bushido_man96

OOoooo, sorry to hear that, Kez. I have seen things like this happen, and have had some near misses myself. The best way to avoid this problem is to have nice tight fists when sparring. When sparring with open hands, you increase the chance of the fingers getting jammed or broken. Hope you heal up soon! You and I are in the same boat, now!

By saying that the clinch is done at the crown of the head, you mean that it does not go around the neck, correct?

I have seen some things like that on TV before, and have always wondered about it. It must take years to get to that level.

Well, I went to teach the kids class that I normally teach on Monday afternoons, and it was tough. I tried just a few things, real slow like, and my muscle still pulled. It feels like it is going to take forever to heal, at this rate. I am hoping by next week I can get back to doing something. I definitely can't kick with my left leg, yet.

The level of contact depends more on the tournament rules rather than how much padding is worn. Many point tournaments are light to medium contact, and they still wear padding. At these events, you will likely see fewer injuries, if the refs are doing their jobs. I try to spar with the same emotion, whether I am padded or not. If I don't have pads on in class, I will try to control myself so as not to injure someone. However, if it is tournament, and there is no limit on the contact, then I would go after them. At our tournaments, we spar with pads and chest protectors, but we have to have body displacement to score points, so we have to make some good level of contact. We can also win by knockout, so the level of contact gets up there.

This is a great attitude to approach fighting with. Very well done, and you always learn something.

What are your favorite movie fight scenes?? Here is my short list: 3. The fight between the Caporeista and the Kung Fu stylist in The Quest. Those guys are very athletic, and very talented. 2. The first fight scene Sean Connery has in The League of Extraordinary Gentleman, in the tavern in Kenya. I love this movie!! 1. The fight between Tommy Gun and Rocky in Rocky V. I can't watch this fight enough!!

Ouch. 45-7. That hurts. A lot. Really. Well, I guess I should evaluate what the Chiefs did well this week ..............................ok, well, that didn't take long, did it! Now, lets check the fantasy updates....well, that didn't go so well, either. Not a good week for me!

Thanks for the warning, Kez. I do a lot of chatting on Yahoo, and I know that Yahoo and Messenger can get together now. I hope it doesn't hit Yahoo as well!

I'm a pretty regular guy, and don't get into much of anything exotic. I like good ol' suntea, and maybe a little peached tea. No fancy coffee for me either....I like it black and strong.

There are some things that you need to be able to run a school full-time. One is a large population base. You have to have a good base, because you can't assume that every student you get will stay with you. It just doesn't happen. If you have a smaller population, then it is harder to get new students to cycle into the school. You may also need another source of income other than tuition, like a pro shop or something similar. You must also eventually consider the idea of appointing staff members, like assistant instructors and the like. As for being paid 'what you are worth,' this can be good advise. In today's society, many people believe the adage of 'you get what you pay for.' Now, I don't want it to sound like I am money hungry, because I am not; there are detriments to running prices that are too high as well. You have to find that happy medium where you don't look too cheap, and people wonder why you don't charge as much as so-and-so, and you don't want to be so expensive that it instantly rules some people out. Reading your intial post, I would determine that you are on a pretty good course right now, and by evaluating and reorganizing, you will remain flexible with your plans. Best of luck to you!

Thank you, Mike. Those are nice drills, and I especially like the 4 rules you stated at the end of the post. Those are very good points, and I will keep them in mind.

Maybe it would get some of the competitors to get their hands up to block more?!

I think that TKD and TSD are very similar, in that they have serveral different braches out there. It just depends on which branch you get into to. Some are very different, and some are very similar.

This is one thing that is unique about a style that most of us may not think of when it comes to MA, but think about wrestling. No ranks, no belts. They learn what they can, then go out onto the mat, and try to apply it. They get a good sense of what they are capable of out there, and always learn something. I guess the same could be said of boxing and Muay Thai. They don't have to worry about training for the next rank, they just keep trying to improve themselves, and thus, their training improves.

I kind of like the sound of this Daidojuku. I have liked what I have read about Kyokushin as well, and this sounds great as well. Thanks for posting all of this information! Is there a website that contains any information, like dojo locations and the like?

Now that I think of it, this is a great statement when it comes to BJJ. For them, competition requires being able to string together several techniques without hesitation and applying advanced versions of their basic techniques. However, with most standing martial arts, competition tends to be very different than what is trained for self defense. This is why BJJ can train for competition and still be suitable for self defense. That is my sentiments exactly. If you know the history of BJJ, you can see that this style has been a direct beneficiary of the training philosophies and methodologies of Jigoro Kano.

I think a spinning backfist could knock someone out, but a regular backfist, I am not so sure. As for me, I would not underestimate the power of a good, stiff jab. Sure, it may not knock someone out, but I would not consider them wimpy.

If I remember right, the constant impact causes calcium buildups on your bones. They'll get stronger all right, but they'll look totally gnarly. Somebody told me once if you have all that build up and actually break the bone, it takes longer to heal... but I don't know if that's the case or not. It could take longer to heal, I guess, because it is more bone than is usually there.

I saw this fight the other night on ESPN Classic. I don't know if it was a recent fight or not, but it was a nice fight. Steele looked to have the upper hand, but the fight went to Titsui. I was amazed to see Titsui get his lead leg pounded on, but he was still able to stand on it to throw some spin kicks to the head, and some round kicks as well. Both fighters were in great shape, and very well conditioned. It was muay Thai rules, but I did not see any elbows thrown, and only a few knee strikes.

I second this notion. It seems like a good course of action.

Very nice. It is a shame to see students get their black belts, and then start to slow, and eventually walk away, thinking they have done it all, and that it will stick with them.

Makes me jealous!!

Even though they may train primarily for competition, it does not mean that their training is not effective for self-defense.

It is possible, but most of the practitioners that do this have a good base in one of the systems that they study, i.e., they studied it for a while, and may have acquired black belt status, before branching out. Although I don't think this is required, it can be helpful.