In another tournament Saturday

[fa_jing]

Results to follow.

So should I throw'em, or try to knock them out? One catch: your not supposed to knock'em out.

[fa_jing]

Another catch: I'm only just learning to throw.

[Martial Joe]

Do what you have to do man...what you asked is stupid, not being mean...sorry..

[Water Dragon]

So how'd it go?

[fa_jing]

Pretty good, but not great. There were three times as many people at this one, including 9 competitors in what they called continous sparring, but turned out to be full-contact this time. I beat my first opponent Victor, who's associated with Sifu Miller's school (Sev's school) in Memphis. My co-student lost his first bout. Then I got knocked out by my next opponent, a very experienced martial artist. My sifu had to throw in the towel in the second round - I wanted to keep going, but it's a very good thing he stopped it. I had gotten rocked once and almost had to quit, then kept going for a while, then apparently my sifu asked them to stop while a haymaker was on it's way to rock me a second time, and the gentleman was nice enough to pull his punch.

[fa_jing]

I also participated in push hands, another of Sev's friends beat me in that one. I don't remember his name - 5'6" white guy, 34 years old, real nice guy and he knew Wing Chun, Tai Chi, and Shaolin. I pulled a silver in Wing Chun forms and first in Southern forms - a gimme, my only competition was a man with a mullet. The full-contact was for real this time, there were far fewer throws because everyone was hitting hard. It was a little like Toughman, lots of punches and little defense. Those who won were those who had the better boxing skills, plain and simple. I have a nice purple mark on my forehead and felt light-headed for about ten minutes after my match - I've had worse. I really wanted to finish the bout, but live to fight another day, you know? Safety first is best.

[fa_jing]

Besides me, one person got Knocked TF out 20 seconds into his match with an uppercut, and another got a cut on his nose. They were both wearing cage headgear - shows you how much that does. Both were declared losers - thus it was true full contact, albeit with rules. They let me use my regular Thai headgear this time. I want to come back in a year and be a match for the top guys - there were about 3-4 there that outclassed me.

[MonkeySlap Too]

There were probably fewer throws because no one knew how - the harder the contact, the easier it is to throw somebody.

Another good effort fa Jing. Let's see if we can spend a little extra time when I'm out next.

[fa_jing]

Martial Joe - I was just trying to stir up conversation last night. It's like asking, what should I eat, a cheesesteak or a pizza? Just talking sh!t.

[MonkeySlap Too]

Although you still do not know how to tell the story of your battles like a true martial artist.

Here are some tips:

a 'gimme' is when you face 100 mulleted opponents with FANGS.

you never fight somebodies friend - you fight the embittered bastarrd son of your sifu's first wife, who was scorned because she ate the hearts of men.

somewhere in there, you needed to feel completely overwhelmed, until you heard the voice of your teacher say "listen my son, trust no one. You can count on only yourself. Hardern your body, become a NUMBER ONE MAN! Do not let anyone beat you." At which point you kicked the guys @ss.

[SevenStar]

Congrats on the tourney man. Glad to hear it turned out well. The guy that beat you in push hands sounds like bill - he's been doing wing chun for years. How did the fight with vic go? I wonder if they taped it. What did you beat him with?

[fa_jing]

First of all, Bill and Vic asked me to say what's up to you. Excellent dudes (plays air guitar ).
I used the right hook, the right hook, and more of the right hook to beat Victor. Otherwise it was even. He told me he had never fought with heavy gloves before - he did a real good job for his first time. He hit me with a few good shots and my neck was a little sore afterwards. My sifu was very happy with my first bout - he said that's good, find a weakness and keep attacking it over and over again. Both of us landed a couple kicks, but I am more and more convinced that as Bruce Lee said, the best puncher usually wins the bout. Victor showed some heart, he didn't get frustrated and he had his moments. We got it on film, although I don't have a copy of the video yet.

[SevenStar]

cool, glad to hear it. Sifu has a 16 year old son named uriel who is phenomenal - did you get to see him?

[fa_jing]

I had a lot of fun pushing with Bill. My one great moment was a clean shoulder strike, otherwise he dominated and threw me at least 3 times cleanly in the free-style section (2 minutes) of the match. Sifu Miller is awesome. I got to judge him in weapons sparring. He took out some japanese sword stylists. He was almost going to participate in the sparring, but switched off with one of his advanced students at the last moment. That student was the winner of the middle-weight division and totally outclassed his opponents. Great puncher.

[fa_jing]

I'm not sure who Uriel is. He wouldn't have competed in the continuous sparring, which was for 18+ years.