The best is to walk away from trouble or try not to go where you know trouble may happen. Wisdom says that the strongest fighter is the one who never needs to fight at all for they avoid fighting. The strongest person is the one which is the most flexible.
Training in martial arts is like carrying a spare tire for your car. Sometimes bad things can happen to good people. You can be as careful as you like. Not driving anywhere near broken glass, uneven terrain, avoid pot holes like the plague. In the end when a tire does blow, isn't it better to have a spare tire just in case?
just a welcome joke to you or better yet, training martial art can be described as driving a box-pick-up truck full of spare tires....... (just a joke) welcome
an update on my learning point strikes. I tracked this one down. It's "bladder 23" (IOW, point 23 on the bladder meridian), and if hit straight (perpendicular to the surface of the skin), it will create the above effects. However, if applied at a 15 degree downward angle, it can also have the side effect of creating abdominal cramping and diareaha begining the following day and lasting for a few days. My instructor proved this to me by doing it to me. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I don't feel so good right now... I don't think I'll be using this strike as a party joke anymore...
In a fight, I would think that you want to use all the resources at hand, that includes arms, legs, elbows, rolled up magazines, chairs, whatever it takes. There are sitting techniques in hapkido, suitable for people in wheelchairs.
Wing Chun. Short distance, focussing on your centres. Instead of a sidekick, for example, you'd turn your torso to face the opponent and get as close as possible...
dr_spine_jr said: Used to believe this myself. Unfortunately it ignores a certain economic problem that you only discover with time. When you're a kid the martial arts seem really great, for a couple of reasons. The first is that in public school everybody had some dick in their class that pushed them around. The second is that the martial arts sound like a highly unified and respectable pursuit, and kids aren't usually given the opportunity to do anything interesting. I took Aikido and preached the gospel of the martial arts to anyone who would listen. Other people had certain concerns about the whole business, but what did they know anyway? It wasn't until I got injured that I found out what the real problem is: injuries don't heal. Yeah, yeah, you always read "recovery time - six weeks" and stuff like that whenever you read about sports injuries, but the real truth is that joint injuries - which happen pretty often - don't ever fully recover. Whatever part it is, it isn't really the same afterward. Surgery will alleviate the problem and make it less troublesome, but it'll still be there. So, if you were a tournament fighter, you could consider the injury, and the surgery, and other such things to be part of your career... If you really were in danger of your life on a regular basis you'd take the injury in stride 'cause you actually need to know how to defend yourself... But most of us aren't career fighters, and a lot of us live in safe places, and the expense of permanently damaging your elbows or knees or shoulders is NOT worth it for whatever you're getting out of it. Most practitioners do not recognize this failure of philosophy, and feel that injury in the pursuit of their art is only a minor price for success, much like being injured in a sport. It's important to remember that when you learn a martial art, it's not enough to learn it for its own sake, because you are paying something for it - you pay out in damage to your own body, and some of it will never heal.
That's very true, my friend is an instructor in Hapkido, and although he can kick some serious butt when he has too (rarely), sometimes his joints ache, and he walks around hunched over like an old man, and he gets severe leg cramps. 20 years of hard training are like getting beaten up every day! It seems worse than what you are trying to avoid in the first place!
If you live in a bad neighbourhood or something it might be worth it, probably getting beaten up once damages you just as much as training for a year. On the other hand if you're a suburban type who lives in a decent neighbourhood it's easier to just go to the gym.
I completely agree with BigBlueHead. Though my personal philosophy makes sure that I am in bad neighborhoods often, so I find it usefull to know this stuff. It's also more fun to teach MA as a full time time job than program computers, as I do now. So hopfully, I'll move to teaching in the next 7 years or so. I can then remind all the kids not to go overboard. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! So, was anyone as disapointed with the Discover channels' XMA show last week as I was? The one guy who did the Katana routine was f'ing amazing (did he really throw the sword in mid-air and then catch it, or was that my eyes playing tricks on me?), but the info on the different styles/weapons was very brief and shallow. More of a taste, not much in depth about anything. and repeated over and over and over! The one roundhouse of Matt's that delivered more than one ton of force was quite amazing to think about. If anyone in the Philly area is interested, Mike Chat, the guy who started XMA, will be making an appearance at the Phoenixville Action Karate Studio sometime in the next couple months. email me river_wind AT mac dot com for info once the data is all worked out if you'd like to come by and meet the guy. Don't know if he'll be teaching or just shaking hands or what yet, though.
I seem to recall George Foreman was measured to put out 10,000 foot-pounds with a punch once... of course, he's a big big guy.
Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
It's a dim memory from the pre-fight hype around the Holyfield-Foreman match. That was 12 years ago, and I don't remember how they were measuring it...
I don't think that injuries should be a major problem in a reasonably safety-conscious dojo. Yes, there is the possibility of seriously injuring a joint, but I doubt that it's much worse than, say, skiing.
