omnifinite

Plus it seems like a thread will only go so long before people start talking about hot girls or poo .

I think that would be the responsible thing to do. Think of his students. They could get hurt someday because of whatever he's feeding them.

I've heard good things about Pananandada (it's fun to say too). I believe it's Filipino, but I might have heard wrong.

Is it? Well, I get a gold star .

I definitely wouldn't kick... you probably want both feet on the ground and it's unnerving how easily kicks are defused at close range. I wonder if putting your hand on the back of his head as you jumpstep to the side (or backwards if you have to... though that might make it harder for him to actually grab you) and shoving hard downward would make him do a nosedive into the floor. Might as well use his downward momentum if you can. Just another idea. That sort of attack also opens up a bunch of pressure points on the back of the head and neck, but I wouldn't know them well enough to make them work for me yet.

Wow, I'd love to read that account, Kensai. Do you think it's squirreled away online somewhere? I doubt my friendly neighborhood library has many Aikido books .

Don't introduce it to your discman... they'd be unstoppable...

It's kind of interesting to hear about hapkido and aikido getting lumped together so often. Except for the jujitsu-inspired elements, there were very few similarities to aikido in my personal training.

That's my point . Is it? Can you really kill someone? What would drive you to do that? Many Martial Artists talk way too much smack about killing someone or breaking necks? I would bet EVERYTHING I HAVE that NO ONE on this board would have the drive or guts to kill another human, and that includes me as well. I mean physically easier. Nothing but the most dire of circumstances would make me want to do such a thing... never would it be 'easy'. I don't know about the rest of the board... it wouldn't surprise me too much if there's someone wandering this board who's been forced to kill another human being in the past, but yeah you could be right. The UFC is some of the best fighters in the world and a dojo is full of people who are still learning, so I'd hope the UFC would be much more brutal. Supposedly by black belt the really good schools are doing unwilling fully-resisting attacks in the dojo. It's their loss if they aren't. But I think there's still a very significant difference in the intent of a competitor and the intent of a real life attacker. I think we're both kinda saying the same thing . I just don't think that traditional arts aren't about real life combat. There are just a lot of mediocre, corrupt, oblivious, all-flash schools out there giving what they do the same name. Plus many older arts were born in a time when people wanted the fighting to stop. So the desire for peace is a component of the teaching. That may be part of why many of the most powerful martial artists out there just don't see a point in competing. Hell, that's part of their power. And it all depends on what we desire out of martial arts of course. Desiring to excel in a sport is fine. Desiring self-defense is fine. But the two might not be entirely compatible. I don't think that automatically makes one of the two "inferior".

They're making money... what do they care... *sigh*

UFC 1-3, Vale Tudo 1-5 had no rules (eye gouges and groin kicks were legal), and people walked out alive. What, no ruptured organs or neck breaks? No hidden knives or guns pulled? No buddies from the audience rushing in to help? No ambushes outside the ring? Did local law enforcement waive the consequences of deadly force for these events? It does and did bother them because traditionalist began to out lash against the sport (NHB/MMA) because their arts and students (Karate, TKD, Kung-Fu) were being beaten badly by hybrid and modern styles. The truth of the matter is if you can't defend yourself in a fighting sport with rules, then how will you defend yourself on the streets with no rules? Oh, but wait, most people on this board base their training on Theory, and since their theory works in there heads and in the dojo with willing people then it must work in a real fight I hope you enjoy your "theory" based training Good Luck! That's part of my point. There are many ways in which competing is similar to training in theory. You go into it knowing you're only going to fight a single person who isn't fighting you to kill you (and vice versa), can't sneak up on you to begin with, has no environment to utilize (dirt, brickwalls, bright sun, darkness) has no hidden weapons, no friends to back him up, and won't come after you or one of your family members a week later to "even the score". Intent is everything. Additionally, the fighters have reputations to protect. They have to fight in a certain manner so that, to an outside observer, their wins are obviously achieved through skill rather than luck or "cheating". If they have to resort to actions seen as "cheating", people assume they don't have what it takes to win any other way. There are social politics involved. I don't think anything resembling fairplay is a luxury you're going to enjoy in a real situation. They'll drive over you with a truck if they have the opportunity. From the experiences you've mentioned having in the past I would think you'd agree with me there. Real combat situations are ugly, brutal, savage, heart-in-your-throat vomit-inducing nightmares where even when highly trained you're lucky to just scrape by. I can't speak from experience equal to yours there, but it's something I try very hard to keep in mind for my own safety. Do I think the typical martial artist has what it takes to survive that sort of situation? No. Do I think I have what it takes? No. Hopefully someday. Would I last in any of those competitions at my current level? Nope. Do I think competition accurately mirrors reality? It's getting there, but no. Thinking it does will get you hurt in a lot of the same ways theory will. Both involve altering reality to serve an agenda. Combat arts will always have theory in them. You can't practice maiming/killing people (and if someone wanted to they really shouldn't be taught how). There are some things that just aren't testable until you really have to use them. The old arts were created in an environment where the singular goal was putting your opponent in the ground, simply because that was your opponent's singular goal as well. It's easier to kill someone than it is to almost kill someone. If you're trained to do it, it's easier to crush someone's windpipe than it is to gauge how much (or little) force you have to apply to it to win a match and leave the person in one piece. Then there's the issue of just plain shoddy training (the older an art is the more time it's had to get mangled and warped and watered down). I don't know what can be done about that. I doubt a lot of today's karate and kung fu looks quite like it used to. I wish it did. So for a lot of those reasons I do think arts like BJJ have inherent advantages in one-on-one pain-compliance competition. But to the battle-hardened people who created some of these older arts, we're all just tourists. My humble opinion... which is threatening to become a rant... I'll stop now.

Yeah, what's with all these people not competing? Don't they know they have something to prove to us? Wouldn't they rather be fighting all the time instead of enjoying the fact that in this day and age they don't have to? (sorry... sarcasm ) I think we'd have far fewer competitors out there if there weren't usually rules set in place in competitions that mean to allow those fighters to walk back out at the end of the day. Which is something the creators of the millennia-old arts out there might have a good laugh at... "The losers live? You fight for fun? What's wrong with you people? I just want to survive!". Unfortunately they'd also have a good laugh at the way their arts are usually taught now... but I'd hope the real thing is still out there somewhere. If you want to see if a style really works... endanger the life of someone who knows it well. And a few others for good measure (the first guy might have had a bad day). Outside of that, I don't know how definite an answer you could hope to get. And if some of those arts don't do well in structured competition... well... I don't think that really bothers them.

He's my Sifu. Even better. I like his videos... I haven't found many instructional videos online that aren't just about showing off instead of genuinely sharing information. You might want to suggest that he turn the music off when he's filming though... it makes it a lot harder to hear him sometimes. Otherwise, kudos. If my current training falls through that's probably my next art.

http://www.sifugrados.com/ If you mean NYC, this guy is located there. Might as well go see him yourself .

I didn't have ki development in my Hapkido training. I wish I had.

I just say "I'm going to martial arts".

I wonder if so many of the traditional stylists are getting trounced because so many of the traditional styles are being taught by people who are so way off course. All the old systems were created for and used in combat successfully... and over the years a lot of them have degenerated and become funhouse mirror versions of themselves (not the styles themselves... I'm talking about what actually gets taught). Now like the old arts, all these new styles have been freshly created specifically for effective combat. They haven't had a chance to get tampered with by the "I-know-better" masses yet. And a century from now the new styles will be mdojo-ified and getting stomped by whatever is coming next. It makes sense to me anyway. If only some shaolin monk somewhere would stumble off his spiritual path and clean up in the UFC .

Ball of the foot. I don't think you should aim for the throat full-force unless you specifically want them dead.

Best online pressure point reference guide I know of (point locations, not usage in combat), http://www.acuxo.com/ And a somewhat less clever one, http://www.acupressure.org/ Nice archive of online videos of basic Wing Chun techniques (if you can manage to hear anything he says), http://www.sifugrados.com/ (someone else has posted this in the forums before) And you know someone had to post this one, http://www.realultimatepower.net/

I'm not studying the American variation... but I like it. I haven't been taught anything yet that isn't practical and efficient and effective. I don't have any websites bookmarked. You'd probably want to check out the Ed Parker site (I don't know the link... it's floating around here somewhere).

Yeah, that was part of that Bruce Lee story movie. Him getting screwed by Hollywood toward the end.

I've considered getting one just to read a bunch of documents I've gathered up... I'd rather read in the backyard or on the subway or something than sitting in this computer chair. I doubt I would use it as an organizer though. I don't want to be that organized... that's when I start to feel trapped . Plus I've been waiting for Apple to come out with another PDA, but I don't think it's going to happen in the near future .

It would be interesting if it became a planet, but I don't think it fits their criteria now. Pluto doesn't fit their criteria now either, but it would seem wrong to just "demote" it.

It looked like there were a lot of times on the ground that the karate guy could have elbowed him in the head... I wonder why he didn't. How full-contact was this?

Maybe this is somewhat off-topic, but every time I see a thread on stances, the same thought pops into my head. Aren't stances meant to be transitional? Something you naturally glide in and out of momentarily rather than actually setting yourself in? And you simply practice and hold those stances in katas and such so moving in and out of those positions quickly as they become useful or necessary comes naturally without thought? I would want to lower my center of gravity a bit if I were in real danger, but I don't think I would actually pick a set position for myself... when would I even have time? I haven't done the reading, but as Ironberg mentioned that's probably something JKD addresses. I have a feeling that's how a lot of the old masters who made those katas saw it too... but I don't know. Could be wrong.