Enter the Spaz

I agree with everyone who advocates maintaining distance and awareness. It looks like some on this clip knew that they were in a confrontational situation, yet they stood their like a deer in the headlights. And then some had no idea it was coming, I guess there's not much that could be done there. On the other side of the coin, since preemptive strikes are all the rage in the RBSD arena one could see how a preemptive strike could be carried out, like the guy who turns to walk away and then turns back and strikes, or the nice uppercut the one guy pulled off from having his hands low. Hi Cross, I'm not sure what the passive stance entails, could you elaborate a bit. Thank you.

Here is a video compilation of Sucker Punches, done in typical youtube fashion with horrible music and all http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=11de4ea590 So if you've never seen what a sucker punch looks like.... Seems like many of the people in the video could avoid this from happening with a change of lifestyle. How would you defend against these?

Very good points, I have to speak from my own experience and my experience only. I had the chance to go to either and I chose TKD because I really loved the kicks and that's all there is to it. I was young (11 yrs old) and highly impressionable. I wasn't at all that fascinated with Karate in general. I looked at books in the Library, stuff by Tegner and others and it just looked stiff to me, hey... I was 11 mind you. My sister took me across town to visit the Dojang and I was impressed with the store front as well, the nearby (near my house) Karate school was dank and very little advertisement on the building. It looked kind of scary too. Ah but Oh's TKD now, all the paintings on the front of the building with guys flying through the air kicking, Master Oh smashing a stack of bricks and the dragons, you cannot have MAs without dragons. I was taken by the flair! LOL I'll have to ask my friends why they choose TKD first next time we're together. It's hard to get a word in when 11 people are all talking at once. I suspect your theories are the most accurate though.

I agree in part, and would like to add that gaining access to attack the throat is rarely direct. You will most likely need to attack other areas to create a distraction or make the opening, but it obviously depends on what your opponent is offering you at the time.I agree with this wholeheartedly Cross.

To paraphrase, a boxing coach once told me that boxing gloves actually facilitate more knock outs than what bare knuckles might because bare knuckles tend to slide off of the skull and cause more superficial damage, where the gloves do not so more of the force is absorbed by the head due to the larger striking surface. He also said that back in the early days of bare knuckle boxing, the bouts would last for a very long time with both contestants being bloodied beyond recognition. If this is true, then I imagine palm strikes would have the same effect as boxing gloves in jarring the brain, more so than a fist might.

I was hanging out with some MA friends tonight and we got on the discussion of what was the first MA everyone studied. 8 out of the 11 people present all started with TKD and ended up studying other arts, some very diverse and weird arts too. It just got me thinking, if some of these people had never studied TKD first, I wonder if they would've perused studying in other arts? I know when I first visited a Dojang in my town, I was blown away by the flashy kicks and wanted to start right away. I don't know if I had visited the Shorin Ryu Dojo (second style I studied) first, would I have been so enticed by watching people shuffling up and down the floor throwing back fist - reverse punch combos for an hour and a half. I just wonder how many people here were lured into the MAs by TKD's beauty (like me) and then seek to round things out in other arts.

This is supposed to be Wing Chun Vs. a Street Fighter, I hear rummor it was staged. Hard to tell though.

In the first part of Wing Chun's Sil lim tao form, the Tan Sau (palm up block), Wu Sau (praying" palm, rear guard hand, guarding hand) and Fook Sau (bridging hand or bridge-on arm) are linear movements (isn't everything in WC?) and performed very slowly. For some odd reason, this part of the form gives me the chills. Anyhow, I see no reason why linear movement couldn't performed slowly.

Weapons were a big part of my Shorin Ryu training. Nunchaku, Sia, Kama and the Bo were very big staples of the system. I have always felt that my Arnis training was probably the best training I have received during my entire martial arts career. If you can track a stick moving at 90mph, then a fast jab just seems rather slow. But, relying on weapons and neglecting empty hands would definitely be a detriment.

Who is that? "The Deadliest Man Alive" Too bad he's dead though... Anywho, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Dante

In the 70', chains and belts were a very popular weapons for street gangs and general tough guys. I remember my older brother and his friends actually practicing techniques and sparing one another using knotted ropes to simulate a chain or belt. They would practice defending against a knife or baseball bat. I don't know what they were practicing for, they weren't a gang themselves. I was way to young to participate... but it did look like fun. Back then, everyone wore belts with big heavy, gaudy buckles, and everyone rode bikes and used a chain to secure it... so in a way it was ingenious to learn to use these items as weapons. Chains (flexible weapons) can be very effective, if used properly. Just imagine getting hit upside the head with a padlock on the end of a chain.

I agree with shadow boxing and having a partner observe how you move prior to attacking. Also, get in the habit of throwing your techniques from where ever your hands or feet may be. This can eliminate a lot of the preparatory actions prior to launching an attack, and it makes you seem fast and sneaky. Don't forget feints. Feints are very good but only in moderation. And, it's also good to work on your counter fighting skills. It's harder for your opponent to defend while he is attacking. But like tracer bullets, that works both ways.

The grappling world was set on it's cauliflowered ear when they caught wind of Ashida's anti-grappling prowess. It's rumored that even the Gracies had spoke of giving up Ju-Jitsu in light of Ashida's unbeatable techniques. The late Carlson Gracie is quoted as saying "Who could defeat that? Who?" http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c136/dvbrown5/ashidakim2.jpg

This is from his book "Secrets of the Ninja." Note: Most tough guys wear their disco shirt under their Gi. http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c136/dvbrown5/AshidaKim.jpg With tactics like these, he would win easy in the UFC. He is one bad dude.

I heard this once, one way to be effective without being aggressive... you have to look at your opponant as nothing more than an obstacle. To paraphrase, you want his space, it's your space and you want it and in order to have it you need to move him out of it whether it be with kicks, punches or throwing him to the ground. Don't even think about his attack or counter-attack, it's your objective to move him and that's all. I thought it sounded like a sound philosophy.