taezee

its all about speed and focus,thats what breaks bricks..not everyone can do it.and it is stupid to try it without training properly * hence those getting thier mangled kunckles and fingers treated by paramedics*,,,the quote "boards dont hit back" is soo over used by those who cant or dont understand the dynamics and focus involved in breaking..its ammusing to me..ive always been into breaking only because im a show off..i love doing demos and getting the reaction..im honest about it..im humble but give me an invite to do a demo and its on!!..not gonna say you cannot be a martial artist with out being able to do it..but at the same time in response to "boards dont hit back" id bet you would much rather be hit by someone who just breaks boards then someone who puts thier fist and feet through bricks.."boards dont hit back.but please dont let that guy hit me!!!!"

Quote: "Quite frankly, I'm on your side. If you're talking about actually trying to amend the Constitution in legal fashion to get rid of the Second Amendment, bring it on! At least you want to do it honestly and somewhat fairly, unlike most people who've tried to nullify the Amendment by illegal means." please inform me of what you mean by this "nullifying by illegal means? ?" The ACLU, the NAACP, NOW, and the NRA all have their roles to play. They all protect rights that are vital to individual Americans and thus to all Americans. Discard them at your own peril. the fact that they are black and the involvment of the naacp has nothing to do with what i had stated nor with my view of gun control in america and frankly i find that statement patronizing..my opinion has nothing to do with race Why? You do know that Muhammed broke lots of federal gun laws when he bought his AR-15 "off the books," don't you? Why didn't the tough penalties for what he did stop him? Could it be because he's a murderer and murderers don't follow laws? The guy is going to be executed for his murders, and you want to sentence decent people who simply want to possess weapons for their own defense to prison in order to discourage him. Quote: the fact that someone as crazy as this individual is able to get such a weapon shows that its too easy, and that there should be laws made to prosecute those who choose to sell guns to anyone in the name of the dollar bill without proper background checks or "of the books" AKA illegaly they become as much responsible for the harm caused as the person who commits murdr with the weapon sold..just as now a person who host a party and lets a guest leave and drive drunk and kills someone is held liable by law and is also responsible in the death..decent people who carry firearms for self protection should not purchase them out of someones trunk or pawn shop nor carry them concealed without the proper license .i dont know much about where your from..im in new york where its ridiculous now that its almost a common thing for high school students to carry firearms as it is a backpack for thier books.alot of school yard disputes are settled with gunfights instead of the old fashioned fistfight where you may leave bruised not in a bodybag..mohammed may have broken alot of federal gun lwas in obtaining such a weapon..but he was not alone..those who supplied him are guilty also..if i was a drug dealer and supplied you with a heroin dose that killed you then im guilty of murder as well as distribution.. Quote: And you very rarely will, because it almost never happens. In about 98% of successful defenses with a firearm, not a shot is fired. Don't fall into the "Kellerman trap" of believing that self-defense is only real when someone kills an intruder. Conservative estimates of crimes prevented each year by private citizens using firearms range between 750,000 and 1.5 million per year. Now, not all of these are preventions of murders, but you can still see how many lives are being saved. On the other paw, deaths of all types involving firearms (murder, suicide, accident, justified shootings, etc.) total just over 30,000 per year. You do the math. Most successful defenses are simply not newsworthy. statistics nothing but numbers my friend..until you see it in your neighborhood..until someone you know gets killed for nothing..that one number is one to many..if your mom is going to the store and gets shot for simply being there at the wrong time..and is killed by an animal who should have not even been on the street much less have someone sell him a firearm then whats a statistic chart worth?? my father is retired NYPD he was forced to retire after falling off a second story fire escape wrestling a firearm from a twice convicted felon who should have been in jail..he shot the convict and was lucky to not have been shot himself..while he aimed to disable the other guy was looking to kill..thats my pops always the gentleman.. if it was me i would have made sure i popped him in between the eyes..but since my father didnt kill him it was not news worthy .as a matter of fact my father had to be investigated as to why he didnt use other means to subdue the suspect..who had a firearm in the act of a felony burgalary..my father even had to go through post traumatic therapy dealing with feelings of guilt for shooting someone who would have killed him and not lost any sleep!! and my father is one of the toughest individuals ive ever known.i get my toughness from him...he felt bad for shooting a bad guy who had it coming ..i guess i can easily say i would have killed the guy and felt nothing..but i was never put in that position..ive never had to shoot anyone..although i wish i could shot this guy simply because he tried to kill my father post your citations then..if you need to review your notes to come up with an argument...i can recall on a daily stories of guns being used to kill innocent people just by last weeks news articles and im talking about only those that made the papers its become so common that only the extrodinary make the news .. a security guard who works in my store part time is a new york city cop..and for some reason he carries around poloaroids of crime secenes ..the real end results of crimes most of which arent in the news just a hobby of his i guess ..honestly scares the shit out of me for carrying such pictures..crime photos..such things as decapitations.. car accidents or bodies found weeks after death ..mafia victims and such i get a chill up my spine just looking at them realizing that these are "real" not just news stories for all of theses photos would ever be printed in any newspaper he has "real life" or in this case "death" in his little envelope of "polaroids" nothing you would ever see in an episode of "COPS"some of the pics made me want to throw up.. incredible the amount of brutaliy that they see on a daily that the media will not show.one pic had a human head on the curb just staring up at you like a soccer ball .. just yesterday in my local news a enstranged boyfriend was trying to kill his ex girlfriend and new boyfriend with a shotgun.. he was told repeatedly by the police to put down his weapon aftere showing up at her house..before being shot down..how does a sixteen year old have a sawed off shotgun in his trunk in the first place?? he was shot down trying to show his love.. . . . . are, again, incredibly rare. Accidental deaths among children 14 and under amount to a few hundred per year. That sounds like a lot until you remember that there are about 280,000,000 people in the U.S. and about as many firearms. More children are accidentally killed by drowning, eating household cleaners, falls, bicycle accidents, etc., every single year than by gunfire. Among adults, accidents are the second lowest cause of accidental deaths. The only thing rarer is "specific types of poison." i dont know the exact amount..i will research it..however "incredibly rare' is not the case..everyone has heard of such horrible incidents..that defintely does not make it rare.. incredibly rare is ones house being hit by a meteor ill tell you what seems to be rare is someone shooting and killing a person commiting a crime against themselves or thier family/property this is something we dont hear ........."news flash good guy shoots drug dealer dead in an attempted car jacking..film at eleven!!" when was the last time you heard a story like that?? and finally you are correct i do have right to my opinion..and my opinon stands that a gun is made for nothing else then killing..i served in the military..ive seen up close and personal what a weapon can do..i was a corpsman(medic) in the service.you dont see soldiers wincing and crying out "go on without me" but instead crying out for thier mothers in extreme pain and fear knowing that they are dying..in the real world there are no "flesh wounds" or "grazing"..as you see in the movies.. a bullet hitting you anywhere is serious and most times fatal...no matter where you are hit..a leg wound as a matter of fact may be more deadly then a chest wound..if your hit in a femoral artery in the leg your dead. in a few minutes..but in the movies youve only been shot in the leg..youll live..ive spent a few nights as a child growing up wondering if my father was going to make it home..knowing alot of bad guys out there had a a gun they were more then willing to use on my father or any other "pig" that got in there way..because a nine to five was far beneath them..ive had more then a few people i know gunned down..i myself was shot at on two occasions one time feeling the heat of a slug whizzing past my ear which was meant for my head not even in military action..but by common thugs who felt they needed to shoot me to prove how tough they were..and in recent events in washington/virginia which are allready fading into yesterdays news..i bet you no one living around those areas will ever feel safe again in thier god given constitutional right to fill thier gas tanks without being shot to death..much less the right to bear arms and i leave with this.. can you really tell me firearms in america is not a problem? _________________ Javier l Rosario instructor taekwondo/hapkido under master Atef s Himaya "whenever youre lazy enough not to train .someone, somewhere is training very hard to kick your ass" Last edited by taezee on Wed 04 Dec, 2002, edited 1 time in total Back to top taezee Sempai Joined: 13 Jul 2001 Posts: 698 Location: Bayshore New York Posted: Wed 04 Dec, 2002 Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- okay something got messed up in seperating your qoutes with my rebutal but if you read straight through you know whats mine and yours..and i am openminded..but i stand firmly my belief is the sole purpose of a firearm ..each one thats is manufactured is to someday kill a human being..wheter they are desreving or not..moreso then to kill a deer by a hunter..just as any car manufactured is to transport people from point A to point B just as we pratice martial arts to subdue or cause serious harm to an assailant who tries to harm us ..all other reasons are secondary we can get into debate about that also..it is also my belief that this is the main reason for studying martial arts..to be able to harm those who choose to harm me..same can be said of possesing a firearm..to kill those who choose to try to kill me..all he other things that come with it.."self discipline..enlightenbment..physical fitness..confidence..characther..e.t.c are secondary as to why martial arts where created..its is to defend one from an attack not to win a gold medal with a ref controling a match in a ring with rules..a firearm to the crminal to be able to do what i he/she wamts to to to gain with deadly force..even if it means picking off innocents because he/she feels like it..and for them to be able to get such power in thier hands so easily means there is something seriously wrong with the amount of guns in america..you are at thier mercy same as you are at the mercy of fate that the next drunk driver wont ram head on into your car as you try to get home from work which also took the life of my anut 12 years ago because someone wanted to get high and then drive a car she was taken..no defense aginst that..just chance..she was just coming home from the supermarket..trying to make some breakfast for her family..but she was in the way of some person who didnt care..was drunk and killed her at stop sign..no matter the amount of time i have studied martial arts (twenty five years) ive never left the dojang confident in the fact that i can defend myself against a thug pointing a gun at me to ever think that would be denial at its best..real life is a big difference then the movies where you may see jet li grab the gun empty the magazine and smile at the bad guy before kicking him in the face.. ..all those years of training mean nothing in the second it takes for a trigger to be pulled and i would laugh in the face of anyone who would argue otherwise..self defense against a gun my ass..the best defense against that is to give up what i got and pray the guy doesnt shoot me..just as i pray im never in the wrong place at the wrong time..the more we have laws that prevent people with easy access to weapons the more we wont wind up in such an incident..its easier to get a firearm then to get cuban cigars again go figure..and yes i am ranting.. * and maybe when a whole lot of people get as pissed as i am something will change..instead of forgetting about it weeks later and being glad after reading or seeing the latest news report that it didnt happen to me or someone i know.its only news or another statistic until then where ONE is a devastating number that will haunt you for the rest of your life.where ONE is someone you know.or your death where people will read about you..and how your life was taken.."he was just pumping gas".."he was just going to school".."he was just trying to get home"..but someone who had a gun didnt care about all that..they may have even sneered and pulled the trigger..then went on to brag about how scared you looked as you realized you where going to be on the news that evening..please someone tell me how great guns are....tell me a story about how great it is to kill an deer..how it was a lifetime experience for you...how forfilling it was..or tell me a story about a crime that happened around the corner from you in which someone was shot dead by some scumbag..which one is more common?? more specifacally mr don gwin tell me of the advantages of having firearms as i see you a gun enthusiast? i myself choose not to have a fire arm because of the responsibility involved if i use it..i feel that even if justified i will be prosecuted with more scurtiny then a felon in the act of a crime..i will have to prove i had no choice. buy your profile tell me of the great advantages of the firearm and how noble the cuase of the NRA? educate me..guns dont kill people..people kill people...but people without guns make it much more difficult..yes or no?? _________________ Javier l Rosario

okay something got messed up in seperating your qoutes with my rebutal but if you read straight through you know whats mine and yours..and i am openminded..but i stand firmly my belief is the sole purpose of a firearm ..each one thats is manufactured is to someday kill a human being..wheter they are desreving or not..moreso then to kill a deer by a hunter..just as any car manufactured is to transport people from point A to point B just as we pratice martial arts to subdue or cause serious harm to an assailant who tries to harm us ..all other reasons are secondary we can get into debate about that also..it is also my belief that this is the main reason for studying martial arts..to be able to harm those who choose to harm me..same can be said of possesing a firearm..to kill those who choose to try to kill me..all he other things that come with it.."self discipline..enlightenbment..physical fitness..confidence..characther..e.t.c are secondary as to why martial arts where created..its is to defend one from an attack not to win a gold medal with a ref controling a match in a ring with rules..a firearm to the crminal to be able to do what i he/she wamts to to to gain with deadly force..even if it means picking off innocents because he/she feels like it..and for them to be able to get such power in thier hands so easily means there is something seriously wrong with the amount of guns in america..you are at thier mercy same as you are at the mercy of fate that the next drunk driver wont ram head on into your car as you try to get home from work which also took the life of my anut 12 years ago because someone wanted to get high and then drive a car she was taken..no defense aginst that..just chance..she was just coming home from the supermarket..trying to make some breakfast for her family..but she was in the way of some person who didnt care..was drunk and killed her at stop sign..no matter the amount of time i have studied martial arts (twenty five years) ive never left the dojang confident in the fact that i can defend myself against a thug pointing a gun at me to ever think that would be denial at its best..real life is a big difference then the movies where you may see jet li grab the gun empty the magazine and smile at the bad guy before kicking him in the face.. ..all those years of training mean nothing in the second it takes for a trigger to be pulled and i would laugh in the face of anyone who would argue otherwise..self defense against a gun my ass..the best defense against that is to give up what i got and pray the guy doesnt shoot me..just as i pray im never in the wrong place at the wrong time..the more we have laws that prevent people with easy access to weapons the more we wont wind up in such an incident..its easier to get a firearm then to get cuban cigars again go figure..and yes i am ranting..im pissed and maybe when a whole lot of people get as pissed as i am something will change..instead of forgetting about it weeks later and being glad after reading or seeing the latest news report that it didnt happen to me or someone i know.its only news or another statistic until then where ONE is a devastating number that will haunt you for the rest of your life.where ONE is someone you know.or your death where people will read about you..and how your life was taken.."he was just pumping gas".."he was just going to school".."he was just trying to get home"..but someone who had a gun didnt care about all that..they may have even sneered and pulled the trigger..then went on to brag about how scared you looked as you realized you where going to be on the news that evening..please someone tell me how great guns are....tell me a story about how great it is to kill an deer..how it was a lifetime experience for you...how forfilling it was..or tell me a story about a crime that happened around the corner from you in which someone was shot dead by some scumbag..which one is more common?? more specifacally mr don gwin tell me of the advantages of having firearms as i see you a gun enthusiast? and i apoloize in the fact that i just relized this belongs in the sinper posting in "serious discussion"

The ACLU, the NAACP, NOW, and the NRA all have their roles to play. They all protect rights that are vital to individual Americans and thus to all Americans. Discard them at your own peril. the fact that they are black and the involvment of the naacp has nothing to do with what i had stated nor with my view of gun control in america and frankly i find that statement patronizing..my opinion has nothing to do with race Why? You do know that Muhammed broke lots of federal gun laws when he bought his AR-15 "off the books," don't you? Why didn't the tough penalties for what he did stop him? Could it be because he's a murderer and murderers don't follow laws? The guy is going to be executed for his murders, and you want to sentence decent people who simply want to possess weapons for their own defense to prison in order to discourage him. the fact that someone as crazy as this individual is able to get such a weapon shows that its too easy, and that there should be laws made to prosecute those who choose to sell guns to anyone in the name of the dollar bill without proper background checks or "of the books" AKA illegaly they become as much responsible for the harm caused as the person who commits murdr with the weapon sold..just as now a person who host a party and lets a guest leave and drive drunk and kills someone is held liable by law and is also responsible in the death..decent people who carry firearms for self protection should not purchase them out of someones trunk or pawn shop nor carry them concealed without the proper license .i dont know much about where your from..im in new york where its ridiculous now that its almost a common thing for high school students to carry firearms as it is a backpack for thier books.alot of school yard disputes are settled with gunfights instead of the old fashioned fistfight where you may leave bruised not in a bodybag..mohammed may have broken alot of federal gun lwas in obtaining such a weapon..but he was not alone..those who supplied him are guilty also..if i was a drug dealer and supplied you with a heroin dose that killed you then im guilty of murder as well as distribution.. post your citations then..if you need to review your notes i can recall on a daily sotries of guns being used to kill innocent people just by last weeks news articles and im talking about only those that made the papers . . . . are, again, incredibly rare. Accidental deaths among children 14 and under amount to a few hundred per year. That sounds like a lot until you remember that there are about 280,000,000 people in the U.S. and about as many firearms. More children are accidentally killed by drowning, eating household cleaners, falls, bicycle accidents, etc., every single year than by gunfire. Among adults, accidents are the second lowest cause of accidental deaths. The only thing rarer is "specific types of poison." i dont know the exact amount..i will research it..however "incredibly rare' is not the case..everyone has heard of such horrible incidents..that defintely does not make it rare.. incredibly rare is ones house being hit by a meteor ill tell you what seems to be rare is someone shooting and killing a person commiting a crime against themselves or thier family/property this is something we dont hear about and finally you are correct i do have right to my opinion..and my opinon stands that a gun is made for nothing else then killing..i served in the military..ive seen up close and personal what a weapon can do..i was a corpsman(medic) in the service..ive spent a few nights as a child growing up wondering if my father was going to make it home..knowing alot of bad guys out there had a a gun they were more then willing to use on my father or any other "pig" that got in there way..because a nine to five was far beneath them..ive had more then a few people i know gunned down..i myself was shot at on two occasions one time feeling the heat of a slug whizzing past my ear which was meant for my head not even in military action..but by common thugs who felt they needed to shoot me to prove how tough they were..and in recent events in washington/virginia which are allready fading into yesterdays news..i bet you no one living around those areas will ever feel safe again in thier god given constitutional right to fill thier gas tanks without being shot to death..much less the right to bear arms and i leave with this.. can you really tell me firearms in america is not a problem?

hapkido was developed from akido just as taekwon do was from karate..so yes alot of similarities..excellent martial art

yes hapkido has plenty of all of the above probably the only form of korean amrtial art which hasnt as yet been converted into a "show" of what martial arts may be like..plenty of hand strikes. throws and "real " self defense tactics..medals dont have much relevance in hapkido as yet..nor should they matter in taekwondo .however that doesnt seem to be the trend today

i specifically was brought onto or made aware of this forum by an old friend to represent taekwondo/hapkido as an effective martial art..my old friend rushman who i dont see on here anymore but im not really here all the time now also because i get bored on all the statements such as "taekwondo" is 70 pecent kicks and 30 percent hands"and all the korean arts bashing on here or otherwise by a bunch of teenagers who think to know better then me. who said that?? who said taekwon do consisted of the common 70/30 theory taekwondo does translate as "the art of the hand and foot".not the art of mostly foot.. and who made this false theory to stick to with the same athourity as an urban legend? i hear people say this all day long and people who claim to have a "vast" knowledege of martial arts and say to myself well i must have been practicing and teaching a unique form of korean martial arts all these years...i must be wrong then and all of these self professed martial arts scholars who havent even graduated college are right!! how dare i argue with thier two three four years of training and experience??? in comparison to my twenty plus years of blood sweat and tears?. i may be wrong!!I may think i know korean martial arts but everyone else seems to know the true korean martial art!! maybe i fooled the united states military in my ability to train troops in martial combat on the battlefiled..maybe i fooled the local police and corrections officers into believing what i trained them in may protect them from harm in acclompishing the #1 rule of law enfocement..to get home to thier loved ones after thier shift!! maybe i was teaching them without my knowing something other then taekwon do..i must have been a good imposter to be given such an oppritunity..i must have been a better "con' artist" then martial artist.. okay sarcastic comments aside which is also another art i have mastered over the years.no one can defeat me in that cataegory i am a master of sarcasm..my response to "why" is simply individuals not being educated enough to make factual statements as to what taekowndo or korean martial arts really consist of..i dont even know that because everyday i still learn something new..and despite my time studying i would not have the audacity to have a student under me or anyone call me "master' the only thing i am a master of is my opinion..i have remained humble enough to remember that through the years.my ego does not have to be stroked in hearing people refer to me as master...when i have learned all there is to know i may accept such an honor..but for now i acceot the fact that many of you may generalize taekwondo as that art which is 70% kicking and 30% hands..and only an olympic sport..that many of you think taekwondo is usless art form in 'street combat' that all we do is practice for medals..that taekwondo is only a bunch of flashy 360 degree kicks.but what i really accept as a fact is that there are many people who are fools in believing these genaralizations of the art i have known and praticed and tried to master for so many years...whenever i look at my grandmaster jae hwa kwon knocking out a charging bull with a reverse punch and walking away grinning 65 years old and all or to see him put a ridge hand through pieces of coral reef without having his hands shredded into ribbons i think to myself when do i get to a point where i can do those things?? how ong must i train? all this time and i cant do either or..but i know thats the potential of a taekwondo master ..and if i continue i may be able to do such things and be looked upon with awe..at some point in my life..in the meantime..im still on a low level of learning and training despite the years..im still someone who doesnt know much about taekwondo but i hope that i always recognize that fact,, those of you making negative statements of taekwondo who can back up thier statements based on a recent tournament they witnessed which was merelyan exhibition of what not to do in a street fight all the dancing and hugigng on an oppenet .grabbing his/her hogu trying to score a point!!...can you really realize you know far less then I!! so i humbly ask please shut up. wait a second on second thought just please shut up sternly without my humble stance

ksn doug i saw that show it was on discovery that akido master looked like he ate forty white castle hamburgers as an appertizer before the main course but man could he move as graceful as a ballerina...just throwing people all over the place

a martial artist is not defined on wheter he/she has a chisled body in tae kwondo or any other style..we come in all shapes and sizes..all different levels of physical abilties..including chubby ones..i myself am a 'big boy"..still training hard to get the weight off to become the slender self i once was..im a heavyweight fighter but it doesnt stop me from being an elite martial artist..in fact most people dont expect me to be as fast and powerful as i am by looking at me but most cannot keep up with my endurance classes.they refer to me as "the monster" behind my back but locker room talk travels through the air ducts at my dojang and i hear everything in the main office..lol.alot of students even leave early when they know im teaching the last class of the evening..its usally the class where most of the black belts show up..and i kill them and they detest my classes i think moreso because they feel "why cant i keep up with the big guy"?? im 280 pounds of lighting..its a state of mind of training..i put on my dobok and just move..genetics is genetics so ive accepted the fact that i may never have a six pack stomach again because the lntensity of training i push myself through it hasnt given to me the body i prefer....I was once the physical fitness instructor of a naval base and a military martial arts instructor for the potsmouth naval hospital base in portsmouth virginia (1987-1990) and the extra weight hasnt really slowed me down..i actually like the fact that people lookat me and see my movments and are baffled..lol i catch alot of oppents both younger and much lighter then me off gaurd because they just dont expect someone of my size to kick so hard, high and fast..i dont even think much about it anymore..im a big tiger and move just as fast..another stereotype (big guys cant move quick enough) im one of the exceptions to that stupid rule!! a sumo wrestler who can move just as smoothly and fast and as graceful as a 100 pound wu shu artist.. ( see sammo the celeberty martial artist whos big and graceful moves created many martial arts movies as a comic relief ..hahaha look at how smooth that fat guy can move!!) im the puerto rican version of him!! dont judge a book by its cover!! you may be on the recieving end of a chapter you forgot to read!! i have plenty of "chisled' friends at my gym who dont want to work out with me because of the level i train at..im big but im bad and i take pride in that..the big bull who moves like a cat..thats me..theres plenty of martial artist who are "in shape" who wouldnt last fifteen minutes with me..who would throw up on the dojang floor and wonder what happened? size does not matter!! what matters is the skill of technique endurance and heart "wink" and the determination of an individual to overcome both physical and mental barriers!! to become a complete martial artist is to accept what one has and adjust..and work on strenghts of both physical abilities and character.. to work on both ..not to fit into the norm..and such is so in life...

it may take a while for people in that area to get back thier security to go on with thier lives..just worried about when not if the next person with demons starts taking up missions..and where..we need to get rid of guns in this country..when our forefathers wrote "the right to bear arms" they had no clue how bad it would get..the NRA needs to go .. need to instill much stiffer sentences for possesion of weapons..its to easy to get a firearm in this country ..i cant remeber the last time there was a news report saying some homeowner sucessfully gunned down an intruder in his house saving the lives of his family..i do however see repeated stories of children being gunned down in the middle of some gangters battle for a street corner..or some mentally deranged killer who had a bad childhood..start just shooting people at random..numerous school shootings..all the accidents that dont even make the news..children finding thier parents guns and killing themselves..i dont believe there is any strong argument to have firearms in ones home..or so easily available to americans..there are plenty of reasons not to have them..just read your paper everyday and hope you or your family never is in one of those articles that weve grown indifferent to. instead of being apalled

excellent article

we now have a copy cat in my area on long island new yourk..this person hasent killed anyone yet ..but he shoots at cars passing on the expressway..so far has shot at four cars....i wont be surprised to hear more incidents elsewhere..theres never a shortage of twisted minds unfortunately

ditto bon!!

okay kyle but there are plenty of things martial artist practice on a daily that wont do a thing in combat..we could start a whole thread on that.. i know plenty of black belts ..champions of tournaments.. even olympians who wont last in a real fight.at the same time i know yellow..green..blue belts who can..it really depends on how one trains..to be a practiioner of martial arts does not make one capable of self defense..to train as if ones life depended on it does..when i taught in the military it was not to be able to have some moves..to look good while throwing a 360 wheel kick or while breaking a couple of slabs of concrete..it was to survive hand to hand combat..training was just things that worked..to keep a soldier alive..no forms..no belt testing..no uniforms with a colored belt that was supposed to represent the level of skill...many people feel good going through the motions..wrapping thier fingers around thier belts as if to say "hey look at my belt color im good."..putting on the front that they are fighters..even brag about how dangerous they are and hoping they wont have to prove it..while on the other hand a real martial artist knows he can inflict harm and may genuinely feel.."i hope i dont have to use this" and remains quiet.

kyle san..the thread is asking.about taekwondo effectivness "in the street" (it could apply to any martial art) and of course a martial artist should use discretion just as a police officer who carries a side arm should use discretion and makes the decision when to take it out and use it.. main difference is he gets up each day goes to work and knows there a possiblity that he may not come home..his training makes the odds in his favor..he trains for life and death situations as well as being an outstanding citizen..an example to follow..of good morals and character..he has self discipline ( well most cops do except for the ones that make it on the news for doing something other than heroic efforts) just as a martial artist should be. .but very few martial artist train for making sure they make it home at night..we dont expect that someone may try to hurt us..or even kill us....ever heard the term "it is better to have a gun and not need it than to need it and not have it" same could apply to martial arts..after all we "are" the weapon..if properly trained..i wanna know if i need to be able to use my skills that i first have them..not think i do and then find out what ive be practcing has been an illusion..so in order to be truly effective in combat you must train hard as if you are actually being attacked..not just go through the motions..or working on techniques that would never be used in a fight (lets see horseback stance..cat stance..foward stance..are you actually going into these stances when fighting for your life??)..a student must decide what type of training he/she wants..do i want to just practice for fun??..tournaments??..so i can sound cool when i tell my friends "i take karate'? or to train for the real deal..to not be afraid to get hit hard ..tossed around..go home with bruises..but at the same time learning to really fight? ive used this analogy many times before but its so true..you cant learn to swim with out jumping into the water..you will not know how to swim when you most need it by walking on the edge of a beach or pool and think what it may be like..for once you need it that skill the most you will drown.. and this is what all these martial arts chains..mc dojos..whatever.. teach so that they can graduate many black belts in under two years so that money can be made and egos can be fed..unfortunately the majority of martial artist today quite simply CANNOT FIGHT... so i was trying to explain that in my usal sarcastic manner..and i havent been on here for a while becuase quite frankly i get bored seeing the same topics rehased over and over..like this one.. so yes it is true you should try to avoid fighting if you can...but will you be ready if forced to defend yourself?? HOBBITBOB i too was in the military United States Navy from 1984-1990 i was a naval corpsman which as you know is the navys "medic" i also taught combat taekwondo while in..my last two years where at portsmouth naval hospital in virginia where i worked in the command fitness dept ..making sure sailors and marines where up to standards physically and where able to FIGHT..not preform martial arts moves..big difference..in order to be an instructor of martial arts in the military you best believe i had to be qualified to instruct as such..they didnt pick my name out of a hat.. I was not trying to say you should just fight and ask questions later ..not at all.. again what i am trying to get across is.. the way that martial arts are being taught today ..garbage..useless training which gives thousands upon thousands the false sense of security that they can defend themselves.. and when they find out its too late...and to have alot of these same individuals walking around with thier clever little quotes that they picked out of the a ART OF WAR..or TAO OF JEET KUNE DO..or some other book and they are now "true martial artist"..just waiting for someone to stomp the hell out of them and give them a wake up call... you shouldnt be in a state of mind to be able to ask the question that this thread asks.."will my taekwon do skills work in a streetfight" (or any other martial art) you should be in a state of mind to be able to say "i know my skills will work in combat" and the only way to reach that is to train for it..so hard and so long that you wont have to think about anything when you may need it..you will just react.. if your lucky you wont ever have to use what you know..just as a friend of my fathers who was a new york city cop said when he retired.."im glad i never had to use my gun on anyone in twenty years" but it was always there just in case..my father was not so lucky..he had to shoot two people in the line of duty..well hes still here thank god ..better them then him..but he had it there when he needed it and survived and my pops is one of the few men i truly respect..ive gotten more of my character from him then any master could ever instill in me and im grateful for that.because alot of people dont get that from thier fathers..what i got from him is that its good to be humble..compasstionate and understanding..but at the same time to kick ass when circumstances call for it..and in his line of work..it was necessary not only to uphold the law but to get home at night so he could see me grow up.. in my life ive only had a fear of two men..my pops and my insructtor..my insrtuctor who we called "norman bates'behind his back because we thought he was crazy..and knowing how dangerous both were..i only focus on how much love they both showed me and always will..how you could be strong yet humble.. and hope my students would feel the same about me