http://formosaneijia.com My personal martial arts journey Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:53:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Subscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with RojoSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with Pageflakes You have to admit, even with all his weirdness his fight scenes still hold up well years later. I don't see too much that's embarrassing here, unlike other movie martial artists that I might have liked in my teens and 20's. "Best of the Best" and a few other movies ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/12/05/seagals-the-man/ This is a nice clip showing a tourney held in Orlando by Chan Pui of the WahLum Temple. This was before the Disney tourney got popular. Back than, it was much smaller. Sam Masich shows his fighting chops in this clip and it turns out to be a nice blend ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/12/03/taiji-fighting-tourney-and-nice-taijijudo-mix/ I meant to post this a long time ago but forgot. It reveals what happened between these two so long ago. I've heard a lot of nonsense about this encounter, so now we can clear it up. It was an open GuoShu competition held on June 24th, 1955 (Sorry, not ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/12/02/huang-sheng-shyan-beat-hong-yi-xiang/ Here are some clips I'm enjoying right now. This is Ronaldo Jacare, a BJJ and judo black belt. Love his throws in BJJ tourneys. Lots of excellent transitions. And here's a great highlight clip of judo ne-waza. The styles are different if you look close but there's still a great deal of ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/12/01/old-judo/ It doesn't matter which martial art you do. Do you conform to the art or do you change it to conform to you? Does the art belong to a founder (or founders) or to the people that "make it relevant to today"? I'd be interested in reading your comments on this. http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/29/question-for-readers-who-owns-the-art-you-do/ I've started training BJJ and I'm loving it. One of the best resources I've stumbled across recently is a free e-book by Stephan Kesting. It's a roadmap for how to study BJJ and it's very clear and concise. You'll really benefit from this if you're a beginner like me. Grappling ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/28/an-e-course-you-can-really-benefit-from/ I'm going to step away for a few days. Please feel free to enjoy the archives in the meantime. http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/23/taking-a-break-2/ If it weren't for Robert Smith, many of us would not be where we are today. His efforts to promote martial arts, especially the Chinese martial arts as practiced in Taiwan, have been more influential than anyone else's. Yet I rarely see him given the credit he deserves. Many of us ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/21/tribute-to-robert-w-smith/ I would like to ask readers to please use my Amazon links to the left when purchasing any items from Amazon. It's a great way to support Formosa Neijia and it's doesn't cost you anything more than the price of what you were going to buy anyway. Remember, you don't ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/20/please-use-my-amazon-links-2/ This looks to be Rhadi Ferguson's latest DVD project "The Effectiveness of Morote Gari" and I'm glad to see it. Morote gari (double leg takedown) is one of the best takedowns a smaller guy can use against a bigger guy. It's a great throw and deserves to have more attention ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/19/the-effectiveness-of-the-double-leg-takedown/ Short review: THE DVD to get for incorporating aikido and small circle jiu-jitsu principles into your BJJ or vice versa. This two-DVD set starts out with a great talk by Sensei Roy Dean on principles that aikido people would need to keep in mind when encountering or training in a BJJ ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/18/review-roy-deans-the-art-of-the-wristlock/ Judging by the reaction to my recent post on the excellent push hands tourney clip, I can tell that some people aren't familiar with taijiquan clinch work. The problem is that clinch work isn't widely known or understood in CMA. For example, shuai jiao (Chinese wrestling) guys do a lot of ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/17/the-little-known-art-of-taijiquan-clinching/ I got paid a compliment recently that I probably don't deserve but it was nice to hear anyway. As a writer, it's always nice to hear that people are enjoying your work. :) As Tabby says, I'm an advocate of MMA. But there's more to that than a first glance reveals. MMA ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/16/mma-traditional-or-modern/ The Pursuit of Happiness was one powerful movie. Very challenging for me as a man, a husband, and a father. This particular scene stayed with me. I hope I have the guts to say this to my kids when the time comes. So few of us go for our dreams ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/15/protect-your-dream/ Reading the message boards recently, I've come across two ideas that got somehow misintrepreted or misconstrued. If you're working out and are interested in losing fat and/or getting in shape, you owe it to yourself to revisit these ideas. The first involves the fat gene and how it can be trumped. ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/14/two-recent-misunderstandings-on-fat/ Thanks SO much to Jack Rusher for this. This is exactly what I was hoping could be pulled off in PH tourneys. I feel vindicated by this. This clip shows the true potential for training that PH tourneys have. Notice that the chap in the clip pulls off throw after throw ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/12/what-push-hands-tourneys-should-look-like/ In martial arts like taichi and aikido, we hear a lot about joining centers when throwing and how that is a good thing. And it is. Many throws rely on this principle. For example, all hip throws require that you bring the person's center towards your own, join centers and ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/11/joining-centers-and-results/ This got posted at Irongarm. The action starts at the 2:00 mark. Notice the flow shown in the clip. The transitions are seemless, something that internal martial artists strive for. Well, here it is on the ground. They move so beautifully and without using obvious power. I hate to say ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/09/best-bjj-clip/ [caption id="attachment_1136" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Tim Cartmell, an example of a cross-over martial artist"][/caption] Anti-grappling was a hot topic 5-6 years ago on the TMA message boards. Where is it now? No where. It died as a topic for reasons worth looking at. First of all, people that were doing TMA but open-minded ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/07/demise-of-anti-grappling/ Let the Onion inform you: Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are And since I don't want to get arrested under our new Patriot Act/Fairness Doctrine, here's their take on McCain: McCain Gets Hammered At Local VFW PHOENIX—After conceding defeat in the 2008 presidential election, former Republican candidate John ... http://formosaneijia.com/2008/11/06/post-election-blues/