[chiuchimu]

GoNative
I do Iaido (perfecting set kata with a katana). I reckon I'd do pretty well against a karate expert

At one time I wanted to do Laido too. Kendo( one year when I was a kid) to me lost most of its focus-we never even touch a Katana. I heard the sword tip is much faster than any human hand or foot. The only Laindo place is too far away.

Ronin4hire
I did Muay Thai and a bit of Kyokushin Karate.
Kyokushin Karate was just as intense as my Muay Thai trainings and I would say just as effective.

Muay Thai many years, trained under Malaipet. I'm bios toward Thai boxing. We have Kyokushinkai at Japanese community center. I like how they can throw a high roundhouse kick at close range-something we don't do in Muay Thai. But the lack of face contact and clinch work I think seriously limits the art, at least that's how it seems to me.

Originally Posted by godwine

I am in Goju myself, and I did alomst 10 years of TKD and earned a 3rd den in TKD, but will be switching to Shito ryu sometime next year

1. I strongly believe the art evolved overtime, for better or for worse, thats totally your individual opiion, I don't think its as effective anymore as it removed a lot of dangerous and deadly component from the original art, but its more scientific now
2. Traditional Okinawan karate was influenced by various Chinese Art, i went up against people from different style in the past, and i say its 50/50, but in an all out sparring, i found Karate to be more effective against most chinese art. I have yet to go all out with a Wing Tsun guy, but Wing Tsun looks very effective against Karate
3. Being both a Karateka and a TKD guy, I'd say TKD borrowed the training and belt system from Karate, but a lot of the kicks are NOT from karate. Though, after so many years of TKD, i hate to say it, but a lot of TKD techniques looks great, but are totally useless, Karate technique are more objective focused - to hit or to defend..
4. Don't have an answer

Interesting, i put a lot of thoughts into the use of fixed movement lately. I remember that when Bruce Lee "invented" JKD, he suggest that a martial art is a set of theoratical movement, but it shouldn't be fixed movement. My brother in law and good friend are also in Wing Tsun, and they have demonstrated how they use these "fixed" movement to fight and it seems effective. In karate, the practice of ippon also is a form of fixed motion, and the objective is to use our muscle memory to react, and i have seen this in practice while practicing with Dai-sensei, he only use the perry and push techinque from Shisochin and it was quite effective, but then, when we spar, how much of this muscle memory can we actually use and use it effectively? That i don't know, but so far, i hate to say it, despite all the training, when i spar, there is a lot of technique involved, but none of which are from any fixed posture training... i probably need more training :P

I found your post most interesting and high lighted some insightful parts. On the subject of 'fixed' movements. I think martial arts and virtually every skill is a form of 'fixed' movement or muscle memory.