elbows_and_knees

selective breaking is one of those parlor tricks. I've seen demos of it though. All iron palm *supposedly* REALLY does is 1. condition the hand to hitting hard surfaces 2. get the tendons used to impact of hitting hard things. The old guys will tell you that it teaches you to use tendon strength and to punch with that as opposed to your muscles, but as we know, that is not possible. That said, DO NOT do it on your own - forget what your friends told you. Iron palm training needs to be done under the supervision of a qualified instructor. If your WC sifu is not skilled in it, then I wouldn't worry about it, unless you train another style.

I noticed that only two of you picked a weapon that you can carry around with you...

maybe - it's like fighting an unarmed person with long reach - you have to be able to use your footwork to get inside of him. If you can close distance, you'll have a much easier time. Of course, that's easier said than doine, but it gives you an idea what to work on. In my kali days, we trained in this manner. knife vs single and double stick - reach disadvantage, especially if you have an earth grip on the knife. there is a system of kali that uses one long staff, as opposed to two the normal kali stick. Same thing applied here - footwork was key.

The most unique non-weapons I've ever been shown to use are keys and credit cards. My favorite is a small, tactical flashlight.

yeah, you can buy carbon weapons almost anywhere now. I see that as a VERY bad thing, as I work as a bouncer. those things can make it past a metal detector. so can the wooden push knives. As for me, I carry a tactical folder.

In point sparring, I'd probably agree. From a full contact standpoint, I'd heartily disagree.

If I'm not mistaken, in the old days of bareknuckled boxing, the majority of punches were thrown with a vertical fist to reduce injury to the knuckles. When fights went as long as 90 rounds, this was invaluable. Respectfully, Sohan That is true. physiologically speaking, the vertical fist is the more "correct" structure in terms of punching. Also, then you are throwing arcing punches, it gets the pinky out of the way, preventing "boxer's break" It's called this bacause many fighters have broken their pinky finger by throwing arcing punches with a horizontal fist.

Bingo.

No, they're not. I've seen several WC guys I used to work with tear their knucks on a canvas bag. that's just the nature of canvas. Especially in the case of boxers and thai boxers, where they literally hit a bag hundreds to thousands of times per session. When I first started muay thai, I threw 500 punches a night on the heavy bag. gloveless and on canvas, that will mess you up - it's happened to me. However, I can hit a vinly bag just fine without gloves. Also, when you are a newb, you have a higher chance of hitting from a bad angle and jamming your wrist, or worse. AND, in the case of said art, they fight with gloves, so it's best to use them and be used to it. We don't allow our students to hit bare handed. When I trained TMA, I never hit the bag as much, so I would sometimes go bare on canvas, but you still run the risk. That said, IMO, yoiu should wear gloves and wraps if you are hitting with your fists. At the very least, use wraps. If you want to integrate palms also, use mma gloves- but they still have a tendency to allow your front knucks to scrape the bag when you are throwing a hook punch.

In general, I agree with that. But like with all of judo's throws, what you use is personal preference. Even before I started bjj, I was using morote gari (double leg) and various other takedowns - ko soto gake, o uchi gari, de ashi barai and others religiously. Not only do I use them to get the guy down, I use them as a set up for the big ippon throws you speak of - harai goshi, seoinage, uchi mata, etc.

if the school uses sashes, their systems will vary. I have seen schools where the second sash is orange. I have also seen schools that didn't even have an orange sash.

plain and simple, you will learn a lot about a lot of things. "shaolin" these days is mainly just northern longfist, which is a conglomeration of northern styles and techniques. you will learn the 10 core shaolin forms and a ton of other forms from other longfist styles. It's a very generic style in that you learn a little about a lot of stuff. Many people use longfist as a springboard into other, more specific styles. Northern shaolin utilizes the same 5 animals KFdude mentioned for southern. Most longfist today also has a lot of sport wushu added into it.

I disagree with this one. I'd like to think that when I'm old and can't demonstrate all the moves that I could still be a great teacher...perhaps even a better teacher. (you know, with all that wisdom and stuff) .. see my above post. I would bet money that you would have a hard time teaching newbies if you can't demo for them... If I am teaching a newb judo and he is learning seionage, but he is tall, so he has to modify it - It will be hard for me to explain that to him because he doesn't know how to do it the proper way. I can take a guy from day one and show him a variation of a throw he doesn't know if I can show him.

yes and no, IMO. the thing is you are talking about professional athletes. I agree with you there, because EVERYONE on the team has been playing the sport for years already anyway. He can talk to them and tell them what he's looking for. you won't see people that age coaching a complete newb, unless they ARE capable of demonstrating in some fashion. My first judo coach is 82 and he still demos techniques and does ground grappling with the guys. He can't do standup any more - a throw may break his hip - but he can demo by throwing us. If he were unable to demo anything, all new people would be completely lost, unless there were someone there who was capable of demonstrating...

I dunno about this one. That depends on what you're after. I know more about muay thai than my coach - my background was from a more traditional standpoint, where as his was purely competitive. However, because the time I spent learning tradition, he spent fighting, he is light years ahead of me, though I can hang with him. Even though we both fight, he was fighting way more because that was the sole motivation behind the gym he trained at. Since we both coach at the same school now, he will defer to me and another guy who had the same instructors as me on questions about tradition.

The difference here is what you define as MMA. In my eyes, that is not mma. That is a JKD type environment. MMA is striking and grappling, period. It's not a mixture of a dozen different styles. By training in true mma, you are learning strictly striking and grappling and how they flow together - something that is left out if you take them seperately. The class you are mentioning is more jkd oriented. The problem there is that you really won't learn much about any one style - that's not necessarily a bad thing though, it's all a matter perspective. When I trained jun fan/jkd, I learned muay thai, judo, wing chun, savatte, several styles of kali, silat and TKD. It was great for all around knowledge, but these days, I NEVER trap in fights, nor have I ever used trapping. I never use any of the savatte kicks, I rarely use kali even though I still train with some kali guys at my current school on occasion, I only use some of the silat and some of the tkd - which I also learned much of in muay thai and karate. Consequently, I learned a lot of stuff, which, to me (and only me - I'm not speaking for anyone else) was absolutely useless, other than allowing me to talk intelligently about many styles. I focused on the judo and the muay thai, which are what I currently train. I coulda saved all that time and started solely in those two arts way back then.

The problem with that is that there are so many people that simply cannot develop such a mindset. I would drill them repeatedly, and also teach them how to "look" confident. Oftentimes, this is the best deterrent, as I think has been said here already. There are many times in the club where I have ended confrontations simply by approaching the combatants. I have been told that they didn't want me to mess them up, so they calmed down, and as a result, nobody had to leave the club. Last fall, ten people were getting ready to scrap by one of our bars. I was the only bouncer there that night, but instead of panicking, I jumped right in the middle of them. ALL 10 OF THEM STOPPED IMMEDIATELY. afterward, one of them asked me if I was crazy, cuz they all could've stomped me. I just smiled. confidence is a powerful thing. Criminals, bullies, etc all look for the same thing - an easy target. If you look like you will give them a fight, many will not bother you. Confidence can be taught to pretty much anyone. A killer's mindset cannot be.

the thing is, getting cut doesn't always hurt that much. Best thing to teach them is to RUN if possible. If they can't, engage them and try to control the weapon wielding arm. I've known of people who were getting sliced by knives and box cutters and didn't even know it until the fight was over. After leaving the hospital, they were both badly scarred, and both say the same thing: "I didn't even know I was being cut. I saw their arm swinging and I just thought they were missing me." Now, getting stabbed is something different. You WILL feel that, if there is any depth at all to the wound. I don't know that you can be prepared for that. I posted in another thread about my coworker who was stabbed a couple of weeks ago while we were putting someone out of the club - he felt it instantly. His first reaction was to tense up, which in this case was good - he had the guy in a loose choke, and the tensing made the attacker lose consciousness.

I've always heard that downtown tokyo is pretty tough. I've got a friend in jumamoto who said the same thing. Genki sudo got stabbed there like a year ago, didn't he?

possibly. Like i stated in my thread on the general forum abut the big fight, when I choked the one guy, his buddies came up behind me. I couldn't use him as a shield. since his blows didn't hurt, I just went a head and choked his friend out, ignoring him.

kung fu is actually a more comprehensive karate. karate came to japan from okinawa and it came to okinawa from china. shorin ryu - shorin = shaolin. much has changed, so there are a lot of differences between okinawan, chinese and korean arts, but there are fundamental similarities that exist in pretty much all arts.

the funny thing is that most people have never been in a serious fight after they reach adulthood. Many will never have one. I started training because I was six and impressionable - I was watching kung fu theater on tv. Now, 22 years later, I compete, and I work part time in a club bar as a bouncer.

sparring techniques? have you read a book of five rings? It's about philosophy and strategy, not sparring techs. you can apply the strategy to what you do, but it will not blatantly give you techniques...

gloves are never a wimp option. The thing you gotta realize is during a class - sparring, bag work, mitt work, etc. you are throwing literally hundreds of punches per session. thousands per week. that is a lot of wear on the hands. Also, since you fight in gloves, it makes sense to train in them, no? And sparring is usually harder than you do barehanded. muay thai is more alive than wing chun. you aren't necessarily supposed to remember the drills. Just focus on learning the technique so that you can apply them not matter what drill you do. If the class is structured, you will build in a logical order on what you are learning, so you won't forget the technique, even though you may forget the drill. And there is LOTS more repetition in MT because you have fewer things to work on - it will even out. The kick you mention sounds like "alligator whips it's tail" - a hook kick. the thing about real fighting is that often times you can't just take someone down - but I digress. you will learn to target certain areas - jaw, liver, kidneys, sciatic nerve, etc. and (depending what your coach knows and what he prefers) you may learn some takedowns.

Grappling/BJJ/Judo is all awesome (and I wish that there was a good judo school around where I am, I would love to try it sometime), but if you are looking for self-defense skills, you should look past just grappling. Even though it will definately help you on the street, there are situations where you would be vastly better off if you had some experience in a fighting art, such as Karate, Muay Thai, Kung-Fu, etcetera. Preferably Karate . David thinking about it, one of the few situations I can think of where grappling is not advised is multiple attackers, or if the guy is huge and your grappling isn't that good. against weapons - I'd rather grapple one guy my size - I'd rather grapple against a better striker than me - I'd rather grapple And I'm primarily a striker...