Drunken Monkey

why does everyone always have to pick a statement to death. size DOES matter (weight, height, reach...) but a big man does not automatically mean a hard fighter. as for weight divisions, roy jones jr beating a man a class up kinda argues against what you're saying and what we've been trying to tell you.

so if we go and ask the men you mentioned, they will be able to tell us who you are and whether you have any martial arts background? as for owning a fitness club, that is irrelevent.

basic moves? point with end of stick. pont with link-end of stick. parry/swing. parry/point. parry/point with chain. double stick parry (draw down) double stick parry (draw up) double stick parry (to your front) all of these are to be done from both sides. and with both types of grip. and many many more. like i say it's all very boring. like i said before, you do these until you can do the moves quickly without "shakes". then you start on the swinging block/hits.

well, if you're talking about wing chun, emin boztepe made a challange but no one took him up on it...

i still say that the ruined it by making more than one film.

well, actually, the dragon doesn't swallow the sun, it's some kinda giant dog in the sky... hehe. hey warp, you should know by now that some people don't think before hitting them keys. let's see if anymore daft comments come up. we can shoot them down together!

well, who knows. if i ever get my travel plans sorted out i might pop over to your neck of the woods and give you some basic training. hahaha, i can show you how boring training was when i first picked up the three section staff.... oh yeah, i've seen online padded foam ones (once again, much like the chucks) but i'm not entirely sure about if it's worth trying them first. for a start, they'll be much, much lighter than a real set and you won't be working the right muscles. another potential problem is that you might get used to knocking yourself with the foam and get used to "lazy" technique. and about metal hurting. well, the wooden ones hurt just as much when the ends are spinning counter to each other and you lose track of the catch/rest/pivot point you're meant to hold...

trust me, you can't learn to use a three section staff by yourself. you need someone who knows how to use it to teach you. and like all things chinese, learning takes time and is very, very boring. before you learn any of the flowering, you learn strikes and these have to be solid without "shake" before going on to advanced movements. if you "shake", you're not strong enough...

this is going to sound like the most rubbish general reply but the only way for you to find out what is "best" for you is for you to go and try a few lessons. you might think one is completely wrong for you but for all you know, it might be the one that you'll ENJOY the most which, at the end if the day is more important. most places will let you sit in on a class or have one or two taster classes. so get out there and try. no amount of words of wisdom from us guys and gals here can compare with your own personal experience.

don't even thing about picking up a three section staff unless you can handle a 9 foot staff properly... a good foundation in chinese staff forms is almost essential if you want to avoid injuries. the ones i've seen for sale in shops are all virtually the same. the only variation is the type of links they use. if you can find the proper big ring links, not the chain that they use for chucks. i also prefer rattan or wax wood as opposed to the hard wood ones (again, like the stuff they use for chucks...). they feel better and make a nicer sound. once again, i must stress that you must have a good foundation with chinese staff beforehand. it makes things a lot easier. just one final question. why does a karate guy want a three section staff?

but no one art is going to be truely better because there will always be another argument as to why it isn't. the point is, all arts have flaws. some are good against some but weak against others. that is why mixed martial arts are so popular. they take the strong bits of all arts and train in the moves that work. the fact that it is called "MIXED martial arts" kinda suggests that even the pros accept that training in just one art (even a supposedly superior art) is not enough.

ok. you said that no one will ever agree on a best art. if no one can decide which is best, it is reasonable to say that there is no best. afterall, if there is one best style, then surely it would be obvious as to which one it is. i.e if there was one best style, no one would argue about it.

well, i think it's cos we are being civilised and mature about our discussion.

i think that in your attempt to say that i am wrong, you seem to have missed the fact that you are actually agreeing with me...

well, i specifically mentioned the radr and enigma because as you are well aware, they are both british achievments. and as you say, it was a joint effort. but if i take a slightly biased view, without those two things it doesn't matter how many men , how much money or how many machines you send over, it would've been a much different war. as for me, i've always wondered they insisted on talking about the new u.n mandates when saddam was in breach of the old ones...

so what you are saying, is that even if someone said there was a best art, it's not true... so there is no best art.

why are some arts inherently better than others? if there is one best art, then why isn't everyone doing that art? (seeing as all others MUST be inherently worse...) if no one agrees then there is no best art.

funny you should mention vietnam. just why were the americans there again...? as for the americans winning world war war two... right. i'm sure the invention of radar and deciphering of enigma had absolutely nothing to do with it...

finally... why couldn't you just have said that in the frst place? we could've skipped all that mess with the clocks and their accuracy...

i'm not going to say that i'm totally against the war because i feel that something had to be done. however, the way events unfolded does not leave a good example to the rest of the world. if you are going to act the hero then i think you should follow all of the rules to the letter. as it turns out, our respective governments might have lied to us (or perhaps they were lied to), in order to validate the need to go to war immediately. would it really have made a difference if they had waited another two weeks? either way, it's not that much different to the way dictators rally support: feed your people lies.

well, they only appear on police reports when some stupid prick has been waving it about in public or hacking his neighbours to pieces with it...

look, if there was ONE superior style we'd all be doing it already... fact is there are hundreds of thousands of us and we have each found things that work for us. we have studied hard and we know what we an do and what we can't do. i think that counts for every martial artist from every style. i really doubt that any one of us can really say that we have had a 100% win record for all situations.

i'm going to be really boring and say that there's a difference between learning something and being good at something...

i thought they dismissed the mars bacteria thing? unless you were talking about something else again. how is it circular proof? two clocks sychronised to begin with. went through a process. clocks showed different times. no signs of interference or damage of any sort on the clocks (although whether they looked very hard is another matter). you say that the clock must be broken yet you cannot offer any suggestion as to how. surely if you are informed enough to say that it is broken, you should be able to say how.

rumour has it that mel gibson asked to use wallace's actual sword in some of the scenes. well as you may know a claymore, is made to measure, the blade being roughly the height of the man up to his shoulders... well, lets just say ol' mel didn't measure up.