I'm 5'9" and I've always been smaller than most so I naturally took to grappling and soon, Hapkido.



I saw a guy really versed in a school of Kung Fu that lasted about 30 seconds to a guy 4" and 50lbs lighter. With all the kicking and spinning and commotion I thought this guy trained in Jujistu/Hapkido, etc. was a goner...not so fast; out of the dust the Kung Fu dude was on top on one knee ready to strike when he just started screamin and fell over to one side tapping out like mad - turns out a simple wrist lock had this guy ready to cry, literally.



Every fight I've ever been in has ended up on the floor (I'm not one of those "let's go fight types at all though) - I grappled so that may have been my doing, but I can't recall seeing too many fights at all that didn't wind up on the floor, except for the one-punch/kick deals that can happen. I know that being able to wrestle saved me from getting seriously hurt a couple of times and immobilized both of these much bigger guys than me. The frustration level alone can make you choose the wrong move - and if you're on the floor with someone who knows her/his stuff, then you'll tap out or it'll be lights out most of the time.



I'm not putting down traditional MA like Shotokon, Korean Karate, etc. - that's where I first got introduced into martial arts, but at my size (I'm getting too old for this stuff now anyway!) hitting the mat as soon as I can and keeping someone close to me to avoid punches while I try to tap someone out works, while me trying to box or do a jumping kick with the same person would end up in me getting my as# kicked!



I've got to get into Hapkido - a bad as# Korean style similar to Judo, Jujistu, etc.



About Bruce Lee - I think the guy was way ahead of his time and he could easily go to the mat with people and end it, and he did.

But his movies...yeah, they're fun to watch but you can't go around believing that you can do those kind of things - even Bruce Lee himself remarked that all the training in the world won't stop a bullet; he was saying it in the context of acting bad and thinking that you could go in and kick the crap out of 5 guys at once, etc... His own style of fighting was really a precursor of ultimate/extreme fighting - that is, taking stuff from all disciplines and using it to defend yourself.



I think alot of the Dry guys like the Ulitimate fighting stuff too.



Hey...maybe kings are the Extreme Fighters of the North American snake world?!!



I also still stand by my first observation that ounce for ounce kings are king in this country; some folks say that such comparisons don't mean much, but it's a figure of speech everyone understands - basically that kings as a group of snakes are equipped at whatever age to kill any other snake of the same age/size in North America. A huge Indigo will win most of the time, but before you get to that threshold where size and power and ability are too much, kings are the toughest snakes in NA, IMO.





-John

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