CagedWarrior

I think Rathe and MasterH are both a little right in this one. It's obviously best to practice something correctly, and practicing it wrong can lead to bad habits. But, practicing it wrong and continuously improving it (most likely during instrcuction time) will make you better. For example, a thai kick. If one practices fully extending their leg upon impact, rather than kicking with a bend in the knee, one might develop a bad habit of doing that. However, if one starts that way and fixes it as he or she goes, in the end, the practice will have helped them kick better and they'll be better kickers than had they not practiced it at all on their own time.

I usually just get antsy or bored if I'm not training for a while... or lazy. I used to get the same way with weights when that was all I did.

No no no, get them both gloves

Before (and after) lifting routines I have a specific shake I like to drink. When it comes to training, I eat a good sized meal (trying to gain weight and training for two hours or so, I really have to) and always, always bring a big thing of water.

Wow, an ad promising the impossible. Yea, you'd have to be so dedicated and put in so much time every day and work so hard to earn a back belt in BJJ in only three years... I wish I had that kind of time or natural skill (or both). That's attending classes though. You know what you learn from DVDs and books without actually going to classes? NOTHING (but the wrong way to do things). The real way to earn a black belt in BJJ in 3.5 years is to already have your brown belt, and work hard.

Well, you'll have to start by tightening your game up. No matter how sweaty a guy is, if you get a good enough grip on his arm, you can armbar him. Trick is, of course, doing that live. Maybe try a cross grab (use right hand to grab his right elbow), and whenever you do anything, odds are you should be squeezing your knees. Also, say maybe you can't get him from the guard- he't just too slippery and defends too well. Work on position instead- the guard isn't that great, sweep him to mount, maybe. From there it'd be a lot harder to slip out of an armbar. If you can take his back and choke him, once you get that arm in there's no slipping out of it. PS it's "slip" not "sleep," sleep is what you do when you get choked and don't tap in time.

Muay thai is taught as a sport period, I believe. But that really doesn't matter. They're sport is one of fighting (standing up anyway), and if you kick a thai kick, you kick the best kick in the world. The only difference between their "sport" and a street fight is gloves (sometimes), and no ground aspect. Although, against an untrained fighter, the ground aspect would probably be nonexistant because the thai boxer would lay the other guy out in no time.

The lesson we should all take away from MMA fights is that, especially now that people have evolved to the point of fighting one anothers' styles, grappling and striking are both important. If it comes to one or the other, grappling wins most of the time- but both are important. Randy Couture is the best ground 'n pounder in the UFC, thanks to his wrestling background and now his BJJ training. But that wouldn't matter if he wasn't a good enouth striker to get his takedowns. Chuck Lidell is easily the best striker in the UFC, but that wouldn't matter if he wasn't an all american wrestler who can defend take downs maybe better than anyone else. The game in the cage now is to know both, or someone else will beat you. Another point people should think about: so fishhooks and eye gouges and biting aren't allowed in the cage anymore. So what? Between a boxer and some other guy, who is more likely to land blows? The boxer. With that said, in the street fight scenerio, if the boxer desires, he'd therefore be more likely to be able to eyegouge the other guy if he wanted, or fishhook, or chop is throat, etc. Or, a BJJ blackbelt vs. some wing chun nobody- on the ground, who is more likely to be in a better position to bite, eyegouge, grab the nuts, etc. The BJJer of course! He knows the ground game, he can do more submissions than you've ever heard of, escapes, sweeps, and is better at getting to a dominant postition, and when he has you in his guard or he's mounted you, if he wants, he can bite you easier than you can bite him. In a way, the rules (although there are too many these days) have shown us what arts are the best to learn even without the dirty techniques which, let's all be honest here, don't require much any training to do. I never needed a formal martial arts lesson to learn how to bite a guys neck, stick my thumb in his eye, or whatever. I did in taking the guy to the ground, securing side control, and so on.

Hm, maybe, depends on many things. If the MMA guy could get the other guy on the ground, I'd put more points in his favor. If the Japanese guy knew something like Judo really well and a GOOD karate like Kyokushkin, for ten years vs one year... probably not. Remember though- anything can happen in a fight. One good punch and it's all over.

I have seen a few, very very few and far in between and entirely rare, karate schools that can turn out fighters as good at striking as boxers/thai boxers. But even still, I give it up to kickboxers being the best strikers.

If you want to get better at fighting- stand up- this is the trick. KISS. Keep it simple (stupid). Ever seen a boxer in the ring do fancy stuff? NO! Why? The other guy would knock him out. Sparring is the key to building your skills, it shows you what works, what doesn't, gives you actual fighting experience, and is the culmination of the skills you've been building up to that point. Apparently the flashy stuff makes you lose (no surprise there), so you already know what to do, don't you?

Man that's a toughy, from what you said both sound good. Personally, I'd suggest the one with the MMA influence, not just because they train cops or the other has a traditional side to it, but also because they do striking and grappling- stand up and ground. That's important in being a well rounded fighter. However, I would strongly suggest checking out both schools to see for yourself, sometimes the instructors are terrible, or even unskilled themselves, and that makes all the difference in the world.

I think there are way too many factors to decide if it was a good or bad idea, since we don't know them all. With that said- here's my suggestion, since no one else has had the idea. Get the kids gloves, at 10 years old i suppose 10oz will do, and let them duke it out! Maybe even have them wear mouth pieces if you have the time to get them. After that they might even become friends.

That's a great little street technique for almost any move. Say, for instance, a guy is taking a swing at your buddy in a parking lot, you go to him, push him a little in the direction you want and deliver a thai kick right to his stomache. Or pull a guys shirt over his head so he can't see, keep holding it and wail on him.

Well, you're either defending a guy who's striking or grappling. You know, now that I think about it, weapons, I guess, would be the third part of martial arts, but I don't have any except for a gun.

Hi everyone, if anyone actually reads these (I don't). I've perused these forums for a while and figured I'd sign up so I can throw my two cents in. I believe in fighting as being two things: striking and grappling. So, I train in both.