bushido_man96

Very nice pics, Jiffy, all of them. Portsea looks like a load of fun, and being done outside is a nice freshness.

a good startegy is to tell urself to never be in the way of the kick. when they go to kick you shift backwards or sideways to aviod the kick. you sometimes don't even need to block it if you shift away from it enough. I can shift back away from the kicks well enough, but I prefer to cut sideways, to try to gain some distance. It just seems like I can't get the very end of the kick blocked, and I still get snagged by it. I am going to work some partner drills, trying to get my timing and sidestepping down.

In the tournaments i go to, yes. in shotokan tournaments, you only get points for the head, sternum, above the waist and the rib cage area(with roundhouse kicks). if you face sideways and have a good guard, they will have a hard time trying to get in and scoring a point on the more vital targets. if you have any more questions similar or close to this one, will gladly try to help. The rules that I spar in at class and at tournaments are similar to yours, and I find it useful to be able to spar from both situations. You can use it to try to cut off targets, frustrate the opponent, or open up target areas to bait the opponent.

My suggestion is to watch the movie, enjoy the movie, and don't think anything else of it.

One of the best ways to learn new things about yourself is to teach. Although, I don't recommend throwing someone in cold to their first teaching experience. I like to hang out, and help them out. It helps to build their confidence with it as well. It is amazing when you teach how you have to be connected to every part of every move you do, including hip placement, hand placement, target, path of travel, chamber, focus, and all of the little things that you have done for years without even thinking about them. Sometimes I get carried away, like on a rant, and want to just keep dumping more and more information on them, but I have to remember not to overload them all at one time.

Ah, I did not realize this. I will have to give it a try as well. Thanks, Jiffy.

Thats good to hear. I wish my school did some grappling. I need work on it badly.

So, the conditioning just comes through the training process? I wondered if it was that, or if there were conditioning drills. So when you first started, did you get your legs really frogged up, making it tough to walk?

Wow, haven't heard about that in a while. I do think it is an effective style, and it covers most of the fighting ranges, which is always great. I was wondering if anyone could tell me exactly what catch wrestling is. I get the feeling it is different than high school/college wrestling, but let me know if I am wrong.

i think you have to differentiate between self defence arts and battlefield arts. most arts that use kata are not battlefield arts as far as i know, and were designed mainly for random street attacks. for example jujitsu and kendo, which are derived from battlefield systems, aren't big on kata. then if you look at iaido/iaijutsu, which comes from the same place and culture, its all kata and it is designed for use in surprise street attacks. This is true, but the societies were using the weapons/grappling systems before the forms systems came into place. Even the ancient Greeks, with boxing, wrestling, and pankration, would practice to fight against skilled opponents, and not just the untrained attacker. They may not have used weapons disarming either. However, with the advent of the firearm and the reduction of close quarter weapons combat, everything began changing so as to preserve the fighting arts.

Oh, ok, glad you like it. I believe it whole-heartedly. I try to use it to make myself work out more, and work out harder, when I have a chance. Here is one by Napolean: "Luck is the residue of design." What do you think of that one?

There have actually been studies done with basketball players on visualization. They had a group who would practice so many free throws, another who would practice so many and visualize making the same number, and then a group that just visualized the baskets. All groups showed improvement, and the group that used both techniques showed the most improvement. I like to use visualization when I can't practice, like when I'm driving down the interstate, or just sitting on my duff at work.

I like the scene in part 3 where Miyagi fights the Cobra Kai guys in their dojo, and ends it by going, "wa....waaaa....waaaa..." That was classic!

Thanks for the info. I will look into it.

Well, having a family and full time job, I don't see myself gaining much time to enter an MMA event around here. As far as being able to teach the material: some are better teachers than they are fighters.

I would get the box set as well.

So, what do you do to toughen them? Just take some leg kicks, or do you have someone pound on you a little? What do you do for the shins as well? I have done some shin conditioning in the past, just kicking hard objects, but nothing in a long while.

Which quote?

A 'Fins' fan, huh Patrick? That's cool. My brother was a huge Marino fan as well. This is Dante's chance to prove to everyone that he can be a good QB without having Randy Moss to throw to.

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.