NightOwl

The uniform and dojo kun are Japanese creations that have been in karate only since the 1920's or so. There are a fair number of Okinawans who consider themselves Okinawan first and Japanese second, so I wouldn't be too surprised if some didn't want to incorporate Japanese additions to 'their' art (although this is conjecture on my part). Central park in a gi...I've seen stranger there myself

about 2 times a week/4 hours of training.

JJJ schools are fairly rare- Judo has absorbed a good portion of the classical jujutsu throws plus some ground technique, and BJJ perfects the ground stuff to an art form. Judo is famously cheap- I know of some clubs that only go for about 25 bucks a month. I've never been to a JJJ school in person, but for BJJ you are easily looking at over $100 a month.

I never wear the gi or the t-shirt I got from my gym outside of class. Firstly because I don't want to give off a "I can take you on!" vibe, and secondly because even if I did I can't back up my words yet!

Arghhhhhhh! I Was THIS close to putting in a vote for GSP....forgive my lack of faith GSP

A sad day for the martial arts world with the passing of a true grandmaster- one of the greatest of the last century. My thoughts and feeling are with his family and friends.

Many western martial arts don't have a famous creator, just famous practitioners. But while many Japanese arts have some good records, there are plenty of them whose origins are mostly based in legend. And when you get to Chinese martial arts, things get even more hazy (wing chun was most likely not named after the first student of the system for instance). However I think in general there are just more Asian martial art styles, so that would probably account for the difference. Some western guys: The Gracies: BJJ Euclydes Hatem: Lutra Livre Multiple: Kajukenbo Viktor Spiridonov + Vasili Oshchepkov: SAMBO Edward William Barton-Wright: Baritsu Imi Lichtenfeld: Krave Maga Ed Parker: American Kempo

Joint locks and weapons work fits into many traditional Japanese school's training regimes, however they are hard to find outside of Japan. Look for koryu in your area.

If you've gotten to that point you've pretty much lost. I'm sure that there are some really risky moves you could attempt to pull off, but it would be better to know how to avoid that position in the first place. If you can't well...that's the whole purpose of surprise attacks! I can sucker punch a martial artist- does that make me better than them? No, but being caught off guard and not able to prepare is going to be a headache for anyone. there isn't anything you can do martially to prepare for being shot in the back, getting suddenly jumped on by five guys, etc, except to be aware of your surroundings. Like wise if you suddenly find a knife at your throat it is already pretty much over.

A 'junior belt' isn't the meaning behind it at all. It is a distinction, just like girls wear shirts under their gis. Different in this case =/= wrong. Just different. Of course I think to force people to wear it would be (I've seen women not wear it at the kodokan plenty of times), but I think many female judoka would see it as a badge to be proud of, a sign that they are a female warrior, and not a symbol that they are being 'forced into submission' by society. In fact probably the most popular judoka in Japan is a woman; Ryoko Tani. She is a national hero and during last year's Olympics her face was everywhere (her nickname is also based off a popular manga series call Yawara! with the main character being...a female judoka). However the IJF banned the jyoshi obi so you only see it in Japanese competitions and not the Olympics . It is a bit like me going to a traditional matsuri (festival) and berating the culture because the boy and girl yukata (think a light kimono) are traditionally different by gender, and thus are demeaning. At best people would think I was a crazy foreigner who just couldn't understand Japanese culture. Again, female japanese judoka can and do wear regular belts, and having a softer half who is a Japanese judoka I can say that for female martial artists, if you try and push the 'submissive asian girl' stereotype too far your ego isn't going to be the only thing that gets broken Perhaps for a westerner making a distinction between being a boy or girl is 'wrong', but bowing and being submissive to a superior 'sempai' (many times abused in the western world, just as apparently the Jyoshi obi was in America) hardly fits into the western viewpoint either, yet many senseis in America would find it outrageous if lower ranks did not address them by proper titles. You can also look at making the belt into something sacred that shouldn't be washed (it isn't), overuse of the term OSU (unless you are in kyokushin), etc as all skewed western importations of another culture that is often followed without questioning. As for me, I am always impressed by the kodokan women judoka. They are proud of their gender and not afraid to be different, and still work just as hard (and even spar!) the men. That is what the jyoshi obi means.

On that note something really creepy: http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/banihasan.htm Images cleared up and where I found the links: http://judoforum.com/index.php?showtopic=7822&pid=124366&mode=threaded&start=#entry124366

I think we might be arguing semantics to a point here- skill level on the ground vs someone who has little no no experience there makes a huge difference because of the skill disparity as we've both agreed. However I would also argue that this is because on the ground, skill takes more precedent over streangth compared to other combat ranges. This is do to leverage being used in different ways from standing, and to an extent lower body strength and a good portion of upper body strength in many positions being more limited. It is much easier to control someone and use submissions on the ground than standing, as the freedom of movement and relevant muscle groups standing up are a lot wider. Without the knowledge of the ground, falling back on streangth is a lot harder then at other ranges. You do sub. wrestling, so I am assuming you do some ground work, and from my experiences in judo and in BJJ and this has held true. However it has long been shown to work that way historically - bigger and stronger guy being taken out on the ground where the skill vs strength factor is much different from standing. On this page ( https://www.jiu-jitsu.net/history.shtml) is a letter from Roosevelt commenting on matches between Japanese judo players and American wrestlers highlighting this. And of course, we all have heard the spiel from the BJJ camp. Of course the skill is the key there as we've both covered, however the skill difference needed for a 120lb striker or wrestler to overcome a 200lb opponent would need to be much greater than someone using ground fighting. Definitely. I think this has allowed for striking to rise in MMA.

By the by, does anyone know why the woman's striped black belt isn't adopted outside of japan? I actually had never seen them before I went to Japan, and since have wondered why. Looking a bit online I found some heated arguments about the joshi belt with some calling them names like 'skunk stripes' (I personally thought they looked cool) and lots of stories of Western women being discriminated against and abused in the Judo world (no not in Japan, but in America). Frankly I was a bit surprised since there is a famous photo of Kano teaching a woman's class, and even in Japan women were taught naigatanajutsu and a rare few learned jujutsu as it was seen as a way to overcome a more powerful man (Kano taught his wife and daughter, and their close friends also learned as well). Hence I didn't figure that the western world would be so non progressive on the matter. I think that many women martial artists in Japan would be surprised at the things said about their belts and perhaps even offended. Does anyone use the joshi belts in their dojo?

Yep. Which is why I think some basic take down defense (especially sprawling) is important to learn for ANY martial artist. Once you can defend against a grappler, you can fight on your own terms.

Check online or your local yellowpages. California is so big that I'm afraid I can't really recommend anything beyond the big cities and landmarks.

I think legalities play a big role in how much people think you have 'control' over the situation. If someone smaller tries to kill you with their bare hands and you knock out their teeth, even though you were just defending yourself you probably won't come off looking as well in court.

I recently did my thesis on martial arts as well...I must say it is nice having it done but I wouldn't want to write it again What subject/major are you writing this for?

The Gracie's dominance came about because of the equalizing power of the ground. However once people got used to the ground game they lost that edge, which is to be expected over time. It is a lot easier to restrain someone bigger than you on the ground than it is standing up in my experience- if someone isn't used to it, I can keep someone in a scarf hold for a (relatively) long period of time using mostly just the leverage of my hips even if they are bigger than me.

The American system is different, but in Japan up until 1st Dan you only have white belt. 1st dan- 5th Dan is Black (or black with a white stripe for women) 6th dan- 8th has a Red and White striped belt, although it usually isn't worn and instead the black belt is still used. 9th-10th Dan has a Red belt. I've only ever seen one person with a red belt, and they were probably in their mid 70's. Apparently only 15 people have ever made it to 10th dan.

There are one hit deaths out there :http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/First_female_boxing_death_occurs_in_US_sanctioned_match However that is extremely rare. Of all the thousands of boxing matches, to have a death pop up and be a big deal means that it is not common at all. Consider all of the blunt force and KOs people take in combat sports, and really there are more deadly incidents in football. I think you could look at the phrase as not 'killing' your opponent, but incapacitating them with only one blow, either by KO or TKO. However that isn't a saying I personally would ascribe to.

I think that this is a good idea. It's healthy to get experience with all body types, especially with those bigger than your own IMO.

Size and strength is HUGE. Skill can overcome streangth to be sure, but the amount of skill has to make up for the deficit in strength. If you are 90lbs and your opponent is 205lbs, that's a lot to make up. Grappling, especially on the ground can help (I've been outweighed by over 100 lbs before...NOT fun! ) but it still doesn't cover everything.

Are we talking upper level? Because that is definitely true as those guys have great conditioning and cardio. However it holds true for most sports like track and field, soccer, etc. While conditioning is very important, I think the training focus is what needs to change for WTF. But again, is WTF TKD on the whole meant to have a goal of fostering martial art/ fighting ability? I'm not so sure that is what the organization's leadership has in mind. Of course different places will have different focuses however.

Nope sorry. Shaolin monks =/= shaolin kung fu, although it sounds counter intuitive. It is mostly modern wushu at this point plus the crazy conditioning that they go through. Its really awesome, but not a curriculum that is older than the late 1970's.

I agree there. I'm not a fan of the WTF ruleset by any means, but I think that it isn't necessarily meant to be entirely martial, but heading towards a martially influence sport. Yes I think that many 'sport' martial arts have some of the best training out there (although I view sparring as a training tool which can be competitive and adapted for tournaments, and ANY physical activity can be called a sport). However everything can have extremes. I don't see TKD as a martially influenced sport like Wushu or to a great extent Kendo quite yet, but I don't think that the training lends itself well to a martial environment when it comes to some of the sparring. However just because the WTF practices one way doesn't mean that the techniques themselves are useless. Trained properly they can work IMO.