glockmeister

For one thing, if you are taking creatine, you have to drink LOTS of water if you are drinking two quarts of plkain water a day, I would try and up it to a gallon. Otherwise you may have problems with dehydration. also kidney probs as well.

The one thing I think you are missing is that the strength of BJJ is not only in the submissions but in positioning and the ability to go from a bad position to a better one while still able to fight even from on your back, Talk to any BJJ black belt and they will tell you that the very core of BJJ/Submission Grappling is positional dominance, much more so than submissions. That is what actually makes BJJ a great thing to know in the case of self defense because there is always a good chance that one or more agressors will get you on the ground. Your ability to move to a better position to either counter attack or get back up is greatly increased when you have a good ground game.

I never found forms to be very beneficial for anything other than working up a sweat. In various forms when I trained in TSD and long ago when I did Moo Duk Kwan, I was shown moves that made little or no sense, ( what exactly is a reinforced block? Who actually fights out of a "cat stance" why would there be low block to defend against kicks when anyone who has ver kickboxed knows this is a good way to get a broken arm?) It seemed to me that they tended to reinforce techniques that could actually work against you if they were used. Also they were alway big on "keep your head up." which as any boxer can tell you is a good way to get knocked out in a real fight. Again, I am not bashing anyone who belives in forms, just my opinion. I would much rather take all the time spent on forms and morching up and down the dojo doing various blocks and strikes and spending that time on real conditioning, combatives, sparring, etc. I have always been under the impression that katas in Karate were ways for people long ago to be able to study and practice their techniques alone due to the fact that in some areas martial arts were outlawed. Kata made it safer for a person to practice without fear of getting arrested attending an actual school. The traditional dances in Okinawa if I am not mistaken actually contain many of their fighting moves. They were hidden in the dances. However, this is the 21'st century, we no longer need to do such things to be discrete about our training, so I think in some ways spending so much time on forms is more about art and appreciating the history of the style rather than about fighting. Just my opinion.

The reason I think more martial artists don't train as hard is because like with so many other things in america, people want things easy. If every school was ran like that, I think membership would dwindle. I am fortunate to have boxing and american kickboxing to have been my first martial art. I have learned early on about the importance of hard training and endurance. unfortunately, many MA schools don't push their students too hard for fear of driving them away.

BJJ is ground fighting, and aims to get the fight on the ground and finish it there. IMO on the street this is a bad tactic; your priority should be to disable the opponent while still on your feet. i have been in situations where if i had gone to the ground i could have been seriously hurt (i described one in the real self defence stories thread in the general MA forum). You may want to check out the Gracie's book on BJJ for self defense. there are quite a few techniques designed to deal with an attacker from a standing position.

That was it

JKD has no belts. If you have ever read the Tao of Gung Fu, there is a quote by Lee about what he thought of belts.

Would have to be pizza. I love pizza.

Nothing you can do with them you can't do with a straight stick. at least not in terms of practical self defense.

I second Hapkido.

I agree wholeheartedly, Children and adult should be seperated. I have seen schools where they are not and I think it makes it harder on both parties to learn. At least if we are talkign practical self defense and overall combatives. However, a husband and wife's loyalty should be to each other first and foremost at least in my own opinion. That is one of the tough things about a school where a couple trains and teach together, it can soemtimes cause a strain.

I train with the stick and knife with my JKD instructor. I think it definately helps you with body mechanics as well.

Have done a little redrecting, no pressure points. Unfortunately it seems that any more training I get from them may be on hold, turns out that they are going to change their days they train, which unfortunately would interfere with my days I train in BJJ, The other days I have been working JKD. Got the call from the Systema guy who was running the class last week, He was asking if maybe if I cannot make it, that maybe he and I could do some things on our off days.

On the surface, they seem somewhat similar, however, Systema stresses relaxation and more "flow" whereas, KM seems to be more "explosive" for lack of a better term.

Wow, It was much different than I expected. When I saw the demo clips online and such, I used to think it looked pretty much hocus pocus. Well My first class chnaged all that. When we first began, I was thinking "ok here we go with this silly stuff" but 10 minutes into the class I started changing my view, by the 3rd and final hour of class. I was very impressed. It is somewhat reminicent of my JKD classes in that we use what works for us, we are shown different techniques to a certain threat and use whichever and whatever neutralizes the threat. We ran some great strike drills and takedown drills, a lot of combat conditioning, did some Sambo ground techniques, guard passes, mount escapes, chokes, arms bars, etc. Systema convers every phase of combat. So far I am more impressed than I expected to be.

Also, talk to some of the students. You can tell a lot about a scholl and it's instructor by the students there. Do they seem friendly and helpful? or do they seem cocky and arrogant?

Why not ask your coach?

Do a Google search on it. There are some modern schools that teach a more modern form of pankration and there are even tournaments. Of course it is nothing like ancient Pankration where the fights end in death or one person being maimed and I am sure the techniques are not exactly the same. I posted a thread just like this about a year ago asking much the same questions. Problem is, its just not as popular as many other arts and that is unfortunate. It's sad that a lot of the European styles have taken such a back seat to the Asian arts that many have seemed to vanish altogether. I guess the best way to describe Pankration is a combination of Greco Wrestling, Boxing, Judo and MT. They didn't have much back then in the way of rules either. Basically, when someone lost, they were either dead, crippled, couldn't fight any more or gave up... Kinda like modern day "tapping out" although back then many would continue to fight despite gruesome injuries rather than submit.

I see the JKD instructor from my school there Ken Eberley. Heard it was a great seminar!

It help with cycling because when you are smooth, there is less "drag" and the wind isn't working against you as much when smooth. I take hair off because I don't like excessive body hair.

NO, the term JIU JITSU is a mistranslation. The reason the gracie's kept it is just for tradition.At the time, that was the common spelling howbeit a wrong one. Thats why U will almost always see BJJ use that spelling as JIU and not Ju. When writing his book, "mastering jiu jitsu" Gracie makes that distinction. So for the most part when you see it spelled jiu jitsu, it is referrning to Brazillian, not Japanese. with JJJ it can be spelled as jujutsu or jujitsu.

If they have a knife, that more than likely isn't going to happen. If someone is within arm's reach, I would rather them be armed with a gun than with a knife.

MY JKD instructor attended that as well. Said it was great. I hated having to miss it

I read the article too. I think it can be a good idea when dealing with a nervous kinda guy who is trying to intimidate you into giving him money and you can see by his body language that he has every intention of taking the money and running. However if it is someone cold, calm and calculating, chances are it wouldn't work. I think it could work ina situation where some small guy is getting harassed by one or two larger individuals and they are following him and he says: "Here go buy a round on me" and tosses the fake one off to the side to distract them to make a getaway. I do feel it is probably more practical for women to carry a dummy pocketbook because people tend to snatch purses. Just keep the valuables in a wallet on her person. Maybe even just carry a pocketbook with a brick in it to use as an improvised weapon. lol.

Let me say, that having a handgun liscense doesn't mean that the people holding them have any "skills" at all. In my state of Pa, any law abiding citizen can get a carry liscense without taking any kind of safety course whatsoever. So the idea that it being a requirement for the reasons you stated are kinda moot in some areas. Having a liscence here doesn't make you any more profficient with a gun than someone who does not. That being said. I openly support the right-to-carry and carry firearms often. However I do disagree with the idea of forcing someone to get a carry permit in order for them to get a black belt, even if firearms training is part of the curriculum. I don't see how it makes any difference whatsoever.