JusticeZero

Are you saying that people who skip belts will not learn the skills they need for the belt that they are skipping? I can see that if each belt has specific skills that you have to show for each level. Have you seen any examples of that? I know that not all schools divide belts by specific skills.

I am not completely sure what you are saying here, and I do not want to misunderstand you. I am not sure what you mean by "enforcement training", since that sounds like training for police. Also, I do not know what you mean when you say that theme based music is good, but that all loud music will break focus. What kind of music do you mean by "theme music" that will not break focus? Do you mean movie themes, or something else?

Results of those can be mixed. Try to meet with someone who knows the style from time to time so that they can make sure you aren't picking up any injurious bad habits. Prerecorded DVDs can't see that you're doing that funny THING with your ankle that you really shouldn't be doing.

Right, and furthermore, it was invented just so that when visiting unfamiliar schools, that he would be able to know who he could suddenly grab and demonstrate a hard throw on, and who was new and thus wouldn't know how to fall well. Nothing mystical. Capoeira uses colored ropes, and was introduced as part of Regional as an open attempt to ape the Asian martial arts; most cord systems i've seen are based on the colors of the Brazilian flag.

What do you mean by "train the mind" exactly? What behavior do you expect from someone who has not "trained the mind" that someone who has will do differently?

Sure thing. That kick is very much a standard go-to kick for us, but part of what makes it work for us is the fact that the set-up for it is identical to a lot of other movements we make, and we spend a lot of time getting familiar with moving down there and can change it up in mid-kick. If the entrada were remarkable, it would be a lot more telegraphic, but the same movement is used all the time for defense or positioning or for other kicks, some of which go the opposite direction.

I look forward to hearing more from you!

Greetings! I look forward to hearing more from you.

What kind of JJ? Brazilian I assume? Aikido is mostly standing; it has a bit of practice with swords, because that's where it is derived from. The focus is on moving with attacks and using them to turn into throws and takedowns. BJJ is mostly wrestling range; it has some throws and takedowns, but the majority of the art is focused on what happens after the combatants land on the floor, and finding how to work toward joint locks and holds against an opponent on the ground. The ranking systems are different in them as well; Aikido along with other jujutsu systems as a rule use the normal Japanese belt system with a variety of ranks above and below the overly fetishized "black" belt, which is an intermediate level. BJJ leaves the "black" level at a high level of mastery, and most schools will be taught by lower ranks.

Practice your kicks. Veeeeery veeeery slooowly. Paying close attention to proper form. Do "Alphabets". Stand on one foot. With the other foot, start writing the alphabet in the air in front of you. "A B C D E F G...". Chamber between each letter. Don't put your foot down until you finish or you lose balance. Once you have that down, draw it with your toe on a wall in front of you that you will have to reach a bit for.

Some random Youtube video on the subject.

Go into a side stance, with your feet about a leg length apart.Lean back a bit, then drop your torso between your legs as you shift your weight forward again. Should make a pattern like so: F= foot, H=hand, O=head (target) F H O H F You will be looking at your target, with your hands in sort've a handstand position trying to look around your base foot. If that sounds twisted up worse than a Twister game gone wrong, you're right; your spine will have a lot of twist and bend in it in that position. As you load your hands, it will pick your back foot up, and that entire leg will release the tension by chopping around in something like a spinning lateral axe kick. The momentum will help lift your torso back up over your base leg again as you park the kicking foot back where it was before.[/code]

The one I do, obviously. =) Different arts are intended for different things. Jujutsu was made for police, so its model is a situation where you are trying to take down one rogue element in a friendly environment without too much damage - a "drunk uncle" situation. Striking arts tend to be intended for situations where the environment has turned hostile. It depends what your model encounter is, as well as what other considerations you need to deal with. That will be different for everyone, and people will also need to count for a range. My choice of art, for instance, was partly because all of the self defense situations I had seen involved multiple attackers, and because my environment included extremely poor footing a lot of the time, to the extent that even a boxing stance was too unstable to count on. While more focused on strike and run, I have enough grappling tools to deal with a standard drunken uncle. So on the whole, i'm happy with it.

Yeah, breakfalls and foot positioning is horrible, because those tend to drive people crazy when they see them done differently. I want to work on a throwing art, but I have a hard time dealing with the teeth gnashing noise when I drop into queda de negativa or heaven forbid a chibata. And i don't feel comfortable with trying to put in the time with changing my falling technique, given that the usual surface I do my breakfalls and other training on is rough concrete.

Did you ever work this one out?

Not Karate. Usually we have about 90-100 minutes; in theory we have 120, but we leave early so we can take a shower before being tossed out and start a few minutes late because we have to wait for another class to leave before we can start. No 'kids class' because i'm teaching an utterly tiny class in a college fitness center as a club thing.It's usually more or less like so, and various bits sometimes get swallowed up by other bits.. like if it's raining, I might not want to carry the instruments over and back, and if someone comes limping in having hurt themself, i'll spend a lot more time working on structural to try to help it. 15 minutes singing/instruments 15 minutes footwork, basic kicks, structure work 15 minutes falling and other floor movement 30 minutes of whatever I feel inspired to focus on that day 15 minutes of either free jogo or self defense drills 10 minutes of cool down stretching 5 minutes of talking and going over stuff to work on we're pretty informal, I guess.

Move in, move at angles, never move backward unless it's part of an explosive forward movement. I see the comment about 'mostly kicking' and I think of edge range snipers who aren't committing to the job at hand. Don't snipe. Get in close and start dismantling. Oh, and remove those jump kicks. They're specialty for specific situations that you are almost certainly not encountering. Unfortunately we're limited to general advice because we have not any idea what is happening. What does it look like when you are doing well? Do more of that. What does it look like when you're not doing well? Own your space. It might be art specific, but I always have to break new people of the habit of thinking that stepping back is a valid defense or a valid anything. This is important because our "sparring" circle is maybe 10-12' diameter, and we care about ring-out. You just don't have room to give away 3' every time you finish a kick or see the other guy move.

Have you asked him? It could be any of a number of things. Does he drink water normally? Might be the flavor, if it's not his usual habit - people get out of the habit of drinking water if there's too many sweet beverages and coffees and teas and other things with addictive chemicals like caffiene, sugar, etc in them. People think "But water has no flavor!" which is not completely true. You can recognize the difference between it and not-water, and you can tell the difference between waters from different places. Try splashing a bit of lime juice or some other juice - just a splash, though, because you want it still to be 'water'- into some water and see how that goes. If your local water is chlorinated, you can clear the chlorine by letting it sit in an open container in the fridge; chlorine is a gas, and it comes out of water the same way that soda goes flat if left open.

My usual student's boyfriend is going to be visiting for a few weeks and being brought to class, so I was hoping to cover some self defense tips and suggestions for how to deal with situations where something happens while people are together and need to get both out. First question might be, what are some situations where that actually happens? Second, what are some central points to pay attention to?

They dont need to be reloading their foot, if you move their foot around you still have a lot of control over their movement. You can get results combined with an eye poke for instance, since putting something near peoples eyes usually makes them move backward, and suddenly they're trying to move backwards and are only on one foot.

It's a little bit premature to theorize about what you "would" use, because you are running on lots of assumptions there that might be wildly false. And past experience can be biased toward situational things. Also, the techniques you listed are all attacks; not very defensive. I am always mystified why the word "defense" is so often interpreted as something that looks suspiciously like "Finally I have a chance to unleash my rage and attack someone in a way that I can tell my friends I was justified."

Some might, I think most don't. I doubt that they will be able to test for their next rank successfully if they aren't working for it, though. "Black belt" is only an intermediate rank.

No; I don't teach any of those things. Furthermore, I don't see how "foolish technique" enters into an argument about valid vs. invalid technique in competition. Nobody has so much as mentioned poor teaching. My point was specifically targeted at the difference between "Keep your guard high, because your next competition is judged by people who think head shots are important" versus "When he attacks, turn around so he hits you in the back and gets fouled, because that is a rule in this particular venue. We will now spend the next two weeks drilling how to turn around faster." The example I gave was from one of the exceptions to that rule, which offered a particularly visible example. Which was my point exactly. All of the techniques you listed above are valid technique, which I considered reasonable. However, I also recognize that sport rules seem to encourage a lot of people to read the rules in unusual ways which give them ideas to perform invalid technique and try to make it into core strategy. Another example I recall hearing about was a TKD stylist who was taught to leave their hands by their sides because of the specific interactions of the rules as far as blocking - or lack thereof. There were no points, offensive or defensive, in keeping a guard up; ergo, the coach made sure that he was trained to "leave your hands by your side to 'conserve energy'".

That said, I can see threatening Wrestling with notice given all the corruption that's been apparently popping up in it recently. I'd be threatening a distance cycling event, given how much of a fiasco the past few Tour de France events have been, where they have huge gaps of "no medals awarded because everyone in the lead cheated". It seems a bit like a proclamation of "You're disappointing us.. We brought you into this world, and we can take you out!"

That is freaking awesome. Eight points! He has SKILLS.