nine_weapons

the competitors are from various style backgrounds. My coach has been training muay thai for years. He just chooses to conform to the rules of this venue. I'm sure there are other muay thai guys in the wcl also. the biggest complaint kung fu guys have had about mma over the years is the limitations it places on striking targets. Your complaint on the wcl is no different. Muay thai has kicks, punches and knees. it's not that big a deal that you can't kick the legs, really - you just have to adjust your training to that if you want to compete. Pretty much nobody in north america allows elbows (there are some orgs that do), so that's not a big deal either.

it's a name, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it. ULTIMATE fighting championship? same thing. he may not want that. Heck, if he did, he could just go team up with k-1. MMA shows lack big name fighters too, unless you are talking ufc, pride or kotc, mainly. There are plenty of smaller shows for the up and coming competitors - sounds like this is the same thing. kickboxing lesson - in some organizations, pants are used to denote that you cannot kick the legs. I don't like footpads myself, but some orgs like them and in some they are optional. No big deal there. there are a lot of different ways to knee. You don't have to clinch to knee, only to knee consecutively. lead leg leg kick / right cross / hook lead leg leg kick / uppercut / hook etc. it's not an mma venue. I can't use judo in a tkd tournament... All muay thai techniques are exciting except for long, drawn out clinches - those allow for stalling and people resting, in addition to the strikes thrown. And if you notice in the wcl rules, they are promoting non-stop action, no stalling whatsoever, or there is a penalty. That is why they don't allow clinching.

It's not big on clinching and leg kicks because it's Chuck Noris' show. He isn't MMA, he's Karate. Although I do think they should either allow it any time or disallow it. That part doesn't make sense to me either. {/quote] considering he's a brown belt in bjj and a black belt in judo, you could call him an mma guy...

my coach fights in the wcl.

for gaining strength, lifting light weights will not help unless you are a newbie to weight training. lifting light increases muscle endurance. You want to lift medium to heavy.

you can add more protein, but it will likely take more than that. You need more food in general, not just protein. Remember, there are 3500 calories in a pound, and you won't be taking in THAT much protein. In addition, you will need to back off the cardio somewhat - the body cannot be in both an anabolic and catabolic state simultaneously - it's one or the other. You WILL have to back off of the cardio - look at your routine - riding, skipping, running and bagwork (to an extent) are all cardio related. It's hard to gain when your training is focused on burning.

fit it in. If working out is that important to you, you will find time. It's really that simple. I have a family and I have four jobs - literally - 2 jobs I am at in person and two I perform over the internet. But I still work out at least 5 times per week, 45 mins to an hour each session. If you have to get up earlier, do it. If you have to eat luch at your desk so you can run to the gym on your lunch break, do it. If you have to join a 24 hour gym, do it. If you have to get equipment in your house or do body weight training, do it.

I heard about this a little over a year ago - I think it's a very interesting idea.

Nine: I would respectfully disagree with this. I have never been intimidated by the size of an opponent. Maybe it is because I am too stupid to be scared, but I would rather think that my personaliy doesnt lend to being intimidated very well. I would think that the "1000 yard stare" is more intimdating than size. A person (regardless of age,size or sex) who looks as though they are looking trough you can be unnerving. My students accuse me of this all the time during sparring. We call it "total commitment" in our system and infact is what Zanchin (our schools name) means. it varies from person to person. on my job, I have ended confrontations before they started merely because of my size. I have even had guys tell me they would whoop me if I wasn't so big. size is a very powerful intimidator.

I'm not saying only criminals train MA. I am saying that people have a notion that all martial artists are upstanding citrizens who follow some honorable warrior code. In most cases, this is not true. It is NOT the MA that make us "knights and gentlemen"

it is basically a vertically fisted hook - which is actually much safer than the horizontal variety - why do you think it wouldn't work without gloves?

So you've seen purple belts coming after blue?? Even more evidence that they're just to hold up your pants anyway. in most karate styles I've seen, purple comes before blue. However, I have never seen a bjj school that ranks blue higher than purple.

However he is doing karate kata, with the Japanese names.As I said elsewhere, differences in style do not make up for bad body dynamics or poor technique. true, but not all techniques are the same, thus you may see differences. you see something similar to a bow and arrow stance in capoeira a lot, but it is a dynamic position and you are supposed to lean. when I trained jung fu, they told me my roundhouse was wrong - it came from muay thai and hard contact karate.

while this is easily said, I would wager that most people here would NOT actually kill when faced with the decision. to kill takes a certain type of mindset - a mindset that training MA these days actually trains OUT of people, not into them. I have seen several MA freeze in streetfight situations. The same MA would definitely freeze is posed with the need to kill as well. I am not sure why people think this... it is very untrue. If you look at the history of martial arts, it is generally associated with a criminal element. china - triads, tongs and other gangsters. (ever hear wing chun referred to as gangsterfist?) brazil - capoeira was associated with thugs and criminals, which is part of the reason it was banned. france - savate was associated with thugs the list goes on. I would argue the opposite. removal of mind is more important. if you are referring to someone on this form, it may have been me. I related it to training in the thread about the minimum age of black belts. In response to a comment about things getting easier after you get your black belt, I said something to the effect of 'black belt doesn't make it easier, years of training does. regardless of rank, the more time you spend training something, the easier it gets"

there are six taikyoku kata which funakoshi created - most styles don't teach all six, which is why most people don't know of them.

out of curiousity, what is your obsession with advancement? you have several threads asking how long it takes to reach black belt in various grappling styles, can you start learning early on your own, etc. why the rush?

I've never seen that one. IME, it's usually white, blue, purple, brown, black.

sure it can. just make sure you pressure test what you are learning.

nah, I don't think you're wrong - I actually agree - when you are in an environment that allows it - like a ring. check out this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElB3klqZ1-Y THIS is what I am used to seeing. there are a few things you will notice right off the bat: 1. it's very sloppy. 2. it's very violent 3. it is like 99.7% head hunting 4. there is a lot of grappling, both standing and on the ground 5. there are for the most part no kicks unless the opponent was down. 6. all of the punches are in bunches - not a few well placed ones used to keep distance.

my guess was that it's taught because it instills agression and gives them an outlet for training HARD with resistance. same with boxing.

you're putting logic behind something that is not logical. if there was logic behind it, 9 times out of 10, they wouldn't be fighting in the first place. Don't get me wrong, what you are saying makes sense, but you are trying to make order out of chaos. because you aren't increasing anything...theoretically you are correct, but my years of working bars and clubs has shown me otherwise. the average joe isn't looking for openings - he is just slugging it out, usually at the head, or clinching. I'll look into that one, because I am curious now. We have some guys with fights coming up, so I have someone ask. in a streetfight? not often. sure, IF you catch them before another strike lands. Also, you have to go back to the adrenaline thing here - I've seen guys fight with a broken hand before. depends on the individual.

yeah, I've seen a lot of the researching and threads about it. It was declared a draw in the second round. restriction or not, a "master" should have better hands than that. And if you read about it on biased sites, like wustyle.com, it sounds like it was a good fight, which it obviously was not. the fight was not originally meant to be a charity match. a local newspaper had been printing articles questioning taiji as a fighting style. gong yi responded by accepting a challenge from a crane master, but decided something good should come of it, so he requested that the proceeds go to charity. FWIW, I don't think this proves kung fu is worthless, but it does show that the nostalgic view we have of "masters" may not always be deserved.

not true. I have done it in thai matches and as far as i know, it is also legal in mma. the issue is timing. when you have a guy throwing flurries of punches at you, you can't afford to use BOTH arms to stop one of his attacks. He still has a free arm. none, for the reason I mentioned above. two well known counter fighters I can think of right off the top of my head are liddell and pedro rizzo. there are counter fighters in mma, just as there are in boxing and any other fight sport.

How you have your guard can put you a distinct advantage simply by the example listed above--it lets you dictate the odds of where your opponent is going to strike. Odds are we are all going to attack what we perceive as our opponents openings or weak points. And likewise, our opponents will attack us where they think our openings and weak points are . By knowing ahead of time what your opponents thinks is your openings, it allows you to be one step ahead of them. For example, have a high guard and your opponent sees an opening in your abdomen--you can expect their first attack is going to be a body shot coming your way. Keep a low guard and your opponent sees your head as exposed. Open your guard a little (to about shoulder width) and your opponent will see an opening down the middle. Bring your guard in closer and slightly turn at an angle and your opponent will see an opening on your outside. A smart fighter will feed his or her opponent where they want to be attacked and destroy their opponent when the attack they want comes in. the thing is that it doesn't always work this way. When people are under stress and dealing with adrenaline dump, they get tunnel vision. odds are, the opponent is only going to head hunt. intentionally leaving something open IME, is not going to enable you to predict where they will strike. Often in fights, there is no time for any of this. fights happen fast. very fast.

alot of the southeast asian styles are similar in that respect - lethwei, muay thai, golden village boxing, tomoi, etc.