bushido_man96

Man, these are some crazy stories. When I lived back home, we had a new pastor come to our church. He was a tall guy, and pot bellied, but older, over 40 I'd guess. When meeting everyone, and finding out about us, I told him I was into martial arts. He said he was in karate, and had broken off to form his own style, and was a 10th dan!! He said he moved through the ranks rather quick, because of his fighting skill, and he tried to model his fighting moves after those of Joe Lewis. He wanted to come down and work out together, so I said ok. Another friend of mine was there, and he was a 4th grade at the time. Well, this PastorMaster, as I will nickname him, was trying to show me all of these takedowns, joint locks, and things like this, trying to put me on the floor, but I fought it, and would not go down. He kept trying to kind of show off his stuff, but I was not impressed. Neither was my friend, with all of his 4 grades worth of experience. I am not saying he was a total phony, he may have been a black belt at some level.....but starting his own organization, and being a 10th dan, I was somewhat leary. And this guy was my pastor, for crying out loud!!

Cool, you guys speak Greek!! lol

Oh, bother!!! Trent Green will not be ready to play for at least another 2 weeks. If we go 0-4, I just don't know what I'll do. That punching bag will get a lot of work!

I have read these articles, and they do not completely renounce forms training. Rather, these articles talk about what the forms were, what they are now, and how they need to be trained in order to get it closer to what they were meant to be.

That is absolutely right. That is the purpose of drilling. Now, let's think about a similar scenario. Instead of drilling a kata solo and going over bunkai solo, consider the person who drills the techniques repeatedly with a partner, getting live feedback, then works those same techniques in contact sparring. Who will be more apt - the guy doing partner drills, or the guy focusing on kata? Good point. This was one of the advantages that Kano's judo had over the jujitsu practitioners.

Um, moving slowly I suspect. j/k My mother did Tai Chi for many years and even taught a few classes, she enjoyed it very much. Keep it up, it really helps you learn balance. Oh, that's bad!! Come on, now!!

Good point, Steve_K. Another factor would be the opponent's postition in regards to where you are standing at the time as well.

One thing is for sure, he gasses out early. Cro Cop didn't look like he was too concerned with his size, but he did keep away from him quite a bit. Nice punch, too!

That is kind of cool. You normally don't think of Tai Chi as a fighting art. I worked out with a guy a few times who seemed to have kind of a Thai background, but he said his dad taught "Combat Tai Chi." Maybe so, huh?

Huh, I have not heard of this style. Heck, I didn't know there were multiple styles of Tai Chi! Oh well, learn something new everyday, huh? I hope you enjoy the clinics. Let us know what you find out.

Officially, Bruce Lee died of a reaction to a prescription pain-killer that caused brain edema (swelling). However, he had collapsed a couple months prior to his death, nearly passing on then, and it has been long speculated that overwork may have been a contributor to that. Guess we'll never know for sure, though I know an extremely fit guy who died of mysterious causes this past summer at a Masters swim practice. Not an ounce of fat on him. He trained 6-8 hours a day as a professional triathlete, and was supposed to be the fittest guy you'd ever seen, but some say he pushed himself way too hard at times, to the point where he was urinating blood. That can't be good for you. With respect, Sohan Yikes! Not good. It's scary to think that doing something good for you can end up being bad. I guess it comes down to knowing the body's limit. The body is built to work, but it does need recovery time.

Yeah, this, IMO is an issue. In our classes - bjj, judo, muay thai and capoeira - you will spend 30 min - 1hr sparring each session. this is great conditioning also. every round, switch partners, so you get to spar everyone in class. the general format for classes is warmup - skill training - sparring. That is nice; I like the idea of skill training. I don't know that I would call our basics skill training, but it is a good warm-up. However, I do want to spar more. It isn't kickboxing, but we kick a lot, and when we put on the chest protectors (blah), we get a little bit of contact going.

I have a question for you, Sohan. Do you think that there is a way that the typical karate/taekwondo MAs could augment their training to make it more like what the boxers receive, as far as conditioning goes, but still maintain the more "traditional" aspects of their styles? My big beef at my school is that we don't spar enough, in my opinion. However, when we start class, the basics just kill me. Then forms kill me. By the time we get to sparring, in the last 10 minutes of class (only an hour), I am so tired that my sparring suffers. Sparring, in my opinion, would be a great way to condition ourselves. I also feel that we lose out on self-defense training, because we always focus on the curiculum aspects for testing. My problem at tournaments when I spar is one that you point out: tiring out soon. There is no boxing gym near where I live, so it is not an option available to me. I would love to do some of it, but there are people in my school that would not. If you have any suggestions, let me know. I think things can always get better, and I try to keep an open mind. I think that karatekas and other 'traditionalists' can be good fighters, but it is the training that needs to steer us that way.

That's good follow-through, there!

I just target the side of the head with my backfist. I don't worry about the small target areas.

Great. What was the training like? What did it consist of?

That's probably a good call. Also, you want to keep in mind if you have friends around, that can tell your side of the story for you, because the more people you have to go to bat for you, the better off your chances of minimizing the amount of trouble you get into, if any.

What are the Yudansha forms? I have never heard of them.

I think swords tend to be the most popular.

I just had a thought....if eating was an MA, I would be like a 27th dan or something!!!

You could just use a heavy bag to develop full power in your technique.

I had heard something similar to that as well, Sohan. Trained himself to death, some would say.

Maxed out on bench the other day; moved it up to 305.

I like the workout I get from skipping rope, but I am not very good at it yet. I try to work on one foot, and then the next, but it is coming along slowly. I have been doing it between sets when I am at the gym.

You make a good point, Sohan. I have had a lot of doubts about the way I have been training lately, and I feel like it could be better. I agree that boxers and Thai boxers have some of the best training there is, and you can tell from their conditioning. I do believe that all martial artists could benefit from conditioning training. I wish we did more sparring in my classes. We only spar at the end of class, after I am worn down from basics, forms, and one-steps. Then it is hard for me to work on anything that I want to, because I am so tired. I like your sledgehammer exercise, by the way.