Martial Arts Experiences Discussion Thread

[James Y]

1800s Jujutsu Death Matches

Note: This video does not actually contain footage of any death matches. But it shows that many people today greatly underestimate how rough and dangerous participation in martial arts was back in those days.

https://youtu.be/dB3PFWWnhgU

Jim

[James Y]

Patterson’s Peekaboo Boxing & Gazelle Punch Explained - Technique Breakdown

The late Floyd Patterson is still one of my favorite fighters to watch of all time.

https://youtu.be/iGe1rHgEvco

Jim

[Bolster]

My martial arts experience: Beat up frequently in practice, so many injuries, I stopped. (I'm considerably older than the typical M-Artist.)

[James Y]

My martial arts experience: Beat up frequently in practice, so many injuries, I stopped. (I'm considerably older than the typical M-Artist.)

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. May I ask which type of martial art or school it was?

Jim

[Naperville]

My martial arts experience: Beat up frequently in practice, so many injuries, I stopped. (I'm considerably older than the typical M-Artist.)

Training can be hard on the body. It can certainly hurt. But if you use the right liniments and rub the sores/bruises, it makes you tougher in an actual battle because you have developed a higher pain threshold.

I recall many times working out with people in escrima/arnis and these guys had terrible stick control....so they had me saying OUCH every 15 seconds when they hit me. It was funny more than it was bothersome, but boy did it hurt! I just dealt with it and carried on. The GM Tony Somera stood there and looked at us, and I kept saying "OUCH" then the GM would look at the guy and he wasn't paying attention. He was oblivious to what he was doing to training partners. Funny memory.

In Hapkido, I subluxed one of my shoulders on a bad throw. It happens. The shoulder ball came right out of the socket. Talk about pain, holy cow, man did that hurt. I just went up to the wall, slammed my shoulder against the wall and got everything back where it belonged. In a street fight if it happened, you would now know what happened and deal with it.

If I could get back to walking and moving, I'd gladly take up martial arts again, even if it meant getting thrown around and many many bruises. I love it!!!

GET BACK IN THERE BUDDY!!!

[James Y]

I don't want to speak for Bolster, but if someone's first martial arts experience starts at a considerably older age, it'll be much different than if they started young.

I can't count the number of times I was beaten up or got injured during training, including when I was a young kid training with adults (kids weren't protected and coddled back then like they are today). But I was young and could recover much faster. The body then has a foundation built up. If someone's first training comes well into middle age or older, the body will be far less pliable, and recovery will be much more difficult.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone, just pointing out the inevitable difference between building a foundation from a younger age and starting out much later in life. And even moreso in some martial arts, such as Judo, Muay Thai, Kyokushinkai Karate, Shuai Jiao, Choy Lee Fut, etc.

Jim

[Bolster]

My martial arts experience: Beat up frequently in practice, so many injuries, I stopped. (I'm considerably older than the typical M-Artist.)

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. May I ask which type of martial art or school it was?
Jim

Brazilian JJ, by the Gracie family. They were really good, but the students would go crazy at times.

[James Y]

My martial arts experience: Beat up frequently in practice, so many injuries, I stopped. (I'm considerably older than the typical M-Artist.)

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. May I ask which type of martial art or school it was?
Jim

Brazilian JJ, by the Gracie family. They were really good, but the students would go crazy at times.

Yes, BJJ can be rough too, especially in a school full of competitive young men.

Jim

[Bolster]

I noticed that our teachers--especially the older ones---amazing as they were, avoided sparring with the students. One of them told me: "I only have so many reverse spine bends in my body!" The middle-age teachers had bad joints and moved slowly and carefully and didn't spar at all. From what I've seen, pursuing BJJ for years takes quite a toll on the body. Might be worth it, but I decided to go for fewer injuries, and not be a good martial artist. I've shifted over to running and weights and staying out of trouble.

[James Y]

I noticed that our teachers--especially the older ones---amazing as they were, avoided sparring with the students. One of them told me: "I only have so many reverse spine bends in my body!" The middle-age teachers had bad joints and moved slowly and carefully and didn't spar at all. From what I've seen, pursuing BJJ for years takes quite a toll on the body. Might be worth it, but I decided to go for fewer injuries, and not be a good martial artist. I've shifted over to running and weights and staying out of trouble.

Yeah, hard grappling in particular takes a toll on the body. I took up BJJ when I was 45 years old, just for the experience. I only intended to stay in it for a year, which I did. I noticed that the middle-aged guys (and some of the younger ones, too) had various injuries, and fingers and toes taped up. I think I was lucky; the only injury I got during that time was my little toe got caught on the mat and got bent all the way back when I rolled wrong. My own fault. The little toe was flopping around loosely. But it healed up back to normal before too long. Otherwise, it was mostly just friction scrapes, especially around my ears and the back of my neck area.

The first martial art I’d done as a kid had been Judo back in the ‘70s, and for the most part I fell into the BJJ training fairly easily, even after all that time. But I’d also been training in martial arts all that time, too, just not in grappling. BJJ is a great art; I got what I wanted out of it in a year, and I enjoyed my time in it; but I didn’t LOVE it, and it never would have become my main focus, anyway.

Jim

[James Y]

Back to Basics: Palm Strikes

(Two videos below)

The one point I disagree with him is when he says landing with the fleshy middle of the palm is completely useless. Yes, it IS useless for thrusting palm strikes. But it can be very effective for one use: a circular open-handed slap with the flat of the palm, like a hook, using a quick, full body torque. Not as damaging as doing the same thing striking with the palm heel, but still a good option in some instances. I KO’d a couple different guys in real fights with a single slap using the whole flat of the palm, which struck them around the jawline. The impact from such a slap can be tremendous, and the force is extremely penetrating, if you know how to do it. And it does provide slightly more reach than a palm heel hook. But yes, now I would prefer to use the palm heel for the impact point. But don’t completely discount the palm for the circular slap; there may be situations where it might be preferable to inflict less damage, while still being effective.

https://youtu.be/-SotTo6IVJA

Micro Alterations: Palm Strike

https://youtu.be/gl84suTcMOc

Jim

[James Y]

How To Use Maiming In A Fight

https://youtu.be/0O-tCR2caJQ

Jim

[gac]

Wow, this thread has been going on a long time and never checked in. My share is very brief. I wrestled in HS and two years in Division III in college.
I missed organized sport and athletics and took Tae Kwon Do classes in my hometown. Those classes were with an established school, lots of students, and friendly people. I had to leave for school after just a couple months and asked the school owner how to go about finding a good school. I said I was going to DFW and he said, "Plenty of schools down there."
I ended up picking a school near my campus in Arlington, TX and was quite unsatisfied. The school owner seemed a good instructor, but there were a couple times he never showed and I was standing outside the locked door waiting to see if anyone would show. The last class I went to had him show up worn out and hungover after a guy trip to Vegas for the weekend. He put in a VHS tape for me to follow along and learn a form.
A few months later a debt company sent a letter saying I still owed them. I signed contract so I had to pay up.

I looked into joining a nearby school but had way too little money or time to spend the time on driving and night classes. I'm also not too keen on joining a class where I may get paired up with bored 10-year-olds who are half my height.

[Naperville]

Wow, this thread has been going on a long time and never checked in. My share is very brief. I wrestled in HS and two years in Division III in college.

I missed organized sport and athletics and took Tae Kwon Do classes in my hometown. Those classes were with an established school, lots of students, and friendly people. I had to leave for school after just a couple months and asked the school owner how to go about finding a good school. I said I was going to DFW and he said, "Plenty of schools down there."
I ended up picking a school near my campus in Arlington, TX and was quite unsatisfied. The school owner seemed a good instructor, but there were a couple times he never showed and I was standing outside the locked door waiting to see if anyone would show. The last class I went to had him show up worn out and hungover after a guy trip to Vegas for the weekend. He put in a VHS tape for me to follow along and learn a form.

A few months later a debt company sent a letter saying I still owed them. I signed contract so I had to pay up.

I looked into joining a nearby school but had way too little money or time to spend the time on driving and night classes. I'm also not too keen on joining a class where I may get paired up with bored 10-year-olds who are half my height.

These are just my opinions based on my dealings with many schools.

If you are interested keep looking. Sit and watch classes 2 or 3 times before suiting up. Move on to the next dojo if it's not for you. Never sign a contract.

[James Y]

I agree with Naperville about never signing a contract. In all my years of training in various martial arts, I never had to sign any contracts.

I also strongly recommend staying away from any schools whose bread-and-butter is kiddie classes. Or “Family Karate/Family Tae Kwon Do” centers. Unless, of course, that is specifically the type of training environment you’re looking for. It’s certain to be watered down, with much lower standards.

Really go and observe classes. Don’t just pick the nearest one. Occasionally you might get lucky, and the nearest one is the best, but don’t always count on it. Like any other type of service business, you need to put the effort into the search, take notes, and make comparisons. The quality of the teacher (and the students!) is more important than the style. Then choose the one that feels right to you.

Jim

[James Y]

‘Best Awkward Fighter’ (Manson Gibson)

The narrator says he used ‘movie-inspired Kung Fu techniques.’ Those were not movie-inspired; I knew MANY guys in Kenpo and Kajukenbo in the ‘70s and early ‘80s who sparred with many of those exact same moves, including myself. They aren’t “Kung Fu;” they are more American-style Karate (tournament point fighting style), mixed with Tae Kwon Do, combined with American-style kickboxing. Manson Gibson was *extremely* good at it, possessing the perfect physical attributes for such a style; but the moves he used were not ‘weird,’ ‘awkward,’ nor ‘movie-inspired.’

In more recent years (post-2K), MMA and Muay Thai pundits consider anyone who either used, or still uses such a style, as unorthodox, or “movie-inspired,” which is BS, and is insulting. The insinuation is that because those techniques fall outside of today’s orthodox methods, they CAN’T work. Those are legitimate techniques that people sparred with and competed with well before the popularity of Muay Thai in the States, and the rise of modern MMA. There is more than one way to fight, and Manson Gibson (who, again, was an exceptional talent) was able to adapt his original way of fighting, which he excelled at, and make it work in all styles of competitive fighting.

Calling Gibson “The Black Bruce Lee” is kind of annoying, unless of course, he himself wanted that moniker. I doubt it. He was Manson “The Master Blaster” Gibson. Just because someone’s fighting style does not conform to the currently-accepted ‘norm’ (Muay Thai and MMA) does not make them a wannabe Bruce Lee, or a movie-inspired martial artist.

https://youtu.be/_s9h2QBLmS4

Jim

[James Y]

Genki Sudo: The Most Unorthodox Fighter

Genki Sudo was another one of my all-time favorite professional fighters. He truly WAS original, unorthodox, and entertaining. And extremely effective!! Often to the consternation of his more orthodox opponents.

https://youtu.be/42Ov8Tlcnlw

Jim

[Bloke]

another one of my all-time favorite professional fighters.

[James Y]

another one of my all-time favorite professional fighters.

More Bollywood from Bloke!

Jim

[James Y]

Bajiquan Combination: Straight Jab Into Elbow Attack

The particular elbow strike shown is ‘Ding Zhou,’ which is the characteristic strike/pose in the Bajiquan (or simply Baji) style, as shown in the drawing here:

 https://www.deviantart.com/wolfben/art/ ... -838918976

Baji was the first style my second Mantis teacher studied when he took up martial arts. He showed us the Ding Zhou and how to deliver it. IMO, in terms of sheer power, it is the strongest type of elbow strike, because it’s coming straight in, and the entire body weight is moving in and dropping into it. The force generated is tremendous, even from very close quarters.

I like the way this guy in the video has adapted and changed the classical form of the technique to work in actual fighting. In this application, the elbow strike is being delivered in a similar way to elbow strikes from the head guarding position seen in some modern combatives methods.

https://youtu.be/W4XPVZjQ7KY

Jim