ShoriKid

I'll step in with a different recommendation if you want to lock, throw and still do weapons training. Japanese Jujitsu, with more emphasis on standing grappling, locks and throws, and in the right programs, you'll still see weapons work. However, your not likely to see the traditional kobudo weapons. Knife, sword, staff and a few others are the most likely.

When your getting banged up on a regular basis and don't have time to take it easy to recover, or you've done damage to something in years past, it's a blessing. Tallgeese, Aleve is a subcatigory of the "I'd die without it" food group which includes things like coffee and peanutbutter.

Kruczek, I don't want to come off as insulting, but your logic doesn't track. You said a person went from white belt to 4th dan in 4 years, what most consider an average time to 1st dan. And that was fine. Joe Lewis, if I recall correctly training 8hr days while in Okinawa as a Marine, gets a couple of black belts in a year and that is bad? I don't see the trouble with multiple promotions on a single test as long as two things happen. The person is tested on all of the matial required for all of the grades they are advancing. And, they don't get a break cut because they are covering so much material. In other words, it should be tougher than the average single step promotion.

Had my first instructor take a couple of nights when we sparred and take away someones favorite, or their best, techniques. I come from a hand dominant art, but for a stodgey puncher of a karateka, I kicked a lot and well for the class. So, I got up and "no kicks". Wasn't that bad until I was up against a guy with a good six or seven inches in height on me. That was no fun at all. That was far, far better point sparring than I've seen in many a clip. No tilting away from your oponent and chasing them with flippy kicks. No backfists from ten feet back. Sure, a lot of things I didn't like from a practical stand point, but man! those guys had some speed. Hand speed and reaction speed body wise. Liked watching them square up and give little movements and the other guy would shift to counter and then they'd reset. Like they were thinking about it. Good stuff.

Aiyo, welcome to the forums! The pain in your hip, is it centered in the join of the oposite leg itself, or more a pain/constriction feeling on the outside of the hip? There are a couple of stretches that help me with this issue when I had it. Creeps back into things when I've not stretched right in a while. Depending on how the pain is hitting, you'll need to stretch different muscle groups to help out with this. That, and working the mechanics out slowly before going full speed helps get the body ready for the action.

Good save on the milk tori. With what that stuff costs a gallon, a torn hamstring is a cheaper bill! Anyway, working on 33 this year, will be the ...16th year training? Only change not brought on by having a wife, children and less time to train than I did at 19/20? It hurts in the morning in ways that I can't just go, "hrrrm, that's an insteresting ache. Oh well, off to work again." Now it's a bit more, "How did I hurt that? Ow! Oh..man..where's the Aleve?"

Here is where I disagree with you Night Owl, at least in part. I see Gracie's early success being due to the skill imbalance, not that it's easier to nutralize a size disparity on the ground. As the second part of your statement indicates, once he lost the very large skill advantage, he was no longer able to dominate. This is true. However, I think what hurt Gracie the most in that match, in which all of the real action took place on the ground, was that Hughes, despite not being as skilled on the ground, was skilled enough that when combined with his strength advantage he was able to dominate on the ground. Sure, he had to pound Royce with strikes to finish the fight, but, he achieved that feat by gaining superior postion. A position which Royce, who is a far better grappler, couldn't escape. I would say that this statement here is why fighters with strong wrestling backgrounds have done so well in MMA type competitions. They are able to dictate where the fight occures. If they want to stand up, you have to by-pass a very strong take down defense. They can clinch and control you there or take you do, since they know how to deal with the best defense vs. most takedowns, the sprawl. Combine a strong takedown defense, ie. sprawl and clinch work, with some solid take downs and you can decide where the fight takes place. That allows you to implement whatever style you want.

Bes way of putting this was done by a small guy on a history channel show on MA. To paraphrase, a well trained little man will beat an untrained big man, but a well trained little man will lose to a well trained big man. Technique is most important, but attributes; size, strength, speed matter a while lot during a fight. Whether self defense or a matched fight, stronger people have an advantage. One of our newly minted blackbelts asked how much strength mattered. I told him that it mattered, that for ever pound of muscle/unit of power your giving up you need not just one unit of skill to over come it, but an exponential increase in skill. Royce Gracie is a good grappler, but the reason he doesn't win matches against anyone with much skill is that he is constantly overmatched in power. When he's won lately, its been against someone who has very little grappling skill. Night Owl, I saw, I think, that you said getting to the ground helped negate some of the power/size difference. I always found the oposite to be true. I'd generally rather face someone with a size/power advantage on my feet. There I feel more mobile and able to negate the disadvantage. Perhaps it's that I prefer standup to grappling, even though I enjoy both.

Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans =Griffin, KO Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir =Nogueira, Sub Wanderlei Silva vs. Quinton Jackson = Silva, KO Mike Massenzio vs. CB Dollaway = Dollaway, Sub Mostapha Al Turk vs. Cheick Kongo= Kongo, KO Dean Lister vs. Yushin Okami = Okami, Dec Mike Wessel vs. Antoni Hardonk= Hardonk, KO Reese Andy vs. Matt Hamill= Hamill, KO Brad Blackburn vs. Ryo Chonan =Chonan, Dec Pat Barry vs. Dan Evensen =Evensen, KO

Completely depends. Generally I strike with the shin. On occasion if I want to get "in" on a target, such as the inner thigh or the kidneys, I'll use the ball of the foot. I'll kick with either leg, depending totally on the set up, situation and and the target. The targets will run from a shin check to stutter up footwork all the way up to the head, staying off the knee joints.

The last class before the Christmas break we'll do a good nigh of drilling, can't recall how to spell the term for the harder training. Lots of stations, lots of drills. Last year was a run to the park and then do 1,000 repetitions of techniques. All of the black belts take turns selecting and leading the class. First night back after Christmas is an all fight night which is fun. We do a Christmas party with the kids.

If your looking for older sources, try here. http://www.amazon.com/Karate-Jutsu-Original-Teachings-Funakoshi/dp/4770026811/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229217070&sr=8-3 Karate-jutsu is Funakoshi's earlier book. http://www.amazon.com/Okinawan-Kempo-Choki-Motobu/dp/092012917X/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229218056&sr=8-1 Motobu is early half of the 20th Century. It's a relatively short book with some history by McCarthy. The photos are of poor quality, but they work as illustrations of the technique if you read the descriptions carefully. It's old hard knocks karate. The Bubishi

A lot of good answrs, some I think I would steal. In a way, regressing to what was trained, with an eye on the modern is a good thing. Partner training used to be heavily involved in karate training, as well as makawari striking. The up date is to use partner work and focus mit, bag and shield work. Empty air striking can teach you a lot about cleaning up technique where your not worried about hitting hard so much that you screw up, but you polish the mechanics. However, if you don't hit something that resists, you'll never really understand rooting and power generation. With a partner, you learn to have sensitivity, judge distance and timing. All things you need to improve combative ability. In weapons training I would concentrate on stick/club, knife and gun. Not only to defend against these weapons, but to have at least the basics covered on their use. The more you understand those capabilities, the better you are able to stop them and to know what their limitations of attack are when you are faced with them. I'd go beyond the normal partner training to do one vs. multiples on a regular basis, working toward a spontainious responce and adaptation in a variety of situations. Threat awareness would be paramount here. I'd also look at the way things are taught in the basic techniques. I'd keep them in place. But, I'd look at the applications of things to see what the body movement does and what is can be used for. Like using the low block to hammer down into the thigh instead of smashing the bones of the forearm into the shin of a kick. Or the way the high block comes up and covers the face as a flinch reflex. Once you deconstruct the movements, you see what they do best, no matter what you were taught they were for initially, or how they are supposed to work. Don't radically alter the movements, teach them correctly, gave a basic explaination of how they work for beginners and expand on that basis as they start understanding application.

I think that a lot of emphasis has beenplaced on, as you said, getting through a sequence of moves. The ultimate goal is to get to the point where you adapt and move to whatever is going on without hesitation. Taking in information, reacting/actingwithout having to pass through the brain's processing unit. So, i'm in agreement with you tallgeese. How to get there is the question. A lot of that work getting there comes from application in an environment that forces you to transition from one threat to the next. I think it starts with being able to flow through several series of techniques without hesitation. At the same time you should be learning to recognize several different threats. Once you've got good responces and an awareness of concepts for dealing with threats internalized, you s tart mixing them up in combative situations, presenting more than one threat. One and two step sparring sort of half teaches how to respond to a threat in a flow. But, it stops too soon since that follow up punch never comes or the person never stops and goes for a clinch, or a second attacker is introduced. If it were, you'd see more of the mushin approach to fighting developed. Or, I could just be rambling. I'm not sure if I hit on things the way your looking for tallgeese, but I think you have a very good point about too many people stopping at stage one of mushin.

Outside of the martial skills needed to compete, you can never go wrong with cardio and strength conditioning. Anyone is good for 30 seconds, past that the person in better shape has an ever increasing advantage. Now, weights vs. body weight becomes a point of personal choice. Weights will generally have a faster effect on raising strength, and if you impliment a good program, muscular conditioning. Body weight work, with the right program, can build up a high degree of strength in a lot of the supplimental muscles and the core. This usually takes more time and discipline than weights though.

I think too many have taken it to mean that single techniques are the way to end the encounter. I always looked at it somewhere close to tallgeese, if your going to bother hitting something, hit hard. I always had it drilled into me to throw every technique like it was the last thing I was going to have the chance to do in a fight, even in combination. All you get is the jab, so jab hard straight and fast(and on target). All you get is the cross, so throw it hard, straight and fast etc.

I'm looking for some advice out there to those with boxing experience or with a deep dip into it's basics for your training. Has anyone got any advice for either books or training videos that look at foot work and defensive stratagies for boxers? I can look on any web site, and they are all claiming theirs is best. I'm looking for recommendations from the board.

I can't argue with the man. Heck, read my signature . Amungst ourselves we can talk a big game, philosophically and there is nothing wrong with that, but when you boil it down to bare bones, hard work is the key to good training.

I have a question that I haven't come up with an answer to on my end just yet. Well into the theoretic realm. If you were put in charge of the cirriculum of your school how would you change things. Your two goals are as follows; increase the combative nature of the average lesson and increase the combative effectiveness of the average student. Second, do not alter the style so much that it loses core consistancey or can no longer be identified as the original system. You can change things, but in the end, Shotokan should still be Shotokan as an example. And anyone familiar with the system should readily see it. Now, what do you change? Is is the training methods only? Style content or alteration of technique? Is a core philosophical change enough to make this change? To establish a definition of what "combative" means I will say, in this case, it is the following. To be applicable in a self defense encounter. This will cover anything from the "consentual combat/ego fight" to group assualt. By the "combative effectiveness" I mean core proficiency and ability of the average student to apply the art. They don't have to "win" encounters, but they should fair substancially better during a fight. This means at least taking less damage and upping their survivability. You can't win them all, but if you can walk out of a fight on your own, or with minimal help, in RL that's better than you would have done in many cases.

I can't pin anything specific on where the name came from, but I fairly certain the term is older than Yamaguchi

Gone to a couple. One with a very famous preasure point person who was somewhat disappointing. Other with Bruce Chu and Leon Jay along with Jack Hogan that was all day and very good in both content and people. Time with Gokor before a tournament where I wish he'd been out partying a little less and started earlier. Really good grappling stuff.

I'm with Tiger, it wasn't a good display of sportsmanship and self control. But, if your being constantly tagged and the ref is not saying anything about it during a light contact fight, people lose their cool. I've packed beatings sparring before without trouble because I knew it was all in the spirit of good training. If I think someone is just trying to show off or intimidate/beat on me above the allowed contact level, I am not cool with it. I just try not to make the display of displeasure public.

Teach what you know first. Sounds stupid and simple, but a lot of people get carried away with trying to teach things that are hot and cool and don't cover what they really know first. The style I train in right now is an amalgumation(I know I spelled that wrong) of traditional systems with a heavy flavoring from hard won experience in the ring and an eye toward applicability. We aren't saying we reinvented the wheel, just that certain kinds of tires work best on certain kinds of roads, so make the right choice. I think it's not so much what you teach from your tradition, but how you teach it. As others have said, the human body only moves in certain ways and has the same strengths and weaknesses now that it did 1000, 500, 100, or 10 years ago. But, I can take that same, traditional reverse punch and teach it with the modern mind as a guide. I don't mean I teach anything different, just that I try to make the application and variations clear from the outset. Such as, you don't have to drop into a horse or forward stance to through this punch. You don't have to chamber all the way back to the ribs/hip, but you need the hip torque and rotation from a stable stance. tallgeese, we gear up about as much as we can, but the cost of a redman, which I don't like for the severe loss of realism through speed/movement/reaction, do you have any suggestions on good gear to look into? Going a little harder would be nice on ocasion and really teeing off on someeone without having to worry about damage at all in striking would be a treat. We have to make some compromises for safety and it would be nice to get the chance to really drill some of what we do without fear of causing injury. The newer folks could really see more of what they are doing since they could go from low speed learning, to high speed, high power more quickly. We start with mma style training gloves, boxing head gear, shin guards and I think we still have our vests, but we rarely use them. Blauer's armor looks great, with the best mix of protection and mobility, but the cost is not easy on a small club without a large student base to support the cost.

You have two recommendations for kempo-gojo. Like Montana, I'm a shorin ryu man, thought not nearly as experienced, and I have good things to say about it as well. Partially, it will depend on what brank of shorin ryu your dealing with, along with the instructor. Shorin Ryu will have you training and fighting out of higher, and lighter stances than a lot of others I've seen and teaches more of an angled/deflective blocking instead of straight force on force. That said, quality of individual instruction varies, sometimes greatly, so check out the dojos before committing. They should be willing to let you sit in and observe a class or two, or even work out once or twice without committing to much in the way of money. Basically, each dojo will have different emphasis, strengths and weaknesses, so it pays to see what your getting into before making the leap.

Josh Koscheck vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida =Kosheck, Dec Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet =Swick, Dec Steve Cantwell vs. Razak Al-Hassan= Cantwell, KO Tim Credeur vs. Nate Loughran =Credeur, Sub Luigi Fioravanti vs. Brodie Farber =Fioravanti, KO Steve Bruno vs. Johnny Rees = Bruno, KO Ben Saunders vs. Brandon Wolff Saunders, Sub Corey Hill vs. Dale Hartt =Hartt, Dec Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully =McCully, Sub Jim Miller vs. Matt Wiman =Miller, Dec