GREAT PHILOSOPHER! PHILOSOPHICLIZERING FOR GREAT JUSTICE!

There are thousands of books on this concept, usually referred to as "chi" (used by the Chinese and most "diverse" martial artists, or martial artists who do not limit themselves to one art, style, or type of style, also known as Mixed Martial Artists, or MMAs). I'm not going to bother discussing the details of chi as you can just go look it up yourself. I will say that chi exists, and you cannot disbelieve it. Otherwise, you deny the existence of the plasma in your blood, the soul of your spirituality, or anything else. Chi is simply a different word. Instead, I'm going to talk about my dislike for this subject in one area: little Goku-wannabes who think they can shoot fireballs and fly and manipulate fire, ice, wind, water, earth, etc. First of all, let's very briefly explain what chi energy is. In one word, you can call it "energy" or "lifeforce." Your call, there. Now, we can manipulate energy in non-biological, physical objects. Take a simple battery. You can put it in one machine to use X Energy, or you can put it in a different machine to use Y Energy. Different flows of energy depending on what machine you use. Now, take yourself. You can go out running and use X Energy, or you can lie around the house and use Y Energy. Different flows, again. But how can we manipulate it in the martial sense? Well--again, this is more book reading--the very basis is that we have to relax, meditate, and focus our energy, demanding it travel from one part of the body (usually the origin, usually about two inches below the navel) to another (like our fists or arms). However, there poses a problem, here. You can't just demand things from the insides of your body. I cannot tell my stomach to pause digestion or tell my blood cells to slow down/speed up just on command. Likewise, I cannot just tell my internal energy to pop up and go to my arms so that I can lift heavier objects or smash walls. It cannot be done. I have to first develop a harmony in my body. By that, I mean I have to get some sort of "calmness" inside of me. When you think of things that make you angry, does your blood pressure not increase? Well, blood pressure, which also affects the flow of energy, can be influenced by thoughts, or lack thereof. What that means is, for me to get that "harmony" in my body, I have to clear my mind of all thoughts. That's hard to do. Chances are, when you first start meditating, and you REALLY get into it, it's hard because at some point some thought is going to creep up on you, and when you start thinking, you tend to continue thinking. But even the first thought is enough to destroy the entire "harmony" you were developing. This is why most people usually do relaxation techniques before meditation. To meditate correctly, your mind must be clear. The time it takes to gain full control over your thoughts is indefinite--could be days, could be years. It all depends on how you go about dwelling on thoughts and how often you do it. So, let's skip ahead a bit. Our minds are clear. Our bodies have achieved "harmony." We can even slow the pulses of our hearts (in the same manner it takes to speed it up, such as thinking of angry thoughts--this action CAN indeed be practiced). We have total control of the energy within us. Now, we have to actually manipulate that energy. To do so takes an enormous amount of time. Move your body without thinking of moving it. Without wanting to move it. Just do it--no "hidden, unconscious reflex, subconscious thought" behind it. Just DO it. It can't be done. Well, it can't be done in just a few days. Sure, someone could pinch you, and you could move in reflex, but that's not control, is it? That's a reflex. We want control. How do we get that control? Well, the internal martial arts (or arts that dwell into internal energy) teach you how to do that. It takes many years to perfect. So, now we get into the problem. There are "people," (mostly teenagers) who claim they can fire things called ki balls (ki is the "loose" Japanese "equivalent" of chi) or chi balls. They take their hands, aim it at something, and some hidden amount of force escapes their body and strikes whatever they were aiming at. Very similar to an invisible "fireball." So, wait. Not only did these people very quickly manipulate their energy (something great masters of internal martial arts cannot do--I mean, we're talking a few "months" of "hardcore training" these "people" did), but they were also able to eject it from their bodies and STILL manipulate it. What happens when you blow up a bomb? It explodes, right? Obviously. But, is the end of the explosion of equal power than the beginning of it (bombs, on a ground, generally make a dome-shaped explosion that expands outward in all directions. The beginning = the center and the end = outer edges of expansion)? Not at ALL. It's considerably weaker. So, let's go back to these "Ki Manipulators" (there's a reason these people tend to use the Japanese term more than the Chinese. There's a show called Dragon Ball Z, and on that show, "ki" is the same term used to describe the show's giant fireballs of doom. Ki is actually a "somewhat different" concept in chi, when concerning martial arts. The word these "Ki Manipulators" are looking for is actually Chi, then Jing, but don't tell them that). These "Ki Warriors" shoot their little invisible fireballs (the invisibility factor is actually pretty good. It's doubtful that, if we could emit our energy, we'd actually SEE it in some color. It'd look like a ripple in the air, most likely). These little invisible fireballs sail along and strike something rather than "phase out," or dissipate, as it should. So, what happens, here? The Ki Warrior manipulates his energy and fires it. He ejects it from his body. Can you eject things from your body. Yes you can. Cut yourself. You eject blood. When you eject a lot of it, don't you feel a bit tired or dizzy or something generally not good (unless you have some weird blood-losing fetish, then don't you feel turned on, but still a bit fatigued?)? You do. When you go running, don't you feel tired? You can't run forever. So, let's combine the two. As you go through life, you use energy. You can't not use it. You can use a little or a lot, depending on how you live. But that energy is gone. To get it back, you eat or consume something. Food is energy. You don't get it back by sleeping. Go a week without eating and see how much energy you get back by sleeping. None. Sleeping simply "heals" your fatigue. Energy is still lost. So, essentially, you can see that there's a pattern. 7,6,5,6,7,6,5,6,7.. Looks just like that. You start with some amount of energy, lose it, then bring yourself back on track by eating. If you use a lot of energy, you eat a lot, and your pattern might look something like this: 7,5,3,4,5,6,7,5,3,4,5,6,7... Unless you eat an ABNORMAL amount of food at once, you generally lose more energy than you get it back, but you still get back to normal. But, when you "fire ki balls," you're not only using up the energy you use in a NORMAL daily basis, but then you LOSE an extra amount of energy. So, your pattern looks something like this: 7,6,5,6,7,6,2,3,4,3,2,3,4,3,2... It never gets back up. This is because, when you "shoot the fireballs," it doesn't affect your hunger. Just fatigue. You feel "drained." You get back on your pattern, but because you literally lost the normal energy you lose daily AND an enormous amount all at once, you CAN'T get back on the pattern. That's why the entire system is wrong. You can't shoot fireballs of invisible energy. When martial artists use internal energy to make them more powerful, they still CONTAIN it, so the energy is not LOST. These Ki Warriors are ejecting the energy, thus losing it. See, there's the possibility of people training in such a way that they CAN shoot fireballs (I still don't believe this, but I will not deny the possibility of it. Trying to stay objective, here) and still get the energy lost back. But it can never happen in just "a few months of hardcore training." When you exercise, do you think exercising 3x the amount will cut the time in 1/3? No, it won't. It just makes you more fatigued. The whole concept of internal arts takes many years to develop and harness and ultimately "master." It requires a lot of dedication and commitment. No matter what's true or what's false, no kind of "super energy manipulation" can be achieved in a few months what great masters take years to develop. Otherwise, there's some "unofficial" undermining of the system of internal energy training that is allowed to be made known to a select bunch and anyone who views their websites while the masters of internal martial arts, I guess, are just lying to their students and holding back on them (unless master sifus, or instructors, don't know what a bunch of teenagers know about internal arts). In closing, there are too many errors in logic, biology, and physics for the shooting of fireballs to be possible on a "universal" level (in that anyone can just easily open a website, follow the instructions, and shoot fireballs in a few months). It just doesn't work, and it degrades the very concept of internal martial arts. --- Oh, if you want to know more about the power of chi and internal martial arts (Bagua, Taichi, and Hsing-I), I'd STRONGLY reccommend this book: The Power of Internal Martial Arts: Combat Secrets of Ba Gua, Tai Chi, and Hsing-I by B.K. Frantzis. Anything by Frantzis I'd strongly reccommend--he's not only credible, but an extremely excellent resource in the knowledge of all this.

The concept of linear fighting is very simple.  You throw a technique out, then you snap the limb back with the same force or more force than was necessary to launch the technique.  One style infamous for this type of fighting is Shotokan Karate-do.

Now, primarily, there are two other main types of techniques.  One of them is circular, and the other I personally just call "Triangular."  Circular techniques are, of course, curved techniques that tend to move in circular or semicircular motions.  Triangular techniques, as I see them, are basically techniques where the arm or leg is in a fixed position and the entire bulk of the limb is used.  Clear examples of this style of technique are the shin strike and Shotokan's forearm block (not going to pretend I know the official name of this block).

Now, there are many flaws to a purist who, let's say, only takes Shotokan and "masters" it.  Linear fighting is not very effective against multiple enemies, nor is it very good against people who are efficient with joint-locking and subduing.

Or is it?

Look at most of the martial arts tournaments you can see on television.  A lot of them had some sort linear training, be it in the basic punch or a basic front/side kick.  And we can look at the punch exclusively.  Look at those tournaments.  How many people throw correct front/reverse punches?  I've personally not seen it very often.  I see mostly hooks, jabs, and uppercuts, the generic boxing punches.  When throwing those three types of punches, you cannot unleash enough force and retract with the same amount of force.  Not only is it very difficult, but there's simply no point.

The purpose of "softer" arts (like Aikido, for instance) is to use the opponent's own energy and force against him.  If someone threw a punch at you, you'd simply counter his force with his own force by pulling him a little (he's moving forward, so you force him a bit more forward), then allowing yourself to twist the force very easily into your favor.

But you cannot twist negative force when you're trained to twist positive force.  Positive force is force coming into you.  A punch, a kick, a swipe, whatever.  Negative force is force moving away from you, which is the retraction of a technique.  The reason why you cannot twist it is because during the moment between positive and negative forces, there is a force of zero.  You cannot use the opponent's force against him if there is no force to work with.

But there's the primary flaw with both strikers and grapplers.  Strikers, somewhere in the backs of their minds, are usually intimidated by anyone who can use their own force against them.  So, quite stupidly, they generall throw the normal boxing attacks, relying on muscular speed, which is the perfect set-up for someone to counter that force.  But those people who are countering, they're generally only given the common techniques (and that makes perfect sense.  How many attackers do you think are going to throw a forward/lunch/reverse punch correctly on you?) and thus know only how to counter joint positions and muscular force (where the limb is and how it's moving).

Hip rotation is the key to all linear attacks.  When you unleash hip rotation, you've probably trained enough that, after you throw the hips into the technique, you automatically throw the hips out of the technique; thus, you're automatically doing the Positive Force = Negative Force concept.  When you do it in the hips, you usually do it in the actual strike, too.

Now, legs and arms are two different areas.  Legs are bulkier, longer, and generally have to work against more gravity than the arms do; thus, the conception that they're slower when attacking above the hips.  Now, you're not supposed to kick above the waist, anyway (to be an effective kicker), but given the abnormal popularity of Taekwon Do, then the several artsy martial artists (like myself, actually), well, it's usually an inevitable occurrence.

Because of that, though, I'm not going to talk about kicking.  If someone grabs your leg because you kicked too high, then here's a simple solution:  don't kick high anymore.

The punches, however, if thrown right with correct PF = NF (to do it correctly) and the necessary hip rotation (to get the power for it), there simply is nothing to grab by people who like grabbing things.  There's an arm, sure, and a fist, yes, but there's no force to work with.  If a punch is thrown the way it should be, then the grappler usually gets his act together the very instant you start pulling back.

There, the grappler must quickly rethink his strategy because he's no longer working with force directed to him but rather force directed away from him, and when someone is expecting to counter something done to him and not away from him, there's a very slight block in the mind there about what to do.

During that time, the striker should be doing something he should have either practiced, been taught, or picked up himself--when you feel something that's not yours, whether you touched him or he touched you, you follow it up with another attack, usually done as a "flail" (half-assed attack that has no real power but makes a cute little distraction and might slap or hit the opponent).

You can't be an effective linear fighter and pull attacks one-by-one.  They must come as chains.  Hip rotation allows that to not only happen, but be effective, even if you're throwing three limbs out there (both punches and a kick, unless you know how to kick with both feet at the same time and still be grounded).

The thing to remember is what you're taught in classes (or what you should be taught) which is to always always always snap your techniques back.  Even if you hit someone, don't leave that limb out there.  Bring it back--it has no other use out there.  So long as strikers fight with generic attacks because they're generic fighters, then strikers will always buckle under the grabbers.

Just gotta work that snapping back.  It works.  But there's that little bit of intimidation in the mind that usually blocks it.  That, or the arrogance of setting up chains.

First three days of college (first day totally free of classes, too).  Phew.  I met enough people to satisfy my desires to meet people for a good while.

Anyway, I'm gonna get back to posting more martial arts stuff.  My next little entry is going to focus on the linear concepts of fighting, including its flaws and edges over the other styles (like grappling, etc.).  Linear fighting is, well, hrm.  Many people say it's extremely flawed (like, if someone purely took Shotokan Karate-do, it's always assumed that that practitioner is going to fail horribly against other stylists), and, well, you'll just have to wait.

So, I'm going to take a quick break from posting martial arts stuff.  I have the Internet SOMEWHAT up and running, but, eh, I'm lacking my own ethernet cable (using my roommate's) and the wireless networking has essentially abandoned the idea of letting me sign on.

So, yeah.  That explains why I've not been on much.  Well, PARTIALLY.

The other part consists of the people here.  They weren't lying when they said it was the People's University.  You can't NOT meet someone here.  Hell, I've only been here two full days, now, and I've met five I regularly talk to (well, one's my roommate).  One is also a man I have much respect for (he went to my high school, graduated two years before me, and I met him at Hinds, too.  We recently saw each other after my Chemistry class).

Speaking parenthetically of Chemistry, there is no placement exam!  Now, the only prerequisite is a 22+ on the math section of the ACT.  So, rawk.

To conclude how well college is going...  Well...

Let's just say, "I met a girl."  :D

So, I've been really big on martial arts since I was in 8th grade when I was introduced to Shotokan Karate (we took it in a little Sunday School building next to a church, actually, and it was called Karate for Christ.  That was pretty cute).

Since then I have been involved in Taekwon Do (I am not about to separate that Tae from the Kwon), Baguazhang, Wing Chun, and Savate.

I never reached an official black belt in any of them (well, in Bagua and WC, there are no belt systems, or at least there shouldn't be).

In Shotokan Karate, I reached 3rd Kyu, or 1st Brown.  The belt system went like this--White Yellow Orange Green Purple Purple Brown Brown Brown Black.  So, you can see what 1st Brown is equivalent to.
In Taekwon Do, I reached what they called "probationary black belt."  The belt system went like this--White Gold Orange Green Blue Brown Brown Red Sr. Red (a red belt with a huge black stripe going through the center of it horizontally) Prob. Black (same as Sr. Red, only the red is black and the black stripe is white) Black.
In Savate, I reached nothing because I was never trained in a dojo (friend's father taught me), but I was told I was somewhere between Red and Black.

I haven't trained in about a year, though, but once I get into college (this Thursday), I plan on getting back involved with Aikido, Shotokan, and Taekwon Do (what the university offers) and perhaps play my skills with Fencing.

So, anyway, I used to frequent numerous martial arts message boards once I had been in Shotokan for a year, and I learned all sorts of information about various arts.  I can safely say I know OF almost every art out there, but I only really KNOW so many arts (I was an MA dork, so I did a lot of research for about 2 years on everything I could find about everything).  I've had the pleasure of speaking to numerous martial artists (some liars, some I deem "extremely knowledgeable about their art")

I'll probably wind up discussing a lot about martial arts, such as what to look out for, what kind of styles benefit what people, etc.  Now, I'm no professional fitness instructor or whatever, and I don't play the whole "Oh, yeah.  You'll be GREAT if you stay in only about five months."

Martial arts is a commitment.  I stuck with it until gas and my education became an issue.  The biggest problems with martial arts are these four styles:

Shotokan
Taekwon Do
Judo
"Kung Fu"

Those four styles have, unfortunately, been VERY butchered.  They're mostly "sports," now, and if you don't watch out and you're taking any of those styles, you could be ripped off, horribly, especially with Taekwon Do and Judo.

The only one I can really tackle as a "style" in and of itself is that nonsensical "Kung Fu."  If you see the words "Karate," "Kung Fu," or "Academy of" on a dojo/building, chances are, it's going to be a rip-off of your money.

There is no such thing as "Karate" or "Kung Fu."  Those are words primarily used to represent the origins of common styles.  If it's "Karate," it's Japanese fighting.  If it's "Kung Fu" or "Gung Fu" or "Gong Fu," it's Chinese.

Loosely speaking, "Karate" means "empty-handed" and "Kung Fu" means "hard work."  Do those sound like "styles" to you?  No, because they are not styles.  They are "genres," if you will.

Anyway, I could write page after page on all this based on what I know, what I think, and what I believe, but I think that's enough for now.

I'll continue if I see any sort of interest.  And I'm also ready to answer any questions to the best of my ability.

So, I'm going to talk about three things.  Kitties, Bananas, and some Passion of mine.
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Kitties are soft and fluffy.  I like plucking feathers from them and slapping them onto my pillow so it's all nice and soft.  They're okay--it's a well-known fact kitties grow 800 feathers/minute.

Seriously, though.  I have two cats over here.  One's 15 years old, hasn't been to the vet since he was three, and is as healthy as he can be.  He still has a few years left on him.  It'll be upsetting when he's gone.  The other is, like, 5, and has an unusually small head.  She's an idiot and the spawn of Satan and only likes me (and even then, she has issues with liking me).  She's nice and soft, though!  :D
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Bananas.

I remember when I was younger and my former best friend from back in, like, kindergarten/1st grade lived right next door to me.  One day, we pretended we were monkeys, and we ate about fifteen bananas each.  That's a lot for a young child, I think.  Then, we proceeded to feel sick when we both hung upside-down for a while.  I hadn't eaten a banana since then until, like, a year ago.  I was feeling a bit uneasy, and I learned I had a huge potassium deficiency.  So, I munched away at bananas, though that didn't exactly help as I was also drinking cokes and eating Chik-Fil-A.

Anyway, I like messing with bananas moreso than eating them.  I LIKE SHOVING THEM IN PLACES, LIKE DOWN MY PANTS, UNDER MY ARMS, INTO MY FACE, IN DRAWERS, IN CABINETS, AND IN OTHER PLACES.

Ever try walking with five bananas in each pant leg?  It's not that hard.  :D
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Passion.

Aviation.  Freeze-dried food, non-stick pans, among other things were invented because of aerospace technology.  From your cars to household appliances, aerospace is one of the most diverse fields out there.  But, yeah.  I'm more interested in aviation and aeronautics.  I know nothing about it, really, in terms of plane names, military machines, and various vocabulary used to describe the plane.

But man, it's a fascinating subject.  All I watch on TV, if I watch TV, are aviation shows on the Military Channel.  I'm pursuing a double-major in Math and Aerospace Engineering and I plan on being a civilian for the Air Force as an engineer.

Yay!  So, what should I talk about?