bushido_man96

Great point Elbows_And_Knees. The poeticism has harmed kung fu a great deal IMO. "Goat wags tail on showy mountain" doesn't tell me enough about what to do. By the same token, if we spoke Chinese it COULD be a different story. From my understanding Mandarin relies on many stories, tales, and 'cultural sayings' in it's everyday speech. A good example would be: "gou zhang ren shi" meaning: "the dog acts fierce when in presence of his master", MEANING: "to take advantage of one's connections with powerful people". If you spoke mandarin, perhaps those poetic techniques would make more sense. Who knows... I took 2 years of Mandarin in High School; not nearly enough to truly understand it however. This "poeticism" goes back to the similar discussion that we had about using Japanese terminology in training. I don't feel that any of it is required to keep the 'traditional' aspects of the arts there. If anything, it is another area for cofusion to arise.

I like your post, glockmeister. You make some good points, and you defend your opinion well. Personnally, I enjoy forms practice. Not because it is essential to the martial arts, or because if I don't do forms, I am not a martial artist. I just enjoy doing them. They give me a good workout, and I enjoy the challenge of ripping out a well-performed form. I also enjoy forms competition. Like you, I used to question the moves done in forms. After doing some research, and hanging out in the karate forum, I have learned that you can interpret different moves in the forms in different ways, which can lead to some very nice self-defense scenarios. However, I also realize that you can do this without the forms, and just practice self-defense with a partner. But, some like to do the forms interpretation, and some prefer different options. You also make a good point about how forms used to be used, in order to maintain a way to practice on your own, and to hide a martial style from authorities. What you will notice about just about everything, is that everything changes and gets better and more advanced as time goes by. Cars today are better, faster, and more efficient than cars of 30, 40, and 50 years ago. The martial arts are the same way. Newer and more advanced training methods are coming about, and they should be embraced by practitioners so that we can all better our training.

Maybe you could get a nice varnished bo, and get some Japanese writing etched into it, saying something about how you appreciate his help in working with you, and that kind of stuff.

... whats fish hooking. Fishhooking, in my experience, is taking your index finger, and hooking your opponents mouth with it at the corner, and then pulling it to the side. Very uncomfortable.

This is a pretty favorable situation I would say. It will at least keep you in shape until you get back on your feet.

What the UFC guys have as their best ally is all the training they do. And although cage figthting may not be street fighting, it is the closest thing there is to it as a sport, and this is what makes them dangerous. The UFC guys are conditioned, and they know what it is like to take a shot. Fighting is what they do for a living, so this will naturally give them an advantage on the streets. It can be likened to the way Jigoro Kano trained his judoka. He stripped out some of the "dangerous" techniques, and used less dangerous but controllable techniques to allow his students to train at full speed together at all times (resisting partner). This gave his students an edge over the JJJ practitioners that they faced in challenges. It is the same with the UFC fighters. When they train, they spend so much time drilling with sparring partners with both stand-up and ground work, that they are better conditioned to it than those who don't train this way.

Everyone wants to right of the Patriots, because they let their number one receiver get away during the off-season. I say it is no big deal, because they have a system that works, and they are great at scouting. They will fill in the wholes. They do a great job of paying the right players the right money, and knowing who they can replace, and who can fill in the blanks. Just watch....you will see!! And they wonder who got the better deal out of that trade...they get to 1st round picks next year!! I think I know who won!

Hopefully it will. Mine has never gone away!!

I think you got confuse, cathal!! It is a kubotan, just a little rod!

Sounds great! One thing is for sure: If you mess up in front of a crowd of non-martial artists, then you have nothing to fear, because they don't know what to watch for anyway!

Pretty straightforward. I just hit a truck tire with the hammer for two or three 2-3 minute rounds with 1 min rest in between. I switch sides every 30 seconds. I'm sure there are plenty of variations of this, but I like to keep it simple. It's a tough, tough, workout. With respect, Sohan If you just switch sides with every swing, would that work as well? I do ten on one side, then ten on the other, but certainly you could do it that way. You might end up getting fewer strikes per round, though it will really help with your rotational strength. With respect, Sohan I like the sound of that workout, and I think it would help me with my weapons fighting. I do a lot of downward type swinging motions, so it may help. Maybe it will help me hit home runs in softball, too!!

Wish I had your problem!!

Striking a heavy bag should not have any effect on your growth. You will want to make sure you strike the bag correctly, so as not to injure yourself. But hindering growth, I don't believe so.

I think this is a good idea, but I also think it traslates easier with some weapons than with others. The sais and tonfas are great because of how they are held, and punching motions can easily be translated into stabs/strikes. The tonfa is also great because of the blocking aspect that the weapon allows. However, when it comes to more complex weapons, like the sword, and two handed weapons, such as the bo, I don't think the translations are that ready-made.

Welcome to KF, Karate_Dad!

I like to think that I make the gi look good!!

I think both forms have some variation of the penetration step. However, for self-defense, I would agree that going to a knee would be a bad idea. However, if you both are going to go down anyway, you are bound to get scraped up a little. In one of the BJJ books I read, they talked about not opting for the drop to the knee, for a better defensive posture, or something to that effect.

That's pretty good advice, you can tell that to anyone in the martial arts. Very much so indeed! If I could relate to evey white belt that comes into the school that martial arts is something that should never be finished, and try to make them understand that, I think there would be many more happy martial arts practitioners in the world.

BAM. I'm batting 300 today

Pretty straightforward. I just hit a truck tire with the hammer for two or three 2-3 minute rounds with 1 min rest in between. I switch sides every 30 seconds. I'm sure there are plenty of variations of this, but I like to keep it simple. It's a tough, tough, workout. With respect, Sohan If you just switch sides with every swing, would that work as well?

Yeah, I'm not too bad with it. But, if they get to lippy with us, we get to stick them in the 'quiet room' or take away their TV, or something like that. We had one drunk guy in a couple of months ago, and he was calling me all kinds of names, being loud and obnoxious, and I just couldn't help but laugh at him!

Enjoy, and best of luck to you!

To be honest, no art is all that effective against multiple attackers. Groundfighting or standup, it is going to be a chore to deal with more than one attacker, not matter what style you study.

you gotta start karate for a change, you have been in karate section for a long time and know a lot, so just get in , i think you will be perfect for Okinawan Goju ryu. That would be great, but there are only two schools were I live. One is the TKD school I attend, and the other is a school called Karate Fitness, but it really isn't a karate style, but a mix of some different forms, including some TKD forms, and they also do some open katas, musical weapons forms, and such like that. They also do quite a bit of fitness training, which would be good, but it isn't all that stylized. I don't think they do much self-defense or bunkai, either.

Good point, cathal.