joesteph

The movie Predators has a quote from Hemingway in the dialogue between two characters. By luck, I found the complete quote and source, what's in bold being in the movie: "Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter. You will meet them doing various things with resolve, but their interest rarely holds because after the other thing ordinary life is as flat as the taste of wine when the taste buds have been burned off your tongue." (from 'On the Blue Water' in Esquire, April 1936) It refers to "hunting armed men." I think of men in special forces, those who stage guerrilla attacks, mercenaries, and even the bounty hunters of the Old West. Are such persons sociopaths? If a sociopath, born one or made into one? "On hold" regarding what they're doing and then open to PTSD?

No one's responded, but I have another post on how I've since customized BOB, cushioning the area below the belt.

I decided to make the BOB I have go one step further . . . I went to Karate Depot to find something that could cushion the post below BOB, especially since I'm a low kicker. I found a Muay Thai bag costing $90 that's supposed to be a reconditioning item. When I received it, I found that the hole in its center, where you'd encircle the post, was only a couple of inches in diameter. It's really designed for encircling a spring-type mechanism, covering it with foam and the vinyl covering. Inside, though, was a ton of foam. I used a long thin blade, that's certainly sharp. I figured where the circle should be in the middle of the foam for the WaveMaster post (BOB uses a WaveMaster post and base) and began poking holes. Long, deep holes. I sliced right through the foam with that blade, first making holes as guides, then cutting in a circular motion as well as I could. I stabbed/cut away at both ends, then sliced the middle with that same long slender blade. I put the vinyl covering back over the foam, fit it over the post, and BOB is now customized. His height is 5'9", and that Muay Thai bag is now his lower body. Low kicks go right into a cushioned place instead of hitting a hard plastic post.

Great post, Sokusen!

I've already done elbow, side kick, back kick, and roundhouse, Brian. When the kicks were first brought up as required for promotion, it was pretty clear that what the curriculum says is the way it's done. I've seen others do testing, and they've done these board breaks, including the one I'm supposed to do for 3rd gup--the jump roundhouse. I don't want to make the test all about the break, and it may be that my teacher does have other freedoms, but I've always seen her follow the guide. If I had to do punch, palmheel, knifehand, or hammerfist breaks, even doing two of them for passing, I'd feel much more comfortable. I feel, and I think others may feel as well, that it's especially embarrassing to blow the board break, particularly with an audience looking on.

Surely you're joking?! Those are considered to be the same level technique? Gup & Dan Manual published by the US Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, Copyright 2009, p. 96: - Breaking (Kyok Pa) - Tuel Oh Choong Dan Kong Kyuk or E Dan Dollyo Cha Gi It's a kicking art, and the finale of the 3rd gup test is the board break by E Dan Dollyo Cha Gi--jump roundhouse kick. The inclusion of Tuel Oh Choong Dan Kong Kyuk--reverse middle punch--makes sense to me if you're just interested in someone being able to break a board. It's likely claimed to be there to accommodate persons with health issues, but I still find no reason to have a jump roundhouse break as proof (fail it, you didn't pass the test; redo the break attempt within a month; what happens if you still can't do it?) that you're a 3rd gup. Me? I'd choose the reverse punch board break. I don't believe my promotion should be held up or denied based on acrobatics.

I've read that board-breaking was an outward demonstration of power and precision. It's also showy. I've picked up on instructors who once did board-breaking, or once required it, but dropped it as any kind of requirement. They removed it from testing as something done for fun during class time. While I realize there are those who consider board-breaking important, I question what technique you are using to break that board. I take a kicking art that has a ton of front kicks in its hyungs, but no test incorporates a simple front kick. The first break I did was with the elbow, but not really, as it's the forearm that breaks through. That was okay, but I didn't believe it demonstrated prowess. All other board breaks in Soo Bahk Do are expected to be done by kick, even though the alternate hand technique is there in the testing manual; it's a Korean art, a kicking art, and so the break by kick is expected. What I don't follow is the additional requirement as you go up the belt chain to do more exotic kicks. They only represent showmanship to me, not proficiency. A roundhouse kick to break a board, learning to do the kick at an angle and with the ball of the foot instead of the instep, had been required of me for one promotion; the next promotion wants a jump roundhouse kick. That's just showmanship in my book. If someone believes differently, that's okay, but if (when?) I don't receive a promotion because I didn't do this altitude kick break, I'm just going to feel cheated. Do you know what the alternate hand technique is instead of the jump roundhouse kick? Break the board by a reverse punch.

This video lets you know the bear really can manipulate the staff: This video must have been pieced together here-and-there, but the bear really is manipulating the staff:

A woman solved a seven word puzzle on Wheel of Fortune with only one letter showing: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40072669#40072669?from=en-us_msnhp&gt1=43001 When you hear her explanation, see if it doesn't fall into place.

To those who've used both and can make a comparison, is there a marked difference between the two? The BOB offered now is actually the "new" BOB, with easier "skin" to strike. But BOB XL has more torso area, and other than groin strikes, there are people like me who cannot do side, back, and roundhouse kicks above the belt. They're both humanlike, but have you found a noticeable or insignificant difference between the two?

I don't teach, but when I studied for a couple of months in a fighting school, Shihan was strict about no facial contact. We wore helmets and could get a backfist to a helmet area, which might even be right over your forehead, so we did keep our guard up, and even head contact was expected to be light. And it wasn't point sparring; it was continuous and fun. What's funny is that he let people like me, who are low kickers and will wind up kicking below the waistline, exchange Muay Thai kicks to the upper legs. We wore gear, so nobody was hurt. If someone studied there for awhile, he permitted takedowns, although they were in such a manner that you didn't actually seize you sparring partner. It was all nongrabbing leverage. I left the school due to health reasons, so I left on good terms. One thing's for sure, I learned how to fight better in two months than in two years in a noncontact school I'd attended previously.

Soo Bahk Do and Tang Soo Do are closely related. Non-contact to light contact sparring is the rule in Soo Bahk Do. It's possible that your school follows a similar rule. When I took Tae Kwon Do when younger, it was non-contact; that same school became a contact school within the last decade. Please check with your instructor. There are many adults who do not want contact, and there are many parents who do not want contact for their children, so that should be cleared up with your instructor before you go further. At age 24, I believe someone in good health and with the feelings you have should experience light to moderate contact (such as light to the face/head, but moderate to the torso); full contact is something I don't favor, but that's me. I do understand what others have said, that sparring might not be permitted for someone below a certain belt, and when I took non-contact Tae Kwon Do, I actually had to wait until my first promotion to do non-contact sparring, likely b/c it takes control to come close but not connect. But find out from your instructor about contact, TSD: non, light, light-moderate?

How straight out are your side kicks, TSD? In other words, are your legs, one the supporting leg and the other the kicking leg, forming a "wishbone"? If so, you're not turning your hip over enough, crunching the ball-and-socket joint where the neck of the femur of the kicking leg is exerting more and more pressure the higher you kick. Check out this Revolution of Kicking side kick tutorial on YouTube, and compare what it has with what you're doing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j1w--TjqVY

In the December issue of Black Belt magazine, there's the Editor's Note on p. 14, Robert W. Young's "Myth of the Fair Fight." This is from that article: [F]air fighting is best confined to the dojo . . . In most other places, it's an anachronism. Any martial artist instructor will tell you that. He'll teach you that in a street fight, you should do whatever it takes to survive. If he's good, he'll also counsel you on possible legal consequences of your actions . . .

Just tonight, while my boys were taking class and I was free to practice in a section of the dojang, a certain move was being worked on by a teenager (excellent green belt) who had a question to make sure he was doing the series right. I worked with him past that bump, and asked him if he knew the application. He didn't. I'd been shown the application by my teacher quite a while ago, and she does it so well that I can't copy it. I use a modification that I picked up on the Internet, which I remember showing her with a fellow student as uke. To simplify, it involved a face-to-face bear hug of him over my arms, my responding with a bear hug under his arms, and then a facial grab of the opponent, my arms that had hugged reaching up behind his shoulders to grab his face and take him down backwards. When showing the teen, my first error was that I didn't start in the right position, and though he didn't know what the application was, the simple resistance he put up prevented the application and triggered the right position in my mind. If he had just gone along, I'd have executed an application that wouldn't work in real life. When it was done in the right position, he resisted enough so that instead of both my hands grabbing his face to pull him back and down, one hand seized. It worked, in that he was being pulled back, although there was no need for him to actually land backwards to know it was being done right. In both cases, he was an honest uke. In the first, that I was doing it wrong, and in a real-life situation meet with a rude surprise. In the second, I encountered that it can be done, and likely be considered effective, but not done "by the book" with a resisting opponent as opposed to someone going along. A good experience.

I like your post, Montana, but have a question about one section in paragraph 12: Sometimes that great punch that you are sure scored, we see as being to far away from the opponent, to strong enough in our opinion to be a legitimate scoring point, it was blocked, or you were so off balance that the technique wouldn't have landed with any power to actually do any good. I'm not sure I understand what I've highlighted in bold. The strike is too strong to score a point? Is this a penalty by way of denying a point due to lack of control?

In Totally Tae Kwon Do, there's an article in the latest issue, Issue 20, by Jason Ainley, titled "Competition Basics." It starts on p. 23, and is filled with photos not of adults but of kids performing sparring combos. The info is useful for adults, but it's really a good article for kids who want to compete.

Congrats, Evergrey!

I have to admit I'm not familiar with Sanda, Kuma, but I enjoyed the video. I didn't see the blade kick I'd mentioned, but I saw what looked like JKD to me, like a pendulum side kick, and a stop kick to the leg instead of the torso. I also liked the shuffle up (didn't seem to be a hop or skip) that was done, even with a more standard--and high--side kick. I returned to training at the start of September, and have done some rear leg skipping forward for the front leg to kick side kicks. (Sometimes I wonder if they're not more like back kicks, but I've been told they look like side kicks.) Thanks for sharing!

I wondered about breaking with this kick since it was brought up, Danielle, and I watched board-breaking with kicks at the dojang just this Friday. I understand it has to be with the ball of the foot, but is it more challenging than a regular roundhouse; i.e., that you don't strike with the toes? Is the board placed at a certain angle? And if this kick is used, is it really useful only to the face?

I remembered this post and wanted to return to it because of a short article in October's Black Belt magazine, "First Lesson: The Side Kick," on p. 19. Beginners often giggle when they first learn this version of the side kick because of the term that's used to describe the striking surface: the blade of the foot. . . . [T]he impact cuts into the target, which can range from the shin and knee all the way up to the head. On each page of this thread, I don't think anyone referred to the striking surface as other than the heel. I thought that using the blade was done at a past time, but that the heel was superior and replaced it; also that the chance of self-injury went up with the blade side kick. Does anyone use the blade instead of, or as well as, the heel?

This is Peet Cha Gi as done in Soo Bahk Do: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFucHimmIzU

I'm wondering if what's being called the inverted roundhouse kick is what's called Peet Cha Gi (cha gi just means it's a kick) in Soo Bahk Do. In Peet Cha Gi, say your right leg is going to do a roundhouse, and let's make the head the target. Instead of your right leg roundhouse striking the left side of your opponent's head, it'll swing out and hit the right side of his head. Same kick? If so, another name for the same thing, but this is in Korean. BTW, the two figures in my profile icon on the left are (standing) GM Hwang, and (kneeling) GM Hwang Kee, the founder of Soo Bahk Do. The standing figure is doing Peet Cha Gi.

Why are your children taking private classes? Do you feel that this is the better way for them to achieve a higher belt than in a regular class, that in a regular class their needs won't be met? The cost for private lessons would be anyone's concern. My children are special needs and are the only two in their class, so their teacher is doing this ("Courage Club") because she feels it's the right thing to do. She charges no more than for regular students, and it's twice a week. They're 8, going on 9 this month, and the price has been the same for the past three years. I suggest transfering them to a regular class, learning with fellow students their age. Sharing lessons with others can be the motivator you want, due to its social aspect.

Considering what Sokusen wrote, imagine this: I wasn't robbing his car! A guy in a blue jacket was doing it, and the alarm went off when I was walking up the street. The guy took off! When the owner came out, he wouldn't listen! He was screaming at me like a nut! I tried to get out of there, but he chased after me! If I were a crook, I'd have taken out my knife as soon as he came out! But I didn't! I tried to get away from him, but he came after me like he was crazy! I was forced to defend myself! I'm lucky I'm alive! Now I've got medical bills! I don't like playing "devil's advocate," but there's a reason for a car alarm, a reason why there's a 911 number, and even a reason why a thief (good point, Kuma) would run off w/o brandishing a knife. So long as the owner was in no danger (simply because the thief ran off, or if he had a weapon in case the thief came at him), I believe it was rash to give chase.