JusticeZero

*nods* I classify by mechanics as well; it leads to having similarly named techniques that look very different because the structure is the same. I do not see it as useful to classify by target choice or the like; I want techniques filed by mechanics, as that's the important part in making it work, not where you're aiming the technique as that's much more ephemeral and ultimately unimportant.

I would note that the most likely way it will happen is that someone will close in to grapple to get inside of the kicks. Work on using a takedown on any target that gets inside of kicking range probably..

A side kick is a kick that radiates from the side of your body. Whatever direction your target is is typically considered to be your front.

I'm going to have to side with the grapplers on that one though, beast. Most strikers don't really look at generating power on/from the floor, and they freeze up when their footing is gone. It's an alien realm, and many of the rules are different; the rules that are the same, often one does not realize are the same. I wouldn't worry so much about a Harimau guy or a dishuquan stylist, or a systema guy since they do that some of the time at least, but a boxer or a karate guy? probably not going to know what they can do and will be relatively helpless.

Wouldn't that be, um, a front kick?

Not nervous at all. I went for the instruction at the retreats; the testing was a bonus.

Arguably, that's mainly because they spend less time doing it. As you note later, it doesn't necessarily take all that much to help quite a bit. This is true, and I don't know that many people deny this. It does, however, leave you far more committed than a striker in the same situation, and thus far more vulnerable. A striker does not need to win their fight to run. Something to be said for this, but from what I have heard, all but the most pigheaded and backwater of teachers have taken at least a few lessons from the UFC and added more attention to root and surefootedness. I daresay that the average standup fighter is quite a bit less likely to randomly fall over at a gentle breeze than they were years ago.

In my eyes, he went searching for an unbiased test of his skills; he got it; he seemed to go away satisfied with that, and I am glad he was given that opportunity.

Thank you for responding, I will consider the matter in my own classes.

Right. I also advise bringing a notebook to class and writing everything down as soon as you're able to get to the paper. Practice outside of class... very, very slowly. Nope, even slower. No, slower still. Frustrating because you keep getting mixed up on parts you thought you knew when you move slow? Yep. Eat your veggies. Slower than that! =) In any case, without knowing what art you do, we wouldn't be able to help anyways. After all, one of my basics is two different kinds of handstand! I have no clue what -your- basics are.

There's also the option of shrieking and acting as though one had been struck while countering first, say with a front kick set to knock the kicker over. Alternately, whimpering loudly things like "Don't hurt me! Don't punch me in the face!" while turning the face away fearfully, hands down and in position to react to a face punch.

Joi, how do the other women in your classes respond to training? Do you do anything different in your own classes to better suit them? How do the other female students seem to think of you?

Lately i've been favoring basic chapa - a basic rear mule stomp kick posting off of two hands and the other foot. It's simple, doesn't take much for flexibility or balance, has plenty of possibilities for combos, creates some space, and finishes in 'runners blocks'.

Hello, good to meet you! Looking forward to learning more about some of the things you study.

If the students are at least intermediate. Right now, my students are too weak in the upper body to perform the basic techniques, and I don't get enough time in the week to correct it. Frustrating. With intermediate students, you can share quite a bit more. Some I can bring out immediately, some is beyond them; eventually, you train people to the point that you do have peers, and I do keep in touch with my old teacher. I had a student for a year and a half once, and I could share quite a bit with him; now i'm back to going to class and spending the first fifteen minutes reteaching basic stance and testing to hope that i'll be able to cover other basics this week. This too will pass.. I knew that it would be where I would end up when I started, because of how tied to place I am. If you go permanently to a place with a teacher it might be different, but I had to travel to find a teacher. I'll admit that I have things to learn about teaching, though.

I personally work on my ability to do the techniques and will be (as soon as I have an instrument) practicing music more.. my testing requirements, when I'm able to get to Brazil to test, are basically more endurance - I'll need more upper body strength for that - and memorize/write a lot of short songs in Portuguese and translations of same. (music has been a weak point of all of my teachers so far, and I need to correct that.) Once you have enough material burned in, it's amazing how much you can learn through review. Also, beyond a certain point, you stop advancing by getting better; instead you advance by enriching the art itself - through innovation, research, quality students, or whatnot. It's sort've like college - at a certain point, they stop trying to teach you, and instead they just stand by you as you dig around and find things out; at the doctoral level, there isn't anyone in the world who even CAN teach you the stuff you're trying to learn.

Was there much thought? Did that teacher have a reputation and style you liked? Was there some particular aspect to the art you do that interested you more than the others? I liked the floor myself; I don't like the idea of being knocked down and kicked. I spend too much time walking across dark parking lots covered in sheet ice to think that in any confrontation, i'll always be standing tall. I don't trust that anyone who would want to fight me is going to have the decency to walk over and climb on top of me if it happens, either. I looked for arts that would have answers to such a situation; mine is the only one of those I was able to actually find a teacher of without travelling long and far in search of some elusive master.

All four of those read as "Nobody" to me; control really only seems to materialize when it is exerted. Potential control isn't. I was looking at parries/blocks yesterday with a student, since i'm basically killing time waiting for their upper body strength to improve a bit; I was pointing out that if you guide a linear strike away from your body it protects you, but - if they don't yank their limb back away from you - as long as you can keep pressure and contact on the limb, you can pull and redirect the rest of their body. (And this is why I tell you to pull your hand/foot back so firmly after benção!) The control there really only exists for as long as the controlling movement lasts. More advanced students are familiar with how much control you exert over your opponent by doing things like raising your hands to show your unprotected belly, or leaving your foot out unweighted and unguarded. So really, 'control' is a terribly ephemeral concept, and one that probably isn't finely nuanced enough to express everything one might want to express.

Well, if he takes too much of a pounding then the ref can call it, just like the ref might call it if anyone else was getting hammered too much without actually submitting or getting their defences working.

OK, so you listed two 'unfair advantages' for the opponent and two for him? Wouldn't they kind've, you know, cancel out to some degree? =) I dunno. Let the guy fight. MMA people aren't sadistic brutes, and people with disabilities don't deserve to be babied and belittled.

It was an issue with awareness and tactical positioning, not skill, that allowed your injury; your skills are not in question as they didn't have a chance to be tested. Certainly if you do not feel comfortable grading yet, you shouldn't have to, but review what you might be able to drill in terms of situational awareness, situational drills, and the like. Do some research into how LEO's train for these kinds of thing. You did everything you were able to do; use the experience as motivation to enrich what you have studied. Now you know the importance of always knowing where everyone is and the like, and you can help the others at your school to be prepared. Books to get - Meditations on Violence, On Combat. Both discuss the sort of things you're dealing with right now. And see about finding a psych to talk to, because you're going through some understandable and normal stress from this.

My art isn't Karate, but my current studio is covered in thin mats. They annoy me and I suspect they hurt my students' feet slightly from time to time from twisting and such; I much prefer practising on hardwood or cement in street shoes. The mats change the dynamics of turning the feet, which we do all the time, and prevent the wearing of shoes to protect the toes from various twisting and impact forces of less than perfect footwork.

TKD actually has a lot of hand techniques in it; TKD isn't known for hand stuff mainly because they don't drill them, not because they're not good. You don't need to crosstrain a different art to improve your hands, you just need to drill the heck out of the stuff you have.

Right; when I ask LEO's and bouncers and the like to omit the actual act of restraining for the arrest, the majority of their fights do not go to ground. (Barring the one LEO I talked to who's MA background was BJJ; he was going to the ground all over the place.) The two things to watch for are that wrestling is a common martial art for a thug to have a background in, and that if someone realizes they are losing a standup fight that they may gamble that tackling you will even the odds. That said, during one of our classes, some random thug type wandered in talking about their street fighting skills, that were heavily based on wrestling stuff. They bragged about how effective this tactic was, then proceeded to use one of the people present as a jungle gym for a minute and a half, trying and failing to take them down. So-oo, going to ground isn't quite so fated as groundfighters might want people to believe.

OK, three terms, but one of them you'll only rarely see. "Standing", "Ground", and "Floor". "Standing" is upright striking and mobility, as well as standing throws ala Judo. Mobility and striking; with the case of the throwing arts, striking with the other guy's body and the tarmac. Ending a fight can include creating enough distance to be able to leave and outrun a damaged attacker. "Ground" is wrestling ground and pound. As a rule, once you enter this range, you are committed to a single opponent for awhile; it's good for arresting, bad for escaping, unless you're studying it specifically to learn how to foil a specialist in this range as many do - probably including your friend. "Floor" is a big part of what I teach, and you'll find snippets in a few other arts; there's maybe three or four arts that do a lot of floor, mine included. It covers what happens when you hit the ground, for whatever reason you aren't going to be left alone to just crawl back up to your feet, and the guy who you're fighting does -not- follow you down, but instead takes a bead on you to kick the snot out of you before you stand up. Sounds like your ladyfriend aught ask us some questions sometime.