bushido_man96

Very nice idea, Montana. When you mention walking around like that, trash can lids come to mind. Pretty decent defense there.

I don't know. I think I would like to have a tonfa as that extra blocking layer against a knife.

Let me know how it works for ya.

I'm with ps1. That is so awesome!

Amen! There are two things that I like to look at when assessing a culture's contributions to civilization: the first is food. Fighting is second. (That's right, I put food first!!!!)

read the first 5-6 pages of the thread. apparently the weapons were not as hard to manage as we might think. AND, they did have good training for fighting! look it up, we had a great discussion back then! Yes, these are accurate points. It is true that fighting in the plate armor was a little bit more limiting than fighting without armor on, but it was not as heavy or tiring as one would think. What made the armor so good is that not only did it offer great protection, the articulation also allowed for good mobility. The perception that an armored European Knight was slow and clunky, and would get his armored limbs chopped off by a quick Samurai is fictitous. Remember that the Europeans had a long history of war as well; look at the Vikings. They loved it. There were also many Medieval Masters-at-Arms that made their career training troops. I think that many times it is blown out of proportion as to the amount of time the Samurai spent training. Of course, depending on the soldiers' rank, that would also determine what other tasks they performed, and how much time they could spend training.

There has been a seperate topic started on the subject of the Ninja. If you wish to carry on that discussion, please do so in this thread: http://www.karateforums.com/ninjas-vt32804.html Remember, keep the comments of the discussion within the User Guidelines.

I agree with traditional TKD being well rounded, if you wanted to learn this though you'd have to fortunate to find an instructor that teaches the sweeps and the joint locks/breaks as part of their curriculem. Most tend to focus on the techniques for forms and sparring and don't introduce stuff like this into their teaching. I agree. It seems that more and more, the focus in on the sportive aspect, and keeping TKD in the Olympics. However, if we stay proactive, we can make sure that these aspects of TKD don't disappear.

My original statement about being ignorant holds true. I actually didn't realize the spelling changed between Philippines and Filipino. I think the misinterpretation comes from the phonetics. Phillipines is the anglicized spelling, I think.

The only issue I would have with training something like Parkour in my MA class is that it would take away from the time that I have to train actual MA techiques, which I would rather train. That is just my case, though.

Very good point, Baron. No doubt that restricting your environment is a good idea at times. Most of the places where I work would be limited to not much more than 5 square feet of space at times. Very different than running around in a 20 square foot ring.

It sounds to me like a school that is running on a John Graden type of program. He set up programs kind of like that. When the cost is higher, is also spread out over a longer period of time? If so, that shouldn't be too out of line. There are a lot of different payment options available to schools out there. This is just another. Check out the school, look at the quality of the students at all belt levels, and talk with the instructor and ask him questions about these programs. In the end, it may be worth it. Welcome to the Forums!

Thanks, Scott. Same to you as well.

You are right, but to say that Ali's current condition is a result of his fighting career or not is hard to say. I have not heard if it is. There are many other great champions out there that do not suffer from the same condition that Ali does. Besides, the rope-a-dope wasn't a "get beat up for 11 rounds and then go on the offensive" strategy. It was a defensive and mobility strategy. Two very different things. I would be willing to bet that George Foreman took more hard shots to the noggin in his career than Ali did, and he is fairly healthy yet.

A very nice article, and I enjoyed reading it. I know that we have had many discussions on the theory behind "Ippon Kowashi." I think that this concept is perhaps rare because only a few people seem to be able to obtain or possess such ability. I could be wrong, though. I don't think that the idea should be discarded, either. I think that training techniques in such a way that Ippon Kowashi could be attained is very important, but it is also important to understand that you may be required to execute more than one technique in order to end a confrontation. I like your words here: There is much wisdom in these words. I think it would be great to be able to achieve such results some day.

I don't do much improvised weapon training, or much other weapon training for that matter. However, it can be a good idea. Very creative, too.

I understand your points. They do have merit, especially in the early stages of training for some people.

You have to work it after landing the kick, too. This is a good drill to do if you have a partner to hold a kicking shield for you. You hit with the round kick, land forward, and throw the spin back kick as they back up a step. Give it a try.

At the lower levels, where there perhaps isn't as much skill involved, it can lead to that perception. But, that can be said about being inexperienced in any form of sport or activity. Watch white belts spar, for example. You are correct that there aren't as many moves in Boxing as there are in other Combat Sports. There are still things like ring strategy, movement, set ups, etc. Look at Muhammed Ali's rope-a-dope against George Foreman, for example. There are things like in-fighting, out-fighting, bobbing and weaving, slipping and ducking that all get worked into the mix as well. There is quite a bit to it; its just unique from other styles.

FMA = Fillipno Martial Arts I think there was a little confusion when you put FMA in the header, but spelled it out as "Phillipino" in your post. Easy misinterpretation.

I think this is mainly because the Mongolians were viewed as a barbaric force that seemed rather uncivilized; they were nomadic by nature, I believe, so they never really settled. I think that this barbaric image causes many to overlook them, and their prowess at combat, and the innovations that they contributed to combat. In the end, they are looked at as the evil bad guys, I think, and no one wants the bad guys to win. However, the Mongolians made a habit out of winning for quite some time.

I would be willing to pose that the Japanese swords were better for cutting. However, that is what those blades were intended to do. Now, I don't want to leave the impression that European blades were not sharp, because they were. Those blades are more than capable of severing a limb from the body cleanly. But I do think that the Japanese blades were a better quality for cutting. Now, when it comes to armor, the Europeans where head and shoulders above the rest. The armor that the Europeans engineered was so good, in fact, that it resulted in the change of some of the weaponary that was actually used to combat it, and led to some of the differences that you can see when sword fighting with our without armor.

When you talk about practicality, I think of being attacked in general, and having something to defend yourself with. The chance of someone carrying a sword or even a bo out in public are slim. Therefore, knowing how to use them won't help a lot, unless you find a nearby stick that you can improvise as such. So, the easiest and most practical to carry, would be a knife, I think. Now, if you are talking about a tournament format, in which we can bring whatever we want, I think it would be hard to argue with the range of a staff weapon, like a spear or even quarterstaff. The point you make about the sai being difficult to use makes sense to me. I also think that the utility of the knife could go down some, if the longer weapons start to show up. Also, a metal fan would not be worth much either, I think. Nunchuku would not be practical either, in my opinion.

Congrats!

I have to watch what I do to my knees as well. I used to do a lot of explosive plyometric type exercises, but I have scaled those back recently, and my knees feel much better than they did.