bushido_man96

I thought that it was a nice touch that the challenger had to foot the bill. Nice touch. Maybe we could get GSP to take up the challenge??

It appears to me that the combat sports that tend to come about in the West tend to get looked at differently by practitioners of Eastern Martial Arts; even be Western practitioners. Boxing, Wrestling, and now MMA seem to get looked at in this light, as well. I think much of this comes from the bias that many people think Martial Arts only come from the Far East, and that something can only be a Martial Arts style if it fits into the parameters set by Eastern styles. Many parameters, I believe, that did not come into vogue until the last 100 or 200 years. In the West, as the technology of warfare advanced, so did the training methods, and the use for hand-to-hand combat with intimate weapons and the body began to leave the battlefield. Therefore, we see our various Martial systems go from the combat usage to a competitive sport, like Boxing and Wrestling. MMA is basically the modern rendition of Pankration, except people don't die in the competition. So, we have a mindset that a style has to have its own "language," like Japanese/Okinawan for Karate, and Korean for TKD. Now, if we take this into consideration, the MMA style is developing its own pedagogy: monikers like "ground and pound" and "sprawl and brawl" are becoming terminology used in the gym. This is the same thing, in my opinion. Now, the other bias is that an MA, in order to be an MA, has to have some philosophy or mindset, such as "doing good for the world" or "fighting for justice" while "maintaining loyalty to the instructor" and developing things like integrity, perserverance, indomitable spirit, etc. These are all good things to develop, too. Don't get me wrong here. However, most of someone's level of acceptance to these things will be based on personal opinion and philosophies. Guys like Gichin Funakoshi and Bruce Lee had some great personal philosophies; the problem is that often times people take them as the written word, without questioning or exploring for a philosophy of their own. One of the main reasons that the philosophies of these two gentleman took off as they did is because they were in positions of importance or visibility that allowed them to do so. Even though they are good philosophies, they are not my philosophy. I'll finish up with this: the Eastern mind and the Western mind just don't usually see things the same way. And this is ok. This is good, in fact. Variety is the spice of life. In the end, I think it is important to look at things that develop in the West with a Western eye, as opposed to trying to fit it into an Eastern mold.

Part of studying a culture is learning and knowing its fighting culture. I think that there is much that one can learn from observing and studying a Martial Art or culture's fighting style, and by not actively participating in a style, art, or organization, then the observer can perhaps more easily make unbiased observations, points, conclusions, etc.

Congrats!

Welcome back. Always good to see old faces pop in.

Looks pretty good. I don't think I have seen the latest one yet, though. I need to catch up.

Congrats! It sounds like quite the feat you made it through.

In time, I think you will. It just takes a while to get used to again. 7-30-08 At the park Dips: 2x5 Austrailian pull-ups (?): 2x10 These really hit the biceps. Combat Hapkido: 7:00 - 8:00. Taught again tonight. I worked with one newer student, and then the other one joined us at 7:30. At that point, they worked together. I pretty much did some of the same drills that we did on Monday of this week. These two students seem to be very interested in the Hapkido program, so I am hoping that we can get this thing to take off.

You may be sore from doing movements that your aren't used to doing on a regular basis. The side kick motion is not one that is done often outside of the Martial Arts, so you may be going through an adjustment period. If the pain continues much past two weeks time, I would go see a doctor about it.

Ed pretty well covered things. One thing I would ask the instructor is what the goals of his teaching and school are. Is he a curriculum man? Is he focused on self-defense, or more on competition? This will help to make your decision, too.

That site does a pretty good job, too. Several ways to look at the forms, which is nice.

I agree and I add that they should be different styles otherwise it may easily creaty body mechancs confusion! There are some good points to this. For example, I have trained in TKD for 14 years, and now have maybe close to a year of Combat Hapkido experience. The Hapkido curriuclum has strikes and kicks in it, as far as belt requirements go. For the yellow belt, the hand strikes are the vertical jab/cross, the hammerfist, and the backfist. Kicks are the front kick, side kick, and back kick. The strikes are used to either distract/diminish the opponent when grabbed, or to finish the attacker after a breakaway or whatnot. What is nice about the Combat Hapkido system is that its main focus is on the joint manipulation/locking/takedown techniques. My experience in TKD allows me to use the ways that I have learned to strike and kick with the Hapkido techniques, allowing them to mesh quite well. I think it could be the same with Jujitsu and Karate, or even mixing the Hapkido and Karate. The two can mix or be autonomous, and it works well.

Those are good points, ps1. Well argued.

I think he also has experience in some form of Escima. In one of his books, he made references to Remy Presas being one of his instructors.

Perhaps getting your child to take a class other than the one you teach would help both ways. It seems that kids think they can get away with more when their parents run the show. Don't let them think that. In the end, you just have to do with them what you would do with another who did the same thing. Perhaps sit him out, and see if he gets the picture.

7-28-08 Chest/triceps Bench press: 170x10, 215x6, 225x3 Dips: 3x6 Abs Decline crunches w/alternating twists: 2x20 Legs Leg extensions: 85x20, 20, 20 Leg curls: 115x20, 20, 20 Calf raises: 126x10, 10, 10 Combat Hapkido: 10:30 - 12:00. This was a good class. I pretty much spent the time teaching two other students; one who is advanced, and the same rank as me, and the other was a beginner in the system. My partner will ask me what we should do, and then he'll tell me "teach it to me," like how I would teach it in a class. It was a great deal, I think. Our newbee is picking up quite a bit, and is doing well. We started out doing the kicks for the rank on the heavy bag. The bag hung low to the ground, to practice the kicks on a lower line than we usually do in TKD. We did the front kick, side kick, and back kick, 10 on each leg. Then, we did a mitt drill where one person was in the middle, and two others were on the outside. One person held the target pads, and the other held a kicking shield. The mitt holder would move and circle, flashing the pads for certain strikes (at this point, jabs, crosses, backfist or hammerfist, and the jab/cross combo). When both pads went up for the combo, then the defender would follow up by doing a back kick to the kicking shield, behind him, mirroring the mitt holder's movements. We did 1 minute each. Next, we went back to the heavy bag. To get some practice in throwing full-powered diminishing (not distracting) techniques, I would come from the side/behind the bag, and grab the defender (who was standing in a natural stance) on the wrist. The defender would then respond with a distraction technique into the bag at full power, while dropping into a ready position with the other hand up to defend. All these drills seemed to work well. Afterwards, the beginner and my partner did the yellow belt curriculum, spending quite a bit of time on each technique, getting the nuances down. The class was great, I thought, and we covered a myriad of things. 7-29-08 TKD class: 6:00 - 7:00. Taught class tonight. It went pretty well. There were 7 total, with quite a few black belts.

That's a pretty good idea, tallgeese. I know that former Hall of Fame QB for the Baltimore Colts, Johnny Unitas, used to practice throwing balls off balance (I think I heard a story about that). You won't always be centered to throw that perfect technique, so this kind of practice is good for the body. Doing the same thing with the heavy bag will give you some variations as well. Fighting takes place in a dynamic environment; often times much more dynamic than our basics in the dojo. It is important to keep this in mind, and practice it from time to time.

It looks like this place may help. The diagrams it shows are simple lines, but it should help you out: http://www.taekwondo-legacy.com/index.php

You may want to research into different organizations to see what the ideals of each are. For the most part, however, most styles of Aikido are going to be evasive of striking, and tend to take a "lighter" approach to actions. But research a bit, and you'll get an idea of what they are about.

I think that you are right there, tallgeese. It helps us all come to better understand what we see happening. Its kind of cool, I think, because we have seen some major evolution take place right before our eyes.

Indeed, But I guess in a commercial world, you've got to sell yourself any which way you can. As an old traditionalist, I get a bit of a grumpy head on sometimes when I see people trying to "reverse engineer" self defense / MMA techniques into a traditional karate application. It seems everyone has gone a bit MMA mad these days, and if your art doesn't have "kata bunkai" as to how to get out of a reverse applied head lock, then it is lacking somehow. Whats lacking in this instance IMO, are good instructors and good students who understand that they are learning a complete system, not an instant fix self protection program or a sport. Anyway.. sorry...rant over, but hopefully you get my point. Z I think I see what you are saying. However, if you don't have a way to get out of reverse head lock, then it is a good idea, as an instructor, to learn how to do it, and then how to counter it, so you can teach it to your students. You don't have to find it in a form, but find it somewhere.

Blocks, I'm not as sure on. You really need something to block. One-steps are usually fairly static, so practicing them on your own shouldn't hurt you too much. Anymore, I question the validity of one-steps as anything more than a tool for low-ranks to learn to aquire targets.

I know that he has experience in Karate and Jujitsu. I think after learning a system of Karate, he broke off and did his own thing. Now, I think he is more into the protection based styles, and caters more to that. I would have to look into the 10 black belts statement. There may be something between the lines there.

Yeah, they are. Killers for sure. I hate them.

If you want to work on your reaction time, without a sparring partner, a good way to do this is to use the TV or radio. Set it to some kind of news channel, one where there is always talking, and then, pick a word, like "the" or "and" or whatever. Whenever you hear that word, throw a technique, whether it be predetermined or random. To really spice things up, pick two or three different words, and a different technique to go with each. That will help you to work your brain a bit as well.