Chris Benoit

By now most of you have seen the news coverage about the tragic death of Chris Benoit and his family.

 In the early days of Chris Benoit’s career, the Canadian Crippler — who killed himself, his wife and his young son this week — was part of a testosterone-ridden, rowdy gang, touring across Western Canada with the cast of Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling…like so many wrestlers, he would do anything to enhance his performance. According to Elzein, this included taking a steady diet of painkillers and anabolic steroids.

Now the bizarre gets even weirder. Apparently someone altered Wikipedia’s entry about Chris Benoit by adding that he missed a show due to his wife’s death. The catch here is that it was done hours before the authorities new of the death.

Benoit’s Wikipedia entry was altered early Monday to say that the wrestler had missed a match two days earlier because of his wife’s death.

A Wikipedia official, Cary Bass, said yesterday that the entry was made by someone using an Internet protocol address registered in Stamford, Conn., where World Wrestling Entertainment is based.

It is being widely publicized that Benoit was apparently text messaging certain people at WWE during the times of the murders. In fact, I’m pretty sure that someone from WWE notified authorities that something was not right.

My opinion: No one forces these guys to perform and tear their bodies up. However, given the industry’s track record they need a union and access to mental and physical assessment.

Performers are overworked and need painkillers to deal with their frequent injuries. They’re expected to have godlike bodies while traveling 200 days a year, and so they turn to steroids. Failed marriages are normal, and high jinks on the road sometimes get out of hand.

I fear that mixed martial arts is also headed down this road. It seems to me that when you throw profit into the mix, corruption and exploitation of competitors (or performers) is never far behind.

Comments? The Convocation of Martial Arts Forum has related thread.

~BCP

[tags] martial arts, mixed martial arts, professional wrestling, steroids, Chris Benoit, WWE[/tags]

Training Report

Martial arts vs. Mother Nature: MA= 0 MN= 2

Since moving outdoors the last two Tuesday practices have been canceled due to thunderstorms. Go figure!

I still am able to practice in dojang garage but it makes it hard to learn anything new or to spar. However, I always beat my freestanding bag. In fact, I’ve never lost once to it.

I have Taegeuk Pal Jang down to the point where I’d be comfortable to test. However, I still need to refine the last two self-defense steps and learn the last two one-steps before that’s going to be possible. Too bad because I already have the hour requirements for the 2nd gup test.

Other news…

Fundamentals need work, as always. I’m finally starting to figure out how to put my hips into the pivot hook kick and step-behind hook kicks. The spinning hook kick is also coming along. It ain’t pretty for sure. However, for the next gup rank I have to break two boards with it so I think I at least have it ready for that. Everyone (except for the martial arts prodigies) has one or two techniques that give them a hard time. For me it’s the blasted hook kicks!

Targeting on my reverse side kick is improving; and, overall, my jumping reverse side kick continues to improve as well.

Weapons

1st dan and below weapons are optional. However, many within the Alliance will learn a weapons kata or form and debut it at a tournement. For me it’s been the nunchuka. I learned traditional basics approximately 10 years ago. Since then I have learned two non-traditional tournement katas. It’s surprising how much I remembered and it really didn’t take too long to adapt to what I would describe as “show katas.” I now have the steps memorized to the black belt kata so it’s just a matter of polishing. In fact, I may show my instructor tomorrow night.

If sabum (aka the founder) saw me execute a flashy around-the-neck he’d probably threaten to kick me while I was in transition. Oh well, at least I can differentiate between a “show kata” and the real thing.

Injuries

The hip is at 95%. Given that I will not stop until I have to I consider this OK. My left foot is probably at 90%. I can now kick with full force. However, it still hurts a little depending on how I move it.

New injury: My right middle knuckle. I developed an air break where I essentially toss one board up with my right hand and, using the same hand, I break it with a non-chambered jab . In fact I’ve successfully executed said break about half a dozen times. So, this past weekend I got the brilliant idea of upping the stakes by taping two boards together. At least this time I was smart enough to stop after the second failed attempt. After copious ice the swelling is gone; however, it still hurts.

So Bob is thinking that he probably needs more practice before trying that one at a tourney–at least with two boards!

~BCP

[tags]martial arts, taekwondo[/tags]

Last Self-defense Steps

Last night our new students could not make class so it was just me and my instructor. These sessions are really good because I get one-on-one instruction that I would probably not get at a large commercial school. It was also our first “outdoor” session. Given that we practiced in a wooded park it was also very Zen.

We took the warm-ups and drills easy due to getting used to practicing on the ground. Also my foot is not 100% yet. Then we spent time on forms. My practice is paying off because several joggers came through and I did not get distracted.

After forms I was taught the last of the 22 self-defense techniques that I need to learn for the black belt test. Both of these where wrist grab escapes into what I would call a flowing throw. They smell an awful lot like something from hapkido. In fact, according to the “oral history” that was passed down to our founder and on to my instructor, some of our self defense and one-steps are derived from hapkido. (which is debatable)

The first technique essentially has you making a “C” with your hand, then flowing into the grab. This breaks the grip and allows you to grab the attacker’s wrist. Then you pivot and flow back out while lifting the attacker’s arm up and at the same time grabbing their neck. The combination of their arm being bent up and behind along with pushing down on their neck dumps them into the ground. The variation to this involved flowing in and stepping under their arm. Otherwise it was pretty much the same.

For purposes of practice the attacker does a basic front roll when being thrown. However, trying to break it down “realistically” we both concluded that it you successfully executed this on an untrained attacker the best you could hope for is to dump them face first into the ground. Alternately they could remain on their feet and stagger away as you throw, probably off balanced. And, as the case with just about any technique (gross or fine motor skills), there’s always the chance that it will fail miserably.

The funny thing is that I am very good at the hard karate-like techniques that involve gross motor skills. In fact, my instructor said I’m like sticking a spike in a watermelon. (I think that was a compliment)

I also like the small circle pivot techniques that usually end with something on your opponent getting broken. However, this whole big circle flow thing is an entirely different breed of cat for sure. This throw would probably not hurt an attacker so from a “get sued” standpoint it might be a safe one to try on, say a drunken buffoon. (or Mrs. Esterhaus when she’s having one of her “episodes”)

Finally, we concluded with me teaching my instructor some hand techniques. Borrowing from Wing Chun’s chain punch principle, I’m trying to teach her a couple basic combinations and then drill it into her until she executes them without thought. The rationale behind this is if attacked for real and you panic, you can at least fall back on your combos which is better than just standing there and getting hit.

We started a few months back with some basic 3-step combinations moving forward. Last night I rolled out the 5 steps which have you moving forward and backwards. These fit well into taekwondo’s linear approach and are a good supplement to what she can do with her legs. However, they are not the same as a boxer’s angled attacks. We also worked on her stiff jab which is coming along nicely.

Given that these sessions are always unexpected and inconsistent, there is only so much I can realistically hope to teach her. So, if I can teach her how to use the jab defensively and offensively–along with some basic combinations I’ll consider my debt to her partially paid.

~BCP

[tags]taekwondo, martial arts[/tags]