bushido_man96

Its funny to look at the circles that the martial arts have travelled in. Before katas, when wars were fought in formation with sword, spear, or whatever, the soldiers would do their weapons drilling and practicing, and would then practice their hand to hand combat, for when they came to grips with an enemy. They would train to disarm, or to grapple when the two became close. This is true for both the Samurai and the medieval European soldier. This fighting took place against skilled attackers. With the onset of kata, the techniques were designed for use against an unskilled opponent, instead of one who has training. It is just kind of wierd, the regression of the thing.

Yes, definitely a difference in the styles. I can't do the Chinese version very well.

to go to the ground and submit them implies that they are not finished. Like I said before, with shuai chiao, the goal is to throw them hard onto their head. with judo, onto their back. Have you ever watched a person who doesn't know how to fall land flat on their back? what normall happens? their head impacts the ground. Naturally, this doesn't end all fights, but it can give you enough time to run away, which is really all that is needed, unless you are fighting multiple attackers. With judo, there is no follow up either, if the person lands squarely on his back. I see. That make sense. Cool.

The catch about those that I've italicized is that they have nothing to do with improving your fighting skill. To me, a true martial artist is someone who is refined in the area of fighting and bases their approach to it based on experience and logic- being a nice guy or helping others makes you a nice guy- it doesnt make you a martial artist. I firmly believe that if you dont like those who are arrogant or have a bullying personality, learn how to fight better than they do. I would respectfully disagree. I think being a good person is absolutely essential to being a true martial artist. Otherwise you are just a good fighter, but not a martial artst. I think ot all goes back to the philosophical roots of the arts. the term martial in itself dictates war. a martial art is an art of war, nothing more. What happens is people become caught up in the nostalgic view what a martial artist should and shouldn't be. the shaolin temple combined there arts with philosophical, spiritual and other aspects, because they were monks.... those are things inherent to them. However, those teachings made their ways into arts they influenced in other countries as well. the japanese did the same - the samurai incoporated such into their teachings. But many of the samurai also engaged in homosexual activity... that is among things that aren't known, because it doesn't fit into that over romanticized view. martial arts that pre-dated shaolin were about nothign other than learning how to fight. An excellent example of this is shuai chiao. In modern ages, MA that are not based on offshoots of anything shaolin influenced will not include these things either. boxing, wrestling - it's NOT becuase they are sports - they are very martial arts. Notice, you don't hear / learn about it in european arts, european sword arts included, AFAIK. krav maga would be another example. That's not to say that bettering oneself spiritually and learning more philosophically are not good things - they are. However, you can partake in a religion for spirituality and read about philosophy. They are not prerequisites for a martial artist. You bring up a very good point here. I feel that you are correct about how the ideas behind being a good martial artist entered into them. As for medieval styles in Europe, you are right. In all of the manuals about learning swordsmanship and other weapons, there is nothing about culturing the spirit or being a good human being. That said, I do feel that they are important traits to have, and it is important to relay these things to other people as well. This burden should not fall souly on the shoulders of us martial artists, but being teachers as we are, we gain the opportunity to make impressions on the people we interact with.

Those fight clips are pretty interesting to watch. The thing I don't like about san shou is that there is the throw, and then no follow up on the ground. It would seem like you should go to the ground and submit them then, but then it would be a different sport, I guess.

Sounds like you did pretty well, then.

Sweetcorn????

What are you saying here???

When Hollywood says "based on a true story," it means that they take names and an event, and then embelish the holy crap out of it to make it interesting enough for everyone to watch. As for Dux, I have heard lots of negatives about him. As for the movie, I like it. As for the story...well, it is a good story.

Take a rest. Start with a week off, and see how it goes.

Keep it up!

I think that either of these would suit your needs. However, you may want to find something that is martial arts specific as well. Human Kinetics may have some stuff that interests you as well.

Zorbasan made a good point. The ITF TKD has more similarities to Shotokan than the WTF does. Some of the forms have similarities, but TKD doesn't do the bunkai.

Thanks, MisterRadley! Just came off of the top of my head. Reading some Iain Abernethy helped with that one.

I have never heard tornado kick. That's new to me.

That is a good strategy, Zorbasan. I may have to give that a try.

I like to do them because I think they are fun. I don't do them for self-defense purposes, nor do I do them often in sparring.

Actually, I have to disagree with you on this. When practicing the bunkai for our kata's we're defending/countering against the same type of attacks that we would give. Straight punches to the ziphoid process, throat, or head.....karate style kicks, straight or round.....and countering tuite/jujitsu holds. We certainly aren't relying on our opposition being unskilled, because when the technique's are demonstrated by our instructors we aren't throwing bogus technique's at them. I like this idea. I would approach the bunkai training with both ways in mind.

I don't know of any karate camps around, but I have had experience with such activities. I think it was in 1994, I went to the Rocky Mountain Workout that the ATA held. It was a weekend thing, with an assortment of different classes you could take. You got about three or four in per day, and broke for lunch and dinner. I had a blast. I hope you can find one, too!

I like to think that kata practice helps with skill development. If you take them away, you will lose out on some of the skills. I guess you could take them away, and then every martial art would be like kickboxing.

Talk with her, and see what you can work out. If she is taking you there, and is worried about an injury, she may have good cause.

I think meditation is useful, but I don't know that it is important. I have never meditated, really, so I can't offer much on it.

In TKD, I know it as the jump 360 degree inner crescent kick or round kick.

Why do you have to prove it? Personally, I don't think you have to. I am making the point in relation to some of the other comments made in earlier posts.

This is agood point, too.