do martial arts for different reasons. My only issue, and it sounds like one of the few issues, is when they go to a bunch of different places for a week or two and then start telling people, instructor included, what they're doing wrong. Doing stuff like that just makes you, "that guy."

Hapkido seems to be more about learning certain principles of movement and power production than it is about learning how to wrist lock people from straight punches. The wrist locks and leg locks are there to teach you how to move and produce energy efficiently, but they aren't going to teach you how to wrist lock a boxer. At least, that's what I've been hearing from a few 5th and 6th dans here in Korea.

Does your punch depend on your stance? The power of the punch definitely depends on stance, but the punch itself doesn't. More on that later. Does your punch work independently from your stance? A punch that is being used as a setup or fake could be used independently. One example I can think of is a right cross into a left hook. Your footwork might lead you into the left hook, but the right cross is there as a fake. It isn't thrown full power, but it is thrown full speed. What about your pulling hand? Does your pulling hand even help at all? The pulling hand helps hip and shoulder alignment. I think most of this will depend on the person doing the punching. Some of the heavier punchers in the group can get away with a lot more holes in their technique than some of the weaker punchers.

Oss is more of a Japanese Karate thing. It is incorporated into the idea of Budo. That idea isn't shared by Okinawan Karate.

That's the main argument in the article. A more appropriate title, which has been pointed out in recent posts is should women fight men? That's really the big thing brought out.

And the Packers are still hanging around!

From the few things I've seen on him, it sounds like he did whatever kind of fighting came along. Sometimes it would be bar brawling, other times, actual sanctioned fights. He just liked fighting.

This was being talked about nearly a year and a half ago before we saw Fedor age before our eyes and before Cain Velasquez came on the scene. I'd make exactly the opposite argument these days.

Here's another thing, most people that do martial arts don't care about learning how to defend themselves. The reasons given more often than not are to get in shape, lose weight (related), or that they're interested in (Japanese, Korean, blah blah blah) culture. Usually self-defense is an afterthought. It seems to me that martial arts, especially East Asian martial arts and this is why people aren't learning to defend themselves, are becoming more of a cultural/anthropological study. It's almost as if people are working to preserve part of a culture. That's fine as long as they're honest with themselves.

As i believe the above posters have touched on, couldn't this be said about many martial artists. There are many martial artists that even though have no lineage to any significant founder of that art, have through research started practicing an art in the same tradition as its founders. I don't see how you can discredit a person for the soul fact that they cannot trace their lineage back to a certain person. That's true when you're talking about most martial arts in general. Taekwondo and Tangsoodo's claims have been talked about on here extensively. Okinawan systems can't go back farther than say 1880 or so. When you're talking about authentic Japanese koryu though, you have a different argument. If you want to claim a link to true Japanese koryu arts you need to have solid documentation. All of the currently recognized arts do. There's a pretty good list here: http://www.koryu.com/guide/ryuguide.html

He said his dad is an ITF black belt, but that helps about zero if he's forgotten everything.

I would say MOST martial arts schools are far better at character building than they are at teaching you effective self defense. That might be why it is missing from their advertising.

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Don't learn from a DVD. You won't learn anything properly, and if you ever get time to actually train, you'll have to learn everything again. No one is going to take, "That's not the way it looked on the DVD" well.

What about a video camera? Or two or three? They can be set up when you want to analyze techniques, they may actually be cheaper than full length mirrors, and you don't have the danger of people staring at themselves in front of them haha.

Thanks for the citation. Should be an interesting read.

I guess that's the biggest issue here isn't it? Do you want to gloss over everything or be great at one thing? The desire to actually pressure test techniques in a 100% non-compliant ring means that your bag is going to be a lot smaller, but you're going to be much better at those things. I know the way special operations work, and of course everyone will have gone through the same courses, but like you said, each person will have a different specialty. Everyone will know a bit about demolitions, but you have one or two demolitions experts. Same with sharp shooting. That's why I can practice my jab, straight, hook, and uppercut, but also be able to gouge someone in the eye. The mechanic of the techniques aren't different, where you aim is. Instead of aiming for the head in general, you're aiming for the eye, but if I've trained those techniques in a non-compliant manner for years, I'll have the aim to hit them wherever I want. I don't NEED to practice eye gouges to do them. Look at a boxer who opens a cut over the eye of his opponent, he goes for it. That's just as small as an eye (until you keep hitting it), and he will successfully go after that cut until the ring doctor stops the fight. The same holds true that the mechanics for defending against eye gouges and the like is the same as defending other techniques. That's why I took issue with eye gouges specifically. Same goes with groin strikes. If you can throw a front kick, you can hit someone in the groin. If they're a fighter, they should be trying to avoid or block the technique no matter where it's thrown. I guess that's the entire problem. There seems to be an assumption that just because you don't do illegal things to someone in a ring, you won't naturally deal with them when they come up. I just don't think that's true. If you want a good example of someone who deals with illegal eye gouges (he's now blind in one eye because of them) and still won, look at Yuki Nakai. They didn't stop the bout either, they just took note of the illegal techniques. The judging wasn't exactly the best or safest in Vale Tudo.

The reason why many fight sports people advocate for alive training of techniques that have been proven effective in the ring is because they are equally applicable outside the ring. If you can use an ippon seonagi on a non-complaint partner, you are likely going to be able to do it against an attacker on the street. If you're trying to gouge someone in the eye from a non-static position, then the defenses are the same for other techniques you train. If it's from a standing striking position, it's like defending a jab, hook, or cross. In a clinch, it's like dealing with a cross face/necktie. On the ground, you're worried about controlling all their limbs anyways. Basically, since an eye gouge is an extension of your hand, you're practicing shutting down those same extensions with other techniques. Unless you have a detachable hand that you can throw at people, in which case, I want to see that in action haha. or I would suggest you use a knife if you've got that kind of accuracy. If you want to be prepared for every single possible scenario, join a special operations unit in the US military. That's the only way you have the time to get the necessary training to deal with everything from a standard firefight to CQC to retaking a plane from terrorists. If you have all the time to do that on your own, then I would ask why you aren't part of a special operations unit or if you've retired from one. Otherwise, you'll need a lot of classes from a lot of different places to be truly adequately trained for every scenario.

It's difficult to figure out what they "really" learned due to a lot of false claims, denial on the part of the Japanese, and revisions made to their martial arts history along the way. Good luck sifting through that. You might just have a PhD project on your hands if you could.

That's the thing though, in a game of skill vs luck, skill almost always comes out on top. You mix all that in with self defense, and I'll take skill every time. Even if someone doesn't have "knockout power" in a ring, I would think their sense of timing and technique would make up for that in a situation without gloves. I'm betting Ali could have knocked out the average mugger and he didn't have "knockout power."

Congrats.

Palgwe are done, but not for gradings and not by everyone. It's the same all over. For official gradings, you only need the Taeguk. Unless you KNOW you're going to a dojang where they will use the Palgwe forms don't bother with them. Even if they do the Palgwe forms, they will STILL do the Taeguk forms because they absolutely must.

That one is called the Warrior's Way. It feels like Korean entertainment companies must be trying really hard to get Korean stars into the US market. First, Lee Byung Hoon in GI Joe, then Rain (Jung Ji Hoon) in Ninja Assassin, and now Jang Dong Gun in Warrior's Way. I saw Warrior's Way, if you can appreciate the fact that they're trying to meld the wandering warrior and spaghetti western genres together, it's pretty enjoyable as a popcorn action flick.

Choki Motobu actually knew and practiced many kata, because he learned from many different people: Ankō Itosu, Sōkon Matsumura, Sakuma Pechin, Kōsaku Matsumora, and Tokumine Pechin. According to what we know, he thought Naihanchi/Naifanchi/Tekki was the basis of Karate though. He was also one heck of a fighter, because he fought a heck of a lot.