juey palancu

BTW, apologies for all the typos in my last post...

The Boxing/muay-thai "rule" is just a myth based on historical factors...

Poise, what you're looking for is called MMA

when i said "memorize" i meant more like "internalize"

Good points. However, i disagree about the statements about kata training being useless for actual fhgitng, etc. Kata helps memorize combinations, develop strength of purpose, refine technique. THere is no way to really tell if guys like Machida use a lot of kata training or not. Kata-only or self-defense is of course incomplete, but thats nothing masters like Funakoshi, Oyama, Nishiyama, Itosu, or others havent already said. so, I do agree, of course, that if you want to fight you have to train to fight, a lot! But that is standard practice in high-level Traditional Karate. Before a tournament, for example, (light or full contact), one should spends a LOT of time training footwork, timing, etc. etc. and doing actual sparring. This is not what is done in the majority of dojos you fund, because they are geared towards people who dont fight for a living. But the techniques are there, the methods are there, etc. etc. I'm just saying that some TMA's, like good shotokan, are an excellent base for fighting in MMA styles, etc and we will see more and more of that....

Why dont you let us know how it goes?

I do agree with bushido, though, that cross-training and fight preparation are essential, however that doesnt detract from doing a traditional art. For example, I do karate and judo. On the feet, I'm a karateka, on the ground, I'm a judoka. Somewhere in the clinch, I make the transition.

Traditional Karate has bag drills, makiwara drills, moving target drills, applications sessions, shadow fighting, strenghtening sessions, footwork drills, timing drills, distance drills, combinations, cardio, etc. etc. etc. The tools are there, and many people use them often, very well and very effectively. GSP did kyokushin karate, I believe.

This is true, but look at the stats. How many people with a shotokan background have been successful in ufc? And how many people with a MT/boxing background have be successful? If i was choosing a style based on its effectivness in events like ufc, one guy being good at shotokan wouldnt be enough to make me consider training in it. For me, a parellel quesiton is: How many guys in MT, etc. want to become professionals as opposed to traditional karate practicioners? For me, based on many years experience with competitive boxing, kickboxing, and traditional karate, the reason we have so far seen many more MT and kickboxers is not related to effectiveness but rather to philosophy about and history of involvement in professional sports. My prediction is, that as the money to be made and exposure to MMA becomes more widespread, more serious traditional karate practicioners will enter and be successful in MMA (standing part at least) and the MT/boxing myth will be discredited...

All athletes good enough to be pros are precisely that...exceptions...no matter if you do MT, boxing, whatever....

I have to say I am thrilled to hear these news. Olympics would have killed karate's essence!

I see A LOT of advanced shotokan kumite in Machida's standing game. Actually, that is what he does. You are probably judgind based on seeing a few white belt classes (or McDojo advanced belt classes or torunaments). How Machida does it is how its supposed to look when it's good... look for itkf kumite videos and you'll see...

yes, i got the video at UFC.com video on demand it was a good fight!

for all those shotokan doubters out there... got Lyoto Machida's performance in UFC 67? He dominated a good opponent using (and please accept this, its so obvious) largely traditional (not McDojo) shotokan stances, fluidity, techniques, combinations, etc. for striking (plus some pretty good grappling). His striking was very similar to what he used to do in karate tournaments (I personally saw him in a few back in the day, especially the 2001 ITKF PanAm's) and he took apart, owned his poor UFC opponent Sam Hoger. Hoger gave the excellent contender Rashad Evans hell in his previous fight, just to put in perspective. As more and more serious traditional karateka (who cross-train of course) go into MMA, we'll se similar stories, you all can quote me.

Agreed, it's a very good rule