bushido_man96

I'm not as concerned with the use of the term "man up" as some others are. I've told it to my son more than a few times in various circumstances. However, there are three sides to this story here. You may not think your son punches hard in relation to some, but perhaps this person he is sparring feels it differently. At the age of 50, she might be more sensitive to it than others. If she did mention it while sparring, then the partner needs to be sensitive to it and respect her wishes (if she did mention it at all). But, this works both ways; she has to be willing not to strategize in such a way that takes advantage of the fact that others don't spar her hard, and she needs to follow her own rules. Like Bob mentions, the lesser ability controls to the levels of the match. Also, talk to the instructor about it. It probably wasn't necessary for this gal to be glaring at you, and if she was willing to say things about it in front of you, then ask her about it. See if she will speak civilly with you about it. If she won't, then speak with the instructor. What's important in situations like this, is to look at the situation objectively, even though you have a dog in the fight (your son, in this case). Its tough to do, and lots of parents have a hard time being objective, or, they are objective in the extreme the other way. Try to walk that middle line. Is this the first time this incident has occurred, or is it repeating? Does she have issues with others in the class, as well? Do what you can to find these things out, and see where you can help solve the issue. I don't think your son is necessarily at fault here. If he was not aware, there isn't much he could do. She needs to speak up during the match if there are issues. Hopefully, the age gap isn't affecting this, either.

You just need to get into the UFC, it sounds like to me. I think that would be a solid proving ground for you. There are plenty of MMA gyms out there to train at, and surely a promoter will eventually see your talent and ability, and you will get a shot sooner rather than later.

He Ill Cho has books with some pretty good anatomic layouts for kicking you could look into, called The Complete Master's Kick and The Complete Master's Jumping Kick. An author by the name of Shawn Kovacich also has a series of books on kicking, each book being "kick specific," with some anatomical layouts in them, as well. I have a few of his books, and I like them. I would say the key to learning to kick the way you are talking about is to use a chair or wall for balance, and do some slower, smooth kicking. Build those muscles up, and gain speed as you go.

6/23/2014 TKD: 6:00 - 7:30 pm. Taught class. Basics, then forms, with black belts doing review, going over Do-Kang 1, Po Eun and Gae Baek. One-steps, then sparring. After a few rounds of sparring, I had them stay in groups and work on blocking and countering drills. I started out with them in closed stances, and blocking a front leg round kick with the arm of the same side they were being attacked. Several of the students have a bad habit of not using their left arm, and they try to reach across with their right to block a kick on the left side. After learning the block, I added an angle step with the block, going forward instead of back. Then, added in a punch to counter. 6/24/2014 Aikido: 9:00 - 10:00. I tried to do the 300 workout, but... Shikko: 31 runs. Push-ups: 25, sets of 11, 11, and 3. Sit-ups: 50, sets of 10. Jo strikes: 50 Forward rolls: 40...and this is where 300 stopped. I've been having trouble with my calf muscles, from a year-old injury from running around. When I would spring off the support foot for the forward rolls, it would cause a bit of pain in the calf. Well, on this day, my left calf just felt like it was a balloon that popped. I was done after that, and now have scheduled some physical therapy to see if I can fix this problem. 6/27/2014 Department Defensive Tactics: two sessions, 4:00 - 6:00 pm and 6:00 - 8:00 pm. Focused on GRACIE material: 1. Defense from punch. 2. etting in a clinch. 3. Takedown from behind. After these three, I had the officers do a free-form drill where the officer would either engage, disengage, and/or hit the takedown, depending on what the bad guy did. This got them moving more, and doing more than just rote reps. 4. Mounted escape "UMPA with trap." 6. "L" arm lock from mount. After drilling 4 and 6, I had them do a series where the officer starts on bottom, does the UMPA escape, then sets in Americana for the submission. After the suspect submits, they reverse rolls, so they keep drilling.

My school has conducted outdoor classes, though not for some time now. When we did outdoors class, we trained in our doboks. I've done outdoors training with some friends of mine at the park, but in regular clothes. But I haven't done anything like this in some time.

Glad you bumped this, tallgeese. This hasn't happened yet, and I'm really not holding my breath on it. There is still an outside chance, so we'll see. This has been coming off really well. I was hitting the DT club workouts when college was in session pretty regularly, when my schedule was allowing it. The semester starts back up in August, and this trend should continue. This should be happening after the second week of July. I will be attending a Police Krav Maga Instructor course July 6-11. As long as I pass muster, I should make the certification. I have met this one, too. I just held a session June 27th, and have a plan to schedule a monthly session from now on, too. So, half way through the year, and have 2 goals met, and one goal pending. Not too bad.

I'm glad you enjoyed it, Bob.

Kendall competed in a takedown tournament this last weekend, on June 20th, and he is currently at the Tiger Wrestling Camp at Fort Hays State this week. At the end of the camp, there is another takedown tourney, so I will hopefully have videos of those up soon.

If you are in a rooted, immovable horse stance, wouldn't a takedown specialist be able to circle around you, taking you down from behind?

Sounds like you found a good school there. Enjoy!

Full contact, bare knuckle face contact, all the time?

Yeah, I see everyone's point on the "honor" or "warrior" mindset, etc. Although I think a warrior would show respect to an opponent by fighting him with everything he has; if he doesn't, then he doesn't respect his ability as a fellow warrior....but that's a topic for another thread. My point is this: everyone says the guy that tapped for the good of the outclassed fighter did the right thing. Then didn't the outclassed fighter do the wrong thing? Everyone seems to think that the good fighter here did the honorable thing. That would lead me to believe that the outclassed fighter did the dishonorable thing. He should have realized he would be defeated, nay, nearly killed, by this guy, and should have tapped out himself.

I plan on doing videos on that also.. Cool, I can't wait to see them!

How much is too much? When you aren't spending time with your spouse. When you would rather miss your child's activities for training. When it becomes work instead of enjoyment. That's when it becomes too much. Also, when you overtrain your body and it can't recover. That's too much, too.

Make different arrangements for getting home. Find a ride with someone, take a different path. Wait an extra half hour before you start off, do something different. Let someone at school know what's going on, and see if they can offer any help. All these options will be better than a 5 on 5 confrontation. In a situation like this, there are too many variables. Someone might bring a weapon, or they all might. Its not worth it. Also, what Patrick points out is a very good point. If two groups of 5 or 6 get together to fight, it isn't self-defense. Its a mutual combat, a brawl, and all parties are guilty. Where I'm from, if I came onto a brawl like that, at the very least all parties would get arrested and charged with disorderly conduct at the least, and dependind on what kind of damage gets done, charges like battery or aggravated battery (a felony) could come forth, as well. No one will win.

The studies comparing the sword and buckler to the sword and shield were informative, too. The nature of the buckler not covering as much area, and requiring a more active defense, was obvious in the stats.

6/16/2014 TKD class: 6:00 - 7:30 pm. Pre-class warmup: Dynamic side kick stretches, low, mid, hi, x9 each, on both sides. BL front kicks: 5 each side BL side kicks: 5 each side BL round kicks: 5 each side BL inside crescent kicks: 5 each side BL outside crescent kicks: 5 each side Class: taught tonight. Basics were improvised, adding a kick in with the basics going back the other way, either a front, side, or round kick, with the kick sometimes starting with the front leg, and then they set it down behind, so they had to think a little, and work some different movements. Also, added in the hook kick, and did the punch, front kick, punch, round kick combo. Forms, since there were only students, we did Yul Gok, Joong Gun (both blue belt forms), Toi Gye, and Hwa Rang (both brown belt forms). Next was one-steps, followed by a few rounds of sparring. The kids paired off together, and the teenagers together for the first round, then switched them for a rest for the teenagers, then put them back together. Not a bad night for only 4 students. 6/17/2014 Aikido: (and Kendall did Wrestling) 8:45 - 10:00 am. I did 300, but made it 350... Shikko: 31 runs (equal to 10 at the hombu) Push-ups: 25, sets of 10,10,5 Sit-ups: 50, sets of 15,10,10,10,5 Jo strikes: downward with squat, 50 Forward rolls: 50 Backward rolls: 50 Forward breakfalls: 50 Getting up in base: 50, after each breakfall. Kendall worked on his "duck walk" for shooting, did stand-ups on both sides, did switches on both sides, 5 of each (I tried to coax more out of him; the idea of repetitions eludes him still), some stance work, walking and running and staying low, sprawling, and he did several sets of wall sits. Overall, not bad for an 8 year old with no attention span. Stretched out a bit.

I hadn't pictured the round kick in my head, but it makes sense, too. Thank you guys.

Both good suggestions, and I can't add anything to it. Practice kicking a concrete wall, very lightly, and getting the toes into position. It should be a slow kick that let's you see how to form your foot to make proper contact.

ps1, Alex, Bob, thank you so much for the replies and insight. Very informative. I agree with you here. There is nothing subjective about a choke-out.

I watched the brief video they had on their home page. It looks like flailing, but in actuality, I think they have a concept there of moving and covering as opposed to trying to figure what attack is coming and stopping it. Not sure, though. Also, the "flow drill" always seems to be with one guy going forward and another going backward. And no one tried to clinch. The "ground fighting" was interesting. Not everyone can break dance like that, and I could see the point behind it, but I don't think I care for it. I think an experienced grappler could probably work their way through that and establish control. As for the idea behind concepts based training, I think that is probably one of the better points of their training, and I'd like to see some more of it. If I ever decide to look it up on youtube, maybe something will make more sense. Now, for the Native American Wrestling claims. I've heard of this before, but not much. I've seen a few "claims" of in regards to know it, but I've never seen more than that. I'm not sure how much of it is actually out there. I'm sure there was something at one time, but no one comes out and claims it, and you don't hear about who learned it from whom. That doesn't mean its not there, though. But on the other side of that coin, with all that is out there in the grappling realm, it probably doesn't offer a whole lot of anything new. At any rate, thanks for sharing this. They have some interesting approaches, and I'd love to hear other thoughts and experiences anyone may have had with it.

That's interesting. A navy blue belt? Like a sub-blue belt, or something? When I went for the certification on the GRACIE DT system, there was a blue belt there with us, taking the class. No way could I do much of anything with that guy. I'm not sure how much someone can pick up and do in a weekend seminar. Aside from that, how do they, or do they even, go about promoting or learning knew stuff? Is this a BJJ guy that went sideways, off on his own, or is he still affliated with a school somewhere? I'm not interested in the name, just the circumstances here.

Spartacus: yes, I think that was it.

I'll tell you this, getting the government involved in MA regulation would be a nightmare. Government regulation isn't the answer to everything, and you wouldn't have MA experts involved in government regulation, you'd have (here it comes) more politicians involved. Which still wouldn't fix the problem. Then you get lobbyists involved, and then that means favors likely start happening, and it just gets uglier from there. I think for the time being, the status quo of how MA schools are run is fine. Sure, there will be the ugly ones that show up from time to time. But, for the most part, people will eventually see the light, and move on.

Thats' so great! Keep us posted on this!