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Thread: Martial arts discussion thread

  1. #901
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    Some cute Bobble Head images of different martial arts. Original image by Leif Prime. I've modified his template to create different martial artists. The Japanese Karate one is the least modified.

    AIKIDO


    BOXING


    JUJUTSU


    JAPANESE KARATE


    OKINAWAN KARATE


    KENJUTSU


    KUNG FU


    MEDIEVAL & RENAISSANCE COMBAT


    MUAY BORAN


    PANKRATION


    TAEKWONDO


    TAI CHI

  2. #902
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    I know that this is super late notice - and it's because someone's dropped out. But I'm meeting up with some Karateka from Japan tomorrow evening in Western Sydney and I should be able to bring one other person with me. PM me ASAP if you are interested in tagging along.

  3. #903
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    Sorry to hear that person stood you up on late notice Gok. Double dating isn't my thing. Have you tried those modelling agencies?

  4. #904
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  5. #905
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  6. #906
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    http://m.fightland.vice.com/blog/bru...-of-the-dragon

    It’s an article from 2016, and my apologies if its been posted before, but I thought this was a great read on the almost-mythical fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man back in the 60’s.

    Many would have learned about the fight between the two from the Hollywood movie Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story starring Jason Scott Lee (no relation). One thing that always made me laugh about the movie’s depiction of this fight was that it occurred in some bleak Mortal Kombat like arena...because of course thats how Asian people resolve their differences! But thats Hollywood for you.

    The few witnesses, and typically subjective views on how and why this fight occurred make it difficult to discern fact from fiction, but this article does its best to rule out the speculation and rely on evidence, and I’m inclined to think this is the closest to the truth we’ll ever get.

  7. #907
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ralph Wiggum View Post
    The few witnesses, and typically subjective views on how and why this fight occurred make it difficult to discern fact from fiction,
    ^This.

    Unpopular Opinion: Bruce Lee is an overrated fighter. That's not to say that he was bad, he was good. But he wasn't exceptional.

    So why do so many people overrate him? Two reasons. The most obvious one for the layman are his movies. People see him kick butt on film and assume that he must be able to do so IRL, forgetting that movies are make believe. The second and possibly bigger reason is ignorance from Westerners -- i.e. because most Westerners had never seen Chinese martial arts before. It's easy for Bruce Lee to be the best Chinese boxer that people have ever seen when he was the only Chinese fighter that people had ever seen.

    When I ask people who claim that Bruce Lee was the best fighter ever why they believe this, their answer is almost always along the lines of because they've never seen anyone better. Well... uh... you kinda need to get out more and observe more experts in Chinese martial arts then. I guess it might be like someone who's never seen a Bumblebee toy since 1985 seeing say Titans Return Bumblebee and declaring it to be the best Bumblebee toy ever. I mean, TR Bumblebee is a very, very nice toy. But it's not the greatest. Similarly Bruce Lee was absolutely a good fighter. But not the greatest. If we examine Bruce Lee's technique, it was essentially based on Equivalent Retaliation strategy, or in simple terms, tit-for-tat fighting. Or as Cliffjumper would say, "Strike first, strike fast, strike hard." And there's nothing wrong with this technique, as I said, Lee was a good fighter. But it's not the most advanced concept either. If we look at the evolution of fighting arts today in things like MMA/UFC and what's becoming increasingly favoured in street fights, we're seeing a shift towards grappling/submission and ground fighting techniques. And it's pretty obvious why.

    It kinda reminds me of the story of Thomas Molineaux. By the early 19th century boxing happened by two people just standing in a ring taking turns punching each other until someone was knocked out. It was that simple. Like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. But Molineaux revolutionised boxing. A former American slave, he travelled to Britain and Ireland where he competed against boxers there, but he did something that was unheard of at the time. He got out of the way of his opponents' punches! Yeah! He refused to just stand there and take punches. He moved out of the way and punched back. Molineaux introduced a bold new technique that revolutionised boxing -- he introduced ducking and weaving! A ridiculously basic technique that every boxer knows how to do today was something that astounded Georgian fighters and audiences, and made Molineaux appear to be some kind of super-fighter.

    So it's all a matter of perspective. When Westerners had never seen Asian martial arts before, they would soon consider the first time that they saw it to be the best. Heck, just last week I was watching some Karateka sparring and noticed one guy being taken out a few times by his opponent's spin kick. Afterwards I asked him how he thought he should counter a spinning back kick and he didn't really have an answer other than "get out of the way" (well duh, that's how you can counter anything ). I showed him a super-basic counter and it blew the minds of both Karateka! They thought that the spinning back kick was some super unstoppable move until I showed them a hilariously simple way to thwart it.

    Spinning Back Kick and How to Counter it
    A = attacker
    D = defender

    TOP: The spinning back kick works in 2 main phases. Phase 1 is the turn or initial spin which generates momentum, and the phase 2 is the kick.
    BOTTOM: The counter basically involves arresting the attack during Phase 1 before the attacker can execute phase 2. Basically the moment he turns his back on you is when you pounce on him; close the gap (and if you like you can put him in some kind of hold). But simply closing the gap will neutralise the attacker's ability to progress onto phase 2.

    P.S.: Just watched a few videos on how to counter a spinning back kick, and the more effective ones work on the same core principle - close the gap.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU5J9Hj_O5I
    This video shows one less effective and one more effective counter...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOgP_Ayyd6I
    Skip to 1:25 of the video for the first counter which is less effective. Okay, this counter does work in avoiding the kick, which is great, but it's less effective as a counter-attack because you're not closing the gap and quite frankly not doing anything to the attacker. You're both at a stalemate position. The guy explains that the defender can do all sorts of things to the attacker, yeah, but the attacker isn't immobilised either so he can also defend himself or counterattack (e.g. sidekick etc.). It's a stalemate.
    Skip to 2:30 for their second counter which is impressively simple but highly effective. You basically throw a front kick into the attacker's hip! It works! There is no stalemate here, if we were to compare this with Chess strategy then you've effectively enforced a Check.
    The technique that I prefer and explained above is, IMO, a precursor for enforcing a Checkmate (e.g. choke hold).
    Last edited by GoktimusPrime; 29th January 2019 at 11:07 PM.

  8. #908
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    I figured that since I'm taking my daughter to Karate lessons twice a week I might as well join her Karate club. The thing is that her Dojo has 2 different lesson types per week - one for sparring and the other for forms; I have no interest in learning Karate forms but I basically would love to have more opportunities for sparring as it's an uncommon thing in my Baji/Tai Chi classes which focus more on forms and applications, but we don't often spar.

    So in terms of my core technique I'm going to continue focussing on Baji, but I'll be using the Karate club as a means for regular sparring. The main downside is cost as I'll only be paying the single casual lesson fees for Karate which works out to be nearly twice the cost of paying monthly; but there's no point in me paying monthly as I won't be attending their lessons more than once a week. I pay monthly for my daughter as she attends twice a week, but yeah, as I said I have zero interest in learning Karate forms.

    Nothing against learning Karate forms, it's just that I don't want to be a Jack of All Master of None. I do think that it is incredibly useful to train and spar against people of different styles, mostly to see what my own techniques can do against people with different skill sets. I encourage all martial arts practitioners to consider cross-training with people of different styles, because the problem with only training with people in your own style is that you become used to fighting against... well... people with the same skill set as yourself. And IRL it's highly unlikely that an attacker will fight using the same style as you!

  9. #909
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    Had my first Karate sparring session last night. It was waaaaay too freaking easy. I literally beat all of my opponents with minimal effort using just one hand. Granted I didn't spar against anyone above a purple belt.

    I brought the same protective gear that I use in Tai Chi and my leg protectors aren't compatible with this Karate club because they don't cover the feet (since, ya know, we wear shoes in Tai Chi ). And in this club people without full equipment only get to spar every second round, so we had to sit out the other ones. I want to buy a new pair of leg protectors that satisfies their criteria so that I can work my way through these lower belts and get to the black belts! They're the ones I wanna fight! But I'm glad that I did it because we really don't do enough sparring in Tai Chi/Baji.

    Tonight's Baji class was still really good; focused a lot on techniques and did application drills (padwork), but no sparring. I volunteered to partner up with the less competent students because I think that they need to have harder partners to get them to move correctly (otherwise it's a case of the blind leading the blind). But damn it, as I'm sure you've all guessed, training with freakin' newbs is often more dangerous than training with experienced fighters cos they can't control themselves properly and don't know what they're doing!

  10. #910
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    Bought a new pair of leg guards today... and I'm $112 poorer :/

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