Martial Arts Experiences Discussion Thread

[Naperville]

MMA Video - Don't play with anyone

That kind of clowning around is what finally got Anderson Silva knocked out, when he was still considered untouchable.

Jim

At that level it is not a good look, and anybody can be knocked out. You don't want robots, but too much goofing around is going to backfire. Dana White sold his business I believe, and he does not like making too many rules on his fighters but he should put out a memo on this.

Apparently, UFC / MMA viewership is down, due to at least a few factors. I haven't really watched MMA for many years; I only occasionally check out a clip here or there on YT. For the most part, I lost most of my interest in watching combat sports at all. Especially now, with the growing awareness of CTE.

About the only thing that Dana White / TKO cares about is the $$$.

Jim

I thought the UFC was going to display the best arts competing against each other. I was wrong. We are no longer seeing much art. I would say the first 50 fights were about the different arts. Just two arts used now:

Ground = BJJ
Striking = Muay Thai or Kickboxing

They seem to have run out of martial art matchups and everyone is studying the same techniques. That is why it is boring.

CTE is a huge issue especially when you consider most of the fighters make very little and there is no insurance policy to protect the fighters. The last video that you had on this subject was telling.

[James Y]

That kind of clowning around is what finally got Anderson Silva knocked out, when he was still considered untouchable.

Jim

At that level it is not a good look, and anybody can be knocked out. You don't want robots, but too much goofing around is going to backfire. Dana White sold his business I believe, and he does not like making too many rules on his fighters but he should put out a memo on this.

Apparently, UFC / MMA viewership is down, due to at least a few factors. I haven't really watched MMA for many years; I only occasionally check out a clip here or there on YT. For the most part, I lost most of my interest in watching combat sports at all. Especially now, with the growing awareness of CTE.

About the only thing that Dana White / TKO cares about is the $$$.

Jim

I thought the UFC was going to display the best arts competing against each other. I was wrong. We are no longer seeing much art. I would say the first 50 fights were about the different arts. Just two arts used now:

Ground = BJJ
Striking = Muay Thai or Kickboxing

They seem to have run out of martial art matchups and everyone is studying the same techniques. That is why it is boring.

CTE is a huge issue especially when you consider most of the fighters make very little and there is no insurance policy to protect the fighters. The last video that you had on this subject was telling.

The modern sport MMA has become its own 'system'. Mostly limited to selected aspects of BJJ, Muay Thai, wrestling, and boxing. Wrestling has become more dominant in the grappling aspect than BJJ. Occasionally, Judo and Karate are incorporated by practitioners of those arts (often very successefully). But UFC / MMA ceased being about practitioners from different arts facing each other back in the '90s.

That last video I posted here with the fighter telling why being an MMA fighter is a bad career choice is one of the best on the subject.

The vast majority of the people who make fun of other martial arts and practitioners in comments sections for "not testing your art in the UFC" are wannabes who have no idea what they're talking about, are not fighters themselves, and have most likely never even competed in even one amateur martial arts sparring / fighting competition in their lives, let alone in MMA or boxing, etc. The types with that mentality are fanboys. How people think and communicate tells a lot about themselves.

Jim

[James Y]

Mistaken Identity Leads to Blows in Russia!



Kind of a misleading title. It was one blow, a very hard slap. I watched it to see if the contact/focus point was on the palm heel, but it looks like it was a regular, very sudden and hard slap with the whole hand, right on the side of the jaw.

Watching this made me feel very uneasy, because in my younger days, I KO'd two different guys with single slaps, very similarly to that. We were being stupid, and they were 'mutual combat' situations (meaning not true self-defense). Neither of them passed away; but under slightly different conditions or circumstances, we never really know what those outcomes might have been. If things had happened differently, it could have been me who got clocked, fallen down and hit my head. Hindsight is always 20/20. Mutual combat situations are almost always avoidable.

That is why it's imperative, as much as is humanly possible, to avoid getting into fights, physical or otherwise, and to only use violence in self-defense, if and when great bodily harm is a very real probability if you do not take action. It had better be justified, because whatever the result, once you take violent action, just like a bullet fired from a gun, it cannot be taken back.

My guess is that the driver who delivered the KO is a psychopath, with zero impulse control. He did it with no more concern than if he were swatting a fly.

Jim

[James Y]

Shock at the Grand Slam Tournament



IMO, the Kazakh was perfectly justified in doing what she did to the Belgian.

Jim

[James Y]

Why Were the Edge of Hand and Side Kick Really Included in the Fairbairn System?



Jim

[James Y]

"He Jumped Over What?"

Not necessarily martial arts-related, but very impressive athleticism and control. Doing some things I haven't seen any other Parkour practitioners do (the water touching).



Jim

[James Y]

He Got Warned



Once again:

Never.
Underestimate.
Anyone.

... and don't be an obnoxious idiot.

Jim

[James Y]

Korean Gang Member Challenges MMA Fighter



Jim

[James Y]

PSY COM Lesson, 'State Manipulation'



Jim

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Jim in general how long would it take a total novice to be trained in swordsmanship and Medieval martial arts so that he could fight full scale knights on battlefields back then?

[James Y]

Sean Strickland Reveals Why Most Fighters Regret MMA



He's right. Except when he says, "The only issue with martial arts...", what he's really talking about is combat sports. MMA. Boxing. Also, hard grappling. Etc., etc.

Jim

[James Y]

"Never Use This Punch"

I don't get how the title fits this video in any way.



I've already posted another video about this incident, but this one shows it from 2 different angles. I call it a low side kick, or a low oblique side kick. There is also what I simply call the oblique kick, which is a forward-facing kick to the leg/knee with the toes pointing outward instead of inward.

IMO, such stomping kicks to the knee should probably be banned in combat sports. It is too easy to cause immediate severe, possibly lifelong injury to the knee.

That said, the very fact that many MMA fighters, and especially many MMA fanboys always call for such kicks to be banned, is further proof that oblique kicks and side kicks to the knee are more immediately damaging, and therefore more practical, than the commonly-accepted, orthodox round kicks to the thighs or calves for street self-defense. They also follow a more direct route to the target and are more difficult to block or avoid, while leaving the kicker less exposed during delivery, or during recovery, if the kick fails to land.

Even those who criticize and make fun of such kicks for not being a part of orthodox MMA instinctively know how dangerous they are. The same would be true if an MMA fighter ever began throwing edge-of-hand chopping-style blows to the neck or throat area.

If the aggressor comes towards you, he must put his weight on his leg that is closest to you. When that happens, his knee is vulnerable to any stomping or thrusting kick, especially if it's caught at an angle and forces the knee to flex beyond its limits in a direction it wasn't meant to. Or the shin bone could be cracked or shattered if caught by such a kick full force. Even the ankle is a viable target, if the opponent's weight is on it.

Such low kicks are not 'beautiful', but for actual self-defense, the only consideration should be how practical and effective something is. Low side kicks and oblique kicks can also remain practical even as you get older, and maybe cannot train to the same degree that you once did. The low Thai or Kyokushin-style roundhouse leg kicks require constant conditioning of the legs, especially the shins, which is more susceptible to decline as the body ages. Most of the online 'experts' on martial arts view self-defense from a young man's perspective, and fail to see it from the long-term perspective.

Jim

[Naperville]

Jim in general how long would it take a total novice to be trained in swordsmanship and Medieval martial arts so that he could fight full scale knights on battlefields back then?

I am not an historian and I have never studied the path or transfer of knowledge in edged weaponry.

Medieval martial arts? There could have been many but we do not have records of them all, and I have only trained with around 6 to 7 groups in escrima, kali and arnis, which are for the most part Asian martial arts and I do not even count them all. But did the Spanish influence any of the arts? Probably. I know. HERESY!

I have looked at the books/plates/images and many if not most of the moves are the same between Asian and European swordsman. Again I am not an historian.

European Medieval swordsmanship I never directly trained in...longsword or broadsword. I could not tell you much, but many of the moves are the same, to there must be some influence INTO Asia from Europe.

You have to remember that Medieval martial artists trained every day probably, not 1 to 3 times per week like they do now.

Everyone is different physically and mentally and to "graduate" from an edged weapon art today means that you are a guro and that takes 3 to 5 years. Guro is considered first level capability. Master is another 2 to 5 additional years. Battlefield arts can be taught in 6 months, but of course when you come up against a guy with 3 years of skills development you would perish.

Everything that I have learned whether it was in San Jose (Bay Area), Stockton or Chicagoland, was all Filipino. The reason to cross train within the Filipino arts is the arts are different and you seek out the talent of the instructors.

[James Y]

Jim in general how long would it take a total novice to be trained in swordsmanship and Medieval martial arts so that he could fight full scale knights on battlefields back then?

I missed your post before.

I have no idea how long it would have taken for that.

I'm not an historian, either. Below are just some thoughts.

It's important to keep in mind that in general, people during those medieval times had relatively short lifespans compared to modern times. I think knights were usually of the upper class, so if they didn't die as a result of battle, they probably had longer life expectancies than foot soldiers. They needed to develop enough strength and skills to be effective on the battlefield. In medieval warfare, knights, foot soldiers, etc., also didn't only use swords; they used bows and arrows and crossbows, maces, pikes, catapults, etc.

I'm sure that later in European history, with fencing and sword dueling, they could spend the time to develop more complex skillsets that I'm betting most of the medievel knights and foot soldiers most likely did not have time for. Or did not apply to them, because the knights wore armor. Nobody had the time to spend years learning some art form in order to become functional.

Jim

[James Y]

Don't Underestimate Anyone



You could see in the young man's eyes he was laser focusing on what he was about to do. That was a clear pre-fight cue. The bully clearly mistook that look for fear.

Jim

[James Y]

Lethal Close-Range Knife Fighting System from South Africa




I like it.

I don't know how easy or reliable the hand-swapping of the knife would be, or the ability to switch from lethal to non-lethal intent mid-strike, even with tons of practice, in the stress of a real self-defense situation, where you had to actually use your knife on another person. Fine motor skills tend to go down the toilet during high-stress situations. I would imagine you would have to be extremely good to pull it off. I've never seen that done in that way anywhere else, so it's very interesting.

Jim

[James Y]

"He's Mastered the Knife Combat Technique"



I like his solo practice setup.

Jim

[James Y]

"Go Ahead, Take the First Shot"

Note: During the course of the video, he has three brief self-promotions that you may want to skip over. They're very short.

He makes some excellent points.



Jim