Andrew_Patton

Really guys, I've actually never heard that one... Nakazato sensei would be the obvious choice for handing his belt down, I may have to do some meddling... erm, investigating on that subject, interesting thought though.

See once again people claim things about styles that claim one thing or another, like I've always said though, the thought of cross training isn't new, and has never been new, and fighting for the most part is completely instinctual. I've never believed the hype out of any martial artist's mouth, i believe the substance of things, what's actually there, would you buy a book without reading it? Do you care that the book is 'the greatest story ever told' or 'the first telling of (whatever you wanna read)' or do you care that it holds your attention, tells you what you wanna know, and is compelling? I know with a book I really look for the latter, why care about the politics of who did what when and why, in fact show me what the first love story is and I'll surely show you a different, older version. Think about this, most japanese learn some judo in highschool, starting in the 1880's, same goes for karate in the 1900's, so isn't that considered MMA/JKD/whatever? it's all happened before and when MMA no longer exists (remember pankration from the earliest olympics?) I'm certain someone else will come up with the idea.

I'll actually agree on what shotokanwarrior stated, but great BJJ guys who do MMA would have to be Carlos Newton, BJ Penn, and of course Renzo Gracie (Is it him or Rickson that's supposed to be fighting soon?) you saw what a person that the UFC touted as the end all be all of BJJ was able to do against a true MMA fighter.. nothing. It's sad to see a 'legend' like that lose so bad, he needed to start paying attention when people like Millitech and Couture started dominating american MMA.

Royce seemed way to passive with Matt, If I were him (and outweighed matt by around 90lbs ) I would definately try my hardest on the feet to get top position, there's no way I'd EVER want to be on the bottom with Hughes, and it really just seemed like Royce layed there and gave up about a min. into the fight.

I would like to add that the reason some positions such as guard (BJJ did not create or revolutionize the guard, that's a myth (spider and butterfly are different stories IIRC) are neglected in Olympic judo because if your opponent passes it counts as an ippon, to them it's much better to wind up on your side than to pull guard on an opponent. Now, in newaza (ground) work they do use the guard extensively, and at a mastery level BJJ and judo are very close in resemblance (watch Yoshida and Royce's fights for an example of how the style's compare, in fact, just watch Yoshida's fights, he's quite the judoka)

Watching old UFC's from the perpective of someone that knows a decent amount of BJJ, I have to say though, Royce isn't that impressive at all, sloppy takedowns, not going for the subs right away... not taking arms, legs and necks when they're obviously there and by there I mean a whitebelt would know they're their. And getting completely dominated by kimo (tell me if kimo would have thought to shave his head, he wouldn't have won, I dare you to say that) He even had trouble finishing fights that weren't shamrock the first time, delucia, and van clief. And at only a blue belt I've tapped out wrestlers in the 250 range in less than a few minutes.. Royce took 17 minutes to tap out Dan Severn (now I've rolled with dan and nowadays it's nigh impossible to tap him, but back in the day he didn't know what a sub was.) To top things off Mario Sperry IIRC said that Royce's Jiu jitsu was that of a blue belt. and if one of your fellow gracie jiu jitsu guys says that... well, you're pretty much boned.

of course though, you'd have to research ichihara on a non-UFC website, they always lied about things in the old days; i.e; before UFC 1 Ken Shamrock had exactly 3 fights... not a record of 25-3-2 Kimo Leopoldo never studied Tae Kwon Do, he's a streetfighter. Jason Delucia only had one bareknuckle fight (with Royce to boot), not 23 like stated. Ron Van Clief didn't have 10 different black belts.IIRC Art Jimmerson wasn't really a great boxer.(not top of the heap like UFC was supposed to showcase) and my personal favorite (from sat. night) Royce's MMA record as of this may was not 11-0... more like 13-2-3 and he never beat Yoshida, Yoshida choked him out once, and he drew with him the second time... Other than that, Traditional fist answers pretty much spot on... but, I've seen sources that state that ichihara is a sixth dan... I don't know if they're talking then or now... but if you get your info from the UFC, especially older ones... watch out, they're trying to swing things their way

actually, I believe the link said something about geoff thompson being the guy who produced that video, geoff's actually a karate-ka from the UK (Shotokan I believe) and is a big proponent of bunkai based karate (if it's karate it's based off of kata) and he usually digs on competition geared schools, i.e. point fighting, unrealistic bunkai/self-defense, geoff's also a door man IIRC for some club(s) in the UK, so his approach to karate's usually based on his experience in those situations

ah, but isn't the UK just like america but with old buildings and crazy accents?

I agree with NinTai, Shotokan's lost it's way as far as the inside fighting, grappling and joint manipulations that are in Okinawan arts, we also traing those aspects in sparring situations, and I have begun taking people of other styles up on offers of sparring matches to learn how to defend against other types of attacks. Also, just because it is the sportier side of karate doesn't mean it's a mcdojo, it's just mainly trained geared more towards sport.

I'm actually gonna second Sohan's comment about Rocky Marciano, I've gotta say that guy's probably the best modern boxer of all time, can we strip ali of his nickname and give it to rocky? Other than that I'd fight someone who'd better one or more aspects of my fight game... or someone that would totally out class me.

I'm gonna concur on Atama's gold weave not being much different than their single, I have a gold and most people in my class have the normal, and the only noticable difference is that under the atama logo on the left shoulder I have a brazilian flag, pretty much what you get for the extra money. And it's held up very well, but I don't have a single weave to compare it to. Edit: I'll try to grab a single weave and weigh the difference if anyone is interested.

EXACTLY! the build is actually ideal for not getting knocked over, it's like a pyramid, a nice wide low base. In fact, try this, if you have grappling experience, go to a judo or jiu jitsu class and ask to work out with a portly fellow, doesn't even need to outweigh you by much, just find someone w/ a sow belly, now working only upper body throws, double unders, over unders, whatever, try to throw them, fifteen bucks says they'll man handle you. it's all because of the base and center of gravity. it's the IDEAL build for sumo wrestling. but like the gentle man I posted about you can overcome someone much larger than you with skill, they have the skill, but the build's just not ideal to us. No one in the US likes looking at fat people in thongs face it... it's kind of, eww.

Sumo are fat because that way they're shaped like a pyramid with it's base low, (seriously that's the belief) they oppose the big muscular v-taper shape of bodybuilders and the like. In fact, not all sumo are 'so fat' Chiyonofuji was a wrestler with well over 1,000 wins and sixty or so championships, and at only 250 lbs he's around the weight most americans are at... which, well, isn't a healthy fat weight anyways, but sumo do eat around 10,000 cal. per day and work out like maniacs, so they are very strong, they just have a layer of 'ring padding'

Martial arts weapons (mainly japanese/okinawan/chinese) training pertains to the weapons that the people of old had at their time. If you want to complain that using nunchaku, tinbe or sai isn't practical, take five minutes and think about adapting to today. Think about say, the nunchaku, let's just try and think about something most everyone carries around w/ them that applies to it, oh let's replace carrying nunchaku with a good stout belt. Can you use a belt to whoop on someone without learning nunchaku? sure, but the principles learned when training nunchaku apply directly. Howabout tekko/techu easy, if you're carrying a lighter, your keys, whatever use it with the same principle. Everytime I hear someone questioning kobudo's application it's always bo/sai but still those techniques easily apply bo and sai can be applied to sticks/poles/pipes (not something you'd readily find but, it can be applied to that, and definately not something you'd carry) but, as with everything else, kobudo has it's place, and it's place isn't mearly "looking good twirling ancient weapons" you can apply the techniques, it's just a little bit of looking outside the box

the only good place I know where to get a good tinbe is if you know anyone that studies under sensei Tadashi Yamashita, you could have them order one directly through sensei, this is the matayoshi style tinbe kind of like a large round midieval shield, only much smaller (around 17in diam.) other than that... crismaswoodworking.com did create a custom tinbe for me, I have it sitting on the wall right behind me, it's a demonstration piece only because I don't wanna see it damaged, I think that the wood might be thick enough for _some_ contact, but I'm not sure... And, years ago Mikio Nishiuchi was selling tinbe sets, haven't seen those advertised in the last seven or eight years though.

yes, I have studied iyeku, and the other 11 weapons of matayoshi kobudo, for quite some time, and aparently under the same head instructor as you, Sensei Yamashita... good to see another one of his students on here.

I agree 100% with Traditional-Fist, there is no style that I know of that says that you have to agree 100% with everything they teach, there isn't a single closed minded system out there. There are multitudes of people, instructors, that are closed minded and have decided that 'my way is the only way' and have not perfected their style to themselves. Every thing adapts, I don't believe that the arts we do today resemble, in many ways, the arts that were created back in the day. Our training methods have changed, our mindsets also have changed. On the subject of learning under many different people, I want to state one thing in particular. In traditional arts, I will take my art of shorin-ryu as an example, every kata series (i.e. naihanchi, Pinan, Passai, etc) was created by a different person in each case. Each of these people added something to their art, and that's what's been lacking in the majority of 'traditional' arts nowadays, no one really has the gumption to change what they've learned, when they need to. That's where people like my karate instructor, Tadashi Yamashita, Bruce lee, the MMA and NHB pioneers, like the late Carlson Gracie, have outshone the majority of martial artists, the prime thing everyone should take away from their art is the ability to adapt, and create for yourself.

oh, no no no steelhead, I'm not under Sensei Stolsmark, used to be, but... well, I guess this needs slight clarification. Sensei Neil was, about four or five years ago, a student of my sensei Yamashita, and due to something, I don't really care what, he left Yamashita sensei's tutelage. He is a great teacher and fantastic karate-ka though. No, I'm not going to Sensei Stolsmark's Super Saturday event. I actually have to go to Florida to test for rank in front of Sensei Yamashita. Plus, it gives me an excuse to get to someplace (A lot) warmer.

To Steelhead: Actually I've trained with many people but I don't recall that particular name. The instructors I've trained with are; Bill Snyder, Jerry Wrobeleski, Daryl Smith, Phil Saur, Patrick Calhoun, John Sorg, Teru Hendry, and Neil Stoslmark. Wow, I've done quite a bit of dojo hopping in my days. I've yet to train with Julie Fung though.

um, bassically I'm from the same lineage, but my instructor (Tadashi Yamashita, 9th dan) has recently decided to differenciate himself from sensei nakazato. But I still consider myself part of Nakazato's students.

not to sound to suspicious here, but from my experience I've noticed that many people that claim to be whatever dan rank in 'traditional karate' really were never at all in karate. I.e. I'll just state one experience, at my dojo we once had a black belt from another style come in to take part in a lesson, when asked by one of the kyu ranks what style he got his rank in, he replied 'I have a nidan in karate', I knew this person from before, and to put it quite frankly, he wasn't karate at all, he was tae kwon do, and from a poor school at that (not bashing tae kwon do, a good style IMHO just not for me, and definately not karate) Now, as a comparision I've been practicing karate under my current Instructor, Tadashi Yamashita, for eight or ten years now, I'm currently a Nidan in Shorin-Ryu under him, and a Shodan in Kobudo. I am an exception to how he tests people for rank. Now, as for ataining a sixth dan in four years, under anyone. That just sets off a red flag for me. I'd see what kind of lineage your instructor has and what branch and style your instructor learned 'traditional karate' really isn't much of a point at all on the other hand Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Uechi-Ryu Pangai Noon Ryu, etc. And a viable instructor's name mean something.

I agree 100% with Sauzin, but to add to his arguement about chain vs. cord, you have no idea how many times I've seen a student do something as simple as a 45 degree strike to the head, and lose one end of his/her nunchaku because of a cheaply put together ball bearing Do Not go with ball bearing nunchaku or chains in general. Nunchaku and most other Okinawan weapons were NOT made to be used against a sword, the key weapon in Okinawa was the Bo, not the sword (besides okinawan kobudo typically only has three 'bladed' weapons, sword and shield, kama, and the hoe) Don't worry about chains, they don't work that great anyways, and they aren't reliable. $2 worth of para-cord on the other hand, hardly ever breaks in use and gives you PLENTY of warning before wearing out on you.

A good place to look is here; http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=22694&sid=21a7241ef31be988e4e31d66ffba4e39 this thread raises alot of good points with squaring off with a boxer. Pretty much everything that is applicable to a fight with a boxer type is stated within this thread. Low kicks may be risky, but so is fighting someone, in general. I have seen people that look like vagrants that turned out to be extremely talented individuals who knew how to fight, and generate massive ammounts of power.

http://sabaki.enshin.com the official site of the Sabaki Challenge. The sabaki challenge is very simmilar to Kyokushin karate tournaments, except for the fact that they allow some clinch work, grabbing and pulling opponents into techniques, sweeps, and throws. Like Kyokushin Rules it is bareknuckled, full contact fighting, yet no face striking is allowed.