The Reality Factor

Written by Peter Vermeeren


Looking around at different martial arts andrepparttar practitioners there is one thing that surprises me very time. Many, may people don't have an R-factor in their training and techniques

You see people who get almost punched in their face and they just stay standing up with a big smile on their face. Others get almost kicked inrepparttar 146798 groin and keep moving on as if nothing happened and their "parts" were made of steel. Even worse are those who tell you to go withrepparttar 146799 flow...???

all these people a lacking an important part in their training:repparttar 146800 reality OR reality factor (R-factor)

If you get hit inrepparttar 146801 face you won't be laughing, your head will be propelled back or sideways, you will lose balance because your body follows your head. The kick inrepparttar 146802 groin will make you think your stomach wants to come out andrepparttar 146803 floor will be very close by. Those who practice"flow jutsu" are rather hilarious. Who to make a street fighter to go with your flow. Will you tell him who to catch you, hit you or how to roll? Oh and tell him also he can't resist because if he resists your Ki can't flow.

These are only a few examples but take a look around. You will be surprised how many people are lackingrepparttar 146804 r-factor. no matter what martial art they practice Even high ranked practitioners often make these mistakes on seminars you can see them teaching elaborate techniques of 10 different combinations who lack every sense of reality. They will give you some explanation like this one: "First you block his attack, you kick him inrepparttar 146805 groin, break his right at while you stick your finger in his eye, than you turn around, kick his right knee, enter onrepparttar 146806 opposite side , break his neck and throw him head down. subsequently you go and sit on top of him, pull his head back by grabbing his hear and applying a lock to his arm."

This looks very macho but not realistic. If you block and kick someone inrepparttar 146807 groin, thanrepparttar 146808 fight is over. He will go down so fast you can believe it. If you kick would missrepparttar 146809 target than you can break his arm as a secondary option.

There are really very few people willing to continue a fight with a broken arm. If this too misses I suggest you review your techniques and train more because there is something lacking in your execution ofrepparttar 146810 techniques orrepparttar 146811 martial art you practice.

A true fight doesn't take long, all is over and done with in just a few seconds. Give it 2 OR 3 seconds more between 2 equally experienced fighters who know how to counter and block but it's over before you know. The first one to make a mistake will loose.

The 2 things that have most influence onrepparttar 146812 R-factor arerepparttar 146813 teacher andrepparttar 146814 martial art. as a practitioner you must clearly distinguish between martial arts and martial sports. Martial sports are asrepparttar 146815 name already suggests a sport. Based on martial art but with rules, regulations, protection and competition.

The forefather of these sports, Martial arts has no rules , protection or competitions. Thereforerepparttar 146816 mind set, techniques and approach is different So ultimately their goals are also completely different. Whereasrepparttar 146817 sports oriented martial arts give their practitioners a chance to demonstrate themselves and their skills to others , martial artists onrepparttar 146818 other hand can only fight with themselves and every real confrontation with another person results in big damage for one ofrepparttar 146819 two or both. Martial arts are more realistic oriented than sports because of their different goals. So let's focus on them. Those who claim to be highly effective in true cases.

Be carefully with those martial things who claim to be martial arts (onrepparttar 146820 outside they look LIKE martial arts) but who surround themselves with a vail of mysticism and special powers. (these special powers may exist but they will be accompanied by a very special personality) Those martial things are easy to recognize : no intense physical training, a lot of talk about Ki, their masters and instructors hardly get involved in training, and you need many years of practice to develop these special mental powers. During these "many Years" you will be brainwashed and teaching this mystical martial art yourself to other people in order to makerepparttar 146821 NEXT generation of "flow-kas"

Until you meet reality onrepparttar 146822 street...

The other risk factor isrepparttar 146823 teacher. as a basic rule you can tell his R-factor by his Macho behavior. The more macho he acts,repparttar 146824 less R-factor he holds. His macho behavior will tell you all. Why is there a need FOR a teacher to act macho? Who does he have something o prove to? What does he need to prove? If his techniques are ANY good than they will speak FOR themselves, no need to prove this to people with no OR little experience. OR maybe he has to prove his poor students that he isrepparttar 146825 best? (Keep in mind that there is always someone better than you are) This points more to a weak character rather than a martial arts master

Baseball in Shanghai? Another American Sport Exported to China

Written by Richard Robbins


As an athlete (or at least having been an athlete inrepparttar past) and a sports fan, one ofrepparttar 146695 difficult things about finding myself on an extended stay in Shanghai, China (setting up sporting goods manufacturing and other business contacts) isrepparttar 146696 near isolation from most American sports. Although basketball, overrepparttar 146697 past ten or so years, has become popular amongrepparttar 146698 Chinese people, baseball has yet to find its way intorepparttar 146699 sports culture here. While at every school or playground it's likely you'll find some kid aspiring to becomerepparttar 146700 next Yao Ming, mentionrepparttar 146701 term "baseball" to most Chinese, even ones who speak pretty good English, and you'll likely find yourself having to search through a phrasebook to findrepparttar 146702 Chinese phrase for baseball: "bangqiu" (pronounced bong chi-o).

I had heard from some ofrepparttar 146703 expatriates living in Shanghai that there was some sort of baseball team playing inrepparttar 146704 city, so I did some Google searches to see whether I could find information aboutrepparttar 146705 team. I found a few articles onrepparttar 146706 Internet aboutrepparttar 146707 Shanghai Eagles' spring trip torepparttar 146708 U.S. to compete against junior college teams. The game summaries, published byrepparttar 146709 news people at a few ofrepparttar 146710 U.S. schools against whichrepparttar 146711 Eagles played, described a team that had decent pitching, but not much hitting. As can happen with that kind of team chemistry,repparttar 146712 Shanghai club lost all seven of its exhibition games inrepparttar 146713 U.S.

I didn't expect much when I went to watchrepparttar 146714 team play, but I was excited to actually see a baseball field again, having been in China for awhile, and I wanted to experiencerepparttar 146715 baseball environment here. A Chinese friend of mine hunted down information about whererepparttar 146716 Shanghai Eagles played and at what time, so I took my wife out for a Friday afternoon atrepparttar 146717 baseball field.

The old ball game didn't have any peanuts or Cracker-Jacks, or hot dogs, or drinks, or very many spectators. There was a mascot dressed in a chicken suit, and, although we had to search behind some buildings to find it, surprisinglyrepparttar 146718 field looked pretty standard. There was a total of probably fifty people in attendance whenrepparttar 146719 game began. People came and went asrepparttar 146720 game progressed. Something that struck me wasrepparttar 146721 feeling that many there were obviously hard-core baseball fans,repparttar 146722 kind you would expect to find catching foul balls at a MLB park. After quickly being spotted as one ofrepparttar 146723 only white guys in attendance, I was approached by Dan Washburn, a news consultant doing a story for Baseball America. During my conversation with him, he told me that he met some older Chinese men at one ofrepparttar 146724 games he'd attended. He mentioned that when he asked them what brought them out torepparttar 146725 event, they told him they played ball when they were much younger, being forced to leaverepparttar 146726 game behind when Mao Zedong did away withrepparttar 146727 American influence duringrepparttar 146728 Cultural Revolution. As forrepparttar 146729 group of boisterous, college-aged enthusiasts, I was told that a group of them attendedrepparttar 146730 local baseball college, and they were being trained to later become professionals. (In China, many children who express a particular athletic skill are guided down a specialized path devoted largely torepparttar 146731 ultimate fulfillment of their athletic capabilities.) There were some younger T-ball aged kids atrepparttar 146732 game who were introduced to me byrepparttar 146733 uncle of one ofrepparttar 146734 boys. He wanted them to practice English with me and my wife, and laterrepparttar 146735 two boys asked me to play catch with them usingrepparttar 146736 homemade-looking, well-used baseball one ofrepparttar 146737 boys brought torepparttar 146738 game.

The area we used to play catch wasrepparttar 146739 same grass area outsiderepparttar 146740 stadium used byrepparttar 146741 professional teams to warm up their bullpen pitchers. I usedrepparttar 146742 opportunity to get a feel for how well a professional pitcher in China throws. The one I saw was probably throwing inrepparttar 146743 high-70's to low 80's. I watched him throw curve balls with some good movement and change ups as well. His control was comparable to an average to good college pitcher.

The particular game we watched went into extra innings asrepparttar 146744 Eagles dropped a large lead late inrepparttar 146745 game. Being distracted by people attempting to practice English duringrepparttar 146746 tenth and eleventh innings, it wasn't untilrepparttar 146747 twelfth that I noticed a strange twist to baseball asrepparttar 146748 Chinese play it. Probably forrepparttar 146749 sake of endingrepparttar 146750 game as soon as possible, they allow both teams to start extra innings with a runner on second base. One problem I saw with this approach is that it maderepparttar 146751 game boring, asrepparttar 146752 apparent lack of confidence in hitting onrepparttar 146753 part of both teams turnedrepparttar 146754 extra innings into a bunt-fest. Finally Tianjin broke open and went on to win 9-5 in 12 innings.

Duringrepparttar 146755 game, I met some college baseball players who had become interested in baseball when they came to college. They don't attendrepparttar 146756 designated baseball college, so their educational involvement baseball is only extra-curricular. They invited me to play with them, and I have participated in some of their practices and scrimmages.

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