The Martial Arts and Philosophy

[Exiled Martian]

The art is really irrelevant. Avoid aikido (it's bullshyt every time)...... What's more important is the teacher and environment. Get something that's full contact.. It doesn't have to be a big school or anything, sometimes the backyard instruction is some of the best. PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS, but also find a program that addresses a gap in your knowledge; which seems to be grappling and throwing. Trust your feelings, and avoid mystical bullshyt, people who don't work hard, and instructors who claim to have "black belts" in many martial arts.

Respect for the sensei like pep talk breh! Ima go holla at a local legit hood Miyagi ASAP & get to fence painting & waxing pronto!

 

[ExodusNirvana]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19290320

More hard evidence that meditation, mindfulness, and neural adaptation are more important than ever.

@KyokushinKarateka @Blackking @ExodusNirvana

You'd be amazed at how little meditation is emphasized in most martial art schools. Then dudes go looking for it in Yoga but that's not always a good idea because the breathing in yoga is different, as is the type of flexibility activities.

You might end up pulling the rope at both ends if you don't have a good instructor who can teach you the basics.

Then there are the dudes who go TOO far and meditate so much that they get loopy...you gotta pace yourself, if something feels weird, STOP then go have a dialog with someone who has been doing it for a long time, hopefully your instructor.

But I get that sometimes that can be easier said than done depending on geography and other things

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Punching power comes from repetition which develops muscle memory, not meditation.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Punching power comes from repetition which develops muscle memory, not meditation.

I agree.... that's why I said "neural adaptation".... But i think meditation also helps with fighting. I think it gives what karateka call "kime" or focus, that keeps you clear under fire and calm under all situations. Basically, when you're stressed.... You can't use all your power. You get that adrenaline dump when people are swinging on you and it tightens you up and makes you feel some type of way. Meditation systems help to combat that by changing your psyche and mindset overtime...

I think thats reasonable.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

I agree.... that's why I said "neural adaptation".... But i think meditation also helps with fighting. I think it gives what karateka call "kime" or focus, that keeps you clear under fire and calm under all situations. Basically, when you're stressed.... You can't use all your power. You get that adrenaline dump when people are swinging on you and it tightens you up and makes you feel some type of way. Meditation systems help to combat that by changing your psyche and mindset overtime...

I think thats reasonable.

Im not sold. I doubt Mike Tyson sat Indian style and meditated. I think there you can go into this same state you're talking about through rigorous training of the scenarios and having no fear of your opponent, which i feel is something that cant be taught, no fear.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Im not sold. I doubt Mike Tyson sat Indian style and meditated. I think there you can go into this same state you're talking about through rigorous training of the scenarios and having no fear of your opponent, which i feel is something that cant be taught, no fear.

Maybe the reason Mike Tyson had a short peak and then fizzled out and allowed himself to be knocked out and dominated by fighters people consider lesser than him in his "prime" WAS his lack of meditation? I'm sure Tyson himself would probably agree that he was, from a discipline and mental standpoint, lost after D'Amato. His technique deteriorated, his training fell by the wayside, and his game basically crumbled to a guy like Buster Douglas almost exclusively because he had already lost in his head.

In fact Mike Tyson is probably the best #1 example of why martial artists should undertake some form of mental conditioning lest they let their character and focus fall to pieces and resort to las vegas hooker demonry, friend.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Maybe the reason Mike Tyson had a short peak and then fizzled out and allowed himself to be knocked out and dominated by fighters people consider lesser than him in his "prime" WAS his lack of meditation? I'm sure Tyson himself would probably agree that he was, from a discipline and mental standpoint, lost after D'Amato. His technique deteriorated, his training fell by the wayside, and his game basically crumbled to a guy like Buster Douglas almost exclusively because he had already lost in his head.

In fact Mike Tyson is probably the best #1 example of why martial artists should undertake some form of mental conditioning lest they let their character and focus fall to pieces and resort to las vegas hooker demonry, friend.

No. It was the money, friend. There is something to be said for training and grinding to get yourself out of poverty and then, when you have the world in your bank account, you are the best in the world and have access to all manner of pleasure, the desire to go out there and knock peoples heads off and train for such bouts, interests you less until you meet someone on the rise, whos hungry as you used to be and that individual destroys you, friend. The question is how do you keep the passion to fight people after you have successfully provided for your family for generations.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

No. It was the money, friend. There is something to be said for training and grinding to get yourself out of poverty and then, when you have the world in your bank account, you are the best in the world and have access to all manner of pleasure, the desire to go out there and knock peoples heads off and train for such bouts, interests you less until you meet someone on the rise, whos hungry as you used to be and that individual destroys you, friend. The question is how do you keep the passion to fight people after you have successfully provided for your family for generations.

Tyson had a lot of inner demons, friend. A lot of insecurity and family issues. He is not alone among martial artists in that respect either. But truth be told, he was never going to last very long. Swarming style fighters like him never do, really. To fight like that you have to take an intense amount of punishment to reach larger opponents, have top tier endurance to throw that many punches, etc. It's probably the boxing style that has the lowest 'shelf life' all the great guys in this style never really burned long; greb, armstrong, etc.

Boxing isn't an old man's game, either way. You can't do it for very long, just like Muay Thai. It doesn't have many of the health preserving traditions of many arts and requires hard and heavy training. There are some styles of boxing that let you keep on for a long time though I suppose.

 

[Blackking]

I really like this video, because it shows the benefits of practicing for close combat.. and controlling the center-line.

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

A couple videos of qing gong or light body skill. It's basically a combination of plyometric jumping routines, balance control, and qigong to create the illusion of 'flying' or floatiness. Think crouching tiger hidden dragon without all the . A lot of baguazhang people do it as a form of special training.

@ExodusNirvana @Blackking
beginner


expert

 

[Hannibal Fox]

A couple videos of qing gong or light body skill. It's basically a combination of plyometric jumping routines, balance control, and qigong to create the illusion of 'flying' or floatiness. Think crouching tiger hidden dragon without all the . A lot of baguazhang people do it as a form of special training.

@ExodusNirvana @Blackking
beginner


expert

I might be wrong here but I was always under the impression that some of the methods of light body skill were sort of lost?

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

I might be wrong here but I was always under the impression that some of the methods of light body skill were sort of lost?

Not lost per se, but i've heard they are increasingly hard to find in full nowadays. I have components of it in my foundational training, but not anything advanced certainly.

Pretty rare to find dudes capable of this kind of thing

 

[Hannibal Fox]

Not lost per se, but i've heard they are increasingly hard to find in full nowadays. I have components of it in my foundational training, but not anything advanced certainly.

Pretty rare to find dudes capable of this kind of thing

Yeah I agree, however I wonder if we delved deeper into African or Indian MA's I wonder what we would find regarding those techniques considering those cultures at least in the past were uber spiritual?

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

Yeah I agree, however I wonder if we delved deeper into African or Indian MA's I wonder what we would find regarding those techniques considering those cultures at least in the past were uber spiritual?

Perhaps. The thing with special training isn't really the 'methods', imo a lot of these traditions are preserved rather well. It's the perseverance. Nobody wants to spend years smacking a bag of seeds for Tieshazhang or hours a month jumping into a pit for tiebushangong or whatever. That shyt is very repetitive and quite frankly not really "needed' to defend yourself or stay in good shape plus you need special equipment and in many cases medicine.

 

[Hannibal Fox]

Perhaps. The thing with special training isn't really the 'methods', imo a lot of these traditions are preserved rather well. It's the perseverance. Nobody wants to spend years smacking a bag of seeds for Tieshazhang or hours a month jumping into a pit for tiebushangong or whatever. That shyt is very repetitive and quite frankly not really "needed' to defend yourself or stay in good shape plus you need special equipment and in many cases medicine.

Funnily enough I was recently on a MA forum and this discussion came up and one of the posters quoted a well known teacher who basically came to this conclusion.

Which reminds me I need to make some jow.