Does anyone here know of a MA-style that employs a club, a little longer than the forearm, slung from the elbow?
I've been foolin' around with this and it's got some potential.

~N~

Bill:

The idea of drilling from an unprepared stance is a GREAT idea.

I think that very seldom would one be prepared for the first attack to the degree of having the guard up: that's just a leftover myth from too many John Wayne movies.

~N~

Our political/voting system is overdue for a major revision.

In the US you get to vote for the President, we don't get to vote for our Prime Minister -- we should.

Sometimes the local representative of the party I DO want is such a sleaze/inept/crook whatever, that I can't vote for him/her.

Vice ...

I don't believe that science makes religion obsolete.

That premise is based on the assumption that both disciplines are attempting to ascertain the same ultimate truth: they are not.

Religion asks "why", Science asks "how".

You cannot look to science for answers to philosophical questions such as ...

And yet more, Jim:

I was very interested in your comments about the flow of attacking -- one technique following the other in a continuous chain.
If the defender follows his/her instincts under such attack, the result will be "duck and cover" from which no counter-attack is easily mounted, if at ...

"Of course the question here is why would this be problematic in freestyle vs scenario?? "

The answer is in the "disconnect" you referred to earlier, Jim and certainly it is an important question.

I think the answer is multi-layered, but I suspect that the competitive mindset is at the root of the ...

Stryke I agree about freefighting, but the whole point of the exercise IMO should be to train the defender to use their long-learned techniques in ( as close to) ACTUAL applications as possible: RATHER than abandoning them in the heat of the moment.

What I would expect to see is the attacker using ...

I find this quote from the text particularly interesting:

" I’ve noticed that too much macho, try-hard behaviors such as contest, tend to curtail the learning process and fine tuning of technical skill. Too much hard training is an ego trip that repeatedly recoils with bad effects.

I think that ...

And Jim: another observation totally spot-on:

"This is an extremely common phenomena in TMA instruction. Students are guided through a clearly 'traditional' set of exercises involving all sorts of things, kata, drilling using the classical tools, etc, taking up most of the class time.. Then they ...

Jim:
"Most folks I see in their stance appear completely disconnected from the purpose of the stance.. They are not really connected to the ground, they "do" the stance as if it was separate from function, because they are 'supposed to' do the stance."

I agree completely with this. I watch peoples ...

I would like to elaborate on some comments and questions, clarifying my posts and hopefully answering some questions...

Dana said:"If the goal of Uechi-ryu is to be able to fight and if fighting involves fast, explosive movements then why in the world would you start training to fight by standing ...

This seems to be a totally different question than the original one, which is even better because it addresses some elements of my frustrations of learning Uechi, plus my understanding of what Sanchin is all about.
( For those about to read: I am WAY far Dana's junior in the Uechi world so my ...

Sometimes an open-ended question is asked to fool the person being queried into defining the context, thereby gaining insight into the person's thought process.

A classic example is: "Describe yourself."

So, with caution and no clear idea of what the context is, I would say "from the Dan Tien" in ...

Hey Shana:

I don't see how some kata practice could hurt during pregnancy, especially if it's slow and form-intensive, rather than high impact.

I'm a guy so I don't really know ... but it seems like an ideal opportunity to hone the fine points of the movements without the risk of accidental ...

When I was a kid/young adult there were four things I could not stomach:

Dill pickles.
Olives.
Canned carrots.
Tomato juice.

Now, I crave Dill pickles and eat them almost by the jar, and I smother my nachos in sliced stuffed pimentos and LOVE Greek black olives. ( Kalamata ...