bushido_man96

Welcome to KF!

On 9/5/2012, I went in to the hospital and had shoulder surgery. The operational goal was to scrape 8 mm of bone off the clavicle bone to the left of the right AC joint, and then root around to see if anything else needed repair. Thankfully, the bone scrape was all I needed. However, after surgery, in my anesthitcally-diluted state of mind, I apparently denied any pain control, and may have said some not very nice things to some nurses (that's what I was told, anyway, for which I profusely apologized...). So after an hour of delirious pain, my wife was allowed to come back to the room, at which point pain meds began being dispersed. I'll say this, morphine is BAAAAAD! I got so far behind on the pain that I had to stay a few days in the hospital, halucinating and throwing up thanks to the lovely pain medication. But, I did make it home, and boy, was I in pain. I took the crappy percoset they sent home for a few days, and then switched to Tylenol and Ibuprofen so I could keep a clearer head. On 9/11/2012, I started rehab...oh, joy! 9/11/2012 AM - Rehab at the clinic, 45 minutes. PM Rehab exercises at home. 9/12/2012 Ordered to keep up rehab exercises at home, twice a day on days I don't go to the clinic, and just once on the clinic days. Oh, joy! AM - Rehab at the clinic Home - several sets of 3 rep tension side kicks, both legs. Bag work left jab: 10 left lead hook: 10 left lead uppercut: 10 left cross: 10 left rear hook: 10 left rear uppercut: 10 left upset knifehand strike: 10 left knifehand strike: 10 left ridgehand strike: 10 PM - 40 min painful rehab.

I agree. I think its important to foster a mentality of finishing the fight that way. If all someone does in class is "die" and doesn't learn to finish, then it will be tough to develop confidence when the student needs to fight through something, be it pain or whatever. You aren't out of the fight until you are dead! And even then, fall so you can trip someone...

What is it exactly?

I know what you speak of; it sucks! I think the best you can do is try to free yourself up 15 minutes to half an hour to solo train at home. Bag work, shadow boxing, or whatever. Its a bit tougher for grapplers, I think, but a little imagination my help come up with something.

Rip Joe Lewis. I didn't realize he had cancer. My instructor was lucky enough to meet him, and they have a photo together at the school.

Congrats!

Thanks all! Vicky thought it was pretty cool, too. Definitely unexpected.

8/28/2012 J/C Leg Cranks Squats: 24x2 Alternating lunges: 12 each legx2 Alternating split jumps: 12 each leg Jump squats: 12 Minute rest between each, three minute rest at the end, then started the next circuit, but only got squats and lunges down. But, I was happy to get a whole circuit done! Stretched: hams, quads, seated straddle.

What you should worry about instead is improving your bench press, if that is what you are worried about. Everyone has to start somewhere, and with a progressive training system, you can make some great gains. There are some charts out there you can look into, but I'm not sure what they are based off of. But like I said, doing something about it would be a better option.

That's a pretty good list. #4 I don't agree with, though. Weapons can be just as useful as learning to use your hands, and they don't necessarily interfere with one another. They are two sides of the Martial Arts coin. I do agree that weight training is beneficial to the Martial Artist, as well.

Welcome to KF, Harper!

That's such great stuff. Its inspiring to read, to search for my own terrible resolve inside.

Right. Its basically stick fighting with armor on. Still, its a ton of fun! I can remember the bruises and batterings I took when we did it. I still have stick swords, shields, and armor in my garage, waiting for the dust to be knocked off....

Yes, not re-enactment, but research. I have all of Clements' books to date (I think...), and have enjoyed them all thoroughly. I only wish I had a crew to work with on that stuff. They are constantly working, studying texts, sparring, sparring, applying, and making sense of what was done all those years ago in our Western traditions. I'd recommend anything by Clements, and anything by anyone he recommends. There has even been some more stuff put out lately in regards to pole arms; I have that book on the shelf, and need to get to it!

I'd think that is more about dictating that you are going to be moved by the returning energy than it is about moving your hand away before the arrows in the science class animation finish drawing. Action/reaction are instantaneous. For one, a "chambered" leg up position does not strike me as a "stable and balanced" position. If you want stable and balanced, put something else on the ground. Arguably, it is a "ready" position, just like your other stances. In that case the advice is just "make sure to return to a stance after you kick". In that case, i'm not completely clear why there is such a dispute about which stance to transition to after a technique. Second - are you saying that a hook kick should include a moment where after making contact, you suddenly extend your leg straight away from and past the target? The recoil you were discussing before was not "retract" but "rebound", and the two are very different ideas. I see both sides of what is going on here. In order to re-chamber kicks in styles like TKD and Karate, like a round kick, we have to consider slowing the momentum of the kick. Its the difference in kicking a target pad and re-chambering, and kicking the pad but following through with a spin. Some of the kicks I do, like a spin heel kick, or straight leg crescent kicks, don't have a rechamber due to the nature of the kick, and the momentum in the leg; rechambering would be counter-productive to the kicks. But just from what I've seen of Capoeira, one kick tends to lead into another, and there is a lot of momentum built up with the spinning. There is no need to rechamber if you are setting down and going into another motion in those cases. I don't know if the rechamber developed more over time in other MAs, or if its been around forever. In most of the kicks I've taught in TKD, I've taught to chamber, execute the kick, rechamber it, and return it to the ground. This method of teaching helps the students learn to control the kicks, and be controlled by them. Most beginners have trouble with balancing while kicking, and instead of setting the foot down, fall down with the foot, and thus end up in bad positioning for defense. Therefore, I teach to rechamber to the chamber position, and then control the foot down to go into the next move, whether landing and moving, or throwing another kick. In TKD, we tend to do a lot of same leg repeating kicks, so keeping that high chamber is beneficial. We also have to consider the forms we do, and rechambering kicks is helpful in moving from one move to the next in a controlled manner. Setting the foot down instead of falling down helps to smooth out forms performance, and makes moving efficient. This is something that will vary greatly between styles and methods of kicking, and there may not be a hard and fast rule that governs it. Maybe instead of looking at "rechambering" specifically, there is another more encompassing term that would coincide between the styles that refers to what we are discussing here.

I'm pretty much with tallgeese on this. I don't look to pressure point or dim mak type things as a primary tactic. Its not a bad tool to have in the box, but it is just one tool, and to rely solely on it and not the others is severely limiting your options.

Hey, this is pretty cool! Thanks for sharing this, Patrick! I can't wait to show the wife! I sure hope we can meet again like that sometime, too.

For one thing, I'm surprised this fellow even says this. Is he terribly young, perhaps a bit immature? Another thing is, does he know anything about gorillas? I think a big male goes well over 400 lbs, and they are extremely strong. I guess the sick side of me would like to see this fellow try, because both seconds of the match would be kind of fun to watch. Is this something the individual tends to mention to a lot of people, or is he just trying to blow smoke at you? Either way, someone should really probably call him on it, perhaps let him know that he should really consider his logic in this matter...before he tries it at a zoo and we read about it on the internet....

I'd say you have to look at your goals. If you want to solidify yourself in a style, then going back to Shotokan where you can continue from your current rank would be a good idea. If that doesn't concern you, then look into which you will enjoy more, which school you feel is better, and which philosophy fits you best, and make your decision accordingly.

The only one I know is Naifanchi; the Shindokan version. I do like it, too.

Are things that much different between the two styles in application? Do you suppose the differences are style-specific, or more related to the instructors' differences?

8/23/2012 Did around 20 minutes of bag work at home, just kicking. Had pictures taken at the school that evening, too. Did some footwork stuff with some of the guys. It felt good to move around a little bit.

Thanks for the coverage, DWx. I wish I would have got to see more of it. Maybe I'll find it on youtube eventually.

I did get to see the gold medal match for women's US Judo. But only saw some TKD on the computer, and what I did see, was not fun to watch at all. A couple of gals continuously kicking each other with the front leg was all I saw. I'm not sure if the guys were any different or not. The hands down just drives me nuts, too.