DokterVet

Heheh, ninjamaster. And craknek, We all condition our knuckles already. Most of us have many years of martial arts and bag training under our belts. My personal preference is to use weight lifting gloves to protect my skin (I have a canvas bag - it's like punching sandpaper), but I can still use a regular unpadded fist, or open hand strikes. Although recently my bag has pulled itself out of my cieling, so I don't have too much to punch right now. Does anyone know how much a full set of sparring gear costs? I'm beginning to think that is the best option. Maybe gloves, helmets and shin/foot pads?

Thanks for the advice. It's difficult to find a ballance between effective training and not killing eachother! We all share the desire to do full contact because we all share a love for fighting, but none of us want to lose teeth!

Hi, my friends and I, from various martial arts backgrounds, want to take our training to the next level by eventually training full-contact bareknuckle(or close to it). But first we want to make sure our faces can take some punishment. Should we just box for a while, or are there other ways to toughen the face and especially the nose?

In my club, all of the ranks train together, and I believe that is common. The standards that are expected of the higher ranks are just much higher. We split up to work on kata, and we have additional classes just for dan ranks once a month at the club headquarters. If you want to get better, spar with people who are better than you. Ask them questions. See how they do it. Those are some of the benefits of training with all ranks. The only thing is, in my opinion, there should be NO kids in an adult class. The adult class should be an oppurtunity to train hard without much restraint.

Great posts guys! By the way: It was my understanding that Bruce Lee was an advocate for weight training. In fact, he injured his back doing just that. Although you could be right, Lee, that he focused more on body weight training. Either way, there are definately guys out there who were known more for their conditioning (including skin hardening, etc) than Lee. Lee was famous for other reasons that were mentioned in the post about him. But there is no doubt his overall fitness was legendary.

All I know is that I certainly wouldn't want to get Dan Severn angry! He's a greco-roman wrestler, and back in his day he used to toss guys around the ring like ragdolls.

Never try to outbox a boxer.

Great! I knew he'd be one of the first to be mentioned. How about a picture? Edit: Cool!

Ok, here's the deal. Let's compile a list of history's greatest fighters. They have to have been accomplished in their own art(or perhaps created their own), and have been world class legendary fighters that astounded the martial arts community for one reason or another. Each person can only pick ONE fighting legend, then give the art and a brief synopsys of the person and his achievements. Also, try to pick a variety of different martial arts styles, so we don't have a list of 20 Gracies! It is okay to have a few from the same or similar arts if they are all legends. I'll start with mine: Masutatsu Oyama (Kyokushin karate) 1923 - 1994 Mas Oyama is known as the founder of Kyokushin karate, and as one of the most formidable fighters of the twentieth century. He learned both Shotokan and Goju-ryu, but eventually began training full contact with bare knuckles. He fought 47 live bulls in his career, killing four instantly. He also accepted challenges from fighters of all disciplines, defeating all of them. He stressed the importance of proper karate technique in tournament and fighting situations and was known to break ribs easily, even those of muscular opponents. He could break rocks with his hands as well. He trained alone in the mountains for 18 months at one time. In 1964, the Oyama dojo sent 3 fighters to accept a challenge from Muay Thai in Thailand. Oyama's fighters defeated 2 of the 3 Thai fighers. (source: kyukushinmail.com) http://www.karate-kosho.net/top-mas.oyama_gakubuchi01.jpg Masutatsu Oyama (c/o karate-kosho.net) I look forward to hearing about other fighting legends.

Awesome! That would have been a great thing to see.... a 25 year-old pregnant girl beating the tar out of a guy on the street.

Have fun! I want to take Judo next year when I go to college. There's something about it that is more appealing to me than the other grappling arts.

Tobias, what is a Kaisho Haiwan Uke? Is that what I described, or something different? *mArTiAl_GiRl*, Any block or strike can be done in any stance, so that's not really important. In my Wado-Ryu club, we would use that technique as either a block or an attack with slight modifications. The name changes, but I've never been good at remembering the japanese terms.

Guys, you are all talking about shotokan. Isn't shudokan different?

They are tough to execute, but tough to defend against as well. To execute them most effectively, you need to time it so they are moving/stepping, and just about to plant their weight on their foot. To defend against them, shift your weight to the other foot and consider lifting it momentarily if you see/expect one coming. The neifanchi katas have a lot of sweep avoidances in them.

Shotokan_Karate0, just to clarify your question a bit more, are you asking whether strength improves your ability to fight with your karate techniques, to do well in sparring, or to excel in kata? As for fighting ability: strength is DEFINITELY important. No doubt about it. The stronger you are, the better. For sparring, it is still helpful, but won't make AS much of a difference. Generally you are not trying to knock eachother out, so the strength difference mainly affects the ability to block techniques or force techniques past blocks. Strength is inconsequential for kata.

Strength is ALWAYS an advantage. But size does not always equal strength. Assuming identical technique, a stronger persons' techniques will be more powerful. That said, sometimes a weaker person will have much better technique and therefore generate more power than a stronger person with poorer technique.

Lately I have noticed that in holding a high, boxing-like guard, and throwing a karate punch without retracting all the way to the hip (just dropping the fist a little first, then using regular karate hip and extension), it looks a lot like a boxing punch. I realized that like most karate techniques, the full technique is not neccessary all the time, and that I can throw these boxing style punches quite well because they are simply less exagerated karate punches. I think these would be very practical against someone who is trying to hit my face because I never have to bring myguard too far away from it. Is there anyone who knows boxing and karate bunching technique that can describe the similarities and differences between the two punches (just straight punches)? I have a feeling the boxing punch allows the elbow to swing out slightly from watching guys like Tito Ortiz, whereas the karate punch keeps the elbow in. But I don't know very much about boxing technique.

Defending from a variety of situations, such as multiple attackers, is a big part of karate. Look at the katas!

I've seen Li move fast, and I think he could do 10 punches in a second. At my karate club, the average is 7 punches per second, and I'm pretty sure Li is a lot faster than the average Joes at my club.

I believe "Kiai" means "shout." It is the name of the sound, not neccessarily the sound itself. A lot of people do seem to shout "kiai!" when they do it though. I usually just go "huh!." But I hear all sorts of crazy noises at tournaments: "Dah!" "Zoit!" "hyAaa!" "Oose!" "Die!"

"Games like tag are played with the feet by kids and not with hands" Really? Wow. That's strange to hear. Really interesting. Shuto Uke (at least in Wado-Ryu) is a knifehand block. To do a full (kata callibur) block, open your blocking hand and place it above your opposite shoulder palm facing your ear. Your other arm is extended straight forward. Then shoot accross and forward with your blocking hand, blocking with the outside ridge of the hand and twisting the wrist at the last instant. The other hand is retracted and traditionally rests on the solar plexis. Of course the technique can be performed to varying degrees of "completeness". In reality probably about half of the motion is performed, with most of the power coming from a snap of the wrist. Out of curiosity, what is the difference in Shuto uke between the styles, Martial Girl? Anyways, I'm fond of lead leg kicks - front, side, roundhouse, it's all good. I have really long legs.

NinjaMaster, Do I sense some sarcasm there? It's actually pretty funny. But I hope you don't think all karate teachers are like that, despite the few that are out there. My sensei worked as a bouncer in a bar for many years, and he's only about 5'9". He can manhandle anyone I've ever seen, even if they have a huge size and weight advantage. So there.

here's the website: https://www.torontowadokai.com

Toronto Wado-kai - Unionville club in Unionville, Ontario, Canada

I do wado, and we have three neifanchi katas.