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Messages - boomvark

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Martial Arts Topics / Re: Check out this guy's progress.
« on: April 12, 2008, 09:47:03 AM »
YRG is not your mother's ohm muttering, birkenstock wearing, earth biscuit Yoga. It is all about strength and flexibility, and it gives you a good cardio workout in the process.

You make a really good point here!  I've always avoided yoga precisely because of the "ohm muttering" and so forth, but this video has got me interested enough to give it a try,

Tom, thank you for posting this!

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Martial Arts Topics / Re: Thoughts on Dog Brothers 'Power' DVD
« on: April 03, 2008, 08:25:33 PM »
Here's my perspective, just for variety.

That whole "loping along dealing mighty blows with a sawed-off sequoia tree" thing works great for long, lanky, natural athlete types; for me, not so much.  I'm 5'6", with proportionately smallish hands and deficient reach; the Top Dog stick is awkwardly long, and its circumference feels like the wrong end of a baseball bat.  Sooo ... since I'm swinging weeny little 1 x 26" sticks, I can either (a) stand around fuming in counterproductive envy; (b) go tink, tink, tink all afternoon trying to drive the tire down the field, or (c) come up with an alternative strategy.  I opt for (c).

I still do the tire-throwing drills because I find them amazingly efficient as a whole-body aerobic exercise, but other than that I've pretty much blown off chasing the tire down the field.  I find it more rewarding to corral the damned thing, sidestepping circles around it and keeping (or more accurately, trying to keep) it upright with kicks as necessary while wailing away with both sticks in full-on Assault With Intent mode.  When I get bored with forehand and backhand slashes, I work thrusts for a while, then basically semi-grapple the thing and lay a couple dozen punyos in there with each hand before ditching the sticks and finishing up with knees and elbows.  If it didn't taste so nasty I'd bite it, too.

Sounds pretty stupid, huh?  You can trust me on this: It looks even dumber.

But it's a nice workout.  I spend a good chunk of the next day feeling like the tire was beating on me.

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Martial Arts Topics / Re: Thoughts on Dog Brothers 'Power' DVD
« on: March 23, 2008, 04:44:35 PM »
Quote from: C-Guide Dog
If you find yourself training on your own, but you have come across material that you like, why wait?  Of course that's only my opinion, and if you like what you're doing, keep it going!

Hi Bryan,

Kris was too polite to let it slip that I'm his training partner.  I wasn't copping to it either, until I ran it by him.   :-D

He's working a lot of CMIA stuff; I'm concentrating on FMA via DBMA and hoping to pick up some slightly more formal training on the side from Arnis guys in South Florida as time and location permit.  We're sort of meeting in the middle with Sambo, and bouncing a fairly wide variety of ideas and techniques off each other--sometimes literally--from wherever we find them.  Our builds are dissimilar in the extreme, and that makes the mix of styles we bring to the field even more interesting.

I think it's fair to say that at this point we both have more questions than answers.  Just hanging around this forum provides much food for thought, though.  Y'all are great!

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Martial Arts Topics / Re: Self-Defense Law
« on: March 02, 2008, 10:15:36 PM »
@ boomvark - Sorry if it sounded like I was negative assumptions about your judgement. I did not mean to come off as a @$$hole, If it seems that way I Apologize.

Hey man, no harm, no foul.

You've had some pretty painful experience that relates directly to the topic, and I'll bet you've run into a lot of people on the web who don't put much thought--if any--into the legalities of self defense.  Admittedly I left myself open to a certain amount of misinterpretation.  I really don't think our views on the matter are all that far apart.

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Martial Arts Topics / Re: Self-Defense Law
« on: March 02, 2008, 08:32:14 PM »
Crafty, thank you for posting that article!  It bears repeated readings.

Regarding some of the understandable concerns and valid points that Maxx has addressed to me:

First off, I made the mistake of invoking a name that (clearly) not everyone is familiar with.  My bag.

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I have never Hear of Ayoob, but I will ask one simple question: is he a lawyer?

No, he isn't, and doesn't claim to be, and I don't regard him as such.  His courtroom role is as an expert witness for the defense in police and civilian shooting cases.  He's been doing that since well before there was any such thing as the Internet; he does his homework meticulously, and has a good track record.  I do not, however, take all of his (or anyone's) opinions as gospel.

Your next question is valid too, despite seeming to make some fairly negative assumptions about my judgement:

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If the answer to the question is "no," then what are you doing listening to him for legal advice?

I'm not.  He doesn't give legal advice, unless you're using that term a whole lot more broadly than I would.  In essence his approach is more like "Look, this is how the courtroom action played out in such-and-such a case I was involved with in jurisdiction X, and here are the participants' stated reasons why.  This is how a similar case might turn out in jurisdiction Y, and here's why I say that.  However, neither I nor anyone else can predict with even reasonable certainty how a similar case would play out in your jurisdiction.  Furthermore, I am not a lawyer.  For your own sake, find the best one you can and take it up with him."

That seems like a fairly responsible approach, to me.

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Would you go to a commercial real estate developer if you needed open-heart surgery?

Of course not.  On the other hand, if I needed open heart surgery and an RN or PA whom I respected expressed an informed opinion on the available surgeons, I'd at least take his assessment into account.  That's a more applicable analogy.

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If he is a lawyer, then my next question is: "in what jurisdictions is he licensed to practice?" Unless the answer to that question is "all 50 states and the District of Columbia and territory of Puerto Rico (which would be a REALLY neat trick)," I would confine his area of expertise to where he is licensed and where he has practiced law. Emphasis on PRACTICED law.

You forgot Guam.  :-)

Seriously, if you're trying to emphasize here that the laws vary, sometimes catastrophically, from one jurisdiction to another, and that what applies in Florida or New Hampshire probably won't apply in Massachusetts or California, I'd think that would be obvious.

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The law is not something you can pigeonhole, especially for something as complex as "self defense." Add a weapon to the mix and you are really moving on thin ice.

True.

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You want legal advice on self defense in your jurisdiction? Go talk to a licensed attorney who deals with criminal law in your jurisdiction. Pay for a consultation (although many criminal defense attorneys give free consults). It will be an hour well spent.

Of course.  Ironically, I've seen Ayoob say very similar things repeatedly.  More particularly, he strongly recommends consulting an attorney with a (good) proven record in self-defense cases within your jurisdiction.

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Martial Arts Topics / Re: n00b, de-lurking
« on: March 01, 2008, 09:30:05 PM »
Hello and welcome.

Hello, Maxx, and thank you for your interesting and thought-provoking response!

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There is only one thing I must comment on. I have no idea what state you live in but I am sure this pretty much goes for the most part though the whole usa and from my own experiance. If someone attacks you with bare fist and the situation does not call for it. Using a weapon on them can get you in a whole lotta world of trouble. I am pretty sure they would have to be caving in your dome before you use a weapon on them.

What I gather from Ayoob et al is that this depends on a wide number of factors, but that in general one must use force proportional to the level of the threat.  Smacking the hypothetical goon in the head with a baseball bat would probably be viewed as excessive force, even if he's 6'8" and 300-plus pounds of steroid-enhanced attitude.  On the other hand, taking out a leg might be seen as appropriate.  There are many variables which only the jury can sort out, if it even gets that far.

As to my location:  I live and work in the Bahamas most of the time, as a resident alien (military contractor, if anyone really want to know.  But I'm a paranerd, not a doorkicker.)  Stateside, I mostly hang out in Florida, which is my home state.  The laws governing self-defense in Florida are among the most sensible in the US, as far as I can tell.  The Bahamas are rather more restrictive, but not nearly as insane as, say, the UK currently has a reputation for being.

At any rate, I'd agree completely that the best way to handle violence is not to be there when it starts.  By a huge margin, Plan A is avoidance (situational awareness rules).  Plan B is de-escalation; plan C is escape, and actually fighting comes in a distant fourth.  If the situation degenerates that badly, then sorting out the legalities will be largely my attorney's job (if I live) or my executor's job (if I don't).

The only problem with running is that almost anyone who really wants to catch me has an excellent chance of doing so, thanks to one bum ankle.  I point this out just to reinforce the assertion that avoidance is Plan A.

Now, what happens if it's unavoidable ... that's where we get into lots of complexities.

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I could be wrong  8-)  But its good to get in shape and learn your hands before you learn a weapon. Sometimes you can't get to that weapon or a weapon is not there.

I'm curious as to what the presumed standard for "in shape" might be around here.  If it's "ready to roll in the UFC", then it's probably an unattainable goal.  Likewise, if achieveing Shodan rank in Kanga-ryu is the standard for having learnt one's hands, then that isn't likely to happen either.  But I'm not trying to be SEAL Team 6, just the Swiss National Guard.  So to speak. :)

I've already got a pretty good--albeit rusty--handle on the basics.  In the past couple of years, I've also reduced my spare tire from deuce-and-a-half size to moped.  That, too, is an ongoing process, and rather more difficult now than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

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But the FMA systems offer a whole heaping of Empty handed weapon tech as well as other form of So.East Asain MA's and if all else fails..RUN!

That strikes me as a slight oversimplification of the escalation of force continuum, but I'll take it under advisement.  :-D

Seriously, I was under the impression that most of the FMA systems started out with the stick.  Am I mistaken on that point?

This is already too long, so I'll shut up now.  I've got quite a few serious questions, but those should probably wait until I've at least reviewed the first couple of DVDs and perhaps done a more thorough search of the forum archives.

Again, thank you.

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Martial Arts Topics / n00b, de-lurking
« on: February 29, 2008, 11:47:35 PM »
Greetings everyone,

I've been aware of DBMA for some time now.  I came over, lurked for a while, registered, and then lurked some more.  Roughly a couple of weeks ago I ordered a bunch of sticks from KIL (Pappa Dog's outfit) and a whole bunch of DVDs from here.  The sticks are here, the DVDs are on the way, and I reckon this is as good a time to de-lurk as any.

I've had intermittent low-level instruction in various martial arts, mostly tang soo do, Shorin-ryu karate, and Yoshinkan aikido, but that experience ranged from 10 to 20-odd years ago.  I never even got within dreaming distance of a black belt in any of them, and frankly learned more from sparring with friends than from drilling in the dojo.

Anyhow, I'm 48 now, with a few chronic physical issues, and coming back from having let myself get inexcusably out of shape over a period of several years. A more weapons-oriented style increasingly makes sense to me, partly because the idea of going up bare-handed against anyone half my age and twice my size doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling (unless the tactile sensation associated with a loss of sphincter control could be characterized that way).  I've played around with some pekiti tirsia-derived blade work, and will continue doing so, but the more I see of sticks the better they look.  They're not as scaaawy as knives to the general public, and they grow on trees.

Anyhow, many thanks y'all for everything you're doing.  It's educational, inspirational, and even looks like fun.

Although it's sort of surprising how sore I've managed to get just from swinging a stick around ... Time to get familiar with the gym again, I reckon.

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