JusticeZero

Yeah, it really unsettles me to see people dismissing female violence. It's really very insulting to the women. (though it doesn't help when the women in question don't manage to do any damage.)

I'm not a big fan of "Bruce Lee was the greatest". He was good, yes, but he was a horrible student, and most of what he accomplished, he accomplished just because he acquired a lot of name recognition. There is a big difference between fame and skill, and not everyone focuses on leveraging the latter (and being photogenic) into the former.

A big part of that "adrenaline strength" isn't the unlocking of superhuman power, but rather the distress-inspired willingness to do things that are likely to cause a lot of damage to the person doing it.

They aren't "embracing" the heat, but may be consigned to it by uniform restrictions. Furthermore, it is un-noticed. Others do not have that requirement, and as it is unnoticed, no value is given for doing it.

The other thing is that much of what we have today is thanks to specialists. Specialists push the envelope in their field, and then go back and teach the generalists eye opening and nifty new things.

The concern is that half of the students, based on their internal plumbing that they have no control over, have to do "Shugyo" every class, and the other half do not, and then the half that is doing "Shugyo" at that very moment on top of the class are compared to the people who are not at that moment engaged in a session of "Shugyo". That's like complaining that one person (who just ran two miles) looks more listless and tired than the person who got a ride in the back of a car - therefore, the person who got a ride must be a better athlete!

This has been bugging me, but I see or hear it brought up from time to time.. never very widely though. Typical male training clothes, upper body: A cotton gi or equivalent. Typical female training clothes, upper body: A cotton gi or equivalent, a cotton t-shirt, and undergarment. The undergarment is often synthetic. Three layers. Coming from a cold climate, I know that you can build up your insulation very quickly by adding a couple layers of clothes that you wouldn't consider very warm; to go on a 15 mile bike ride in 0F weather, I wore a poly long sleeved turtleneck shirt, a long sleeved acrylic shirt, a light fleece sweater, and a windbreaker, no hat and a headband to keep my ears warm. At a point, I had to open the windbreaker. That's four layers. I suggest that instructors try doing their full class routine with a polypropylene t-shirt, under another shirt, under their usual training uniform, to see how the class is being experienced by some of their students. Then maybe we can ponder what sort've training clothes are appropriate for general use, since some of those are, I think, brought over as xenophilic theater. I'd be curious how much difference it turns out to make. My own GM mandated T-shirts for everyone, and i'm still not sure what to think of that. Mainly I have issues because the shirts are usually cotton, and get soggy over the course of a class; they also are typically dominated by a big non-breathable transfer on the front. I'm considering just making patches to stitch onto the front of white whatevers.

It's impossible to not evolve the art, and trying to hold the art rigid is likely to create twisted bits of silliness.None of the context is stationary. The material will be received differently by students than it was by the teachers. "ancient tradition" is a bit of a conceit.

I don't train anything of the sort and I thought that was.. bleh. I don't care for the weapon in the first place really; why people don't use a flail instead of an awkwardly chopped down flail with a handle too short to deal with the inevitable recoil i'm not sure. But that lacked both awareness of the fact that it is a flail and calisthenic merit.

The organization that he graded under should be able to help. So far as I know, they all keep records of any advancement of note. Do you know which one he earned the black belt in?

If you are at a wedding, you need not deal with anyone there as anything beyond fellow celebrants of the wedding. Be polite and pleasant when asked any questions and do not ask any of your own. I doubt they will press the issue.

Right, the mass is an issue. Most of that happens in the kitchen, and I don't know what you are doing now. My main advice here is to buy smaller plates, don't drink soda, and keep a food diary. Cut out the processed food and don't get fancy food that makes health claims. If it's low-fat, it has added sugar and chemicals; if it's low-sugar, it has added fat and chemicals. Neither is strictly bad, it's eating huge amounts of concentrated food that gets us in trouble, and that's very, very easy to do these days; people who are used to not having enough money can end up going way over their calorie budgets just trying to get their basic nutritional needs in other things met.

Gentle stretch kicks to the comfortable limit of your range of motion on a regular basis will help increase that ROM. Also, do stretches where you try to reach as far with your toe as possible from a given foot position and hold for 20 seconds, and also alphabets (lift one leg and write the alphabet in the air with your toe, then switch legs)

Right. Also adding to that is the fact that it is a connector, as opposed to a takedown or strike.

It is a movement. I've put a lot of text into detailed a number of keys to minimize the stored energy in it; stored energy does not help to build strength. Removing those keys means that the technique runs using ballistics more, which is fine but i'd rather get it right with the minimal energy input and be able to use more stored energy as needed than to learn it in a way that just requires stored energy. It is a way to cover a distance chained through a defense without giving up the back or needing a replacement step. It also offers an opportunity to retrieve a weapon. There are a few techniques that use it as a base, for instance, you can use the fall out beyond center to power a lateral axe kick. The entire application of the technique as a connector is, however, a bit beyond the scope of a discussion of how to use it as a calisthenic.

It's a movement similar to a cartwheel, but I don't do a cartwheel and neither should you. Turn to be in ginga/lunge position in the direction of travel, i'll say "right" in this case, put the right hand down near the right foot. Pick the left foot up off the ground slightly, keeping it extended. Left hand in front of you, I have people guarding their ribs with their elbow here. Now pull your left leg in, and you'll fall over the hands. Left hand down, then left foot next to left hand, and extend right foot out in the direction of travel. When I do this it's with legs tucked in, which adjusts your weight distribution a bit, but minimizes the energy tied up in the movement itself. You can centrifuge it out instinctively if you have more. Keeping the legs tucked protects the abdomen, minimizes the grab-able ballistics, and keeps you coiled so that you can pop out into a scissors takedown or kick if needed. For practice terms, I have people keep one hand on the floor at all times and reverse direction each time to keep them from getting into a habit of popping up with the extra energy every time, but i'm not going to be picky here. Do it slowly with as much control as you can manage, and the level that you can sink down into the movement without feeling like you're endangering yourself controls how much of an exercise it will be. For warming up with it, you want to sink into it pretty deeply with control, but learning the control adds load to it that helps anyways. Self defense application - a weapon, rock, dust, or other tactically valuable object is on the floor a few feet away and a high attack is coming in, lunge under the attack and roll with it, putting a hand on the weapon in passing and picking it up.

Well, you'd have to figure out what you mean by "best". Also, our knowledge of people is limited, and reputations may not be directly related to how much people brag about it.

As far as warmups are concerned, I find the fastest warmup I have found is slow au close to the ground, since it activates so many muscles through a moving range and is actually pretty intense upper body work that self-limits. Most warmups I see are using leg muscles at a much lower percentage of their maximum and trying to make up for it by jiggling faster. The heat is created by muscle activity, not joint activity, so you need to be doing stuff that's more intensive. Also need to add that au is a great posture check. Don't do it staring at the floor, do it with your chin tucked and spine straight. You should be able to look someone standing in front of you at handshaking distance in the eyes while you're upside down.

Yes, I had an acquaintance just forcefully distance themself from me in disgust because of how "violent" I was for suggesting that evasion might be a better response to being punched in the face than just getting hurt, and that restraining an attacker is an acceptable response to violence. They proceeded to declare that I lived in hopes that someone would pick a fight with me. This is ridiculous; they've seen more violence than I have, and if I really wanted to get in fights, I could prowl the bars of the French Quarter and get someone to take a swing at me every night, let alone sport venues and the like.

And what about the techniques that they use to restrain and handcuff a criminal? Should they not use those? I've known of a couple of uses of martial arts in practice, and in all of them, the combative application was itself a way to de-escalate the encounter by putting the attacker in a position where they were unable to continue attacking with minimum harm.That said, it seems more likely that you will encounter a "drunk uncle" public safety issue than an attacker. I don't drive at all (bicycle, transit, walk, all easier than people imagine it would be), and there are other ways to break a fall than what judo teaches.

Compassion And The individual I sent it to my current student. Here's the takeaway I got out of this. Violence injures the people on both sides of the fist. On the one side, it is no good to simply let an attacker injure themself by letting them continue their violence, and you certainly don't want to just let yourself be mutely injured. The violence needs to be ended by everyone. Retaliation doesn't end the violence, it's just selfish. Accepting the abuse doesn't end the violence either, it just fuels it and feeds it. Calm action to refuse to accept the violence ends the violence. This might take the form of controlling the attacker until they calm down or are removed, or by denying the violence a target, evading the violence and escaping - or better yet, not being there to begin with. Both of those take skill and practice to develop. Additionally, it takes practice to build the confidence to not feel like the only option is the blind and clumsy strength of anger as well; to have the tools to peacefully respond to protect the violent one from themself. If there is a *lot* of violence, it might be necessary for one to accept some of the harm caused by committing violence, in order to preserve the life and health of those around you. But this is a last resort. If I had to choose between helping a student deal with the consequences of having to fight back against overwhelming force, or of attending the funeral of that student or one of their loved ones, it is obvious which I would rather choose. But, I spend a lot of time learning and talking about how criminals operate specifically to encourage the third option: that none of us have anything to talk about, because they said "That looks like a bad situation - i'm going to go somewhere else."

Right. Damage is actually secondary in my eyes. The point is to get out of danger, not to rack up the top score. If you were being attacked by an animated car (don't ask why, is an analogy), you would be better off flattening the tires than shedding the roof. The roof might be more damage, but the tires get you away. You really shouldn't ever try to do damage it just happens as a consequence of stopping the violence. ,

I don't know; i've seen some pretty vicious taiji. I assume the "martial artists are violent people" myth is involved somewhere. I'm currently having some frustration from having someone I know try to tell me how I am a violent person for suggesting she look into aikido. Heck, they tossed an article written by the Dalai Lama my general direction afterward, I read it, and realized that the D.L.'s advice came close to being more violent than what i'd taught in the last class. But i'm the violent one somehow for suggesting that they learn how to not be a helpless punching bag with techniques made by and for pacifists.

Yeah, running does nothing for your kicking muscles, you might as well be sitting on the couch that day for all the good it does your kicks. It's all slow twitch fiber work, which is distinct from the fast twitch that most eastern and european MA kicks use almost exclusively. That said, self defense is likely to call for some running, and you did note the effect on your cardio, so it's hardly wasted.

Steel toes are a weapon that I highly encourage students to look into and train with, even if to my knowledge nobody has. Ponteira and a snappy martelo form that i'd been taught are very similar to savate versions of those kicks and are very good at getting reach and penetration with toe strikes with work boots. Alas, I can't wear them on account of the fact that I wear absurdly wide specialty shoes and bulge the toes out on them. There are a number of steel toed shoes out there that are styled to not look anything like a work boot, given the number of people who work in professions where they are usually in an office and dress clothes but who might be expected to walk onto a construction floor at any moment. As such, they are very concealable and practical to have. Any time that your hands won't be available to manipulate a target is a good space to train a kick. People have mentioned low kicks, but techniques which pair a kick with a grab would also count (the hands are being used as part of the technique), as do floor techniques where your hands are busy being used as feet, and your head is away from the target to grant more range. (This is one of our main specialties.)