okimura

I know that in aikido demonstrations, it can often look like the attackers are throwing themselves. In part, that's true. What's really happening is that they are controlling their fall. For example, there's one technique where the attackers wrist will be bent at such an angle where the only way for the attacker to save himself from having his wrist sprained or broken is to jump over his own wrist and land on his back. The only time I ever used what I've learned in aikido wasn't a real "street" situation. I was at a party and a friend of mine was drunk and getting rowdy. He shoved me up and had me pinned against a wall, but it wasn't a serious threat. He was just horsing around, trying to provoke me on purpose. I used an aikido wrist lock and had him on his knees pretty quickly. But I will say that in a real street situation, I would probably rely on my muay thai first, as most attackers are probably going to come at you swinging their arms around. A nice kick to his leg might be more appropriate to begin with, and then after that I might use an aikido technique to control him. There isn't randori in the usual sense, like in Judo. In more advanced practice, you might have multiple attackers coming at you with unpredictable attacks, as opposed to beginning practice where you know what attack is coming and from which direction and you know what technique your supposed to respond with, in order to learn to apply the technique properly. There are different schools of aikido. Some of the "softer" schools are really all about the philosophy of aikido and the physical techniques are very done very slowly and gently, and there are schools that lean more towards the martial end of things.

Please forgive my ignorance. This may be a dumb question. Do you need to have experience as a professional boxer/muay thai fighter in order to later train and manage other fighters? The reason I ask is because I believe I would make a far better trainer and manager than actual fighter. As a fighter, I don't believe I would make it very far. I simply don't have the desire to be in the ring myself. But as a trainer/manager, I think I would have a lot more to contribute. I enjoy teaching people martial arts, although I still have quite a lot to learn myself. And I enjoy watching and examining fighters in action in the ring. If it's possible, training and managing fighters is something I'd like to do in the future, and I would sure like to hear from anyone in this forum that has experience. I'd like to hear how you got your start. Thanks.

I was thoroughly annoyed by the TKD guy using the kitana. He was whipping and spinning the sword around one handed and he even tossed it into the air at one point. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure that samurai didn't use it that way.

Sounds familiar . Let me dust off this article as my reply : http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=14047 Now my schedule has changed over time, kids don't need as much help, job hours changed, etc., but the pricipals I use still work. Good luck, we're all fighting similar battles. Thanks for that useful link.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet, but how about...aikido? Much of beginning aikido is practiced from wrist grabs..

I've had this experience too with new students in aikido. I'll be demonstrating a technique and they'll be trying to resist or reverse the technique when I'm just trying to teach them. I have to remind them that it's not a competition and that they risk hurting themselves. A couple times I've had to put the noobs down hard on the mat..just a little tough love to show them that watching fights on you tube doesn't make them experts.

I've been known to be suddenly attacked by imaginary enemies and break out into a round of shadow boxing, but that's usually out of boredom...

Have you ever used your martial arts abilities to show off? Last year a friend of mine came back from a party, drunk, and a little out of control. We were standing around on the front porch of the house where the party was, and he was stumbling around, being drunk, and at one point he pushed me and pinned me to the wall. Now he wasn't trying to hurt me. It wasn't at all violent or threatening. You know how sometimes you might be in a conversation where it comes up that you practice martial arts, and someone will want you to show them something or demonstrate a technique? That's what this was. He was trying to tease me about martial arts, "Show me what'cha got," and "what are you going to do now?" He was using both his hands to keep me pinned with my back to the wall. I wasn't going to do anything, but there were people standing around watching this. I used a standing wrist lock, nikkyo, that I knew from aikido, the technique being demonstrated here Anyway, I used it on him and put him down on his knees and held him there for a second and then let him up. I didn't hurt him and it was all in good fun. I'm not a boastful person and I don't seek the spotlight, but this time I did want to show off at least a little.

Life was good in college. All my martial arts classes were in the same location because the instructors came to us, and it was within walking distance. Despite a course load and a part time job, I could work it into my day so I could practice 6 times a week. Now I'm about to start a new job and it's going to take up a lot of my time. The standard 8-9 hours of work a day or more if its needed, an then 1.5 to 2 hours of commuting on public transportation each day because I don't have a car right now (and even if I did, traffic is pretty bad around here). The few gyms/dojos are few and far between. Now I'm left wondering how I'm ever going to find the time to get in any MA practice, so I'm just wondering how other people do it.... How do you find the time for practice? How often do you get to practice?

I've had some varied experiences practicing with girls. It's hard to generalize. I've practiced with some girls who were pretty shy and timid about practicing with a guy, particularly if the practice involved close contact, like in a grappling situation. I've practiced with other girls who are just as aggressive and powerful as guys, also. There was one time in a JKD class we were practicing an escape from a rear naked choke. I was paired with a girl and she appeared to be ok, but when we were done with that and the instructor told us that our next technique would be practiced from the guard, I could see in this girl's face that she was uncomfortable. My instructor must have seen it too because he came right over and split us up so that she could practice with another girl, which was fine by me because I wouldn't have wanted to make her feel any more uncomfortable and awkward by jumping on top of her and having her legs wrapped around me. Another time, in a Judo class I was paired with a girl and on that particular day we were focusing on mat work, and we were supposed to end the class with randori, also mat only. I was prepared to go easy on this girl because she was significantly smaller than me. To my surprise, she was extremely aggressive and at one point, her small size turned out to be an advantage because she slipped out of my guard and got a mount and from there wrapped her arms around my head and one of my arms and nearly choked me out. When we started I was very aware of 1) the fact that she smelled better than most of my partners and 2) her breasts pressed up against me when she mounted, but I got over that fast. After that, any time I rolled with her, I knew she wasn't kidding around so I wouldn't hesitate or try and go easy.

I've been doing Muay Thai about a year now. I just joined this new gym, and the instructors, I'm pretty sure, are former TKD and American Kickboxing, so they've got me doing side kicks, which I never did at my old gym (There's another thread about that topic). I don't like side kicks very much, and I would probably never use one in MT sparring, but because I think it's imporant to learn as much as I can, I want to be able to throw decent side kicks. The problem is that I can't kick very high. In MT, this wasn't a problem because you don't have to kick very high. But with a side kick, even kicking low is really hard for me. And I must be doing something wrong, because I actually start to have some pain, in, well, my gluteus if you want the technical term. If, say, I try a side kick with my right leg, I get pain in the right glute and also in my lower back nearer the right side, which I'm guessing, is coming from my sciatic nerve although I don't know for sure because I've never had any pain or problems with my sciatic nerve. I also have pain in my outer thighs of both the kicking and standing leg, and occsionally I'll hear a pop and feel that in my hip. So I'm wondering if someone can help me out. I want to improve my flexibility and I want to be able to kick higher. Are there any specific techniques or stretches? What muscle is doing the work during a side kick and are there techniques and stretches to target that muscle? I'm guessing it's your quadricepts for chambering and sending the kick, and your hip abductor to lift your leg sideways, but I don't really know. What's causing the pain and what can I do about it? Thanks.

I've been doing muay thai a year now and having just moved back home after school, I joined this new local gym. I've had four sessions so far and one thing that really struck me was that a majority of the people training there were wearing Thai trunks, including some very raw beginners. At my old gym, I was led to believe that you're supposed to earn your trunks. I thought there was a testing procedure in place and you got trunks when you passed. Was I misinformed? Why is everyone in that gym wearing Thai trunks? It doesn't bother me very much, to be sure. I just wonder if I got some bad info along the way. Another thing I noticed was that this class practices some techniques that my old gym never did, like crescent kicks, or snapping kicks where the contact surface is your instep. All the kicking I did at my old gym was round kicks with the shin as the contact surface or push kicks (I don't think I've ever seen a crescent kick in a match between muay thai stylists). This too doesn't bother me. I just wonder what other gyms teach. Thanks.

I think it just often depends on the who's in the fight your watching. I've seen fights that are just brawls between a couple of animals. There's some technique there maybe, but it just becomes a slugfest. And I've seen other fights that are more technical, where technique and form are visible, because it's between two martial arists..

the power comes from the torque of the hips and the cutting motion of the kick. you don't have to 360 to get the commitment. The 360 is the result of the committed kick, not the other way around. I'm just saying that's what I was taught.

I've been taught that if you execute your thai kick correctly, you have no choice but to do the full spin if you miss. The only way that you wouldn't spin is if you hadn't committed to the kick to begin with. The low thai kick is all about power, so if you commit to it, it should carry you through. Depending on the situation, immidiately after a missed right round kick I'll spin and then I'll knee up block with my left, and I'll make sure to guard my side and head with my left arm, and stick out my right glove out in front. Either that or I'll come around with a backfist.