bushido_man96

Maybe he'll get a discount now, with all the publicity he is providing for the game manufacturers. What a deal! I have heard a lot about the game, but never played it.

Truly spectacular. It serves to remind us how small we really are.

None that I can think of, ever.....

It looked like he started that from seated on the toliet..... I thought the fooseball table was a nice touch.

These weapons may have an advantage with concealment, but I think that is where the advantage ends. I would rather use a tool that was designed as a weapon, as opposed to something that was originally a farm tool. The modernization of the kama doesn't make it more effective than a sword as a weapon of war. When it comes down to it, if a daimyo had to decide whether to arm his soldiers with a spear, or with kamas and said, they would have chosen the spear, without much thought. It was designed as a weapon, and is a very good weapon.

Ok. ... more stable to grip and not stable to survive... The two-handed grip/stance is very good to "survive" from. It has been used for years and years, and is still trained that way, from LEOs up through the military for firearms training. Even military guys who retired and now train RBSD systems advocate the use of the two-handed grip.

We started off with working on using the forearms as a form of striking, and worked it a little bit from the statue drill that Hock's system uses. We also did some striking on BOB. We were going to have everyone do a minute on BOB, but we nixed it for this time, but will revisit that idea later on. We also worked on a relaxed "fence" type of position, to get them ready to react. We did a towel-snatching drill, that helped to illustrate being behind the reaction curve. That opened up some eyes. From there, we worked on the wrist twist throw/takedown, the one commonly called kote gashi in Japanese MA parlance. Then, we did the arm bar. We worked both from a one-handed push and a two-handed push. We did a little bit from a strike, but not too much. After introducing both of these, we were able to show them that no matter which way that they end up grabbing hold of someone's wrist, they either have the wrist twist, or the arm bar to get to. We worked on the hammerlock after that. With each of the techniques, we made sure that they spent time just aquiring the grips on the hand. We did at least ten on each side, making sure that they were getting a really strong hold on the hand. Good for building the muscle memory. In the end, everyone got to take me down a couple of times, so everyone enjoyed that a lot. Coming back to work tonight, I got a few emails from some of the other officers, stating how much they liked the training, and they would like to see more of it. So, hopefully, it'll become a "thing."

I agree...it is about the options for follow up and the intentions of the situation that dictate which to use. Students will get more skilled at determining this as they gain experience but until then set drills and predetermined scenarios give them food for thought. Yeah. With the TKD sparring, the opportunity to grap anything isn't allowed, and the closed hands keeps me from getting my fingers jammed up by hard kicks. However, if I could seize while sparring, I would probably open them a lot more.

This is true. Open hands look a lot nicer in court, if things happen to show up on cameral.

That's a cool lineup. Its cool to see how some that wasn't always called Marvel or Detective Comics.

On a side note, I think something that should be taken into consideration is that these tools became weapons through necessity. Therefore, they don't represent the ideal when it comes to weaponry. If you would ever have the chance, using a utensil that is designed to be a weapon, like a sword, or knife, or firearm, is going to give you the most bang for your buck.

Many of the Filipino styles are the opposite; you learn with a weapon in hand first, and then work back to empty hand.

I agree. It is common to expect so much of ourselves. Good luck with the follow up session. Keep us informed.

2-9-09 8:00 - noon: DT class for the jail employees. I felt that the class went really well, and we had some good comments and good reception. For a lot of our guys, this was their first exposure to anything hands-on, and it went really well. It did open up some eyes.

You guys mention giving up the back a lot. I think that is the one area that the sport aspect of Wrestling really hurts. I call it the "pin mentality." I think that once they can get it in their heads that it is ok to defend from the back, then I think that is when they can really open up and take off. That is just an observation that I have made, though, and it may not be that way at all. Thoughts?

Could you give an example of what these things would be, in your eyes? My list of that is a mile long. Check it out. I've had teachers tell me to move faster and not tell me how. I've had teachers tell me that I have a bad strategy while I was beating them with it. I've had teachers tell me to stretch and warm up on the same level as the rest of the class when I was easily twice as flexible as all of them. I've had teachers tell me not to use certain kicks when those kicks were in the curriculum. I've had teachers tell me that tag and step-sparring is a good way to develop self defense instinct. I've had teachers tell me that their style is "too deadly" and that's why they don't spar in class. I've had teachers tell me that simply because I was a lower belt I was physically incapable of doing things like breakfalls, handsprings, flips, splits, certain kicks, certain throws - in some cases of that I was already better than the teacher at it. I've seen teachers make students warm up way past their level and expect them to keep up (I'm all for making people work ultra hard but there's that and there's excessive). There's more but I can't remember them off the top of my head. It's when I see and/or hear things like this that martial artists and instructors lose a lot of points with me. Thanks for the list. That clears it up for me.

I do recall that video. But, what I am mentioning, is the televised appearance in an MMA competition, like the UFC, or the Affliction, or even the UFC Fight Nights on cable. But thanks for bringing that up, Joe. It does provide some cross-examination material.

When I spar, I tend to close my fists a lot. But for Combat Hapkido and DT training, I find them opened up a lot more for trapping and such. I do think that open hand has more options available for follow up.

Like tg mentioned, its a matter of knowing your local and state ordinances and laws. A good idea, especially if you are an MA instructor in your community, which is business for your community, would be to have a chat with the Chief of Police and talk to him about what you teach, how you teach it, and familiarize him with the things you have and do. That way, you can come up with some acceptable way of transporting and using said weapons.

In Medieval Europe, many of the movements of the quarterstaff also translated well to the movements of the sword, too. Its a good weapon to learn, becaues so many movements transfer so well, and you can't really beat the range.

Skill will play a major role, there is no doubt there. Both are fairly short-range weapons, too, but the kama will win out on the range.

I think that there is a difference between a "good" stance and a "deep" stance. A sitting stance is deeper than a back stance, but it isn't so deep that I can't move from it. However, I won't fight from it, either. By "deep," I mean overly deep to the point of being showy. Also, stances are transitional, anyway. It isn't a position that is meant to be held for any length of time, other than when performed in a kata or form. Many judoka and grapplers can drop their center of gravity without having to get into a deep stance with their feet 2x shoulder width apart. Its a transitionary movement that you get into and then get out of, and move into the next phase of what you are doing.

Cross and Joe have a good deal of information going there; I think from what cross is describing, there is a difference between posturing and then crossing the line to attacking. Posturing is something that is popular in the animal kindgom, and humans do it, too. The puffed up chest and loud talking/yelling are usually more akin to posturing than an actual impending attack. Its an attempt to intimidate someone into submissiveness. They end up being the dominant male, without having to even touch you. On the flip side, if you see someone approach you that tends more to hunch down a bit, and rolls his shoulders up, then that is the guy who is probably going to take a shot at you; he won't be talking much.

Every so often, I like to revisit the Wrestling aspect of the grappling styles. How many here have had Wrestling experience, like in high school, and now do a different grappling style? Or, how many still Wrestle? How has Wrestling helped in learning a different grappling style? How has it hindered? What are some of the best things you have taken away from your Wrestling training?