elbows_and_knees

congrats on your 1000th!

I don't disagree with that. but in my days training cma, I have personally seen grappling as the most effective way to learn how to defend against grappling.

nah, shuai chiao is all standup. Their main goal is to throw you on your head and incapacitate anything else they can in the process.

statistics, great! 1. statistically, very few of ALL adults, trained or not, will EVER be in a violent altercation in their adult lives. 2. it helps plenty, if you do it right. No person in their right mind would tell you that hard contact sparring will not help in a fight. It teaches you to deal with the stresses of a fight in a way that other training will not. I will even go further to say that ring competition helps even more, because there is the added stress of fighting hard contact against somebody you don't know. 3. I was once a jkd guy - I learned a lot about defanging the snake, simultaneous blocking and attacking, etc. when you have rapid fire punches coming in, it's safer to simply evade. since we're talking statistics, let's take boxing. what percentage of boxers parry single strikes to the head on a regular basis? What percentage of those same boxers parry fluuries of strikes to the head? What percentage evades said flurry? Why? Also, not everyone you fight will be drunk. Heck, I know plenty of guys at the club who don't drink. 4. you don't HAVE to feint when you fight full contact. I rarely feint. I don't recall tyson feinting much. I don't think vanderlei feints either. tactics you use rely on your fighting style and have nothing to do with commitment. Feint or not, when you throw your strike, you commit to it. Where did you get your 99% haymaker statistic? that's not what I see every day. I see more sloppy, yet rapid straight punches, speedbag style, and windmilling overhands. either way, blocking can and does still fail and evading would be more efficient - AND help you to get behind them, where you have complete advantage. Watch several pros who strike rapid fire and / or with arcing punches, like liddell and vanderlei - can you block EVERYTHING they throw? not likely. you couldn't evade everything they throw either, but your chances would be better. Also, why are you assuming that you will be fighting someone untrained? statistically, you will be on the street, but in the club, I run into trained fighters quite a bit. I've met several NFL and pro boxers in there. Zab judah (boxer) was in there last month. these are guys you don't want to underestimate. they don't always fight, but sometimes they do. I've almost gotten into it with an ex NFL lineman (he'll remain nameless). Luckily, we were able to talk it down. Jerome Bettis has been in there before...can you imagine fighting him? trained or not, he would be a monster. I guess statistically, a streetfight will be with an untrained person, but why limit yourself to such a low level - I prefer to train for the person that is just as good or better than me.

I disagree that a lot of them do. the old thai striking sytems lacked ground work. chinese systems have a distinct lack of it. there is some found in systems like di tang chuan, but largely what you see in most styles in ground striking, which isn't the same thing. Even the chinese grappling style shuai chiao lacks ground work. Korean styles lack groundwork, other than yudo and posiibly hapkido, which are both adapted from japanese styles.

We have students that grapple or came from grappling schools & have learned there are some arts out there that can deal with a rush, single/double leg takedown, sweep or throw. Those types of grappling techniques have weakness like any other martial art technique especially when taken out of the octagon or sporting arena. The effectiveness of counter grappling is inherent to the amount of pain/damage inflicted preventing the grappler from completing the takedown. The obstacle in demonstrating moves casually with saftey in mind is the grappler doesn't acknowledge the technique & follows through with the takedown. Then dismisses the move as ineffective. When applied with intent counter grappling is vicious. The quality of a Hung-Ga practitoner is kinda judged by the stability of the stance & footwork. he doesn't dismiss anything. The point of the takedown is to get you going backward so you can be taken down. Once you are uprooted and going backward, no strike you attempt will have any effect at all. the shoot doesn't rely on safety. you change level under a strike or follow a strike on its return path. there is much strategy to it. you don't need a lot of room to shoot, so you have a very small window with which to strike me before you fall. if the strike isn't enough to stop me cold, you go down. stability isn't a huge issue. the body has eight directions of offbalance and throws and takedowns are just like strikes - you use them quickly and in combinations. for example, if I shoot in, but before I have you completely wrapped up, you step back into a bow an arrow, a double leg is now useless. However, you are now open for a single, for an outer leg reap, etc. transition. the only real "counter grappling" - I hate that term - is to learn to grapple, or at least train with them on a regular basis. A double leg is NOT a rush, a football style tackle, etc.

conditioned fist or not, you will still have to have the accuracy - under adrenaline rush and a resisting opponent - to strike those points. your iron palm is useless if you can't strike where you need to, in terms of pressure points. The easiest way to strike said points is to learn how to grapple. Then, I can control you, increasing my accuracy tenfold.

1. you may be overtraining 2. you may be at a plateau 3. maybe it's time to create some new goals and strive to reach them

when fighting, you never really use those stances, other than in transition - the way they are supposed to be used. I've never seen anyone - streetfighting, ufc, kyokushin, judo, tkd, kung fu or otherwise who holds a forward stance as their fighting stance. it's too immobile. I've seen a few spar in cat, but not fight from there - forward pressure would probably overrun it. Using those examples though, the same strategy would apply againse the forward stance. In addition, the rear weapons are further back, so they aren't even as much of a threat. The extra weight on the lead leg makes it a sitting target for leg kicks. From a cat stance, the rear weapons still aren't a big problem, because your weight is backward. you will have to shift your weight before you can throw them effectively. foot position (trying to keep yours on the outside of his) still applies. Only major difference is that it would be pointless to attack the lead leg.

I heard in another post that you were in JKD before. What is your take on the strong side foreward? Did you like it or do you feel the Thai is better? One more thing, have you ever experianced Paul Vunak and hid RAT system with the straight blast? Thanks I think both have their advantages. with the strong side forward, you have your strong side close to the enemy. Also, you are adding more power to the weak side by giving it more momentum from having to cover more distance. the boxing guard is great because it allows speed up front - great for defense (stick the jab) and major power from the rear. As for my personal style, I am a good outboxer and have a good reach and stiff punches. the thai stance suite me better. out box with my lead - push kicks, lead leg round house and jab - power from the rear - rear leg round house, cross, etc. I've trained with francis fong and adjarn chai, but never innosanto or vunak.

this is from carlos machado's site: "While in Brazil, he has successfully competed in several tournaments at state and national level. In April of 1990 he decided to move to Los Angeles, California, pursuing more prospects in his martial arts career. There he met martial arts movie star Chuck Norris, who was instrumental in promoting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and his family. Since then, Mr. Norris has been one of the greatest advocates of Machado Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Carlos lived in Los Angeles until end of 1995, when once more he chose to move to the Southwest, to the city of Dallas, Texas. There he established his first location, at the same building were the Chuck Norris' TV show "Walker, Texas Ranger" was filmed. That allowed Carlos not only to teach at his studio, but also to take part in many episodes of that popular show. He often assisted on choreographing fight scenes with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. " However, I thought norris was only a brown belt under him.

because they wouldn't call it ki, a japanese term. spiritual energy is talked about everywhere in the bible. Strength through God - daniel and the lion's den, Job, samson, david, saul... people who had great victory in battle or personal tribulation through Him. "No weapon formed against me shall prosper..." "jesus christ, who strengthens me" references to jesus being our rock, sword and shield... considering the context of the religion, power is discussed differently - christianity is about faith in Jesus, so all power would come through him, as opposed to being self manifested, like ki. Now that I think about it, that may be why some christians are against the theory of ki - it does not manifest through God, but through the individual. instead of asking Him for it, you manifest it yourself through training...

according to chinese thought, the gate is the groin region - the gua. opening and closing this gate rotates the hips - power generation.

religion isn't based on understanding - it's based on faith. If your faith says that any power not from God is evil, then ki would be considered evil if it's not proven to be from God. Hence the discussion earlier about ki being spiritual energy - like the power of prayer - which is God given.

christians were persecuted in many non christian societies.

it's not about quantity, it's about being able to stay on your feet, for example. compete against some grapplers and you'll immediately see what I mean.

That's where I got the email address. According to the posted rules hair cream is more dangerous than a strike to the throat. I agree that having gloves on it's going to make it a difficult target to hit & a swift hook to the jaw might be the better option. Barehanded striking the throat can be lethal. Having unfortunately been on the receiving end of a throat strike(grazing) I can attest to it's effectiveness. having the body greased up makes you slippery, no? when you are slippery , you are hard to hold, making you harder to grapple with and making strikes glance off of you - it's cheating. the throat on the other hand is defended VERY well - a basic boxing stance teaches you to keep your chin down and hands up. Combine that with head and body movement and the throat is very hard to hit, gloves or not. I've been hit in the throat also, but never while I was resisting my opponent. it can be effective, IF you can even land it...

anything can fail. Try all of your pressure points on a person doped up on pcp... Also, different people have different pain tolerances and not all points and locks work 100% on all people. that's just real life. I have a friend with very flexible wrists. it's almost imposible to submit him with any wrist lock. My legs are that way, but my wrist flexibility sucks. it also eliminates a lot of his motor skill, making his attacks less precise... and you have to remember all of that while you are being attacked by one or more people... everybody trains to be relaxed. But the reality of human physiology tells us that most people are not relaxed at all when under the stress of an attack due to adrenaline rush. It takes experience, not just training, to achieve such a relaxed state. some of the bouncers I work with are more relaxed in fights than most martial artists I know. Why? they fight more. They are conditioned to it. you don't really have that kind of time, unless you're trying to figure that out BEFORE the altercation starts. Even then, if you have than kind of time, you usually also have time to run away. that's really not true... it's WAY too broad of a generalization. an infighter will not keep his distance if he wants to fight. there is not always an object to pick up. He can just as easily smash you with his fist, elbows_and_knees, head, etc. 9 out of 10 times, you will be tensed as well, until you've had enough fights to learn to deal with the adrenaline rush, overcome tunnel vision, etc. Even then, it'll be hard to manipulate pressure points due to what I've said above. His body being rigid does NOT increase the chance of you breaking his joints. It actually decreases them. If you are relaxed, I can easily manipulate you, unless you know how to counter me. when you are rigid, your muscles are flexed and I have to struggle. Try this experiment: walk up to a friend and shove his head downward. What happens? when you first do it, he's relaxed and isn't fighting, so his head drops. Once he realizes what's going on, he does what's natural - he resists against it - then his head comes to a halt, as he's resisting your pressure. science also proves that adrenaline rush has just as much negative effect than good, yet martial artists ignore the negative and focus on the positive - some don't even know about the negative. physiology proves that not all people have the same tolerance levels - you may try a point on me in a fight that doesn't work. then what?

As someone who fights in the ring and as part of my job, my take on pressure points is that they are HIGHLY overrated. At best, most pressure points are merely a nuisance that MIGHT allow you to capitalize on an opening created by such a point. You opponent may squirm just enough or hesitate just enough to give you the room or time to do what you need to do. The other thing with pressure points is that its very hard trying to hit small, precise points while under adrenaline dump AND facing an opponent who does not want to be hurt - he is moving and resisting. Accuracy is severely decreased. I've seen dr yang jwing ming touch a point on my friend;s arm which made his arm go limp, however, the drill was cooperative. I honestly don't think he could've hit such a small spot if my friend was resisting, and even if he could, look how long he's been training. A novice of a few years would not be able to accurately do it in a fight. That said, I'm all for hitting larger areas - kidneys, liver, jaw, sciatic, etc. but I use those in the same way - use them to create openings for other strikes. If one causes a KO, that's great, but don't just expect it to happen.

ninjas are totally sweet.

there is competition jujutsu and jiu jitsu. the former allows strikes. the latter does not.

jkd - strong side forward - strongest weapons closest to target. boxing / thai boxing - weak side forard - faster punches closer for defensive reasons. strong weapons with even more momentum from being in the rear = more power.

no, we tend to call them escrima sticks or kalis sticks because we train that art and use a stick in said art.... a stick you use in kali is a kali stick... but it is actually called a baston. Escrima is a spanish word which literally means "fencing"

All three work with knives.

the difference is regional, from what I was told in my kali days. kali is of the southern phillipines. As we know, magellan and his spaniards invaded the phillipines. They took kali and combined with their skill of espada y daga and began calling in escrima and arnis. escrima is central and arnis is northern.