username8517

Out of curiousity, in hindsight did it seem that it was more socially acceptable or was it just the bystander effect?

Destructions are a beautiful thing. Beautiful beautiful things. We teach our lower belts the basics of the blocks (i.e.--how to do them properly, etc etc.) and then as the students reach the end of the intermediate to advanced phases of the kyu ranks we show them how to incorporate destructions, guntines, and other ways to defang the snake into their blocks.

Martial arts are about defending yourself. If you think you training is not allowing you to learn the techniques you need to protect yourself then find another school. If you're in martial arts for other reasons other than learning how to defend yourself, then you can easily suppliment that training with other activities. Now if you're enjoying other aspects of your training that's great, but at the core of it, you should be learning how to defend yourself should you ever have to. Granted there are a lot of stuff out in the martial arts that I would consider junk, but there is also a lot that instructors and students who really know their stuff. And I'd say that the vast majority of them you won't find on Final Fu and Youtube. Furthermore, if you're going to carry a weapon, gun, knife, pepper spray, stun gun, or otherwise, you need to do so with intelligence. This means that you have to not only know how to use the weapon effectively; you must also know it's strengths, weaknesses, and when you should and shouldn't try to use it. Just because you have a CCW permit doesn't mean that you'll be able to stop all instances of violence against you. Here in this post I recalled an instance similiar to Montana's previous example where I called out a lady who claimed all she needed was her gun she had in her purse. In conclusion, I'm all for people carrying weapons to protect themselves just as long as they don't fall back on it as a crutch for their safety. You need to train in all aspects of defending yourself. After all, what happens when you take away someone's crutch--they fall down.

Shogen-Ryu Created after Osensei Nagamine's death (founder of Matsubayashi-ryu) to teach the karate Shoshin Nagamine originally taught.

I believe it's 25M over the next five years **edit--just checked, its 32.5M over 5 years without endorsements http://www.sportsnetwork.com/default.asp?c=sportsnetwork&page=soc-mls/news/ahn4092271.htm

Could you please provide any proof to the claims you make about it: - Employment by CIA - 98% success rate in fights of which 75% where to the death - Used in over 5,000 encounters globally in under 14 months - What branches of the US Military and Seals is it taught to as well as what sectors of the CIA - The ability to become a "expert" and have "perfected combat" within one year - This style is considered so effective that it may represent the last great upgrade in global martial art fighting technology - Until this style became regularly used in American espionage circles, the martial art of choice for world espionage agents was some form of Bujinkan Ninjutsu - Nations of the world are converting their hand-to-hand combat programs to forms of traditional and modern karate with results that are slow up to this point I would also be interested in reading any website and reports you may have about it as well. And I doubt all of this stuff would be confidential since you're already out here on an open forum offering up open information already between this thread and the Blocking & Parrying thread (but yet have to keep it secret from terrorists and hostiles)

I'm failing to see how a point--at all. First, people were training in fighting techniques to cover hand to hand and grappling situations long before European civilization (which is where the majority of Americans ultimately hail from) even discovered the Orient. So to simply say that MMA only includes fighting styles derived from the Asian styles would be like saying that racing cars never occured before NASCAR. There are many MMA fighters who trainin boxing and wrestling, both of which are not your typical Asian fighting styles. Are they still expected to bow prior to starting a fight? Second, as you concede, UFC is a sport. And here in America there is trash-talking in every major sport shown on tv--football, basketball, boxing, MMA--the list goes on. Why do you expect MMA to be any different? On top of that, there are many guys (I've even wager the majority) in the MMA world who don't trash talk--Jeremy Horn, for example, has been called one of the nicest guys inside and out of the ring by many of his UFC opponents and training partners. Finally (technically I could go on, but I'll leave it here), why is bowing the only sign of respect MMA fighters can show? As previously mentioned by multiple people, there are various ways that MMA fighters already show their respect towards each other (touching gloves, hugging, etc.) Even after Jens Pulver got destroyed by BJ Penn at the finale of The Ultimate Fighter 5, he said he was going to train directly with BJ to increase his grappling game--granted it's not bowing, but it sounds to me like Pulver has a great deal of respect for BJ to learn directly from the person that beat him. In the end, philiosphy and fighting are two totally different aspects of human nature. Just because some choose to blend them together doesn't mean that everyone else has to follow the same ideals (or even agree with it).

Not my post. In fact, this is the first post I've had on this topic

True, but I wouldn't be suprised if he wasn't juiced during his last UFC fight with Hughes

In regards to the bone growth, what is actually happening with these light strikes is that you're creating tiny stress fractures along the bones. These stress factures are then left to heal on their own accord. Calcium deposits form on these injuries and solidify, thus creating additional bone mass. And you're right, body training would need to be kept up at a fairly regular pace to keep the additional bone mass around. If you've ever felt the bone line of somone who does hard conditioning (say the shin of a Muay Thai boxer) versus someone who hasn't, you'll easily be able to tell the difference. Not sure about the nerve damage, but I'm sure it's possibly related to a higher pain tolerance.

Royce Gracie tested positive for steroids a month ago http://grg51.typepad.com/steroid_nation/2007/06/mma_legend_royc.html

Since it's a sport does it really matter if they bow before a match or not? They almost always touch gloves at the start which is their way of showing respect towards each other. Personally I have seen a UFC fighter bow before the fight (it was one of the contestants on The Ultimate Fighter, but for the life of me I can't remember who he was), but the vast majority of them do not appear to. However, I fail to see how this is a problem. "MMA" is a term used primarily for the sporting aspect, but if you want to get technical mma means simply that--mixed martial arts. I know a very skilled karateka up in Canada who holds a 5th degree in the style he teaches. He also has a blue belt in BJJ and takes private lessons from a 3rd Degree black belt in JJJ, all of which he passes on to his students. Technically this would make him a MMA fighter. And in his dojo his students follow the traditional bowing (among other things) that was mentioned. In my dojo, we blend kali and silat into our karate. Since we are incorporating other styles into our karate you could say that we were a mma dojo. Not the MMA that comes to mind when you first hear it as we don't really touch upon grappling on the ground all too much, but we do mix together martial arts including striking and clinching. Which brings me back to my point, "MMA" is just a term used to describe a control sporting environment where two people fight to see who comes out on top. Many of the top MMA fighters have history in traditional martial arts (Chuck Liddell is a black belt in Okinawan Kempo and George St. Pierre got started in martial arts through karate just to name the first two that pop in my head). In the end if and when you need to use your martial arts training, philosophy and religion are going to be the least of your worries.

I have actually had nothing but bad experiences with New Balance What I would recommend is just getting a comfortable pair of shoes (perhaps an orthopedic insert if you feel you'll need it) and simply stretch throughly.

Going to have to disagree with you here. First, when were martial arts created? Was it the first time someone showed another a fighting technique or when the terminalogy needed to be created to define it? If you want to learn a martial art, then find an instructor to teach you. How can a book or video correct your bad technique? Nor can a book or video provide you a safe place to exercise these moves on a resisting opponent. Yes you could self-train with a friend but you would rather do so under the direct supervision of someone you can can see and speak to or someone who the only thing you know about them is what is given to you in print format? If you want to suppliment your training with information gathered from books or videos then that's fine as you can always run by what you pick out from someone who knows what's practical and effective.

As it's been stated, there's nothing wrong with making a living off of martial arts. The problem comes when instructors starting seeing dollar signs instead of students and worry more about keeping a minimum number of students in to pay the rent than the quality of instruction they teach.

When I did kama training (way back in the day), I was never really satisified with the weapon in general. Everything I was taught seemed borderline impractical and just too rigid. Then one day (over a decade later), when training in a kali class, it dawned on me, the kama was just like the escrima, only shorter and with a blade on the end. That was the spark I needed. From there, I basically threw out everything that I happened to remember of my old kama training and applied some kali principles to it. Now granted, due to the differences between a kama and an escrima, not everything is transferrable, but the core concepts and most basic parries & strikes are. My advice would be to get yourself into a kali class and then when you have a handling on how to use an escrima effectively, then go back and adapt it to kamas (and don't worry too much about the flashy tricks you've mentioned).

I thought it was both

And you don't want to take a roundhouse to the face when wearing one of those bad boys

Absolutely. Good debates are always refreshing. Yes, guns are a handy self-defense weapon to have, I just do not buy the whole concept of protecting myself solely with a gun (note: this is not to say that I'm against carrying a gun. Believe me, I'd have a CCW permit if I didn't think my wife would use it on me ). The problem I see with relying on a gun is that you need to be aware of the threat at a reasonable time and pace. Carrying a concealed firearm will do you no good if you're suddenly ambushed at a close proximety such as turning a blind corner or if some bumps into and then stands chest to chest ala "I'm more macho than you" manner. In fact, just five months ago I had a conversation with a parent about this very thing. She was signing her son up for classes because she did a different style of karate for a few months many years ago (before having to stop due to time constraints) and thought it would be good. I asked her if she had any desire to get back into martial arts. Her reply was that she had a CCW and that was all the martial arts she needed. Now she was wearing a fairly loose outfit where the gun could have easily been concealed so I politely asked where she carried her gun. She replied she kept it in her purse. I then told her that at the distance we were at (maybe a yard apart) she would never even get a chance to grab her purse, let alone open it, produce her gun, take aim, and fire. She just stood there silent for a second. I then told her that if she wanted a demonstration of how much of a disadvantage she was at by relying solely on the gun, she could stand across the dojo floor with one of our practice knives in small of her back (to represent a gun) and I would storm across the floor (20') to see if she could draw and fire before I reached her. She declined. Absolutely. In everything in life there are those who it comes natural to and those who cannot succeed to save their life. But those people tend to be the exception to the rule rather than the norm. Once again, I agree. I carry a pocket knife on me nearly anytime I leave the house. During work hours it's a tool to help me perform certain aspects of my job (opening packages for inspection) and during other hours it's a tool I use if I never need to defend myself (thankfully I haven't). But I also don't rely on the sole fact that it's a blade to save me--I studied kali for a bit to learn how to wield the blade properly, much in the way martial arts is used to teach us how to wield our body proplery. But neither the blade nor my bare hands will ever provide the advantages the other does.

The inherent purpose of martial arts should be fighting. Granted there are off-shoots that have sprung up more geared towards other aspects of lifestyle (XMA for example), but martial arts were refined as a system of moves to be used in a fighting situation. Bushido, while a positive goal to aim for in anything you do, was not the reasoning behind the creation of karate. Rather it was a piece of an already existing culture that was applied to it. French Savate was created by the social elite as a way to protect themselves from the underbelly of their society, rather than a way to perfect their their social and economic power over the vagrants and beggers. This is the essence of martial arts--fighting and protection. Furthermore, the reason nearly all training halls don't encourage the moves and techniques to be demonstrated outside the training hall is not out of wanting to force the students to adhere to a strict moral and ethic code, but rather many of the techniques can have serious and highly effective end results. This is to keep the training of unrefined skills kept in the dojo and out of the hands of children on a playground showing off (thereby creating unneccesary injuries in an unjustifiable manner). Personally, I take martial arts to know how to better prepare myself in the off chance that something should happen. I am not saying that I live in a bad neighborhood or live a dangerous lifestyle. However, as I cannot see the future. I do not know what lies in wait for me ten years from now or even ten minutes from now. I would rather train to protect myself in the event of being attacked than doing something else. And yes, I may never need to use my skills. But that is certainly no guarantee. Taking the anology of flying. Let's go ahead and say you did spend years learning to fly, but never really did. Then one day you're on a plane taking a cross country flight and the pilot has a heart attack. Granted you've never actually flown a plane before, but with your years of training, you would at least have a basic understanding of what you were encountering, what kind of problems you can expect, what results certain moves might have, and how to resolve the situation. Even if you fail at saving the plane, how is that any worse than never trying? For an anology of my own, I could easily swap out my time training and teaching for other activities such as basketball. But how much good will my skills shooting an outside jumpshot help me if I'm minding my own business one day on the court and someone decides to jump me because he thought I disrespected him in some way? The point is, yes, not everyone may train to learn how to defend themselves. Which is why as you put it, there are a lot of BB who don't know how to fight. But do you blame the school, the student, or the style for that? Is it the schools fault for teaching ineffective junk to students desperately wanting to learn? Is it the students fault if they only want the exercise aspect of it? Or is the style's fault for being trying to be everything to everyone and becoming watered down and never applying real resistence in their training? Short answer is that none of these are the answer. Each of us have our own training methods and goals. Granted there are those of us who train with the end goal of improving their lives and bodies. But there are those of us that train to fight--even if we never have to.

No he didn't. In the season finale of the TUF he got another chance to enter the ring and did basically the same thing. He did manage to make it into a clinch a few times, but then he immediately made his way out.

You mean left hand?

I can't find anything on New World Martial Arts Association either aside from a few links to an aikido book called "Aikido Techniques & Tatics". Not a good start for an world association to be lacking a website. Here is one of the three links that came up about the book and author Click here Do you know a website for this karate club or school you are inquiring about?

Rampage with a KO win in the first round

I'm going with Rampage. He's done it once he can do it again