ps1

If we're talking about sparring sessions...yes. Real fighting...not really...no.

All the time really. In that I mean I'm always thinking about martial arts, what I need to train, what I'm gonna teach, how to handle various situations ect... Acutally in the academy about 12 hours per week.

I'll begin by saying I'm certainly biased. Also, I realize my state is much larger than yours. But I feel it's both insensitive and greedy for your instructor to expect you to drive across the state to continue training with him. Gas is very expensive, time is even more valuable. Basically, he's invested alot of time in training you and doesn't want to lose a high ranking student. But he has to get over it and you do too. My suggestion would be to go to a reputable MMA gym. The reason for this suggestion is three fold: 1. You can continue to fight and train the way you do now. Just because you're in an MMA gym doesn't mean you have to suddenly start kickboxing or muay thai. Loyoto Machida has made a great name for himself using his Karate style fighting. It's just a matter of honing those skills to work in a more alive environment, which brings me to my second point. 2. An MMA gym will allow you to find out exactly which aspects of TKD work well under more real conditions. Despite what others may think, alot will work just fine (with practice and patience). There are other things you may want to let go. But learning what works for you is an advanced form of any martial art and is something your instructor can not teach you. It's not abandoning your teaching as much as it is finding yourself in those teachings. To become truly skilled, it's something you must do. 3. You'll have access to skill sets that will patch up any holes you find. For example, maybe you find you're susceptible to takedowns (i realize you know wrestling, it's just an example), an MMA gym is likely to have someone who can help you with that and give you options. Whatever decision you make, I wish you good luck. Let us know how it goes!

The original color system was white, black, red. So there you go. Everything else was added in between when Kano developed it and now. I've seen a myriad of systems. In Chuan Fa and Aiki jujitsu it was White, Green, Brown, Black. In Karate it was White, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple, brown, black In TKD it was white, yellow, blue, purple, green, brown, red, black. In BJJ it is white, blue, purple, brown, black In the end, it's all up to the person in charge. I've even seen schools add in colors. The ATA has a camouflage belt in there somewhere too.

A nice one that takes you through alot of different positions is: Side Control, Spinning Armbar (opponent grabs his hand), back control, rear naked choke (release to continue flow), seatbelt control, (opponent rolls and attempts to throw you over, release hooks and sprawl maintaining seat belt control, switch to guillotine and sit to guard (opponent grabs choking arm for defense), elevator sweep to mount (release guillotine to continue flow), (opponent elbow escapes to half guard) Reverse sit pass to side control, North South choke or knee bar to finish...Dig the underhook and spinning armbar to repeat.

Makes one feel young again:) I started karate 40 years ago and practiced 3 - 4 hours a day, but it was so much easier. You just needed to stretch, do push ups and shadow boxing or katas. Learning bjj between classes is very much more difficult - unless you have a training partner. Lol....my friend...the thing that made it less difficult is the fact it was 40 years ago....lol. I know what you mean though. There are drills and such you can do. But, for the most part, you do need a partner to train BJJ. That makes it much more difficult to get good. You may have seen them, but Jason Scully does a good series of videos on you tube with BJJ partnerless exercises. This is just one of them. He actually has a ton of great stuff and he's well respected in the art. May even give you some more ideas on what to practice.

Ribeiro's book makes it clear that at our level, we should be focusing on just escapes as white belts. That is pretty much what I have been working on. The upper belts in my school are very skilled and do justice to their belts. It is a challenge to work on the escapes. Yes, you'll like Saulo's book. Survive...that's your only job right now. Survive and learn.

I think using fitness as a punishment is a poor idea anyway. Fitness is something to be applauded and using it as punishment makes it seem like a bad thing. Despite popular belief, martial arts do not create discipline. Only the desire to push one's self to get better creates discipline. It must come from within, it can't be enforced. If someone is being disruptive, the best thing to do is to call it out immediately.

Not to mention grapplers quest, which has cash prizes

Agreed. This is a terrific way to drill. The great thing about it is, over time, it can be sped up and more resistance can be added.

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck...you're right, it's crazy. Honestly, it depends why they train. Remember that Karate is a very new martial art. It was created post Meiji Reformation and is imbued with more philosophy than martial skills did prior to that time. To many people, Karate Do is simply a way to stay in shape, sharpen the mind, and have fun. But there's no doubt. If you want to be good at fighting, you have to practice fighting.

I agree! There's only one thing I allow my students to demand of me...my best efforts. Beyond that, they can leave their demands at the door.

And that's what it all comes down to. I agree.

It's a pretty good book. However, and I have a big library, the best one you can get is called, Jiu-Jitsu University, by Saulo Ribeiro. It really hits home what you should be doing at what level of training. The techniques are solid and appropriate for all levels of training. http://www.amazon.com/Jiu-Jitsu-University-Saulo-Ribeiro/dp/0981504434/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1340552252&sr=8-1&keywords=jiu-jitsu+university There's a link for it. Honestly, it's a must have for anyone serious about BJJ.

Kanku Dai and Unsu

Spend enough time training martial arts and you'll eventually hear someone ask this question: "Sensei (Sir, ma'am, ect...), when will I earn my next rank?" You hear that or some variation of it. The typical response is usually a whitty retort followed by some sort of punishment (be it physical or mental) for having the nerve of asking such a question. I used to be the same way, until recently. One of my student's, a transplant from another school, sat down next to me during a break and said, "Where do you see me as far as skill?" You may argue, this is a very respectful way to ask a question. And I agree. However, answering is not as simple. He was, in essence, asking what is required to advance. I found myself having to answer by referring to rank. He was skilled, missing a few details here and there, and was a high level white belt teetering on the edge of blue belt. After all, like school, like the military, like almost everything else that requires learning we have a hierarchy. For us, the hierarchy is based on belt rank. Let me put it in another context. If I am a "team leader" in a job, I might have the goal of reaching "manager." Why would it be disrespectful for me to ask my boss what he expects of me to reach that goal? Essentially, I'm asking, "When will I earn my promotion?" The boss would tell me what I need to do in order to receive said promotion. I guess my point is, as long as we place belt ranks as the goals for our students, they will use that as their guideline to judge progress. So, by telling the students they shouldn't ask about ranks, we essentially stunt their growth. I again return to the "manager" example. If I never ask my boss how I can become a manager, he or she may simply think I have no interest and, ultimately, pass me up on the opportunity. I've seen this happen. I've witnessed people come in, work hard, sacrifice, learn and get passed up because the boss never realized they were interested in the promotion. So what's your take? Should a student ask about rank? Let's assume a respectful question. Not the whole, "I should be rank x" stuff.

If you're talking about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu; Theory and Technique then you have a pretty good book. It's by Royler and Renzo Gracie. They are cousins, not brothers. The techniques presented are ok. However, it does not do a true representation of what you should know by black belt. Actually, I'd say it runs through a pretty solid blue belt curriculum if you go from the first move to the last. In other words, becoming skilled with the moves in the book would make you a solid blue belt. But honestly xo-karate, it sounds like you're looking for a magic bullet. Some set of moves that, in and of themselves, will make you better at bjj. There is no such thing. This is because BJJ (as any martial art when practiced properly) is more than the sum of it's parts. Let's say, as an hypothetical example, that BJJ has 1000 different techniques. You could go and learn each move and perfect each move, but all your left with is 1000 moves. BJJ isn't about how many moves you learn. Just like any other live activity, it's about strategy, mechanics, timing and the amount of work you put into it. Once you get very good at basic mechanics and have a good idea of what your BJJ is like, then you can begin learning new moves that fit into your scheme or expand your scheme. For now, stick to fundamentals. They're fundamental for a reason...ie: THEY WORK. They aren't working for you yet because you aren't good at them yet. Come back in 10 years and we'll talk more about this.

So I'm seeing 3 distinctive questions in your post. As I see it, they are these: 1. How do you begin to see opportunities? You mentioned the answer is to roll more. But this is not correct. The answer is to drill the move more. If you only drill it a few times, you can't expect yourself to consistently use it. These are perishable skills. But if you never develop the skill in the first place, it never has time to sink in. If the move is not part of you, you will not see the opportunity in time to use it. 2. Should I learn more attacks from defensive positions or just be more aggressive from the beginning? Learning when and how to attack is very difficult in BJJ. The fact is there will be a time for both of these options. Don't worry about aggression or attacking from weird positions. Focus on learning how to appropriately move your body. By doing this, you will find you are always in a position where you can attack and maintaining appropriate distance for skillful defense. Becoming skilled in bjj is about learning proper body mechanics...not about learning moves. 3. What method should I use to begin seeing the opportunities that lead to combinations? Drill, Drill, Drill....Opportunities are created in two ways. You create them or your partner creates them. However, if you don't drill enough, you will never be prepared for the opportunities.

Interesting indeed. I'm interested to see how the participants are selected.

It should be an Olympic Sport!!! Olympic boxing is a huge joke now. The same would come of MMA. I'd rather it never see the Olympic games.

You'd be surprised. With what Judo has become due to the pressure of Olympic status, you should be glad you aren't doing it. Most throws end up with the thrower on the bottom. Not good. They had to take out most of the high percentage throws because they IOC felt the art was looking too much like wrestling.

I've worn Sho Yo Roll, Atama, Gameness, HKK, and On the mat. Then I bought a Fuji gi. Best gi i've ever owned. I will never buy anything other than fuji. Inexpensive, doesn't shrink, and holds up very well.

Generally speaking, I would be very careful deploying any Judo throw in a street fight. You may also go down and falling onto concrete is not quite the same as a mat. Some of these throws have the potential to kill both your opponent or you. I get what you're saying. However, that's where training comes in. If you train for judo, where all you care about is the guy falling and not how you land, I would agree with you. But doing each of these properly, you will end up on the top. The likelihood of killing someone is the same as it would be with any throw or takedown. Heck...a single punch could cause death in extreme circumstances. So, if you're fighting for your life anyway, you're not going to be concerned with killing your opponent. If you are, you're thinking too much, and are probably already seriously hurt. As far as hitting the concrete, that's something that people should train. In the military we regularly trained on the pavement, in the sand, and on wood floors. The ground can be painful, but is usually inevitable, and it's not made of lava. I guess my point is that your argument can be applied to anything. I could say the same thing about punching, kicking, weapons, grappling ect... It's fighting and Self Defense. It's inherently dangerous. Considering most "self defense" situations occur as an ambush...it's quite likely you're already injured badly when you begin your defense. As far as the specific techniques I chose...here's my reasoning: O Soto Gari: Major outside leg reap: This is a very versatile move that can be found in every martial art. From collar grabs to punches, this move can be applied and leave you up and your opponent down. Single Leg: This move is also very versatile and does not require you to go to the ground to finish it. Again, you end standing while your opponent ends on the ground. O Goshi: Hip Toss: Great move that will cause one of two things to happen: 1) The opponent gets thrown. 2) The opponent fights not to be thrown. The first is great as you can either remain standing or land on top of him. The second will either create enough space to break the clinch or set up for..... Tani Otoshi: Sit Down throw/ Rear Sacrifice Throw: Probably the most dangerous on my list because it is a sacrifice throw. However, when trained properly (as I'm assuming for all of these) you will end in mount or side control. Koshi Guruma: Good for situations where the opponent is grabbing and pushing, be it a choke or grabbing the shirt ect... Again, you end standing or in side control. I would also add foot sweeps into this, but the OP just asked for our opinion our top 5. Like I said, I'm assuming the person doing the throws is well trained and has control of their body. As long as that's the case, these 5 will work well for them. If they stink at throwing...they were in trouble trying it anyway.

O soto gari (leg reap)- most versitile Single Leg (no longer legal in comps) O goshi Tani Otoshi (works great off a failed o goshi) koshi guruma

Don't aim to be fast. Aim to be smooth. Smooth is fast.