Combat Ki, real of fad?

[Dobbersky]

Is this genuine, does anyone practice this form of conditioning. I though I was hard with my Kyokushin/Ashihara/Enshin style conditioning but this takes the biscuit

[Zaine]

I don't see why not. The mind is a powerful thing and if you trained both your body and mind to take that I can certainly see it being genuine. The body conditioning is nothing foreign no me though, they seem to be doing the same way I did.

[MasterPain]

I refuse to even try to learn to take a groin strike. Although I've heard a great story involving an industrial strength 3 foot long cardboard paper roll. The rest is no big deal. Then again, I think some of our group had some training in Juko Kai.

[Liver Punch]

As for the groin shots, I think it's a whole lot easier to learn how to block that sort of shot...there's probably less pain involved too. The shots to the body aren't anything beyond what a lot of people take in sparring or toughness drills, and if you breathe with it, it's really not that horrible.

We take throat strikes, and tightening and breathing out is the best way to do it - the physiology is such as it prevents injury.

I'm not sure what they're saying in the video, or if they're claiming that this is all possible as a result of sheer internal energy, but it seems to be a group of martial artists who perform the proper biological responses to specific attacks.

[Liver Punch]

Ok, I just realized that the map on the beginning shows them coming to where I am. This place is Crussemeyer's Martial Arts in Elkhart, IN.

http://crussemeyerma.com/

I'm going to check them out tonight...I guess we'll see.

[tallgeese]

Having trained with guys that directly worked with the Juko Kai guys, I can say that despite being sold as "internal energy" what is really used is primarily body mechanics and breathing patterns (particularly important for taking throat strikes). That's not to say that those guys aren't tough dudes, they are, and they practice a particularly hard style of aiki jutsu that has no real definition for "taking it easy" on joints.

One area that they truly corner the market in is mindset. They are always going into a fight, taking aggressive action to respond, never "defend". This is highly useful and makes their art aggressive.

I can't comment on some of the low-grade internet bashing about business practices of the organization, I've never been part of it. They are, to my knowledge, rumors. The people I know who were part of it have nothing bad to say about any of it's leadership, granted they were affiliated some time ago.

Here's the thing, from my own evaluation of training on the outskirts of such things for a time, it's a lot of time to build up to training this way. And it plants you statically, from a training stand point, each and every time you work it. Studies have shown, over and over again, that you will respond under stress the way you train. If I train to stand and take punishment, then under stress there is every likelihood that I will do that when an adrenaline dump hits. So I've taken a potentially really good response (moving- even if it's running) and rooted it in place.

Now when bad guy produces weapon I'm really out of luck. Even more than I would have been if I were at least mobile and attempting to avoid. Personally, hard sparring will condition you (as LP stated) to deal with the psychology of getting hit. Proper mindset will keep you attacking if you've really looked at violence. It's more important, at least the way I've structured my response patter, to keep mobile and work on evading attacks.

Keep in mind that the Juko Kai guys are known for taking strikes, but that's not the sole focus of their art. It is what you see all the time in demos and you tube clips, but again, they practice a very aggressive style of joint manipulation and hit like sledge hammers from my experience.

[sojobo]

Did any one else spot the lack of movement?

Sojobo

[yamesu]

That is quite amazing, and in my (nearly) 20 years of martial arts, I have never seen anything like this.

The Mawashi geri to the ribs is not all too amazing, that is quite common conditioning in Kyokushin.

The groin kicks, I must say, would hurt even when wearing a cup! I am with MasterPain on this one, I REFUSE to even put any time/energy into learning to take a groin shot!!!

The throat punches are really what gets me. That is just insane! Ive seen people actually carried off on stretchers in Kyokushin tournaments from copping a punch to the neck.

Respect-

[DWx]

We do kicks and punches to the body even in my TKD class so its not that special. The neck and groin shots tho... ouch. Couldn't the neck punches (and I guess the groin shots) be similar to all that stuff where people bend iron bars with their neck and all that? Kinda all the tricks you see the Shoalin monks do?

edit: Just searched for Shoalin Monks conditioning on YouTube. Am now slightly traumatised.

[Zaine]

Just searched for Shoalin Monks conditioning on YouTube. Am now slightly traumatised.

Haha yeah those guys aren't joking around!