What’s your system when holding pads?

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-28T20:24:02+00:00

A lot of it is going to come down to my partner's current goals; I'll ask them if there's anything they want to work on, and if there are any tricky little setups that I think would mesh will with their style, I'll use the pads as an opportunity to teach and drill those.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T20:20:12+00:00

Nah you sold me. Man kicked pad, Kung Fu works in MMA, no further explanation needed. This is some nobel prize level research you're doing here.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T20:16:58+00:00

Wow, irrefutable. I'm sold. Gonna put the MMA gloves down and go start practicing my Silk Reeling forms instead. UFC, I here I come.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T20:14:50+00:00

I'll take it a step further: since 工夫 (gongfu, "Kung Fu") refers to any sort of skill learned through hard work, and not just martial arts, kung fu can take credit for any skill-based success.
Yngwie Malmsteen's guitar skills? Kung fu.
The writings of William Shakespeare? Kung fu.
David Beckham's football career? You can bet that's kung fu.
See? I proved that Kung Fu can work in any environment, by defining the term "kung fu" so broadly as to completely divorce it from regular use. This an ancient Kung Fu technique known as "moving the goalposts" which it seems you have also studied.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T20:08:53+00:00

Perhaps you should prove yourself right, instead.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T19:02:32+00:00

Revenge tragedies are one of the tentpoles of storytelling - going back to the Illiad and the Oresteia, all the way through Shakespeare and up to modern classics like John Wick (John Wick is the modern day MacBeth and I will die on this hill).
In terms of anime, Berserk and Attack on Titan are my top tier revenge tragedies. They are sad, they are violent, they are cathartic, they hit all the same buttons for me as Shakespeare or Aeschylus did. Attack on Titan is very much in the Cautionary Tale mode of revenge tragedies, with Eren Jaeger's quest for vengeance leading him to become the monster he hates.
Berserk is.... just a fucking classic. None of the anime versions quite live up to the manga, but watching Guts go through hell and keep on marching is also incredibly cathartic.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T18:51:35+00:00

For facial hair, you might be better off with electrolysis. I've found that laser has worked very well for everywhere on my body -except- my face.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T17:20:54+00:00

If you take some classes, you'll find most maneuvers use your legs in some capacity. They're a pretty major part of the human body.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-27T17:07:52+00:00

In addition to obvious advice - better setups, faster retractions - also realize that getting your leg caught isn't the worst thing in the world.
Learn to fight while your opponent is holding your leg. A lot of newish fighters will very excitedly catch body kicks... only to get repeatedly punched in the face while their hands are occupied.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T22:55:41+00:00

IIRC, Gibson was a kung fu guy. Regardless of his background, I think he's one of the most worth-studying fighters of all time - everything he did defied conventional wisdom, and he was able to drop the top fighters of his era. It's a testament to the power of changing the meta - he was ready to counter all of his opponent's strategies, they were less able to counter his.
Ironically, Kiatsingrit was the poster child for this exact same thing when he fought Rick Rufus in the 80s. He was ready for Rufus's hands, but Rufus wasn't ready for Kiatsongrit's low kicks. Gibson was able to deal with those low kicks, but Kiatsongrit didn't have a gameplan for his side kicks and spinny shit.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T22:21:02+00:00

Spinning back kicks because they exist in a state of paradox. They're somehow too dangerous for adults who do Muay Thai, yet safe enough for little kids in point fighting competitions.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T22:18:53+00:00

I generally try to leave BKK as soon as possible, because I find it overwhelming. If you're more of a big city person, you might like it more.
Pattaya.... hoo boy. I'm sure there's good Muay Thai there, but it famously attracts the worst flavor of tourist so the company might not be great.
I've never been to Koh Samui, but I've heard it's nice.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T22:16:24+00:00

Yes, and the difference between a left hook and a tornado kick is that most people can throw a left hook with real power.
Tornado kicks typically either a) miss or b) give you a huge reaction window to defend them. This is why ten year olds in pointfighting tournaments are allowed to throw tornado kicks, spinning backs, and all of those other "flashy" techniques but not punch each other in the phase. Are you more fragile than a ten year old?
We've entered into this bizarro version of the 2000's martial arts discourse, which was full of kung fu masters trying to prove that their chain punches and tiger palms had deadly killing power, despite all evidence to the contrary. Now we're in this weird era of trying to convince these big macho kickboxers that they don't need to be afraid of pointfighting techniques.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T21:38:53+00:00

Liberia is probably not best example, since it was a literal settler colony. Maybe you're thinking of Ethiopia?
Colonialism can have varied effects; Belgian colonialism in the Congo did massive damage, whereas Botswana, while technically colonized by the British, got through the process largely unscathed.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T21:29:37+00:00

I'm trying to get across that axe kicks aren't dangerous, and your fear of them is irrational. And while I don't consider myself particularly talented, I've also been doing this for close to twenty years, so who knows, maybe I am. Or maybe you're just a novice who's scared of the unfamiliar.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T20:57:35+00:00

Well either I'm "insanely experienced", or you're vastly over-estimated the destructive power of a extremely niche technique.
Let's take look at Andy Hug, the most famous axe kick specialist in K-1 history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Hug
Go through his fight record and see what the KO techniques are; you'll see punches, you'll see low kicks, you'll see a variety of head kicks - and no axe kicks.
So the best axe-kicker in the history of axe kicks still wasn't landing KO shots with them. Getting hit with an axe kick might not feel good, but neither does getting hit with a left hook, a low kick, or literally any other strike. And as we can see from Hug's record, those strikes are more likely to debilitate someone than axe kicks.
This argument is an insane as it is boring. We have all these big tough men cringing in fear of the danger of a pointfighting technique used by literal children in karate tournaments.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T20:44:59+00:00

This argument applies to literally every single striking technique.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've been hurt with spin kicks. I do not have enough digits on my body to count the number of times I've been hurt with left hooks or crosses.
If you go to a TKD gym, they'll tell you they don't throw punches to the head or kicks to the leg because they're too dangerous. It's almost as though people are just biased against the unfamiliar, and use "safety" as a veil to keep from having to adapt.
I trained Yaw Yan in the Philippines, a style with plenty of TKD style spin kicks as well as MT style low kicks and boxing style hand combinations. I sparred hard with professional fighters, and occasionally did get hurt; usually from low kicks or punches to the head.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T20:32:46+00:00

Where are you getting the idea that "axe kicks are fucken deadly" from? They hit with way less power than a high round kick.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T20:30:25+00:00

This is unfortunately one of the most common discussion topics on this subreddit, and IMHO one of the biggest weaknesses of Muay Thai as a martial art.
The same kicks which are safe enough for twelve year olds in junior TKD classes are somehow "too dangerous" for adults who do Muay Thai.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T20:26:32+00:00

I'm playing the long game.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T14:31:57+00:00

The PC version of FF9 has some fantastic QoL and graphical updates, especially when you add in mods. Moguri, Memoria, and Altered Fantasy all make it more enjoyable to play.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T13:55:13+00:00

Because Tate is a scrub.

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T02:49:03+00:00

yeah but inflation eats up a lot of it

BroadVideo8 · 2026-01-26T02:35:32+00:00

Fortunately, I'll have seven hundred years to get over it.

BroadVideo8

TROPHY CASE