lgm

If a TKD guy can beat a BJJ guy or vice-versa, you can claim he fought "both hard & smart enough and he was aware of his target weakness while defending his own", but the reason why you called him TKD or BJJ guy is because of his style of fighting. Therefore, the style the guy used must be an important factor in fighting and winning or losing. Whether it is the most important factor among many factors is another question and more difficult to answer. If you have to study all the factors that can possibly affect the outcome of a fight between two opponents, you can classify them only into two: (1) subjective/internal factors or subject variables, and (2) the context or external variables. The subjective factors will include physique, skill, experience, gender, intelligence, motivation, learned style, etc., while external variables are standing or on the ground, armed or unarmed, ring or street, etc. There simply are too many internal and external factors to consider and weigh in every single encounter to be able to predict accurately who will win. Styles of fighting, though not inoperable or irrelevant in predicting fight encounters, by themselves will not singlehandedly affect the particular outcome of any given fight. Many factors are involved and they often interact to tip in the outcome of such a fight.

In the contemporary karate world that we live in, a "stand alone school" may lack the credibility and popularity that affiliated schools have. You've got to be a well-known personality by your own right/name and achievement in karate to be able to compete equitably if you are a stand-alone rather than affiliated with a nationally known or better still an internationally known karate organization. If you have to affiliate, I suggest you affiliate with a Shotokan organization to avoid political and technical conflicts with the mother organization. Besides, as you must be feeling right now, you may not be feeling like you belong, right?

Hi, Tommy! Looks like you got another belt here to your credit, buddy.

My chronic lower back problem is alleviated by my regular karate practice. If I don't do my 1 hr-karate workout for more than 2 days, my lower back pains re-appear and it would take again several days and several analgesic tablets to drive it away. I also sleep on a flat wooden board on top of an orthopedic bed and always sit on chairs with strong flat back support, preferably not cushioned. I even use a portable flat board on my car seat when I drive my car. When sitting down, it helps to keep my knees higher than my hips. When I have a severe back pains attack which is rare, I use a portable electric heat pad on my chair in the office, but at home I use a less expensive modified rubber portable hot compress pack (which I constructed myself) tied on my lower back with replaceable hot water. No medical doctor or specialist was able to alleviate my chronic lower back pains and I have seen many in my search for a permanent cure. Medications are only temporary relief and often bring with it harmful side effects. Surgical operation should be the last resort and there are dangerous side effects besides being financially expensive. So, I would advise that you use caution and get second or third opinion from other specialist surgeons before allowing yourself to go under the knife. I personally researched and used those non-surgical and non-pharmacological methods which have no systemic harmful side effects I cited above to free myself of chronic back pains and I believe, I have in a way found a convenient homemade, cheap cure. I guess, you too should research on your own to find out what will alleviate and possibly cure your kind of back pains. My personal methods of self-therapy may not work for you, as there are as many forms of lower back pains as the kinds of spinal problems occuring. So, you may have to find out what will help you with the particular type of spinal problem you have, by trial and error and untiring research. When you find something that takes away the pains, stick to it. Best wishes!

I use the washing machine with powdered soap and then sun dry or machine dry my karate gis, depending on the weather. Finally, I have my maid iron them before storing them on hangers. Some people think I'm OC, but I use a clean and iron-pressed karate gi everytime I do my karate workout. I do this out of respect to the martial art I love to do and for personal hygiene.

My Japanese sensei, Kunio Sasaki, 6th dan JKA, who was commissioned by Nakayama Sensei to teach karate in the Philippines in 1965, told me to never wash my black belt. I never bothered to ask why. I believe for him the black belt symbolizes something sacred. Since my black belts don't get dirty nor smell, I have no reason to wash them. However, if in the future they get accidentally soiled or should they stink, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't wash them, even if they are very important artifacts to me personally. To me, washed or not, they will always represent my sacrifice, dedication and achievement in karate.

If you want Internet info on makiwara and how to make one, check the following hyperlink: http://www.ctr.usf.edu/shotokan/makiwara.html http://www.karatetips.com/articles/howtomakeamakiwara.asp http://tkdtutor.com/12Breaking/Makiwara%20.htm Good luck!

Trying to keep close to what I think is the main thrust of this thread which is the relationship between alcohol and martial arts, I see two kinds of people according to why they drink alcohol: Those who drink alcohol to do martial arts and those who do martial arts to drink alcohol. The group that drinks alcohol to do martial arts may depend on alcohol to feel competent and become competent in what they do. The second group uses alcohol as reward or incentive for doing martial arts to relax themselves after, or considers alcohol drinking, usually the socialized form or one that will make them enjoy the company of friends as the end with martial arts practice as means to achieve it. The second group is more common in my experience and observation of martial artists.

Training regularly for 4 yrs. at 2-3 sessions per week, 2 hrs. per session, I was able to reach shodan (1st degree blackbelt). After which, because of the pressures of work, my post shodan training was less regular and it took me 7 years to reach my current rank sandan (3rd degree blackbelt). I'm now retired from formal karate training at 55 yrs. for reasons beyond my control and just do daily self-practice at my private "dojo" for skill maintenance, probably until the bell tolls for me.

I have trained and practiced Shotokan karate for more than 3 decades, but I secretly believe Muay Thai is more effective on the street or in a full contact match in the ring. Muay Thai fighters are conditioned and trained to absorb blows to every part of their body while Shotokan karate practitioners are generally not conditioned or trained for such punishment at all. Shotokaners can show good form and powerful techniques and thus are potentially good fighters. But since they are not used to being hit hard or repeatedly, they would last against a true knockout and conditioned fighter. There are several documentaries that have shown that in full contact fights between karatekas and Muay Thai fighters, the latter always win. So, elfordo, if you are interested in Shotokan, feel free to learn it and you can personally compare it with your Muay Thai in both training and fighting efficiency. I bet you will find yours a lot more dependable for actual fighting full contact though not as stylistic and formally aesthetical as karate.

I would distinguish a "martial arts practitioner" and a "martial artist", since these two terms are so closely related and often interchanged. A "martial arts practitioner" is one who practices or learns a recognized form of unarmed or armed fighting and can apply what he learned in self-defense or tournament situations. On the other hand, a "martial artist" is one who not only practices martial arts like the MA practitioner, but one who knows the science behind his martial art, creatively contributes to the development of his martial art (this latter qualification is the reason why he is called an "artist"), and if requested or the situation demands, can effectively teach his martial art to others.

Here's some unsolicited advice. Hardening your hand into iron palm to hit like concrete is only logical and useful if you can hit someone moving with it. When you fight, your target will probably be constantly in motion and you know how hard it is to hit a moving, thinking target, especially when he is also trained in fighting. People with iron palm and fist can break planks, tiles, blocks or even stones, but these things don't hit back and they are not moving when you hit them. Your iron palm is totally useless if you can't hit your opponent. So, practice fighting on your feet first and try to hit your practice partner through diligent and repetitive sparring, ranging from non-contact to full contact. After you have reached a level of certified mastery and efficiency in hitting a moving human target who is also trying to hit you, then spend the rest of your free time to hardening your hands like concrete, as in iron palm, if your profession is to kill people with it.

That's where it gets its name, that's all. A cross is a straight line punch off the back leg, that's all that really needs to be there. The reasons behind the name aren't always going to apply. No offense meant, but since you did not cite the authoritative source of your interpretation for the etymology of the term "cross" in cross punch, I take it that this is your personal, subjective interpretation of its etymological origin. If a cross punch is to be defined as a straight line punch off the back leg, then it could also be interpreted as a punch crossing one's lead leg while punching. This is just a personal subjective interpretation too of the etymological origin of the term "cross". It would be equivalent to the "reverse punch" in Shotokan karate as I earlier deduced. "Martial" refers to war or combat, literally and etymologically speaking. If "war" is taken to mean "fighting", so martial arts would have something to do with war. However, the etymological or literal meaning of a term may in the course of its lexical development come to mean a different but still related concept. So, in this sense, martial arts as understood today would still be related to war or fighting. In a very general sense, martial arts would include both armed and unarmed fighting arts. In a restricted sense, it refers usually to unarmed fighting arts, and mostly Oriental types though non-Oriental types are not excluded. Okay, I'm just in the mood to split hairs, just to amuse, forget it.

If this new student has 8 hours of formal training under a qualified and certified karate instructor daily (not self-training at home) for 1 year which totals 2,920 formal training hours, and through sequentially progressive kyu grading tests (from white to brown belt rank) ending with the shodan (BB) test, he was observed to possess the skill, discipline, mentality and maturity that a candidate should have at each belt ladder level, why question his qualifications as a competent blackbelt? He deserves to be one, given those aforementioned conditions having been met. I would salute him and welcome him to our blackbelt ranks. Training in karate are best measured in actual formal training hours under a competent and certified karate instructor and not how many years he has been training, if in those many years he trained for less total number of hours than he trained in just one year. Realistically, however, it is extremely rare if not impossible to encounter one karate student on earth with such fantastic physical stamina to train straight for 8 hours everyday for a whole year with non-retrogressive but rather progressive and sustained learning efficiency/improvement curve. It is truly incredible or should I say, unbelievably incredible (for emphasis)

That's one way of looking at it. Master Miyagi (not the karate master in the "Karate Kid" movie) also did not believe in belt ranks and belts in karate. But, the use of belts in karate is almost universal or practiced in almost all karate schools. It should mean something therefore and in my readings, it symbolizes, certifies and serves as sort of benchmark of the level of achievement a student or practitioner has accomplished in the technical skills and related standards of his karate ryu. On the other hand, what is true is that karate belts are not and cannot be compared between one karate school and another, one karate ryu or organization and another because they have varying standards and means of measuring such standards.

While it is common to have kids below 13 years who are given a rank of blackbelt by some karate schools, they should be classified and ranked as "jr. blackbelts" and are not of the same status rank as full-fledged adult blackbelts. Though both of them are blackbelts, the jr. blackbelts may have mastered the forms of the art like the adult blackbelts, but they still lack the maturity or full development of their physical powers comparable to the power, speed and strength of the latter. Also, they have not reached the same emotional/social maturity as the adult blackbelts for the stable, reliable and wise use of their potentially dangerous martial art. To sum up, while the two groups are often lumped into the same category as "blackbelts", the jr. blackbelts don't share the same status rank as adult blackbelts in a karate organization. When they are referred to as "blackbelts", the qualifier "jr." should always be attached to their title to distinguish them from adult blackbelts. Just my 2 cents.

There are still those maintaining the studies, for tradition's sake. Japan has a government project to maintain the crafts (tea ceremony, pottery, martial arts, etc), in which they provide financial assistance to those groups, or individuals, who do so. I believe there are two ninjutsu schools that obtain such assistance, being they are able to present lineage and focus on 'traditional,' as opposed to modern. One of them, if i recall, is the Togakure Ryu, through Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi (officially recognized as a living national treasure). The other, i don't remember the name of and, indeed, i am not sure if there are any others. Are these two schools you mentioned actually practicing the same ninjutsu arts of old or just doing scholarly work to research and preserve a once-feared martial art of feudal Japan?

There are still those maintaining the studies, for tradition's sake. Japan has a government project to maintain the crafts (tea ceremony, pottery, martial arts, etc), in which they provide financial assistance to those groups, or individuals, who do so. I believe there are two ninjutsu schools that obtain such assistance, being they are able to present lineage and focus on 'traditional,' as opposed to modern. One of them, if i recall, is the Togakure Ryu, through Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi (officially recognized as a living national treasure). The other, i don't remember the name of and, indeed, i am not sure if there are any others. Are these two schools you mentioned actually practicing the same ninjutsu arts of old or just doing scholarly work to research and preserve a once-feared martial art of feudal Japan?

Thanks, WW. But, the three general modes I mentioned should include these specifics. Parrying, deflecting, shifting and even to some extent resisting/absorbing and jamming are variants of blocking because they involve generally meeting physically or being in actual physical contact with the attacking limb by your defending limb or body to prevent the former from hurting you. These would fall under my first and second category. Only evasion/ducking (body shift evasion or tai sabaki) doesn't need to get in touch with the attacking limb, and that would be my third category. I'm not disagreeing with your intent to add to my list. What you mentioned are very helpful. I'm just explaining that my list is more or less comprehensive.

If someone with the same lead stick out a jab and you also stick out a jab, your jab will cross his jab too, would your punch not qualify as a cross punch, based on your explanation of a punch "cross[ing] over each other"? Somewhat confusing to me. Just speculating, but "cross" punch in Muay Thai boxing seems to mean "reverse" punch in karate. Let me explain. A "jab" in Muay Thai boxing or Shotokan karate (kizami zuki) is a straight-line punch in an in-place stance where the punching arm is the same as the lead foot. On the other hand, "reverse" punch (gyaku zuki) in Shotokan karate is also a straight-line punch in an in-place stance but the punching arm is opposite or reverse that of the lead foot. This seems to be the same "cross" punch in Muay Thai boxing, as seen in the website, http://lannamuaythai.com/thaiboxing/straight_01.html Am I right or wrong in my speculation? As I said earlier, I'm no expert in boxing.

Based on the website you pointed to, according to Lanna Muay Thai Boxing, a "cross" punch is a "straight" punch aimed at the chin or solar plexus. I can understand why it is called a straight punch because the punching arm and fist travels a straight line towards the target (chin or solar plexus). But, why do they call it "cross" when it doesn't cross any imaginary trajectory or it does not travel across the body in its trajectory, as revealed in the accompanying photo shown there to illustrate it. This is in contrast to Answers.com's definition of a "cross" as being the same as a "hook" punch, where the use of the term "cross" is appropo because the trajectory of the punch crosses the body, as it travels at right angles from one side to the opposite side. I find this definition more accurate and logical in its lexical usage. But, I think, I need to research some more to find out which is which. I will.

Also, I don't think the lack of power is due to the inability to get the body behind it - it's the narrow arc. A hook punch is a very small, close range strike. The wider version - the haymaker - is much more powerful because it has a wider arc with which to generate power. Sorry, elbows_and_knees, but I did not write the quote above that you attributed to me, buddy: Please edit and give credit where credit is due. TY

Hopefully it does, if he fails to block or evade. But our JKA Shotokan hook punch (kagi zuki) travels straight from one side to the opposite side at right angles to the body and parallel to the ground. Our Heian 5 and Tekki kata have these hook punches. The overhand punch is different from the hook punch. This is semi-circular (not straight) in trajectory like a roundhouse punch but directed frontally towards the head (and not towards the side of the head). The reason why it is labelled "overhand" is because it is intended to go over the opponent's normal guard or block. The upper half punch of the U-punch in our Bassai dai is an example of an overhand punch.

...3. The target you initially wanted to hit (the jaw, front of the face) is no longer in the same spot- rather you've got a hard forehead and dome of the skull in the way. At this point, you either make contact with the forehead or dome of the skull while you're throwing full force- Something needs to give to absorb the impact of the blow- its bone on bone. I guarentee you his head isnt going to break. This possible scenario that can unexpectedly damage your punching fist can indeed happen. So, one must learn how to align his fist wrist and elbows, clench his fist tight and hit with the two foreknuckles at the point of impact. This can only be achieved through practice on hitting hard targets like the makiwara regularly, so as to condition and strengthen the punching arm and fist and preclude possible injury when you accidentally hit a hard bone instead of a soft muscle or cartilage. Periodically punching boards, tiles and blocks to test one's immunity to self-damage when accidentally punching hard bones of the opponent may be done under one's discretion.

Just because the hand is made up of many small bones doesn't necessarily mean it is will break or get damaged when you punch. However, it is true that it has basic structural weakness unless it is welded together and transformed into a rigid, inelastic tool when executing a powerful punch. What damages a punching fist or hand are the bad alignment of the hand and wrist, inadequate rigidity that results from a tighter held fist, and hitting the target with the wrong knuckles not aligned with the arm and wrist at the point of impact.