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Thread: 1st night at Gracies

  1. #46
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    In my own words:

    Here is the letter I mailed to my master's daughter, the school's manager, yesterday. It explains my sentiment perfectly

    I am withdrawing from the school,

    The first thing master asked me last friday was, why didn't I tell him I was going to fight. Besides telling him at the start of the summer (when I doubled my training and tuition), I reminded him periodically, including the time I showed him the gloves I was going to wear a week before the fight .... the same gloves he liked, the same ones you called me to get more information about. On top of that, two days before the fight both the promoter and myself called him telling him that I needed a waiver to fight. First he suggested I don't go (after training all summer and dropping the required weight) and then told me to just forge it and then, "good luck."

    So he knew about the fight. I know somehow things look better if a student lost and the teacher didn't know, didn't have the chance to prepare him, but he knew.... he had the chance.

    Secondly. I have been turned off by the ceasless comparison with other schools, and even with fellow students. I train to be the best I can be. While it's awesome to train with other styles in mind, I find it rediculous to put these styles down. They are winning at the highest levels, we haven't stepped out of the back yard. I wanted to train harder, not distance myself by saying it's only sport, too many rules, etc. There is a huge difference between beating karate and kung fu "masters" and students, playing with guests, and facing a highly-skilled, trained and motivated modern fighter in open combat.

    I say this, because I know from first hand experience. I haven't lost one challenge match against Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Ju-Jitsu, etc.... I haven't won one "sport" fight. The sport fighters aren't only better, they're MUCH better. I don't think anyone being honest with themselves would deny that a professional fighter is better than a hobbyist.

    I say these things because I think few apreciated master's technique more than me. I don't regret my time with him for a second; I have a confidence in my hands that I didn't think possible. Just lately, there seams to be more emphasis on "doing things differently" than doing them for real. There's seams to be more emphasis on protecting the style (by championing its greatness within the confines of the garage's four walls) rather than realistically developing it.

    To master's credit, his material is great, and if you're willing to get dirty you can incorporate his material and become a fighter. It's just a shame that there's not enough people who feel the same way to keep a fighter there, to allow a fighter to grow and experiment and stay with the style.

    I know master's dream is to take a team to China to fight. I wish you the best of luck.

    As for me, I will not share anything I have learned with anyone other than my students. I have developed several safe drills incorporating boxing gloves that train capturing the hand and hitting if you're interested.

    Best of luck to you as a martial artists,
    Ray

    PS
    Just finished reading Ali's biography. His all-time favorite bag (his words, not mine) was a custom made 185lbs bag that he gave to Joe Frazier...... he replaced that bag with a 200lbs bag.

  2. #47
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    strike!

  3. #48
    Quote Originally Posted by lunghushan View Post
    The shoe thing is a great example of that. Lots of things grow on the mats. There's ringworm, there's mat herpes, etc.

    So wearing shoes is a good idea. Not wearing shoes is a very bad idea.
    Ringworm spreads primarily through direct skin-to-skin contact, and secondarily through indirect skin-to-skin contact (contact with a surface that has previously contacted skin. Your feet are not substantially more likely to have ringworm than the rest of your body, and whether or not you wear shoes, other areas of your body (such as hands, arms, neck and face) are much, much more likely to be in skin-to-skin contact with training partners. Wearing shoes does not substantially reduce the risk of ringworm or other skin-to-skin diseases.
    "hey pal, you wanna do the dance of destruction with the belle of the ball, just say the word." -apoweyn

  4. #49
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    Quote Originally Posted by FatherDog View Post
    Ringworm spreads primarily through direct skin-to-skin contact, and secondarily through indirect skin-to-skin contact (contact with a surface that has previously contacted skin. Your feet are not substantially more likely to have ringworm than the rest of your body, and whether or not you wear shoes, other areas of your body (such as hands, arms, neck and face) are much, much more likely to be in skin-to-skin contact with training partners. Wearing shoes does not substantially reduce the risk of ringworm or other skin-to-skin diseases.
    If you're doing CMA, there's not as much skin-to-skin contact usually as something like BJJ where you're grappling.

    In fact, doing forms and sparring, there is usually little to no skin to skin contact, if you're wearing a long sleeved uniform and gear.

    Therefore, the primary surface that is exposed and shared is the feet. I visited a place recently, and they were working out, and one of them went, "Oh, there's blood on the mat." The sensei was like, "Oh, that's a day old at least, that's not from us."

    In other words, they didn't clean the mat. If you had a cut on your foot you could get the blood in it.

    I'm not going to deal with it.

    Actually the only place that I ever went that had non-porous mats that cleaned the mat with Lysol after every class was NY Kyokushin. It is highly likely a lot of people are getting Hep-C from mats and nobody is realizing it.
    Last edited by lunghushan; 09-14-2006 at 02:53 PM.

  5. #50
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    I stand corrected then, by KF and lkfmdc.

    If it makes you feel any better, I actually used to use that move to escape after a stand-up in wrestling in high school, several times.

    But yeah, I can see why you wouldn't like it. It'll get better soon.
    "In the world of martial arts, respect is often a given. In the real world, it must be earned."

    "A stupid man's report of what a clever man says is never accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand. "--Bertrand Russell

    "Liberals - Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. "--Benjamin Disraeli

    "A conservative government is an organised hypocrisy."--Benjamin Disraeli

  6. #51
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    Train it all, Ray. You're not even sure what you like yet as far as the ground is concerned. There are techniques I didn't like at all that became bread and butter techniques for me a year down the road. You're game will constantly evolve and change. You'll pick things up, discard them, then picj them back up again as your understanding of the game changes. That's what makes BJJ so fun. It's a thinking martial art.
    I have no idea what WD is talking about.--Royal Dragon

  7. #52
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    Hey H2O Dragon, someone has been paging you at the emptyflower off-topic forum for the last two days.

    http://www.emptyflower.com/cgi-bin/y...num=1158190330
    dazed and confused

  8. #53
    "There is a guy there called John Danaher..."


    I train with Jaime Cruz, one of Renzo's black belts and he says the same thing about NZ John. If it at all fits into your schedule try to get in one of his classes. I think he teaches real early in the AM.

  9. #54
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    So, on day 2 Henzo's teaching the class and George St. Pierre is there and a camera crew because Henzo's fighting this weekend. They asked if I would sign a waiver because Henzo was working with me and my partner and they might use the footage.

    That was Thursday and I was stoked, so many fighters, super positive environment.

    On Fri., some guy stops by to present the school with a trophy for being the most winningist (I know that sounds funny) BJJ school.

    Pretty cool place.

  10. #55
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ray Pina View Post
    So, on day 2 Henzo's teaching the class and George St. Pierre is there and a camera crew because Henzo's fighting this weekend. They asked if I would sign a waiver because Henzo was working with me and my partner and they might use the footage.

    Got a small laugh here.

    Are you sure his name isn't Renzo....?

    In Portuguese, "r" is pronounced like an "h".

    Royce = Hoyce
    Rorian = Horian

    Also Helio (I thinl it's with an "h") has some sort of wierd superstition about naming his kids with names starting with "r".

    Even the "invincible" Rickson's name is pronounced "Hickson".

  11. #56
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ray Pina View Post
    Here is the letter I mailed to my master's daughter, the school's manager, yesterday. It explains my sentiment perfectly

    I am withdrawing from the school,
    So you're not studying with David Bond Chan anymore?

    I don't blame you for wanting to study some BJJ to improve your ground game, but I thought you were going to do both.

  12. #57
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    Quote Originally Posted by omarthefish View Post
    In Portuguese, "r" is pronounced like an "h".

    Royce = Hoyce
    Rorian = Horian

    Also Helio (I thinl it's with an "h") has some sort of wierd superstition about naming his kids with names starting with "r".

    Even the "invincible" Rickson's name is pronounced "Hickson".
    I actually knew that. Jusy typing fast I guess.

    I think I remember reading somewhere that the elder Gracie actually believed names with R have a special power.

    Ray

  13. #58
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    Thumbs up

    Ray, you're an inspiration. The new school sounds great.

    This quote spoke to me.
    "I haven't lost one challenge match against Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Ju-Jitsu, etc.... I haven't won one "sport" fight. The sport fighters aren't only better, they're MUCH better. I don't think anyone being honest with themselves would deny that a professional fighter is better than a hobbyist."

    Keep up the good work and keep growing as a martial artist.
    Check out my wooden dummy website: http://www.woodendummyco.com/

  14. #59
    Having read this thread I think it's rather obvious that Ray's goal is to be a professional fighter.

    I guess if that's what you want then go for it. However it's a lot easier for an 18 year old to have this goal than someone in their thirties. You will get stronger until you're past 50.....however speed is another thing.

  15. #60
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    Quote Originally Posted by BoulderDawg View Post
    Having read this thread I think it's rather obvious that Ray's goal is to be a professional fighter.

    I guess if that's what you want then go for it. However it's a lot easier for an 18 year old to have this goal than someone in their thirties. You will get stronger until you're past 50.....however speed is another thing.
    I look at it as Ray wanting to be the best fighter he can be. He's discovering that the better fighters are in a certain arena so that's were he's going. Nothing wrong with wanting to be the best you can be at any age.
    Check out my wooden dummy website: http://www.woodendummyco.com/

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