NightOwl

Even if he doesn't come back, letting him know that will probably make his day

Gene was a good friend of Lee's and they trained together http://www.genelebell.com/stories.html#11 I've even heard (as is always the case with the legends of Lee) that he was starting to work on grappling before he died. However of the systems he focused on (Wing Chun which he mostly dropped, fencing, boxing) there isn't much grappling involved.

Absolutely.....Norris. While most would not give this answer, I believe it is the correct one. During that time, Chuck proved again and again has tremendous skill as a fighter beating out many talented individuals. Bruce on the other hand, while there are many rumors of back door fights, proved that he had talent as an action star and a teacher. But being a good fighter and being a good teacher aren't mutually exclusive (same with screen persona going back to Bruce and Norris). Comments declaring Bruce the greatest fighter not only have no backing, but even during his day he wasn't the best. From comments from those who have worked with him such as Joe Lewis and Gene Lebell, he was fast and had talent, but was an entertainer first and a fighter second. I listened to an Interview with Joe Lewis not too long ago saying as much. BUT, while he mentioned that Bruce sometimes roughed up people who wanted to 'challenge' him on set, when he sparred against a top kickboxer of the day he lost pretty badly*. Shucks, Gene Lebell (who is one of the greatest martial artists ever IMO) could put Bruce in a hold and run laps with him (http://www.genelebell.com/stories.html#11 ). *The interview was on 'Karate Kast' which you can get for free on itunes. I forgot the name of the fighter but if anyone is more motivated than me they can go back and look it up

Who's seen it? Did it rock? Did it rot? Please note spoilers!

When I get back to the states, I'm going to take courses and try and get a permit. Currently I am studying Meifu-shinkage-ryu and am down with shiruken.

Very good fights -Although I was kind of rooting for Tito with the whole man drama thing going on, Lyoto put up a good fight. -Wanderlei making an awesome comeback -Yoshiyuki Yoshida knows his Judo

Hm..... Judo Gi Old TKD uniform Everlast 12 oz. boxing gloves 5 bo shiruken

Against someone with little experience, you could always go for a keylock. However this is a very very VERY bad idea against a non beginner

Along with LEOs, military personnel also work on disarms. Thing is, they aren't always the greatest but usually they don't NEED to be. If you somehow are not armed and have no backup, you've screwed up royally.

Gym and training methods outweigh style. Visit and try out both places

It does. However the program has been brought back through donations: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2008/05/24/arizona-state-reinstates-wrestling-program/

I believe that the Chen family style usually is the one that focuses on application work as opposed to just forms.

Hm- standard class we have separate standing and ground fighting sparring sessions. For standing, as soon as someone goes to the ground it is over; for groundwork a sub or 30 second long pin ends things. While I suppose an ippon or sub 'wins', these sparring matches are for resistance training and it doesn't really matter who comes out on top or not (part of the fallacy is that sparring is for sport and not training). As for actual matches, I've never been in one so I only know the general rules. A throw or takedown is ippon, or point. If there is no clear takedown and things go to the ground, then there is roughly 30 seconds allowed for either a point by 30 second long pin or win by submission. In the past a lot more time was allowed for groundfighting, but the rules were changed to make things more dynamic for the Olympics.

I've seen KOs and TKOs from axe kicks, but they are not too common. If it is full contact rules you should be ok, however the trick is being able to pull off an axe kick fast enough/ have the flexibility.

It is true that taichiquan contains(ed) stand up grappling. The focus on chi etc is a modern aspect that many times takes away from its originally intended purpose of combat. I'll go dig it up but I've linked to a taichi site calling for a return to this mindset. Unfortunately the vast majority of the taichiquan world views it as some sort of exercise or movements designed to build up your chi (or at least resistance training as a bad thing), whereas if you read about how it was practiced you find (as you did) that this was not the case at all. Dismantling the art however, started off before taichi became popular in the west. In china form variations were decided to be used as exercise and things went downhill from there. A lot of the crazy chi talk comes up in the west though. Either way 90% percent of taichiquan places aren't going to have a martial focus. Here are some examples of taijiquan: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-7360397892170796596&q=taiji+shuai http://www.oxfordwudang.com/video_footage.0.html Most enlightening is this interview with Yang family member, wushu coach, and sanshou camp YANG FUKUI. http://www.wutehtaiji.com/articletext.html#tc245 Anyhow as I've mentioned many times before, kung fu has throughout most of its history been about fighting, and as such people trained for that including sparring/getting into fights. Even now there are still full contact kung fu fights; this Lei tai fight from taiwan is done full contact with no padding. The excuse that many kung fu places use that they 'are too deadly to spar' doesn't fly.

No idea- probably red tape or something, but movies can take forever to get out here.

If weapons work: http:// http://www.ohwy.com/id/h/h0255382.htm

Well the untrained person can't hit a moving target past a certain point(with much accuracy), so if you are far enough away and you know you are going to be shot at, you might try running in a zig-zag pattern/ using cover, etc.

That's pretty much the way we do it. We don't place any "God-like" significance on a BB, or getting one. However, we have been known to have a bottle of sake handy and have a toast at the end of class for the recipient. And after class, we've been known to toss back a brew or two. 'Throwing back brews' is a time honored Samurai tradition.

For me it is getting to 4th kyu before I have to head back to the United States. I'm sure there is Judo back home too but school will prevent me from training for awhile.

Really, really want to see it. ....doesn't come out in Japan until September

Hey- welcome to the site! Could you give out more details on what styles are availible/what you hope to get from training?

I've caught up to episode 12- VERY intresting show and it is cool how the fighters respect each other (I got tired of the mandrama on TUF). If you can find it, be sure to watch.

If they have it- don't forget SAMBO!

good work- did you get any on vid?