ShoriKid

Our sparring runs the range from light contact at low speed to really work on those new techniques, timing and combinations, all the way up to wrapped hands, heavy gloves and head gear. Targets are pretty much open, and the lower belt sets the pace and the contact level within the given guide lines. The instructors spar with the white belts on up and we have a blast doing it. I love it when someone makes that little connection that lets them string together good footwork, solid defense and strikes. Instruction is always coming from the side to keep guard up, move their feet/head t work a combination etc. Dobbersky, we don't "Osu" when that solid shot lands or one that was on the money if things were full on, but you get a nod and a "good, good" from the receiver.

I think I'm too old to make bad decisions...mostly. If your daily activities put you in bad places and it's not job related you really need to re-evaluate that decision making process. If you're exposing yourself to above average risk, going to a bad location, on purpose you need to recognize that and up the awareness level accordingly.

This is where drilling with increasing levels of resistance, facing aggressive partners who can at least begin simulating what you'll face goes a long way. One steps and no touch drilling aren't going to get you there. This goes to something people like Col. Grossman, Rory Miller and many others who deal with the mindset of defense talk about quite a bit. And almost universally they say this is something you have to settle before hand. Go over the set ups mentally and make your decisions. That way you don't have to take those beats of time worry over what I'd be willing to do. Heck, even the samurai philosophers got in the same line of determining not to fear death so that you wouldn't hesitate when faced with it on the battlefield. This is the mental training a martial artists must undertake if they are serious about self defense. Not the Hollywood day dreams of being the hero in the action movie, but realistically making the decision that you are the one coming home whole at the end of the day. And being clear on the steps you may have to take to do that. Then figuring out the physical training that has to go with those decisions. Upon reflection you decide you can't really put your thumbs in someone's eyes, don't bother training an eye gouge is pointless. If you can't see breaking a limb, best remember that when training joint locks.

I like them. A lot. I can land them to the head, setting them up with a hand combination to help cover the telegraph they have. My two favorite ways to apply it when sparring, and I'd just as soon use them in a real mix, would be to the inside of the leg and the liver. Both with the ball of the foot. Penetration gives a lot of damage, gets past the guard of most and if you "miss" with the ball of the foot, the shin lands anyway. One of these days, I'll get the conditioning up to land with the toe safely. I have to think too much to make it safe right now.

evergrey, A person needs to cover costs of the shirt, but I totally understand not wanting to be disrespectful in that way. I think it's a great design and the kanji is very, very well done. You free-handed that and it looks like really good brush work. That's a combination of talent and skill.

That's a pretty awesome tee! I'd pay for one if I were in your dojo just to have one just to wear period, not just to train in.

I'll have to go back and vote now that I've read the article. Biggest thing I agree with is the first point the writer is making. You need to be supervised by folks that have a clue and trust the people you're rolling with. Or that seems to be the first point. I'm with Pittbull, like that's a surprise, in that I trust our little group. Care and supervision are important. Along with making sure everyone checked their ego at the door so they tap early and often, they can be trained. Tapping quick after you get caught is hard to do though, and I think the writer points that out, when you think you can get out and you can't. I'd say, introduce at least the concept early on, and then work from there. I locked on a heel hook when training with a guy who used to be in our school during a mixed round and he tried to bash his way out(enough reach difference to hit me before I laid back with the sub). He didn't want to tap and I didn't know how tight it was and two days later he's in at work complaining about his knee being twingey. So, yeah, I've seen the down side too. It's the trust thing that I guess is most important next to good supervision. Just a hair too much ego and someone goes home with a limp, maybe worse. So, if you have a small, closed circle of partners, it's likely a bit safer.

should be the close to what you're talking about, first hit I found. Don't have access to sound, but looks about like the ankle crank/lock I've done.

You couldn't ask for a better out come. For the both parties. No one was injured, sprayed, beaten etc. I wish every time an officer had to detain someone and there was resistance it went that smoothly.

There is a difference between a push kick and a front snap kick. The way that Anderson and Lyoto throw the kick has much worse intentions than a probing push kick. I think Pittbull was pointing that out. Most MMA guys have a Thai base for their kicks, hence the push kick. Some don't. Like Lyoto, and Anderson if you count his long past TKD training when he was a kid.

Welcome to the KF crew. I come from a slightly different angle on things than MasterPain. I didn't start training until the beginning of my senior year in high school. I didn't pick the 'cool' dojo either. I was the junior rank who kept his mouth shut and stayed out of the way while a couple of younger brown and green belts trained away. Remember that those brown belts were yellow belts struggling with new things not so very long ago. Just because they are younger or have a higher rank doesn't make them better people than you. Just a little further down the road of martial arts than you. Be proud that you took the hardest step. You actually went to the dojo and started training. So, that yellow belt is a higher rank than over 90% of those asking about your rank. The best advice I can give is two fold. Firstly, if you really enjoy taking part in the martial arts, the activity and physicality of it, stick with it. It won't be long before you won't be a yellow belt any longer.(I just ordered a new white belt the other day to wear when needed ) Secondly, those higher ranking folks may be more than happy to help you learn a little. Give them a chance to show you the things they've picked up on over the years. I'll bet the all remember what it was like starting out and wouldn't mind helping you out with some of your training. I always understood how hard it was getting started, and I loved karate so much that if someone was interested I was willing to help.

Come over to the darkside! I'd wrestled before I began my stand up training, and have dabbled in ground work for years. We only really got serious a couple of years back, and Pittbull was part of that. The two arts are so diametrically opposed that you won't be getting any chocolate in your peanut butter. Like others have said, scout your schools. Find a good instructor and a good program and enjoy.

I had to finish taking the big toe nail off of one of our guys who was keeping folks off the wall, but that....gahhh!

I think Hershal, or one of his group touched on the fact there were other farms out there. His just seemed to be an older one with more land and preparation than a lot of folks have these days. That generator looks like it's lived on the farm longer than Hershal. I'm still trying to get a fix on rural Georgia farm folks who aren't at least passingly familiar with firearms. I knew the visit to the sub-division was going to lead to a walker encounter. Seems like any sort of concentration of people lead to zombie's gathering. Apparently the undead are social critters. My wife pointed out, zombie loving freak that she is, that Shane isn't the one that makes the hard calls. When it came time to stop the little girl, it wasn't Shane or Daryl who stepped forward to put her down. No, they couldn't act, it was Rick who did what had to be done. Not saying he's super bad, but he's got the emotional strength and was willing to bare the burden, knowing the weight, when the group needed him to.

I realize that any high level athlete has to strength train, or they won't make the high levels. I* guess what I was wondering about was if it's a result of just training or that training and a natural gift. The players in the NFL aren't there just because of good weight training and skill programs. Those guys have physical gifts that make them the very best at the position they play. Are grapplers the same at the high end? Do natural gifts separate those at the very highest levels of competition? Being hands on, knowing when to turn on the muscle and use it instead of being tense and tight all the time greatly increases your effective strength. Decreasing antagonistic muscular action lets you use the force you've got better. Grappling or striking, you're better off relaxed and lose. Going off on a tangent, and Pittbull knows this as I've talked to him about it before, a trouble I'm having now is learning to turn the physical force back on at the right times. For a long time when we've grappled I've had enough weight on folks that it was an issue. Now there are a couple of guys heavier than me in the dojo (we're a small-ish bunch in general I guess) and I don't have to wonder if it's the technique or the muscle as much. Anyone else ever dealt with that sort of thing?

Just seeking the opinion of the board here on something I've been thinking about. When watching MMA commentators often speak of the tremendous strength of this or that grappler. Usually this is made in reference to someone with a wrestling base. The comment is often framed in a "that guy is scary strong for his size/weight class" sort of way. So I'm posing a chicken/egg sort of question. Do wrestlers/grapplers develop great strength as a result of the training? By coming to grips with someone all the time and having lots of resistance as part of daily training. Or do those grapplers who make it to the highest levels of their sport/art, ie. college wrestlers, Abu Dhabi competitors, have a greater natural strength base? A leg up in genetics that is selected through competition. Or, the shorter version, do only the naturally strongest athletes make it to the top grappling, or do the top athletes happen to be strong as a result of training?

One thing to add that kills me and I was mentioning it to Pitbull the other day. Kiai short and sharp. It's not an operatic note to be held for 3 seconds. Make it forceful and authoritative, but drag it out. You're not drawing attention to the technique.

Seiryuto, Kakuto are the two of these listed that I've had the most experience with. While I've used the other two, they are very situational and hard to keep the hand formed for. They have a use and a place and fit very well if striking the correct target. A personal favorite would be koken as well. Sometimes we'll spend a whole class working on hand formations other than the closed fist. We tend to start with shutos and move onward from there.

It's not a reflex to release the hold at the tap. I'm mindful of my training partner when we're rolling, don't want to break my them. Too hard to replace and I can't order a good one off the internet. I have a feeling with the adrenal dump of a real encounter easing into locks and chokes won't be so easy. I know you will react based off of your training, and I know what you're getting at DWx. However, think about how amped most are during a competition. Joint damage and failure to respond to a tap or ref the first time through aren't all that uncommon. Plenty of that is the result of being so keyed up on adrenaline that your response changes. I've seen way more serious injuries that were the result competition than in the training hall.

MP, I hadn't considered that, and didn't see it in the question (I can be a bit myopic at times). If that's what you're getting at Karateka63, asking buddies without training to have a go at sparring, look at what MP wrote. It's a bad plan almost universally. What most guys are hearing is a manhood check, and they won't want to come up short. It will very, very quickly become a real brawl with all the pain and busted bits that entails. Ego won't allow it to be otherwise. If the sparring at your dojo isn't doing what you think it should you have two paths to go down. Talk to your instructor about your goals and what you feel is missing in the sparring you're doing already. Be honest about it and be respectful. Find some fellow martial artists, regardless of training background, and get together for some sparring. Follow the rules above and use good safety gear and it would be good for all of you.

The keys I've found have been three things. Lay out objectives of the sparring, set good ground rules and know that it's give and take. Lay out you objectives: What are you sparring to accomplish? Working on combinations? Defensive movement (head movement, footwork, body shifting etc) or offensive movements? General improvement of skills or integration? Know what both of you are setting out to do. That will change the type of sparring and the feel of things greatly. Set good ground rules: Set the techniques that are legal to use, what targets are open. A sweeps and throws part of what you're working? No surprises in what everyone is going to do cuts down on the chances for flash retaliation. Know that it's give and take: Set an ideal contact level. Give it a percentage of power -20% or 50% or 80% or whatever. Everyone gets cranked up when they spar and has to take a breath and calm themselves down and drop back to the contact level sometimes. But, going in with that ideal power level, everybody knows you get what you give. If someone starts going from 20% up to 80%, they should know that it's what's going to come right back to them. Something that helps too is having someone observing who can keep you on task. They need to know what your ground rules, objectives and power level the session is shooting for. They can remind you of missed openings, push you for that sweep you wanted to work on. Remind both parties to back down the contact level when it's called for. When everyone is on the same page with things tend to go much smoother. Not saying things will always go right, but in my experience those three guidelines go a long what to keeping things friendly and making it a learning experience, not just banging around. Not that just banging around sometimes isn't fun and good for your training.

The only systems I've trained that I could completely separate were so wildly divergent that it wasn't hard to do. Stand up work isn't that hard to keep divided from ground work. Past that, it gets really hard to keep things clearly divided. I've always found myself looking at material from the different arts and wondering where it fits into the other. And where it fits into my over all approach to a fight/self defense. I think that's a normal progression for anyone who is training seriously in multiple systems. Things blend in application, if not in instruction, as a natural way the mind works. If it's ingrained thoroughly, it's going to come out when it's needed. Not when you're thinking, "Okay, the TKD kicking method fits here, but then I need to switch stance to use my boxing footwork." When we slip between two things that are being taught that have very similar methods of execution, but with enough difference in approach to matter we say we're getting chocolate in our peanut butter. Two really good things we love separately that go great together.

Etiquette varies from from school to school on people wearing rank they have from a different style. In the original dojo I started out in you were a white belt, period. You started on the same course of basics as every other beginner. The progress through the ranks might be accelerated due to prior training and skill, but that was it. The line of instructors I train under right now will let you wear your rank to class. You have to go back and cover all of the information up to the level you're wearing, say a green belt, before you can even think of working toward a higher ranking. And when you're lining up with someone who's worked all the way up through the ranks in the system, they take precedence when lining up. Meaning, sure you're wearing a green belt from your old school, but the green belt with less time in grade will still be to the right of you and is likely to promote before you "catch up". Even teaching at a college, it's still you doing the instructing. To me, that makes it your call. As long as you have a clear way you handle people coming in with rank, and apply it consistently, people should be okay with it. Those are the biggest things. If one Shotokan practitioner is told not to wear his brown belt, but the black belt that starts next month is, you can have some justly hurt feelings. Other wise though, your show your call. Best thing I've learned if you're visiting another school is to carry a white belt and a plain gi with no patches and be ready to wear them.

Is he keeping his hips so far out that you can't work anything? If so, we worked on a simple set up during a seminar a few months back. We worked a belt grip from the side, slid it toward the front and then stepped back with the foot opposite the grip. It pulled them up right and close and let use work a sweep or a leg pick to a take down/sweep.

This is truth. Listen well and benefit greatly from it. In addition to this, you have to be careful of gyms who don't have any qualified instruction for ground grappling, but are billing themselves as an MMA gym and teaching grappling. A few youtube videos and plenty of old mma fights on tape and they know just enough to hook some folks that don't know better. Mostly, be clear on what you really want to do. Your end goal. Then lay out the most direct path to it. If MMA competition is something you want to take part in, find a qualified gym, with good instructors in both BJJ and striking (you'll find plenty that are the reverse of what Tallgeese warned of). Don't be afraid to visit several gyms before picking a place to train.