Tim,
Who is the person that you would not want to fight in a real life situation? How about NHB? How about BJJ? How about San Shou? How about in Submission grappling?

Jon

Real Life Situation: armed gang member.
NHB: Of guys my size? No one comes to mind. Guys alot bigger than me? Most good NHB fighters come to mind.
BJJ: I'd fight just about anyone for the experience
San Shou: Of the US fighters, being suped by Cung Le doesn't appeal to me.
Submissions Grappling: Same as BJJ

What is NHB?

North Hollywood Bulldykes.

(or "No Holds Barred" in some circles.)

NHB stands for "No Holds Barred," martial arts competitions that have very few rules (a more accurate name for these types of venues is "Mixed Martial Arts" ). In most NHB events, all types of strikes, kicks, throws and groundfighting techniques are allowed, with the exception of eye gouging, biting, grabbing the groin and in some events, headbutting.

In the States, the UFC is the most popular event.

Tim,

Just curious,Have you been in any NHB OR UFC tornaments and if so how much use did you find the stand up techniques of Pakua and Hsing Yi?

WHAT? no eye gouging, biting, grabbing the groin and in some events, headbutting... what do they do then... dance around and throw pressed flowers at each other??

Those are the most popular techniques I teach in my Tai Ji classes for Seniors. It's not called
"YANG" style for nothing!

During each movement of the forms, as I call out the name of the movements, my students call back the meaning of the application:

"Raise Hands"... "GOUGE THE EYES, SIR!"
"Left Ward off"... "BUTT THE HEAD, SIR!"
"Grasp the sparrows tail"..."GRAB THE GROIN, SIR!"
"Roll back"... "BITE THE GROIN, SIR!"
"Press".... "IMPLODE THE PROSTATE, SIR!"
etc. etc.

If the didn't have that blasted "age-limit" on
NHB events, you would've heard of my students by now.

I haven't fought in any NHB events. I competed in San Da (San Shou) events in Taiwan (the rules are all striking techniques and throws allowed, no groundfighting), and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submissions wrestling tournaments here.

When I fought in Taiwan, the techniques I used primarily were from Xing Yi Quan, they worked very well. I also find the throwing techniques of Ba Gua Zhang work well in the grappling tournaments.

Tim,

Would you expand on your experience with BJJ tournaments.

How did you do? What did you find worked really well in them? etc.

Thanks

I'll interject a note that Tim may be too modest to say.

I've watched several BJJ tournaments and in all of them no one compares to Tim's stand up game.
Rather than hunching over like a crab, clutching for a piece of the opponents Gi... Tim is upright, smooth and fluid. I've seen him pull off a couple of dazzling throws on guys who were reputed to have good judo experience.

Tim rocks.

BJJ Fan,
I'll also give my two cents about Tim's successes in BJJ tournaments. He's won the last couple of superfights Cleber has put him in against some very solid guys. When you beat someone from the Machado's in a superfight you know you're doing something correct. Let's face it, the Machado's produce a very excellent BJJ student. (Why shouldn't they, they are Gracie Barra!)

Now, here's my personal take, Tim would be BETTER at No-Gi submission fighting. Let me state why, With the Gi, Grip fighting plays a great roll, whether standing or on the ground. Bagua throws are very well suited to the No-Gi standup game. With the Gi, it's a little easier to stall. Without the Gi, throws have to be a little crisper and faster. This is Tim's forte. (Although, he can throw pretty good with the Gi, let me share a story...)

A couple of years ago, I was over Tim's training. Along with us was John Zimmerman. John spent a great amount of time in Taiwan training in martial arts also. John is an accomplished martial artist. He also is a blue belt in BJJ under Cleber/Tim. At the time, I believe I was a blue belt in BJJ under Roberto Maia in Boston.

Well, Tim says, "hey, let's play pseudo-Judo." So, John and I are one team playing against Tim. The rules were simple, put on a Kimono and first one to throw the other got one point. John would have a turn and then it would be my turn. We would rotate turns against Tim.

Tim beat us 40 throws to 1. The only 'throw' we got on Tim was when Tim's toe got stuck in a seem on the mat and John smartly pushed him down. At the time we were losing 29 to 0 and we weren't proud. We took the point. This pissed Tim off and the last 11 throws he did on us were rather brutal. Never the less, there was no shutout.

Personally, a Shen Wu curriculum translates nicely into the No-Gi game. If he was on the east coast, his guy's would do very well in the NAGA tournaments.

good training,
Joe

I'm blushing.
I've done fairly well in BJJ competitions, I've won some larger competitions at the Blue and Purple belt level. I've only fought in one no-gi submissions tournament so far, and I won my division (Joe has alot more experience in these tournaments). My stand up game has helped me quite a bit and I've won several matches on the points from throws. The techniques and especially the body mechanics and sensitivity of the Interal martial arts were invaluable. It did take me a while to modify my game to the gi. The Judo and stand up Jiu Jitsu has helped a great deal.
I also have been fortunate to train with some talented students, who do well in competition (Joe, Shane and John included).

invaluable??? Why don't you think your IMA techniques were valuable? It seems to me like they actually helped you!

Would Dr. Ngo, the chiropractor, be considered a "body mechanic"?