Play the Game - and Protect Your Life

TaiChiTJ

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Master Dominick Ruggieri explains how the game he invented can help you to protect your life.

Here is their youtube channel:


http://how2playthegame.com/


Here is Master Dominick Ruggieri's home page covering his school where he teaches shaolin, hsing i, ba gua and tai chi. It also has a Play the Game section:

http://www.chinahand.com/
 

sgtmac_46

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Uhm...........yeah.

I don't want to be entirely critical.....it has some merit as a training tool, certainly. Marketing it as an end unto itself, however, seems a little (okay a lot!) disingenuous.
 
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TaiChiTJ

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Yes, clearly its elementary at this level. It will be interesting to see what or if, he evolves it to.
 

Xue Sheng

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Let’s see, Xingyi, Bagua, Taiji and Shaolin all have thier own forms of tuishou and the best he can come up with is no contact slap fighting... interesting.

Play the game - and put more money in his bank account
 

Archangel M

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"a portion"

That's a loaded phrase. Like the "portion" of some television charity commercials...for every dollar donated .10 goes to the starving kid overseas while the rest lines the pockets of the charity administrators.

Those "feel good" sales gimicks do nothing for me.
 

MJS

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Ummm....I'm kinda speechless at the moment. This guy can't really be serious with this stuff.
 

Archangel M

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Admittedly, it is a novel way to teach concepts like "sticky hands" or sinawali's.

But "protecting your life"? Not with that you aren't.
 

Xue Sheng

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fyi -


We Will Donate
A portion of the procedes from all sales of each
"Play The Game ~ Protect Your Life!"
will be donated to such charities as
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

fyi - see quote below

"a portion"

That's a loaded phrase. Like the "portion" of some television charity commercials...for every dollar donated .10 goes to the starving kid overseas while the rest lines the pockets of the charity administrators.

Those "feel good" sales gimicks do nothing for me.
 

celtic_crippler

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Patty-cake saves lives. :highfive:

In all seriousness... one can't expect to achieve the same level of skill and ability to defend oneself from a single seminar as someone who spends hours training each week; however, a quality seminar can teach some valuable lessons... if done right.

IMHO these need to be simple, direct, practical, and most importantly easily applied by anyone. I didn't see that in the clip provided. In all fairness, it's just one clip and I can't honestly make any fair judgement without experiencing "the game" for myself.
 
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TaiChiTJ

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Yes, we need to see the full range of how he thinks this can be used, good point.


I find visual aids in learning ma interesting, and it can be analyzed for its "fit" in the total scheme of things, which is, as all members of this board immediately see, limited.


I am going to explore this method and if I find anything noteworthy, will let folks know.

In all seriousness... one can't expect to achieve the same level of skill and ability to defend oneself from a single seminar as someone who spends hours training each week

Of course your right! As I understand this its an on-going class. What he "does next", how he fits it into whatever else he's teaching, is the question. And yes, he''s making bigger claims for this than is warranted. I can see both positive and negative to it and intend to explore it a bit.
:ultracool
 
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Deaf Smith

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The street ain't like that.

They come up to you and try to get inside your personal space with talk. They might sucker punch you, try to take you down with a grab for your hips, or a 'passerby' decks you from behind.

And when they hit, they try to hit HARD. Micky-mouse blocks won't stop that kind of hit.

Yes it looked like a game. And the people playing the game on the video just played. Didn't see a serious person there.

It may have some good teaching for reaction, but that's about it. Even Bruce Lee got away from that.

Deaf
 

K831

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Ummm....I'm kinda speechless at the moment. This guy can't really be serious with this stuff.

Spend a little more time on youtube, or pop into the next couple of "dojo's" you drive by... it boggles the mind what people are serious about.

EDIT: Having said that, I could see some merit to the idea if applied to getting the attention of very young children.
 
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TaiChiTJ

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The street ain't like that.

They come up to you and try to get inside your personal space with talk. They might sucker punch you, try to take you down with a grab for your hips, or a 'passerby' decks you from behind.

And when they hit, they try to hit HARD. Micky-mouse blocks won't stop that kind of hit.
So true.

The question could be asked, how much content being taught in most martial art schools has anything to do with street reality?
When does the instructor teach it, and how?

How much physical strength is required? Is there a clear relationship between physical movement patterns or drills previously taught and their use in a real physical bout? Is the reality of the multi-person attack ever addressed? When? How about various weapons? Low light or other environmental conditons?
 

Xue Sheng

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I'm sorry but the bottom-line for me is this

If the school is legitimately teaching Xingyi, Bagua, Taiji and Shaolin then it should be pretty well versed at tuishou of all of them. However this "Game" is at best a silly slap fight and if they actually had understanding of Tuishou they would know it was a silly slap fight. This leads me to they are either not legitimate teaching Xingyi, Bagua, Taiji and Shaolin so why take this seriously or if they are legitimately teaching the arts they claim to teach they are just looking for a way to bilk the public out of money by use of "the Game" and again why take it seriously
 

MJS

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Spend a little more time on youtube, or pop into the next couple of "dojo's" you drive by... it boggles the mind what people are serious about.

EDIT: Having said that, I could see some merit to the idea if applied to getting the attention of very young children.

I agree. And then people who train in the arts, wonder why others call BS all the time. Its garbage like this, that ruins the legit people that're out there.
 

Chris Parker

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Hi,

Not being a CMA guy, I wasn't really going to enter into this, as I didn't know how my limited experience with such systems would taint my understanding of what I was seeing. However, this is the General Self Defence section, and that I can talk about.

I checked out the home page of our potential life-saving teacher there, as well as the "game" he is showing, and there are so many bells going off for me it's beyond funny. Now, without fraudbusting here, I didn't see anything that didn't seem as if it was taken straight off a Hong Kong movie, the clip of the Student of the Month was lamentable at best (and before anyone says "oh, but he's just a student", he was demonstrating quite a range of weapons and techniques, showing that he is probably a more senior student, none of which had any intent, spirit, skill, or understanding to them whatsoever), and come on, "China Hand Kung Fu"? So he translated the older characters for Karate, and named his school "Karate Kung Fu"? Really?

On the other hand, it was a good laugh.
 

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