[Bubba]

Don't mess:

[vivahate]

I recon limping round the crags nursing you arms full of bruises has got to do wonders for climbing.

In a fight all you need to know is pleanty of windmilling, and if you got some keys, get em out.

and don't forget.. if an ashtray is at hand.. veeeeery valuable weapon.

no, your right it does have to do wonders for flexibility and general body strength, and it'll make you (in time) a triple hard bastard.

[Bubba]

After having seen some of the more experienced Muay Thai ers sparring I would not want to meet any of them in a real fight situation. One big kick to the thigh / ribs / knee / head and if you're not used to it then you're going down, end of story.

[a dense loner]

wasn't it bruce who said 'the best training for kicking is to kick'. he dint actually say that but pretty close. in other words bubba 'the best training for climbing is to climb'. let that be a lesson to us all.

another

'for a beginner a punch is just a punch, until u become more proficient when u realise that a punch is no longer just a punch, u spend all your time training this until u become expert at it when u realise that after all a punch is indeed just a punch'

this is from memory, but this is the gist of what was said. my apologies to all the serious martial artists that have stumbled onto ukbouldering.

remember that a crimp is indeed just a crimp.

[Bubba]

Yeah, the best training for climbing probably is climbing, if you have access to good weather, etc all the time. The best training for Muay Thai seems to be kicking the shit out of bags for hours on end, until your shins finally toughen up and you can use them as weapons with minimal pain, but hey, all good fun  

"Before I learned the art, a punch was just a punch, and a kick, just a kick.
After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick, no longer a kick.
Now that I understand the art, a punch is just a punch and a kick is just a kick."

[a dense loner]

nice...  

look at me with books to hand. but remember 'a book is just a book'

[Johnny Brown]

...good as it is, Bruce just appropriated an old Zen proverb, changing 'mountains and rivers' for 'punches and kicks'.

Another:

 'In the beginners mind there are many possibilities, but in the experts there are few'

Does this explain Spoon's footwork??

[Bubba]

There seems to be several variations substituting "the way" or "zen" for "the art", and "clouds and mountains" or "rivers and mountains" for the "punches and kicks", but I agree it is a great proverb in all it's forms.

But possibly his most famous is the:

Empty your mind, be formless,  shapeless - like water.
Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup,
You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle,
You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
Now water can *flow* or it can *crash*!
Be water, my friend.

[Jim]

The best training for Muay Thai seems to be kicking the shit out of bags for hours on end, until your shins finally toughen up

It's not like that karate kid movie is it were he has to kick down a palm tree with his shins :shock:  that shit's gotta hurt

Winner..... Palm Tree!

[Bubba]

I think that's sort of correct bizarrely.
The original way old MT fighters used to condition their shins was to kick against a banana tree, the reason being that the bark was softer than bone. The idea is to do it gradually without pain rather than just start kicking some rock hard object.
Modern thinking is to get a heavy suspended bag, most of it filled with fairly soft filling, and the remainder with sand. You do 200 ish kicks per day to the soft part, building it up gradually (about 6 months) until you can kick full force with no pain. Then you can "graduate" to the sand filled part.
When you can kick the sand filled part at full force with no pain, then you're ready!

[Jim]

Think I'll stick to drinking beer

[Bubba]

The Way of The Pint is a path filled with self-learning and enlightenment  :wink: