I got a PM from a newbie asking if I could reccomend some posts for him to read so he would not have to go through so much chaff to get to the wheat. It seems like a reasonable request. But I thought it better to open up the conversation to everyone. So I am going to start things off with a great post by Snake Plisskin that I think of whenever I see someone try to talk about how tought their training is. You can find the original post here. http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44771&page=3&pp=15 Any more great posts?
That's a tough one to match. Personally, I tend to check out old posts by a number of regulars, like Dale, Snake, SilentNightFall, etc. Although he's gone, Shhh! was a great contributor.
The post Ben Cole made An interesting post by Ben Cole... "In Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, we teach you how to respond, rather than react. There is a huge difference between the two. The only specifics anyone can give you is to point you to all the practitioners who have used Taijutsu in their actual lives in order to avert or survive potential disasters. For me, it would be my friend who got hit by a taxi in Tokyo while on a bicycle, was thrown fifteen feet sidewise and rolled right up unscathed. Or my friend who successfully defended a family trapped in their car from a large group of weapon wielding punks. Or a friend who "unbalanced" a crazed druggie in a hotel lobby merely through words and body language. Or perhaps that man from Eastern Europe (Croatia? Serbia?) who had his leg blown off by a landmine and crawled miles, bleeding all the way, to get help. After a several hour trip, on his belly and in later by vehicle, he survives to this day because of his sheer strength of will to live. All of these examples embody the teachings of Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu and NONE of these could be attributed to sparring. In my opinion, and in the opinions of people with vastly more skill and experience in our art, sparring creates a mentality that there is only one way to resolve an issue. Sparring creates habits and reactions; it gets you to think within a box and within a framework. Before you got into the toe-to-toe situation, what brought you to this point? Were you situationally aware? Were you an egotistical assh0le or did you simply find yourself in the wrong place by happenstance? Once you do end up toe-to-toe, when you are focused intentedly upon your sparring partner, have you forgotten that guy behind you who just came back from the bathroom and has found his friend facing off with you? Did you remember him? Did you notice that he had come in with your friend? Once fists are flying, are you focusing on trying to "get techniques" to "win"? Have you forgotten that you could put an ura gyaku on anyone with greasy pinky fingers, if you would just focus on controlling the kukan? Did you know that at the highest levels of BBT, there truly are no "openings." That's because you are the one molding your fate, in real time. The world is much more complex than sparring would have you believe. It takes a lot to get into a fight, make it through a fight, and avoid jailtime after a fight. If you want to learn JUST how to fight, there are far faster ways to learn than through Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. If you want to learn how to live and survive, it will take some time, but we've got some things that we'd like to show you." -ben
Grimjack: Thank you for that. For my part, although my brain is getting sleepy, I can say, my feelings are often moved reading posts by Dale, Ben, Xen(master), kouryuu, Josh (Silent_Nightfall), Spooky, Mister K(urohana), saru1968, Greg (when he's not cracking skulls! ), and the aforementioned shhh! as well. I remember being impressed by the posts from the field (Afghanistan) Althaur gave some time ago. And, of course, Grim's Fox Mulder-like dedication to revealing the Truth behind ridiculous claims by frauds can be extremely perceptive--and entertaining in a "made me wince" kind of way . To the newbie reading, you'll notice how each person I've mentioned (with honorable mention going to Kalifallen and KSprenk for asking lots of great questions) has a kind of well-defined "personality" or writing style that reveals much more than just the words, but which reveals something of the essence of what it is to be a community of like-minded individuals on a journey for knowledge. --Snake
haha, perhaps you have me confused with someone else. I feel like im regarded as the village idiot around here.
That post Grimjack...is one of the greatest posts I've ever read. That's one of those "you just got sucker-punched in the throat" posts that you can't have a negative reply about.
And that is the reason why I thought of it when asked for examples of great posts. Here is one that comes from a thread that Dale Seago linked to. It is not as good, but still worth reading IMO.