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Thanks Laird, lots of good stuff. I am most vulnerable at arms length, I need to get in close to be effective especially as it really hacks off the spiderleg type people who like to fling out rapid long distance attacks and jump away (which hacks me off) – they’re usually not so good close in. Trouble is finding effective body shots (I can follow the limb so far but I need a small trampoline to get to the head), so I like the vertical elbows. And getting them down with the knee is gold.
In my style we don’t practise this sort of thing properly, no realism, all very polite, so very hard to tell what actually works.
The clips make a huge difference, really good. Look forward to more.
😆
Didn’t say women don’t have games (somethings gotta make the world go round, isn’t the phrase lie back and enjoy it :bad:
but this particular one gets played out a little differently I think. Men Monkey dance with other men.I have seen women, or groups of girls at least, posture up… but I don’t think its typically so bad . Name calling, very bad language and giggling, insults about hairstyles…
When its serious, female on female bullying can horrific. I saw the results of an attack with scissors, not nice. Calculated, sneaky, vicious, bloody, unrepentant.
The tactical stuff may be true . Probably fairly entertaining to incite trouble. Maybe that’s what you have to do when you’re physically weaker – be tactically cleverer. Don’t know, not one of my particular games, like to fight my own fights way too much… your experience of women more extensive than mine… :halo:
All the womens self defense stuff does seem to assume a male attacker, bit short sighted.
Different dynamics.
[Edited on 28-11-2008 by heretic]
Do you have FIGHT in your Kata?
Possibly, question is – do you have fight in your posts?
Laird you bring a passion to the discussion which reflects your love of your karate and of life.
I am enlightened and entertained.
[quote:zqbi7otw][i:zqbi7otw]Originally posted by Laird[/i:zqbi7otw]
[quote:zqbi7otw][i:zqbi7otw]Originally posted by Rick Wilson[/i:zqbi7otw]
Play nice. [/quote:zqbi7otw]Sorry Rick! Ahh the hell with it I don’t feel like playing at all. When you show up at a party and don’t enjoy the company it’s simpler to just leave. I’ll sit this one out.<img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="
” title=”Wink” />Appologies for the thread diversion. Guess I’m feeeling more abrassive than ussual these days. Please feel free to continue with your discussions. [/quote:zqbi7otw]
Drummers are crazy. Seems to be compulsory.
Important to get full value out of every beer.
I would say a pretty controlled use of appropriate levels of force under the circumstances. Impressive. Clever use of that humour to defuse the situation. I can see a worsening continuum of ways the night might have ended without it.
Is the Monkey dance only a guy thing? Commpetition/ego/honour/inferiority complex/dominance complex/showing off/saving face/stubbornness/bloody-minded ignorance, I don’t know. Women just don’t seem to play the same game . (Violent women viciously direct – nothing to prove, just want to hurt someone, claw, scratch, bite, stab, maim…)
My heart goes out to the well built blonde who had to cope with a big idiot with a violent past, several sore body parts, alchohol and a bruised ego. Hope she’d had SD training.
Theres always consequences.
Often wondered whether a knowledge of MA will actually get me into more trouble.
[quote:kfpeia5z][i:kfpeia5z]Originally posted by cdoucet[/i:kfpeia5z]
Katas are also a form of expression. Much like a drawing is an artists, a piece of music is that of the composer. Katas are a martial arts form of expression.
[/quote:kfpeia5z]
Yes but expressing exactly what?
Kata can express different things. I’m thinking that the analogy of art is interesting – is it an abstract form of an idea, a perfect, misunderstood copy of someone else’s work, or a realistic representation of life? Still life?:lol:
Someone said that you will fight the way you train, and I think it applies to kata as well – you will fight the way you perform kata. Got me thinking about the kata I do.
Better to belong to the school of realism than to the impressionists…
Your kata certainly looked to me like it expressed the idea of fighting. Very impressive.
And bloody awesome to put it up for comment.
I haven’t worked out whether you need to be weird and crazy to start with in MA or whether it happens as you go along <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="
” title=”Tongue” />This one always makes me smile
– You do martial arts, that must make you really confident you could defend yourself in any situation…
Chris nobody answered this and someone should. It sounds very good to me, for what its worth. Youre quite right about the target market, its not the health/fitness/feel good/ family groups that you want. What you are doing is not mainstream macdojo and I think that comes through. It needs to sound like very serious fun.
Maybe that’s a way to describe it!
My limited advertising editorial experience says to only say what you need to make the sale ie get people interested – I have taken the huge liberty of tweaking it a little, will send that to you separately. Hope its helpful
Dorothy says we are just so not in Kansas now…
Marcus warned me this was a paradigm shift, and I said more like a parallel universe. But I don’t think its actually even parallel…
I’ll wave a tiny flag of protest and say, I never, never said anything about standing still. What I was aiming at was that basics could be defined according to your own priorities but I think the argument is largely irrelevant in this environment!
No kihon
No yakasuko kumite
No warm up drills (Hojo undo Jubi undo)
No movement to numbers
No kata to count
Almost no Japanese spoken
My names Laird not Sensei
No static stretching
No push ups
No point fighting
Only 4 kataWell that had me running to find out what yakasuto kumite etc was and checking I understood kihon properly.
What no ritual? You have completely eliminated all the unnecessary, pointless stuff? <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="
” title=”Smile” />So thats what you don’t do.
Is this a good summary of what you do do?
Just striking , striking with bridging ( and clinching )
bridging with throwing , bridging with throwing and short striking , throwing with groundwork , groundwork with striking , etc etc , mix it up constantly , then have anything goes moments to test and spar .I interpreted the original post as a query about the structure of a class rather than content as such. But…
On motor function, coordination, adaptability and intuition:
Motor function is about movement accuracy, coordination is the harmonious integration of connected, multiple actions. The brain forms new neural pathways to do this stuff. The more developed those brain connections, the more spectacular the possible improvisation.
Innate adaptability and intuition vary enormously from one person to the next . Train Tom Ashwin to be intuitive Marcus, I beg you :lol:. But they do improve as a result of the training, because of the neural thing, the positive feedback loop between brain and body.
On repetition:
When I taught maths I used to start each class with a quick test – times tables mostly, sometimes with a twist, progressively harder as the year went on. Settled the group, gave the class a little structure, taught or reinforced a basic skill. At the end of the year even the most well, challenged is probably the PC word, knew at least their times tables to 12, if nothing else.
I tutor kids now who know how to integrate but can’t do seven eights in their head and wonder why they get the answer wrong.
Rugby players practise ball skills and plays over and over again to make them instinctive, fluent.
A little repetition of basics is not a bad thing. Just have to decide whats important, fundamental, and do it. Strikes and bridging and wauke, even intuflow.
Not a rigid system. Not the reason for training.
Not a box. Not even just a base – a springboard!
IMVHO
[quote:jiph4ara][i:jiph4ara]Originally posted by Laird[/i:jiph4ara]
How much room for experimentation:Adam:
In my opinion if one is not experimenting they are not training.
If your just performing drills in the manner presented in sensei says type training your probably just getting exercise, take everything apart and make it your own.
Heritic: Nice thoughtful well organized post.
Ask Sifu Marcus what I think of kihon training and tit for tat type processes. Ask him how much of this material we worked on when he trained in Banff.
I’d get into it but this discussion rarely goes well. I’m not in agreement with Mas Oyama about 10,000 reps either, but it does keep the students occupied.<img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/" alt="
” title=”Wink” />[/quote:jiph4ara]
I suspect that was a very tactfully worded response, thanks!
– Yep I know my mainstream background of training (indoctrination?) totally influences my perspective…just how much in fact I’m probably only barely starting to realise…but sometimes even a starting point for a class structure can be helpful when you’re new to instructing. Doesn’t have to be rigidly repeated strike/block stuff. Can develop into whatever kind of mayhem you feel like.
I’ll surely touch base with er sifu on the subject…have a feeling I might be in for more education…
Man I love Monty Python. :bounce:
Don’t know if this is helpful but…
I know a whole lot about teaching my style of karate. I teach beginners up to black belts. While I’m becoming critical of some of the content and rationale etc that my style teaches, they do have an excellent structure for the learning, and teaching, of karate. There is a set format of basics, kihon, which are practised for part of almost every class – sometimes disguised in combinations, reconfigured, resequenced, but pretty much always there in some form. This is a basic skillset. After x number of classes the beginner will be able to strike, block and kick in the manner that Gkr says is most effective.
There are lots of good things about this format:
1. It provides a more easily learnable system for the beginner because there is an identifiable structure.
2. It helps the instructor to plan a class – bigtime – especially to start with. As you get more experienced you don’t need the structure so much and you can be more flexible with content.
3. Repetition is the mother of skill – over time the student’s techniques improve, and they can measure this themselves.
4. A basic structure allows for variations and refinements according to the imagination, skill and inclination of the instructor
5. A basic structure can be varied to create drills for different levels of experience and ability within in the same class. It works regardless of who turns up but it can be tailored to suit who turns up. I may have three groups working on different levels of the same drill. Vary the intensity.
6. It links into kata.
7. It provides the student with a technical basis, and therefore confidence, for learning to fight. It helps them to get used to fighting (for lots of my beginners physical combat is a very very foreign animal).
8. Its just part of the class, still time to explore other things.You need to decide what the important things that you want to teach are. Rick’s short manifesto here is what I would use:
1. How to strike hard.
2. How to move well.
3. How to position.
4. How to lock and takedown.
5. How to have the attack/survivor mindset.This is a most excellent basis for all that you need to teach. Make your own format of basic techniques. Each part of each class should link back to this list of fundamental objectives. Teach general, and then isolate and apply, according to what the individual student needs to work on. Isolation is easier with small classes – sometimes I have forty or more adults and kids and it is a zoo. (Love it though.).
You never know how long students are going to stick with you. Make sure they have an understanding of what you think are the most important basic skills they will need.
Know what you want to achieve with your students and don’t lose sight of that.
Teaching and learning are part of the same process.
