The Lord of Pasta:
- Access Hollywood reports that Seagal’s representative is denying Jenny McCarthy’s casting couch claim.
According to a spokesperson for Seagal, “Warner Brothers casting for the film ‘Under Siege 2’ has confirmed that Jenny McCarthy never auditioned for a role on ‘Under Siege 2.’ Her claim is completely false.”
- According to the Soup Blog, Segal’s Zen senses allow him to locate barbecues. You can all build your own joke, thank you.
…Deputy Steve can see through a barbecue!
- And some of you criticized me for calling him the Lord of Pasta!
When it was all over, Seagal was so pleased with the food and everything that he “gave me a hug,” said Rounis, who owns Cabernets in Parksville with her husband Ted.
The star told her he enjoyed his meal, seafood linguini.
(Prime) Chuck Norris:
- OK, this is not the Prime One but it’s close enough.
“We don’t have to go overseas to be a missionary. The mission field is right in our own backyards and neighborhoods, and together we can make a positive difference in the lives of children. We cannot thank the community of Navasota enough for their support!”
The News:
- Fighters.com is predicting that Lesnar will defeat Velasquez.
In fact, the hype on Velasquez is so great that many are picking him to defeat Lesnar at UFC 121. Here are three reasons why I don’t believe that is going to happen.
- Since this was free on TV I actually watched most of it. While I like Bisbing I was hoping that Akiyama would win. I was really disappointed in Akiyama’s performance to be honest with you. The guy has some serious Judo credentials and what did he do? Spent the night trying to slug it out with someone who is very good at striking. Way dumb.
On a night where he was in danger of being usurped as the UK’s biggest MMA commodity, Michael Bisping put in one of the gutsiest displays of his career to re-establish himself as his country’s UFC ace.
- Kung Fu comes to another sport.
Standing boundary-side, explaining the rules of AFL football in Mandarin was a Chinese ground announcer who has been teaching the Demons kung fu during their travels.
- Yeah, I had to look it up too.
CAGAYAN DE ORO. — Young jins kickstarted Luzon’s campaign in the 2010 Milo National Little Olympics here, winning six gold medals to top the taekwondo competitions on Saturday at Xavier University.
- Attacks in parking garages are a boon for one self-defense instructor.
Two attacks happened at a Harrisburg Parking Garage in about two months and now some people are taking self defense classes as a way to protect themselves.
- Anyone ever hear of Neko-Ryu Jujitsu?
He is 77 years old with a touch of Parkinson’s disease.
And you absolutely do not want to mess with him.
“I wouldn’t even try,” says his 23-year-old stepson, Jeff Kunz.
- One Hapkido instructor is giving children with special needs the chance to participate!
“We just wanted to offer a different program to kids who aren’t able to play different individualized sports,” said Waller, who knows of just one other program like his, which is in Oklahoma. “To give them something to improve their balance, coordination, memory, and to just work on gross motor skills.”
- Jet Li is slated to star in a 3-D martial arts flick.
Martial artist and actor Jet Li is reuniting with his Once Upon a Time in China director Tsui Hark for a new 3D action film.
- A famous Hapkido master makes a rare appearance.
…Mr Ji, 75, was also an instructor of the late Bruce Lee and appeared alongside the legendary actor in the movie The Game of Death.
- Here’s one last look at Judo in MMA.
Considering the soundness of its techniques (including both take downs and submissions), its high speed sport application, and its popularity, I’m somewhat dumbfounded that we didn’t start seeing many judo throws or judo-based MMA fighters for the first decade of MMA.
The Blogs:
- Rory recently had an experience that I think is fairly common–often not discussed openly out of respect, but I think it probably happens more that we all care to admit!
One of the most disturbing moments in the martial arts is when you suddenly realize that your instructors may not know what they are talking about.
- Happy Birthday to Rick!
Today’s my birthday. Won’t you celebrate with me?
- I guess I’m showing my age. However, I’m just impressed Low Tech is actually able to carry on a meaningful discussion using Twitter! I just use it to push information out and that’s about it!
After reading their responses I can see that this is just another separate way to look at the issue.
- Sensei Strange starts a very curious blog.
While I know Grad School has seriously damaged my budo blog, I have decided to stretch myself even thinner and have a casual side blog project called Sanctum Santorium. It will be a warehouse of images, videos and esoterica that expresses my sweet tooth for the bizarre. I hope to see ya’ll there.
- John ponders your kata.
I had an instructor who would say, “there’s white belt kata, there’s black belt kata, and then there’s your kata.”
- Nicola is traveling but this is not stopping her from learning!
The lack of TKD has, at times, been a good motivator to lead me into training styles that I would not have normally have tried, endured or even dared…… one time travelling in Morocco I was determined to keep training, and on the edge of the desert they only trained in something unpronounceable, and I still don’t know what it was. Out of a spirit of adventure, I joined in a couple of times. It was a bit like Hapkido (which is a bit like a mixture of jiu-jitsu and TKD) but with a lot of leaping about with a total disregard for your own safety.
- Zimmer discusses fighting for peace.
Apparently in the favela’s (slums) some cops have been working with the youth to reach out with karate!
- Colin has a post that discusses something that I don’t always practice. Sorry Segal-san but I just can’t resist!
Traditional Martial Arts training however stresses the opposite behavior. We are exhorted to control our emotions, de-escalate violence, avoid engaging in the fight if possible, and show respect at all times.
- Stefan gives some great advice that all styles can learn from. He also is my new blog find of the week!
First and foremost, don’t feel stupid. Way back when during my first few sessions, I felt extremely stupid. I knew nothing and it was glaringly obvious.
- The Martialist takes on the the West Virginia Ninja. This was the first I’ve heard of Ron Collins so for sure the post was…eye-opening!
His name is Ron Collins. To readers of The Martialist, he is the West Virginian Ninja — a self-proclaimed martial arts and street fighting expert whose name has been something of a punchline in the online martial arts community for no less than ten years.
The Videos:
- Yes, I’m a sad little man — that’s pretty much public record here at Striking Thoughts. That having been noted, I have to say that about twice a year Chris makes me laugh so hard I almost wet myself. This is one of those occasions.
In Christ all things are possible, except for Oriental Yoga and martial arts: those are the work of the devil.
You really need to read Martial Development’s post to get the full effect of SlowFlow!
- The second video is from my reader e-mail. This person was trying to use this video to convince me that kickboxing is superior to Wing Chun. All I’ll say is that one style vs. style video doe not a winner make!
-BCP
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Thanks Bob – great to hear about Neko Ryu Jujitsu too – how do you find these
, will pass that one onto my other instructor
Cheers
Nicola
I thought the fighters in the last video looked about equal. The kickboxer had better kicks–no surprise–but they weren’t very effective.
Chris,
I agree — I did not see anything definitive. Plus it’s just one video.
Common, how can you possibly claim they were equal? The WC-guy was clearly superior: how many times did he break through the kickboxer’s guard, how many times was the opposite true? This clearly shows forward pressure is superior to circular attacks and those kicks were indeed technically correct but if they don’t land with power they don’t mean anything. If the WC-fighter was allowed to use elbows, chops, lowline kicks or eyejabs the fight would have been over at the first engagement. The only real problem with using WC in a controlled enviroment is that the WC straight punch with a padded striking surface does not deal enough damage to cause a knockout, other than that WC is superior in my view, especially in a real fight for which it was designed after all. Obviously boxing/kickboxing is effective too and good skillsets to have but once in short range WC reigns supreme: this is why JKD is so effective since it combines the best of both worlds. Boxing/kickboxing is probably more exciting at first and easier and especially faster to learn but once you become competent in WC you needn’t fear any engagement (almost). The only flaws I saw in this videotaped fight is that a)the WC-man should have kept chasing the kickboxer instead of backing off which he did quite frequently and b) the kickboxer’s guard was very akward: I really don’t see the advantage of keeping one hand low unless you’re planning on using gunting techniques which are pretty useless with gloves on. Still I saw a good performance from both fighters.
Zara,
I should put you in touch with the bloke who sent me the video — he seems to think the kick boxer destroyed the WC guy.
Thanks for the props, Bob. I returned the favor, adding you to my link list.
‘Destroyed’? How: by backpedaling the guy into submission?
Last video was a good fight. I thought the kickboxer landed cleaner punches, with more power behind them. He won most of the exchanges. The WC guy was not able to generate much power from his “facing the opponent” stance. Nor could he do anything with his feet. Surely Wing Chun has some kicks in its arsenal. Don’t think it says anything about their respective arts, however, as it always comes down to the martial artist.
SMK –
WC does have kicks. The problem is that most of them are not suitable for a sport match. Same thing with my Mantis days. My old taekwondo instructor would ask me what it was like. I said we spend half of our kicking practice learning how to kick the attacker in the nuts or figuring out how to break their knee. WC is similar in that regard.
I used to get fired up about these videos. Not as much anymore. First, it’s one video with two players. Are these guys the top players in their respective arts? Is one having a bad day? etc. etc.
Second WC is less-suited for sport than kickboxing. The match you see is a sport match so you won’t see the WC guy trying to poke out an eye, punch in the throat, kick to the groin, or try to break a knee. All of that is standard WC training!
It still is a good fight to watch and no matter what your style it does have some great lessons!
Yes Bob, I can see your point. The WC guy would be at a disadvantage here because his kicks would not be legal. It is the primary reason you don’t see too many kung fu or karate guys in MMA. They would get disqualified. In Kenpo, we have always trained in the kickboxing style for sparring. I think it helps in that you can practice it safely while still developing power and technique, which will help in the ring or street. However, I will say you must also train in your self-defense techniques, which are more lethal, and therefor harder to work at full speed and full power with a partner (how do you practice a full power side kick to the knee or eye poke?). Sparring is the next best thing.
SKM –
Sport sparring is a great way to practice a portion of self-defense. But you are correct: You can’t practice all of it without running out of training partners (or getting sued!) pretty darn fast.
If you can put a guy on his ass with you in a position to finish it like the WC-man did (he could have easily kicked his lower back or groin) you clearly won the fight. Just touching someone with a gloved fist isn’t enough and if the kickboxer really had landed a clean shot the other guy would be out cold. Like I said the really dangerous techniques of WC happen in the short range and while the WC-fighter frequently broke into that range he couldn’t employ his best weapons so he failed to achieve a knockout. In my view he tried to be agressive and he certainly was that more than the other guy but not enough: the WC-strategy stipulates that once you come into contact with the enemy you stick to him and start trapping & hitting untill it’s over: it showed the kickboxer couldn’t really do anything when he was forced back and hooks are not the answer since a straight line is still the shortest route to any given point. It was clearly a difficult fight for the kickboxer, even though he seemed to be more experienced than his opponent. I’ve seen a 40 year old WC-master beat the snot out of young competition fighters in thaiboxing (supposedly the hardest ringsport) without really breaking a sweat so I’m inclined to believe WC is better for SD: even though in usually takes longer to learn than boxing/kickboxing it’s surely superior in terms of fighting someone heavier and stronger. Especially for those less athletically inclined and/or not in the prime of their youth anymore. I’m also a huge fan of panantukan or Filipino boxing: basically it contains everything that is in western boxing & kickboxing and everything that is forbidden in western boxing & kickboxing. Surely you can’t go wrong with that…
Let’s look at this from a different angle, guys. Do the two disciplines, WC and KB, have to be mutually exclusive? I coach a team of martial artists in tournaments. Some of the fighting events like point sparring and full contact sparring attract Kung Fu, Kenpo, Kickboxers, TKD, you name it. The rules are most closely related to kickboxing in full contact. No one style dominates. I’ve seen some really good Kung Fu guys and girls using kickboxing-style moves. Why should we not embrace something that works, and that can help us train to be better fighters? Why should it always be we vs they? It’s all good–one of my favorite sayings.