ps1

Here's a new vid with some very basic techniques. But they are fundamental to BJJ. My instructor, Tony Rinaldi, is teaching here.

This isn't actually the case. Most of the companies that handle these contracts will let you out pretty easily. This is because most court cases surrounding them have ended in favor of the person trying to get out of the contract. Because future court cases are determined based on precedent, it's just less costly for these companies to let you out. Look at it this way. They lose a couple hundred dollars by letting you out of the contract. They lose thousands upon thousands in attorney fees and court costs if they make you take it to court. Just ask to be let out of the contract. If your school is really pushy, they may wait until you have an attorney draw up a formal request (about 50 to 100 dollars). But they are going to let you out. JUST ASK! It really is that easy.

You should be able to easily get out of the contract. Start by talking to the ower of the establishment. If that doesn't work, simply call the company that is doing the direct withdrawl of your account and tell them to stop payment. They may give you some rigamoral...but they must stop payment. Nobody can charge you for services not rendered. If that doesn't work, you can call your bank and ask them to block the withdrawl. All of these options are free. Your last option, and most expensive, is to get an attourney involved. It shouldn't come to that though.

Well, there was that scene in The Best of the Best where the Korean did the ridge hand break on those slabs of concrete, downwards. Pretty nasty, but, it was a movie.... I was actually struck with one to the back of my neck in that manner. I had ducked a little to much to avoid a punch and he followed with that downward ridgehand. It nearly knocked me unconscious. It certainly made me see stars. I was impressed. That said, I feel it's a much better strike when used as an upward strike. That is, hit the groin with it. It's great against a front or rear headlock. Gives the attacker something to worry about long enough for me to defend the grab. Besides, the upward movement of the arm makes better biomechanical use of the strike than when it's swung horizontally.

Great pick! Well deserved. Congrats

Congratulations Tori!!!

Welcome to the forums TexasMike. With respect, this sounds alot like myth. Do you have any references available that prove this event took place? I mean, other than heresay.

Works against someone who doesn't know grappling. Against a person with only a few months of training, the cross collar will not work from inside the guard. It's too easy to be swept or submitted.

Main Card Bouts: Chuck Liddell vs. Rashad Evans: Liddell, KO Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill: Franklin, Decision Nate Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann: Kampmann Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares: Henderson, Karo Parisyan vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida: Parisyan, KO Preliminary Bouts: Dong Hyun Kim vs. Matt Brown: Hyun, KO Kurt Pellegrino vs. Thiago Tavares: Pellegrino Roan Carneiro vs. Ryo Chonan: Chonan, KO Mike Patt vs. Tim Boetsch: Boetsch, Sub Jason Lambert vs. Jason MacDonald: Lambert, Sub

A friend of mine in Pennsylvania is on one. He's 28yrs old. Now, it's a big wrestling state also. That probably makes a difference. But it's just like a bowling league. They have little meets and everything.

1. Their arguement assumes that every attacker and every defender will have a gun. This is simply not the case. In most cases you have to have a permit to carry a gun. Or you've paid money to purchase it and carry it illegally. By far, most crimes do not involve a gun. 2. Anyone who wants to kill you will do so. Period. I realize that's a little morbid and I'm sorry for that. But If so and so wants you dead...He probably has more than enough opportunities to do it. No one can train for that ever. 3. Ask them how many times they've been shot. Ask them if they knew that getting shot does not mean you die. Actually, most gun shot victims live. That's why you see so many purple heart license plates on the road. So, even after getting shot, you can still fight for your life. 4. Lastly, I don't train for self defense anymore. I train because I love it. Some people go to the gym, others knit, still others join charitable orginizations. I train martial arts. I still apply self defense aspects to my training, but that's simply a leftover from being in the military. It's not the purpose for training. None of this really helps you though. You still need to answer for yourself. Why do you train martial arts?

Like Sun Tsu, Musashi's works speak very much to the art of killing. Afterall, one of the first things he speaks of is how many men he's killed. The book is best applied to military. But understanding the mindset is applicable to all martial artists and even buisnessmen use his teachings.

Personally, I find the school too "Americanized" for my taste. They let their hands down during sparring. It looks like Tae Kwon Do, not Karate. There's no information about their instructors or their philosophy for martial arts, which always sends up flags. My initial instincts are that it's a belt factory or McDojo. That assessment comes solely from their website however. You should check it out and see what the instructors have to say. See if you have good chemistry with them. Afterall, if you like it, it doesn't matter what I think.

1. The "warrior mindset" is one of little or no thought. That is, you react as you are trained, no different. You layer your weapons defenses: Rifle, Side arm, bayonette, stick/blunt instrument, hands. You know your job. You take aim and fire at the enemy without even thinking that it's another human your bullet is flying toward. Things just happen. Everything you do has an absolute purpose. Do I still carry that! Not all of it, no. When I realized I no longer wanted to live like that, I decided I should no longer be a soldier. I still have some leftovers of that mindset. My martial arts skill will always be more combat focused versus sport focused. I still train to disarm an opponent. I stay in good physical condition. However, I also like to do things that serve no purpose but my own pleasure. These are things the warrior does not have time for. Amature magic tricks for example (http://www.youtube.com/user/thecardmonkey) i like to just sit around sometimes. Those things are without purpose and are not like a warrior at all. 2. Situation vs. mindset! Chicken or the egg? One begets the other. You can't ever truly have that mindset if the situation is not likely to arise. Conversely, you may never get in that situation if you don't have that type of mindset. I personally believe some people are just born to be warriors and others are not. I, in my opinion, was not. That's why I stopped. You must have both the deadly situations and the mindset in order to be a warrior.

I don't think there needs to be a dojo specifically. But you certainly need someone there, with you, to guide you, teach you, motivate you, and take you to the next level. If by "dojo" you mean a specific building...I guess not. But the importance of a qualified instructor can never be over stated.

I agree 100% I was in the military, at that time I was a warrior. I had to be ready to die when I went to war. Really, when you go to war...you leave everything as though you are already dead, like you don't expect to come back. Every moment you train and are ready to fight, even the support groups are warriors and may have to fight and die at a moments notice. It goes much farther than a state of mind. I was a warrior. When I ceased being a soldier, I also ceased being a warrior. Just my opinion though.

Empi Bassai Dai Kanku Dai Seiunshin Unsu

In the end, my goal is to go home! I will do what is necessary to meet that goal. Period. I don't think, "I'm gonna kill this guy." Rather, I simply defend until I feel the threat is gone.

I guess, in the end, this all comes down to how a person defines a martial art. To some, arts such as Karate, TKD, and BJJ are not martial arts either. Because they do not focus using the art in war. For others the definition is much more broad. Bushido also makes a great point about the difference between the eastern and western mindset.

Ok. I'm in! Unfortunately, there's no way for me to contact them. It just issues the challenge and lets it stand. No info on date, time, place or how to register. I also couldn't find the rules. Also, how are the 5 representatives selected...solely on the basis of being Japanese? Interesting. It actually seems pretty dumb in my opinion. A publicity stunt that can never be verified or disproved.

I believe it is a sport with rule sets that change from venue to venue. 1. The best fighters tend to change the way they fight and tailor it to the opponent they will face. Randy Couture is the best example of this. Sometimes he wrestles them, other times he stays standing, and sometimes he pins them to the cage in the clinch. I believe that these changes go farther than the average martial art does in "situation dictates" types of tactics. The fighters study tapes of the opponent and create a game plan to defeat them. They concentrate on defending the opponents strengths and exposing their weaknesses. They do this in MMA, Boxing, Football, Ice Skating, Tennis and every other sport you can imagine. That is...they play the rules to their advantage...it's part of the overall strategy. Ok. so I've determined it's a sport...but I realize that's not really the question. 2. Most of the athletes in MMA tout that they study a particular style. Machida has Shotokan and BJJ, GSP has kyokushin and BJJ, Forest Griffin has Muay Thai, Couture and Hughes have wrestling and so on. The announcers, when calling the fight, often refer to what their doing by saying things like, "his jiujitsu is good, so and so doesn't want this to hit the ground," or "so and so is a world class muay thai guy, he wants to keep this standing as long as possible." Styles of anything... suits, writing, software, exercise and so on... all have lingo that is specific to their particular arena. MMA does not have that...yet. Some guys call a move a low line round house, others call it gedan mawashi geri still others simply call it shin kick. I realize that's a subtle difference. But an important one none the less. The language will need to be uniform for it to be a style. I do concede opinions can vary on this as even in Karate many no longer find it necessary to teach the Japanese or Okinawan in their schools. That's another debate however. But ask for a double breasted coat and you will always get the same thing...ask a good pool player to put english on a ball and it will always look the same...you get my point here I'm sure. 3. Each style of martial art has a doctrine. That is, a particular governing principle and collection of specific teachings. MMA does not have that. Two people can go into the same school and one may come out thinking that ground and pound is the best strategy while the other comes out thinking that sprawl and brawl is the best. This is very common in sport...but not in a style. Even in boxing, a combat sport for sure, you have the same thing. But this is why you end up with 3 and 4 coaches for one fighter. You'll have one guy shouting stand up advice...another shouting what to do on the ground...and yet another talking about wrestling. In most martial art styles, competitions do not allow any coaches at all! Which leads me to point 4. 4. In a style there should be at least one person that knows the entire curriculum. There's not anyone in MMA that knows every technique from every style. There's just too much information. So people take only what will work in the particular situation they are facing. Which is very effective...but not a style. Overall, I see it as being a sport that changes to fit into different rule sets. There is just not enough cohesiveness and consistency across the entire mold to call it a style. They say that Frank Sinatra had style. That meant that every time you saw him, he was the same. Cool, collected, and women loved him and men wanted to be him. Fighters aren't that way...they will change from fight to fight...no consistency. Now, you could get into the Bruce Lee "no style as a style" stuff...but that's just circular logic and can't be reasoned with. Anyway, most of the mma guys I know...don't want to have a style. That's why they picked MMA in the first place. They wanted to only learn "what works" for them without having to learn forms and drills they feel are useless.

I remember reading this before. It's a cool experience. However, I would rather go to the source of BJJ while it's still around. By going to Brazil and learning from Rickson, I could would likely get to meet Helio. It's not often you can meet someone that created a martial art...a legitimate one anyway.

Like many here, I don't pay dues. I teach and travel for seminars and such. However, the school fee is around $100 per month for a possibility 6 days of training per week. Each BJJ class lasts around 2.5 to 3 hours.

He's living proof of a guy who took that advice to heart. Professor Sauer is an amazing martial artist.

When Pedro Sauer comes into town to do a seminar we always have a few new situations to ask him about. Inevitably he has an answer for each one. More often than not he has several answers for each situation. He always takes us to the next level because of that. I would like to achieve that level. The level where, through a combination of experience, training, and dedication, I am able to have an answer for any situation that comes up. In addition, I would like to be able to convey that information to students in order to increase their level as well. I currently teach on a regular basis and am working on my open guard and guard passing skills more than anything.