Martial Arts Experiences Discussion Thread

[Evil D]

The drill, the Tueler(sp) Drill, has been misinterpreted by many. It is a drill, not a hard and fast rule. The distance is an approximation. It is a demonstration regarding REACTION TIME for those in armed security (and maybe to the every day person who is going about their business), who are looking at the perp before anyone reacts.

Well yeah, nobody should just feel safe because they're 20 feet away, just as nobody should just feel safe because they carry a weapon. To me it just serves as a lesson to those that like to argue "bringing a knife to a gun fight" which may be true if you're going out against a wild west gunslinger at high noon, but not so much if you're on the receiving end of a surprise attack from a knife wielder.

Hypothetically speaking, I wouldn't feel confident with my firearm against Michael Janich if he was 30 feet away.

[Naperville]

The drill, the Tueler(sp) Drill, has been misinterpreted by many. It is a drill, not a hard and fast rule. The distance is an approximation. It is a demonstration regarding REACTION TIME for those in armed security (and maybe to the every day person who is going about their business), who are looking at the perp before anyone reacts.

Well yeah, nobody should just feel safe because they're 20 feet away, just as nobody should just feel safe because they carry a weapon. To me it just serves as a lesson to those that like to argue "bringing a knife to a gun fight" which may be true if you're going out against a wild west gunslinger at high noon, but not so much if you're on the receiving end of a surprise attack from a knife wielder.

Hypothetically speaking, I wouldn't feel confident with my firearm against Michael Janich if he was 30 feet away.

There might be 25+ million people inside the USA that can give a trained firearm practitioner a problem if they are within 30 feet of their target. It has to do with reaction time. You may be ready to act but will still be defeated with a knife, especially a fixed blade.

EDIT: I Googled it and there are almost 65 million people 14 to 29 years of age in the USA, so yes, there may be 25 million capable of rushing you and striking you with a knife before you get a shot on target.

[James Y]

Action is faster than reaction.

A person doesn't even have to be young, or in particularly good shape, to close the gap quickly with a knife. Doesn't need to be as far as 21 feet. There is footage of some obese or otherwise non-threatening-looking individuals who closed the gap quickly (with or without a knife); much more quickly than was expected.

There are a LOT of people out there who believe that a gun is a magical talisman that renders them impervious to harm from any means of violence, short of another firearm.

Jim

[James Y]

"These 2 Brutal Street Moves Work"



Not only could the wrist be injured from landing an improperly landed punch, but even more so the knuckles/hand bones.

As for leg kicks for street self-defense, I personally wouldn't bother with Thai or Kyokushin-style roundhouse kicks to the legs. Those require a constant high level of conditioning to be effective, and to lessen the chances of injuring or breaking your own shin bone if it's blocked, or lands wrong.

My main leg kick is the oblique kick/stomp to the knee, shin, ankle, etc. Simple, direct, less open, and requires far less space to execute than a round kick. There are MMA fighters who have no problem facing Thai leg kicks, who have called for oblique kicks to be banned from the sport. And those were oblique kicks in the cage that didn't even follow through with the full weight of the kicker onto the receiver's leg. That should tell you everything you need to know about the simplicity and effectiveness of the oblique kick.

Jim

[James Y]

Bagua - The Most Unique Martial Art in History?



I like this guy's channel a lot, because he is both practical-minded AND open-minded. He features and discusses a wide variety of arts, something that MANY guys from his type of training background will not (or cannot) do.

I've already mentioned before that decades ago in Taiwan, I sparred on multiple occasions with an advanced practitioner of a combat-oriented Bagua system. He was VERY effective and capable in free-fighting. And although he was very good, by his own admission, he was not the best student/practitioner in his school.

Jim

[James Y]

"Think You're Safe? The Shocking Flaws of Combat Sports in Self-Defense"



Jim

[James Y]

This Can Happen to Anybody

Excellent message. Although the misspellings on the thumbnail are unfortunate.



Jim

[James Y]

Cops Respond to Airport Disturbance Gone Insane

This is a perfect real-life example of the 21-foot rule; how fast a determined person with a knife can close the distance. Luckily, in this instance, the bad guy was the only one who ended up on the receiving end.



Jim

[Scandi Grind]

Bagua - The Most Unique Martial Art in History?

Thanks for posting this video, Jim.

It is nice to someone with an interest in Bagua rather than just making a judgement about it, good or bad, as it seems most people do. Most people it seems are only interested in saying that Bagua is dancing and not effective for fighting. I don't think people tend to realize that Bagua applied in combat will often look a lot like many of the other martial arts, although it does have some distinct elements to it, particularly the circle walking technique. People see Bagua forms, which is all some people know, but you can't judge whether they know how to fight by their forms. The guy I learned nunchuks from emphasized that you aren't going to do Nunchuk spinning in an actual fight, your going to use strikes (which you also do practice), but what spinning teaches you when you practice is how the nunchucks move. He said that nobody expects a boxer to jump rope in the ring just because he practices jumping rope, but for some reason people will criticize you for spinning nunchuks even though that isn't part of your combat move set.

The same thing seems to happen with lesser known martial arts all the time. They see elements of the practice and assume it can't be effective because the practice they see doesn't look like fighting. But that doesn't tell you the whole story. In the defense of the nay-sayers perspective, there isn't a lot of evidence that can be found on the internet that Bagua is in fact an effective fighting art. At the same time I feel like it is silly that because something is used in MMA, people automatically think it is great for combatives. None of the rules that apply to MMA exist in real life, while Bagua was in it's original state designed to be a real combative art. That doesn't mean I am disregarding any art used in MMA by any means, most of the arts used in MMA have roots in very effective combat arts, but people usually lack a proper unnderstanding of the difference between combatives and what we now call "martial arts," which has really come to mean sport fighting.

I also thought it was funny that the guy in the video kept mentioning a similarity to Systema because me and my brother actually found Systema first before learning any Bagua. Systema still influences my style, the finger whip and Slavic jab being attacks that I practice regularly, we even bought Kevin Secours book, The Complete Guide to Combat Systema. Unfortunately at a certain point it became hard to find material to learn Systema from. All the internal Chinese martial arts share many things in common with Systema but they have been easier to get more information on. We got much of our foundational theory in Chinese martial arts from Xing Yi Quan, most of our forms from Bagua, and a few excercises from Tai Chi Quan, but it wasn't difficult to blend that with what we had already been learning from Systema. I think Systema did in fact take pieces from the Asian arts, but Slavic fighting arts developed a similar eliptical movement method to Bagua since before Bagua had been named. Bagua did exist among Daoist monks before it had a name, the actual art is older than it's name, so Slavic fighting style and Bagua style may very well have been developing at the same time. However the fact that some of their similarities did seem to develop independently is rather fascinating. Then again, I do wonder if the Chinese and Russian land areas may have fought each other during the development of these arts and perhaps could have rubbed off a little on one another, but I can only speculate.

[James Y]

Bagua - The Most Unique Martial Art in History?

Thanks for posting this video, Jim.

It is nice to someone with an interest in Bagua rather than just making a judgement about it, good or bad, as it seems most people do. Most people it seems are only interested in saying that Bagua is dancing and not effective for fighting. I don't think people tend to realize that Bagua applied in combat will often look a lot like many of the other martial arts, although it does have some distinct elements to it, particularly the circle walking technique. People see Bagua forms, which is all some people know, but you can't judge whether they know how to fight by their forms. The guy I learned nunchuks from emphasized that you aren't going to do Nunchuk spinning in an actual fight, your going to use strikes (which you also do practice), but what spinning teaches you when you practice is how the nunchucks move. He said that nobody expects a boxer to jump rope in the ring just because he practices jumping rope, but for some reason people will criticize you for spinning nunchuks even though that isn't part of your combat move set.

The same thing seems to happen with lesser known martial arts all the time. They see elements of the practice and assume it can't be effective because the practice they see doesn't look like fighting. But that doesn't tell you the whole story. In the defense of the nay-sayers perspective, there isn't a lot of evidence that can be found on the internet that Bagua is in fact an effective fighting art. At the same time I feel like it is silly that because something is used in MMA, people automatically think it is great for combatives. None of the rules that apply to MMA exist in real life, while Bagua was in it's original state designed to be a real combative art. That doesn't mean I am disregarding any art used in MMA by any means, most of the arts used in MMA have roots in very effective combat arts, but people usually lack a proper unnderstanding of the difference between combatives and what we now call "martial arts," which has really come to mean sport fighting.

I also thought it was funny that the guy in the video kept mentioning a similarity to Systema because me and my brother actually found Systema first before learning any Bagua. Systema still influences my style, the finger whip and Slavic jab being attacks that I practice regularly, we even bought Kevin Secours book, The Complete Guide to Combat Systema. Unfortunately at a certain point it became hard to find material to learn Systema from. All the internal Chinese martial arts share many things in common with Systema but they have been easier to get more information on. We got much of our foundational theory in Chinese martial arts from Xing Yi Quan, most of our forms from Bagua, and a few excercises from Tai Chi Quan, but it wasn't difficult to blend that with what we had already been learning from Systema. I think Systema did in fact take pieces from the Asian arts, but Slavic fighting arts developed a similar eliptical movement method to Bagua since before Bagua had been named. Bagua did exist among Daoist monks before it had a name, the actual art is older than it's name, so Slavic fighting style and Bagua style may very well have been developing at the same time. However the fact that some of their similarities did seem to develop independently is rather fascinating. Then again, I do wonder if the Chinese and Russian land areas may have fought each other during the development of these arts and perhaps could have rubbed off a little on one another, but I can only speculate.

I fully agree that a LOT of people make ignorant judgments about entire martial arts based on seeing a short video or two of INDIVIDUALS performing one aspect of an art, or one type of practice within an art, then make assumptions that the entire art is therefore "useless" in actual fighting. There are tons of ASSumers out there.

Having had training in over 10 different martial arts and combat sports, and having free-sparred with and competed against people from even more different martial arts than that, I know from personal experience that there are practitioners in EVERY art that can fight effectively, as well as practitioners in every art who cannot fight effectively. And the ones who are exceptionally good at fighting are mostly the top tier.

Similarly, the professional MMA fighters that the pundits watch and identify with in the UFC, One Championship, Bellator, etc., are the top tier of their art/sports. Your typical guy who trains a couple/few days a week at an MMA gym for recreation and fitness is nowhere near being in the same league as the pro fighters are, even if they train in the same system.

Something I've noticed in recent years is people referring to traditional martial artists (especially from Chinese styles) who get humiliated and beaten in sparring matches with modern sport fighters, as "masters." Such as, "Tai Chi master gets his ___ handed to him by MMA fighter." Or, "Xingyi master is embarrassed in real sparring." Or, "Wing Chun master is easily beaten by (name the type of fighter)."

Just because they may teach does not mean that they are masters. The word "master" is WAY overused. I've been involved in the martial arts for over 50 years, with all the experiences, good and bad that go along with that, and I would NEVER refer to myself, nor ever allow anybody else to refer to me as a "master."

Maybe it's an ego thing for the detractors. If you are an unexceptional fighter or trainee who beats an unexceptional martial arts practitioner, who clearly has little to no actual free-sparring experience, if you say the guy you beat is a "master," now you are even greater than a master. That makes you a super-grandmaster.

In actuality, there are VERY FEW practitioners of ANY art that could rightfully be referred to as masters. IMO, a MASTER is a long-time practitioner who, while maybe not perfect in every aspect of life, really has their "isht" together, in terms of their art and how to apply it under pressure. They are not unbeatable, but they are certainly not incompetent.

Jim

[Ankerson]

Bagua - The Most Unique Martial Art in History?

Thanks for posting this video, Jim.

It is nice to someone with an interest in Bagua rather than just making a judgement about it, good or bad, as it seems most people do. Most people it seems are only interested in saying that Bagua is dancing and not effective for fighting. I don't think people tend to realize that Bagua applied in combat will often look a lot like many of the other martial arts, although it does have some distinct elements to it, particularly the circle walking technique. People see Bagua forms, which is all some people know, but you can't judge whether they know how to fight by their forms. The guy I learned nunchuks from emphasized that you aren't going to do Nunchuk spinning in an actual fight, your going to use strikes (which you also do practice), but what spinning teaches you when you practice is how the nunchucks move. He said that nobody expects a boxer to jump rope in the ring just because he practices jumping rope, but for some reason people will criticize you for spinning nunchuks even though that isn't part of your combat move set.

The same thing seems to happen with lesser known martial arts all the time. They see elements of the practice and assume it can't be effective because the practice they see doesn't look like fighting. But that doesn't tell you the whole story. In the defense of the nay-sayers perspective, there isn't a lot of evidence that can be found on the internet that Bagua is in fact an effective fighting art. At the same time I feel like it is silly that because something is used in MMA, people automatically think it is great for combatives. None of the rules that apply to MMA exist in real life, while Bagua was in it's original state designed to be a real combative art. That doesn't mean I am disregarding any art used in MMA by any means, most of the arts used in MMA have roots in very effective combat arts, but people usually lack a proper unnderstanding of the difference between combatives and what we now call "martial arts," which has really come to mean sport fighting.

I also thought it was funny that the guy in the video kept mentioning a similarity to Systema because me and my brother actually found Systema first before learning any Bagua. Systema still influences my style, the finger whip and Slavic jab being attacks that I practice regularly, we even bought Kevin Secours book, The Complete Guide to Combat Systema. Unfortunately at a certain point it became hard to find material to learn Systema from. All the internal Chinese martial arts share many things in common with Systema but they have been easier to get more information on. We got much of our foundational theory in Chinese martial arts from Xing Yi Quan, most of our forms from Bagua, and a few excercises from Tai Chi Quan, but it wasn't difficult to blend that with what we had already been learning from Systema. I think Systema did in fact take pieces from the Asian arts, but Slavic fighting arts developed a similar eliptical movement method to Bagua since before Bagua had been named. Bagua did exist among Daoist monks before it had a name, the actual art is older than it's name, so Slavic fighting style and Bagua style may very well have been developing at the same time. However the fact that some of their similarities did seem to develop independently is rather fascinating. Then again, I do wonder if the Chinese and Russian land areas may have fought each other during the development of these arts and perhaps could have rubbed off a little on one another, but I can only speculate.

I fully agree that a LOT of people make ignorant judgments about entire martial arts based on seeing a short video or two of INDIVIDUALS performing one aspect of an art, or one type of practice within an art, then make assumptions that the entire art is therefore "useless" in actual fighting. There are tons of ASSumers out there.

Having had training in over 10 different martial arts and combat sports, and having free-sparred with people from even more different martial arts than that, I know from personal experience that there are practitioners in EVERY art that can fight effectively, as well as practitioners in every art who cannot fight effectively. And the ones who are exceptionally good at fighting are mostly the top tier.

Similarly, the professional MMA fighters that the pundits watch and identify with in the UFC, One Championship, Bellator, etc., are the top tier of their art/sports. Your typical guy who trains a couple/few days a week at an MMA gym for recreation and fitness is nowhere near being in the same league as the pro fighters are, even if they train in the same system.

Something I've noticed in recent years is people referring to traditional martial artists (especially from Chinese styles) who get humiliated and beaten in sparring matches with modern sport fighters, as "masters." Such as, "Tai Chi master gets his ___ handed to him by MMA fighter." Or, "Xingyi master is embarrassed in real sparring." Or, "Wing Chun master is easily beaten by (name the type of fighter)."

Just because they may teach does not mean that they are masters. The word "master" is WAY overused. I've been involved in the martial arts for over 50 years, with all the experiences, good and bad that go along with that, and I would NEVER refer to myself, nor ever allow anybody else to refer to me as a "master."

Maybe it's an ego thing for the detractors. If you are an unexceptional fighter or trainee who beats an unexceptional martial arts practitioner, who clearly has little to no actual free-sparring experience, if you say the guy you beat is a "master," now you are even greater than a master. That makes you a super-grandmaster.

Jim

Jim,

Married With Children was great.




Jim

[James Y]

Bagua - The Most Unique Martial Art in History?

Thanks for posting this video, Jim.

It is nice to someone with an interest in Bagua rather than just making a judgement about it, good or bad, as it seems most people do. Most people it seems are only interested in saying that Bagua is dancing and not effective for fighting. I don't think people tend to realize that Bagua applied in combat will often look a lot like many of the other martial arts, although it does have some distinct elements to it, particularly the circle walking technique. People see Bagua forms, which is all some people know, but you can't judge whether they know how to fight by their forms. The guy I learned nunchuks from emphasized that you aren't going to do Nunchuk spinning in an actual fight, your going to use strikes (which you also do practice), but what spinning teaches you when you practice is how the nunchucks move. He said that nobody expects a boxer to jump rope in the ring just because he practices jumping rope, but for some reason people will criticize you for spinning nunchuks even though that isn't part of your combat move set.

The same thing seems to happen with lesser known martial arts all the time. They see elements of the practice and assume it can't be effective because the practice they see doesn't look like fighting. But that doesn't tell you the whole story. In the defense of the nay-sayers perspective, there isn't a lot of evidence that can be found on the internet that Bagua is in fact an effective fighting art. At the same time I feel like it is silly that because something is used in MMA, people automatically think it is great for combatives. None of the rules that apply to MMA exist in real life, while Bagua was in it's original state designed to be a real combative art. That doesn't mean I am disregarding any art used in MMA by any means, most of the arts used in MMA have roots in very effective combat arts, but people usually lack a proper unnderstanding of the difference between combatives and what we now call "martial arts," which has really come to mean sport fighting.

I also thought it was funny that the guy in the video kept mentioning a similarity to Systema because me and my brother actually found Systema first before learning any Bagua. Systema still influences my style, the finger whip and Slavic jab being attacks that I practice regularly, we even bought Kevin Secours book, The Complete Guide to Combat Systema. Unfortunately at a certain point it became hard to find material to learn Systema from. All the internal Chinese martial arts share many things in common with Systema but they have been easier to get more information on. We got much of our foundational theory in Chinese martial arts from Xing Yi Quan, most of our forms from Bagua, and a few excercises from Tai Chi Quan, but it wasn't difficult to blend that with what we had already been learning from Systema. I think Systema did in fact take pieces from the Asian arts, but Slavic fighting arts developed a similar eliptical movement method to Bagua since before Bagua had been named. Bagua did exist among Daoist monks before it had a name, the actual art is older than it's name, so Slavic fighting style and Bagua style may very well have been developing at the same time. However the fact that some of their similarities did seem to develop independently is rather fascinating. Then again, I do wonder if the Chinese and Russian land areas may have fought each other during the development of these arts and perhaps could have rubbed off a little on one another, but I can only speculate.

I fully agree that a LOT of people make ignorant judgments about entire martial arts based on seeing a short video or two of INDIVIDUALS performing one aspect of an art, or one type of practice within an art, then make assumptions that the entire art is therefore "useless" in actual fighting. There are tons of ASSumers out there.

Having had training in over 10 different martial arts and combat sports, and having free-sparred with people from even more different martial arts than that, I know from personal experience that there are practitioners in EVERY art that can fight effectively, as well as practitioners in every art who cannot fight effectively. And the ones who are exceptionally good at fighting are mostly the top tier.

Similarly, the professional MMA fighters that the pundits watch and identify with in the UFC, One Championship, Bellator, etc., are the top tier of their art/sports. Your typical guy who trains a couple/few days a week at an MMA gym for recreation and fitness is nowhere near being in the same league as the pro fighters are, even if they train in the same system.

Something I've noticed in recent years is people referring to traditional martial artists (especially from Chinese styles) who get humiliated and beaten in sparring matches with modern sport fighters, as "masters." Such as, "Tai Chi master gets his ___ handed to him by MMA fighter." Or, "Xingyi master is embarrassed in real sparring." Or, "Wing Chun master is easily beaten by (name the type of fighter)."

Just because they may teach does not mean that they are masters. The word "master" is WAY overused. I've been involved in the martial arts for over 50 years, with all the experiences, good and bad that go along with that, and I would NEVER refer to myself, nor ever allow anybody else to refer to me as a "master."

Maybe it's an ego thing for the detractors. If you are an unexceptional fighter or trainee who beats an unexceptional martial arts practitioner, who clearly has little to no actual free-sparring experience, if you say the guy you beat is a "master," now you are even greater than a master. That makes you a super-grandmaster.

Jim

Jim,

Married With Children was great.




Jim

I agree it was a funny show. Especially the shoe store fat lady jokes, which would never be allowed today.

I think you meant to post this in the Favorite Movie Fight Scenes thread?

Jim

[Ankerson]

Thanks for posting this video, Jim.

It is nice to someone with an interest in Bagua rather than just making a judgement about it, good or bad, as it seems most people do. Most people it seems are only interested in saying that Bagua is dancing and not effective for fighting. I don't think people tend to realize that Bagua applied in combat will often look a lot like many of the other martial arts, although it does have some distinct elements to it, particularly the circle walking technique. People see Bagua forms, which is all some people know, but you can't judge whether they know how to fight by their forms. The guy I learned nunchuks from emphasized that you aren't going to do Nunchuk spinning in an actual fight, your going to use strikes (which you also do practice), but what spinning teaches you when you practice is how the nunchucks move. He said that nobody expects a boxer to jump rope in the ring just because he practices jumping rope, but for some reason people will criticize you for spinning nunchuks even though that isn't part of your combat move set.

The same thing seems to happen with lesser known martial arts all the time. They see elements of the practice and assume it can't be effective because the practice they see doesn't look like fighting. But that doesn't tell you the whole story. In the defense of the nay-sayers perspective, there isn't a lot of evidence that can be found on the internet that Bagua is in fact an effective fighting art. At the same time I feel like it is silly that because something is used in MMA, people automatically think it is great for combatives. None of the rules that apply to MMA exist in real life, while Bagua was in it's original state designed to be a real combative art. That doesn't mean I am disregarding any art used in MMA by any means, most of the arts used in MMA have roots in very effective combat arts, but people usually lack a proper unnderstanding of the difference between combatives and what we now call "martial arts," which has really come to mean sport fighting.

I also thought it was funny that the guy in the video kept mentioning a similarity to Systema because me and my brother actually found Systema first before learning any Bagua. Systema still influences my style, the finger whip and Slavic jab being attacks that I practice regularly, we even bought Kevin Secours book, The Complete Guide to Combat Systema. Unfortunately at a certain point it became hard to find material to learn Systema from. All the internal Chinese martial arts share many things in common with Systema but they have been easier to get more information on. We got much of our foundational theory in Chinese martial arts from Xing Yi Quan, most of our forms from Bagua, and a few excercises from Tai Chi Quan, but it wasn't difficult to blend that with what we had already been learning from Systema. I think Systema did in fact take pieces from the Asian arts, but Slavic fighting arts developed a similar eliptical movement method to Bagua since before Bagua had been named. Bagua did exist among Daoist monks before it had a name, the actual art is older than it's name, so Slavic fighting style and Bagua style may very well have been developing at the same time. However the fact that some of their similarities did seem to develop independently is rather fascinating. Then again, I do wonder if the Chinese and Russian land areas may have fought each other during the development of these arts and perhaps could have rubbed off a little on one another, but I can only speculate.

I fully agree that a LOT of people make ignorant judgments about entire martial arts based on seeing a short video or two of INDIVIDUALS performing one aspect of an art, or one type of practice within an art, then make assumptions that the entire art is therefore "useless" in actual fighting. There are tons of ASSumers out there.

Having had training in over 10 different martial arts and combat sports, and having free-sparred with people from even more different martial arts than that, I know from personal experience that there are practitioners in EVERY art that can fight effectively, as well as practitioners in every art who cannot fight effectively. And the ones who are exceptionally good at fighting are mostly the top tier.

Similarly, the professional MMA fighters that the pundits watch and identify with in the UFC, One Championship, Bellator, etc., are the top tier of their art/sports. Your typical guy who trains a couple/few days a week at an MMA gym for recreation and fitness is nowhere near being in the same league as the pro fighters are, even if they train in the same system.

Something I've noticed in recent years is people referring to traditional martial artists (especially from Chinese styles) who get humiliated and beaten in sparring matches with modern sport fighters, as "masters." Such as, "Tai Chi master gets his ___ handed to him by MMA fighter." Or, "Xingyi master is embarrassed in real sparring." Or, "Wing Chun master is easily beaten by (name the type of fighter)."

Just because they may teach does not mean that they are masters. The word "master" is WAY overused. I've been involved in the martial arts for over 50 years, with all the experiences, good and bad that go along with that, and I would NEVER refer to myself, nor ever allow anybody else to refer to me as a "master."

Maybe it's an ego thing for the detractors. If you are an unexceptional fighter or trainee who beats an unexceptional martial arts practitioner, who clearly has little to no actual free-sparring experience, if you say the guy you beat is a "master," now you are even greater than a master. That makes you a super-grandmaster.

Jim

Jim,

Married With Children was great.




Jim

I agree it was a funny show. Especially the shoe store fat lady jokes, which would never be allowed today.

I think you meant to post this in the Favorite Movie Fight Scenes thread?

Jim

Jim,

Yeah, oops...

Jim

[James Y]

I fully agree that a LOT of people make ignorant judgments about entire martial arts based on seeing a short video or two of INDIVIDUALS performing one aspect of an art, or one type of practice within an art, then make assumptions that the entire art is therefore "useless" in actual fighting. There are tons of ASSumers out there.

Having had training in over 10 different martial arts and combat sports, and having free-sparred with people from even more different martial arts than that, I know from personal experience that there are practitioners in EVERY art that can fight effectively, as well as practitioners in every art who cannot fight effectively. And the ones who are exceptionally good at fighting are mostly the top tier.

Similarly, the professional MMA fighters that the pundits watch and identify with in the UFC, One Championship, Bellator, etc., are the top tier of their art/sports. Your typical guy who trains a couple/few days a week at an MMA gym for recreation and fitness is nowhere near being in the same league as the pro fighters are, even if they train in the same system.

Something I've noticed in recent years is people referring to traditional martial artists (especially from Chinese styles) who get humiliated and beaten in sparring matches with modern sport fighters, as "masters." Such as, "Tai Chi master gets his ___ handed to him by MMA fighter." Or, "Xingyi master is embarrassed in real sparring." Or, "Wing Chun master is easily beaten by (name the type of fighter)."

Just because they may teach does not mean that they are masters. The word "master" is WAY overused. I've been involved in the martial arts for over 50 years, with all the experiences, good and bad that go along with that, and I would NEVER refer to myself, nor ever allow anybody else to refer to me as a "master."

Maybe it's an ego thing for the detractors. If you are an unexceptional fighter or trainee who beats an unexceptional martial arts practitioner, who clearly has little to no actual free-sparring experience, if you say the guy you beat is a "master," now you are even greater than a master. That makes you a super-grandmaster.

Jim

Jim,

Married With Children was great.




Jim

I agree it was a funny show. Especially the shoe store fat lady jokes, which would never be allowed today.

I think you meant to post this in the Favorite Movie Fight Scenes thread?

Jim

Jim,

Yeah, oops...

Jim

It's all good!

By the way, Ed O'Neill is a black belt in BJJ...

Jim

[Ankerson]

Jim,

Married With Children was great.




Jim

I agree it was a funny show. Especially the shoe store fat lady jokes, which would never be allowed today.

I think you meant to post this in the Favorite Movie Fight Scenes thread?

Jim

Jim,

Yeah, oops...

Jim

It's all good!

By the way, Ed O'Neil is a black belt in BJJ...

Jim

Jim,

Yeah I know.

Jim

[James Y]

Boom! Mess with the Wrong Guy and Find Out



Although I K.O 'd two different men in street fights with full-force palm slaps on two different occasions in my younger years, it's actually much better, and far more damaging to the recipient, to "slap" using the palm heel as the striking surface. Also known as the palm heel hook. That's the type of palm strike Bas Rutten used in his matches.

Jim

[James Y]

"He Don't Feel Anything"



This is a great video. But there are probably some people you might encounter out there who wouldn't feel pain, even if you drove your thumb into their eye, broke their knee and ankle, chopped their throat, etc., due to not only drugs, but also insanity, etc. IMO, it's more important to be able to stop someone with biomechanical destruction, so whether they feel any pain or not, their body's ability to function well enough to continue to be a threat, is ruined. The strategies shown in the video would accomplish that too, if applied properly.

I first learned that some people are unaffected by pain, and may even display superhuman levels of strength and resilience, back in the late 1970s, when our next-door neighbor at the time was a hefty lady cop. She told me stories about having to deal with guys hopped up on angel dust or other substances. In one instance, she got behind such a man who was holding her partner, a male cop, and a trucker who had stopped to help them, up against a truck in each hand by their necks, with their feet off the ground, and she got him in a sleeper hold, putting him to sleep, and that was the only thing that stopped him. Before that, the trucker had used a tire iron to the man's skull, with zero effect.

Jim

[James Y]

"Practice Like Your Life Depends On It"



Jim

[James Y]

Street Fight Reality: Why Magic Punches & Sports Training Fail



Jim

[Rezimus]

"Think You're Safe? The Shocking Flaws of Combat Sports in Self-Defense"



Jim

To sum up this video: Mix the martial arts.