Out of Pod Experience

Is it possible? Can we arrange a duel to see who's tougher?


Putin trumps Chuck Norris in black belt stakes
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been awarded the highest rank in taekwondo, it is reported.

While on a visit to South Korea, he received a ninth-degree black belt from Choue Chung-won, president of the World Taekwondo Federation, Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency reports.

The Russian president has now eclipsed the likes of martial artist and actor Chuck Norris, who is reported to have an eighth-degree black belt in taekwondo.

Vladimir Putin somewhat modestly said of the high distinction: "I'm not sure if I deserve this". He went on to suggest that the event be seen as a promotion of "this beautiful martial art".

This isn't the first martial arts achievement by the Russian president, who also has a black belt in judo. He was also reported to have released a martial arts DVD called Let's Learn Judo with Vladimir Putin.

http://i.imgur.com/fpAQrMk.jpg

(been waiting sooo long for a chance to post that one, thank you!)

Bruce Lee is superior in all aspects, even in death. And kicks PFFFFFFuTins ass and noname chuck who?

edit: forgot this

But... Putin was in the KGB in East Germany for 11 years. There's nothing in his biography specifically about being a KBG tae kwon do assassin, but you never know....

A funny anecdote about taekwondo.

One of the local marital artists who is more geared toward self defense instead of sport said that in certain martial art circles taekwondo is known as take-your-doe. In US doe is slang for money. So if you take taekwondo to learn how to defend yourself, you are wasting your money.

Putin proves his ultimate power even without a beard!

Its all about krav maga.

But krav maga was around before bruce lee was born.

Are we reaching inception levels of deep here?

Both styles, Krav Maga and Jeet Kune Do (Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do), are the most efficient combination of attacks, counters, and defenses that were determined by careful analyses of numerous fight styles. Also, the systems were not separated by very much time, from a quick cursory search Krav Maga began its development life around 1944 and Bruce Lee was born in 1940 and started his systems development between 1960-1964, so both systems were developed in 'similar' time frames. Either way and the core foundation both styles are meant to be very effective very quickly.

Those are practical fighting styles, so I wouldn't doubt that they're more deadly than traditional martial arts styles. I don't know about the Chinese or Korean martial arts, but the modern Japanese ones are designed for mental/psychological/spiritual development more than for real combat. They're do ("way of") styles, as opposed to the old jitsu/jutsu ("technique of") styles. For example, when swords became obsolete in real combat, kenjutsu (techniques of the sword) was developed into modern kendo (way of the sword). The same thing happened with the unarmed fighting styles (karate-jutsu became karate-do, jujutsu became judo, etc.)

Jeet Kun Do kind of went the other way-- taking meditation/spiritual development martials arts styles and refocusing them into practical combat applications. Kenpo karate and Kyokushin Kaikan karate did the same thing. So from the original jitsu to the do, then from the do to a new jitsu. (Sorry for the tl;dr, don't get me started on this stuff, it's way too interesting.... )