Matt Thornton video

[Lozen]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2068450760833041053

[Lozen]

Matt Thornton is totally hot, btw.

[Taiji Bum]

Am I allowed to ridicule things I find ridiculous? Did I spell ridiculous right? Does my post have aliveness?

[Lozen]

I joined this site because it seemed somewhat politics free. If you start trashing Matt Thornton I am leaving this site.

 

j/k

[Taiji Bum]

Touche.

[thelerner]

To get into Thorntons stuff seems to be about being alive and injured. Sort of like being mugged only costs you $80, but the cost of hospital bills and time out of work cost you $1,000's. Real has problems.

 

 

Michael

 

Course I'm slackard Aikidoist, often our favorite technique was kuchiwaza. Tonque technique practiced to avoid strenous workouts and over beer. Though it should be said, skillful kuchiwaza has saved many a life & limb.

[Lozen]

You don't have to get injured to train alive. We do open hand sparring at my MMA class--nobody has ever gotten hurt. There's some Greco-Roman wrestling drills that are alive but not full force, just working on overhooks, etc. Also I know plenty of people that have gotten hurt in aikido...

[thelerner]

True, but in Aikido we'd usually get our worst injuries doing free style/full force. I do think its vitally important work to do, but because its risky, it should be a part of the training, not the whole thing.

 

I also think quick and dirty is a vital part of martial arts and those techniques have to be practiced slowly and carefully for good reason. Eye, throat, facial nerves, direct knee attacks..

 

I like watching UFC fights. But part of me thinks these guys are idiots. There is a delicate brain floating in hard skull. These punches, kicks and worst elbows to the head, are bruising that brain whether or not they go unconscious. They will pay for the head blows receives in fights, and the dozens more they got during practice. It is really very very very stupid of them.

 

They're getting paid a pittance for the alzheimer, parkinsons and dementia they may suffer later.

 

Michael

 

and thats why I decided not to be the first 42 year old Aikidoist in next years UFC.

[Lozen]

I hear you. I have a friend who's a Thai boxer and she is always pushing me to compete, and I laugh and say no way!

 

Having said that, you don't have to kick the crap out of your buddies to train alive, but you do need to use speed and timing and some resistance, you can do this safely.

 

I just think it's more effective than doing repetitive drills in the air.

[thelerner]

I had a friend who was into kick boxing. It really seemed like an art for the young. Win or lose he got the crap beaten out of him almost every crap. He described his teachers outside legs as a mass of calluses from decades of being kicked.

 

I heard the classical approach is hard style while young, then the intricacies of hard/soft, then soft, then stillness.

 

I also liked this saying: Soft beats Hard, hard/soft beats soft, and hard beats hard/soft. My sensei considered karate hard, judo soft, strangely he considered boxing hard/soft as well kung fu (and Aikido). The saying certainly works well in the world of Brazillian Jujitsu versus so many hard styles. But those who developed defenses and a hard/soft style eventually ended the Gracies reign.

 

Its far from gospel, but may give a sense of strategy.

 

Michael

[Peregrino]

There's a ring of truth to that, Michael. I'm big on hard/soft right now (boxing, kickboxing, and jiu-jitsu, but with meditation and basic energy work, along with lots of stretching). I still have a need to express "explosive" energies, but I always say that whenever I start to mellow out--maybe not until my 50s, or even my golden years--I'll dedicate myself to the purely "soft" styles.