legkicker

umm, you should have just asked me..so you're in Bellevue and going to train with Mark and Kim Messer. Eric Dahlberg used to teach jiu jitsu there, so did Rodrigo Lopes. You'd rather train there than AMC in Kirkland, ay? Or even Demon Jiu jitsu in mercer island? Or Gracie-Barra in Seattle, or in Ballard? By the way, RSU won't allow you to wear shoes(for kickboxing). I have friends at RSU so let me know when you start. They also have that Koei Kan dojo in the same business park as RSU. Unless they have a new jiu jitsu instructor, the jiu jitsu at RSU isn't the best(as marcelo/demon/gracie-barra). The boxing and kickboxing is good, though. p.s. I told you to forget about Karate since you didn't want to do kata and wear shoes

I think it's psychological to some degree meaning some people have more experience with physical pain which makes them have moreof a tolerance to it. Where I train at they like to practice "pressure points" and such and the first few weeks the schmucks tried to use them while doing bjj grappling on me. All this did was irritate me and make me go harder on them.

yeah, colored belt kata for me too. Oh, and unlearning the karate way of kicking when I got into muay thai and keeping my hands up. I got punched a lot in the face my first year of muay thai

I'd just like to say that Kung Fu is such a broad term and it's hard to categorize every style of Kung Fu together. Hung Gar, San shou, wushu taiji, etc.

Officially your belt wouldn't be recognized unless you're a good tournament competitor and that association wants you to join them. Unofficially I know many Kyokushin school that have no problem with someone wearing there black belt. I know an IKO1 Nidan that switched to IFK so he has no problem with IKO1, 2, 3 black belts crosstraining with him as long as they're willing to train hard. I know an IKO3(matsushima)dojo that is pretty open to crosstraining and even recognizes a student that is a shotokan shodan and allows him to wear his rank. who has what rank in what association and bickering over it is pretty petty. If someone is a quality black belt it really shouldn't matter, now should it? This is how it used to be years ago, even if you were from another style it was somewhat common to hear about a Goju blackbelt training in a shotokan dojo wearing his black belt and vice versa.

This is a clip from Arte Suave which is basically a brazilian jiu jitsu video magazine. If you have the means I highly reccomend watching any Arte Suave you can. I just got done watching one that had Jacare, Royler, and many other top dogs of bjj. Was interesting watching Royler roll with his young daughter. Seeing Jacare teach a huge children's class in Brasil and his "bed".

I haven't really practiced it much in Karate but remembering doing more so in Aikido/Aikijujitsu. It is a karate technique, too just not something I have practiced much in training.

What I'm saying is from my own experience what you're looking for doesn't allow takedowns, usually, anyway. I crosstrained in an americanized/japanese shito ryu dojo at the same time I was in a totally traditional Japanese shito ryu dojo. The sweeps/takedowns were allowed at the more traditional tournaments vs. the americanized one. I think maybe if you found a sport jujutsu school this would work for you, perhaps but I don't know of any in Seattle. I'd suggest doing a google search and just looking in the phone book. By the way, Minakami's dojo does do sparring, a pretty decent ammount of it. Minakami, WKA, and many other traditional dojo around Seattle have lots of tournament opportunities. I haven't kept up on the freestyle/open tournament scene in over ten years so perhaps they have some with takedowns allowed now besides the sport jujutsu ones? I really don't know.

What kind of "sport karate" do you mean? WKF rules? If so, this is who I would reccomend in the Seattle area: http://www.minakamikarate.com/ My first tournament ever, was one of Minakami Shihan's tournaments when I was a kid. I would reccomend his dojo over the WKA. If you want Kyokushin or something similar send me a private message...send me one if you want a particular style. I live very close by the Seattle area and I know of goju ryu, shorin ryu, shotokan, kyokushin, and many other styles in the Seattle area. Oops, I just saw your mat shoes requirement, umm...good luck with that in Karate unless you have a medical reason. If you do some more Americanized style of karate you could probably wear shoes but in Japanese/Okinawan styles, probably not(from my own experience never seen it). I competed in some "open style tournaments" that had more of the americanized styles where you compete with foam dipped sparring gear and I don't remember takedowns being allowed. NOt to say there isn't takedowns allowed in the more Americanized styles.

Have you ever bitten someone in a grappling situation? I have been bitten. It ticked me off and I made the lock tighter. Also, think about it - when Something sudden happens, what is the natural human reaction? to tense up. If I have you in an armbar and you bite me and I tense up, the arm bar gets tighter... When you extend the arms to gouge, you generally leave yourself open to get your arm locked. The only time I chose to take a fight to the ground the person was fishhooking me while I had him in the mount. I had him in an armbar and he tried to bite his way out and I just started kicking my heel over and over on his face, breaking his nose. From him fishooking I had skin that got ripped off inside my mouth but it definitely wasn't going to "stop" me. The biting, fishhooking, eyegouging, etc. that you're talking about that a Karateka would do on the ground is something a BJJ person could easily do, too. It's the same thing as crossfacing, neck cranks, etc....You don't need to practice these sort of techniques a lot in randori. REason why.....they don't take much skill and cause needless injury. It's just randori.

99% of people under 18 in the USA don't fight with elbows(I know of 2 that do somehow)allowed. Knees to the head is another story, it's not common but I know of a few fight cards where people under 18 are allowed to do so. Typically what elbows and knees said is correct. In Canada I always fought with at least knees to thead being legal, though. I'd also like to 2nd the wait a while to fight. Let your Kru know yo're interested in fighting and he/she will get you a fight and get you ready when they feel you are.

If they cut off the trouser ties you'll be taking advantage of a great deal more than that! haha, I obviously didn't mean the ties on the trousers because I think this is called a drawstring I meant the ties on the Gi top...

I admit I'm not really following this thread much but why does Alsey keep bringing up Samurai into this? Samurai had very little or practically nothing to do with Karate. Legit Karate draws it's roots/lineage to Okinawa. Okinawans weren't really known to be Samurai, they were known to be fishers and farmers. Samurai were typically Japanese, enough said. If you study an art like Wado Ryu you have some jujutsu in the art, ok...even Konishi's Ryobukai has some aikido/jujutsu qualities in it. All other stles have some newaza bunkai in the kata, sure. Traditional Okinawan bunkai in Karate kata isn't jujutsu. Kano and Funakoshi were friends, yes...Ueshiba was friends with Funakoshi too...I don't think Aikido is in Shotokan, do you? Some of Funakoshi's senior students trained in other arts. Many of them trained under Mabuni to learn Kata that Funakoshi did not know. Many of them also came from Kendo backgrounds into Shotokan. The simple fact is if you want to learn good newaza go into BJJ or Judo. Don't rely on your Shotokan training.

There are many variations but it's generally not a good habbit to step forward 45 degrees every time you kick. This is more of a "tool" for a beginner in muay thai and an advanced practitioner shouldn't have to do this nor switch to throw their lead leg. What I mean is if you're orthadox/right handed and want to throw your left kick and have been training for a few years you shouldn't have to switch your stance to do so. It's much harder to throw the lead leg roundhouse, i know but it pays off if you can do it. I personally prefer to always pivot on the balls of my feet but this is how I was trained, too. Something about Dekkers that you should know is that his trainer Cor Hemmers didn't train in Muay Thai when he taught Ramon. Im not joking, neither...he watched other trainers/videos/etc. and they figured it out on there own together. Now, I know Ramon has trained in some muay thai camps in Thailand, etc. and around the world and I'ms ure his father in law, Cor has, too. What I am hinting at here, perhaps everthing you have seen Dekkers do isn't how it's doen in other muay thai camps. There are pros and cons to every variation of the dtae/roundhouse but what I will say is that if you chop it down/turn your hip over when you do it you will generate more power. I'm not taling about the quick snap/whip variation, neither...This kick is more powerful if you turn it over and chop down but it's a slower kick. Preacher Puk is very infamous for having an awesome Dtae that he turns over.

The thing I always noticed about Lewis was he could kick but obviously favored to punch. Maybe he grew out of this and I only saw earlier fights? I know the man can kick, I'm not disputing that but what I'm saying is in some fights he was about 95% punching and 5% kicking. Urquidez kicked a lot more in the fights I saw of him and from fights I've seen of him and people I know that trained with him, the man has a brick head...he can take a hit.

The reason why I know this is because a former instructor of mine was in black belt to do a photo shoot for an article of someone I won't name but only because the individual does deserve any article published about them...and I don't want it to seem like this individual is someone like Mr. Ragnar. I was a very curious 18-19 y/o so I asked my instructor how the individual got approached by black belt and he told me this person paid $ to be in Black Belt. I thought that was interesting because the person is a legit martial artist but looking back it was a smart move for this individual because she wasn't that known outside the area she's from. Sadly, I see too many articles in black belt now by some individuals that in my humble opinion shouldn't be teaching anybody, anything. I'm not saying all articles in Black Belt are like this because I don't think they are. Some of them are good articles but nowadays I only see 1-2 good articles in Black Belt and the rest isn't too good. Than again my opinon on some martial arts contrasts greatly with others. I'm more of a muay thai, karate, jiu jitsu, mma kind of guy.

Ummm, if you have a karate gi you should take the ties off. Cut them off, now...if not when you spar me I'll take advantage of your gi

a little secret about black belt...if you have the money to pay them you could post an article about yourself in the magazine. Not every article in black belt is one they just decided to do, they're paid for by that individual(s).

I don't know about anyone teaching Daido Juku in the USA but there is some kakutogi. The problem is that kakutogi isn't really known about in the USA so the few people I know that teach it don't really say "kakutogi". The best way for me to explain it is, Kakutogi is martial sport but practitioners of it compete in knockdown rules tournaments, mma, muay thai/kickboxing, etc. I would perhaps suggest getting into Enshin or any other knockdown rules karate that allows grabbing/clinching at all in competition. Unfortunately, most Kyokushin doesn't allow this in competition anymore....to me, this changes the way a fight is greatly. p.s I still respect Kyokushin a lot and a couple of months ago competed in a kyokushin tourny but wish they allowed grabbing/clinching, like Sabaki

I was one of those. the guy I trained with was born and raised in japan and only taught a few kata - even though he knew all of the shotokan kata and actually helped me with them, as I was also training karate under someone else at the time - he himself only taught taikyoku shodan and sanchin. everything else was drilling and sparring. Sounds like you were very lucky to have someone that focused on a couple of kata. I believe heavily in quality over quantity. I have kind of broken away from my shito ryu roots when I teach kata now to only teach about a dozen, max. Even though I "know" around 40 but only feel comfortable in about 4.

Any honest Aikidoka will tell you Aikido takes longer to learn to be able to apply; more so, than an art like Karatedo. I only trained for a year in Aikido and still respect the art a lot but where I live, imo, the Aikido leaves much to be desired. The only advice I can give you is to go to all of these schools and see which one you like the most. I can't tell you what to like, only you can tell yourself that.

The only thing close to this that I do is wear my gi pants only. i always have at least a t shirt I can throw on and wear my flip flops and drive home. I don't even feel comfortable driving around with my full gi top and black belt on. BTW, Pasa Ryu is by Kang Rhee(https://www.wbbb.org)and can be done by video testing or testing in private. From what I understand it is more "old school" Tae Kwon Do with the forms being more "shotokan'ish".

I've competed in Muay Thai, Kyokushin, and Sabaki matches. Twice I have came very close to getting Ko'd in Muay Thai competition and I just remember covering up until the round was over. I won both of these fights, too. The thing I learned most from fighting is that I always think I did better than I did until I watch the tape later. Every green fighter fights sloppy there first few fights, for some, it takes 10+ fights before they stop fighting sloppy. For my first muay thai fight I got on the fight poster because of my Kru's connections, I was 18 and a senior in highschool. I was supposed to fight an individual that trained for over 10 years and was around my age, he started out in muay thai very young. I think I only had about 9 months of training in muay thai but was almost a nidan in shito ryu at the time. Anyway, the day of the fight one of the fight promoters comes to my hotel room and tells me that my opponent backed out and that if I didn't mind fighting someone else, I said sure because I trained very hard for this fight. Turns out my opponent is a 37 y/o when I'm 18 in a muay thai fight...I'm a southpaw and a fairly decent kicker, so I kept inside leg kicking my opponent with my rear(left leg)over and over. He was trying to say I kicked him in the groin to buy more time which I didn't...he was a hometown fighter(vancouver, BC)so the ref let it go a few times. Finally in the 3rd round the Ref starts yelling at him that he knows it wasn't a groin kick. I knocked down my opponent at least 6 times from leg kicks being exhausted because I kept kicking and kicking him but he wouldnt' quit. Finally with a few seconds left in the fight I connect full on with a roundhouse to his head and follow up with an inside leg kick right after, he goes down...is given the standing count and won't get up. I won by TKO with only one second left in the fight! I'll always remember this fight the most because I never competed in kickboxing, just WKF rules point karate and a few WTF tkd rules matches. I later found out talking to some people the person I originally was supposed to fight was very good and it was to be his first Muay Thai fight, too and that he didn't want to risk losing in his hometown(I'm in the Seattle area). Looking back if he was as half as good as I heard he would have probably won that fight if he didn't back out

GRUPO AXE!!! REPRESENT ZENT ZENT!!! Yes, finally someone talked about BJJ and Capoeira, they go together very well. I don't know why capoeira doesn't get better respect. I have met so many people ever since only the strong came out 10 years ago or longer that claim to do capoeira that obviously don't know the first thing about it.

Lots of Muay Thai guys have a Tae Kwon Do or Karate background. TKD is huge in Thailand, yeah I'm very well aware that muay thai is the national sport but TKD is still huge. I'm not a TKD practitioner but I have trained with and under a few top Muay Thai people that are anywhere from 4th to 7th Dan black belts in TKD, too. One of them that comes to mind is Master Toddy. They combine some of the TKD kicks into the Muay Thai and modify some of them. Like Elbows said I wouldn't reccomend using TKD footwork in Muay Thai, I have yet to seen that done effectively. Hey, I'm not a TKD hater and I wouldn't use Karate footwork in Muay Thai, neither. One possible "bad" thing I have noticed since I got into muay thai a decade ago is that I'm so accustomed to a squared fighting stance that it's very hard for me to ever be in a side stance when I'm doing Karate. I don't feel comfortable in a side stance at all.