JusticeZero

Other than 'the moment you see attitude start to appear, cut it off at the pass'? Not so much.

Deep ginga, 3 minutes; stretch kicks forward, side over-the-shoulder, circular back with hands on ground, torso twists, 50 esquiva (basically lunges, put a hand on the floor), down the room 4 times on the floor, down the room twice in au.

Yeah, learn how to move in lots of different ways and have lots of combinations of movements.

I was sick, and schedules are in flux, but I taught for a couple hours.. after warmups, I went straight into jogo (basically sparring) and broke after every match to break down what happenned. Younger student was panicking that I was throwing all these unfamiliar techniques at her, until I played the next person and she could see that I was only using half of the basic kicks and the most basic of movement. Then after the break I had people rolling and auing around the room with their ankles tied together - legs are a lot of mass, and people get used to stepping - I needed to isolate the upper body for them for a bit. Teaching people to move with increasingly 'oddball' restrictions helps a lot on teaching movement skills.

My understanding is that most Americans consider their belt fraying rapidly to be a bonus, strange as that is to me. Was the fraying cosmetic?

Yes, but I don't know that there's much of anything I can tell you that would help. If my elbow hurts after training, I change the next class or three to work on something different.

Yeah, shoes change things - but mats change things too. I practice outdoors on tarmac in shoes all the time, and do all sorts of kicks. Why that seems so ..novel and unorthodox? to so many people is surprising. =)

It's in the same class as everyone else, but I have a specific set of techniques that they go through on the first one or two classes. Basic footwork, floor movement, chapa (single mule kick with both hands on the ground), esquiva and the outside crescent that most easily triggers it (and I tell them not to worry about the details on that yet). This allows them to do a paired drill with an attack and a defense, drop down, move across the room, and have a way to shove an attacker away while doing it.

Well, I generally see a style as referring to a specific bundle of techniques, theories, methodologies, and philosophies that (hopefully) work together toward a specific goal with a coherent strategic doctrine. It doesn't need to be 'new', just a viable unique construction. Lots of people are teaching things that are to whatever level not viable, though..

Are there any natural disasters that your area is prone to? What sort of preparations have you made if it happens? After such a disaster hits, di you have any plans on what you will do next? In this case, a 'disaster' is defined by a condition of emergency services being fully overloaded by a single incident, with the result that emergency services are both needed and unavailable. Myself, i'm in an earthquake-prone area, about 60 miles away from an active faultline due to break loose in a substantial earthquake any year now. Alternately, I am also prepared in case of a sudden gasoline supply interruption, as I have studied that in college and am moderately knowledgeable about how such a disaster might play out. I have some water, some canned food, blankets, and a first aid kit where I can find it; the kit is modified by things like swapping the band-aids out for an emergency blanket, metal splint, mask, clotting agent - basically I removed the usefulness for small household owwies in favor of critical injury support. I have a small bottle of bleach (for purifying water), but I haven't worked out how to safely transport/store it at subzero temps. This whole kit is probably not near perfectly planned really, but I have it. Training: CERT (community emergency response - triage, long term injury care, intros to light urban SAR, basic team organization, post-trauma psych care), CPR/1st/AED. I've been contemplating signing up to volunteer for the local SAR, but I don't know if the fact that I really -can't- leave work after 1 hour before the day starts is going to be a major problem. (I work as a substitute teacher; if i'm at work, I *am* plan B, and there is no plan C.) Even though there's no local CERT team, I still feel that a disaster in my vicinity would activate me in that regard, so i'd be going out, recruiting some backup, and checking the neighbors' apartments and houses until someone else showed up to help. Disasters seem like a situation where combat skills might be somewhat useful; in an absence of rapidly available law enforcement, some risk of looters and similar may develop. I'm not a weapon guy, but wandering and helping out in a disaster area full of stressed out people in the process of realizing that there are no police at the moment before aid arrives seems as though it might justify carrying one of the more innocuous ones, particularly if it has substantial non-combat utility. A staff, cane (walking sticks both if nothing else), flashlight, knife, pry bar, hammer, or sling all seem like they could be handy to have on hand as tools with added weapon utility. Large swords, kama, nunchaku, bows, and the like - which are primarily a weapon with minimal obvious non-combat utility - not so much. Entertaining skills such as the ability to play a guitar or some such are useful; I am told that during Katrina, people would home in on music and other entertainment as centers of civilization and communication. I can play our instruments, already a crowd-pleaser for the oddity value, and I can learn or come up with a few songs in english. I can even organize tournaments of Big City (a significantly more tactical TicTacToe variant: 5x5 grid, win by getting 5 in a row OR getting the other player to put 4 in a row) if that would help, since it would get people's minds off things. Disasters aren't all madness and adventure, there's a lot of sitting around with no electronic entertainment around involved. I have some ideas on basic sanitation/survival/awareness lessons that I can mix in between the songs to help spread some self sufficiency skills between people.

I haven't seen all that many issues with the heel, really. Forward heel thrust uses body drop and expansion, and not sure how important heel is on that; since benção is directly related to a body position where you CANNOT have the heel on the ground, I don't bother trying to focus on keeping heel down. There are a couple that are essentially infeasible to do heel down, generally though, on those you have your hand or hands on the ground.

Oh, I agree. ...but many people don't.

That seems like the part where it tends to come apart though. In the heat of the moment and with a bruised ego, judging exactly what is proportional and reasonable is going to be harder to do. I know that in a couple of the "real fight" stories I dig up, the defender did in fact not think to break off their attack at the "reasonable" point, but that observation never occurred to them. I blame the adrenaline rush and unfamiliarity of the situation. Also, if you also have a lack of friendly witnesses, justifying your response afterward will be more difficult as well. If the attack is subtle, any witnesses might perceive the counter as an isolated attack. For instance, you're in a parking lot some distance away from anyone who can help, and an assailant walks up, waves amiably as part of their interview process, then presents a knife close to their body; in doing so, they present their wrist and open themselves up, and they seem to be using the knife at the moment as an intimidation tool rather than slashing with it, and want you to accompany them to a secondary crime scene. The defender, a throwing stylist, responds by snapping on a wrist grab and throwing the attacker dramatically, retaining the knife. What the witnesses saw was this: Some guy waved at the defender, who was standing in an angry sort of posture. Then the angry guy suddenly grabbed the friendly one, slammed him into the pavement, pulled out a knife, and threatened them. ...yeah. Have fun untangling that one when the attacker starts crying that you attacked him out of nowhere. The legal system actually isn't all that bad, but there aren't enough judges, so mistakes happen, and even if they don't, it's going to take a good chunk of time to get it sorted out. Still, do what you need to to keep yourself safe.

Well, in 1, the name of the style is not changed as a rule; in 4, the style itself is not changed and there is generally no claim of having created anything.. just "I renamed what I was taught because the soke of that style started demanding that everyone give black belts to five year olds and tithe half their non-martial-arts income.." Your style doesn't have either of those properties that I see so far..

Yes, you can. In fact, assume that you probably will be. In fact, also add that an awful lot of "self defense" wasn't very defensive; if someone tells you to leave, and you stick up your chin and say "Nya nyah I don't have to, what're you gonna do, make me?" and they take a swing at you, your resulting fight really isn't self defense at all. If you really are throwing your ego out and taking opportunities to leave and ignoring the posturing insults and taking reasonable precautions to not walk right into a stupid situation, and you get yourself and anyone in your charge out of dodge at the first opportunity, then you're more safe.. you're also not likely to need to fight in the first place. You should always assume that the bad guy is going to lie about what happened, and have an awesome lawyer and maybe someone else who can frame you, though. I mean, that guy had the nerve to not fall down when he swung at you! Now someone's gotta pay!

The main issue with a heavy gi is heat. I don't know that it has any effect on technique (I certainly didn't notice any difference) but it will last longer, withstand throws and the like better, and also cook you like a roast hen under sustained inefficient exertion in a warm and/or humid space. Debating on your training space and personal attributes, this may or may not be an issue.

There are a couple forms of "creating a style" that I tend to see. 1: Pretty much meaningless; no student moves exactly like their teacher. 2: As a vehicle for the ego of the teacher, thinking that founding an art will bestow greater prestige upon them. as a rule, it doesn't; it just gets one looked at oddly for breaking with their teachers frivolously. 3: as a means of solving a specific problem. I had heard one mention somewhere of a style of jujutsu created for police wearing mittens and thus unable to use their hands effectively as an example of this. 4: because your teachers' organization is self-destructing under it's leadership, and you need to distance yourself from it to keep teaching. What one describes you best, and why?

Does, say, Boxing have a 'soke'?

Yeah, you may need to find out what he meant by that. -MY- first guess would be that it wasn't so much a lack of initiative as an issue with technique choice. In my art, we use a variety of evasive body shifts to defend against attacks. One of the basic ones of those (which doubles as the entry to several basic kicks) irritates me to no end; I have no problem if it is leading into something, or only used occasionally, but many students overuse it to a massive degree. It is psychologically friendly to do because it moves away from the attack; the problem is that it moves away from the attack, and if not chained into something, it is merely a slightly more technically correct variation of running around the ring trying to stay away from the opponent. I have been known to tell a student that their performance, though otherwise technically excellent, was unacceptable merely because they overused that escape; in one case, a student it as her only escape technique during the entire round, which she played defensively. She probably wouldn't have needed to be so defensive had she been advancing her position with her defenses rather than merely ceding the space with a rear body shift, but she wasn't exactly trying hard to drive the other player out of the circle either. Technically fine, but when taken as a whole, not so much. In your case, "not enough contact" might have meant that even though you weren't being attacked, you were playing defensively and sniping from long range, rather than entering with close in throws and such. But you should probably ask what he meant by it specifically, if you are confused.

I presume the question asks about diversifying hand positions more than those specific ones, since those two are the rarities for me; usually I teach open palm and wrist, I sometimes gloss over other ways to use the hand to everyone there, but don't devote a lot of training time to it. "Oh and you can also do this, this, or this from that position. Back to our regular drill."

Music, some music theory. Form; the concept of the chest center of movement, which caused a rather large epiphany about power generation. I won't be repeating it here, because all the analogies were.. somewhat disturbing and inappropriate, but it was regarding the use of the pelvis for power generation, as related to african-inspired dance in popular culture.

Not a Karate stylist, but it seems as though gaining olympic status is pretty much the death knell of a martial art as a MARTIAL art. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

I am on the defensive because the statement to which I was responding to was.. Yes, it has a movement style that looks dance-like, and has dance aspects. It was the part where it was stated that that meant that the technique had ceased to be combat-applicable that I take issue with. The argument was stated with a structure of "Capoeira has dance-like aspects to it.... THEREFORE Capoeira is not a fighting art.." The first step I don't argue with; the second one I do. Right; I train it, I teach it, and I would say that I am one of the more reality-based instructors who posts here. I review legal issues about force, criminal psych, structure of common crimes and attacks, anatomy. We cover various real world applications of techniques, and I make sure their tolerances are loose enough to work under adverse conditions. We train in street clothes, and on varied terrain. How often do you drill your attacks and breakfalls on rough tarmac, loose gravel or ice? We do.... and so I get a bit irked when people automatically dismiss what I teach as impractical because of a justifiable and explainable similarity to certain kinds of dance. I compared Capoeira to Judo because your sidebar states that you train in a Judo style; you should therefore be familiar enough with it to acknowledge that A: Judo has an aspect to it that is non-combative/non-destructively sportive in nature and B: that one aspect isn't the whole picture by any stretch of the imagination. Apologies for the derail, since the original topic is a good one.

Not Karate, but... How simple it is. At the start, I learned a bunch of complex movements, and some basics. Then over time, I learned that the complex techniques didn't really exist. All there were were basic techniques. Now, some of the aspects of the basic techniques are a bit hazy as to whether they're real or not. At this rate, in a couple years, i'll just have one technique that does everything. and looks like anything.

By the same reasoning that says that Judo is a purely philosophical exercise in trying to achieve non-violence with no practical combat application, yeah, he would be right. But since we're not generally in the habit of presenting one single dimension of an art by itself and then belittling it for being one-dimensional, I don't think that reasoning applies. Yes, there is a facet of Capoeira which is performance dance; I don't think that anyone would argue that that is not one of the uses of the art when focused in particular ways. There is also an aspect of Judo which is non-violence and pacifism through harmless sport. I think most people would agree that Judo can be very effective and pragmatic when it wants to be. We can be pragmatic too. In any case, I am slightly offended that my years of experience and training in my art would be regarded so lightly as to be able to be trumped by a wikipedia link wielded by someone who does not appear to practice any martial art originating from the same continent. I haven't been allowed to cite wikipedia since the beginning of the decade; not reliable, accurate, or primary enough. Come stop by my academia for a class if you want to argue impracticality, instead of buying the first thing on a google search uncritically.