bushido_man96

On 3-14-08, the day after my Gun Retention seminar, I got to attend a Ground Fighting Defense seminar. This was a very awesome class! I have read several books on BJJ, but have never really had a chance to try to do anything. In this class, we got to work on various grappling aspects, like working from the mount, open and closed guard, doing sweeps and reversals, and all kinds of cool stuff, like ground and pound, too. Just the few things that we covered as far as grappling goes really opened my eyes to the world of grappling, and I hope that I can get more opportunites to check into this stuff. What I also picked up on were the differences involved in grappling in work scenario, and grappling in a competition. Lots of things to keep in mind, and most of the stuff was geared at improving positition in order to get ourselves up to our feet in order to get out of danger and proceed with arresting procedures. Very cool stuff!!!

I did take some notes, during our little breaks. My DT partner was there as well, so hopefully between the 2 of us, we are able to recall most of the information.

Man, that would be cool. I appreciate the offer. There wouldn't be many of us coming; probably just me, if I ever get a chance to. I don't get to do much taveling, though.

I think that the fact that you found out about this description of yourself in this manner expresses a lot about what a Master is. If you name yourself Master, I think it kind of distills the meaning. However, you have been fortunate enough to be described, unbeknownst to yourself, as a Master by a group of peers and/or students who think you are worthy of the title. I congratulate you on this. You have impacted some lives in a valuable way, I believe. As for how a Master is defined...I think that this is tricky. There are so many things that can come into play; physical abilities, teaching abilities, achievements and accolades; there is so much out there that can be used as credentials. It really depends on what the people you impacted view as the Master credentials. For the most part, I think you have to consider two things: a considerable knowledge base of your particular field of study/style, and a considerable amount of experience to go along with it. Now, experience is another tricky word. What kind of experience? Teaching? Or fighting? Or just an allotted time requirement? It is really kind of hard to break it apart, I think. Not all of us are going to get into a ton of fights, but does that mean that we can't be named Masters? I guess tournament competition could come into play, but not everyone excells in this field, either (like myself, for example ). Likewise, just filling a time requirement doesn't seem right, either. Another consideration may be contribution to the Martial Arts in general, in many different forms. All in all, it could get difficult to put a finger on. I am not so sure I answered the question very well...I don't know if I could answer it accurately.

I have never had any experience with one of these, but I think it would be cool to try, just to see where you are at. I think that there have been studies done on things like this, and if you try looking some online research journals or databases that specialize in sports or kinesiology, you may be able to find some numbers and averages on them. Hitting at 800+ pounds per square inch sounds like you are doing quite a bit of damage, though!

I attended a Weapon Retention seminar on 3-13-08. It was an 8 hour course, and I learned a lot of useful information. It was one of the most productive MA courses that I have been to. We covered guns being grabbed while in the holster. Some of the defenses were using body movement to get outside of the grabbing hand, and away from the off hand, and using wrist lock maneuvers to break the grips and get away. We did defenses for both straight arm and bent arm attackers. We moved on to retention while on the ground, when in the mount, and in the closed guard. We worked into a Kimura/keylock situation, and also some standing armbars from a sweep. Very cool stuff. Lastly, we went over retention in situations when the gun is drawn, and may be grabbed, either on the gun or the gun hand. Lots of reps, lots of muscle memory. Overall, it was very good training, and I hope that I can retain most of it.

This is the very reason why I advocate the conceal and carry laws. The bad guys already have them, regardless of the law.

It is not a question of professionalism or skill. It is the simple fact that action beats reaction, and therefore you shouldn't want to put yourself behind the curve, especially when your life is on the line. That and the assumption that I will be making only one move. Once I committ, there will be a steady onslaught of blows. You may block the first, but there will be many more on the way.

Oh? And why is that?

I wouldn't worry about the habits. Just train as best you can, and work around them. You will definitely notice the lack of sine wave movement in WTF. You will probably also see an increase in the amount of time you spend in sparring and drills, if the club has any kind of a team setup. However, it may be more like what you have done in the past, with different forms. I imagine some of the technique will change as well, but with what you know, I don't imagine you will suffer from it. I have never made the switch, but I don't think it would be too bad.

As the need for hand-to-hand combat became less and less in society, the societies found ways to propogate their fighting styles and methods by advancing ways of competing with them. That is why we have the sport Martial Arts that we do today.

If I am visualizing what you are saying here, I think you might be on to something. Is this more due to the fact that you don't have the oppenent's legs engaged?

Since you bring up the original topic, let me expand upon my initial assumptions. When I was in Wrestling (yeah, for that one whole year...) and when I watch Wrestling matches, they usually seem much more fast paced, with the two competitors going after each other hard. I guess that perhaps this viewpoint I have comes from what I like to call the "pin mentality." I do know that you can win off of points, but you have to be offensive to get the most number of points; i.e., back points, takedowns, etc. Reversals are worth 2, and escapes are only worth 1. You can get up to 3 back points at a time, and takedowns are worth 2. You get more points for going on the attack. This is why Wrestling seems more aggresive, or offensive, to me. Now, when I have watched BJJ, argueable in MMA matches most of the time, when a fighter goes to the ground, they seem to be more patient (usually) when it comes to setting up. They don't have to worry about being pinned while on their back, and can use the various guard positions to try to stall out the opponent, and then work from the bottom as well. Therefore, it appears to me that BJJ seems to be a bit more defensive. This is how the two sports appear to me.

I was surprised at this as well, as I have seen that most styles of Karate usually take between 4 and 5 years to attaing shodan status.

Whenever I get asked about my level of training by those I don't really know, I just try to slough it off to nothing really major. I don't like to mention it too much.

Yeah, you may be right there. It wouldn't have to be anything loud, but some nice, subtle background stuff. Doing Capoeira would be so much fun. Lots to it that not everyone really sees.

I guess I rushed through that part too quickly. You bring up some good points here. I will have to consider them as I read on. Here is a sad note on my part: I own all of the hardback books so far, and have now taken to buying the paperbacks, for easy carry to work and travel. Is that not sad???

We have a 10 belt system before reaching black, and test every 2 months. Testings are based on forms, one-steps, sparring, and board breaking.

No no no , that the wrong thing to do , you should never throw the first punch. Because you leave yourself open. thats is one way to get torn to shreds, never hit first?? not everyone is going to have a really quick reaction time to evade or block the attack.. I think that hitting first is always an option when needed.. I agree; waiting to get hit is a bad idea, especially if you can articulate that you thought it was inevitable. Not everyone can take that first shot. One thing is for sure, I am not going to wait around to get hit.

I think that some of those stands would work well for you. If you have options for switching from heavy bag to speed bag, then I think that is an added bonus.

Well, if that is the case, then you could say the same about all of your training when it comes to a fight.

That's awesome, James. Kudos to you and your crew!

Wow! What an animal! I don't think I would want you tossing me around!

That sounds like an awesome schedule. Enjoy yourself!

Doesn't martial arts fit under that umbrella? This brings up an interesting point. More or less, you have probably kicked up a hornet's nest! But, hey! That's alright! Many of our modern MAs have a form of sport competiton, in which we like to compete. TKD is a prime example. There are also Karate tournaments, ranging from the WKF to the Kyokushin styles. However, this is but one aspect of these styles, because most of these also have the regular class training, which usually includes self-defense training, in which there "are no rules." Now, there are also some Martial Arts, like Boxing, that have fewer Martial applications, but you can bet that more Boxers are hitting more, and harder, in their Boxing classes than most other stylists are when doing their basics and free sparring. It just depends on the focus of the style.