alsey

err...where did you get that from? if a blade has a curve in it, there is a very good reason for it (usually to help it cut instead of slash).

any weapon you could create has already been done before, or its not a very good weapon. darth maul style double swords look very cool, but only until you get killed by someone wielding an effective weapon. that doesn't mean you shouldn't make one, but they're really not very good for fighting with. now if someone could make a lightsaber...

i remember thinking something along the lines of 'man, sword fighting looks cool'.

some people do MA so they can become good fighters, others do it for other reasons. either reason is valid and everyone should do what they want with MA IMO. the problem is that in arts such as karate, most schools have to cater for both types of martial aritst at the same time. you have fighters, kids, people in it just for fitness etc all in the same room doing pretty much the same thing. the fighters get annoyed with people who don't want to fight because they don't take it seriously enough, and the people who don't want to fight get annoyed with the fighters because they take it too seriously. you have lots of people with different goals all practicing together, and the poor sensei has to try and please everyone. as i've already mentioned, i quit shotokan a couple of years ago because it just wasn't taught as a fighting art. our sensei would have liked to have made it more combative, but if he did more than half the class would quit and he'd have to shut down. without getting too political, i think the problem ultimately lies in the nature of our society. when karate was taught as a real combat art in okinawa, a student would pledge his full commitment and loyalty to his master before training, usually he wouldn't be paying for his training either. and if he got injured, tough. these days a sensei doesn't finish his fishing, tie up his boat then devote the rest of the day to going at it all out with his apprentice. these days he has to fund his club, and deal with insurance and over the top political correctness and stuff. if someone just set up an old school karate dojo, everyone would be like 'dude, where are your qualifications from the big organisations? where is your insurance? why can't i train just because i'm horrendously unfit? etc'. these days you have to cater for everyone and you have to be covered for everything. this isn't a bad thing, but it makes it very frustrating for those who want to learn karate as a true combat art. this isn't such a problem for something like boxing, because everyone recognises that boxing is hard work and its fighting. but karate has been popularised so much that it has completely lost that image. a lot of fighters will dismiss karate, so true combative karate schools find it difficult to survive.

warwickshire, UK,...uhm...well william shakespeare is from this area...err...that be about it i think we also have coventry, a city that my professor refers to as 'the armpit of europe'.

is this the same thing as 'pi gua'? i have a cousin who does pi gua.

in sparring, and real combat, you may have to deflect a strike if your opponent gains the advantage, although the kata teach you how to defeat someone before they strike. if the opponent does get a shot at you, the kata teach you how to deflect the strike while initiating your own attack. this attack typically involves grappling and throwing so it doesn't happen in sparring. of course you have to deflect strikes in sparring, but these deflections are massively different to what are often taught as 'blocks' in kata. when kata movements are taught as blocks, they generally involve meeting the attack head on with a weak part of your body. this is absurd. when you deflect an attack in sparring you generally move around or inside the attack (as you said) and deflect, not block. block means to get in the way of something. getting in the way of a strike is BAD idea. you want to be out of the way, and pushing/deflecting/parrying the strike somewhere else while making your own attack. at the end of the day, you do what works for you. but let me ask you, how many times have you charged head on into a kick while trying to stop it with the weakest bone in your arm? because this is typical of kata 'blocks' as they are commonly taught (gedan barai is the particular example i'm thinking of).

a 7 ft long post should have 40 inches of it in the ground, i.e. 3 ft 8 inches above ground with a 16 inch makiwara. but basically the striking area should be somewhere between your solar plexus and your shoulder. width: 4 inches thickness at bottom: 4 inches thickness at top: 1/2 inch where you start tapering it varies depending on the wood. mine is shijiya (japanese beech) and the taper starts 15 inches up the post. i think the taper can start anywhere up to about 1/3 of the way up the post, but it depends on the wood where exactly you have it.

modern sparring is vastly different to self defence. i don't want to get into the grappling in karate thing again, you know my position on that, so i'll leave it at that. all i'll say is that if you use kata movements as blocks, as is often taught, you're gonna get hurt.

not sure what you mean. i've probably come across it under another name or something. what is it exactly?

i was just thinking, wouldn't it have been great if one of the characters was a martial arts expert or something. he could stand there doing kata on the beach looking all mysterious, then fight boars and stuff with his bare hands

don't really know much about fencing masks, but dude...knocking someone out with a shinai is easy.

ok salus, some links: http://www.mushinkankendo.com/kendo_kihon_waza.html http://www.yorku.ca/kendo/KendoForms.htm http://www.kendo.org.uk/clubs/edinburghkendo/manual.html this book has it all: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4770021194/sr=8-1/qid=1154429378/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0057504-8379038?ie=UTF8 of course, you could go for something other than kendo. kenjutsu is more traditional and more complete, but often lacks the full contact sparring of kendo. iaido/iaijutsu is very interesting; its very internal and all kata.

i agree totally with angela here. kata is all about principles. a kata records the fighting principles of the master who created it and certain techniques are used in the kata to demonstrate those principles. being able to do every technique in a kata perfectly will not make you a good fighter. understanding the principles and how to use them in a fight will make you a good fighter. performing kata is just the first step in gaining this understanding. i also agree that when practicing bunkai each kata movement should completely disable the opponent (or leave him extremely vulnerable). stepping around, blocking, striking, and finishing several movements later is, to be brutally frank, stupid because you can't predict an opponent's movements like that. there are no blocks in karate because blocking is a very poor combat tactic. every kata technique imediately seizes the advantage and then disables the opponent. a 'block' just keeps you on the defensive and does nothing to improve your position. the blocks that are commonly taught in karate were adapted by master itosu so that karate could be taught to children without having to teach them dangerous techniques.

excellent post, i agree completely. its so hard these days to find a karate school that will teach you how to fight. i actually stopped training shotokan formally a couple of years ago because the way it was taught was just lame. now me and friend, and occasionally a few others do our own training. the thing is, it wasn't even a mcdojo. the training was hard and it took a good three years to get a black belt. it got me very fit and strong, but it did little to make me a good fighter. from the dojos i have seen, karate just isn't taught as a fighting art anymore. i'm sure there are schools out there that do teach traditional combative karate, and i hope to find one near me some day.

when i started looking into grappling in karate, i stumbled on a load of bare knuckle boxing stuff. very interesting.

not so much in a karate type gi, they're too masculine keikogi and hakama can look kind of cool on a girl though.

best way to develop katana skills is get shinai (bamboo practice swords), bogu (kendo armor) and a partner. unfortunately bogu is very expensive (hundreds of dollars), but a lot of kendo dojo will let you borrow bogu for a while. with shinai and bogu you can go full power against eachother and learn what works and what doesn't. there are some drills you can do on your own. mainly suburi; swinging the shinai up and down, coordinated with footwork if you can. this builds strength, speed, stamina and control. its the sword fighting equivalent of bag work. you really need to master suburi with proper grip, cutting technique and footwork before you can do anything else. and those things are hard to explain in text. i don't have time right now but i'll come back later and post some links and stuff. but really you need to find an instructor. if you want to learn actual fighting techniques you absolutely need to find a kendo or kenjutsu dojo. alternatively you could try iaijutsu if you want something more internal. finally, if you actually have a katana, respect it more than anything you've ever respected before. the injuries some people sustain while practicing with katana are quite horrific.

they do a lot of that in mantis right? i've never really practiced it...to me its like a wrist lock waiting to happen. but i suppose it has its advantages.

on my keyring i have a yawara which i have done a bit of training with. its not much compared to a knife, but it can be used pretty effectively for jabbing and small joint locks. its also legal. i have carried a knife on occasion if i've been passing through a dangerous area, though the last time i did that was about four years ago. i think the legal risk of carrying a knife is too high. these days i sometimes carry a heavy bike lock in my bag as i often cycle around town. i've never hit anyone with it but i'd imagine it would be brutally effective. anyway, i think anyone should carry a weapon if they feel there is a significant threat. saying that you're a martial artist and hence you don't need weapons is being proud and naive IMO. martial arts teach you how to secure the advantage in a confrontation. coming to the confrontation ill prepared is poor martial arts IMO. of course we have to consider laws and things because defending yourself is a dangerous business these days in legal terms.

i'm a bit late, but i wasn't here at the time so here's my thoughts. i never thought for a second that royce would win. i've only been watching UFC for the past three years but hughes is incredible. he's a superb fighter in every way at the top of his game. royce is a legend in every sense of the word, but damn, he's old and past his best. look at any sport; you don't see champions from ten years ago coming back and winning everything. sports evolve a lot, and unless you're there at the top all the time, you'll soon be left behind. royce got dominated as i expected, though fair play to him for not submitting to that armbar. don't get me wrong; royce is a hero and i would have loved him to win, but that was a dream at best. hughes was significantly better in every way.

i hava nice thick judo gi, a couple of karate gi, a kendo keikogi and two hakama. i also have another judo gi that i don't use because its got annoying badges on it from a previous organisation i trained with.

yeah, i also thought that was a pretty general concept in internal arts. of course you're not actually moving air around your body, but that's the feeling you should get when you coordinate your breathing properly.

i've seen a video on systema, it looked very comprehensive, and it does have a lot of similarities to krav maga. the russian spetsnaz train in it so i'm sure its pretty effective.

this is all about kendo, other forms of sword fighting might be different. but this is what i know: you usually deflect the opponents sword with the side of yours. there is one technique where you strike down onto their sword to 'kill' it, and in this action you actually strike the back of their sword with the blade of yours. but usually, you use the side of the sword for parrying. as for not getting killed, there's a lot more to it than blocking your opponent's cuts. you want to seize the initiative, be strong and quick and cut him before he cuts you. if he attempts a cut, you either have to get out of the way, cut him before his cut lands, or deflect his cut and counter. ideally you don't want to be thinking about blocking, you want to be thinking about how to cut your opponent. parries are used to enable to you to cut, not just to prevent yourself from being cut. if you are in a position where your opponent can cut you, you are either already trying to cut him, or trying to draw an attack which you can then parry and counter from. for example, a common kendo technique; suriage. when your opponent attempts a cut, you swing your sword up, deflecting the cut on the way up with the side of your sword. then, with his sword out of the way, you swing your sword down and cut him. real sword fights are extremely fast and usually end within a few seconds unless the combatants are very evenly matched. a lot of samurai duels ended in mutual death. initiative and confidence are even more important than other types of combat, and things like blocking are less important. you might want to watch the kendo kata. you can download them here: http://www.yorku.ca/kendo/KendoForms.htm these kata represent common results of a katana duel. they look very simple, usually with just one or two moves. imagine speeding the kata up to real combat speed and you have a sword fight. its very short and is decided almost entirely by the initial movements.