bushido_man96

I agree. I fall into this school of thought as well. Striking first helps to seperate the mind from the body, allowing you to procede with the technique.

It sounds to me like you have quite a dilema, KCshuffle. If you can't meet the testing requirements for a rank in an organization, then you most likely won't be testing. You may have to take some time to adapt your sparring if that is something that you really want. However, couldn't you test for the rank in one of the knockdown styles that you practice in? That might be the easier way to go.

I agree that focus on bagwork can help to improve your power. If you have good hip motion, then staying relaxed to enhance your speed, while tightening at the end of the technique may help.

I focus on the chest and shoulder area, as well. I try not to zone in, but to just keep my eyes there, and see everything around moving, too.

I think this is a good summation of these styles. If you really dig into the systems, you can find bits and pieces of practicality that are usable for today. Or, say you have a broomstick to defend yourself with...it can be used in many ways that a sword can, when it comes to parrying attacks and counterstriking. The practical uses for today are much more limited, though. It really isn't much different than the study of bo, kama, sai, etc.

Yeah, like 14+ years of TKD = my knees hurt a lot....

I think this is true of wrist locks. As my instructor has had us go into them more, I've realized counters that the supposedly controlled opponent can utilize quickly, turning the tables on you, meaning to me that in a real-life situation, I'm not going to control through the wrist, I'm going to break it. Taking this a bit further, I prefer the term joint manipulation as opposed to lock or break. When you attempt to manipulate/control a joint, like the wrist, then it is up to the person who is being manipulated to go along with the controller, so as to not cause a break. But, as the controller, you always have the option of breaking, should you get them to the proper spot where they can no longer move with the manipulation to relieve pressure.

By and large, however, the MMA realm has done a very good job of regulating their fights, from the rules put in place to the training of the officials, and there haven't been a lot of terrible things that have happened in MMA. We see professional football players get paralyzed every year or so. Nothing happens in the MMA with as much regularity.

When you use the string hanging from the ceiling fan as a round kicking target.

Looks like there are good possiblilities there. Might have to check it out.

Shoto4life: is this the first time that you feel that this instructor affected a testing result of yours? If it is, then why do you suppose he has it out for you?

This used to be something that happened more often in the West. The old man would take the kids out in the yard, or the basement, or into the garage, and teach them the "basics" of fighting. Keep your hands up, punch straight out, etc., etc. I believe that this used to happen more, but doesn't really happen so much anymore. Did your dad ever teach you how to fight? I remember when I was younget that my dad would spend some time with us on different aspects of defending ourselves. I think it is something that should be rekindled, too. I hope to do the same with my son.

I think the more venues they can get into, the better. It sounds like they have the makings of a great card there, too.

As far as striking goes, I think those PKA guys could hang with most of the MMAers out there today. The grappling aspect would be another story. However, if they would have spent time on it, they would have a shot. It was cool to see a few spin backs in there. Its a good kick, if you can work your strategy to land it.

I hope that I get the time to watch. I'll be looking forward to watching Slice fight. He's fun to watch. I also like Arlovski.

Hehe, no joke. I still have two more vehicles to clean out. I have been working out this week, but I keep forgeting my notes at home. I'll get them posted up soon.

Yeah, I post my workouts and observations of training over yonder. Unfortunately, last weekend was Octoberfest weekend, and here, that is a big deal. So, we didn't have class, as both the Sensei and the Sempai were out of town. I'll get back to class this weekend on Saturday morning, though. I did order a few books on Aikido, though, and have been thumbing through them. I work some of it in when we have our Hapkido sessions, too.

Keep us posted, Dobbersky. I hope all goes well for you.

Very nice. Especially the first one.

There is definitely nothing wrong with being aware.

I feel that if you look at Tai Chi in this sense, as the form of "moving meditiation" done in the park for health and exercise benefits, then you really aren't looking at much more than cardio-kickboxing. You might be doing Martial Arts moves, but you aren't learning a Martial Art. You are taking Martial Arts movements and doing them simply for exercise. Absolutely. As long as it is trained that way. But like I mentioned previously, you can't get caught in the cardio-kickboxing trap.

Martial art moves permeate the Taiji forms, tallgeese, but the questions are: does the instructor teach these moves as fighting moves to the student; does the instructor even know the fighting applications within the forms? Perhaps another question would be if students, particularly American students, of Taiji would attend a Taiji school if the "martial" in the art were emphasized? Don't most take Taiji because they're interested in "meditation in motion"? My question here is, why can't one get both? As an instructor, they take what I teach, and do what they will with it. But, it is my responsibility to make sure that I provide them with the necessary self-defense aspects that it can provide.

This makes me think of the samurai in Japan and the hwa rang in Korea. Nowadays, we have an emphasis on the average citizen seeking to protect him- or herself in a street situation, especially to be able to escape from the scene and call the police. It doesn't take away from the police and the military needing their own martial arts training, but most martial artists of today are not members of these organizations, and we can't expect the police in particular to be everywhere at once to protect us. Barring everyone carrying weapons, we fall back on our own awareness and self-defense capabilities. I think that this tends to still be the case, especially when you talk about what self-defense based systems teach. They teach you to do what you need to do in order to flee to safety, and then call in help, etc. This idea is still reasonable today.

Well, I don't know for sure. I still think Martial means Martial. That's just me, though. When so many people complain about what McDojos do to the MAs, it leads me to believe that the physical Martial aspect has more to do with it than not.

Now that's an awesome deal...."shop victoriously!!!"