JusticeZero

I'm just now seeing this. I recall hearing these theories explained by a taiji instructor and by another gungfu stylist that I know. I'm not a taiji guy or a gungfu stylist, I just talk to some of them. Basically, a lot of gungfu styles appear to generate power by building a structural line between the rear foot and the striking tool at the moment of impact, and snapping it into place inside of the target. I'm not sure how better to explain that.. It explains a lot of the foot stamping and "heel must be down!" that you see in the Chinese arts, as they don't want any elasticity between ground and target when the strike happens; they want the structure to solidify in an extremely fast and irresistable fashion inside of the target, as opposed to focusing on acceleration/mass or the like. I do understand the confusion, though. I mean, it seems like every root art, and there's usually a correlation with "country of origin" here, has a core power generation method that they use, and everything else seems to build from that point. regarding Bruce Lee himself, I still say that he is over-hyped. yes, he was a very talented practitioner. Yes, his ideas were important to the development of American martial art theory; they are distinctly American in tone. This isn't always good, by the way. I would have loved to met the man, and I would have loved to learn from him. However, I don't feel that he was talented beyond that of other contemporaries who did not manage to turn up on the silver screen. If, say, Lateef Crowder were to suddenly become a movie megastar and revitalize the action movie genre, i'm sure there would be some who claimed he was a fake, and others who would claim that he was a master beyond all other masters, an ascended arch-master of his art. The guy is pretty darned talented. It'd be pretty cool to play the guy. But he's just some guy, you know? No, Lee's ideas were not unique or original; furthermore, I do not believe that Lee would necessarily approve of the ways his ideas have been used in all cases. JKD in particular is an idea that I believe contained massive seeds to it's own self-destruction, because it is interpreted so heavily as a negative definition. Negatively defined things are defined by what they are not, which unfortunately does not help in finding what it is for. Tap dancing while wielding a dead fish can be seen as a clear interpretation of JKD principles.

Congratulations!

I also recommend you look at Miller, Rory "Meditations on Violence", though for slightly different reasons. I'm sure there are some others, but that's one of the ones I consider particularly important.

Can you do the kick with proper form without pain if you just do it angled lower? It could just be that you haven't developed the flexibility yet, and you need to do the kicks at the limit of your non-pain range of motion while that range develops. Do a lot of movements that move your hip to the point where it is vaguely uncomfortable but doesn't hurt, not very fast, when you can. After intense exercize, cool down with stretches. Also, ask your instructor to help with your form; explain the problems you're having and go through the movement. You might be doing something subtly wrong that they can catch and help you solve.

So don't back down in a timid manner. No-sale it. The guy just isn't worth your time. "This, and you, are too petty for me to take the time out of my busy day to deal with. I'm leaving."

How about if you break down exactly how your instructor wants you to do a roundhouse kick and explain it in very small steps so that you can isolate for us exactly where the problem is? Not all arts do roundhouse the same. In fact, stand up, and slowly do a roundhouse kick, as if your leg was wrapped in bells and you didn't want any of them to ring. constant rate .Leg in the air for no less than 10 seconds and you cannot stop in the middle, it has to be a clean motion. Once you've done that, try explaining the trouble you're having, again.

What capoeira line? Regional (Senzala or classic) or Angola (Pastinha or other?) How long?

Don't know them, don't know your connection with them, don't know exactly why she's being mentioned, and - and this is the only one that matters in the end - you didn't answer any of those in the post. I don't want to hit a clickthrough link to find out what you're talking about. What's the angle here, could you explain?

So essentially a martial art is only useful for attack, not defense, by definition? Things which are both to be applied to combat and used in combat but are not themself violent acts are not martial skills? Would skill training in how to extract a wounded soldier from a battlefield without being struck by weaponfire be considered a martial skill, or no? You aren't actually attacking anyone, after all.

Pushups; various hand positions, slowly, pause halfway down or elevate your feet if they are starting to feel easy, and it doesn't count unless your chest touches the floor. Handstands; with proper posture, spine straight, tailbone tucked appropriately and so on. Sink into it a bit. That might have more effects on your shoulders and back, but it gets the arms too. Gripping; open your hand ALL THE WAY out flat. Now make a fist. That's one. Open your hand all the way again. Repeat; do 200 as fast as you can with both hands. Weightlifting: Tires, small boulders, garbage cans, buckets full of stuff, cars (pushing), furniture, small children, not so small children, girl/boyfriends, craft projects made out of concrete..

I'd say yes. It has the mindset. The range of choice just happens to be "running away from the people trying to attack" rather than offense. All I hear about it is full of discussions of situational awareness, "don't run into anyplace you can't run back out of", "always watch for multiple escape routes and places where you can be cornered", stuff like that, as well as lots of commentary about how the most important skills are the ones that aren't very visually interesting or dramatic. Those seem martial to me, and it seems like a good skill to grab some skill in as a secondary.

I'm fine with that. I had one for awhile. Unfortunately, they aren't a panacea. All a vice is is a virtue applied poorly. A nurturing and supportive environment can all too easily be a fault-permissive environment where technique is left untested. Which do you prefer? Feeling nervous and intimidated and annoyed at the one-upmanship and machismo and getting beat up by overly intensive workouts? Or having techniques adjusted down to be less aggressive, sparring gutted if not removed entirely, and a room full of overly compliant training partners who throw themselves if you touch them in ways that look like throws? I know that in my experience, we've had a lot of trouble with women in class, because a lot of the ones i've been in class with won't throw attacks. They'll gingerly make movements that signify attacks, but I barely feel the need to even defend. They could kick me in the nose and I would be fine. The guys throw attacks that scorch through the air, and I have to respond to those. I'd rather be in a ring with someone who gets an egotistical testosterone flare that feels he has to show me up than with someone who suddenly gets all nurturing and collaborative with me. One will help me to expand my skills, the other one not so much.

Right. Last time I saw someone trying to learn something from a video, they were missing details like "don't lock your joint out at the end of the movement", "turn your foot to point away from the target when doing side kick so you don't twist your knee", and a lot of the structure that made the technique work was completely unclear to them. In short, they were tearing themselves apart and their technique was ineffective. Nobody was there to catch those mistakes. For most things, the dvd's are pretty awful. It's OK as a supplement to your normal training in that art.

I hope to.. (Different art, even more region based..) I hope to hear all about what sort of things you learned from your trip!

Right; I study backfist (well, a snappy chop really) but not jab because a jab comes out of a hand position that isn't really where my stance has them. All the positions where my hands are up in that chambering position, i'm in a position where a jab doesn't really make a lot of sense. Jab someone in the kneecap? The calf? The groin, maybe? I guess that last might make sense, but it's not the only tool I have for that. Other people might not have their hands in position for a backfist. Wouldn't make sense for them to mix it in.

I agree with you fully there. As noted, my primary annoyance is with peoples' insistence on calling all types of car crashes, regardless of what might have led up to it, as "accidents", when other, less dangerous activities are not granted a similar pass.

If you are ambushed by muggers who have cased the area out and laid a trap specifically for you, do you consider it an "accident"? Certainly according to that definition, the attack is indeed accidental.

Shizentai didn't have an accident, she was doing what she was supposed to do when she was supposed to do. Someone else smashed their car into her. That's about as "accidental" as a mugging. And you misunderstand, it is the relative who was the perpetrator, and other relatives who forgive the act because it was an "accident". An extremely preventable, needless, and horrific "accident", which could have been easily avoided by avoiding impairing the heck out of themself and/or paying attention to the road while operating a speeding block of metal. A car is a weapon just the same as a knife, an axe, or a hammer. Arguably, it is more of a weapon; cars are the leading cause of death for everyone between the age of 3 and 30 worldwide. If I walk into a crowd twirling a machete around while reading a novel and not looking at where I am going, is it an "accident" if I cut someone? No, most sensible people would say that I am being reckless, and am at full fault for any injuries I cause. Why is it then that a person, who has a suspended licence after an arbitrarily large number of driving offenses (some of which include "driving with a suspended license") could impair themselves into a stupor, have medical issues, take their hands completely off the wheel while they are reading, while the window is completely opaque from frost, moving fifty miles an hour faster than the legal maximum speed permissable, and when they slam their vehicle into a crowd of children, it is referred to as an "Accident" merely because their weapon of choice has four wheels and an engine? Recently in Georgia, a mother crossed the road at a bus stop, about 2,000 feet in either direction from a crosswalk, with her children. Someone was driving recklessly and ran through the line of people crossing and killed one of the children. Because he had an "accident", he got at most 6 months for his failure to pay attention. The mother, however, was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and has been sentenced to three years in prison. An "accident" is like an apology. It is measured by the actions following to prevent it's repeat. There had been fairly little done to prevent "accidents" on the road; it is not accidental anymore.

I don't accept the 'colloquialism' because i've watched how the 'colloquialism' is used later to absolve the perpetrators of guilt and responsibility. I have a relative who killed someone with a car that they had been allowed to use. There is a woman who was innocent of wrongdoing broke down on the side of the road. Now she is dead, and her family has to deal with the loss. The shoulder of the road was maybe a couple feet less wide than it might have been, so it might take a minor bit of cognition to avoid a stopped car with a little bit of it poking onto the traffic lane. What is the verdict from my family? "I was drunk, stoned, talking with friends, and speeding on an icy road and there was someone in the way... it was an accident. Nobody can control that. Gimme another beer." "Oh, I can't be angry with him. It's called an accident. It wasn't his fault." There's plenty of other words. Crash, wreck, incident, smash-up..

I'm not on -any- social networks right now. Call me a luddite.

I'd think that they would end up grabbing the hero's weapon with their left hand in order to keep their primary weapon at the ready.. and then they might not be accustomed to using two weapons, so they would probably have the recovered one held back in their far side anyways as a defensive tool. But then again, I don't know the flow of the scene.

Only if the person being advanced on isn't able to keep controlling the space.. this isn't crayons on coloring books, we can ignore the line if we want. There was an MMA fight I remember seeing dissected.. darn if I remember which one, but i'll look later.. one of the fighters was driven into the corner by "aggressive forward pressure", kept his cool, created an angle , moved along it, waited a second for the guy to figure out where he went, then popped the agressive forward one back against the edge of the ring for the finish.

Not -entirely- true. You can do like i've seen done - "Here is one defense. It's big and tolerant of a lot of slop. Here is one attack that is defended against with that defense. It's big and swoopy and takes very little coordination to do at a recognizable level. Here is the basic stance. Now - go play at slow speed, and you can only use that one attack and defense."

In college (up until now when I get a list from my advisor and are told "you're taking these classes") I would always sign up for more than full time classes, and drop the one that was the worst taught/most aggravating/riskiest during the free drop period.

That wasn't an accident. *linguistic pet peeve* "Oh, Bob got drunk and walked out into a crowd with a rifle and fired off a couple of rounds in a random direction. One of the bullets hit someone! Whoopsie! It was an accident!" Had a friend I was teaching a few things. He was working as a car mechanic at the time. After a few lessons, he came up and thanked me for the practice moving around on the ground, as he no longer had pain from moving around under trucks working on them. Later he had to put carpet in at a house, and made much better headway than the previous time. We'd been drilling some knee strikes and how to use the core muscles to move the leg, so rather than jerking his leg to knee the carpet into place, he was using his abs and such, and clobbering the carpet into place without getting tired.