Martial arts discussion thread

[Bartrim]

Finally saw "Penn & Teller B.S" martial arts episode last night. My wife found it really interesting. Especially the physics behind board breaking and now understands when my Sensei wants to put on a public demonstration involving that sort of thing why I refuse to assist.

[GoktimusPrime]

Finally saw "Penn & Teller B.S" martial arts episode last night. My wife found it really interesting. Especially the physics behind board breaking and now understands when my Sensei wants to put on a public demonstration involving that sort of thing why I refuse to assist.

^

Aah yes... the long list of martial arts parlour tricks designed to dupe the ignorant and gullible.
Shaolin Monk tricks explained <---it's not ancient mysticism, it's physics! *sigh*

I actually wouldn't mind learning board and slab breaking, purely so I could use it to teach principles of science. I would never do it in a martial arts demonstration though! And if anything, half the reason I'd want to show it to students is so that they don't get duped by these tricks if they encounter them!

[GoktimusPrime]

Check this video out... (contains violence, parental discretion advised)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3SXtwzp0TA

Now that is a proper attack! Note that the attacker (shirtless) actually practises "one hit one kill" -- he strikes the defender (white shirt) with a single punch which knocks him down, then he wastes little time in just burying into the defender while he's down, continually and relentlessly attacking him while he's down instead of giving him the chance to stand up. Okay sure, in a competition this is illegal and this guy was probably disqualified -- but looking at it from an actual fighting POV, he's actually done pretty damn well*!

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*I am by no means condoning this sort of violence, but I think it's important to be able to understand and analyse these kind of vicious attacks in order to be better prepared to defend against them.

[GoktimusPrime]

Heh, today I was practising some Bagua Circle Walking (mine's very simple, no where near as sophisticated as the dude in that video link)... then I realised that it was Pi Day in mm/dd countries (e.g. USA, Canada, Japan etc., cos March 14 = 3.14 = Pi)! *nerdy.snort.laff* It wasn't my intention, but yeah, it dawned on me while I was practising. Bazinga! I'll need to do something circular too for the Australian (dd/mm) Pi Day.

Bagua applications

[Bartrim]

These "novelty" holidays are so lame IMO Just excuses for people to try and feel clever.

Anyway last night in MMA I learnt something new. We were practicing rear chokes. Single choke, rear naked etc etc. Then my Sensei used me for a demonstration. He got me in the rear naked choke position but instead of squeezing his arms around my esophagus to choke he just took a deep breath in. I couldn't believe the crushing pain I felt. I was really amazed.

[GoktimusPrime]

These "novelty" holidays are so lame IMO Just excuses for people to try and feel clever.

...and an excuse to eat pies, doughnuts, pizzas, pancakes and anything else circular. Mmm...

Anyway last night in MMA I learnt something new. We were practicing rear chokes. Single choke, rear naked etc etc. Then my Sensei used me for a demonstration. He got me in the rear naked choke position but instead of squeezing his arms around my esophagus to choke he just took a deep breath in. I couldn't believe the crushing pain I felt. I was really amazed.

I didn't know what that was for a moment, then I Googled it -- I've been referring to this hold as a "(rear) triangular headlock," but now I know the proper name for it. I've had to use this hold before IRL to break up a fight once -- although I didn't put any pressure to apply any real choking or pain, my objective was purely to stop the fight but not hurt the people involved. Worked a treat - fight was stopped and nobody got hurt.

Did you learn/practise the counter technique for that hold?

[Bartrim]

Did you learn/practise the counter technique for that hold?

No that's next week. When we do submissions we spend one whole lesson learning the move then spend the next class learning to counter the move and then in some cases we learn a counter to the counter like a few weeks ago we did armbars, then we learnt countermoves to armbars then the next week we learnt when someone tries to counter your armbar how to put them in a oma plata (sp?)

[Bidoofdude]

I can now break wooden boards. Quite simple actually, though I'm SOOO not ready for bricks and I'll never do that.

[GoktimusPrime]

I can now break wooden boards. Quite simple actually, though I'm SOOO not ready for bricks and I'll never do that.

Those kinds of parlour tricks aren't martial arts and have nothing to do with real martial arts (as has been often discussed on this thread). A neat party trick perhaps, but it's not doing anything to help develop your ability to fight.

You might want to watch this (contains some coarse language)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHwKnXi8J08

[Bidoofdude]

Yeah. I know. I just like how they look.