ps1

Tatami style zebra mats

I saw the movie three evenings ago. I say the least, I didn't expect much. The original Karate Kid movie is what started me in martial arts. It holds a very special place in my heart and I was not thrilled that someone was toying with it. All my fears were unwarranted. The movie was fantastic! It was a true remake of the film. Jaden Smith did a pretty good job. Jackie Chan was great and really demonstrated he can act in a very dramatic role when necessary. They even addressed the whole Karate vs. Kung Fu thing. Now, of course, some things were updated and made flashier for a new audience. The "crane kick" certainly gets an update But if that's something that bothers you, than you're missing the point of the movie anyway. I highly recommend this movie. It's as close to being as good as the original as possible.

You're making the same assumption that many people with limited grappling experience make. You're assuming that causing pain is always a good thing. The problem is that pain tolerances vary greatly from person to person. Leverage and physics do not, it's universal. Therefore you're better off using proper technique and body mechanics to achieve your goals. Another downside of pain is that it tends to stimulate the release of endorphins that will cause your opponent's pain tolerance, strength, and aggression to increase. If you were having a tough time before, you just made it tougher. I think you'll look back on this statement and realize it's kinda silly. Let's take this out of the martial arts arena and use the statement on something we all know. Say...painting. If I want to paint a house, I should buy a brush. It's the right tool. If I choose to use a hammer, I will find that my house isn't painted well...and it's just alot harder to do. This is the same thing. The elbows are the wrong tool. Continuing to use them, when a better tool exists...is silly and makes your jiujitsu sloppy and useless. I choose to add something else about being rude. There certainly is such a thing. While that's not the only reason not to use the elbows...it is, yet, another reason. Remember that jiujitsu is the art of how to efficiently solve problems. I believe you'll find that rudeness rarely solves any problem.

I agree with you. I suppose the most fair way to do it would be to give each portion of the test equal weight. Otherwise, what's the point?

Question 1: From which position(s) were you grinding your elbows? Observation 1: Grinding of elbows is usually done by novices in order to make up for lack of proper technique or strategy. ie: you're in side control and want the opponent to move his arm. You grind an elbow into his face to get him to push your arm off...thus exposing his arm. Observation 2: Knuckle grinding is also used in the same way and also by novices. You shouldn't use that as a measuring stick. Observation 3: Putting their weight down on you is the proper way to hold someone down. It's effective and frees up their arms for attacks. Learn proper defenses to escape bad positions. If someone is in a position where they can put their weight on you...you made the mistake of letting them get there. Learn to enter your defense earlier. Observation 4: By laying on your back, putting your elbows in the air, you're wasting time that could be better used working back to your guard or reversing your position. Here's a link to a good escape from side control...among other techniques: It should be pointed out that my perspective is from BJJ. From that perspective, even Judo Black Belts (1st degree) tend to be novices in terms of ground grappling (ne waza). When you figure they've trained about 1 hour of ne waza per week for three to 5 year in comparison to the 3 to 4 hours per week of throwing they've done for the same amount of time. That's equal to about 7 or 8 months of BJJ training. That's all! Keep in mind...I'm talking ground work here...not including the throwing. A BJJ practitioner isn't considered as "knowing the art" until high purple or brown belt; which represents 6-8 years of training in the art. My point is that it takes alot of time to get good at the ground. The more you train it...the better you will get. But don't stunt your growth by abandoning technique. I'm 215lbs and 150lbs guys escape from me regularly...but not by waiting. They learn to flow from one move to another. So should you...that's what you're instructor is trying to tell you. You're not cheating the game...you're only cheating yourself. Good luck and keep training hard.

Wow...not how I would have handled that situation. Very weird.

Have fun and keep training.

It's hard to pinpoint whether any of the Judo submissions are exclusive to the art. There's no real documentation as to what Kano created himself and what he brought in from his Jujitsu experience. If I had to guess...nothing in Judo is original as far as submissions go. It all came from jujitsu. But that's my opinion based on what I've learned in aiki jujitsu

Wow!! You're right. Sorry for getting off thread everyone

So does that automatically determine that a powerlifter who wants to be an MAist isn't going to reach full potential because of his bulkiness? I see Joe Lewis in my head, who was never really slow. http://images.quickblogcast.com/5/6/9/6/6/177516-166965/PowerLifter.jpg This is the typical power lifter build. Of course, like anything there are exceptions. But this is what they strive for. http://www.fightingmaster.com/legends/lewis/joe10.jpg This is Joe Lewis. He's nowhere near that. Few other pics of him: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sidekickmma.com/images/Bill__Joe.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sidekickmma.com/joelewis.htm&usg=__XdYj1_pK0Gg2nMsLKmjOhjgp8Ss=&h=234&w=360&sz=9&hl=en&start=24&itbs=1&tbnid=j8d2LN71G-w98M:&tbnh=79&tbnw=121&prev=/images%3Fq%3DJoe%2BLewis%26start%3D18%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26tbs%3Disch:1 To answer your question, yes. If you want to be good and reach your full potential in any sport, you don't train another sport to do it. You cross train...which is different. Keep in mind that I'm not saying they can't be a good and knowledgeable martial artist. But rarely would someone of that build be able to reach his full martial arts potential. Let's put your question in a different context: Would a 6' 2", 160lb basket ball player be able to reach his full potential in football without putting on a little more weight? Not likely to happen.

Steroids and HGH can do some very amazing things. It's sad to say that most of the professional strength and conditioning coaches in the country find 300 lb men moving that fast as very suspect. Testing can be tricked and avoided. When there's hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, certain things get overlooked. I'm sure some are natural....but that would be the exception, not the rule. If that is the case, then that is too bad. Lots of kids with heros out there. I dunno..... Just my, perhaps unique, perspective on juicing: it costs a lot, not only in money, but long range health issues. It's not something one frivolously decides to pull a Nike and just do it. In many cases, pro athletes are the first in their family tree to earn a big (let alone decent) income. A to-juice or not-to-juice decision, potentially accelerating a budding career, often times is deemed an acceptable sacrifice to ensure their family is taken care of for years to come. Especially when getting to the "bigs" they find it's a prevalent practice. It just never bothered me to hear of a pro getting caught using. For them, the gains outweigh the risk. Juicing certainly isn't without real, serious and probable medical consequences. There were a lot of juicers at a gym I used to frequent. Most talked open and freely about it. None of them got anything for it, except moderately big, and a few stupid local bodybuilding competition titles. Big whoopee! Just my opinion, why do it unless you've got A LOT at stake...? Most of it starts on the high school and college level. It's quite often supervised by physicians. I'm not making it up, I've seen it happen and know many people who have done it. Most often, it begins after an injury. Steroids do speed recovery time as well as the strength and power growth. People at the local gym are usually using them improperly (assuming the use of any illegal substance can be proper) and abusing them. Many physicians and coaches have trained in their use and understand how to administer them without going overboard and taking it into the abuse category. My point is that many of the pros are already using/ have used before they become pro. Again, not all of them, but many.

The opponent is trying to get you to move your guard. When you do, he will strike more vital targets. Work on your foot work so you're not a stationary target. Take satisfaction that you are making it difficult for him to hit you. If he's hitting your arms, he's not breaking ribs or taking your wind away. There's always a tradeoff when you block a technique...in this case you trade a few bruises for the right to keep breathing.

Glad it worked for you. Certainly, some of the transitions change a little when doing it. Good luck.

Steroids and HGH can do some very amazing things. It's sad to say that most of the professional strength and conditioning coaches in the country find 300 lb men moving that fast as very suspect. Testing can be tricked and avoided. When there's hundreds of millions of dollars on the line, certain things get overlooked. I'm sure some are natural....but that would be the exception, not the rule.

Your speed is determined by muscle fiber type and your training regimen. It is a fact that slow twitch muscle fibers are...well...slower than fast twitch. The problem is each person is born with a pre-determined ratio of slow twitch to fast twitch muscle fibers. There is no training you can do to change your particular ratio. That said, through training, you can take advantage of the particular ratio you do have. Plyometrics and power lifting techniques (among others) are commonly used by high level athletes in order to capitalize on this. But what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander. A power lifter wants to develop that huge barrel chest in order to minimize the distance between the bar and his chest for the bench press event. However, that body type is not the best for...say...a boxer. This is because it's bulky and, though powerlifters tend to be very fast, gets in the way of fluid movement through a more full range of motion. This is what I'm talking about when I say that muscular bulk isn't necessarily the best thing for a martial artist and slows the person down. Especially since the goal of a good martial artist should be to be fluid and effective. Hope that helps you better understand where the statement tends to come from. Sincerely, Bill Jones Exercise Physiologist, CSCS

Good post and I agree on all counts.

All of my testing was done with my instructors just walking around. My first black belt was a surprise...no testing. I walked in and a tea ceremony was performed.

Good luck with that! Problem is that there's no way to control the ration of type 1 v type 2 musculature we have. It's genetic. So while on person may gain 15lbs of muscle and be tremendously explosive another may gain the same amount and end up being really slow. I think their time would be better spent doing plyometrics in order to take advantage of what they do have. Don't get me wrong, I think traditional weight lifting is necessary too. Balance in the workout regimen is a must.

If you've been training for 2 years, you should know your kata patterns pretty well. So just remove the pattern and do the form in one spot. Think of kata as leggo pieces. Each move can go in any spot or be put into any configuration. A specific kata is just one artist's idea of how it should look. Take a 1 meter by 1 meter area. That should be large enough to do any stance. It's also large enough to do any kata. Think Taikyoku Shodan. Start by doing your gedan barai (down block). Now since you can't step forward into your Oi Tsuki, slide your front foot back to the rear and step forward with the right foot and punch. Now you bring your left foot up to meet your right foot, turn and block again. You've now done the first three movements of the kata without even moving. But everything else was correct. With practice, you can figure out how to do kata like this.

Mr. Obvious is making some great points here. But keep in mind your ultimate goal as well. Right now, you shouldn't be thinking about getting into fighting shape. It should be about getting healthy again. Loose some fat and being consistent. Once you see that happening, then start working on more specific goals. If your kickboxing classes are giving you a good workout (raising your heart rate and keeping it higher for a long period of time) then you may be ok with those 4 days for now. Give it a few months and then start thinking about adding more days as Mr. O suggests.

Fat loss is always the right thing to do. It's just the healthiest way to be. Muscle gain is something that may or may not help you. It's difficult to gain muscle and takes alot of hard work to maintain it once you do. But gaining four or five pounds of muscle can usually help out anyone. It's when you start talking about 10, 15, even 20 lbs of muscle that you're going to start feeling a little bulky. That may not be preferred. Of course, it always depends on where you're starting from too. If you're willing to do the work to gain the muscle and maintain it, then sure. I just wouldn't suggest that a martial artist get "bulky." It's slows you down. Lean is usually the best goal. Shoot for between 10 and 16% body fat (for men) and 18 to 24% (for women). Sorry women, you naturally have a higher body fat composition requirement

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Suenaka I found this on him. It sounds like he's legit.

I disagree. This type of sparring doesn't teach you to move in and out...just stay out. There's nothing of value in that. It doesn't teach good footwork, distance, properly reading the opponent, or timing. That depends on who is the agressor. If I move in that forces you to move out and vice vesa. I would consider this like shadow boxing only I can have the invisible partner right in front of me. To be honest I can see pro's and con's to this type of sparring. My problem with this type of thing is that if you have a partner, you should be doing training that allows you to use your partner. The average martial artist only gets to train with a partner two or three times per week. Then most of that time is, instead, used training things like kata and kihon that don't require a partner and can be done at home. It wastes the practitioner's time and, IMO, money. Shadow boxing and the like are meant to be done when there is no partner.

I disagree. This type of sparring doesn't teach you to move in and out...just stay out. There's nothing of value in that. It doesn't teach good footwork, distance, properly reading the opponent, or timing.

It really sounds quite useless. I can't see how it would truly be a beneficial skill. I can see why you don't like it. I don't think you should always be pounding on each other, but there are better ways to learn to read your opponent.