ShoriKid

Define a"adept"? I can usually trap a round kick when one gets to waist level or better at least once each time I'm up with someone if I think about doing it. Not bragging, I'm just good at getting kicked! The examples you've posted all have some merit, just not all ones I would go for. The video example is the best one to judge because it's live. They cover the movement needed to keep the power out of a kick. Fading ever so slightly can take a huge about off of a kick. You either need to do that or build a shield to eat the force of the kick, wheather to defend or trap. The second example, I think he turns and takes the leg over his head or shoulder as part of that throw. Not sure if i would ever go there. The rest of the examples you see one arm or shoulder used to each up the force of the kick. The other is either guiding it down into the shield to set up the trap or the body angled a bit to take the sting off of things. Still photos don't really show the body movement and way the kick and blocks play in together. Now how most of the people exicuting the trap and throws step in and either use a major or minor reap is about what I end up doing most of the time. It will absolutley steal someone's wind and will if you go for the minor reap at the ankle level when it was a high kick. The higher they kick, the harder they fall. The only thing I'll do differently is on occassion set the trip up from the trapped kick. If I get the kick I'll grap the same side shoulder and give a little pull while putting a check/kick to the front of the opposing shin of the supporting legs. With a little torque to go along, the kicker is thrown down face first. I don't get that one very often until we're worn down. The kicking range tends to close down then and I can get a grip. Trapping a kick is something that you have to drill to get the sensitivity in order for them to work. Not something I count on as a kicking defense, but it's like any other trapping skill, it's good to have in the tool box.

Check into your local AAU folks. Wrestling and Judo should be in competion. From there, back track into near by clubs. I think AAU was staring some JJ things as well. Also, YMCAs tend to have a basic martial arts class, very often Judo. Get into a program and start checking with the people there. I'd lay good money some of them are staying after the regular group and getting in mat work.

Concrats garrym, and welcome to karate! Even after you get your dental fitted mouth piece, you may want to fit a new shock doc mouth piece as a back up. I keep my shock doc, an uppers only piece, and a dental fitted upper/lower piece as well. I can't talk around a double mouth piece enough to teach, so I usually have it in unless we're sparring heavily.

I'm going to go with, middle of the road, in a way that say, tallgeese would say "depends" If your style or system uses kata, you should know why it teaches the ones it does. Even if you can't break out every move into an application, the general thing you learn from a kata should be known. Doesn't mean it always is, but it should be. If your style teaches push hands or pummeling drills, or shadow boxes, you should know why it does each of those things. I don't do pad work to smash my hands into small targets. I do it to work on combinations, targeting and the mechanics of how to apply a punch. I don't practice wrist locks because they look cool, or I think I can catch a punch and work one to end a fight instantly. I do them to understand how to manipulate a joint, to learn how to move a body with something other than brute force and how to seize on a small advantage to overcome a bad situation. So, if you have a drill, be it kata or whatever, know why you do it, even if you haven't mastered it. Heck, even if you don't like it, at least be able to tell someone coming up in training why you do it so they can get some benefit from it. Wheather you agree with the underlieing concept or not, have a grasp of it's reason for existance. A good instrutor or coach should be able to impart the reason why you need to do what you do. Now, knees, elbows and throws in karate, where are they? They are in the system, and they are alive and well in certain places. However, the safety concerns in their use have been one of the biggest reasons they weren't seen in a lot of schools. Mats cost money, and a lot of schools can't afford them starting out. And, once they can afford them, they have trained so long without them that the core ability just isn't there. Until recently striking pads for knees and elbows just weren't there. So, unless you were willing to risk a lot of pain and high percentage chances of injury, they weren't worth it. Even a controled elbow or knee to the head hurts and can cause a lot of bruising and cuts. Shoot, until recently most good sparring gloves that allowed for solid contact so enclosed the hand that gripping for most throws was impossible. If you think that throwing has died out of karate, take a look at the AAU sparring rules for karate. Last time I looked at them, they allowed for sweeps and throws with a follow up technique. Granted, most competitions will end up not allowing them for, what I assume are insurance reasons(no mats, which are high dollar, no throws).

I hit the hip or front of the thigh to stutter up someone's foot work. Your instructor may just be looking at it as not doing enough damage for his tastes. There is nothing wrong with liking a technique more than others, we all have personal favorites within our styles. Congradulations on getting back into training.

Are you training Kyokushin or considering it? What little I know about Kyokushin is from books and video clips. Kyokushin is pretty linear and high impact. There are plenty of circular technique, but they are the ones common to other forms of karate like ridge hands and round kicks etc.

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Dental fittin mouth pieces are the way to go. Except when it comes to cost. I'm lucky that my uncle is a dentist and he got me a double guard for what the insurance paid for it. I've had nothing but good experience with Shock Doc stuff. I hear really good things about Brain Pad too, but I've never used one, so I hate to recommend them.

tallgeese, Thanks for the review on the knee pads. I was one of the instigators on buying the elbow pads. I had concerns about them, but really wanted to add that weapon to our sparring arsenal. We would use them, but they were very limited, thrown slowly and overly controled because of the damage they can do. Being able to use them, in close, clinched and on the ground was great. It did make you have to think a little bit more. The slightly new dynamic was very nice. I was wondering about getting the knee pads, and how well they would disperse the impact. So, if I understand you, you were able to use knee strikes with a good deal of protection? What sort of contact levels were you using and what were your targets?

Any brand will do in a pinch. But, you'll learn pretty quick which you like the best. I'll recommend the Shock Doctor brand with either the gel max or the power gel ultra models. The gel filled versions seeme to allow a much better fit. Just be careful when forming them not to bite all the way through them as you form them.

Okay, can't spell for my life. You all should know that. Fukyugata Ich, Ni Taikyoko Sho Pinan 1-5 Nanhanchi 1-3 Anaku Wanhan Rohai Passai Chinto Empi Bassai Dai Kanku sho Weapons: Shiromatsu no kan

Where martial arts ever used on the battle field? Yes and no. Yes, fighting arts and a lot of individual techniques were used. No always in the particular form that we see now, but men have been fighting for a long time and physiology hasn't changed in all that time. If you have a hard time believing that anyone ever fought in zenkutsu dachi, factor in two things. All stances, in all arts, are transitory. And, I can find pictures(have to search the net I have them in books) of bayonette drills, sword lunges and cuts(lots of long sword work actually), mma fighters throwing the first long punch, in what is zenkutsu dachi. Most of the arts we know and practice today did not exist during the periord of pre-modern warfare. However, their originator arts, they "grand parents" did. The techniques are decendant from those times. Then there is the misconception that all arts are battlefield born. Many were developed outside of the military, but still used during periods when fights were far more common, and hand held weapon use was the norm. Peasants didn't develope much, they didn't have a lot of time. Aristocrats, with traditions of military service, and time and resources on hand, developed a lot of what we do now. Their basis was the military training and experience they had. Karate for example, was not a "battle field" art. Most of the research I've seen indicates it was a body guard's art. It delt with attacks on a person you were protecting, armed or unarmed. It wasn't for fighting duels or battles. The deeper you dig, the more you see where arts came from, and generally, the more questions you end up with.

A front or side kick to the belt knot as they start their rotation. Jamming in and countering with a hard straight with the same hand(Straight right counters right leg kicks etc.). Countering with a thigh kick to the supporting leg or cut kicking, timing means a lot here though.

There was an Aikido and TKD class, taught by the same man, here locally some years back. I attended for a very short period. When drilling there with another friend, we were admonished for "going too hard" on the punches we were throwing to practice countering and entering on. We threw harder and faster in body conditioning. I was asked to preform a kata for the school, which I did, to show the difference between what I had trained in and what they were doing. I did a Nanhanchi and startled some of the students with the kiai. There was an Aikido class I took for college credit at EKU that was easy most of the time, but the instructor emphasized the pain in "pain compliance" techniques. The man also taught the restraint and self defense for the students and cadets in the state police law enforcement program. He was hands on, willing to answer questions and when someone asked "what if" he would be happy to demonstrate. One or two of his lower belts that attended the class to help had some odd ideas about what constituted a good kick or punch, but the black belts were great guys willing to help you out and had good heads on their shoulders.

Drive by wrist locks? Okay, I'm invisioning gang colored hakama and a guy bailing out of a lowered 65' Caddy to run up and koto gashi(I know, I can't spell them) someone to the pavement at random. Sometimes even wrist locking an inocent by stander. Out of the blend of schools and training that has come together to far the training we are now doing, wrist locks and joint locks hurt. Matching and flowing with someone is important, stealing momentum etc. But, in the end,it's painful and you make god-awful faces when they are slapped on you. That works for me. If it doesn't hurt, it's not working most all the time.

Sounds like this is a good Aikido class. From what little I've read and been told, the style softened as it aged and developed. I have an alternate definition. Fair: Anything I do during the course fight that is needed to win.

Joesteph, I don't think there i anything wrong with that decision. Not to be argumentative, and I'm not here to guilt you either. However, you can participate in this sort of drill and not be aiming at desensitizing. Exposing yourself to the drill, with full dramatic displays, could help you determine, ahead of time how much violence you are willing to visit on others, or where to draw that line. So, it could be a positive re-enforcement of a decision.

Like Pitbull, I'm adding more than just that single video to my favorites list. Now to recall user name/passwords like the old man I am! Much appriciated and something simple like the "Straight line theory" video will help them alot I think.

Voted with the first option. Like many others here, I feel that the techniques needed at the extreme end of the self defense spectrem, need to be trained as closely as possible to reality. While any sane person hopes they never have to impliment anything so extreme as taking out an eye, I would rather have the training to do so if it meant my life, or that of someone that I had to act on behalf of. The major critism of many traditional MAist is that they fall back to "eye gouge" and "throat chop" when dealing with real threats. And, that they have never trained these techniques on anything other than empty air. This is a bridge puts some teeth back into these extreme cases of defense. I'll voice Tallgeese on picking up On Combat. I find it as, if not more, useful for a martial artist, or any defense minded person. Every day that I forget a folding knife(a useful tool in all kinds of situations) I remember to take that deep breath and "B-a-a-hh" just for myself.

Again, as with any training tool, it depends on the usage and implimentation in training. If done correctly, it is an irreplacable tool at that. If sparring does not, or cannot, prepare one for a fight, what single training method do you advocate that does the job better?

Sparring is an important tool in your training. If done correctly. Just like cardio conditioning and weights. If you use them right, they will greatly improve your fighting ability. If you use them incorrectly, then you can get hurt and develope a ton of bad habits with little or no pay off in your fighting. We spar differently to acomplish different training goals. Some nights it's just for the enjoyment of the contact. Some nights we limit the goals/targets/ranges so we work on particular things. If we spar "to the take down" we are concerned about refining the stand up skills, but we don't want to neglect the clinch range and the ability to take down/defend the take down. If we do "all stand up" we're looking at foot work, angles and combinations more since we aren't worrying over the ground aspect. "Full range", well, you guessed it, we do it all. Out sparring is almost always continuous, except when an instructor steps in to take advantage of a "teachable moment". Now JusticeZero commented on people being too defensive and not aggressive like a real attacker. Unless someone has been told, or has taken it on themselves to work on their defensive tactics, you'll normally see agressive people going right at each other from the start to the finish of a round. We try to coach/instruct from the sides as well. Getting tunnel vision during a fight can happen. I've mentioned before the trouble of starting out trying to work combinations, or anything else, and then getting caught up in the exchange and the heat of the moment. Getting reminded to get your hands up and your chin down, to circle and end with a kick helps. After a while, your getting reminded to do something different. You learned to keep doing the other things that were being shouted at you. Ask PitbullJudoka, he'll give up his back on the ground to try to work out of it. I'll let someone take side control, which for some reason I fear more than giving up my back. Stand up wise, I've let someone drive me or tried to work on "retreating" without going in a liniar path. Sometimes it's "all your doing is defending this round unless they really drop their hands", so the other person is really coming and your just trying to find angles where they can't catch you, no get set up and survive while watching for big openings. Now, we don't have full armor, so I'm a touch jelouse of guys like tallgeese, who do have it. If we did, we'd amor up attackers and set them after people for full on shots. But, we don't have the gear to put that tool in our box. So, we work with what we have, the tools at hand. Time, money and training allowing, you add new tools, refine and disguard old ones. A mechanic won't turn a bolt with a hammer. He'll use a wrench. But, sometimes to get that first time, the wrench needs a little tap from the hammer so it can do it's job. Sparring isn't fighting, but it can help you prepare for it in ways that nothing else could.

I appriceate the responces. We do a pass, to mount/sweep to guard drill with the guys and we a light pummeling drill standing. We've done 30sec explosion drills now and then. Getting active and heavy hips, as well as just moving instead of a stagnant struggle is what we are trying to get them to. Shrimping to warm up sounds good untill I run into the limited space we're working with. I've thought about trying to get people to shrimp while a partner "rides" from either mount or inside the guard. Pairing a more experienced student with one of the newer ones for the drill. Really, its making people remember, or at least listen to the couching from the instructors who are telling them to move even when on the bottom. I'm not expecting these guys to do hip-switch passes by next week. I just want them to keep moving to create opportunities.

We'll do the same stop action sort of thing in live rounds if it's a real teachable error. Especially when a guy is new or just completely locks up on the mats.

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As usual when I start a topic, I'm looking for a little advice. I help teach in our dojo, and what I and PitbullJudoka bring to the table is ground work amoung other things. We preach mobility and motion on the feet and on the ground. People in class seem to get circling and moving in and out when fighting on their feet. However, and why I'm posting under the grappling board, I need some ideas on how to drive home mobility on the ground as important. Because, once they hit the ground, with very few exceptions, they go dead and fight from one spot. No hip movement, no shrimping or bucking unless coached. And even then, not much. Any ideas how to drill that mobility into folks? Something you were drilled on that seemed to make it stick that you have to move on the ground? Getting the intellectual knowledge into practical use seems to be the trouble.