Ottman

I did notice that. I guess he ran out of money or something. I'm not sure why Van Damme gets grouped into the same category as Seagal. He's never made a good movie ever. Granted Seagal has gone way down in quality in the last 5 - 10 years, but again, his early stuff was great.

Chokes, specifically lapel half nelson choke while grappling with gi's, I can just imagine doing this to someone on the street wearing a jacket with a zipper. Ouch!! but serves him right for attacking me.

Yeah, most of his movies are straight to video these days, but he still seems to come out with 2 or 3 a year, so someone must be watching. Quality has certainly taken a nose dive since his early movies, but I thought 'Into the Sun' was great, so I'll still give his flicks a chance when they come out.

Nice idea Sir. Multiple kicks from a single chamber are definitely underused and underestimated. I'd take it one step further and say try two or three different kicks in sequence (like twist kick + turn kick, or hook kick + turn kick + side kick) without letting your chambered leg hit the ground. I wouldn't even hit the ping pong ball until the final kick, treating the earlier kicks like fakes. Later you can use your new 'tricks' in sparring and really fake everyone out.

Couldn't agree more. I was born in '82 and you better believe I knew about Karate Kid way before I knew about Bruce Lee. These movies (as well as Steven Segal, and of course: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) are a major reason I got into martial arts. Whether you like the KKID movies or not, they are a timeless example of how media can inspire someone to pursue knowledge they otherwise would have no interest in. Now that I'm older and I've been training for over 10 years, I surely understand the flaws these movies have, both in movie production, and technical martial arts knowledge, but remember these are supposed to appeal to a broad audience, not just master martial artists and award winning movie directors. I still watch and enjoy these movies frequently. They're part of my culture. P.S. If you haven't seen Pat Morita (Miyagi) do stand up comedy, he's pretty funny. Check him out if you can find any of his stuff on video.

elbows_and_knees has a great routine. Besides kata and footwork, I mostly use my training time out of the dojang for conditioning work. That way I get as much out of my time in the dojang as possible. It's tough to work on everything you want to work on if you aren't in the proper shape to execute techniques the way you envision them. For some reason, I also find myself working on combos much more often when I'm NOT in the dojang. I guess there isn't as much equipment, opponents, students, etc. to distract me.

It's been my experience that the calmer I am, especially while on the ground, the more I win. I'm constantly telling white belts to keep calm, don't waste all your energy at once. The ones who listen end up staying and get promoted, but the ones who insist on using aggression over technique, usually lose while rolling, (even though losing and winning is not what rolling is about) and almost always get frustrated and quit. I'm sure your partner will fall into either category rather quickly, but good for you keeping your cool. Maybe you can try explaining to him why it was so easy for you to win using 30% power and excellent technique over his 110% power and sloppy technique. This sometimes helps to bring students around to adopting good training methods. Good luck, and good training.

that's quite a story jbbcj. Sounds like you're hanging around the wrong people. Especially if this was a family party. Did anyone call the cops?

Agreed with everyone else. BJJ and Judo are a good mix. I just got to the point in BJJ where I start learning takedowns, and there is an older guy in our class who used to do Judo, and his understanding of how to use leverage and balance standing up is so far advanced over anyone else in our class. I'm lucky I got a little bit of Hapkido in my TKD training, or I'd be completely overwhlemed by him in stand up grappling. He still kicks my butt when we start from a standing position, so I've been trying to get him to go NHB with me and add striking too. He's not biting though. He's too smart for that.

BJJ will start out focusing on ground work, positioning, and defense. Submissions will quickly be introduced, so don't worry, you will learn plenty of finishes in BJJ. Takedowns, however, aren't emphasized as much and you probably won't learn any until you've advanced to the middle or higher ranks. The focus on groundfighting is to make sure you have the proper defense, but as TJS said, the goal is to be on top.

There is at my school. Our program doesn't even really have belts. We use levels (1-9) but most of our students train in TKD or Karate or some other art too, and are so used to having belts that they kept asking us about them, so my instructor made up a belt system resembling our TKD belt system. Green belt is the start of level three.

as powerofOne alluded to: fight at your own pace. Don't let your opponent set the pace, whether you are going slower or faster than him, keep him at your pace and use your defensive techniques to setup your offensive ones.

Best training for real life: Be able to run faster than anyone else, learn to stay out of trouble, and if you really live a dangerous lifestyle: in case of emergencies carry a gun.

If you're still trying to perfect your self defense, and you already have the experience and have been taught properly, you should have no reason to fight. You should be able to use your mind, your speech, and your defense to get out of fighting, thus effectively defending yourself from aggression. 'Enticing' someone to fight is not defense, it is looking for trouble. I'll give you some of my real life defense experiences: 1. As a sophomore in highschool, I was 15 and had my 1st dan in TKD. I didn't really have any enemies, but there were those who were curious to test my skill. I was often 'confronted' by guys who wanted to see if they could 'handle' me. My strategy was to allow them to attack me, and simply block, and dodge their attacks until they got tired, or looked foolish and gave up. I guess I never fought any wrestlers, 'cus luckily, no one ever tried to take me down, but I resloved the fight without striking or using any offensive techniques. 2. At a party while I was in college, I noticed two guys, one of whom was brandishing a knife, and they were talking about somebody's boy needing a lesson in something or other, and started looking at another dude accross the room. They noticed that I had noticed them, and came over to inquire as to whether I had a problem or not. I had noticed that the guy with the knife had a jacket with Bruce Lee pictured on the back, so I told him I noticed his jacket and liked it, and we got into a lengthy convo about Bruce, and martial arts in general. The other guy accross the room they had been 'stalking' eventually left the party, and the other two guys and I began drinking heavily and had a great time. Yet again I successfully defended myself, and this time the possibility of someone else getting hurt too, all without a strike or an attack being thrown by anyone. Remember, defense is knowing how not to fight. It's easy to get heated or get someone else heated and cause a fight, but try stopping or preventing one: this is a whole other challenge.

I'm going with Gracie, because I think his skill is dominant over Hughes. I don't recall what special rules Gracie fought under in the past, but regardless, that guy's amazing technically. Matt Hughes is a strong, tough, and talented guy, with a a lot of experience, great conditioning, and definitely some skill, but Royce has seen this before many times, and has won many times. I don't think UFC 60 will be any different. As for Ortiz/Griffin: I hope Griffin wins. Not because I have any animosity towards Ortiz, I just really want to see Forrest make a run for the title.

Well from the google search I just did on kempo jujutsu, it is definitely a real style, and seems to be a mix of japanese ju jutsu and kempo striking (go figure) forms of self defense. There are a bunch of sites that came up, many of them schools that teach the style. From the info I read on the link that you posted Earth, the school seems legitimate, but as always, go see a class, (and try one out if possible) and talk to the instructor about his training and certifications, and your own goals for your training. This is the only way to know if a school is the right fit for you or not.

I'm with Orion. Different degrees of hardness for different people. However, this has nothing to do with the sex of the person. I generally adjust to hit my opponents with the same amount of force as they hit me. But if some girl started hitting me hard, I would hit her hard back, just as I would do with a guy. Of course I always maintain control over my strikes. It also has a lot to do with the amount of confidence I feel my opponent is sparring with. If I feel like they're comfortable and focused with their fighting, I'll hit them a little harder to test that focus. If they're struggling to work their footwork, and hesitating to strike, and generally unsure of their strategy and what to do, I'll let up and try and to create opportunities for the opponent to get a clean, scoring strike in order to give them some confidence and momentum. Again this has nothing to do with sex, (or age, or rank either.) For example: there is a green belt in TKD at my MA school who is 15 and female. Regardless, she is almost as tall as me (I'm 5'8") and although I probably have around 20 - 25 pounds on her (I'm 190lbs), she is a tough girl, especially for a 15 year old. She has proven to have great focus, and is very dedicated to training, so she spars like a black belt in her age group. When we spar in class she hits me hard, and I know she's trying to test her own skill, and wouldn't want me to let up on her and strike lightly, so I don't. I hit her with about 80% of my real power, which is all I'll allow myself to strike with in a training situation, so she gets my full force as far as training goes. There are only about three other people in my school who I will spar with at that level, and they all happen to be adult males who are red belt and above, but the point is, the criteria for sparring using such force is based on many more factors than just sex in my opinion. Conversely, their are many guys, of all ranks and ages, that I will not spar hard with, because I don't feel they could handle it, and therefore it would not help them train. My goal is to challenge people on the training floor, not overwhelm them. When it comes to BJJ, the same rules apply, but we don't have any girls in our class so I can't make the same comparison there.

It's way more about timing and quickness than it is about height. I'm only 5'8" and I spar with guys who are 6'2" plus regularly. My strategy works very well and it consists of blocking and slipping to get in close, and then crowding the taller guys for the rest of the fight. Their kicks become ineffective because they end up hitting me with shins and thighs rather than their feet, and all I have to do is keep striking, make sure I guard my head, and maintain my close in position and the fight is mine.

I've been doing BJJ for about two years, and I train twice a week. I prefer working from guard so I'm on the bottom a lot, and my ears get pummeled. They always hurt a lot after a class, but they have never swelled. Guess I'm just one of those people who isn't as succeptible to cauliflower ear, but as others here have said, if you're only training a couple times a week, there is a very low chance of getting it. Everyone in my BJJ class trains twice a week as well, and we have a good variety of people training, and no one has ever had their ears swell, so if you're not training everyday, you should be fine.

I understand where you're coming from 1st. My root art is TKD and I'm very proud of where my training in TKD has taken me, but it wasn't until I got my first dan, then stopped my formal TKD training for about 5 years to study other arts that I realized being a 1st dan in TKD wouldn't get me out of any situation. TKD is great, but it has a lot of holes and weaknesses if you take just what is taught in TKD and think it is a complete system to handle any fighting situation. Being a first dan, as others have said, means that you're starting to realize what you don't know. TKD gave me the foundation of discipline, and understanding of the Martial Arts I needed to take the next step and broaden my training. I continue my TKD training because I haven't finished it even though I am a second dan. I still have a long way to go in TKD, and even longer in Martial Arts in general before I will be a master of myself. However, at the time I got my first dan, I thought I was at the pinnacle of my training. It wasn't until a year or two afterwords that I realized I had only just arrived at the base of the mountain, and my climb was about to begin.

My MA school has a different belt system than most. My BJJ instructor is certified under David Meyers Master Class program which doesn't really use belts, but instead levels for ranking. My BJJ instructor made up a belt system to coincide with the levels. I actually just got promoted to green belt with purple stripe, which is the tail end of the level three cirriculum. My next promotion will be to purple belt which is the beginning of level 4. There are 9 levels total, so I have about 3 years left before I'll even be eligible for a level 9 ranking. You can also get certified to instruct up to the level you're currently ranked at, so that's why I have a Level 1 instructor's certification which means I can teach and test students through the level 1 cirriculum. This is a rule of the masterclass program, but the only reason I'm allowed to instruct at my school is because I already have a BB in TKD there, as well as instructor experience at the school. To instruct at my MA school, you must have a BB in at least one art, and of course a certification to instruct in the art you are teaching. P.S. Useoforce, I did mean Helio. Don't know where Elian came from. That's what happens to me when I allow myself to think faster than I can type.

What I'm saying is that there isn't that type of cohesion of the martial arts of Brazil like there is with the martial arts of Japan. Particularly because most of brazil's traditional martial arts were imported from other places like you mentioned. African stick fighting and wrestling may be hundreds of years old, but Capoeira was derived by slaves who had to change the way they did their martial arts in order to mask it from their slave masters, and thus it became a traditional art of Brazil, just like BJJ is becoming because people like Elian Gracie (and a few others) derived it from JJJ to meet a specific objective. It is a relatively young art, as is Capoeira, as are traditional Brazilian MA's in general. Traditional Japanese martial arts go back more than a thousand years and have had much more of a chance to gel and influence one another. Which, again, is why I say that JJJ will encompass a much broader spectrum of techniques and strategies than BJJ, which hasn't had the proximity to, or history with nearly as many other martial arts as JJJ has, and not nearly for as long. I'm just trying to answer the question this thread brought up: "BJJ vs. JJJ". These reasons I've been posting are my arguments describing the differences between these two arts, and I can't comprehend how you can dismiss the fact that BJJ's history is much different than JJJ's.

I was wrong before. This is my favorite kick too. Well put.

This is is the type of cohesion between the MA's in Japan I was talking about that make JJJ a lot different, at least in application, than BJJ. You don't see this type of cohesion and mixing of traditional arts in Brazil, even with Vale Tudo. And don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not trying to de-value either Vale Tudo or BJJ, they are both excellent practical defense arts, and as you'll see in my styles, I'm a practitioner of BJJ and love it. I'm just trying to rout out where the differences in JJJ and BJJ come from, even though they are inherently the same art. It's a little like arguing the differences between ITF and WTF TKD. The application of each style evolved based on different objectives and cultures, while the actual techniques remain nearly identical. However you'd rarely see an ITF TKDer fighting exactly like a WTF TKDer. The distinction can be deciphered by looking at the history of each style just like with JJJ and BJJ. JJJ developed in a country with a strict MA tradition and lots of people who study many different styles. This MA tradition doesn't exist in Brazil, or if it does, it doesn't go back nearly as far in Brazilian history, and the styles aren't mixed with as much frequency and cohesion as in Japan.

If it's a good BJJ school they will tach you some standing techniques and takedowns..but yea the general focus will be ground fighting BJJ competition starts from standing, so I would really imagine that most schools teach takedowns. sadly there are still quite a few that still dont really practice takedowns. But like I said they are getting better and most schools these days incorperate more of them. But isn't the whole point of BJJ that all you need is groundfighting because most fights end up on the ground anyway, and therefore if you can win from the ground it doesn't matter if you have good takedowns or not? Ok, so maybe not that extreme, but the focus is specifically on ground fighting in BJJ. I personally think that this is because as BJJ developed in brazil, it didn't have the influence of and 'marriage' (so to speak) to arts like Judo, aikdo, and even karate which all have good stand up techniques and takedowns. What else was there in Brazil? Capoeira? And even if there were good stand up arts and takedown arts in Brazil, the different styles didn't share the same relationship as they did in Japan, where for centuries, a mixture of arts were traditionally taught to the warrior classes, therefore creating students and masters with a much broader range of MA experience, and an overlapping of styles emerged as a result. Not to mention all these styles often competed against one another, and as they say: 'know thine enemy.' Brazil doesn't share this type of MA history and BJJ didn't grow up amidst a country full of MA's, so therefore: no overlap.