Formosa Neijia

So I have to thank Tom for this post because he posted this over at EF and then deleted the thread just as I was about to comment. Thanks, Tom.
This is an interesting encounter that Tom found on this blog. It documents what happened when a BJJ guy met a taiji guy in […]

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[youtube]aQzwWLzGr8w&[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQzwWLzGr8w&
This is an excellent clip that shows guys wrestling 105 years ago. Amazing. This just goes to show that not everything modern is better nor was everyone back then in poor health. These guys look strong and are going at it in a manner that would fit right in at most grappling schools. There is […]

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuP6cApKAD8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuP6cApKAD8
Okay, everyone has seen this by now I would guess. But a lot of us have been waiting for this so I thought I’d highlight it. Tim is one of the few guys to do both IMA and BJJ, giving him the ability to flow from one to another. He makes them work seamlessly meaning […]

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As everyone knows, WuTan is a major branch of Taiwan martial arts that is fairly well known around the world. But up until recently, most of us haven’t had an opportunity to see what the WuTan guys practice. Thanks to youtube, that is changing.
Contrary to what I thought in the past, there is a bit […]

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The following is a block quote of part of a review of a recent seminar by Tim Cartmell. I found it here (Kit le Blanc is listed as the writer) but I don’t think a lot of people saw it. I thought it was a great quote because it shows a certain perspective on how […]

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Since I’ve been talking about sparring so much lately, I thought I’d post some decent videos of sparring that I found on youtube. Now, these aren’t perfect, but they are the best of the bunch that I could find there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djyux_rWsKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djyux_rWsKc
This is wing chun teacher Austin Goh. I thought it was admirable that a teacher would […]

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One thing that would help IMA-inclined fighters is to think of IMA material in terms of skill sets. This takes us a step beyond the usual breakdown of qigong, forms, etc.
Think of all the moves that you train in your particular branch on IMA. Then try to categorize them. I think you will see that […]

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People usually compare learning MA to building a house, a useful analogy in most cases.
But when it comes to sparring, I think other analogies might help us see the picture more clearly.
Think of a pyramid, for example. If you want a pyramid to be really high, you need a really wide base. Sometimes I see […]

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Lots of good discussion on my last sparring post. So much so, that I think we need a series of posts to deal with the topic.
One thing that I think needs to be made clear is the place in the continuum of training that hard sparring occupies.
Consider the following continuum:
normal standing–MA stancework–stationary technique training–footwork patterns–moving […]

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Some threads over at EF are about videos of posters that show them sparring. Often, the posters ask other people to comment on their performance. Whenever I read those questions, I often wonder where the teacher is and why they aren’t answering students’ questions.
Sparring, in general, is a touchy subject and is likely to draw […]

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