baronbvp

First night of Combat Submission Grappling. Great exercise! We started with warmups, then went across the (large) dojo and back doing an exercise whose name just left my brain. It's where you get into pushup position, then with stiff legs you walk your feet close to your hands. Then you walk your hands out until you are back in pushup position. After that we did 20 side escape maneuvers to each side, followed by 25 bridges to a side escape each side. (I don't have all the terminology down yet.) We newbies did basic positions of guard, side mount, and top mount and escapes from those. Then the class rolled for the last half hour but I demured until my face heals the rest of the way from surgery. It's great to be back training.

These are great ideas, Sohan. I would add one caution: it is very easy to hurt oneself when changing to a dynamic, kinetic workout such as you have outlined. People hurt their backs, wrench muscles or tweak knees/ankles all the time by suddenly adding weighted twisting movements to their workouts. Anyone who has suddenly done heavy work like digging post holes or trenches by hand or shoveling rocks, who wasn't used to that workload, can attest to that. You are in great shape. I'm in decent shape, but if I carried a 100 lb sandbag down four flights of stairs, my knees would be crying.

Don't forget to breathe. That is very important as well. Feel your body as you stretch and listen to what it tells you. You can modify a stretch to suit your needs at any time by feeling how your body wants to stretch as you are doing it, by where it is tight. You might also consider purchasing the book Stretching by Bob Anderson: http://www.amazon.com/Stretching-20th-Anniversary-Bob-Anderson/dp/0936070226/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-8342301-0674512?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1174532240&sr=8-1

I just ordered these: http://www.mmawarehouse.com/Fairtex-Ultimate-NHB-Gloves-with-Thumb-p/ftx-1008.htm

I just had my first night of Combat Submission Grappling. It was very cool. It's nice to be back training after three weeks off due to surgery. The first guy I rolled with weighs 245 to my 175. We had a blast. I also rolled with a woman in her late 40's who is very physically strong. And of course my instructor rolled me at will. My high school wrestling is coming in handy to start, for basic awareness and ideas about leverage and momentum, but I have a lot to learn.

Well, in that case you wouldn't need a second one.

Bye bye Jeramy Stevens! (sound of me dancing)

Of course, I still like kata...

While I agree with you, I think that if two people of equal skill have two months, two years, or five years to spend training, the one who spends it strictly learning to fight will end up "better" than the one who spends half of it learning kata. I believe that the old karateka changed the "syllabus," if you will, when they needed warriors faster and couldn't wait for someone to train for a decade. Fewer forms, more sparring. I think two similar guys who started training tomorrow from scratch at age 15, one in MMA and one in a kata-heavy form of karate, would have drastically different skill sets at the end of five years. I would argue that the one who spent it learning to fight in all four areas - striking, trapping, clinching, and grappling - would more likely win over the guy with pretty kata.

If they can tone down the Spike TV bad guy factor, it might have a shot. If they focused on the technical aspect more than the WWF-style testosterone show, it might have a shot. I believe we might as well call MMA its own martial art. As such, I believe it's the fastest growing one.

This is a perfectly valid reason. No one is obligated to train in only one art or at only one school. Like it or not, students are customers of the dojo. If a school doesn't offer the services they want, they will find one that will. It's a simple marketing fact. Whether the loss of those students matters to the dojo owner or sensei is a different story.

I agree with Bushido Man. I have seen people with beautiful form who can't fight for real. I have seen people with horrible form who fight very well. As much as I'd like to look pretty doing it, I'll take effective and efficient fighting skill over form and kata any day.

I meant this would be me:

That would be me.

Maybe so, though I don't really have a place to do it. I checked one of those books out from the library, the one for beginners. It's pretty good, but it doesn't say exactly how to do the different moves and it stops short of some of those that I remember. It was a good refresher but I will look for the other book.

Very cool. More and more schools are realizing they need to mix it up if they want to keep students.

Old: Dojo: Okinawan Shorin Ryu Karate and Kobudo Location: Bremerton, WA Sensei: Mark Velucci (6th Dan) New: Dojo: Complete Fitness Concepts Location: Virginia Martial Arts Academy, Chantilly, VA Sensei: Dan Mikeska

My black belt says "Dockers" on it.

I believe dojang is Korean. Are you doing TKD?

I wish I could still remember my wrestling moves from long ago. When I start grappling, I'd like to have something to work from other than the hazy cobwebs of an earlier life. Must...get...wrestling...book...

Great posts! I am better at sparring than anything else. Interesting how everyone is different. Keep this thread going!

Most of the martial artists I know are fairly humble. Even those who've trained for many years think of themselves as students even as they teach. A key difference between this forum and some others out there is that this one tends to attract people who still think they have a lot to learn regardless of how long they've trained, in how many styles they've trained, what belts they may hold, and/or how lethally they can fight. I think we often feel less capable at fighting than we think others are, or even than others may tell us they think we are. How good do YOU think you are? What do you think you do well, and what not so well? What is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness? What would you most like to get better at? An honest self-assessment is difficult. I'll go first: I am an older martial artist who has sampled many styles but not excelled at any of them. Being in the military, I have never been around long enough to train consistently in any one style or at any one place. As a result, my style is fairly hodge-podgy. I fight naturally more like a kickboxer than a karate guy. My lower body is fairly tight and kicks are difficult for me. I am aggressive and resilient but slender and older. I find it difficult to swivel my hips which keeps me from being as powerful as I'd like. I stay calm under pressure, have a good jab, and can switch stances easily. I don't move my head nearly enough so I absorb too many face shots. I am too much of a headhunter on my opponents. I am in decent shape but get winded after about a minute and a half of uninterrupted full contact, full speed Muay Thai. Bottom line: I can hold my own in a fight but there are many more skilled than me who would make short work of the Baron. I think I can take the average guy on the street but I don't believe the average guy on the street is the threat. I am now taking JKD to round myself out including trapping and grappling. I focus on what works best for me personally - a key tenet of JKD. My greatest strength is the dark, aggressive side I bring out in a fight that surprises others. My greatest weaknesses are my lack of flexibility and my lack of long-term training, which I work on. Next!

Oh yeah, you're right Bushido Man; I think that's key. But I've seen some McDojos with a rainbow of belts on their wall. They make money with a nice testing fee every other month and new color belt to keep Johnny coming back for more, and he "earns" a black belt before even two years go by based on memorized kata.

Looks like a pretty decent website.

Good thoughts. Actually, as long we're on the cliched subject of a McDojo...I think they can be a good way to get kids interested in MA, so that later on they are eager to continue their training in a more rigorous environment. The rapid belt advancement is silly, but it can motivate kids to stick with it. This isn't the right thread to debate them, but a cheesy dragon on the commercial? What 7 year old wouldn't go for that?