Sam

Its a very different approach ill give it that, but the problem is as Aodhan pointed out it became something of a Fad for a while, then everyone realised there's actually quite a lot of training that has to go in behind it, and naturally its very hard to do well.... so the classes cut back a bit. I still think its a nice adaptation of style, as all forms are doing is almost demonstrations / performances..... I just think recently [especially in TKD] it have become over done.

and so you made it blue belt Aodhan..... I'm grading for my second dan in TKD soon - i'm interested to see if it makes any difference to me, other than being happy with passing.

I dont think commercial successfulness is ever an indication of agood school for MA; however, i don't think I've ever jumped to the conclusion based on seeing a shcool - sometimes on seeing the students though i have.

try to make the twisting motion accentuated at the end as wel..... but training wise you're looking at building speed, focus, technique and power. Speed - just practice kicking. Focus - breaking technique - again breaking, but can be practiced through repetition as well Power - Both breaking and kick bags.... i personally prefer kick bags.... maybe tie the bottom tyo the floor, and try to fold it?! Anyway hope thats a bit better tha nmy short explanatin before.

i.e. - whatever happens to work at the time.... dont limit yourself by thinking in a box.

i think he means 1 for 1 - as in no contact..... just dodging and going for targets.

land back in l stance, front arm jab, jumping reverse side kick land in sitting stance side back hand strike.

yeah - they can be good for conditioning your forarms, etc. and just working on timing. as you get onto semi free sparring and then unknown random stuff it becomes a bit better as far as not being as un practical goes.

would shin protection help against that sort of thing? short of a splint?

actually as far as tripping and counter attacking etc goes, the body's spatial awareness should take care of it, but i agree having toughened up by destroying the nevers wont help.

I agree to an end but you're generalising to much and not considering the greater implication tournaments might have later on in training in other styles.... I agree that character devleopment is essential, but tournaments arent about bits of plastic or metal.... you can learn a huge amount from them - physical and developmental.

and the make up, but i think its the gymnastics....

welcome!

ok excusing pressure points for a second.... a lot of the description of Dim Mak that has gone on simply seems to be common sense...... hit a certain target with the right attacking tool. Thats not especially hard.... like Justice's example - hit someone on their jaw hard enough and you'll cvause shock - not to be a paint but hit them any where on the head hard enough and your going to be causing damage. It seems to me all that these descriptions say is that you need to hit people in places that hurt..... not really any secret there [im really not trying to be facetious here so sorry if it appears that way]. So now concerning pressure points.... teh only application [iMHO] they could have [as has been mentioned] is once an opponent is restrained.... but again some people dont have certain pressure points. I do however openly disagree with people who say that they would be effective in things like UFC... and the only reason they havent been tried is because they're too dangerous. I understand that techniques are too dangerous to practice in real situations, but still i doubt the ability of someone to hit so specific targets against such experienced fighters [other than things liek the 1 hit knockouts that have occured, those seem to be more by luck]

i think someone didnt read a dictionarywhen deciding to name it...... quantum ju jitsu = extremely small ju jitsu..... unless of course he was talking about circles.

no such thing as a perfect art - perfect is unobtainable - especially when paired with a word as subjective as "art"

best way to condition yourself against pain from being hit is to get hit a lot.... just like conditioning your knuckles against punching damage - you punch things.

Also a deep rooted stance physically doesnt make all takedowns harder.... since by going deep, to make the stance stronger it needs to be wider than normal therefore weakening it from the perpendicular. All stances, upright, low, crouched, etc. are suceptible to take downs, just some are better off than others. I personally dont believe there is any stance that can prevent a take down or even hinder it considerably. The stance you choose should be a stance that allows you to be mobile and defend yourself.

very cool article..... especially liked the last quote about the armour.

squawman - guess that makes sense considering the recent successes of bjj....

"karate deathmatch" - has karate in the title, but thats about as far as it goes...... worst fight scenes ever!!! [almost].

streets of rage I, II and III..... YEAH!!! lol

Looks like that opinion was unpopular.... im still interested though; why do u think they suck?

forgot to add - if you google it or visit bilang.com you'll get LOADS of info on it....

Basicall XMA [Extreme Martial Arts] is a way of approaching techniques that combines the normal aerial techniques you find in MAs with gymnastics. Its generally considered a method of performance rather than a style in its own right, as it can be applied to many different MAs. You'd know it if you saw it, combines lots of flips, springs, jumping kics, spins, and fast movements. Believe the name "XMA" was brought about by Mike Chat.