Lovely forms - what looks like real mastery in that department.

The bagwork and sparring was, in my opinion, poor.

Hey Guys

If anyone is interested in tranning for combat, Ross Enamait as a great website at RossTraining - Bridging The Gap Between Ordinary and Extraordinary good forum and lots of great advice. Ross's trains some top boxers and already and replies to questions on the forum or if u PM him. He also has some great self published books on fittness training.

Here's a link here to some of his video clip and aticles...this guy train's so hard!!!

RossTraining - Articles

Lenny

Lenster!

Thx for the linkage buddy . . hey I tohught you only lke ladies sports - i.e. Golf . .

;-)

Take it easy

Ha!

B4 i took up girly golf I used to box......although i don't box anymore I still like to do that style of fittness training.....

Hey check out this guy Bas Rutten(El Guapo)...absolute legend in MMA....here he is giving self defence tips...danga da danga da dang!

YouTube - Bas Rutten Street Defense - The Better Version

Lenster....

ha ha he's wearing a shoalin wushu t-shirt, along with every other martial art yi chuan was developed at shaolin and is the latest art to come from there! I can tell by looking at him that he neither practices wushu or yi chuan.

Check out my friend wu di also known as invincible spear:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gm8hFKYXC5c

and tell me that ain't worth learning

Dude! I *knew* you had some Jedi skills dude ;-)

Keep it coming with the sweet links!

I love the bit "and we stab in the liver, and we stab in the liver".

Nice work!

That was a cool link Peter, I know nothing of martial arts and it reminded me of a guy version of rhythmic gymnastics - ribbon + spear. Coool!!

Ok guys check this one

There this guy who believes he is a 'Kiai Master' what ever that is...and can fight people with out touching them kinda like the Derren Brown thing one step furt

So the first half show him doing his stuff is him fighing an mma fighter for $5000

YouTube - Kiai Master vs MMA=

Lenster

I have seen (only on TV) demonstrations where an opponent is stunned with a kiai, which seems fairly plausible. This guy seems to come a little unstuck when it really mattered though, more of a prankster I think.

LOL

Love it Len$ter!
That old fool got his ass kicked when he got to fight someone who wasn't even half decent!
Even though the guy was almost scared to hit him - or at least looked dead scared when he did forget how great the grand master 'is'. I simply cannot understand how crap at combat some of these masters are. I've seen it throughout my 22 years in martial arts.

IMO there is a great complex equivalence that exists in many forms of martial art - namely the ability to do slick techniques, even powerful ones, to do wonderful forms and breaking slates etc equates to combat competence.

I have found this to not always been the case.

When I train I look like a car crash and I get results.
This is the case for me - it may not be for others.

Some martial arts art not functional and do not really work in real life situations....I did several martial arts growing up very only a one of them incorporated actual sparrring!!! I did Karate for a while but got board as there was no contact some of the black blets wouldn't last 5 mins in a fight.

It's what kinda attracted me to boxing you train and sparrr all the time....there is no pretending to punch some one.....if you don't get ur gloves up or slip the punch you get nailed....

I imagine Muay Thai is the same...more focus on doing rather than theory!

Hey Al check this clip this it came out b4 the Kiai guy challenged the MMA guy.......how has he got all these people to believe he is acually doing stuff to them?

YouTube - Kiai master 'Yanagiryuken'=

Lenny

I don't know if any of you have heard of Geoff Thompson from Coventry? He trained in a variety of disciplines including; Karate, Muay Thai, Western Boxing and Judo to learn the most useful techniques, he was a doorman at the time.

He used to run "Animal Days" to pressure test people's Martial Arts to see if they worked in real situations, it's ugly, scruffy stuff but I found it really useful to watch (I've got his Animal Day and Pavement Arena series). He said some people used to get upset with it because a blackbelt in one discipline would get beaten by a Rugby player or street fighter with no Martial Arts training, but I think it's good if you're going to train yourself or your kids are going to learn something for "Self Defence" that you/they know it works.

He did upset a lot of the purists along the way but paved the way for the popularity of MMA, here's an article you may find interesting he wrote on the subject.

Geoff Thompson, pressure testing your art, Submission Fighting UK Articles:

Kind regards,

Nick

I know of Geoff from many ears ago - back in the Karate days. A truly fascinating, enigmatic and intelligent guy who is - when he needs to 'go' is ****ing hell on wheels.

This is a man I'd go out of my way to befriend, model and train with.

Now this is a genious worth modelling - he gives me the shivers! [K]

;-)

Lenz.

I reckon //I don't know just surmising // that he is prolly shit hot at aikido proper and prolly trained his ass off for years and became great at it. Then specialized in the energy
stuff later - gave demo's to his students and buil up rep from there.... could be totally wrong.

I am always resectful to masters or whoever I train with or spar woth - and I get dinked and get licks from everyone - I learn all the time.

However my take is this. If you spar or train with 'a great' you owe it to them and yourself to do your best. you might get a bit of a drubbing from them, if they're that good, and that means you learn. And if they're that good they'll be able to controll the drubbing they administer. Something I do whe i train with the young guns - as they use me as a benchmarch for their prowess.
They're certainly fitter than me, greater physical endurance, may even be stronger than me.But are they prepared to walk arm in arm with pain the way I am, the heart and mental endurance? Well i hope not, as if they do they'll tool me!

Now, if you hold back from applying your learnings due to 'respect' thn I challenge this map. #My map reads tht you gain respect by giving what you have - in a 'respectful' and 'honourable' manner. If you want to be their pal - buy 'em a beer or some shoes.
If you want their respect - show 'em yer mettle.

Let me be clear - I love the energy stuff - LOVE IT(!) and at the same it isn't my experience and I am biased towards a robust physical style. I'm open to be challenged on this opinion and would be fascinated to have a butt kicking from an energy stylist - what a great way to learn!

Take it easy, and train hard!

Al, great post.

I remember my first few sessions of Judo when we had to spar a partner at the end for 3mins, I was picked by another "white" belt so wasn't unduly concerned, he was of similar size, but I was playing a lot of Rugby, was strong and felt in pretty good shape.

I remember the first time seeing the ceiling, then being smashed onto the mat into a choke which I foolishly tried to fight but ended up tapping when I started seeing stars.

I couldn't believe how good this guy was so we went again, but this time I was really fired up and aggressive, I managed to nearly throw him from the hip...then yep, ceiling, crash, mat, arm bar, tap.

The third time I decided on a more intellectual approach (which in hindsight probably wasn't that clever, choosing another partner may have been) and concentrated on making sure his grips were weak, I lasted longer but the result was the same.

I was seriously confused, until the the guy running the class said "That's Olek, he's a black belt and shouldn't really be in this class but he likes to train every day, you did well though!"

I'm sure he held back, although it didn't feel like it but it was one of those sink or swim moments, but it was a great introduction for me into what is possible with Judo.

Kind regards,

Nick

P.S. The thing I like about Geoff is that he is so polite and inspiring. At his last book signing a really drunk bloke came in towards the end and started demanding "Who ARE you then Geoff, who actually ARE you?". The place went quiet and I scanned the room looking to see which one of Geoff's mates were going to say or do something first, there were some really useful guys in that room.
Geoff picked up "Watch my Back" walked over to the guy, as we all held our breath, kissed him on the head and said "Are you okay mate? Have this book on me and read all about who I am!", everybody breathed out as the guy stumbled out into the darkness with his book. I guess that gesture epitomizes him.

Lenny,

Brilliant video. I had a little search after watching that and found:

YouTube - Martial Arts Death Touch

He was trained by "Dillman" who is a pressure point expert but he can "stun" you without touch, again watch until the end to see his powers challenged!

Nick

I found this, while watching the other youtube videos. Perfect parody of what's wrong with many dojos:

YouTube - LIVING COLOUR - Jim Carey-Karate Instructor

Lol...i've seen that clip b4 that guy is full of it.........and seriously outta shape

I guess in every walk of life there are:
those who can walk the walk ,
those that can talk the talk,
those who can walk the walk but can't talk the talk,
those can talk the talk but can't walk the walk,
those that can't do any of the above,
and then there's the rest of thr people.

and I think it's worth remembering that all these people are doing the best they can, we're all at different stages of development. Some require dev in diff areas.
I recpgnise the areas I need it in (there's a fair few bits!).

I reckn old kiai master was forced take a log hard evolutional cold hard stare at himself after getting his ass whipped by that Pancrase fighter.

I'd love to have an update - and wonder if he had an empty dojo after the ass kicking, or whether those cartwheeling entrancec/faker students clung to keep doig what they knew - regardless of it's ineffectivity.

Alex,

Great clip. This is another of my favourites YouTube - Dennis Pennis' world famous 'Kung Fu'
NB Adult language!

Nick