The BB of C

That was helpful, everyone. Thank you.

Got back into checking out Aikido videos lately. It's one of my favorite styles. A couple of times I've seen people arguing about Aikki Jiu Jutsu (which is the form that Sensei Mushiba learned and turned into Aikido- if I spelled his name correctly). Then there's the typical Aikido that we see in Steven Segal movies. Than there's Real Aikido. So far the only difference I've noticed between the three is that Real Aikido is Serbian and is more likely to practice against things like knives, guns, and rear ended attacks. Are there any other differences that I'm not seeing? I'm just curious.

As my mother would say: Very interesting...but stupid!

Even more interesting, Bruce didn't even begin training in Wing Chun until he was fourteen-years-old. I always wonder if there's anyone around today that can do some of the things he did.

Yes that's him. Dan Hibiki and I have a lot in common. Including looks Seriously - if my friends don't address me as 'Steven Segal' they're calling me 'Dan Hibiki'.

Very interesting. I'd use it for conditioning drills on the lower rank students! Seriously though. One time my instructor had us do Sanchin and then he'd strike us with the shinai at certain points of the kata. I thought it was great.

I'm working on a movie right now that will involve Japanese fencing and special effects. We're still in pre-production stages. One of our roadblocks is budget. This is because I was looking to get some 1040 carbon steel swords that I know would be able to withstand the choreographed sword fights. They're very nice katanas that were specifically designed for stage combat at $150 each. One of my cameramen suggested we downgrade to basic 440 stainless steel swords to save time. A couple of my actors back that up. One of my other actors suggested buying bokkens that come with scabbards and painting the blades to look like steel. These are my concerns with the suggstions: My experiences with stainless steel swords is that they chip, knick, bend and break easily. Including the fact that they usually come sharp and are held together with a rat-tail tang. I obviously don't want to break an $50-$80 sword and even moreso I do not want to risk cutting any of my actors as accidents tend to happen. Though it would be cheaper, I've found these breaks to occur even at medium effort. A number of sword sellers near me agree with that. Whereas my friends seem to think they will only break if they are being full-force slammed. There are also problems with continuity and maintainence. Though I know I can take the edge off the swords, and if I know and expect them to receive dents, the dents can become sharp and hazardous and I don't know if I have the ability to carry around the tools to keep them dull. What do you think/know about all this? The other suggestion was to paint a bokken with a scabbard. He even told me where to find the paint and what it was called. I know this is what Jackie Chan does in his movies with swords from watching some of his documentaries. I actually like this suggestion a lot as I know I can replace the wood-clanging sounds with steel blade sound effects in the process of editing. And the risks of choreography accidents/cutting is almost zero. My only concern is will the paint chip? Also, are bokkens with scabbards able to take pressure from another sword. He also mentioned that the kind of paint needed is expensive (five dollars per can) and the cans do not cover very much surface space at all. What do you think/know about all this? Of course if we were to go with my original plan, we may have to film scenes out of sequence and it will obviously cost a lot more money. Though I am 90% these swords will last me quite a while especially compared to the other swords I bought which lasted me halfway through one short fight (choreographed sequence). What do you think/know about all this? While expressing these concerns, a few members of my crew accused me of being closed-minded. This isn't the case at all. I'm just weighing my options thoroughly because so far every time I've tried to do a sword fight - something breaks and then I'm out a sword and a bit of money. So I was wondering if anyone here knew anything about this. Note: The last sword I bought was a Chinese straight sword. I was told that it would be able to withstand a choreographed fight scene so long as there was no more than medium level power swings. That was obviously not a problem. However, during the filming, the blade broke in half. It turned out to be an aluminum alloy. Then I was out $45.

I think they're real. But the odds of you finding someone that can legitimately do it are ever so ridiculously slim.

I have a Mac and I use Parallels to run Windows on it. Because the Mac versions of AIM, Yahoo and MSN instant messenger do not have audio/video chat features, I installed them on the virtual machine (running Windows). Question is, does anyone here have a mac OSX5, use parallels, and AIM, and know how to get AIM to recognize the camera that's built into the computer?

I wouldn't look at a website. I only trust things that I can see and feel in person (when it comes to weapons). Try looking around for local martial arts supply stores. Secondly, I'm not sure bokkens with scabbards are very sturdy. I had a foam bokken with an oak core (the core was about the same width as a typical bokken w/scabbard) and it snapped when I tried fighting with it. Just a couple things to think about.

That's pretty awesome. I was wondering about other martial arts where it didn't sound right to say do or ka as the suffix.

That guy is awesome at making fun of himself.

What style?

Anyone who's not born ambidextrous has the same problem. It's natural. Consistent non-dominant sided practice will fix it in a relatively short amount of time.

"...complete with running water and electricity! Get your fancy-dancy treehouse TODAY!"

I always have the leg extended but I have been trying to tuck it in.

Did you see that actually happen?

I wish I had so many awesome stories about me owning myself I've been laughing all morning reading your stories.

Not bad. Not bad at all

Cat got owned

Yeah, see this is the attitude I like to see! This is pretty much how women -should- be thinking if they want to get the most out of their training. It's when certain women come into a class expecting to be babied and given preferential and easy treatment that I become frustrated; I don't quite know how to respond to students who act like that. Tell them to take two gigantic doses of reality can call you in the morning I'm such a jerk sometimes. In all seriousness though. I've had to tell a lot of ladies getting into martial arts about that. "Newsflash, buddy. This is martial arts. It's about fighting. You can't learn to fight unless you get in shape and you can't get in shape unless you push yourself like a beast. Your gender has nothing to do with it."

You noticed that too. Yes, it was a bit juvenile but I still had to laugh. Samurai: (after the archery demonstration) "Now, I understand that for you Vikings, the brain isn't a vital organ. But you can't fight if you can't see." Maybe it's because I'm a kid but I was like "BURN!!!"

I know what that's like. I'll never forget the time I went to a Tae Kwon Do class and they were teaching the tornado kick. Because of my Kuk Sool Won background I was like "I SO got this!" and then they wanted me to do it low. And I was like "What?! Tornado kicks can go to the BODY?!"

Yes. That's actually pretty common knowledge. Bohdi Darma (please excuse my atrocious spelling) is said to have known the Indian style, Kalepatteparu (again with the bad spelling). When he went to the Shaolin temple in China, the monks there did not have the physical capacity to do high level meditations. So he began training them to condition their bodies to be able to handle the meditation. Later on, as the temple started being attacked by whatever history has thrown at it, the monks developed their own fighting style even more and learned how to turn anything into a weapon. Then history went on and Shaolin became a few different Chinese styles. One of the Shaolin monks went to Japan and taught his theories to the Japanese which became known as Shorin-ryu. But at the end of the day - it all comes down to that martial arts themselves don't have a real origin. You'll find that any civilization in history has needed to defend itself and thus has developed it's own martial art.

Yes. It was very good.