Drunken Monkey

who? anyway. the first thing we do is get to know the weapon. we do little exercises and the forms to make sure that we handle the weapon as if it were part of ourselves. after all, we haven't been using them as long as we have our hands. after that we are pretty much allowed to do what we want as long we are sensible. this ranges from up close with 'realistic' attacks with knives (blunt and live which was a bit of a mistake considering how crap we were...) to us fooling around trying three section staff against normal 9ft staff...

like i and many others say, if the lock is on, it is nigh impossible to get out. the point is, a lock, once on, if pushed to its limit, will break the limb/joint it is appllied on.

and i really think that a guy who has supposedly been doing something since he was three, would at least be able to spell its name...

tai chi is a bad idea. there is a lot of joint locks and throws and controls that centre around grips and grabs of the fingers. well, unless you join one of the many places that teach tai chi as a spiritual, calming, self improving, non aggressive martial art by a guy who insists on wearing chinese gard and has interesting facial hair...

as far as i know, the one punch-breaks are the very basic exercises of the traditional way of training. the point of this is so that you get to know the moves quickly and applying them becomes second nature. part of the exercise is that you play with the moves you know and see how quickly you can swith between them and if you react to changes (i.e how flexible you are) after this, you (both) can go in harder and harder whilst your training partner adds more and varies the type of strike. this is supposed to lead to full on sparring/fighting. if the only thing you do in your 'traditional' art is one punch drills then maybe you should look elsewhere. i say that it is down to the person because at the end of the day, styles deal with punches and kicks and whatnots. you are learning to block, parry, deflect these things. it really is up to you how hard you want to take it. you can spend fifteen years doing something but if you don't put the effort in, you will never get to be as good as the guy who asks for everything by a factor of fifteen. and the point of punching and doing other moves in the air is not to build up strength. there are plenty of ways to do that. their aim is to get you used to actually doing/completing the move. part of it is to build speed. part of it is to further ingrain the moves into you (and a little to see if you really are dedicated to learning. after all, if you don't have the drive to do a little air punching which helps you form no end, why teach you any more?) if you want to build power go do some weights. the only probelm i have with this is that if yo add weights to your punching(or running or whatever) the immediate feeling of extra speed/power is false and soon wears off. on the other hand, doing weights on their own does build muscle mass but often this actually slows down your movements.

well, i could go back to the james bond can't really be killed as he is only the carrier of number 7 in the 00 designated agents. when one dies, another steps up, the difference being that while only bruce wayne could really be batman, anyone could be 007.

ok, here's where i go back to my original answer because while sano IS making posts, he's not actually saying much... here's an interesting fact (and to further add fuel to this pointless thread) technically, superman, the model invincible superhero was 'killed' by an englishman. the guy who wrote the idea/story was a brit.

yes, i'm sure the professional muay thai fighters in thailand know who tito ortiz is... just cos everyone knows a name doesn't mean anything. everyone knows e=mc squared but not everyone knows what the general rule of relativity is.

opened in leicester sq last night. really screwed up my 'getting around town'... normally i avoid the premiers like VD but i totally forgot that it was going on. still, it was nice to see the cruiser do his looong walk again, even if he got in my way.

i think it's cos people like guru inosanto chooses to avoid the media like the plague. it follows that people whose only knowledge of martial arts is from the media as opposed to the real world, wouldn't know of his scarily in depth knowledge of lord knows how many styles...

you can butt your head against a mountain all day long, it aint gonna budge...

just a quick point. i read somewhere that one of the forms done in one style of karate IS the chinese white crane form (bak hok). gonna rummage through my tatty old books. be back with more.

that's why i suggested using the word 'comprehensive' as opposed to 'complete'.

well, what would you prefere to have parked on your drive? i think that while the batmobile will be quite fun for a while, the aston has longevity... besides, people see you in a batmobile, they think you're a twit. people see you in a vanquish, they think you're a lucky twit.

er... more or less i think. that's where the yeast bit comes into marmite i think...

i would've thought inosanto's name would have made it quite clear what we were talking about...

are you sure you're all talking about the same thing here? jkd has tournaments?

there are no stupid questions only stupid people

from what i've seen of mantis, it fights a bit like wing chun. as for the position in the pic, you have to try it for yourself. hold your arms as shown in the pic but with your hand open palm, fingers pointing to the sky. then rotate your hands into the position shown in the pic. you should FEEL you elbow position/structure get more solid. the pinching of the hands also helps in making your structure stronger. * * * what you have to be aware of is that what you see in a form and how mantis is used, are often two different things. as for the low stance, well, i've never seen mantis do that except in the movies...

i should point out that this is just how we train but i've been to a few other wing chun schools and the emphasis is more or less the same. chi sau, sparring, drills. i've been to one place that is practically 100% chi sau (bar the warm up)

it's hard to describe. the jar says 'yeast extract'. um, do you guys have twiglets? tastes like that (almost).

it is food of the gods...

is isn't how effective the style is, it's how effective the person is. let's say there is one ultimate martial art. if you're bad at it, you're gonna get hurt.

strange that a kid who watches too much wrestling, dragonball and plays too much tekken should say that no one reads anymore...

due to its nature/essence, it isn't the most exciting thing to watch. at it's best the movements you do will be very minute shifts from left to right equating to about six inches of hand movement to nutralise/control things before a strike. and the training is very much about getting things perfect and as such means that you will spend a lot of time doing the same things over and over again. the training also requires quite a bit of dedication. when i started, i spent about three months just punching (and variations of) before i was introduced to other hand movements. even now, seven years on, i still do my rounds of punching every night and every morning. much of the work YOU WILL have to do at home by yourself. we never do forms in class because we feel that is a waste of the time with the other students. forms are left for you to do at home. all of the small drills you do at home by yourself. the class is meant for training with a partner. for the poon sau (chi sau, rolling), we make sure that your basic roll from bong to tan is 'perfect' before we suggest you try 'stealing' and this by itself takes quite a while (which is good because it strengthens your shoulders during the rolling). basically, we don't 'move you on' until we feel you are ready for it. we believe that if we let you advance too quickly when your basics are even a little sloppy, you'll get used to 'lazy' techniques and that is harder to correct, so we make sure you are 'perfect' to begin with. historically, it is said that wing chun is quick to learn but you should realise that this is said understanding that you have to train everyday, with as many people as possible. training everyday, doing the same things over and over again, punching, punching with step, punching with shift, punching with shifted step, punching with side step, punching with side shift.... very repetitive. which is why i said that wing chun is boring. but then, all of the 'boring' training alone makes you appreciate your training partners even more. it all boils down to how seriously you want to be good. we've had a dude with us for about a year now, italian guy, really nice chap but it's quite obvious he doesn't do much work at home. he's not bad, just that he can't last because he loses form easily because his shoulder's tire out quickly (which the punching would help with). then there's out latest wunderkind. he's been with us for about the same time as italian guy but he works so hard. his first six months were really fun cos everytime he showed up, he was better than the last time. he hasn't learnt that much but what he knows, he uses amazingly. unfortunately, he hasn't been with us for a while now cos of his a-levels.