Jag-Isshinryu

Alas, it's true. Luckily, it wasn't a belt test or anything, so I was able to cover up quickly and act like nothing had happened. We were going through class kata exercises, so the instructor was busy with a brown belt who's getting ready for his blackbelt test. We managed to keep it between the green belt and I, to this day. On another note, we had a guy come in drunk off his whistle on sparring night. He actually did really well... instructor wasn't impressed, but he's a good guy.

Yeah, the only reason Chris Lieben is back is to tick off Josh Kroschek(sp). They've gotta satisfy the drama requirement. I feel really bad for Nate, I liked him, so it's too bad about his ankle. I looked at Diego Sanchez's past fights. It's nothing spectacular, but he's 11-0 wins to losses, usually by submission, but he's responsible for a few TKOs. Maybe he has some more striking experience than we've seen. We need a see a really good striking match next.

"Home" is where the heart is, and my heart's in Japan (mostly). I'm currently studying an Okinawan karate, but I want to start a Japanese karate additionally, and intend on beginning Judo this summer. JJ and Ninjitsu are interesting, too, but not offered around here. I don't like TKD because I feel it's limiting in techniques, and none of the Chinese arts (outside of Kenpo) have ever appealed to me. The only non-Okinawa-Japan art I've been interested in was BJJ.

I was recently writing a paper on Bushido and Chivalry, and that made me think of this article. I talked about how codes of honour can still impact the modern world, how some people try to follow these ideas. I agree, chivalry isn't dead.

Anybody watch this last week's episode? Diego Sanchez dominated Josh Rafferty on the ground, taking the mount in seconds and proceeding to pound the living crap out of him until taking a win with a rear naked choke hold. Man, Diego is seriously going to win the contract for his weight division. No contest.

I loved this movie. Between the individual fight stylizations (water, autumn leves, the red, et cetera), the ending, and the plot twists... Well, Zhang Ziyi is smokin'.

I'd doubt it, as every martial arist would be different, as would the art. People tend to adapt stances to suit their height, build, and style. But I suppose there could be a stance said to be more effective than most, from a physics point of view. I personally don't know if such a thing exists.

Well, we sparred tonight. I've got a lot of practicing to do. If we'd been counting points, I would have beaten one of our sensei and another kyu, but I got owned by the other blackbelts, a brown, and green (small class). I spoke with one of the blackbelts after. He pointed out that I spent a lot of time trying to block low kicks with my low block instead of a leg block. Uh, oops? I also left my head open alot, trying to parry strikes. Stupid mistakes, really. Does anyone know any good drills I can perform solo for protecting the head and blocking low kicks, aside from our basics?

Sounds like a book worthy of investment. I think I'll search around for a copy.

Manitoba, Canada, eh. Nice to see so many Canadians around.

Okay, every newbie gets their obligatory "Stupid Newbie" question. I'm sure I'll smack myself for realizing that it's probably common sense knowledge. What is/are the martial art(s) used by the Samurai? Mostly driven by curiosity, but I've been pondering for a few days.

I have no TKD experience, and we're taught to keep almost all of our kicks below the solar plexus, but you're making me thinking about hammering the outside thigh. In doing so, do you find that opponents block your strikes or tend to try and capture your leg? We have a blackbelt at our class that loves capturing, so kicking needs to be either lightning fast or devastatingly effective. Actually, I notice that too. With the Isshinryu we learn, we're taught to keep low, deeper centre of balance, thus making most kicking tougher. After you said that I realize I favour punching in a deeper stance, but kicking in a higher stance. Yeesh, this is giving me wonderful ideas for sparring tomorrow.

What you're describing sounds just like our cat stance, Kicks, and you raise an interesting point. You're right, a seasoned fighter would interpret a front-kicking opponent from my stance, but it makes a feint to start the fight off with. You can even go so far as to feint a front kick, but turn it into a jump kick if you think you could get away with it, or drop the foot to slide forward, or apply a spinning backfist if you're any good at it. With the sparring partners I've had (aside from the best blackbelts we have, who have 15+ years of experience for the most part), feints have proven to be especially effective, so I tried to adapt that into my stances and techniques. This might be impractical, that I may be growing too familiar with something that won't work anywhere else.

Tony Jaa is the man, but my favourite veteran would definately be Jean-Claude Van Damme, based on movies like Bloodsport, Kickboxer, and The Quest. Maybe not good movies, definately not great, but fun to watch anyways.

I watch it every week. It's about time they made a soap opera for martial arts. It's cool to watch their training and warm-ups, catch the advice from Couture and Liddell, Willa Ford is hot, and the fights. Oh, and the drama between the fighters can satisfy your drama requirements.