bushido_man96

Yeah, didn't enjoy the grip of your paws! At my first GRACIE course, one of the guys there was a BJJ brown belt, and I asked him if he crushed rocks with his hands before he got into his profession. He had a nasty grip, too.

He did. I'm just not sure when he did so. I don't think he got started with BJJ until the 1980s, but may have had his Judo black belt before then. Didn't Lee also do some training with Judo Gene LeBelle?

I think building strength is important. Muscle helps protect the body, so having some strength is important. Also, some explosive, anaerobic exercising would be good, too, which would allow you to explode in short bursts with attacks, and if those are powerful enough, it gives you a window to get away.

I can't even begin to imagine what its like to experience this, nor have I ever had to experience this in the class setting. Thanks for sharing this information with us.

Pretty cool. How are you liking it so far? What presents the greatest challenge? This is the year that I tested for 4th Dan. Absolutely brilliant, biggest challenge is to keep on top of all paperwork and ensure everyone has the right insurance, book, new belt, certs and info. If they are happy and training hard then I am winning. Hardest moment is to tell some they are not good enough to grade yet as I have set high standards. I am determined to be true to Karate, MA and tradition - at the same time I am also free to explore new (old) Bunkai and introduce anything I think is relevant to good Karate and self defence. Well done on your 4th Dan and to everyone who has posted their achievements, good luck for 2015! It sounds like its going well. Running a school is hard work, for sure. It sounds like you've got some good standards, too, and don't feel bad for not letting someone grade. After all, you are doing them the favor.

It sounds like things came out well. You kept yourself safe, and used what sounds like a proper amount of force. Now, the other question is, could the whole situation have been avoided to begin with?

This is a fantastic article, and I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you!

Congrats, stonecrusher!

I shall have to look this up. I've always enjoyed watching Machida fight.

Harkon makes some good points, but if I were you, I'd give each a try, and see how they treat you. You might find one to work better than the other. With BJJ, you have more positional options to go with. Being on your back might cause issues, but working from mount might be ok. You might also be limited in how much actual rolling or randori you could do in either style. I will say this: figure out what you can and can't do, and then which ever route you go with, listen to your body and adjust your training to fit what you can do. A good instructor should be able to work with in this aspect.

12/20/2014 Football Workout: Kendall and I watched the San Francisco 49ers play the San Diego Chargers, and did some reps along with each score, after PATs were completed. We did push-ups, then crunches, then squats. So it looked like this: SF-7: 7 push-ups, 7 crunches, 7 squats SF-14: 14 push-ups, 7 crunches, 7 squats SF-21: 21 push-ups, 21 crunches, 21 squats (San Diego's lack of defense was killing us by this point...) SD-7: 7 push-ups, 7 crunches, 7 squats SF-28: 28 push-ups, 28 crunches, 28 squats Half-time score was 28-7, and we stopped there, as we were both getting a little jelly-muscled. That comes out to 77 of each. Then I sat and stretched. With the bowl season coming up, I think we will try to do this some more, too.

Sound advice, I often advise not to worry about height, better to deliver a good technically strong low kick. If you try high kicks against someone fast then you will soon be on your backside. A lot of the best applications of Kata involve kicking low or disrupting an opponents leg/knee. Also the end position of a kick can often be just that - the end position - it hit the intended target on it's way to being head height. A lot of people misinterpret Kata Bunkai by looking at the end position. This is a good thought. The kick could be a head kick, after you've dropped the opponent to his knees....

That is helpful, thank you. In those sequences that repeat, is the back fist always the first (in this form?)? Also, when the practitioner turns around and is heading back towards the start, are those back fist strikes, or inside blocks? So, the "official" version is to throw the "tracing" hand out with the side kick. Does the WTF/Kukkiwon label it as a strike, or just an assisting hand? I hope you are enjoying this as well! Do you perform the Palgwe set, as well, Iceman? A while back, there was a book put out on some ideas for self-defense applications of the Taeguk forms. I hope someone would come along and do so with the Palgwe forms. I get the feeling, though, that the Palgwe set may go away sooner rather than later.

I like both of these, thank you for sharing them. I can see where the rod drill you are doing would really work you. I like the various blocks you used on the hikite drill, too.

Thank you for the advice, I am going to speak with my current instructor and see what he recommends. As well as contact the instructor of the school in CA because it does say on his website he has a teaching certificate from the AOKA to instruct in Isshin-Ryu Karate as well as Shotokan (JKA). So he would probably have some pretty insightful information for me! Here is the link to his credentials if anybody wouldn't mind looking at them and telling me what they think. https://www.gregdowsdojo.com/about-us.php I agree with Harkon72 here. I don't think one should ever pass up the chance to learn something from a great instructor. Nor do I think you should pass up the chance to continue your training just because the style is different. Sure, there might be some confusion for you, and you might get crossed up on a few things here and there. But have faith in your own ability to discern things and put things together. Remember, this is your journey, so take it the way you see fit.

Thanks for sharing these applications. What you show at about the 3:00 minute mark, when you have one hand up and one down, the move you show there looks like what could be represented as our palm pressing blocks in TKD forms like Joong Gun.

Thanks for the video!

That was great! Thanks for the laugh!http://i.giphy.com/UH2avkr55L1Fm.gif .. I have no words! Good stuff!

I agree! If you've had some prior experience, then perhaps that experience is showing up. Congrats to you!

Congrats!

There is something to be said for this. I'm not of the opinion that it holds true all the time, but when you are actively trying to knock someone out that is trying to knock you out, or take you down and defend from the takedown, and all that, it tends to weed out low percentage options pretty quick. But, not every self-defense situation is not synonymous with a ring experience, either. So I think there are some types of techniques you will find in more traditional styles as useful for practicing for self-defense applications. What's important on the "traditional" side of things is to make sure to start training application drills that are as live as possible as soon as possible, instead of always sticking with the traditional class orientation.

Ok, great discussion so far, everyone. Thank you for chiming in here! Lets do some 5th gup stuff now. Songham 5, ATA green belt form: 34 moves. Again, the familiar rectangle pattern along the floor. We start to see more open hand variations of many basic closed hand blocks, like the knife hand low block and high block. The reverse ridge hand strike is introduced. We also see the horizontal spear hand strike, and double blocks done in a repeated sequence, twin low block followed by twin inner forearm blocks. We also see more front leg kicking in this form, with a front kick and a round kick, along with some footwork adjustments. Front, round, and side kicks make an appearance in this form, including a step reverse side kick. You might have also noticed that with the ATA forms, the way the start in the joon be position, and the direction they go to begin, changes with each form. White belt went to ready position with the left foot, and then started off with the left foot, into front stance and left high block. Orange joon be's to the right, yellow to the left. Camo belt introduced a slight change to the joon be position, with the hands at the belt knot (more commonly used in Karate and older TKD form systems), so goes left again. Songham 5 steps into ready position with the right foot, and the first move is to the right, into a twin outer forearm block in a right front stance. So it traces a different quadrant of the Songham Star than camo belt did. TTA high green belt form, Won Hyo (probably a rank lower for you, Danielle): I'd call this 26 moves, but we count them a bit differently, as we don't hold in the kicking ready stance like he does with the guarding blocks. We go right into the kick. But more or less, this form is like we do it. We do the upset knife hand strikes to the front (not the angle), and we chamber the double blocks prior to that at the hip, but I prefer the cross-hand chamber delivery. We get two side kicks and two front kicks in this form, and we also get the scooping inner forearm blocks (we don't dip our knees down to execute these). The initial combination is a favorite of mine, compact and powerful. The upset knives are also new techniques. Palgwe 5: I count 37 moves here. We see a new block here, the scissors block. Lots of stepping back and then forth between blocking and striking movements, which would tend to simulate some evasion with blocking, then attacking. We see the double inner forearm block added, and the palm block. Also of note is the "bending ready stance" that the practitioner sets in prior to executing a side kick, and the back fist or hammer fist strike that accompanies the execution of the kick. We side kick like this, but we don't refer to the action of the hand as a strike, but just as a link that goes out with the leg. He takes a very slow, deliberate approach to getting into this position, before really exploding into the kick. After the kick, we see the rechamber and elbow strike with the landing, which would coincide with similar technique in Yul Gok, which is probably the form Danielle would be doing at this rank, but comes at my next rank. I have to say that the more I watch the Palgwe set, the more I like the forms. Taeguek 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dncY-ALUYeg I count 32 moves here. We see here the addition of the downward circling hammer strike, which I see later on in my system, in Hwa Rang and in black belt form Kwang Gae. It seems to me that this technique is always accompanied by the front leg stepping back towards the rear leg, which makes me think that I application is also heavily involves the withdrawing hand seizing the attacker, like with the upset knife hands in Won Hyo. We also see the forward back fist strike (I think, or is it an inside forearm block? WTFers will have to help me out here), and an elbow strike (coincidence...I think NOT!). Also making its appearance is the side kick/land and elbow strike combination, but without the "tracing hand" following out the side kick. Which would take some getting used to for me, as I am so used to following the kick with the hand now, and then leaving that arm out and hand extended to elbow strike into. He finishes with the back fist into X-stance, which I refer to as a power back fist, that is seen in Yul Gok, which should coincide with these forms in other systems. Did I mention how much fun I'm having with this?

12/17/2014 Wrestling: working with Kendall. We worked on a pummeling drill from the sit-out position, basically Kendall hand-fighting so that he can either force an arm to come over the top, or to capture a wrist, plant the hand, and come out to that side by circling around for a reversal. Once he would circle out, he would hit on a straight arm bar by putting pressure on the elbow with his chest. So we worked that into the drill, focusing on keeping heavy pressure to get reversal points and then work to control. We also did some sets of push-ups and wall-sits. TKD Class: Taught class from 6:00 - 7:00 pm. Reviewed forms, hitting all the colored belt forms. I got to do them alongside, so I got some work in, too. I like this class set-up, because I can really take some time to break some things down and work on technical aspects, and even some applications. For Dan Gun hyung, I broke down the down block/high block segment, really having the students focus on completing the first move, and setting up the second move without rushing into it, but still making it a combination. For Won Hyo hyung, we spent time breaking down the upset knife hand strikes at the beginning and in the middle of the form, focusing on coming across with the attack, and not from underneath, and also focusing on the withdrawing, or "hikite" hand, and its purpose. I did 10 forms total, and those that were lower ranked repeated, so I think each form they knew they did at least 3 times. After forms, I had them reviewing one-steps, and we took time to work on our white belt #3 one-step, of which the essential attack is a knife hand strike to the neck, which is done while seizing and pulling in the punching hand of the attacker. I put stress on striking out and withdrawing the other hand at the same time, just like the move is done in basics. I think this helped them out, and hopefully they look at the basic technique a different way from now on.

This is a very cool thread! Thanks for all the links to the variations here, and the comments that accompany. Its cool to see the differences in style, stance, and even technical execution of the same form.

Thanks for sharing this article, Alex. Great response, and I learned something reading through this.