NightOwl

Bruce Lee did study kung fu- a major selling point for wing chun (which I have briefly studied). However what most people forget is that he rejected his traditional kung fu training and didn't think very highly of it. I'm not saying that to mean kung fu is useless- but if you wanted to train like Bruce lee (as you mentioned him studying kung fu) then JKD or a similar style would be closer to what you are looking for. What techniques would be used for hyper extending a knee during a kick while smashing the face/ throw counter that wouldn't be found in judo?

Actually, tai chi forms originally were performed usually at a fast pace, however time has generally changed the original purpose of the art. Also, the human body doesn't fall apart at high speeds- although scientists originally were afraid that it did....when they were test piloting the first planes to break the sound barrier. Happily, it was found that even going faster than sound, the human body will not explode. Poison hand usually is not used to refer to styles that make people go so fast that they hurt themselves, but rather is used as a English word for the controversial 'dim mak'.

I know people into MMA that are very friendly and all around good guys. You also have to keep in mind that Eastern Martial arts were never traditionally about making yourself a better person, respect and humility, etc. This is more or less a modern invention- gangs in old China were traditional hotspots for kung fu practitioners. Samurai create ryu started jujutsu, and there were plenty of REALLY nasty samurai. Go to a karate competition, and you and find plenty of politics and backstabbing (karate and other martial arts were also stressed during WWII to militarize the population). I could list plenty of examples. The quasi spiritual reasons for martial arts have always been somewhat present in certain groups (shaolin, aikido), but what really helped sell it were Japanese martial artists convincing American forces that they were not about fighting (aikido was one of the first I believe to be allowed), and marketing to a western audience. Yes, I too get sick of some of the 'attitude' of many mma orgs and wish they would be a bit more professional, however...

seeing how gorillas only live in Africa, and pumas are native to the Americas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puma), a native Chinese wouldn't have been making either a Puma or Gorilla form. Also, a google search for 'bare forms' + search terms such as 'kung fu' and 'martial arts' led to no results. If you could please show any links or video, I would be very interested in it. Also, I couldn't find the Chinese style listed under your name as 'Mang Chuan'. It shows up neither on wikipedia's 100+ kung fu style list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_martial_arts) nor on a google search.

New mma flick coming out starring your favorites in the field like Randy Couture and Tim Allen. Wait.... http://youtube.com/watch?v=9LB018K6-lM

Ah- then I was going to recommend the Mizuno double- I've been very happy with it. Don't know too much about karate gis

http://youtube.com/watch?v=32NRLiMKHI8 http://youtube.com/watch?v=kDTjMooYTBE&feature=related http://youtube.com/watch?v=J0q3ZJnI868&feature=related That's as probably as much of that cartoon that you'll ever want to see. Favorite quote:

best of luck to you both. maybe you'll end up as joint owners of your own family ma's school one day! .......no Mrs. Nightowl as of now though.

What martial art is it for?

You forgot to mention that he is an incarnation of Buddha (according to him)

If you just want some fundamentals, you could see if your local community college has some classes. However I don't know how much that will help you as far as Japanese for martial arts classes go. I've been studying Japanese for going on 7 years and I can't tell you how to say 'flying sidekick' in Japanese (beyond a guess). It's mostly technical words that you probably would best find on a karate site rather than one dedicated to Japanese language.

hey!

Welcome! Glad to have another owl.

Howdy

The thought process of JKD and MMA are VERY similar- I'm sure Bruce Lee would have had a great interest in the MMA movement. However the philosophy of JKD was a bit ahead of its time...in a way. I suppose martial artists have always been cross training (any founder of an art usually has a nice variety) since way back when. However the attitude of Lee was in many ways in my opinion a distillation of this mixing of arts- removing the idea of martial 'systems' in of themselves and looking just at techniques. MMA however, evolved more or less independently. The first major MMA tournaments were mixed only in that practitioners were not all of the same style. However the success of ground fighting convinced people to factor in grappling with their striking- thus creating 'mixed' martial artists that picked and choose techniques similar to lee, but also had a strong emphasis on making sure the techniques added up to a well rounded fighter

I'd have to say that's pretty cool- unfortunately I'm the only one in my family/circle of friends with an interest in martial arts. My girlfriend and I might start BJJ together though...

Dunno- the teachers are different every day and although Judo is more casual than other martial arts, I don't want to spend 40 bucks ( ) to find out if they will let me just be the throw guy or not. Plus I don't want to have to clear it with every other student as well. I guess I'll just have to see if my friends won't mind too much Really, though, it is frustrating as a 2 month interruption doesn't help proficiency. I might check to see if I can do a little BJJ since it isn't high impact and at least will help with my ground game

Ok- maybe it was a bad analogy even if I used soccer. The point was questioning the value of something if a ton of people get it with great ease. Let's try economics instead of sports- gold is valued as a substance that is more resistant to the effects of inflation than the dollar because of its 'set' amount/ relative scarcity. However, if suddenly a giant gold cache was found under every home in china, the value of gold would become less then dryer lint (a good investment I've been told). Currently, if you had 50 bars of gold, you'd be considered pretty well off. But what if everyone else could get the same thing to the point where gold bars were being used as paper weights? Suddenly your gold bars wouldn't be that special. Yes, a black belt is as previously defined a: "pre-defined level within the system they are studying". However when a question is posed like 'What does a Snicker's bar/baseball/happiness mean?' , I usually assume that they are looking for something beyond the dictionary definition of the term unless they are unfamiliar with said topic or word. Unless of course you are saying that it has no other special or symbolic meaning beyond just what it is- which in that case your opinion is similar to mine in which I thought it didn't 'mean' much (on the whole seemingly suspiciously common and otherwise depending on the individual/system/school). The difference in opinion then- or rather take on the question- was our differing interpretations on the question. ...it's late and I will probably wake up tomorrow and not remember writing this.

Yeah, I've heard that the average life expectancy for a sumo is sorter than the norm.

The WKF represents what style though? Shotokan? Kyokushin? Goju-ryu? Each has their own kata and philosophy. Add that in with the Olympic committee probably not taking in another kickboxing event (Sambo is a no go because it is too similar to judo for example), and you have a group which wants to be in charge but probably will just be another offshoot group of karate. Boxing in the Olympics uses a point system. Either way though, none of these are TKD whoose participation in the Olympics is the matter at hand, not karate's chances of getting in (China made a big push to get in wushu). I still stand by my original opinion that the major governing bodies of TKD have the highest goal of getting in numbers and increasing its popularity as a world sport, and aren't so much concerned with it as a 'combative' sport.

No pink is too well done but if it moos...

Obviously you didn't appreciate the American football analogy...we all know what REAL football is but we choose to ignore it

No, it isn't a zen koan I've actually been out of training for awhile since I caught a REALLY nasty bug that ended up with me 5 days in the hospital last week. Fortunately, I am much better, however unfortunately I've been told that contact sports are a no go until about April (unless I want one or more of my internal organs to explode...too much information I know). So what to do? I'm out for 2 months- how do I train judo?

It probably has roots in local grappling styles which are a martial art in many cultures around the world from Europe to Africa. Many samurai were early sumo since there was little use for their talents once the warring states period ended.

Wrist locks have a sort of negative reputation in the MMA field (of which BJJ is a huge part), mostly because a lot of unrealistic disarms and the like rely on them. Also, many times it is easier to score an arm bar (which is often more incapacitating anyhow) then a wrist lock- especially standing. However to dismiss them outright is not good. I've personally witnessed someone who crossed over from hapkido into bjj pull off a classical wrist lock against a surprised opponent while rolling.