• Archive through August 27, 2006 August 27 - 03:34 pm [20]

• Archive through September 06, 2006 September 06 - 11:16 am [20]

Oh, the young lady did have some hung gar background and one of the boys did some boxing in college--in the spirit of full disclosure . The other two lads had no previous training.

Gary,

That's very cool! How much conditioning do you do? Just wondering, to see if I should up mine any.

Better ask Tim about that. As I said, my teacher teaches Tai Chi as a martial art, so we do about as much conditioning and sparring as most decent karate schools. We do some conditioning every class, but we really hit it hard about once a week. We also do sparing at various levels in about half of the classes. But we are mostly average folk and we don't/can't all do truly hard-core contitioning or a lot of full contact.

If you are going for top level competitive fighting, Tim and his boys can help you out. All I ever did was a couple of local full-contact karate matches years back, and I rarely spar full-out any more, though I do spar.

Hi Tim
This maybe a stupid question but I just wonder if itīs possible in the clinch to move kind of "effortless" -thinking on your video "effortless combat throws"
Regards
Tobias

How effortless you look depends on the difference in skill between you and your opponent.

I'd say I look damn perfect and effortless against a 110 lbs vegan yogi.

Tobias,

Right, while it is always important to use yourself correctly and to always seek out maximum leverage, how good your opponent is will be a big determinant of how "effortless" your clinch work will be.

Ok Thanks for answering
So in the clinch, the weaker one canīt really win if not he/sheīs technique are much,much better than the stronger opponent īcouse you canīt really build up momentum in that range, right?

Tobias

The stronger will always win when the skill level is equal or less than his. That is just simple physics.
Jake

My ratio:

If your opponent is 50% stronger than you, you need to be at least 100% technically better than him to have a chance.

Ok But does that mean that the IMA - principles doesnīt work in the clinch - weak overcoming the strong and so on

Regards
Tobias

When someone makes a reference to "weak overcoming the strong" it is usually (to my understanding anyways) a reference to what Tim was saying..... the weaker can certainly beat a stronger, but his skill level must be much higher! IMA principles are no different than other principles, because, well, principles are principles. The principle of me throwing you down does not change if I am doing Mantis or Xing Yi. Same principle. Unfortunately their is too much •••• out their where whack jobs are talking about IMA principles such as projecting qi and garbage like that. That is just BS period.
Jake

Thanks Jake
I guess there is no shortcuts, only hard work



Tobias

Jeez, I wish! Actually no I don't I suppose the journey is the destination. One must continue to push their own boundries!!
Jake

Tim,

How would you(or anybody else who would want to answer) rate Freestyle Push Hands? Ranging from pushing, to punching while staying connected, with kicking every now and then, to learn self defense principles?

Thank you,
Matthew.

Matthew,

When we practiced "push hands," light striking, joint locks and throws were all allowed.

I think, practiced this way, push hands is a very useful training method.

Jake,

Quickness is another factor in the smaller man being able to overcome the bigger, stronger man.

Matt & Tim,

I have always found that any form of push hands gives an MA a tremendous "feel" for what an opponent is going to do. If you have an idea what is coming next it certainly gives you a huge advantage.

Charles
True that speed certainly can help, but it won't mean •••• if he has no technique!
Jake

Jake,

Not arguing that, just saying that when you're a smaller man speed plays a large part in whether or not you can overcome a larger, stronger opponent.

As size and strength are the advantages a big man brings to the fight, speed/quickness is the advantage that the smaller guy brings to the fight. A martial artist without technique is, after all, not a martial artist.

Good point. I agree.
Jake

Charles does make a good point but he forgot to define speed/quickness.

Iron Bastard,

The definition depends on whether or not you own a Ferrari. lol

Not bad Charles but I don't have to spend over 200,000 and have a permanently revoked license to define speed. Speed is distance over time and quickness would deal more with timing.

However, a Ferrari is a perfect example of how to control speed from same speed to acceleration to changing speed very quickly, depending on how good of a driver you are.

Thanks guys! This place is a gold mine of information! I've been browsing around and searching things on here as well... In another topic, it says that doing a practice for more than 45 minutes is actually counter-productive, I've read this before, actually; can the same be said about Push-Hands? Is doing more than 45 minutes at a time not building as much as I/We think?

Thanks,

Matthew.

Matthew,

You can push hands for as long as you like.