Jay

I would recommend Judo to anyone but im biased. I have actually done some of all three but I prefer judo, maybe because I did it longer. Any throw on hard floor is going to be effective. As with any schools there are good and bad ones so just ask if you could try them out. Its good that you are working on your weaknesses.

Happy Birthday

Yep saying things completly out of context disarms people. Hypnotists use it alot to induce trance. People arguing with you would not expect you to say they like your socks or ask what colour grass is.

Tallgeese I know alot of people like that. I guess for me, I really like to search the net, I can spend hours just finding out stuff about different topics. Im a bit of an information junkee in that respect. Recently I have liked to juggle, I play computer games when there is something good out haven't played for a while now. I like to keep fit and that sort of thing. TKDKid I also am into tennis . Im not amazing but I really like to play it. I read quite a lot, I like non fiction books like science and things like that.

I believe wally jay has one, small circle jiu jitsu.

A couple of ideas, your leg is getting caught because you are telegraphing what you are doing. Although the other guy isn't fast enough to stop you from hitting him he gets you on the way back. 1. Avoid kicking high, leg shots help you avoid being grabbed. 2.To conpensate if you can't pull your leg back fast enough because he knows whats coming you can use it as part of a high/low combination, feints and fakes can also delay his reaction to your roundhouse initiation as he will be concentrating on something else. 3.If these are not options (I don't know how you guys spar you see), then closing the distance is the way to go with putting your weight onto the grabbed leg.

I have the book, its excellent.

Im my personal opinion I wouldn't worry about gloves for focus mitts but would wear at least wraps for the heavy bag. The reason I say this is because of the extra stability, its very easy to miss a shot and hurt yourself on the heavier object (bag).

360 all the time.

The things is with JKD is that you can't define it as such. In order to understand where Bruce was coming from you need to look into Taoism, Zen and Krishnamurti. Most people approach it with a western mindset as in seeing things in black and white.

I really liked it, it amused me greatly

This is one area I have little experience in, I have done a few drills and such but no padded up realistic training. The way I look at this is, can I get the hell out of there. If I can't then I need to get in a position to do that, so I either need a weapon or hit one of the guys in the way so I can escape. Either way im not going to stand and trade, plus if you fall down your in serious trouble.

We do alot of bridging the gap. I know for a fact that the way the JKD core structure is set up is for optimal bridging of the gap. I also know that you don't always want to bridge the gap in a confrontation especially when short range weapons can be involved. Most fights will end in punching range where most leverage is available, unless you are pinpoint with your kicks which I am not. So to end a fight you will usually have to advance in some way, plus it is to your advantage that they are going backwards. I understand that if your not in 'their' range then you are not fighting. But range can be very hard to judge the amount of times I thought someone couldn't hit me and I have been hit. It depends on body type, im usually well into someones striking range before I can hit them, so it is usually important for me to advance. With the exception of good head kickers fights are most often won or lost at closeish range.

Ah okay, thats a shame but its still an impressive feat in itself maybe they can try in 4 years time given some time for practice with the rule set. I think I will have to do fencing at some point, but at the same time I already do too much. Mum has been telling me for ages,I should do it, I agree but I actually want to get good at what im doing. I don't want to be jack of all trades. Decisions, decisions.

Me and my friends were discussing this yesterday while having chinese food. We each had to pick a top 5. One is too difficult but my top 5 was the following: Fight Club Enter The Dragon Inception Memento Pulp Fiction

That's cool, at least you got some. What's it in do you think? Fencing? Turns out TKD must be more popular than it seems. The majority of my TKD friends applied for tickets (the whole school wanted to go down together) and I'm the only one who got any. I only got one of the events I applied for too. Have to decide who to take with me now.. won't be nice trying to pick between people. Well its either fencing, or hocky and diving. I used to play hockey and have always wanted to try fencing so its a win win situation. The diving is for my mum and sister. Take me Im kidding, but seriously its great that you got the TKD, I was wondering did anyone you know go for the olympic TKD trials about a year back. I know someone on facebook that went to the trials. If I remember they offered open trials to all martial art styles because they wanted more people.

I need to update my list of books I own on here. I will probably do it tomorrow. At the moment im reading BJJ Theory and Practice by Renzo and Royler Gracie. I have alot of books I need to expand my knowledge though I tend to concentrate on a small section. Maybe we should have a book club and read a book every 2 months or so.

Some of that muscle spray stuff is good as well. There are lots of types on the market. Keep one in your bag.

From my calculations it looks like I won't get tickets for the Judo. But its okay because I can watch it on the TV, im not that disappointed really plus I can try and reapply. I did get tickets for other events but im not sure which ones as they add up to the same amount so I will find out later on. Im still excited to go, even if im not going to martial art events.

I see where you coming from in that as long as you retain the essence you can change the rest as much as you like the underlying principle or idea stays the same. Personally I think this is correct. I really think that all martial arts have the same principles deep down they are just used differently. For instance some of us throw punches which is just based on the scientific principle of floor reaction. But although we use the same principle we all look different. All grappling styles are based on the effective use of leverage which is force x distance. But they don't look the same either.

I can't say much about your first point but there are a few studies on this sort of thing. The jist of what I have read is the following Headgear is mainly to prevent cuts, it does little in the way of preventing concussion and head trauma. Your brain in your skull is surrounded by fluid, its like smacking into a sled that is filled with water, with or without a bit of padding at the front the water is going to slosh around an awful lot. Most people also find headgear reduces peripheral vision which means you get hit more. You have to make up your own mind in the end.

Definitely, I learn new things about old things all the time The problem I have is that he meant something and I really wan't to know what angle he approached things from. To me its like a puzzle. Its in my personality to know 'why' and if I do not, it severely annoys me. I just have to know.

Interesting, there are several points and things I want to cover in this post so forgive me if it doesn't flow very well. I think that some styles and organisations are born out of the need for recognisation and importance. Some are simply born out of convenience just because you need to name what you are doing i.e Jeet Kune Do which Bruce Lee regretted naming because he felt the name was too limiting in itself. If I liken martial art organisations to a university degree although you may have the intellegence, people have a need to be recognised by an authority in order for other people to accept them for some jobs. This then subsequently gives other people 'confidence' in their abilitys. At best its just artificial because you don't know how credible the authority is. Plus most people are sheep and don't feel comfortable unless someone else 'says' that this person is okay and credible. This is a big problem in life in general. Just because someone is not part of an organisation does not mean they are no good. But they will find it difficult to be recognised as a 'brand' which is what Brian stated. People that open schools to make money generally do better being attached to a 'brand'. For instance a McDonalds tends to do better than an regular fast food joint because of the security it tends to offer people. To cover a few points on JKD itself, there are lots of responses so I will do it in a numbered fashion. I hope to write an article on it in the future, I have done a fair amount of research on the topic just because I want to clarify in my mind what Bruce Lee actually meant. 1)Lots of Bruce Lee's notes are contradictory, most were undated and just collated into his notes as we see them today. He was developing constantly and didn't plan to take his notes and put them into a book. A large deal of what is in the Tao of JKD is plagarized. If you have the other books that make up those notes you can see it, of which I have some. In order to undertand some of the notes you need to know the time in which they were written which can be hard to find. Alot of Bruce's Philosophy was a marketing tool to make him well recognised. 2)'The truth in combat is different for every individual. Absorb what is useful, Discard what is useless, add what is essentially your own' Again this can be taken in two ways but I think the basis is that if you cannot do it at the moment it shouldn't be in your system. This doesn't mean you shouldn't work on your weaknesses and even revisit the techniques to fix them but in combat if you can't make them work then don't use them. 3)People continue to train what Bruce was doing in 1970 because JKD became so fragmented with people changing lots of things. His family tried to preserve the art because some people were teaching stuff that didn't look at all like what Bruce was doing. 4)Bruce Lee clearly states here in a letter I believe to be to one of his chinatown students Jerry Poteet who asked to teach kenpo with JKD. That JKD is separate from other things although doesn't say it is separate from other 'styles' or that it is itself a 'style' http://originaljkd.net/xandy.html That covers a few points the rest can be saved until later. Edit-Masterpain you stated the following 'Mr. Lee himself said that if any of his ideas become outdated or unuseful, they should be discarded as well.' I don't remember reading such a quote but it wouldn't suprise me if it was there, do you have a source? I would like it for my research.

This one threw me off. Stretch in a tub filled with rice? Stretch and then eat rice? Or is RICE an acronym for something that describes the method I should be using to stretch? Sorry it stands for rest,ice,compression and elevation. So in other words strap it up, ice it for 10mins every 2 hours or so and just rest it. The elevation is more for swelling.

This is really interesting Bob Thanks for adding it I really enjoyed your proof is on the floor discussion as well.