sensei8

Agreed. If you think the bo is "easy"..then you aren't learning anything other than simple basics with the weapon. There are parrys, disarms, locks, sweeps, blocks, jabs, thrusts, etc etc etc...the vast majority of people think there's maybe 10 bo techniques...HA! I've been working on the bo for 30+ years now, and I still discover new things to do with it. Another solid post from Montana!!

I could post a few ways to escape from a bear hug, but I feel that I would be amiss if I first didn't express my honest opinion. Almost every style of the martial arts "teaches" how to escape from a bear hug; imho, some are effective and some aren't effective. Having said that, just about every bear hug escape that I've seen had one bad element to it. Could you guess what that bad element is? Imho...it's A COMPLIANT UKE!! If your training partner isn't willing to put up a fight to keep you in that bear hug, and just let you do whatever you want to do to escape from that bear hug, then your escape is ineffective. Yes, learn the proper ways of "that" said method of escaping from a bear hug, then the compliant Uke is important to learning. PLEASE RESIST ME; NO MATTER WHAT!! Have many different training partners because not everyone reacts the same way.

Want to fight? OK...competition fighting or a real fight? Competition fighting has pads and rules. Real fighting has no pads and no rules. Having said that, one would have to be prepared for the consequences that would follow either. Many say that they want to be in a real fight...well...that's until that person realizes the raw reality of it. To want to do it is not the same as actually doing it.

Who do we have here at KF that could answer questions about Skype? Hhhhmmmmmmm... Let me think.... Aha.... Patrick!! With Patrick's permission first, of course.

Well Brian, clean out your basement please and let's train!!

Solid post!!

Well, be prepared to smack your finger tips more than once, smack your elbows more than once, smack the back of your head more than once, smack yourself in other areas more than once...feels just wonderful. Good luck and don't let anyone take your desires away from you. Weapons training; you'll have a love and hate relationship with weapons, but, that's to be expected because, you thought empty hands training was a blast, well, weapons is a real hoot.

My wife wouldn't make a good training partner because she's a yellow belt and I'd have to go to sleep one day; I shudder the thought of what she'd do to me.

The pen; it's mightier than any sword!! But, in all seriousness, Montana's right on the money. There is no easy martial arts weapon to learn, however, if I was to pick one, for the sake of this topic/thread, I'd pick the yawara, but even then, it has it's difficulties.

Why not? Contact the organization on your own, be polite and respectful, explain to then the situation, and then see if there's a way for them to certify your students. Cutting out the middle-man is business 101. It's not personal; it's business. Good luck!!

Scared of a technique? No. It is what it is and I'm sure I'll meet it with confidence. Of course, that's now, when I first started, my youthful anxiety would get the best of me from time to time.

I do both, pads/no pads. Pads with those who are less experienced than myself. No pads with those who are near my experience if they want, but the power is dialed down. It's not unusual to see Greg, Kancho, and I spar with each other without any pads while we're, at times, full speed/power. For the most part, we usually end up in a stalemate. Greg and I grew up together under our Dai-Soke and the two of use love contact. To watch us you'd think someone's going to get hurt, but that rarely occurs. We're both same rank, yet, I've 6 months over Greg. Greg is the only person I'll spar with full speed/power; it's a trust issue. We love to test our mettle with each other. I'm a proponent of pads and no pads sparring. Both types have there purposes, therefore, safety must be paramount.

Solid point!!

At the core, imho, a punch is just a punch, etc. Outside of the envelope, things change/evolve/transition/transform/etc from what is found at the core of any martial art technique. They say that change is inevitable, true, however, is that for everything or just some things? I'd say, in the martial arts, it's some things because at times, practitioners aren't willing to adapt/change/etc self and/or any said technique because they don't want to and/or they don't know how to.

I'm very sad for the victim. Mr. Cook, while he's an exceptional karateka, it would now appear that his teaching/writing career has come to a screeching halt.

Yeah, I agree with JustceZero...just start. Whenever I hear that people don't have time for class/training, I sort of chuckle. Why? If one would total the time that one's doing absolutely nothing during the awakened day, one would be sure to find that they have more time to devote to the martial arts then they truly imagined. A lot of classes only last 1 hour. 1 hour times 3 days a week equals to 3 hours a day. Now, if you add driving time and the little time spent at the dojo before and after class, maybe that comes to 4 hours a week. But, don't forget training/practicing. Lets add 6 hours a week for training/practicing. Now we're up to 10 hours a week, to be honest, 10 hours isn't a lot, nor a reason to not start. That's my opinion.

I'd summit this question to Jeffrey, who's, imho, our resident Kitchen Kata expert...Jeffrey, could you help tkdkid123?

If I remember correctly, the number 9 is quite significant/important to the Korean's. It makes since that the ATA would honor that by having a 9 belt system. Yes, Bob, that is correct. The ATA did a lot of things with the number nine, like the number of colored belt forms, the first one having 18 moves, 1st dan having 81 moves, and things like that. They wanted to do Korean cultural symbolism and the like.Doesn't the Songahm Star also reflect the number 9 very well? One has to respect that, and surely do. 81 moves in a form is a lot. Gojushiho only has 54 steps, as the name implies, and in many, many Karate styles, Gojushiho is their longest kata.

I think that Dembe is as about raw as any martial art can be; no external pretty fringes, just right to the point of the matter.

What I know about JKD, as a JKD practitioner, could be put in a small thimble. Having said that, when I hear "discard and use what's useful" I think it's a wise thing, but it's not always a permanent thing because as we mature as martial artists, we can now use what was once discarded before. I'll be as bold to say this...Bruce left way too soon, and in that, I believe that every practitioner of the martial arts is stuck, from time to time, on assuming just exactly what Bruce meant.

ROFL

Thanks Patrick for all of the information. I didn't understand some of it, but that's ok...I'm a student of computer-do too. As far as the quality, when Jeffrey and I did a video chat yesterday...I thought the quality across the board was right on spot. What did you think Jeffrey? Yeah, Danielle, I saw that on Skype, but I've not as of yet used it, maybe I better, huh? I sure wouldn't hurt. Thanks Danielle and Patrick!!

Can't say as I recall it either, Bob. I do think I've heard of it before. Is that not "Hwarang Do" Close, but Hwarang Do translates into "The Way Of The Flowering Knights". However, I was a jbb when I first heard it and I could've replaced "Knights" with "Hand". Of course, there is the fact that I'm much older and my memory isn't what it use to be. Ah ok. Knew it had the flowering part in there. "Hwa"-something then Maybe "Hwa-Soo Do" as I think (correct me if I'm wrong) the "soo" part of Tang Soo Do and Kong Soo Do is "hand". Oooohhhh, I like that, and it bears on me to do some quick little research. Danielle, great point!!

I don't know, but, aren't we now possibly entering into some semantics over the word..."belong"? Semantics are akin to one not seeing the forest because of the trees. Also, couldn't the word "belong" in this thread be based on ones feelings? Just thinking out loud.

In my opening post, I've just edited a sentence so that the sentence expressed my true feelings... Original sentence... "Other experts in his field could learn a lot from Patrick, and if I was to enter into that field, Patrick would be my first and last choice." Edited sentence... "Other experts in his field could learn a lot from Patrick, and if I was to enter into that field, Patrick would be my first and last choice to learn from."