username8517

Excellent post. Couldn't have said it better myself.

I agree 100%

I don't agree with stripping a rank for more than a class (and even then in rare situations), but I do give kudos to your instructor for letting him stay on and work his way back up. Hopefully it will be a humbling experience for the student. In my view, once you earn a rank, you've earned it; it's not something that can be taken away. At our dojo we have a benign problem student as well who made it up to 5th kyu before these issues started. What happened was the head instructor and I had a talk with said student. We told her that her rank was earned but currently she wasn't showing the mentality required for it. So until she fixed that aspect of her training, we wouldn't be promoting her to the next rank. After being denied the opportunity to test at the following promotion, the student more or less stopped coming (she still pops in about once a month for the past 9 months or so), but still has the same attitude. Guess that goes to show what's more important to some people.

I wouldn't worry too much about it NightOwl as that was obviously not mma (much to the same way the last video, but at least karate was closer to kickboxing than this mislabeled video). I have never seen a mma fight where one person always & non-chalantly sticks out an a wrist on a charging opponent and the opponent always grabs it. That was simply aikido done from a kneeling position. I'm curious as to whether the person posting the videos are trying to mislead us or simply confused.

^^^^ I take it you watched the latest CroCrop fight then In general, we don't instruct students to kick higher than their own waist--but mainly to the knees, groin, and shins

Yeah, it appears we are on the same page. I too pivot on my heel after my foot has been planted. Like I said, I took the original poster as saying they were having issues in the beginning of the turn, which is why I had an objection to your original comment on pivoting on the heels.

Perhaps it seems like there is some initial miscommunication between us. I am reading the initial post as pivoting in starting the initial turn, while it appears from the post above you are speak of after is how the foot moves after it's planted. If that is correct then I am agreement. But like I said, I took the inital post as in having trouble balance due to starting the turn by pivoting wrong.

I agree with the majority of what was posted already, but I actually disagree with this right here. All turns in the Pinan/Heian series can be performed on the balls of your feet. Anytime you pivot you should always be pivoting on the balls of your feet. The human body is anatomicaly built to maintain balance better on the balls of your feet rather than your heels. To simply show this just stand shoulder width apart. Once in position, raise your toes up off the ground and see how long you can keep from wobbling. After your done repeat but raise your heels off the ground so your weight is shifted towards the balls of your feet. Also try walking around on both your heels only and balls of your feet only and see which one is easier on your body.

Glad I'm not the only one

Another thing to keep in mind is that many street boxers will generally focus solely on their hands for attacks. Use your feet to deliver quick kicks to your opponents shins and knees-- and keep them low and fast. Even if you don't inflict a lot of damage with them it will certainly distract your opponent to give you an opening for other avenues of attack.

As far fetched as this sounds I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before someone tries to do it. But to put it plainly, I do not believe you can sue someone because they didn't teach you properly. You can't sue your driving instructor if you cause a car wreck for negiligent teaching three years after taking classes. Or you can't sue your high school teacher because you failed a test in class because of their "negligent teaching." I mean how do you judge a situation like that? Do you send the child to another instructor for the same amount of time and then throw him or her into another altercation and see how they fare that time? Or was the person just unlucky that day and you're teaching could have helped them if they weren't jumped from behind or maybe they were sick or simply not paying attention the day you went over drills relating to how they were attacked or maybe they even had sprained ankle or throbing headache, or any other of the countless possibilities. Then there's the whole point of proving negligence in instruction. It would first have to be determined at what point the law requires the instructor to provide care outside of the training hall's facility? Even after this is established, you would then have to proof that the instructor acted in a way that was carelessly withholding proper instructor despite foreseeing some kind of negative consequence from it. The only way I would say you would deserve to get sued under this negligent instruction is if you put a guarantee that the student(s) would never be harmed in a fight. And I don't know anyone who'd make that claim as it would just be setting themselves up for a fraud charge. It's as Angry said, the best bet is for conflict avoidance above all else.

Sure, but first let me preface this by saying this is my opinion and I realize not everyone might agree with it. So don't take it as me saying this should be written in stone. But the difference primarily comes from the training involved. To me there are a few distinctions between a martial art and a fighting style. First is that a martial art should be a complete system. Now when I say a complete system I don't mean that it has to cover all the ranges of attack (long range, close quarters, grappling), but rather it should teach the practioners to use anything and everything they have at their disposal at the time should they ever need to. By training primarily for a competition based end result, whether it be the UFC, point based kumite, etc, you are effectively conditioning your mind to always stay within the parameters of the rules you're training under. Removing a effective avenue of attack because it fall outside the rules of said competition is just taking one more tool away from someone. I believe this from first hand experience. When I was younger and studied karate at a different dojo we regularly did light-to-no contact sparring on a regular basis under normal tournament rules. Then years later at my current dojo when I went to spar under a different set of rules (basically unpadded medium contact and no groin, throat, or eye strikes--other rules are enforced if the two participants agree to such rules), I kept pulling my punches short of hitting their target and expecting my opponent to cease their attack because of the "open shot" they took. After a few shots in retaliation I quickly learned that I was a severe disadvantage until I broke my habit. Certainly martial arts of the past did spar with each to test their skills and abilities, but they did so to improve their fighting skill, not to win money, fame, or to see who could beat who. Second is a belief that martial arts are a tool of self-defense. This is not saying that martial artists need to study zen mediation or follow the bushido. But to use karate each style has something to the extent of "there is no first attack in karate." This wasn't because karateka of the past were holy men walking around, but rather because the karate they practiced was designed to end confrontation as quickly and efficently as possible, regardless of what had to be done and the consequences of fighting were very serious and occassionally deadly. Fighting competitions have an inherent safety net that protects both participants from serious injury. Taking the UFC as an example, should a potentially serious injury occur to Fighter B a ref and/or medical doctor will step in to examine it. Now if that injury was caused by an illegal move, Fighter A would be immediately disqualified from the competition (with other potential consequences from the governing body to come later). Once again, this falls back on the training involved. If Fighter A knows that small joint manipulations are illegal in a MMA competition, what are the odds that he/she will practice these, despite the fact they can be highly effective in a grappling situation? And the distinction I use between martial arts and fighting styles can be used across the board. I'm not using fighting style to only represent MMA, but any place that trains their students for an end result of a sporting competition--whether it be boxing, MMA, karate, TKD, Judo, etc. Show me a MMA gym that trains all aspects of their system and I'll call it a martial art. Show me a karate dojo that focuses on tournament sparring and I'll call it a fighting style. And lastly I'm not saying that what I call fighting styles as being ineffective--just a different way of training for people with different goals than me.

This is exactly why I don't consider it a martial art, but rather a fighting style for a competitive arena. Certainly there are exceptions to this in the MMA world though.

I hope this is some sort of April Fools joke. . .

Check out this web site http://www.pekiti.com/

This is just my impression of Capoeira so I may be completely off, but I believe Capoeira is more about a systems of feints and dodges to set up the strikes delivered and the dancing is an elaborate cover of said feints and dodges. If you watch two skilled Capoeira practioners doing their thing you'll notice they tend to do their jinga (spelling?) for a few moments and then begin another rotation through it only to change mid stride to incorporate some kind of kick, dodge, or cartwheel. As far as it's practicality, I'm sure it has some I don't think it's nearly as practical as other martial arts or fighting styles. This is based primarily off the level of physicallity required for good Capoeira. You don't see nearly as many people over the age of 40 practicing Capoeira as you do say karate or TKD (just to throw two examples out).

Yes, but if they had I wouldn't have gotten so much humor out of it.

Here's a video of a katana vs. a .50 caliber machine gun. The katana successfully slices 5 bullets before bullet number 6 destoys it (being destroyed in the process as well). While this feat is certainly impressive the odds of ever pulling it off it nothing more than movie magic. Besides, you'd still have the bullet fragments to contend with. Katana Video

Obviously due to the nature of kali you're best off with a partner. However since that isn't an option available to you often, I would recommend that you primarily focus on practicing your basics. --Run through your 12 angles again and again (and again). --Use your heavy bag as a target for your double stick work (the terms can differ from system to system but generally referred to as Heaven & Earth for example). --See if your instructor can/will teach you a few shadow boxing forms.

I would agree with it and I know my instructor would as well. Like blackxpress, my sensei tells everyone that joins that he wouldn't discourage them from doing tournaments and competitions, but a lot of the moves and techniques he shows are not allowed in competition. But yes, martial arts were originally created for fighting. However, one must also be aware that there are some junk Reality Based Self-Defense instructors out there just as there are with any TMA. A particular style, or lack there of, does not signify any guarantee to surviving on the streets.

Well if you're already questioning the decision this much ,along with the information you provided, I believe you already have your answer What I would recommend is looking at all the places in your area and find the one that best fits what you're looking for, even if it's in a different style altogether.

I'm just curious to what your take is on Five Deady Venoms (it's original title is Wu Du but it can also be found under Five Venoms). Classic 1970s kung fu style movie. Here is the IMDB listing of it

Well in all honesty I would say I do not know. I guess it all depends on what your standard of good is. Humble answer I know, but I haven't been in an acutal fight in well over a decade and even though I won, I feel that my skills have drastically improved since then. I would say my strengths lie in my stand up game. I work strikes, throws, and locks from those ranges from both a normal striking range and the clinch. And although I current do karate I work in aspects of other martial arts styles I have taken in the past such as Gunting (scissoring) from Silat. I also train to make myself aware of my surrounding at all times. As far as weaknesses go, I definately would have to say first and foremost my knees. Having blown both ACLs, any kind of hit to them harder than a love tap is seriously debilitating to me. Also, my grappling game could definately be improved upon. I've done enough BJJ (about a year) to hold my own against an inexperienced person, but I know that against a skilled wrestler or grappler I won't be able to hold them off forever. Also my cardio could be better, but that's just a personal peference.

I don't know, this could just be me over analyzing it, but I don't know if this is an example about how not to run a dojo. Watching the video again, I noticed that it was listed what the students would learn in the following order: Self-esteem To Be Part of a Team Confidence Self-Defense This tells me that based on the items listed and their order, the person running this dojo is more concerned about targeting soccer moms looking to put their kids in a sport than a martial art. Take that, combined with the actual commercial and I think we can all deduce that this was not targeted at hardcore martial artists or adults. I mean if you read in between the lines of the commercial it basically states that this place is a McDojo openly. If you're going to run a McDojo, why not just put it out there to begin with?

I was thinking earlier today that perhaps the James Bond movies, especially the older ones, are romanticized ninja homages with updated weapons and gadgets. Think about it--he sneak into his enemies lair in some sort of disguise (often wearing a tux to blend into the big social gatherings evil genuises always throw when plotting), while incognito he tries to learn about their plans and scheme (sometimes by talking directly to them or their cohorts), sabotages his enemies plans, and escapes, killing only when needed. Granted it may be a strech, but it made me laugh this morning.