Jay

In your opinion which should you learn first attack or defence. In JKD I learned the straight lead and shin side kick first. In BJJ and Judo I have learned mainly positional escapes first.

This is important if someone is squaring up to you and you can't see their hands I would back up, best try to de-escalate. Has happened to me didn't know if the guy had a weapon but wasn't gonna get involved. The whole time I was wondering why this guys hands were still in his pockets.

Joesteph It was the only school available but im happy because it is pretty well known and has good people there. Its just that all of them are bigger than me unfortunatly. Im thinking thought that if I can do alright eventually I will get more out of it.

You make a good point and I do understand it well but mentally I don't like to lose, I guess its simlar for alot of people. Thanks for your help will look into them.

I know this will not be a problem in competition but im not bothered by that. I still think I should be able to do okay against any person of any size.

Grappling work is judo newaza. its good because im at a place where they do lots of ground work. I guess I feel I should be doing better thats all. Im very technical minded and groundwork should suit me but it so isn't at the moment. I guess I have to be patient with myself. Cheers for your help btw much appreciated and anyone else that replys

So I have been doing grappling for a little while 3-4 months now. I moved to a different club and im literally outweighed by about 80-100lbs in some circumstances. Im getting increadibly frustrated that I can't submit anyone. Even the new people like me who should be on an equal base I can't do anything with because im out muscled. I hate being this bad at something. Its not just that people are better than me its that I feel im not using what I know well enough as well which is making me really angry. I know alot of them have been training longer than me, but its no excuse for not being able to beat others at my level of experience. It seems atm this is a huge challenge for me one which I must overcome but I have no idea how apart from training as much as I can. Hopefully you insightful people will be able to help

Im having enough trouble taking them down with weapons on the new call of duty let alone with Jiu Jitsu One thing I have noticed is you do have to watch your back, best attack with a friend.

Yes its a long term thing. Although that does not mean you can't go through small periods of time of doing things perfectly its the consistancy that we as humans find problems with. Generally in the sports world a player playing at almost perfect is regarded as being 'in form'. It happends to us as well I think.

I know you won't like it but I find after a few weeks of practicing kicks you get faster. Repitition breads speed and coordination. Like when you learned how to type on a keyboard the more you do it the faster and better you get without even realising.

Great post and very true. I have most definitely realised this myself going back to being a beginner in a different art. I guess this is the reason why I don't mind being a white belt because I can just practice the simple and basic techniques. To me anyway they are the advanced techniques. If I can do a basic technique well then there is no need for the more advanced technique anyway. In most karate competitions I have seen the most common scoring shot is the reverse punch I mean how basic can you get .

Just to clarify the JCVD point. Yes he was a successful fighter. In fact he has a full contact fight coming up in 2011 against a muai thai fighter. Apparently he recently had a minor heart attack while filming but he has denied it so not really sure what to make of it. He is said to have been doing alot of cardio for his fight. I think his opponent is like 10yrs younger but I hope he will do well im very much a fan.

Just had a quick look. Congratulations ps1 I really liked your transitions hopefully at some point I will be that smooth. Now onto that next goal

This is a good point. Imo I think they are more important than gloves. Sometimes I train with just wraps on.

Really cool man love it Have you seen this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSYtQy9EqTA&feature=related Hope you like it Jay

Bushido Man I actually did some more research on this topic and I can't find the link but I think it was on wikipedia under vagus nerve and the theory that the person put in the adticle is disputed in the medical community. Equally I didn't realise there are such things as chokes designed to deliberatly target the vagus nerve to basically stop the other persons heart. Google is an interesting thing.

I have to say you make a very good point. I never use them as a weapon only to show off. To me that is the extent of what they are good for. As an actual weapon, well I would prefer a gun.

lol i don't recommend telling the sensei he's wrong... and like i said, i'm not 100% sure on what's accurate or not... i was just saying what i was told recent studies has shown... our dojo still does it the old way too, we stretch and do the splits before our actual practice... i've been to a highly competitive dojo on the island (which has produced world champions actually), and they do their static stretching at the end of class... i'm sure it's a debated topic (the studies), but i'm too lazy to search and read through those things, that's why i'm hoping someone who's more knowledgeable can chime in and clear things up lol Static is better after, dynamic before. Check Tom Kurz Website stadion.com I think it is there are a few studys on there.

I like wankan too! I'd have to say that my favorite is kanku-sho though. I feel like the contrast of fast and slow in that kata is very natural and easy to pick up. I did learn kanku-sho once but have long since forgotten it. For me I always liked kanku dai it contains all the basic pinan/heian kata within it. Its a shame I can't remember how to do it

To paraphrase 'To express yourself honestly, without lying to oneself, that my friend is very difficult to do' B.Lee It is very difficult to do I have noticed as I get older I find more of myself every year.

This is how I see it anyway. In most athletic endevours being bigger is an advantage. Anyone who is big and strong will be very hard to beat. As a smaller individual I know this well. If you look at the animal kingdom and how they fight there are imo two things that result in winning. Aggression and size. Most of the time the bigger one wins. Occassionally you see a super aggressive smaller animal and he can trump the bigger one. Old 'masters' say you should not really get angry but I mean if someone is really wanting to destroy someone else with no sense of his own safety he will usually acheive it. As humans of course we have superior knowledge and technique but this is only one variable, I don't consider having better technique to be guaranteed victory there are these other variables as well. From what I have learned over the years. The bigger guys tend to be the best 'fighters' that would be if technical level were similar. Smaller guys tend to be better 'technicians' there is less room for error and not really any strength or size for compensation thats why technique has to be spot on. In terms of the no rules on the street, sure everyone can do it bite kick gouge etc etc. The thing is by training these things you learn to think about them more and be more aware. Fighting is very fast with basically no thinking time plus your gonna be hopped up on adrenaline anyway. If you are aware and can defend and attack with them automatically then I think this can be an advantage. They may not be an end in themselves but could constitute towards your means. At the end of the day non martial artists are very confusing and unpredicatable you don't know what the hell is gonna happen.

Great article. DWx I agree with what your saying however I think its fair that rounds should be shortened for women. The article made a convincing point about women having a lower VO2 max than their male equivalents. MMA is a spectator sport its not interesting when people are lying on the floor knackered. That was one of the main reasons we have time limits in the first place along with TV problems. Maybe from a femminist point of view there should be the same number of rounds but from a purely physical point of view men and women are different.You wouldn't expect a woman to run sub 10 in the 100m. Its not condeming them. Its just their base ability nobody can outrun physics. I have to say the im not the biggest fan of womens MMA or Boxing I think its because I don't really like watching women get hit even if it is from other women. But thats just me as a person if they wish to compete then great they should be able to.

Seriously top notch. I liked it. I think the key is not to underestimate anyone ever.

Yea I agree that was my attitude towards it as well. I think for 99.9% of people chocking is safe. Its a hell of a lot safer than striking to knock someone out.

I just came across this by accident http://www.aikiweb.com/techniques/gunther1.html If you read the 4th paragraph it states: The bradycardia one means that if you're choking just the right spot very high and fairly lateral on the neck, up behind the sternocleidomastoid muscle and only an inch lower than the jawbone, you may accidentally put your thumb on the sensor located in the wall of the carotid where it divides into internal and external branches. That sensor is there to tell the heart to slow down if the blood pressure going into the brain is too high. If you push hard enough on the vessel and up the pressure in it, the sensor tells the heart, "Whoa! We gotta surge of 80 mm Hg in here! Back it off!" And the heart obediently slows down to nothing, at which point it can start to fibrillate and you die. The reason this is rare is dual. Number one, the sensor is small and hard to get to, so it's chance if you happen to be over it. Number two, young people with resilient arteries are almost all resistant to this reaction to carotid compression. Old people with hardened arteries are much more susceptible. However, this has been thought to be the genesis of death in cases in which the perpetrator confessed, "I was mad at her, yeah, and I took her throat in my hands, but honest to God I didn't do anything! She just went limp the instant I touched her!" and the autopsy is negative. So this is always something to bear in the back of your mind when practicing chokes: if your partner is the one in a thousand whose arteries aren't resistant to this, and if you hit exactly the right spot, they could go limp in your hands and die without your even achieving a good choke. Scary. Now I would have thought that if this was true we would have heard of one instance of this either in martial art training or in competition. The article is by an M.D so I would have thought it was legit.