Fight Club

[Bak Mei]

I fought three times a week with a group of 5 S. Mantis fighters and my sifu for 12 months straight. 3 times a week, like clock work. No single experince has benefited my fighting as much as this time.

We used head gear, chest protectors and light gloves to keep from tearing open a hand on the mask's cage.

No problems. My sifu had one rule: whatever we inficted on a classmate he would inflict on us. Great rule. No one was serously hurt. Tons of bruces, my arms were constantly brused, but I enjoyed it. Battle scars. That training removed any fear of fighting and left only a calm caution, which is necessary for such things.

I encourage this, but WITH GEAR. No one can take that many blows on a regular basis.

[DelicateSound]

If you are serious about this (and the threat of permanent brain damage doesn't seem to dissuade you), then please, wear some 16oz gloves and get a ref who knows first aid. You're only kids, you've got the rest of your lives ahead of you, don't do anything stupid.

[Bak Mei]

I'm 27, been training heavy like this for three years.

My new sifu requires that we wear gloves, but I haven't done any fighting with this new group yet. It's a higher level gung fu (hsing-I, Ba Gua, E-chuan) and I needed to get the principles. My mastre is away but when he comes back I'm ready to start testing the new stuff.

Head gear is a must, and we break early. The outcome is obvious quite early in, no need to finish someone off.

I miss that fighting experience. It was the best training I ever had. I believe if you want to be a good fighter one must fight.

My worst injury was a broken rib 2 years ago, and torn ligaments in my left wrist 8 months ago. It sucks, but, its a part of the training (I played football so I'm used to it).

My new sifu is against such training, ie, hurting oneself and at the slightest sign of injury demans we take it easy. But he is a fighter, and I'm curous as to how he will take my request when he returns. He still fights at 60, and I'm hoping he will be enthusiastic for a student to share similiar goals.

Peace

[DelicateSound]

It has its uses, for people who want to be a fighter yes. But the guy is 17, no. What if gets damaged eyesight, and then 2 years later decides he wants to be a USAF pilot. He'll have f*cked up that option. See what I mean?

Me, I like to train hard, but not Too hard. I'm a kick-ass guitarist first and foremost (I wish ), and that is my ambition. A broken wrist would not help matters at all for me.

[NafAnal]

retinal detachments are no laughing matter...

[Bak Mei]

Of coarse one has to decide these thing for themself. My two priorities right now, be the best fighter I can be (aiming to be THE best) and to be a published author. If I get hurt, more time to write -- that's how I view it.

I train cautisously and with people that I trust. We are not out to hurt each other but better ourselves. The key is knowing when to break. 2 good guys know when they have been got -- it's the wise guys with a big ego that get hurt, because you ease up and then they "turn it around amazingly". Those people wind up getting it worse, so there's no funny business.

I avoid poeple like that.

Even in the few challenge matches I have fought, no problems. No one was out to mame, but to prove a point. I think most serious MA are this way, series in the persuit of function, not form.

[scotty1]

1.We're not going to punch the face - what's the point then? Are your hands conditioned enough that you can repeatedly hit someones head, in order to knock them out?

3. "combat uniforms". Your use of ths phrase shows that you are thinking of this as a movie set and not as a training experience.

Bad idea. Still, when someone has a close call it'll stop. But do let us know what happens.

[Bak Mei]

I didn;t read where you got the punching the head thing, but punching the head is not a good idea, to hard, I hit the face, preferable the lower jaw upward, the neck, the jaw bone itself where it connects to the skull.

I prefer an open palm over the fist, and could hit the head if need be and am not concerned for myself, no problem. Besides having trained Iron palm in tha past (and do not view it with much regard) one shot is all it takes. If I stress anything about fighting, its a ONE SHOT KILL mentality. I do not throw kicks and punched willy-nilly.

I keep my door closed, open your door, and then ONE SHOT KILL.

By kill I do mean kill, or in challenge matches a break, or in friendly fighting such a heavy blow delieverd somewhere "friednly" that it is evident that one could have been killed and the fight is consdiered over.

Then we try again.

That is how I train. When fighting with Wing Chun or other such arts I advice them to keep attacking, not to stop if one punch should land, say in the mid-torso (I don't know why some do this) because it could a) be a set up by me, to break the arm or trade of for a better head shot (face, jaw) or b) just not viewd as lethal enough to be concerned with. Part of my training is to be able to take shots. I will not wear a chest protector when fighting Wing Chun.

However, when fighting Hsing-I or Ba GUa or Taiji, we fight the same way, once they have opened my door, only one shot is needed because they are in complete control, a heavy blow to the chest could have just as easily been to my windpipe, or other less overt lethal locals.

my 2 cents.

[Qi dup]

Sounds like you know what's going on Bak Mei. I give you tons of credit for the training you do. Actually i think that's awsome. Can those taji guys really fight? Not a knock to them by any means but I was think about changing to an internal art, and I wanted to know how they would stand up in your kind of training. Well keep it up man! maybe someday I'll be at that level and we can spar. peace

[Son_Goku]

Originally posted by reemul
1. your school is some sport sparring Mcdojo.
2. your instructor is worth a $hit and trying to make you a better MA'ist, despite your ingnorance.
3. your instructor is trying to spare you a premature a$$ beating.

Hey, a s s - h o l e, don't talk about my sifu like that, alright? Plus, my sifu doesn't know about this -- i haven't talked to him in four years; I stopped going to my kwoon when i moved to where i live now.

[Son_Goku]

oh, and hey, scotty1 :
" "combat uniforms". Your use of ths phrase shows that you are thinking of this as a movie set and not as a training experience. "

Yeah, "combat uniforms". I just quickly called them that, because i couldn't remember the word "dogis", alright?

[Asia]

Bak mei,

You said you are intrested in fighting and traing to be THE best!!! I like that I like it A LOT!!! Tell you what PM and lets see if we can meet for a match!!!This should be intresting!!

Are you retarded...Have you ever been in a real fight before and either got your face punded or pounded some one elses?

You can get into a fight, WIN and still come out hurt. Another big martial myth is a MArtist can fight without getting seriously hurt. I have many scars that can prove that wrong. And I didn't get the name "Asia the INVINCIBLE" from being a wimp!


Goku,

What everyone is trying to tell you is that being inexperienced as you are, this is going by your posts, you shouldn't enter in to something like this. First the use of terms. KO (Knockout) means you hit the person he goes down and he either 1) loses conciousness or 2) too out of hit that he can't get to his feet by himself can mean serious injury. What you mean it 3 FALLs resulting in a TKO (Technical Knock Out) it's stuff like this that show pple you don't know what you are doing and haven't done the research. Before you say somethjng like terms doesn't matter, if a doctor uses the wrong terminology pple can DIE!!! Fighting is serious. FULL contact fighting is serious. If you don't think your little club won't come to light, then you show your inexperience and age again. This sort of thing is NOT new with kids. I have seen several of these groups when I was in High school, I was even apart of a few. Trust me someone WILL get hurt. What do you have for first aid? How will you get medical attention? Also think of this if someone gets hurt thery parents find out there can be a lawsuit and since you are a minor your PARENTS will have to deal with it. If you don't think you boys will rat each other out think again. The best advice here is find a good school train there where ther is adult supervision. When you get older and have your OWN medical insurance the by all means fight away. Then you are responsible for yourself.

[taijiquan_student]

Goku...If your sifu is "worth a $hit", it means that he's worth something, that he's a good person/martial artist, not that he's worth $hit.

[jon]

Great post, some very good advice in there.

I would also like to add that there are two forms of enjoying combat. At least in my books.
One enjoying the technical and spiritual side of two trained fighters exchanging energys. This actualy requires that your skilled in your art in the first place so that you can understand whats going on.
Two simply enjoying causing pain to other individuals or wishing pain to be caused to yourself.
For me it really is that simple... either your a trained fighter interested in the way another art would deal with a particular type of force. Or you simply enjoy hurting people and have some aggression thats being taken out in the wrong way.
Son_Goku
I find it hard to think at your age and level you could be wanting to do this for anything other than the second reason. In which case you have messed up. Watch the movie again and you may notice something... Its an ANTI violence film. The whole point of the 'fight club' was that these were men who were so wrapped up in there petty lives and money that they had never experienced anything 'real'. There fighting was a way of escape.
You are only young and have no reason to feel like this, you have missed the message. Besides which being a martial artist provides you with just the release that these men were craving albiet in a much more civilised way.
Why not simply get together with your friends and try and work out some good self defence techniques? You could test them against each others 'street knowledge' and try and advance your defence in a more scientific way.
Just my opinions.

[reemul]

I gave you reasons your Sifu ran class the way he did.

Judging from your posts, you're not that experienced and you seem to be driven by glorification. When ignorant people get together and do ignorant things, someone usually gets hurt.

Let me just say once again, that I don't care what you do, I'm just trying to answer your questions.