NightOwl

I just saw the Kung fu episode...for some reason itunes put it up and never got around to the MMA one . I'll put on a review soon.

Hm....could the argument perhaps be made that grappling is circular as well?

“He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day.” -Oliver Goldsmith. Retreat is a viable tactic in warfare and combat...has always been and always will be. Sometimes you have to know when you are out gunned and overpowered. Mind, I am not advocating running away from your troubles, far from it. Even if I was outnumbered 10-1, I would fight to protect those close to me knowing that I would probably die. However, if a bunch of drunk guys want to brawl and I can't talk them out of it, I am willing to hurt them as much as I can until I have an opening to escape, but I am not going to stick around to the bitter end. To put it another way, I would say that you shouldn't be a coward, but you also shouldn't be rash. This is very much how my old friend and mentor, Aristotle viewed it (all my professors are pretty old). In Aristotle's view, all virtues are a median between extremes- for example, starving yourself is bad, but so is gluttony. Likewise, a warrior who runs at the first sign of battle is worthless, but the warrior who charges headlong without thinking and gets into a fight at the drop of a hat is going to have a short lifespan.

hmmm, what are glucosimine pills? I am intrigued! Usually I just stick with an ice pack...

Strength helps A LOT. You will start right off the bat being able to hold your own, and many times you can hold your own without need of too much training in the first place. However I can tell you from what I've seen, that if someone who isn't strong puts in the time, they can do very well in BJJ. The place that I did some BJJ in had a small young woman of about 24 and definitely MUCH lighter than my 134 lbs....she was a blue belt and she easily kept up with those of her rank and handily beat those of lower experience. She wasn't the only woman who was there and did well, but she was so light and small looking that it really took you by surprise when she submitted you. I talked to her afterwards and asked her how she got used to BJJ and she said it took many months before she finally started getting it- 1 year before she was able to submit and take on pretty much anybody. If she was 2X the weight, a guy, and able to bench 300lbs would she have progressed faster? You betcha- but she didn't let that get in the way, and as far as I know still now can tap out over 200lb guys wile making it look easy.

You only need #1 (certainly it will help you out for #5)

Salutations!

haha awww....I miss dressing up for Halloween!

Hey Scott! Great to have you on!

welcome!

Hey yumiko!!! Welcome to KF!

Congrats on the history by the way...it is my minor and I am glad to see that you are liking it! Chinese would be awesome!

for sure! Just like regular sparring doesn't fully replicate real life but helps you, sparring with multiple people would help. And of course, if you don't do well in the real world, you are in deep trouble, but if you loose a sparring match all it does is give you experience

Hm, well first I am going to throw in my usual: real life is between the two and then give you my thoughts on both of the others. Personally, I've not done too much no gi, but I have grappled with people who went the no gi route. I think that it is nice to have the change, but personally I hate it when a no gi guy gets all sweaty after a couple of rounds and gets hard to hold on to. It's smelly and you get all gross afterwards....I don't think that it is very fun. however initially it is fine, and I like experimenting with it. Overall though, I like having the extra grips on the gi.

Congrats clash! ......a bit late but really, congratulations!

All the things I have tried since starting over 5 years ago now have been so different, that I haven't really noticed having to relearn the same material. Even so, outside of not having consistency, I have found going back to basics enjoyable overall

Well, still haven't started judo but...I finally have a place set down. Despite my university being one of the 'Ivy' schools in the Tokyo area, they don't really have a judo club so I went to Waseda university's. Unfortunately, the club there was for their school team- it was truly amazing to watch these guys go at it in sparring, but I really wouldn't be able to lkeep up in that environment..I am reminded of the guy I saw get lifted off the ground six feet in the air with before coming down with a crash on the mat. So I decided to go to the source and I will be starting at the Kokodan the first of next month. Training is for roughly 2 hours every day, so I am hoping to get into competitive shape within the next few months!

Ah- when you find out the secret please teach me! The longest I have gone is maybe 2 min on a soft surface, but really I prefer chairs.

He also felt that the older forms were too simple. He was able to learn several of them very qickly, and felt that the forms should take some more work to get down, and take some time to develop the skill in. He also made sure that everything in the forms repeated on each side of the body, where in the older forms, this didn't always happen. Doesn't simpler forms help you get down the moves faster though? I can see the benefit of training both sides though.

A live blade or sparring weapon?

Hey Yumiko- I'm afraid that I haven't had any experience with that brand, but it does look like a quality product. Also, as long as the face plating can hold up, I could see it being better then the grates that you usually see as it improves your vision range. As for me personally, I've used Adidas sparring gear during my TKD days and Everlast for boxing gloves in my MMA sparring, however both times I bought it locally instead of online. The times I have gotten products from the internet have been through some of the more popular online martial arts stores, and although I've never used that particular site it is used enough that you probably shouldn't have a problem with them.

So is this a universal rule? I have never been good with kicks, so even when I did TKD I wanted to use my hands a lot but...I don't think that it really helped much in my case

Usually MMA practitioners don't come from styles that use open hand strikes so that may be a reason but- if it isn't banned it might be interesting to see how you could use it. I think the padding on the sides of the glove might make some knife hand strikes a bit difficult though. Open palm to the head could be good, as open palm in general allows you to better transition into grappling I believe.

I've heard that it is usually found in contemporary wushu and a bit difficult to find on its own. Many styles (especially many longfist and other northern styles) have had this happen and are hard to find in their original forms/ taught exclusively. Let us know if you can find a place! I'm interested in hearing what it is like

WudangDragon, thanks for the info! I didn't know of the difference between Parkour and freerunning. So in Parkour how do you train for that? Do you just pick a spot and go from there? I could see it coming in handy...