The Official TreeHouse Martial Arts Thread!

Here is some of what a few of us are training in our bando training these days. Bando is a catch-all term for the "martial arts" of Burma...empty hand, edged weapons and stick weapons.

One of the edged weapons of Burmese bando is the dha...a sword. We have worked a good bit of single dha in the past...working on double dha now. It's a good exercise for concentration that at times requires being able to focus attention on multiple places/actions at the same time to keep the blades from clashing with each other...or yourself. The body has to build in recognition of allowed pathways for movement combinations that are safe and functional at the same time.

Working on the smooth for now...as the movement becomes more thoughtless the activity becomes more meditational...a good way to bring the focus down to one or two nitty-gritties. Kind of like in a tree when the world narrows down to the few feet around you where nothing encroaches on concentration except the immediate task at hand that you had better get right.

There are 3 main categories of bando....combatives (actual applications of blows, holds, throws, chokes, etc.), athletics (sport, competition) and aesthetics. This dha work is 60% aesthetics, 30% combative and 10%....don't have a term for that yet.:)

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Almost certain I would have put one in my leg and one through the ceiling before my wife would have had the chance to shout at me for doing it indoors!!

Very cool though
 
If you have 11 minutes and are interested then here is Haakon fight in the 11- 14 year old, -45kg Final.

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Haakons conditioning is excellent. He looks strong and sharp all the way through the fight. Great to have a video record like that of him in action. And cool to see the young picture of him interposed with a new one at the fight. Congrats again.
 
Its a tradition.

Traditionally the tempo of the music would dictate the speed of the fight. It is a three piece band with bells horns and drums.

Bells equals fighting with elbows.
Horns equals fighting with fists
Drums equals fighting with knees and kicks.

If the band were to play bells and drums then the fight would be elbows, knees and kicks. Horns and drums would mean the fighter would use the hands and leg weapons.

And so on.
 
Rich, I always have 11 minutes for this kind of thing.
For their age, that was a fine match.
Quite enjoyable to watch, and did set me in an " Oh sweet bird of youth" kinda mode.
 
Good fight. Impressive to throw that many kicks and knees without gassing out. The hug at the start of the third round hit a soft spot in my chest.
 
Thanks Stig and thanks Ryan.

Haakon has been training hard and I was doing quite a lot of pad work with him the weeks before the fight. 5 or 6 3 minute rounds with a 1 minute break. I usually start the round with about 10-20 kicks each leg. Then he was sparring with the adults most Fridays. Some nights doing 12+ 3 minute rounds.

Regarding your comment about the hug, they try and promote the respect side of it a lot at an early age, after all it isn’t a street fight.

My favourite bit was the 30seconds after the hug. When they start knocking the crap outta each other before the ref stopped it. He told them they were fighting like adults and to calm down a bit and not make a good fight turn messy. Again the emphasis on the juniors is good technique and scoring.
 
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Good stuff, Gary and Rich!

I'd be scared shitless entering that ring.
 
Well......besides Justine. :D


That is a cool name. The fight was pretty awesome. The opponent was no slouch but it looked to me like Haakon stayed the aggressor nearly all the fight. Great effort.
 
Good stuff, Gary and Rich!

I'd be scared shitless entering that ring.

I'd be cool about going up against an 11 year old, I think.

Maybe wait a couple of weeks for the effects of the Chemo to wear off some more, but then, sure.

It'll be great to see Haakon develope over the years, if he sticks with it.
See him getting some punching power and some tecniques that can actually end a fight.

But this was really fine to watch, I enjoyed it a lot.
So, Rich, keep showing videos of his fights, please.
 
I'd like to clarify that my comment about the hug was sincere and not sarcasm. I feel the respect for eachother in that age group would be more genuine compared to two adults with all their negative baggage.
 
No worries Ryan.

Stig, thanks for the kind words.

Muay Thai is still quite a new sport in Norway. They still have a no KO rule in adult matches. The idea is to promote good technique without the children obtaining bad injuries. Hence the body shield and head gear for junior matchups. I tend to agree with that... UK is different, no headshots are allowed at that age. They then get to 16 and end up getting g cracked in the face loads as they are not used to it.

I can see the benefits of both rule sets.

I am sure as the old testosterone started flowing and he gets older KO power will come. He is still only 11 and the other boy was 14.
 
After I uploaded the fight and watched it back then next video on YouTube was a documentary. It was about an Aussie Karate guy called Judd Reid??? A documentary based on his 100 man Kumite.

It was pretty interesting, but found it strangely ironic that he did most of his training for the build up in Muay Thai camps Thailand.

I dont know that much about the different forms of karate... is it legit? The documentary said he won his 5th dan BB for its completion.

https://youtu.be/ExzDMT8DSCg
 
The ranking system in karate has long gone astray.
Now they give black belts to fat kids.

That is why I wear a plain black belt and have refused to recognize the rank I should have.
Actually, if it wasn't to late for that, I'd have never tested for black belt ( A thing that took me 20+ years, because I didn't want no part of the politics in it) but simply stayed at a student grade for the rest of my life.

You want to be a black belt?
You can have mine, I don't want no part of it.

Rich, the 100man test is bullshit.
It is a Kyokushin thing ( I trained Kokushin for 15 years , so I feel entitled to bad mouth them)


There is no way you can fight 100 people.
They don't try to put him out.


All Kyokushin tests are like that, you press the guy, but don't knock him out.
look at it again.
Don't you think, at the end, he'd have been easy pickings?

For the Dan test that I finally did , I had to go against 10 guys.
My plan was to knock the first 5 on their ass with my jodan mawashi geri, which was at the time unbeatable.
In the 6th match, they tossed in a 250 pds guy and told him to just take me on the ground.
End of plan.
After tangling with him, any 11 year old could have kicked my ass.

But I can still say, I fought 10 guys full contact for my black belt, and simply not mention that the last 4 carried me through it by punishing me, but not putting me down.

Get my point?
 
Thanks, that’s what I thought.

I mean Judd Reid was busted up and aching towards the end but I did think the opponent were coasting a bit.

I have watched a few matches in the combat karate league that Bas Rutten commentates on. Head punches and ground strikes for 3 seconds once that have been taken down.
 
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3 really fine matches.
I really enjoyed them.
Especially the slipping out of a fully set armbar TWICE in the first one.
If you've never been in one, you've no idea how impossible that is.
 
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