ShoriKid

Great movie, seen it a few times. It's been playing on ...Classic Film network, or some such for Direct TV folks.

It should already apply if it's taught correctly. At least with the arts that haven't mutated too far from their origins. Older arts were built to face up to violent attacks, usually from a wide variety of sources and with equally diverse methods. I'm not going to argue that the arts haven't changed, or that the original situations may not aways apply, but in many cases they still do. A samurai schooled in jujitsu facing a knife is in the same mortal danger as a man in the Phillipeans or a gentleman in the streets of London. What they all learned will be equally applicable against a knife attack. That the people teaching and learning the arts have forgotten this is where the trouble comes in.

If your looking at the literal movements, they may not work out the way you think they should. When that low block stops a kick and you step up and punch him before turning from him, it doesn't feel right. When your slipping his punch and hammering a kidney and then knee bumping him in the thigh or pivoted on him to after that smash and hit the spine etc, that feels better. As has been mentioned, there are several levels of bunkai that are used. And there are multiple applications of the same movement, depending largely on the philosophy of the style and the person training in it. Ask questions of your seniors and the instructor to see what they think the movements are used for. Not the whole kata at once, just two or three movements from a kata at a time. Make sure you really know the kata and can do it comfortably and without hitches before you really start digging past the basics of bunkai.

I'm suprised no one mentioned hockey. I's a fight on ice. The contact, the conditioning and the ability to fall without dieing. I know the guys are padded up, but taking a hard spill on the ice still has to be rough as heck if you can't fall properly. I'd also say the high school wrestler would be tough. Take downs, body control, strength and explosive conditioning as well as balance and speed relative to their size.

Is Thompson the British martial artist who has had articles on "the fence" as his pre-liminary self-defense set up? If so, I can say what little I've found by the man is good, solid stuff.

Not saying Funakoshi lied about confrontations with Motobu, but you don't put in your published bio another instructor coming into your dojo and, while not challenging, putting you in fight senarios that you can't handle. I'll have to see if I still have the issue of Classic Fighting Arts that had the interview where this came up with another master. Motobu did advocate sparring, but only between well trained karateka, those who had "mastered the styles"(kata) at which point he felt they cold fight with heavy contact without fear of real injury. Motobu is also one who believed in fighting to see if anything worked. His loved of the inclose fighting technique from the Nahanchi katas is pretty well known. One other cause of some of the bad blood between them was the screw up of the news papers in japan that ran Funakoshi's photo in an article about a karate master defeating a western(German I believe) heavy weight boxing champ. Because of that mess up, intentional or not, by the writers of the article, Funakoshi apparently recieved a lot of aclaim for an act that Motobu actually did. There was apparently a long running disagreement between the two. As I mentioned, Funakoshi apparently claimed Motobu was uneducated and of a lower class. Motobu didn't speak Japanese, which Funakoshi did and this didn't help him get his side of things out there much while he was on the mainland of Japan. shintosempei; Motobu had much of the same approach, physically testing his skills in the red-light districts of Okinawa and Japan in his younger days. Apparently he garnered such a reputation as a fighter that when he tried to travel to Hawaii shortly before WWII(I think, could have been right after), he was detained and denied admission onto the islands by authorities. He'd mellowed by his later years...compairitively speaking.

At 8 years or so, you can seperate from an instructor if you want. But, if you begin to think that you and some others with about the same level of training can figure it all out, and won't gain a benefit from an instructor/coach, you haven't met good coaches yet. Yes, you can fine tune things and explore the depth of your technique and it's application with a group of people with similiar levels of training. But, you will only preform to the level of your training partners. At some point you either have to expand your circle of training partners or get with someone with more experience and ability. The old guys have had a ton of time to work things out. They have figured out of lot of things, and if your not getting answers, a lot of times it's because your not asking the right questions. Not saying you can't make good gains when it's you and your peers training together. With them you can explore the things you want to and refine what you feel needs tuned up. Just don't get caught in the trap of thinking that you have ALL of the answers. Always be willing to look to others. Do you have to progress up a belt ranking? No, you don't. Heck, I was slow advancing, or have been since reaching 1st dan. But, you aren't selling your self respect by sticking with an instructor. You just have to be picky about which ones you stick with. The good ones explain things when your ready to hear and know what sort of questions to ask, and they will have you start getting depth. It may start over with basic techniques, but those should be your bread and butter any way. The basic punches, block sand kicks you learned should be refined and then re-examined once you think you have them down. Depth is what your after, not bredth, you need the insight of someone who's already been there. It may or not be an instructor that brings that to your training. If it is, cool. If not, seek training else where.

I don't know about being tossed out by Itosu, but I've seen in several places that Motobu didn't like him at all. A two sided dislike by all accounts. Funakoshi insulted Motobu's family position and called him uneducated, Motobu put Funakoshi on the spot in front of his students with questions about his fighting ability. So, no love lost there.

By "Old school" do you mean line basics in a group, kata drills, conditioning and all that? Not explaining techinques or answering questions? Not covering material in depth because the student hasn't 'earned' the right ot know it yet? Or do you mean "old school" as in learning one or two kata after the basic techniques are in your hands. Small, 3 or 4 person classes with the instructor? A lot of partner drills and conditioning on your own? Not passing on the full sylibus except to one or two chosen students? The definition of "old school" depends on if your talking traditional arts as they were taught orignally, or what most instructors learned three or four generations back. Which is a modern, militaristic training format meant to teach to the masses and impart a cultural format as much, if not more, than fighting skills. Should you change what you teach in order to keep students? No. Should you change how you teach to keep students? Sure. The how includes more effective drills, better communication of techniques, depth of explaination on your part when warrented. To keep the doors open you need to pay the rent, unless you teach from your paid for, non-mortgaged home. Our instructor's instructor was talking to a few of us before a grading and talking about the classes he used to run. He described one class of not so serious students who had fun and wanted to be in shape without going overboard. He hated teaching them, but it was part of his contract to do so at the time and he finished by saying, "You have to have rent payers so your serious students can train. And if your lucky, some of your rent payers will get serious, but don't count on it." Not everyone is into the martial arts to become hardened fighters, or disciples of an ancient method of warrior training. A lot are there for the social aspects and the fitness benefits. Because they have fun. And it's not the same fun had by those of us who don't mind the bruising and the battering our bodies take. I've trained without AC on the second floor of a metal roofed building in the head of August and in a small one floor with almost no heat in the dead of winter. I've trained in the middle of summer with the HEAT on before. I've trained outdoors in the heat and cold too. I am not the average student. Heck, I don't think I'm even the average dedicated student. Just because I've done those things doesn't mean I think others should have to do them to be "real" karateka. Both sets of training conditions can lead to health issues and be detrimental to training. Have them sign all the waviers you want. Waviers only really keep those who don't want to sue you from thinking it's easy. A decient lawyer can walk through anything that wasn't professionally prepaired in short order. Those professionally prepaired, he'll just show how you were intentionally putting someone at a higher degree of risk.

The only grappling rules set I've competed under was one from NAGA. You'd have to ask PitbullJudoka to be sure though. In that points set up, which doesn't take affect at all until the second round, your scoring points pretty much by getting to the superior position. So, in essense, it rewards you for setting up for a submission. Like the ohters have said though, once your competing, you should strive to win under that rules set. Pick a strategy hat works toward your goal and see how you can accomplish it within the rules. As an example, if you want to win by submission, constantly strive toward improving position, which usually gets some points, and then set up the sub well.

Savate/Box le Francase{Spelling?}: The West's kicking art. Much more so a kicking art than kickboxing.

Like Bushidoman, I think the talent level has gone way, way up in the past..three years? for the UFC. It's not that they have passed Hughes by, but they are closing in on him. I think there is a combination of things putting him in this fighting slump right now. St. Pierre winning is a combination of a man getting an excellent camp and having all of the physical tools sharper than anyone else. Not discrediting the man, but he's one of the ultimate packages of fighter out there. Back to Hughes and what the root of his problem is. I think part of his trouble has been that he dominated for long enough that he lost his competitive edge. And he lost his focus. Between sitting on top of the division for so long and opening his own gym I think he's taken his eye off the ball and forgotten that there are some really dangerous fighters out there. It just doesn't seem like he's had his head in the game the way he's used to. I think Father Time has contributed to this as well. He's used to being a peak preformance machine. And he's starting to feel that slip from running at top end, to being a few miles an hour off of it, if you know what I mean. Put that in with becoming more of a coach than he'd had to be to run his own gym, and he's looking at a lot of younger fighters comign up who still have that. It's hard for athletes to deal with as they start to see the physical attributes lessen over time and slow down a bit. Mentally they start to see defeat as an option. Once that enters a fighter's head, not that they might lose and be motivated to train harder to avoid it, but that losing is something they CAN do and it's okay. So Hughes faces ALves, who by all reports is a MASSIVE 170lb-er, who is young, focused like a laser beam, well trained and on a roll. And in the back of his head while Hughes is training is that, I'm older, not as strong as I was, this kid is a monster, I CAN lose to him. Not, "I might lose...time to go put in ten more rounds with the MT coach!", but "I CAN lose to this kid, he's a hot fighter right now, and I'm getting a little older...better go run some drills for the guys at the gym.." Hughes' game plan by Shorikid: Get back to Miletich to train. Or bring the whole dang gym to you! Get a camp that is on par, if not better than any other you've put in place before. Train your stand up! Not to knock people out, which I know he wants to do, but to learn to MOVE YOUR HEAD! and CHECK leg kicks! Seriously, it's basic defenses that he needs to work on. It's not that he's going to beat a St. Pierre on his feet, but he can stop eating jabs and straight rights and quick getting his legs hammered so baddly that he ducks into a kick in the attempt to catch a leg for a take down. Get it the heck out of your head that your an old man!! You need to remember, you are Matt-Freakin'!!-Hughes. The most dominant welterweight in the history of the UFC. You are a beast. You have more than 40 pro fights and these snot nosed punks with 20 fights and 10 years your junior had best learn to fear you or else. And if they don't fear the Hughes, then the Hughes must put the fear of him INTO them! Seriously, it breaks down that simply as I see it. Get refocused on his training for fights. Improve the basic tools of stand up defense, that will let him do what he needs to get to his place. Get his head back right. Forget that losing is even an exceptable outcome. If he doen't do these things, then yes, I see Hughes getting a couple of fights more before retiring and giving lack-luster performances while doing it. I want to see Hughes go out with style. I want to see a couple of more dominant victories and one or two wars that go back and forth with top level welterweights. I just don't know if he'll listen to my training plan and get there or not.

Like a lot of things in the martial arts, I'm of two minds about this matter. While I was the first student up to spar with anyone that came in new, that was often for the safety of lower ranks. Given that I have a hard head, and not enough sense to know when I'm hit, I was a good canidate to see if someone had come just to try to beat up people at our dojo. Not saying I was a great fighter able to take on all comers, but I would give a good representation of our school. And there were one or two people who wanted to come in and prove that their training was superior to what we were doing and that our dojo couldn't turn out fighters. One of the other local schools circulated that rumor around, that none of us could fight. The man who took over teaching when their head instructor took over ended up a good friend of mine. We trained together for a year, at which point he was a Ni Dan and I was about 5th kyu. He complimented me on my ability, saying I did well for my rank when we sparred. He eventual came to train with us and ended up making it to 1st kyu before he had to stop due to life happening. After sparring the instructor he laughingly confessed that all the things he'd heard about our instructor were wrong. That is how our 'challenges' seemed to happen. People came in to train, but most had prior training and had heard we were a soft school that just did kata and basics. They came to train for a bit, fight and go away with bragging rights that they had beat up our people. That is how a lot of modern 'challenges happen. They aren't as often walking into the door and calling a show down with the ehad instructor. It's a safer way for the challenger really. If they get beat up/lose the fight, they just say they were there to learn. If they dominate any of the sparring, they claim victory and superiority in style/ability. Going to others schools and trying them out is great. Don't go into a long term commitment on a contract, but sample things to see what they have to offer. Go and test yourself, not the other people if you think they are reputable. On the old school challenge where you come in and put it to an instructor, fight or be labled inferior. It just doesn't seeme to work any more. Not really. The instructor has a lot more riding on the line than the challenger. Not just losing, but winning. If they win in this legtious society, what are the odds, if it's a dominating win, especially by someone in a striking style, they face being put out of business financially. It's some of the same reasoning why sparring contact levels are curtailed so much in a lot of schools. There is also the facing of differing rules sets, which inevitably favor one fighter or the other. This is due to their familiarity with the rules and having trained with them. If you fight a certain way, your better at it than someone who doesn't. Put a judoka up against a karateka and have the rules not allow throws on the hard floor and only a single follow up strike after an opponent is downed and the rules tilt in the favor of the karateka. Doesn't mean he will win, but it makes things easier for him. The same can be reversed as well. Do the old school challenges have their uses? Philisophically, yes they do. They unmask the people who don't have the skills that they claim to have, when they are done correctly. I'm all for getting the low quality instructors, or the charletains out of martial arts. However, as often as not it's a 25 year old from a grappling school or mma gym heading down to take on the 35/40 year old guy who teaches karate at the local dojo 2 nights a week. That is as much a match of physical attributes, if not more so, than style. And a lot of these types of challenges aren't really done to expose fraud. Not a lot of the ones bragged about across the internet, or filmed for YouTube. It's more about the ego of going out and beating someone for the bragging rights than proving that a teaching is inferior. It's personal gratification. That is where it goes wrong and missed the point that established the tradition or challenges, and yes it's a long tradition in both the Eastern and Western martial arts. So me, I'm for old school challenges, and mordern methods too. And, I'm against them too. In this case, I want to have my cake and eat it too.

I haven't run into karatism, for age basis. I have however run into it because of the job I have. First management and now banking. Clean cut, dressed up and apparently bruises are bad. People thinking I'm strange for liking to do something that gets me hit, I used to that. My MA training hasn't gotten in the way of things. Other things have caused me to cut back my training due to gorwing older. Like Bushidoman and I are in a similar boat. Got two kids, both young, job, wife etc. I don't put in a couple of hours a day, or make it to the dojo to open the doors an hour before the first class. Or stay until an hour after the last class ends. But, I still train, and make it clear to my wife my training is important to me. And, that if I don't get to train, yes, I get cranky as it's a physical and mental outlet that keeps me smiling. Fortunately, I have a wife that is proud that I've worked so hard. She likes to say, in jest and only to friends,"I have a black belt. And he's sitting right over there."

There is something I've been mulling over for ohh..about a decade now. Having mellowed out since this was last an issue for me, I was 22 or 23 at the time, I was brought back to the subject of dojo challenges by a pod-cast I was listening to a few weeks back. The two instructors, neither a full decade older than myself, were discussing the times they had seen such occurances take place, what the circumstances were and what the results were, as well as their personal stances on them. Now where I come from is a school that, while it didn't condone such things, I don't think it would have gone down well. Heck, I think I was part of a sort of semi-dojo challenge a few time, only with a modern and more subtle take. My first sensei may not have openly done challenges in the time I was training there, but that's a different story. I'll ask my questions before sharing my odd, sort of, experiences. What is your view on dojo challenges? Are they good or bad for the martial arts in general? We'll take the assumption of being lawyered to death after one isn't going to happen. The ideal set up being one can issue or receive a challenge without fear of legal reprisals on the part of the loser, or heck, the winner. What are the reasons that challenges are good or bad? Why have these once time honored traditions of 'defending the rice bowl' and testing the would be masters fallen away in Western society? I'll say that historically, Western Martial Artists have a long and rich history of challenging one another to fights to settle who was best, which methods "worked" and other such things. George Silver had the old English version of the Gracie challenge standing, with swords and other weapons, for any master of defense that operated in England. Would you take part in a dojo challenge, on either side, if you were able to do so without fear of the hordes of lawyers that coud be more realdily summoned that gang members in a Jackie Chan beat-down? For what reason would you issue or respond to said challenge? To relate my own experiences with what could have been seen as dojo challenges, in the modern take, I take you back to the about...good grief, 10 or 12 years ago while I was high brown or early black belt level at my home Shorin Ryu dojo. The first was high brown, an exchanged student came into the dojo to train. He was from a Korean form and had about 7 or 8 years of training. The first few nights he worked out on the bag and kicking shield without taking part in class drills. A few nights of basics and he was back on the bag. He was fast and had some nice kicking combinations when working the bag. He didn't seem impressed with doing kihon work. When we finally sparred, he asked to take part and was allowed to. This was a tall lad, leggy and perfectly build for a kicking style. I...am not. I was paired with him for the first round of sparring and we geared up. The contact and sparring rules were explained to him and he said he understood. We lined up and the first thing I did was step off the line and into a jump side kick. It was nice, but he bounced away. I kept moving forward and scored as well. A few more exchanges and we were back on the line. He tried a jump spin kick, but a check to his ankles as he initiated foulded that up. At range he landed a couple of quick kicks which were well targeted. I closed and fired rapid punches, in response to which he turned his back. Thanking my lucky stars he wasn't kicking the day lights out of me, I pounded his kidneys. Break was called and after we lined up again, I had finally learned to bridge the gap quickly and in doing so, had him turn his back to me again after a short flurry of punches. Kidneys! I punched away and we were broken up again. He explained when he was told it was bad to put his back to a person in a fight that they had been taught to turn their backs if over whelmed as a sign to break off the action. A few more exchanges and we were set down. I alo saw our instructor take it to a black belt that had come from a rival school to train with us during his first sparing class of the night. I got him next with both of us being told to put something on the punches. We went at it pretty hard with blurred vision and body bruises being the result. And this was my best friend. I also once went to a dojo that opened up just out from my home that claimed to be teaching the same style of Shorin Ryu that I had my shodan in. This was a month or so after their opening. I did kata work with them, corrected where they differed from the Master's text and asked a few questions. Never sparred them, though as a punk shodan, I admit I was itching to in order to get a real apples to apples comparison of my abilities vs. other black belts. Enough rambling, lets see what you folks think. I'll bring in my answers to my own questions in a bit.

Lee worked with LeBell and good ol' "Judo Gene" came from a family that included old style catch wrestlers and boxers. What Lee was looking at by what's in ao seemed to be basics that could be learned and mastered quickly and employed in a variety of ways. Just like a lead straight is a key tool, simple and effective, so to are arm bars. Also look at what frame work he was building around. I'm sure his knowledge of ground fighting would have expanded, but he was looking for survival tools to add to the kit of stand up weapons he felt were needed for a real fight.

Unless something changes the odds of kickboxing regaining the popularity it had twenty years back, let alone surpassing that level, are very slim. Within the different rules sets, American Kickboxing{all kicks above the waist}, European{allowing kicks to the legs} and Asain Rules{kicks to legs and knees to body and sometimes the head} each has areas that they are more popular, but none of them dominates completely. Most sanctioning organizations have catigories for competition within each rules set. What sort of contact/targeting rules are prefered by the audiances at events depends largely on how they are formated. The WCL allows for leg kicks, knees to the body and it's fights are exciting. However, it is a very young organization and may not last long. As long as leg kicks must be followed up with techniques you will not see multiple rounds of leg chopping as the first round or two of Thai boxing goes toard. That, however, is part of the way Thai Boxing works. The first round or two is for feeling out so leg kicks and jabs are most of what you will see. The real action comes in the second half of the match. I can appriciate what a thigh kick does to balance, speed and power of a fighter as time goes on, so I like their inclusion in matches. I am not that average fight fan, or even the average kickboxing fan though. Do events that are televised affect how martial artists train? Only if they either compete, and there by need to stay in touch with the most popular rules, or if they are looking to try something they thought looked interesting. Adding legs as a viable target will change the way you fight though, and the way you train. Your stances will shorten and you'll get more up right and not be as prone to fight with your lead leg out or in a side-on stance. Same things happen if you open up sweeps and throws too. Any change in contact rules will change the mentality and practices of the recieving fighteras well as the one on offense.

Here's to hoping this one passes. Once it does, it would be good to see some amature action starting up in the area. The few fighters I hear anything of end up traveling to KY or GA to get their feet wet.

I'm coming to steal a few of those swords bushido_man! Old Century wave bag converted to sand filled(they will no longer replace cores apparently if the bag is so old. Never mind that I bought it back during the 'life time gurantee period. ) nunchucks set of un-sharpened kama set of tanfu rattan fighting stick hard wood fighting stick set of curved focus mitts 1 extra thick thai pad head gear MMA training gloves Pair of century mma/bag gloves(now retired as Rich Franklin has signed one) cloth shin/instep guards Danish ax 2 spears my beloved Del Tin(because Albion wasn't in operation back then) What I need/want: Rattan sword A good shield{round wooden sort of migration period} 2 felt edged metal training knives airsoft pellet pistol either trainers full vest or belly pad.

Mostly everyone has covered why you won't see it in MMA. The decresed number of subs and difficulty in landing strikes are things that you have to consider. However, it is a good transitional position to train from. With some Greco throws and tackdowns you can end up in a very similar position. From there transitioning to side control or the mount is pretty easy. Some of our throws will land you in the scarf hold, though we are usually "lower" with the hips out more. That may well be from the wrestling influence that is present. Anyway, we either transition over to mount or side control. Using the pics in the link ps1 provided, here's where we end up some times. We land and get the arm back to the right side of our heads and apply preasure, trapping the arm there and being able to work a choke from the position. I know there is a name for the choke, PittbullJudoka keeps reminding us of what it is and I can't ever remember. Or when we transition, if the arm is to the inside, we try to keep it across the neck/upper chest and get to mount so that they have less mobility in the arm to defend with. PS: ps1, the link was much appriciated. Back tracked to the main page and book marked it for later.

The Bubishi Small-Circle Jujitsu Okinawan Kempo (Choki Motobu) Zen in the Martial Arts The Book of Martial Power I second Col. Grossman's On Killing I'd recommend Medieval Swordsmanship by John Clements does for older forms of swordsmanship what bushido_man's MA of Renaissance Europe does. Too many misconceptions out there.

The ASU announced on Tuesday the 13th that they were cutting the men's Wrestling team, men's swimming and men's tennis teams. The reasons given, and this is quoted from the release at MMA Weekly, “These three sports were selected with the following criteria: financial impact, potential competitive success, conference/regional support and gender equity." This given by the University's VP of Athletics. It's a shame to see any major university cut a program. Wrestling seems to be a target at times since it doesn't have the ticket draw of the traditional Football/basketball/baseball trio. Interestingly ASU had been turning out good wrestlers who were crossing over into MMA the last few years. Now warning this is a bit of a very un-PC rant coming up. Change the channle if you don't want to see it. Enough of a warning? Okay. Breaking down the reasoning for the sports cuts I'm not convience it was anything other than a move to get rid of things not generating ticket sales and PC/lawsuit motivations. Financial impact is nothing here. Universities in general are all uping their tuition fees so any increases in operating expenses are off set. The board of regents of a school runs them just like any other business. They don't let them lose money. If financing were a real concern as far as athletics goes a more even distribution of teams cut would have been more likely, especially if you look at the cost of each sport. Most of the training facilities these teams use are already in existance, and will continue to be maintained, for the sake of other teams. A set of courts of tennis, a pool for the swim team both are likely to exist already as things the general student body also has access to in the off season or whenever they are not in use for practice/training time. Travel expenses etc are incured by all teams. Change your schedule to have more meets closer or cut back on a couple of other programs to make up the cost. This one however, is the only legit reason I can see for cutting the teams. Everything else you can balance out if you put honest effort and time into the problem. Competitiveness/confrense support can both easily be handled in the same manner. Seek premission to enter another conference with with a different classification at which your teams are more competitive. Go from Class A to Class AA, which is a different conference to start with and will allow your teams to be more competitive. The one that burns my shorts is the "gender equality" reasoning. I'm sorry, but it doesn't wash as antyhing other than PC. Last time I checked wrestling is an open sport. In highschool girls compete in the weight class they fall into with the guys. I don't believe college is any different. While the men's tennis and swim teams are men's sports, ASU has women's equivalents that were not cut. I know Title iX exists and this may be the basis for the school siting gender equality as a rason for cutting the teams on the men's side and not on the womens. However, and a legal mind may know of a better reading, Title IX does not mandate or enforce an equal number of teams/positions be made available to each sex. Just that there is equal oportunity to participate. Counting the information that ASU has available there are 8 women's only sports, 4 men's only sports, and 3 sports which are intermurial{I can't spell, forgive me please}. The only way I can see this split going like this is the large number of slots set for football takes up enough for other sports. Again though, football is not male exclusive if a woman can make the team. I know, I know, not a lot of ladies have interest in football for even less PC reasons than being upset with "Gender equality" being a justification for cutting a sports. The initial article I saw was here MMA Weekly With the information for the team break down and more details NCAA Wrestling

You may end up doing a good bit of running and rope work your first couple of days training. A friend joined a gym to train and that's what happened to him. Running laps and doing a lot of rounds of jumping rope until they saw he was in shape and going to stick around. Rounds on the bag were tossed in after a couple of days too. Then they started working with him assessing his skills and getting him started. I'll say this that after four months of training you could see improvement. The guy already had pretty good stand up, but his jab improved greatly, and thus I had to improve my head movement(having it snap straight back after it was hit was the movement I got at first with him). What your likely to see is warming up with rope work and sit ups/push ups then hitting the bag some. Mit work and ring time will come. A lot of it will depend on the size of the gym and number of trainers compaired to fighters. You'll likely get warmed up on your own a bit, then start hitting alternating rounds of different drills to keep everyone working. So, as your looking to join a gym, I'd have to say do some cardio if you aren't already to get ready. Best of luck and I hope you find a good gym.

And I was hoping for a parka vs. reverse punch thread! Seriously though, you don't have to target things to the head when kicking, no matter what in class sparring looks like. There are a few facts to face when it comes to self-defense and clothing. 1)You should keep in mind freedom of movement when dressing if you think you are going to have an increased chance of an encounter.[ie. your having to travel late through a rougher neighborhood]. This includes footwear for running the heck away. 2)For the sake of prepairedness{sp}, you should do at least some training in your common street cloths so that you are aware of the advantages and disadvantages they offer. 3)If self-defense is that big a concern, then it should inform your buying and dress habits. Now the environment, such as debris on the ground, footing etc. can influence what you will do in a given situation. Your worry about glass and other things on the ground when employing ground skills should be a secondary concern anyway. The last place you want to be is on your back in a self defense situation. And if your pulling guard, or your instructors are teaching you to pull guard to get to the ground during self defense, they have failed to give you a solid and, pardon the pun, well grounded skill set. Self-defense requires situational awareness and part of that is footing ad throwing surface..I mean ground conditions. You need to know and pay attention to that curb you stepped down from if there are guys about to start trouble for you. Self-defense concerns used to flavor my dress habits. When I went out I made sure I wasn't overly bound up in too tight jeans(luckly for my build they weren't in style much when I was younger) and that I had good footware one. I always wanted either my wrestling shoes or combat boots on my feet. Good footing, I can run well in both and I either had light, fast kicks, or hammers.

It depends on what sort of objective you have in your training. In order to cover all ranges compitently, you'll usually have to go outside of a single style. Those that prepose to cover everything lack a lot of developement in certain aspects when compaired to specialist styles. Not saying those styles don't have a lot to offer, but a specialist doc vs. a neurosurgen is what you get. I like the idea of training in a couple of styles at once, usually not more than two. Though here's the thing about that. You need a solid grounding somewhere before you start branching out. Without that base you can end up with a lot of sloopy technique instead of a core of good techniques and a few things your still working on. Now, if you are grounded in a style and start looking at other styles I would suggest that you look at something that is very different from what your currently working on. Say, your an Aiki man, working on some more stand up oriented JJJ styles might have a lot of knowledge bleed over that makes it harder to learn. But, going into Thai Boxing your not getting too much technical cross over. I'm not trying to train in say Shotokan and Judo to become a master at both. I'm training to be an excellent Karate-ka who can throw you on your head with ease and doesn't panic when he hits the ground himself. Over all, training in one thing is good. Training in a couple of things at once is also a good thing. Training period is just good.