elbows_and_knees

well most of my friends who sag like to try and box in a fight. alot of my friends like boxing for some reason, i guess cuss alot of the rappers we listen to talk about/do boxing. And because of that many people will try to box in a fight even if they dont have hands( means they cant fight) and think that kicking in a fight looks like week or dosent work.( obviously have never taken a side to the head like i have. kicking does have it's disadvantages, but that's for a different thread. yeah, rappers from TI to wu tang talk about boxing - anybody from the hood knows what slap boxing is and has done it pretty often. rarely do they talk a bout kicking because they don't do it. man's instinct is to punch, not to kick. If an untrained man does throw a kick, it's usually a front push kick type, IME - A quick, stomp-like kick. Why? kicking leaves you off balance, and even moreso if you haven't been trained to kick.

Yes, there is some truth to this. However, Traditional-Fist comes from a Wing Chun background which is arguably the most pugnacious of all southern Chinese martial arts. Their theories are time tested & just as sound as any martial arts you practice. some of them. gan sau to block a roundhouse kick? not good. I know not all WC exponents advocate this, but some do. I've seen it. And here's something I just ran across, while googling gan sau and roundhouse: "Two students of Wong Shun Leung got their arms broken from roundhouse kicks when they tried to apply a Gan sau in a tournament held in Japan. " http://www.springtimesong.com/wckicking.htm

Once again, i was taught with that intent - strike through the target. But the attacks still snapped. chamber the leg, kick through the target, then re-chamber the leg as fast as possible - that is a snapping kick. The thai roundhouse does not work that way though. I'd be willing to bet you that if you dig back into a lot of those MMA guys early history's, that their young interest's in fighting began with something traditional. sure, for the ones that started at a young age, because that's all there was. there are a lot of younger guys fighting today who started with mma stuff. back then, there was no such thing, and muay thai gyms were rare. Myself as an example, I've trained longfist, tkd, karate, tang soo do... But when I was younger there were no muay thai gyms around. there were not bjj schools. Heck, during the 80's, even judo was rare where I was living - that was during the ninja craze - nobody cared about judo then. what they started as doesn't matter, in terms of sport vs traditional. TKD is not a "traditional" style - it's less than 100 years old and it taught largely for sport - but it's still considered traditional. Why? the format of it. wrestling, boxing and muay thai, while very old styles are also taught and trained in a sportive manner, putting them under the sport fighting, non traditional category. see above. EDIT: and actually, muay thai was created solely as a sport. there have been several muay, the most recent being muay thai, which is only about 80 years old. the techniques from older muay that were considered low percentage were removed, and the bare bones style that was left became known as muay thai. older thai styles are muay chaiya, muay lon lon, muay lopburi, etc.

in a tournament, guys who straight arm usually get penalized for stalling, as it's hard for anyone to attack while getting straight armed. How good is your kumi kata? use it - break his grip on you. also, smack his arm upward, lower your level, as if you are shooting in for a takedown and move in. There are several ways to get around it, but they are difficult to explain in few words. I really hate it when people stiff arm in training, because nobody learns anything.

Bag work/makiwara training generally builds your impact potential and not your speed. But keep practicing that along with the other methods suggested. you hit the bag during speed training to give you something to impact. speed without impact in a punch makes for a useless punch. Also, having something to hit prevents hyperextension.

I don't know what style of Karate you trained in, but I've never learned to kick "at" people. When I throw a round house kick, I want to touch spine. When I throw a shin kick, or a knee kick I want to fold that leg like a steel chair. When I throw a side kick, I want to feel ribs snap as I'm trying to hit my opponents heart. Point sparring is a demonstration of technique, that's all. Its controlled striking for several reason, not least of all insurance cost's for a full contact tournament, but also because you can demonstrate good technique and speed without crushing your opponent with all the power you have. I happen to think its harder to land a controlled strike than a full power strike, simply because it takes a good amount of skill to throw a strike fast enough to get through blocks yet hold it short enough not to K. O. your opponent. I was told the same thing, however, we still used whipping kicks... the whipping kick simply does not have the penetration power of the smashing kick. It's like a whip vs a baseball bat, regardless of your intent. Any thai boxer that spars throws controlled strikes, but they still don't snap them... No, most of the guys (the pros, anyway) have a base in muay thai or boxing for their standup. There are few with a tma background that compete today. liddel has muay thai and kempo training, louisseau has muay thai and tkd training... Off the top of my head, that's it. I'm sure there may be a few others though. the muay thai and boxing guys don't "move on" to bjj, they simply began to cross train. They are doing both at the same time. It's the tma that gets abandoned... liddell no longer trains kempo, and I'm willing to bet loisseau no longer trains tkd.

domestic issues are always sticky. you may end up going to jail trying to help the woman, because chances are, she'd press charges on you before she would him. You can go back and check on them, but the safest thing would be to call the cops if the argument continues to intensify.

Or, some people can't do it, or just don't like it. I like the Caporiea stuff, but I can't do it, so its usefulness to me pales in comparison to what I know that I can do. I would still like to learn how, though. Actually, capoeira uses alot of elbows_and_knees. They are also notorious for headbutting. The flashy stuff is what's most interesting to watch, so that's what you see on tv. It also uses several takedowns.

that's not necessarily true...

there are charts on the web, but I wouldn't use them to study from - they won't tell you how to strike the point, whether to strike or rub, when qi flow is strongest in that area, etc. but if you just want them for reference, do a search.

I think my style would call it "showing off."then your style may have a more limited view of defense than chinese styles. in longfist styles, one use of the butterfly kick was to jump over low sweeping weapon attacks. it may have also been used to evade a dragon tail sweep. (iron broom in some styles) It actually had a purpose beyond merely "showing off"

I'm a bouncer on my second job. We have three floors, and the second floor is all rap. Consequently, that's where all the wanna be thugs hang out. I work on the second floor. I get all types of gang members in there. I also live in a neighborhood with several GDs, and when I played ball in high school, 25% of the team were bloods. We actually had a shootout at football practice once. I've been dealing with them for years. Nah, not everyone that sags is bad, but I personally think it's tacky. Not only that, but it doesn't help you at all in a fight. You ever try to kick while your pants were sagged? I've seen guys at the club trip and fall while trying to run and also while trying to fight because their pants were sagged.

You'll have to explain to me what a gooseneck lock is, prefereable with pictures if you can find them, then whether or not the lock is applied from the clinch or the ground. Have you had any locking/grappling experience? This is a fairly generic lock to most styles. A goose neck is not common in arts like judo and bjj. It's something you find in jjj and chin na. I learned it in chin na, but it was not called a gooseneck, so I had to look up the name. I found a link describing what it was, and a post from a cop saying it's not something you use against someone REALLY trying to harm you. He said it's mainly for a semi compliant drunk. http://www.karatekorner.com/messageboard/printthread.cfm?Forum=24&Topic=3524

also more susceptibility to a takedown. Everything has it's drawbacks - nothing reigns supreme.

this assumes that the martial athlete has inferior skill to the martial artist. quite possibly a wrong assumption. where in indiana are you? I've got family in hammond, gary and nap, so I am there on a pretty regular basis.

same obvious answer for working speed - striking as fast as possible. Use your heavy bag. Time 30 seconds and strike as fast as you can the full 30 seconds. rest for 10, then repeat. Plyometrics also work well.

I've got plenty of combat stories involving locks, as where I work, we are supposed to restrain, not strike. However, I don't use anything like standing arm bars. I use the full nelson, rear naked choke and chicken wing more than anything. I've seen other guys try various standing arm locks, and have rarely seen them work, other than a "hammer lock" I've had little success with chin na as well. it just doesn't seem to translate well.

flips in a fight are a bad idea. However, gymnastics in training is great. It builds explosive strength and great kinesthetic awareness.

bingo. For most of the population, self defense classes are a waste of time because the person learning the techniques will not practice them once the seminar is over. For those short seminars, teaching technique is just a waste that brings money to you, but nothing to the attendee. At seminars I've conducted, we started with stuff they can instantly use - awareness. teaching them to be more aware of their surroundings, how to not look like a victim, how to actively monitor for possible threats, etc. We showed some technique at the end of the seminar, but it was largely what I mentioned above. that said, if the class is ongoing, where they can practice the techniques sever times per week, then yeah, it can be effective. But for the one time seminars, no.

Not if the swift hook is blocked and the kung fu exponent moves into the central line at the same time and delivers the throat strike. yeah, but my chin was lowered as you stepped in, and I was anticipating it, so I head, right on the bridge of your nose... what if scenarios can go on all day. But statistically, what has the higher percentage of succeeding - your throat strike, or my hook to your jaw? the eyes?? same thing. entirely too low percentage to deem effective most of the time. sure, it CAN be effective, but you have to hit his eyes first. This is easier with a fist than with fingers. Also, it depends on who you are fighting. A trained fighter will not raise his chin because of those things - he's used to taking them. However, it may move his hands enough that you can hit him in the jaw. to raise his chin, I'd uppercut him. there is methodology behind techniques in any style. That doesn't mean they are all effective. doesn't mean that the methodology was sound. doesn't mean that their theory had ever been tested. It's no secret that there have been several "masters" who had never even been in a fight before.

the type of strike is irrelevant, no? if the person is moving, guarding and resisting, it will be equally hard to strike effectively. it's actually easier for a grappler to pull off those strikes, because he would have control of his opponent before he tried them. In addition, there is way more to fighting than money or a medal. Non competitiors don't understand that though. I doubt anyone has that skill, actually. And unfortunately, nobody can prove it, as it would involve killing someone. Go figure... Now, that's not to say I disbelieve in a crushing grip. I've seen those.

"most fights" is a avery broad generalization... where are you getting this statistic? is it published somewhere, or are you making it up based on what you've seen and heard? 1. not every guy in a bar drinks. 2. guys in a bar are sometime high and not drunk 3. the guy, whether he's drink, sober or high may have a knife in his pocket 4. PLENTY of fights start for no reason. I see them all the time. I have had a guy tap me on the shoulder and swing at me when I turned around. No reason at all, other than he wanted to fight with someone and picked me. 5. Not as many people carry guns as you think they do. Even of the ones that do, oftentimes they are left in the car. In addition, if the gun is holstered, it must be drawn before they can use it. 6. gang involvement dwindles as age increases. in a crowd of people ages 25 - 30, I'd bet most of them aren't affiliated with any gang. That doesn't mean that he doesn't have buddies that will help them, just that it's not gang related. 7. I deal with crips, GDs, lords, surrenos and bloods on a regular basis. you can't tell by looking at them what they are, unless you can spot a tat or something, and you still don't know how many there are or aren't of them, meaning you can accurately analyze the threat they pose. yes, it is. However, reading your initial post, you are addressing an altercation in progress, not analyzing passers by. This is totally different. And also not analyzing threat, as the person poses no threat to you - yet. you are analyzing potential threat level. I addressed that earlier. Like I said, an altercation is too fast and furious to worry about that. In a ring, it's fine, but in a fight, no. I understand what you are saying, I just think it's the wrong context for it. I would go into greater detail and discuss pre and infight analysis. When you see a person, scan them. Look for bulges in the clothing, attitude of the person walking, facial expression, whether or not the person is alone, how baggy the clothes are, etc. THAT is the analysis. Once the fight begins, there is no more analysis, it's all action. that is where control and destroy can come in.

Ballistic is bouncing, and rebounding types of stretching. Dynamic stretching is controlled movement stretching.

Here's one of the differences I just mentioned. I have a second job as a bouncer. Women act up just as much as men do. I have had women swing on me on several occasions. Am I a bad martial artist for having to restrain them and put them out? what about cops trained in MA who have to detain women?

Discussion is why we are here, right? Bingo. If I didn't want something discussed, I wouldn't post it here. Especially a topic like this one. There is no set definition of what a martial artist even is, so of course there will be differences in contribution.