Kyle-san

You'd be surprised at how quickly and naturally a joint lock will fall on after a little bit of practice, it's especially easy if the opponent has no experience in this area.

Oh yeah, another good read (even if it's more strategy than martial arts) is: The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Hm, wonderful. I know what you mean about the sweat thing, though. When that needle was going over my spine I was just pouring sweat. I heard getting a tattoo over the stomach is painful as hell.

There isn't really any particular style I'd be affraid of going up against. I'd be rather cautious about any Jujitsu practitioner or someone from Muai Thai, mainly because I haven't seen anyone practice this art (in my area).

What was it like getting one on the calf? Any more (less?) painful then on the shoulder or back?

I've gotta say, getting a tattoo on the back is the most painful thing I've ever had happen to me. When it goes over the spine... oooh.

I really enjoyed it. A lot of the stunts and such were completely unrealistic, but they had a good explaination for it which meant nothing but entertainment. Oh, and a side note, I was actually on the set when they were filming in Toronto.

It's in the Olympics, it's a sport.

Zen in the Martial Art by Joe Hyams Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi The Tao of Jeet Kune Do by Bruce Lee Secrets of the Samurai: A Survey of the Martial Arts of Feudal Japan by Oscar Ratti But, most of all, the first book on my list.

In my Wing Chun class we can learn Butterfly swords and long staff. There's a seminar coming up in a month that teaches the basics of Butterfly swords, costs $125 and lasts for a day. Anyone can sign up seeing as it's just the basics being covered.

1) Zen in the Martial Arts by Joe Hyams

Welcome! I stumbled across this site by complete accident.

Indigo.ca Ebay (doesn't really count) Some no-name comic place

I recently read this article in Black Belt magazine and thought it brought up an interesting point: A Parable for Martial Artists by Chris Thomas Once upon a time, several art enthusiasts asked a famous sculptor to become their teacher. During the first lesson, the teacher provided himself and the students with identical wire frames in the same and characteristic of his famous style. He explained that the frame determined the structure and parameters of the final sculpture. He also provided each student with a brick of clay and a set of sculpting tools. Over the succeeding classes, he demonstrated the process of sculpting: the manner of adding clay to the wire frame to create the outlines of the shape, the manner of removing clay with the tools to refine the shape, and the manner of molding and shaping the clay to achieve the final shape. Each class began with the students gathered around the teacher as he worked on a portion of his sculpture, explaining and demonstrating as he went. The students would then return to their places and work on the corresponding parts of their own sculptures, trying to apply what they had just seen. As they worked, the teacher would walk around, observing their effort, clucking in approval, offering suggestions and occasionally working a small portion of the student's sculpture himself by guiding the student's hand with his own. Often during this portion of the class, the students would walk up to the teacher's work-in-progress and carefully examine it, making notes and trying to memorize features to include in their own work. After many years, and just as the students were completing work on their sculptures, the teacher died. They decided to choose a successor from among themselves so the school might continue. They agreed to place all their sculptures beside his work to decide who should be the inheritor of the class. It was immediately evident how the teacher had influenced them all. Each sculpture, by virtue of its underlying wire frame, had a similar structure. Likewise, his sculpting technique and method were clearly evident in all their works. However, on closer examination, it became apparent that many of the students were not very talented. Some of their works were positively amateurish, while other, although competent, lacked the subtlety of texture that made the teacher's work so cherished. Two sculptures, however, stood out from the rest: the work by student Lee and the work by student Han. As the class gathered around and examined Lee's work, they were astounded to see that he had so perfectly mastered the teacher's style that it was virtually impossible to tell the teacher's sculpture from the student's. Han's work however, was another matter. His sculpture was powerful, detailed and rich with the qualities characterizing the teacher's own sculpture, but it looked nothing like the teacher's work. Han had, in fact, produced a sculpture that was unique and personal in its execution. There was no question that both students had mastered the teacher's methods. There was no question as to the beauty and power evident in each sculpture. But there was also no question as to who would succeed the teacher. Lee's sculpture was identical to their beloved teacher's own work, while Han had deviated from his example. The students decided to recognize Lee as the rightful successor to their teacher and chastise Han for his arrogant affront to their teacher's legacy. Upon the announcement of this decision, Han shook his head and said: "You fools. The teacher was trying to teach you to be artists, but you only learned to be mimics." And with that, he left. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ How do you view the moral of this story? Is it important to be able to develop your own sense of art and style from the basic frame given to you or is simply being a mimic enough? Thoughts, reflections, anything?

I completely agree. Of course, the same could be said about any move, but it's still an excellent point.

I'm in my first year at University right now, it's not too bad. Majoring in East Asian Studies, Minoring in Linguistics.

You might want to add Aikijutsu to that list and, from what I've heard, Chin-Na. I know Aikijutsu is very effective and have heard Chin-Na is similar, however I'm not positive on that. I'm sure someone will be along in a short while with links that'll give much more information.

*Shrug* Speaking as a former Karate student, I probably would out of habit.

Basic techniques. You can modify where a kick is going so it doesn't hit the knees and still be effective. Nothing would be wrong with a curved punch, depending on the target area. What you're describing is much more an open tournament than anything else. My point is, you can use the basic set of blocks, kicks and punches and make them quite effective. Most Karate students would have problems adapting to them.

Well, going from that perspective, aren't students that mix styles just taking a page out of the traditional masters' books? They're taking what they see is being important and using it for themselves. Some students that mix aren't claiming anything wrong with the traditional styles, they're just trying to find what works best for them. Just a thought.

Correct. It's also rude to refer to yourself with the suffix "san". Of course, using my first name in an encounter with a Japanese person simplifies things to no end. I hate how my last name "Plouffe" comes out.

Yep, that about sums up my opinion. It sounds more like playing a video game than anything else.

I've found that low kicks are the most effective in a street-fight situation. Nothing like a quick shot to the knee or testicles to wake a guy up, eh? The very highest I'd ever go in that situation would be the stomach, possibly the solar plexus if I was feeling confident.

Personally, I'd be quite wary of using head kicks during a street fight. There are just too many factors that could put you off balance, especially if the opponent knows what he's doing. I'll always remember this one tournament I was watching; A friend of mine was sparring and kicked at the opponent's head, the guy he was against used a rising block to get my friend's leg up higher, stepped in to close the distance, then punched my friend in the chest which knocked him down. It was a good thing it was a tournament. If there hadn't been the restrictions on grabbing and where you could strike, my friend would have been much worse off.

How so? From what I remember of being in Karate tournaments, none of the basic moves in Wing Chun would result in a disqualification. That's an option I'm looking at right now, but it's not a real priority to get into tournaments, imho.