The Official TreeHouse Martial Arts Thread!

cory said:
Not what I had in mind at all. When I think martial arts, I think Art, Sport, and self defense.
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Funny how it works, the people who have studied a martial art aren't the ones that have an interest to talk about their street fights. :lol:
 
cory said:
When I think martial arts, I think Art, Sport, and self defense.
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Interesting that you instinctively categorize the arts that way...in our system we have 3 major themes: Aesthetics, Athletics and Combatics.

Practitioners often prefer one theme over the others...or practice a mix. Some of the forms we train have varying amounts of those elements to the form. Our guys that train combatics are thinking practicality of action....LEO's, soldiers, prison workers, etc.

Folks that like to compete/spar would focus on athletics. Folks that prefer the fluidity/grace/artistic elements focus on aesthetics.

Three major "styles" for us....low, middle, high style. Low tends to be rather crude, basic, focused on expedient efficiency to get a job done...simple, functional techniques, basic movement, steps, blocks, evasion, counters, attacks, escapes...the kind of things you teach a soldier to survive. Targets are vital...ideally a low expenditure of energy yields high results (think targets of eyes, throat, groin). This is a Combatics approach.

Moving into the Middle Style takes more refinement of technique...and more techniques...which takes longer to learn to be effective with. Target choices can be expanded to involve joint locks/breaks, blows, holds and throws that can incapacitate but not necessarily have the prime choice/result of causing permanent injury or death. Middle Style folks often compete in competitions where controlled techniques can be used to test one's abilities against others. It's not a "real" fight but can get real enough to be of value. Cool to see Haakon's fight...he surely learned a lot about himself as a result of testing his skills like that. The truth of training is performance/testing...Haakon got a dose of truth.

High Stylists work to develop a very refined level of skill that can provide the most options on how to end a confrontation...ideally no violence is done. They train high levels of agility, dexterity and mobility. A High Style fighter might use evasive skills to avoid an attacker's attacks to the point that the target for the High Stylist is the enemy's stamina. There is a story of a Cobra stylist who became a monk...targets for a Cobra stylist are very small...a nerve junction, eyeball, temple, etc. As a monk he adopted the ideal of not harming another person...he trained skills that found ways to avoid damaging an opponent. At some point the monk found himself involved in a fight with a Boar master...very hard, direct, charging style of fighting...everything for a Boar is a target. If it gets touched it is damaged.

The monk used his High Style level of evasive skills to wear down the Boar fighter without striking him and was being very successful. But it takes more energy to not hurt someone than it does to quickly damage or kill them. When the monk realized he was going to lose the fight because his stamina was lacking he "dropped" down into his Cobra style and KO'd the Boar with a Cobra punch. He won the fight but lost as far as the crowd was concerned. Here is an example of a Cobra Stylist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_1rcf0EFlM

And here is a Cobra master breaking balloons:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REmKWTjb-WQ&index=7&list=PL83DA51F985870425
 
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  • #55
Informative post.
 
Does everyone like Mark Hunt? He's got humility which seems rare in that arena of pro mma...

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Mark Hunt is awesome.

He was a great k1 fighter who has done well in MMA. His chin is like a lump of granite and throws bombs!

Check out some of his post fight pressers. Very humble but ready to rumble with anyone.
 
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  • #59
I read his book recently. Guy with a good heart, horrendous childhood upbringing, world class talent and chin.
 
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FireFighterZero said:
Gary, how would your life be different if you had not gotten into Martial Arts? I can see it as being a huge positive, mind, body, health, attitude, heck, probably work even.
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I put together a response, Jim, but it is WAY too long. Most folks will consider this TLTR...too long to read...no problem. I don't know where Cory wanted this to go but I took a few minutes to "stump" here...I'll back down and let folks carry on.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if we could know how NOT doing something would change our life. I do not know how my life would have turned out but I can make a few observations about how it has shaped life for me.

I started taking Tae Kwon Do in 1973... a good friend and I signed up together and studied about a year until our instructor was injured (at his job...working as a garbage man while going to college) and had to end the class. I drifted into the “other” martial arts class at my college...where they wore black uniforms (all MA then wore white) and did a lot of very different training stuff. This particular MA, Called Bando, has so much breadth and depth that even after 43 years I am still learning new things. The man that brought the system from Burma is remarkable as a person, teacher, mentor, guide, performer of the art. He is in his 80's and still teaches, still has new things to share and is still learning himself.

The style is called Bando and is more of a martial system than a martial art. The man that brought the system served with the Gurkhas in WWII and brought with him the mindset of a Gurkha. The system required proficiency in all of the skills that were required of soldiers...I remember seeing printed requirements when I started for 1st level black belt...empty hand, edged and stick weapons and “gun hand” weapons...hand gun, long gun and automatic weapons. As a 21 year old this caught my eye for sure. The first summer camp I attended for Bando (1975) had in attendance many of the original guys that first trained Bando in the States back in the 60's...one was a Marine Corps medic (**citation below) that was awarded the Silver Star in Viet Nam for valor (though gravely wounded by machine gun fire, he still killed a VC with a kukri...our medic was tending to a wounded Marine when a VC appeared in the bush and tried to kill them...Mark used his kukri to kill the VC). Another fellow was a Secret Service agent at the time..some of the others had a mystique/aura about them that came from their confidence in their highly developed skills. They were all tough bando boxers (similar to Muy Thai), name takers, butt kickers. Pretty heady stuff for an up and coming green belt.

Anyway, the skill sets that were part of bando fit very well with me. I already had rock climbing skills, camping, water survival and rescue, wilderness survival (as a victim of a course and later returning as an instructor), etc. The skills training for Bando dove tailed nicely into what I already had started developing.

I learned, slowly, what it took to train properly to keep from getting hurt while training, to train the skill properly and then to teach the skill. My continual work at fitness has been necessary if I want to continue to train properly. Being fit and working continually to develop a slowly refined skill set has been a way I see myself defined.

The skill set gets modified/adapted as one’s physical attributes change (from injury or age)...I don’t bang around sparring these days...but I have learned body agility skills in the last 5 years that I never even dreamed of 20-30 years ago.

Anyway, this nonsense could go on and on. I can say that our Grandmaster has always encouraged community service...one of our black belt requirements. He is always interested and encouraging about what we offer the community outside of bando skills...or maybe I should say using our bando skills since much of what community service takes draws upon skills that have been part of our training as we came along.

He has told us tales of how monks in WWII helped recover the bodies of the crew of downed aircraft in the Irrawaddy River...he was involved in several rescues/recoveries of air crews himself. One involved getting a pilot out of a tree after he got hung up in his chute. He has seen me do tree work before and always lamented that he wished he had my equipment and skill when he was working to rescue that pilot.

So I think you are right, Jay...Bando training has been useful in what I do with the Dive Team...the physical aspects of it as well as the mental aspects of working in less than ideal environments.

**
Silver Star Citation for Mark Bjishkian:

http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=21708

Awarded for actions during the Vietnam War

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Silver Star to Hospital Corpsman Third Class Mark E. Bjishkian (NSN: 7773427), United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action while serving as a Corpsman attached to Company G, Second Battalion, Third Marines, THIRD Marine Division, in the Republic of Vietnam, on 23 August 1966. During Operation ALLEGHENY, Hospital Corpsman Bjishkian's platoon was engaged in an extended patrol through heavily overgrown terrain in the Dong Lam Mountains when the point fire team was temporarily pinned down by an intense barrage of small arms fire and grenades from a numerically superior insurgent communist (Viet Cong) force. The fire team was 100 meters forward of the main body of the platoon, but all movements were restricted as the platoon came under fire from its right flank. Almost immediately after the firefight began, two casualties occurred in the point fire team, and a call for a Corpsman was heard. Although the entire column was under fire, Hospital Corpsman Bjishkian, completely disregarding his own safety, immediately arose and began running toward the wounded, drawing heavy fire all the way. Miraculously escaping injury until just a few yards from his objective, he finally fell, seriously wounded. Determined to assist his comrades, Hospital Corpsman Bjishkian heroically continued to crawl forward to their position, where he directed the administration of first aid. He refused medical attention for himself until the other casualties had been fully taken care of. By his unfaltering courage, initiative and inspiring devotion to his comrades, Hospital Corpsman Bjishkian upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

Action Date: 23-Aug-66

Service: Navy

Rank: Hospital Corpsman Third Class

Company: Corpsman (Attached), Company G

Battalion: 2d Battalion

Regiment: 3d Marines

Division: 3d Marine Division
 
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  • #67
That was awesome.
 
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  • #68
Why did I think Bando involved stick or staff fighting? I've seen your pics, Gary, of working out or stretching with a stick or staff, does the staff make it into the fighting part of things?
 
In Bando, the stick/staff, is a tool..we use it for stretching in the Dhanda Yoga system...dhanda means staff/spine. The stick is used for support while stretching. It is part of the Bando Yoga System...3 main systems...Dhanda-uses staff. Longyi-uses rope to stretch. Letha-uses partner to stretch. It is not only "stretching"...the stretching allows one to re-align and adjust their spine and joints. A properly supple body functions more efficiently...less prone to injury and better able to handle the stress of physical labor.

Bando Yoga is an amalgam of old yoga systems...it is basically "slave yoga"...slaves, peasants, workers, monks, warriors used it to preserve and enhance health...to restore and heal to some extent. A slave that could not work was no longer useful...keeping the body healthy kept one useful (and therefore sometimes alive). Bando Yoga is not for enlightenment but for functional health.

Ancient workers used basic tools...sticks, stones, ropes. Sticks to carry things, move logs, build shelter, etc...ropes were used to tie things to sticks, secure objects, do treework, etc....we ALL know how useful rope is. Stones to build shelter, make leverage points, stone massage for injuries, etc. They used their basic tools for work...and also for war.

Bando teaches offense and defense methods for empty hand, stick hand, knife hand...so we definitely train the staff as a weapon...also as a tool. Then again, a weapon is a tool....just something to get a job done.

There is a lot of information about Bando on this site: http://www.americanbandoassociation.com/

I am the director of the Bando Yoga System...that's why you see info coming from me about it sometimes. I have been very involved with it over the years.
 
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  • #70
Good info, thanks.

I don't think Ive heard of Bando outside of your input, Gary, how widespread is it?

Bando yoga sounds pretty appealing to this bent over ol tree guy.
 
Not widespread like many other arts. It is not commercial and has not solicited to get large student bases in the past.

The man that brought the system over from Burma in the late 1950's was tasked by his father to teach bando here as a way of saying "thank you" to the American vets who saved Burma from the Japanese in WWII.

An important part of the bando story is that the American Bando Association was formed in the 1960's to honor veterans...it is the only martial arts organization I know of that was specifically set up to honor America's vets. We have 3 major "holy" days in Bando...Memorial Day, Veteran's Day and V-J Day.

Here is a blurb from the ABA site:

******************

Bando (pronounced bun doe) is a multi-faceted martial art, with roots in China, Burma, and India. The system was brought to America in the late 1950’s by Maung Gyi (now Dr. U M. Gyi, (Grandmaster)) from Burma whle teaching at the Embassy of Burma in Washington, D.C. and who later formed the American Bando Association [ABA]. The ABA is a private, non-profit World War II veterans memorial martial arts organization- the only Martial Arts organization in the U.S., or in the world, whose primary mission is to honor the CBI [China-Burma-India] veterans of WWII. The Korean War and the Vietnam War were added at a later date.

This Burmese art is practiced by a small group of dedicated students and teachers here in the U.S. under the direction of Dr. Maung Gyi.

******************

It is this veteran-oriented mission of the ABA that has driven much of the martial arts activities I have done over the years. Different Bando groups around the country have formed Kukri Drill Teams...the teams train in the use of the kukri, the primary "side'arm" of the Gurkha. Our local Kukri Drill Team has performed at many veteran events, marched in parades, participated in funeral events, etc. It was because of my membership on our Drill Team that I was given a lifetime honorary membership into the CBI Veteran's organization. That membership helped me gain access to the first group of WWII veterans that were allowed back into Burma in 1995...50 years after the Japs surrendered. Another Bando brother and I accompanied a group of about 25 veterans back to Burma to visit their old battlegrounds. Most of those vets were Merrill Marauders...a very elite group of men that help run the Japs out of Burma. My bando bud, Mike, and I were the only non-vet or vet-family folks to be part of the group...the rest were either vets, sons or grandsons of veterans.

Here is an example of a Kukri Drill Team...the drills are formalized but they help keep alive the skill set of the Gurkhas that used their kukris to such good effect in past wars:

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Just back from the Keddles Interclub.

Haakon fought a good fight and had the better of his opponent but looked like he didn't get into third gear.

He was very composed and just did what he needed to do, no fuss. Afterwards I asked him how it was and he said the ref had asked him to go easy and not clinch so the young kids turban didn't fall off.

I nearly laughed out very loud when I heard. The kids was a nice lad though and was very complimentary of Haakon's boxing and skills.
 

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  • #75
biggun said:
Haakon fought a good fight and had the better of his opponent but looked like he didn't get into third gear.

He was very composed and just did what he needed to do, no fuss.
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That bodes well for the future imo. At his young age, if he were going out super hard, he'd probably burn out soon. With his current approach, he can do a slow steady build to something rock solid in the art/sport.
 
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