ps1

I couldn't agree more! The word "Sensei" refers to much more than just "teacher" when used in proper context. Often times a person has only one. And it's not always the same person as everyone else either.

I know what you're getting at. But don't necessarily agree. If you encountered Mike Tyson in a fight, he would fight alot differently than if you encounter Rickson Gracie. It all has to do with who you've trained with. As far as the effectiveness of Capoeria, I've only seen it in the dance form. I've never seen them practice any kind of fighting or self defense. I've seen movies, but I would not believe that's how it's actually used.

Rank is unimportant. Just follow the curriculum. Also keep in mind this old addage: "It's not the 1000 techniques you know I fear. It's the one technique you've practiced 1000 times." To be able to perform a technique is not to know a technique.

Good advice if your fear is of being hit. One good way of doing this is to find a confined area and wear boxing gloves (they have more padding). Just go at it. It's important to know that to "fight" and not expect to get hit is as absurd as thinking you can swim without getting wet. Make sure to start with someone who knows what they're doing. Ask your instructor to help you out until you get used to it.

Do you have a link for us? We'd love to see it.

I should also mention that you can buy a DVD with the entire site plus extras. It's worth the $10.

There are several ATA locations in our area. I've been in most of them. Three are run by the same person and I would call then a bit substandard. Two others are run by a different instructor and seem quite good. It's interesting because they all teach the same curriculum. That is a perfect example of how important a qualified and committed instructor is. When I began training in Shotokan it was at a single school. It was owned by two people. When the two had a falling out, one sold his half of the school to the other. The one who sold out decided to simply train with his instructor's instructor. Since that time the one who bought the school has opened four more locations. The quality of the school and it's locations have gone way down hill. That's part of why I left. The other part was that the head of the orginization we fell under refused to allow it's members train under anyone outside the orginization. That's something I can never accept. I now train at a BJJ school that is associated with Pedro Sauer (highest ranking student of Rickson Gracie). It's a phenominal school. Although Pedro has several schools under him, we have seminars at our school with him 4 times a year. Plus private lessons. Under previous orginizations you were lucky to see the head of it once a year. It's the best school I've been associated with to date.

Well Done!

Practice your techniques equally with both sides of your body.

In a sogo bujitsu course I took it was mandatory to write down and number the techniques and subtechniques in each kata. This was to establish correlations between kata and establish bridges between them. This way, when they were utilized to practice a particular technique, you could say this kata shows us technique A connected to technique B. Then modify the technique by saying this other kata establishes the connection between technique A and technique F. It was necessary to write these down and have them sent in for different instructor certifications. I found that being forced to write them all down, which was a huge undertaking, made me think a little harder and find more correlations than if I had not written them down. When all was said and done the collection I wrote down consists of 15 spiral bound notebooks.

While the legs/feet play an extremely important role in grappling (closing the guard, moving the hips, keeping weight distribution proper), the submissions (over 90%) require the use of hands and arms. Therefore I would have to go with hands on this.

there's actually a lot more to it than that. The thigh dig is so overused now, that people are used to it, and it's farily easy to resist. That alone will not free you from someone who knows how to grapple. Elbows is absolutely correct in this. Getting a person to open their guard should be a biomechanical process, not based on pain compliance that will be ineffective in combat.

During sparring, always attack on an angle that minimizes the weapons your opponent can use and maximizes the weapons you can use.

Wow! You have your own personal Lex Luther! That's something. I'd have to say the best rival I have is more like "Thug #1." You know, the bad guy that isn't good enough to get a name or even any speaking lines.

It's not even the drills so much as the sparring training. Most karate schools do not train, and do not believe it's necessary to train, full contact. However, when you transition into MMA, you must train full contact at least part of the time. Additionally, as Bushido already pointed out, the bag drills usually take a back seat to kata/ ippon kumite/ and self defense. As a shotokan stylist myself I think these things are absolutely necessary in training karate. They tend to be useless for training MMA. I'd be willing to bet that, even the fighter in the video doesn't make kata a huge part of his fight preperation, if at all. I think you'll find the common denominator of all the martial arts that transition well into MMA is that they train their techniques full go on a regular basis. Boxing, Muay Thai, BJJ, Judo, Wrestling ect...(sorry if I left some out) tend to have that in common.

Yeah...this is an excellent site. It's one of the most thorough martial arts sites available.

Well...you could always bring the stuff with you! Just a thought. In my kung fu class, time was given for utilizing your notebook. The notebook, like your uniform and anything else, was a mandatory piece of equipment. If you didn't bring it, you didn't train that day. Everywhere else I would just keep a notebook with me and write stuff down after class.

Exactly the point I was trying to make.

Yeah...there's certainly some karate influence in what he does. I agree with cross though...guys like him are few and far between. He's an exceptional athlete who has good timing and would likely have exceded with whatever standing system he picked/ picks up.

Let's just say your quote about kinetic chess does not begin to describe the level of skill he's at.

In police academies, they are taught that, on average, an attacker is capable of taking 30 steps toward an officer in the time it takes to draw and fire an accurately aimed shot. Time is on your side. If you're going to defend yourself physically, do it while his hands are still empty. He can't shoot you if he's busy fighting you off. Make your attack quick, well placed, without mercy, and get the heck out of Dodge. Don't stay around to see if he was telling the truth.

Best advice, relax and have fun. Take the time to talk to your fellow competitors. Use it as a forum to learn, not just compete. If someone does something you like, ask them about it. Beyond that just do your best and you will always have won. Good luck.

Yup. Watched it. Unimpressed. It's just like every other guy out there that claims to do dim mak. And if only one person per generation can know it (as the video claims), then why are there so many people who claim to teach it? That would seem to indicate that there are alot of liars out there. I would say he's probably just one more. As for the reporter, it is painful to get hit in pressure points, which is what the guy did to him. It's also not uncommom for a strike to a nerve to continue hurting and giving that pain signal after the strike is over. The slap on the back (that cures him) just gives the mind something else to concentrate on.

baronbvp, I also train under Pedro Sauer. When you train with him he will tell you that the most important technique you can apply is the tap. That's the technique that keeps you safe. Pay attention in class, don't train with anyone who seems to go harder than you feel you can go. Pedro is one of the most technical and skilled BJJ practitioners in the world (that's a title voted on by the ADCC). If you train properly, your liklihood of serious injury is certainly less than in Muay Thai. There will always be bumps and bruises here and there, but I'm sure you're used to that.

I have seen people accomplish amazing feats. Falling over 200 feet and hitting cement only to walk away without a scratch, lifting cars off of loved ones, fully healing from devestating accidents, running headlong into a battle..under fire...killing 5 combatants and not getting injured. Most will agree, however, that these feats are few and far between. I'm positive that, in each, there is some guiding force or energy that assists the individual at that time. That said, I doubt seriously, that anyone can harness these energies at will. I think they do come from somewhere that our science, as we know it now, can not yet explain or duplicate. Wether it's devine intervention of an internal energy, I don't know. Further, it's people like George Dillman that take the legitimacy away from good martial artists. In my opinion he's a fraud who makes up for his inadequacies by using trickery on people who have a weaker mind than him. Above someone mentioned hypnotism...I think that's an accurate description of what he does. Not unlike the tactics used by cults.