elbows_and_knees

In the grand scheme of things, no, it's not important. you can't piggyback off of their accomplishments, and theirs are not yours. his skill was not necessarily the skill that your teacher or any of their teachers had... Now, from a sport aspect, I would consider who your coach is to be important. It doesn't matter, however, who your coach's coach was, for the same reasons mentioned above.

sure it would. do they kick? do they punch? do they throw? do they lock? If so, these things can be used in the ring. If an art as brutal as shuai chiao can be made into a sport, surely hapkido can... As stated, if done properly this will only help enhance their training and ability.

that's debateable. chin na is included but as for "anti grappling", I know many WC guys that will state otherwise. They will tell you that this is a recent advent - as in within the past 15 years. Kudos to you guys for training bjj though. Do you know Andrew Nerlich?

lol, yeah, he is!

No, it will not. ANY martial art can be modified for street or ring if you properly understand it's principles. Muay Thai is no less applicable in the street just because it's a ringsport...And, actually, from a standpoint of pressure testing, it will help the art, not hurt it.

what organization? I've never seen an amateur thai match where you couldn't clinch and knee. Now, in kickboxing rules and international rules, you can't even clinch, but in thai and modified thai, you can.

nah, a classic boxing tactic was to fool people that way. For example, look left, but punch right. Or, using your example, I look at your legs and while you prepare for a leg kick, I throw a right cross to your jaw.

I've never seen leopard as a style on it's own. Only as a subsystem of other styles. The primary fist resembles a half knuckle strike, if you know what that it, and is used for striking and raking. The strikes are to sensitive areas and structural weaknesses.

if you train bjj and thai boxing, you should get plenty of neck conditioning. In our bjj class, we do neck exercises. In thai boxing, neck wrestling does a good job of it. There are other things you can do as well.

why are you ttting these old threads? I would follow what sevenstar said, though.

most kung fu style will NOT teach you ground grappling. Even the chin na you do learn is mostly standing, and stand up grappling does not directly translate to the ground, despite what people may tell you. Most of the "ground fighting" seen in kung fu is striking from the ground - trying to get up quickly, before a person is on you and a grappling situation begins. That said, there is one chinese style that I know of which is dedicated to ground grappling - fukien dog boxing. When I trained in longfist, we *tried* to translate chin na to the ground and also incorporated things we'd seen bjj guys do. It worked for us - as in us against eachother - so we thought we were doing something good. However, later, my buddy and I ordered "the fighter's notebook" and started training the grappling techniques we learned. We started MURDERING the other guys in school when it came to grappling. Why? because what they were teaching really wasn't sound. later, we both left the school. We went back to thai boxing and also started bjj. As for shuai chiao, there is a core group of awesome shuai chiao guys that I train with whenever I have the chance. It's great stuff - I love it. Even with SC though, there is no ground grappling. They assume that you will finish them with either the throw or a strike afterward - they don't go to the ground.

anything will, as long as you are eating right. being "ripped" is really nothing more than having low bodyfat and residual tension in your muscles. The combination of the two is why people look all cut up. Naturally, the biggest factor here is diet.

Nah, he started as a teen. Most thais *IN THAILAND* retire at such a young age because by age 21 they have had well over 100 fights - they fight almost every week. in most places, you don't have fights that often.

you also probably don't throw headshots with the frequency of some people. If you trained full contact at a boxing or thai boxing school, you would WANT head gear... A facemask is a little extreme, but headgear should be required. 1. it's a safety issue 2. if you are competing on an amateur level, you have to wear it anyway, so you may as well be used to it. 3. even wearing headgear, you still feel it when you get hit. anyone with sense will make a conscious effort to defend against headshots, as opposed to just walking into the blows.

This has been around for over 20 years... it's nothing new at all, it's just little known to the general public. Like I said, I haven't seen these tapes, so I dunno if he's teaching JHR, but from the sounds of it, he could be.

If you're a bebop fan, check out samurai champloo. Some of the same guys worked on it.

people always assume competing is about training for trophies... why? Guess where all of my trophies and medals are... my mother's house! I would throw them away, but she likes to display them, so I just give them to her. Remember the game streetfighter 2? remember ryu's ending? "winning means nothing to him - the fight is everything..." that is the message that was given after ryu didn't show up to receive his medal. THAT is what fighting spirit is about. Not about a prize.

Varies. I know a guy who competed in a thai boxing match to celebrate his 50th bday. He lost by decision to a 27 year old. Anyway, there is nothing wrong with taking competition seriously. That provides drive - pushes you to your limits and makes you a better fighter. IMO, that is the right spirit. My advice is to continue to train for the year. If there is no kyokushin near you, try to find a thai boxing gym. If no luck there either, train dilligently on your own for the next year, or get some experience in another style that may be offered in the area.

Actually, that was Gracie Jiu-jitsu in Lethal Weapon. Rorion Gracie (Royce's older brother and the then head of that style) choreographed the fights in the movie. Read here: http://www.gracieacademy.com/rorion_gracie.html (9th paragaph down) & http://www.aikidojournal.com/article.php?articleID=90 here is the section of that very long interview that I am referring to: A production assistant for the movie "Lethal Weapon" had seen one of my fights against a kickboxer. The script had a big fighting scene and the director needed a fight coordinator. The man who had seen me told the director: "Look, you've got to meet this guy. He's the best." So the director hired me to choreograph the fight and teach Mel Gibson and Gary Busey for "Lethal Weapon I." A couple of years later I worked with Rene Russo on "Lethal Weapon 3." I not only trained her, but also when it came time for the fight scene, they hired me as a stunt man. lk If wasn't gjj. Only portions of it, like the armbar he used. The standup was JHR - The link I posted has a clip from a magazine article where they talked about it. "The martial arts used throughout 'Lethal Weapon' are unusual forms, aren't they?" "Yes, the whole idea was to have this guy using martial arts that had never been seen before... for example, one of them was called jailhouse rock..." "What's that?" "Yes, that's what I thought as well... What the hell is jailhouse rock? well, this little black guy, dennis newsome, he soon showed me what it was - he had some amazing stuff. This jailhouse rock was developed secretly by black american prisoners in the penitentaries over the years. It's for defending yourself in fighting in small confined areas like cells...apparently there are different regional styles, depending on where they originated, like san quentin style, comstock and so on. Phew... I'd never seen anything like it, and fast... I tell you, this little guy - he could really move. He was like a little ball of energy." "Mel, was it for real... I mean, do you think it would've worked?" "The way he did it... Oh Jesus, yes...to me he looked unstoppable... He goes on to mention that he was also taught capoeira, gjj and some hand to hand from an ex military weapons and anti terrorist specialist. This was published in fighting arts magazine. They even have a clip of him doing a capoeira move which resembles negativa... It's definitely NOT all gjj. The links you posted are from interviews with Rorion... Naturally, he will say it's all gjj - that is good marketing for him. The article I posted is an interview with gibson - he was the actor, so would have less bias.

just go to the newsstand and look at one...

I'll be different. it is neither the fighter nor the style. It is the training methods. Technically, that can mean it IS the style, because some styles inherently have better training methods.

It is. I wish they woulda done more with the seires though. They coulda expanded ALOT more on jet's background with ISSO and on spike's time with the syndicate. Even if the series stopped, at least more movies. there is another version of bebop now, but it is only in manga, and as far as I know, it will not become an anime. It's called cowboy bebop: shooting star.

Really? I've never heard that one. I'll have to watch outlaw star again. I don't recall any references to planet or star names that are used in bebop other than earth and mars. bebop mantions various systems, like calisto and ganymede... I don't remember any such in outlaw star.

yeah, it is. yoko kanno does a great job. there are like 6 CDs worth of music.

here's some backup for my belief - I just found this on capoeira-angola.org: "It is interesting to note that there is little use of offensive hand techniques in capoeira. Some have attributed this to the belief that slaves had to fight with their hands immobilized by chains and therefore emphasized foot and leg techniques. It is more likely however that the absence of hand techniques is based on an ancient kongo tradition in which the hands should be used for good work, i.e, creative activities, while the feet should be used for bad work, i.e, punishment and destruction. Fu-Kiau explained one relevant proverb in kikongo "Mooko mu tunga, malu mu diatikisa" (Hands are to build, feet are to destroy). "