LINKS: General Amnat Pooksrisuk Thai Martial Arts

http://amnatpooksrisuk.com/index.html

Awesome! General Pooksriruk has his site up and running. I was able to attend one of his Thai Bareknuckle Boxing seminars a few years ago. It was a blast. He was one of the instructors to Tony Jaa. Always interested in checking out Bareknuckle Boxing in its various forms as I feel it's closer to my needs of self-defense. There are some distinctions between Western Boxing as it's a sport with gloves and Muay Thai as well. Bareknuckle Boxing techniques takes into account the lack of gloves to protect your hands. Therefore techniques as well as targets will differ. This is a fascinating area of study for me.

If you are interested in the Thai Arts, please check out General Pooksriruk.

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Battle Scarf - Functional Item and Improvised Weapon

I was catching up with reading the forums and sites, and while at Pete Kautz's site, Alliance Martial Arts, I found out about the Battle Scarf. It seems like it is a great everyday functional item which can definitely be used as an Improvised Weapon for self-defense. Too bad Spring is upon me as Winter just passed, but I will be ordering one soon to check out. For anyone who doubts the power of Flexible Weapons, the Youtube clip above should help change your thinking. The power of Flexible Weapons with the breaking of cinder blocks with just a Poland Springs bottled water is awesome!


Pete Kautz has written a great review on the Battle Scarf. Read it here:

http://www.alliancemartialarts.com/battlescarf%20review.htm



For another review, please check this link:

http://tacticaledgecombatives.blogspot.com/2010/01/big-jays-battlescarf.html



If you are interested, please check out:

http://www.battlescarf.com/



In full disclosure, I am not affiliated in any way, shape or form to Battle Scarf, Pete Kautz/Alliance Martial Arts or Tactical Edge Combatives.


If you get a Battle Scarf, please let me know your thoughts and experiences with it.

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EBOOKS: Safety Response: The Essential Guide to your Personal Safety by Aran Dharmeratnam

This informative manual addresses subjects such as awareness and aggression disengagement. It covers avoidance, the different forms of hostility including less discussed forms such as spatial aggression and distance based aggression. It also looks at some of the physical tactics that predatory aggressors use such as the various grabs, use of projectiles, intimidation and set ups. Plus there are numerous insights into concepts that people can use to avoid trouble such as: tactical dialogue, reading the aggression triggers and reserved tactics. These insights are very useful for both men and women interested in self defence and awareness training.

I bought this ebook about a half year ago. I was interested in Aran's book as he has a Law and Criminology degree. Wanted to check out his perspectives given is formal education on self-defense. Recently, I started reading it and am half-done. I like what I've read so far. Full review shortly. Please check out if you are interested:

http://www.globalkick.com/safetyresponse.html

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LINKS: Hertao Self-Defense and MMA Blog

A friend of mine was teaching in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. For those that don't know about Katrina, in the history of the United States, it was one of the five deadliest hurricanes to hit America as well as being the costliest with respect to damages incurred.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

I didn't know that Katrina wiped out his business. Living through the rampant crime must have been very difficult. He emailed me recently to let me know of his new site as well as his new ebook. He gave me a copy of the ebook for review. I will be reading soon. The review is forthcoming after I get through the backlog of books on my to-read list as well as writing the reviews.

I will be catching up with him via emails as well as reading the articles on his site and blog posts

http://www.hertao.com/

If you want to check out his ebook:

http://www.hertao.com/selfdefense/self-defense-ebook

Can you imagine living in an environment that was a natural disaster and having to deal with crime and safety daily? This is what he went through after Hurricane Katrina. Perhaps he will share some of his experiences and insights.

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Upcoming changes to the site

First off, please update your bookmarks. My site's URL is officially:

http://www.stickgrappler.net

The URL took effect about a month ago. I have not been posting as of late. I am somewhat of a perfectionist. I wanted to revamp my site prior to the URL going live but I didn't master the CSS/HTML enough to give my site a facelift (yet). Also, I am not satisfied with the interim design and my ultimate design I've not accomplished yet given my crappy CSS/HTML understanding.

The first step I took is accomplished, stickgrappler.net is now a reality for me. If not for Blogger adding in some key features I've always wanted implemented (read more link and pages), and the easy registration of the domain name, stickgrappler.net probably would've still languished in the back of my mind.

I will make small and gradual changes instead of the all-sweeping-one-fell-swoop-massive-facelift I wanted to do initially. Baby steps, baby steps... Stupid perfectionist in me got in the way of posting. What is more importand? Posting or looking good? (That was a rhetorical question by the way)

Whatever I come up with on the new look of the site, may or may not be the 'final'. I will play with various elements I want to change and see where that takes me.

I will be writing articles for the site, doing martial arts dvd/book reviews, interviews, posting articles/information I think is useful for you the reader, movie and maybe TV reviews, making more animated gif's and the proverbial 'a whole lot more'.


I want to thank you, my readers, in advance for your patience and visits!

I remain very truly yours in the martial arts and self-defense,

~Stickgrappler 

p.s. it looks like the 'read more' function is not working with this template... UGH

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Facebook "Friend-zy"

Sometime last year, I decided to sign up on Facebook. I wanted to check out the buzz surrounding it and experience the social networking phenomenon firsthand. I must admit I was caught up in what i call the Facebook Friend-zy.

Facebook is a powerful social networking tool. It reminds you of birthdays, it allows you to send in effect a "blast email" informing all your friends of some upcoming event, it lets you put up pictures, it lets you post links to interesting sites you found, and it even helps you track down long-lost friends. I was able to find 2 friends I've lost contact with who reside in Croatia and Germany!

I sent out many friend requests. I found first the friends I knew, then i went to check out my friends' friends and so on and so on. After awhile, I looked at my friends list and realize there were people there that I didn't really know. There were some friends I only know as their forum nicknames and not their real names.

And then I started having virus/malware problems on my computer and it was difficult to get anything done. I was very, very frustrated with the virus.I lost contact with my friends via Facebook.

As I am slowly getting some time on the net, I don't know if I will be on Facebook all that much. It is so powerful and lets me catch up on the events in my friends' lives that it takes up a lot of time! I apologize in advance to my Facebook Friends if I'm not on much. It's been probably half a year or close to it since I was last on. What free time I have I will be devoting to this site. If I get a chance, I will stop by Facebook and say hi. So for whatever this is worth, I'm "Stick Grappler" on Facebook.

Now I wonder if I should check out Twitter? LOL I'm kidding!


P.S. Sorry to my Facebook Friends, Jan 1 is not my birthday as I listed on my Facebook... I will explain in a future article about the false birth date.

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A Word About My Reviews

I have to get this off my chest. In the interest of full disclosure, my reviews will be from the point of view of a beginner. We are all of varying skill levels, experiences and understanding in the martial arts. What you may find not useful to you, I may find merit in. Vice versa, I may find something I don't like and you would like.



I view myself as a beginner in the martial arts. I am not being humble, just honest with you. Although, I have a strong interest in the martial arts since I was a kid, I have not practiced since I was a kid until present. I was in and out. If I did keep it up, I can probably be called an 'expert' given my time put into the martial arts. But alas, I am far from an expert, maybe a knowledgeable beginner. My main areas of focus are the Self-Defense, Filipino Martial Arts and Jeet Kune Do Concepts. My secondary areas are Wing Chun Kuen, Muay Thai, Boxing and Tai Chi. And although I won't list them, there are a few more styles/systems/arts I am into which I have but an inkling of knowledge/experience in. It is from this background, this "lens" if you will, that I will be reviewing.




I dread writing reviews. So far, my site doesn't have many reviews.Whatever reviews I do have on the site are generally if I liked it or not. I am not a writer. I struggle with composing what I want to write when I care about what I write. Most times, I post on forums and those writings tend to be during a break in the workday. My concentration is mainly on work, but I divert some attention to posting when there may be a lull. Those posts tend to be quickies, that is, I was not out to write an article, just expressing my thoughts briefly. My reviews will be thought-out and not a quickie.

What will my reviews entail? I don't have a set format yet. It will include any combination of the following:

• Whether I liked it or not
• Things I didn't know
• Has it changed my view on anything
• Is the author right or wrong 
• Favorite quotes
• What was my take-away from it
• A link(s) to other reviews on the net

Also, reviews are tricky in that I will be reviewing some of my friend's products. I will not lie to you, that's not who I am. I will write out explicitly that it is a friend's product I am reviewing. However, please know that, even though it is my friend's product, I have purchased it. I did not receive it free. I will write an objective review.  I and my site are not out to sell you anything. You will not see Google Sense Ads here. I will not have anything for sale here.  This site is not out to "pimp" my friend's products.

Now that that is out-of-the-way, are you ready for some reviews?

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Catchup I

Hello all:

My last post was in September of 2009. Since then, my home computer system has been plagued with viruses, malware, spyware and something newer called scareware (some sort of malware scaring you into buying their antivirus product). My wife and kids have been on the computer more and I don't know how our system got infected. Actually, I know partially why... I run Windows Vista at home, and Windows is infamous for having a lot of holes which hackers exploit. Total frustration spending time cleaning my system, reinstalling programs etc.

Although I have not been actively posting, I've been trying to learn some CSS and HTML and blogging in general. I will be in the process of upgrading my site. Changes are coming, and hopefully better and easier for you to navigate and check out. I've noticed my site received some spamming comments. My apologies for that. I've deleted them, and have decided that I will moderate my comments, that is, you post a comment, I will have to approve it, and your comment will be posted. This will prevent the spammers from posting.

Many events transpired since my 'absence' which I will post about in a future "Catchup 2" entry. One of the events which necessitated action on my part was the closing of the free webhosting Geocities. Some of you may know, I have a site hosted on Tripod, also a free webhost. I do not know if Tripod intends to shut down or not, but there's been something in the back of my mind that I've never gotten around to:  porting over my tripod site over to here. My original intent was to build a separate site housing the archives I set up on Tripod. However, I may just merge the archives with this site here. Regardless, check out my old archives at:

http://stickgrappler.tripod.com

Blogger has implemented some changes which I've always wanted, and my vision of what and how my site should look like is slowly becoming a reality. Stick (no pun intended) around for the upcoming changes. I think it will be to your liking.

As always, I remain very truly yours in the Martial Arts,

~Stickgrappler

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NEWS: Johns Hopkins student kills apparent burglar with sword

Cut and pasted from:


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/15/samurai.sword.killing/

Johns Hopkins student kills apparent burglar with sword

* Story Highlights
* Suspect died at scene; he had severed left hand and lacerations to upper body
* Students confronted man in their garage, police say
* He lunged at students, and one defended himself with samurai sword

updated 12:47 p.m. EDT, Tue September 15, 2009

(CNN) -- A Johns Hopkins University student killed an apparent burglar with a samurai sword after discovering the man in his garage, police said Tuesday.

Baltimore, Maryland, police received a phone call shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday about a suspicious person, and an off-duty officer arrived at the scene with campus security, city police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

When authorities arrived, they heard calls for help and for police, he said. They discovered a suspected burglar with a severed left hand and severe lacerations to his upper body, Guglielmi said.

The suspect died at the scene, he said.

The man had entered a home where several Johns Hopkins students lived, Guglielmi said. Four students, one armed with a samurai sword, had confronted the suspect in the garage.

The man "lunged" at the students, and the student with the sword defended himself, severing the man's left hand and cutting his upper body, Guglielmi said.

Police did not release the name of the suspect, who Guglielmi said had a long criminal history, or that of the student.

Police questioned the three witnesses, Guglielmi said, and released them. It was not immediately clear whether all four students lived at the house, he said.

Authorities are determining whether the student will face criminal charges, Guglielmi said.

Burglars had taken two laptops and a Sony PlayStation from the students' home Monday, Guglielmi said.

The burglary suspect had been released from prison Saturday, Guglielmi said.

NOTE: My sincerest thanks to my friend Greg for sending me the link!

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IN MEMORY OF: Patrick Swayze

Dalton: "I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice."

RIP Patrick Swayze

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Wiki entry

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My 300th post - 8 year anniversary of 9/11/2001

"Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail."

~George Bush 09/20/2001

Totally unplanned but coincidentally this is my 300th blog post. How appropriate to have a special post for the occasion.

My friend kot1k of the Spladdle forum posted this earlier today:

09-11-2009, 10:40 AM
kot1k

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"It’s pretty crazy in downtown Manhattan right now. There’s a massive concentration of cops, firefighters and news vans. Everybody is converging on the WTC site. The usual memorials are going on, all the streets are blocked off, and there are tons of cops checking bags in the subway. All this is going on but it doesn’t really feel like anybody remembers what they felt like 8 years ago. People obviously remember what happened, but the feeling is pretty much drowned in time. Didn’t really want to post this, but here’s my story from 8 years ago (Massive FRAT):

I was working at 222 Broadway. It was my first day in a new group so I wanted to get in earlier. I got on the Q (It was still the express back then) on the Sheepshead Bay stop. The trains were running like shit, so they kicked us off at Prospect Park stop and made us wait for the next train. Finally, a bit later than I wanted to, I got out of the train (I think I switched to the N at DeKalb, can’t remember anymore) at Courtland Street. Didn’t even bother to look at the towers to my left, made a right by the Marriot, and got my ass to my building.

My new bosses were smoking by the entrance. I shot the shit with them for a few minutes and made my way up. I was on the 9th floor, with my back to the windows facing WTC. I booted up my comp and as I was loading Outlook I FELT a massive explosion. The windows shook, as did the building. I ran to the window and saw a bunch of debris floating through the air and birds flying in crazy patterns. I looked down, and didn’t see anything (I initially thought that it was a car bomb again). I crouched by my window and looked up, and that’s when I saw the giant gaping hole in one of the towers, with flames coming out of it. I sat there for a few minutes, and went back to my desk. The TVs were all on CNBC or CNN and they already found footage and started playing it. I went back to the window and sat there staring at the towers.

As I sat there I saw a plane coming, but in my mind I thought that I was still watching TV and that was a replay. I was shaken out of my delusion by the second explosion. That’s when the total realization of how fucked this was sank in. I sat there for a few minutes looking, until I saw a few people falling or jumping from the towers. I can’t remember what I felt, but I got up and started trying to get in touch with family and friends who worked near by.

My parents were on vacation in France, so there was no way to reach them. My grandma who I was living with at the time was working the Primary Election for NYC, so she wasn’t home either. I left a voicemail on the answering machine saying I was leaving the building and I would be home soon. I tried to call a few friends, but by that time most lines were overwhelmed, so it was next to impossible to reach anybody.

A good friend was starting her second year in Med School in Israel and was supposed to fly out that day. That wasn’t happening, so she was home and I managed to reach her. We were on the phone while she was watching the news. It was a live feed, but had a few seconds delay. I felt what I thought was an earthquake, and saw the first tower collapsing. I yelled into the phone, “they’re falling” before dropping the receiver and jumping over my cube to get into the stairwell. The whole building was shaking. Everyone went into the lobby and waited around, but no one had any idea of what to do. You couldn’t go outside, since the whole street was filled with smoke and dust. It was a very strange feeling of helplessness. Just as that was happening, we felt another earthquake. It was the second tower collapsing.

The whole mass of people lost it and panicked. People began screaming and scattering with no real place to go. Somehow I ended up in a second level sub basement with about 10 other people. We sat on the floor and just waited. For what, I have no idea. After about 45 minutes a cop in a facemask came downstairs to tell us to stay put. In another 45 minutes the room started filling with smoke and dust because the filtration system was overwhelmed. Some of the women started crying and got panicky again. I decided that it’s probably safe to leave. We had a few water bottles with us, so I took off my shirt (I had an undershirt on), soaked it with water, and wrapped it around my face. I suggested to the people in the room that they should probably come with me, and about 6 women came along. I took my little procession out of the building.

The air was bad, but not terrible. There was about a half an inch of dust on the ground though. I hate to think what was in that dust. We walked away from WTC towards the bridges. Much of the smoke was blowing towards the Brooklyn Bridge, so I decided that it would probably be best to walk towards the Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown. I separated from my companions a few blocks away when I was pretty sure they were OK and out of danger.

I crossed the bridge with a million other people. There were no cars. In the middle of the bridge a couple of fighter jets came overhead and a thousand people hit the deck.

The rest of the story is pretty mundane. I walked for a few hours to get home. I got together with ALL of my friends later that night. I’m still shocked that I didn’t know anyone who was killed personally. The weird conclusions from that day were that I felt no fear. None. Maybe I was in shock, but I had very little emotions throughout the day and the days after. The only real fear I felt was when I got on a plane two weeks later and there was a small Muslim dude wearing religious garb. The entire flight was looking at his the whole trip, ready to pounce and kill his ass even if he so much as moved.

So that’s it. Don’t know what else to say…"

kot's story makes my story (click here)look like a walk in the park. I would've been p!ssing in my pants if I was stuck in a room not knowing what was going outside for more than 30 minutes.

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Stickgrappler went to Disney World and all he got us were these lousy pictures?!?!?!

8/31/09 - 9/5/09 -- 6 days and 5 nights... took my wife and 3 kids to Disney World. We have never been there. Great time was had by all.

At Epcot, there is a World Showcase, a few countries were represented. Took some pictures of slight 'martial' value.

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*** Norway ***

---

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*** Germany ***

---

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*** Japan ***

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There were walking canes hand-carved by an African artist that I was not able to take pictures of :-(

Next time, I go to Disney World, I'll be sure to get you guys a T-shirt and a mug or something instead of lousy pix :-)

Enjoy!

EDIT: ugh! the 2nd pic in Germany should be showing 3 stautes. You can save the pic and view it offline in your pic viewer of choice.

EDIT 2: looks like the pictures I put up to my Facebook is not showing up. When I have time I will upload the pix to my pichost. Sorry about that.

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UGH! Missed posting at the time of 9:09:09 AM and PM LOL

Since the date today is 9/9/09... it would've been cool to post at either the morning or the evening at the time of 9:09:09 LOL

Forgive my bad segue to:

Ah, The Magic of Numbers... the Asian cultures dread the number 4 as it's an homophone for 'death'. Superstitious people dread the number 13.

The Chinese MA is abound with the numbers 3, 5, 8, 13, 36 and 108 (did I miss any?). The Filipino MA have 12. It is said that Alexander the Great (or in his time) found that 'chunking' techniques in factors of 3 was useful for soldiers (or something along those lines). Dr. Gyi's Bando teaches in 3, 6, 9, and 12. IIRC the Thai MA teaches in 4 and 7's.

Don't think "Numberology" is a word, but I mean it to be the significance of numbers, especially with respect to the Martial Arts. I know there is "Numerology" which I vaguely think to be the study of numbers in relation to astrology/supernatural/zodiac... you get the idea.

Will have to research into the Martial Arts and the Significance of Numbers. Some future post in my Sojourn of Septillion Steps :-)

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MMA: Meet Kimbo Slice tomorrow night (Thursday) at Champs Sports in Times Square, NYC

My friend P. emailed me about this.

Please click the thumbnail below for a bigger picture and the details.

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MMA: 1 year anniversary (and 1 day) of Evan Tanner's death

Photo Credit:  Wiki

I missed posting about the 1 year anniversary of Evan Tanner's death yesterday. My thanks to my friend Hugo Hanriot for reminding me about it. Hugo posted on his Facebook a link to a Youtube vidclip and the following:

"Tanner was one of a kind. He fought in the pre-Zuffa "dark ages" on MMA, won the Japanese "King of Pancrase" title, & won the UFC 185 title.

When he started fighting, his only training was high school wrestling & what he learned on the 1st Gracie Jiu Jitsu instructional videos.

He was a fighter who was more interested in being a seeker & a humanitarian, & developing into a hell of a writer. It's a damn shame we never got to see what he would've done after he retired from fighting.

Tue at 5:18pm"

RIP Evan Tanner

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ABOUT ME: finally signed up on Facebook...

...have no idea what i'm doing on facebook both literally as in how to navigate, find friends, add links and figuratively as i'm jammed with real life as it is. not as much time blogging, so why am i on facebook? LOL @ me.

there were some friends on there i recognized and some i've lost contact with over the years.

here's seeing if facebook is worth my time and effort.

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LINKS: www.pocketfire.com

Been jammed with Real Life... trying to catch up on some emails. This was sent to me 7/6/09 by my friend Kilogulf59, whose Integrated Close Combat Forum I posted about 3/30/09 here:


http://stickgrappler.blogspot.com/2009/03/links-integrated-close-combat-forum.html


He wrote:

I'd like to invite all of you to stop in at a new forum. The place is called WWW.POCKETFIREPOWER.COM - Discussion dedicated to pocket defense handguns, knives and tactics... http://www.pocketfirepower.com/index.php

The gentleman who is the admin goes by the moniker "LUVMYSIGP225" and is a good guy and friend of our own 7677, who is a moderator there as well.

The flavor of the forum is somewhat different than ICCF nonetheless the philosophy is the same. In other words, good info, good advice, good people. What more can we ask for?

Do yourself a favor, go there today and tell them "Ken sent ya"...(they may let you stay anyway LOL)

Take Care and Stay Safe,
Ken

"REMEMBER ?What works for you may not, necessarily, work for me. Keep an open mind!"

Integrated Close Combat Forum - http://kilogulf59.proboards80.com
Scribd ?KG59/ICCF - http://www.scribd.com/kilogulf59
YouTube ?KG59/ICCF - http://www.youtube.com/user/kilogulf59

Check out http://www.pocketfirepower.com/index.php when you have a chance. I will register there when I have a little more free time and check it out for myself. I also intend to surf back over to ICCF and a few forums I've been meaning to check in (as well as catching up on emails LOL).

Oh, while you are at it, check out Kilogulf's links in his email signature! Enjoy!

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BIRTHDAY: Belated Happy Birthday Joe Rogan (42)

Picture borrowed from http://www.comedycv.co.uk. Click the thumbnail for a bigger picture.


2 days ago, August 11, it was Joe Rogan's birthday. I was jammed with real life and wasn't able to post about it. Happy Belated 42nd Birthday Joe Rogan!! Many more to come!!

On top of everything else going for him, he's a brown belt in BJJ and a color commentator for UFC!

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Wiki entry

Joe Rogan's Official site

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Bruce Lee lesson for Taky Kimura auction closed already

July 28th, I posted about Bruce Lee's private lesson plan to Taky Kimura here:

• Bruce Lee's private lesson plan to Taky Kimura on auction

I forgot to note when the auction officially closes... checked in tonight and it looks like it closed. It seems the auction started with $500 as the opening bid. There were 25 bids and the winning bid was $7259!

Some gems of in that lesson plan:

1) "Lee lists six important keys to “Combat,” which are “Timing,” “Distance,” “Speed & Rhythm,” “Initiative,” “Aggressiveness,” and “Choice of Attack.” Lee also lists three stages of combat “Attack,” “Counter-Attack,” and “Active Defense,” with other sub-categories underneath."

2) "I've just rushed the T'ai Kik wall chart form to you."

My comment: "T'ai Kik" is Cantonese for "Tai Chi/Taiji"... BL's dad knew Tai Chi too.


3) "...James Lee is going to send you a Lap Sao apparatus with built in resistance."

My comment: Not making a statement about trapping, but pointing out the specifity principle... and using certain apparatuses to train specific techniques.


4) "Of course, you must use the set system, that is REPETITION of each technique in sets for perfection."

My comment: 10,000 reps/hours rule


5) "Remember the idea that one has to come in thousands of time in order to perfect one Judo throw."

My comment: Again 10,000 reps/hours rule


I'm going to post about the "Principle (or Law) of Specifity" and the "10,000 Hours Rule" in future posts.

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One year ago, 08-08-2008 Olympics held in Beijing, China

Click thumbnail for a bigger picture.


WOW! Just a year ago, the 2008 Olympics in Beijing started. What an extravagant and memorable Opening Ceremony! So many memories, so many athletes breaking records and setting the bar higher and higher.

What was your favorite moment from the Opening Ceremony? Your favorite moment from the Games?

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Wiki entry
Official site

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