joesteph

I wonder if you could go to the AWMA and Century web sites to see if something's there, then contact the merchant regarding what you want to "borrow," agreeing to give credit, such as "Courtesy of ____" in small letters. The AWMA site has, at the bottom of its home page, a statement that nothing can be used without the permission of AWMA--not that nothing can be used. Maybe Century does the same thing. It's worth a try to check out the sites and ask, especially since it also advertises the company.

The one with the bullet passing through the beer can reminds me of a past discussion regarding changing US military rifle ammunition from 7.62mm (.30 caliber) to 5.56mm (.223). One demonstration involved, of all things, a tomato can. The 7.62mm round struck a tomato can, punched an entry hole that was about the diameter of the bullet, and made an exit hole larger than the entry. When the 5.56mm round struck a similar tomato can, the energy of the bullet was mostly "spent" within the can itself, meaning that it blew out the back of it. The .30-06 cartridge that was used in WW I & II for the M1, and the development of the .308 (I believed designated as 7.62mm NATO), gave way to the 5.56mm NATO cartridge, dubbed by some as a "hot .22," which even the Kalishnikov rifles eventually adopted.

When I was being tutored by a friend in Isshinryu, there was a friend of his/acquaintance to me, who joined us for the first month. We blocked differently from the Taekwondo blocks I'd been introduced to, using the outer forearm, and when we practiced blocks against punches, we used some pretty hard slams. It was force-against-force to a degree, but these blocks that were like forearm strikes were part of the reason the third guy quit. Looking back, I'd say we were conditioning our forearms without realizing it. Your references to block, move, and the oncoming energy, Chikara, make me think of redirecting, of channeling your opponent's energy to his disadvantage, perhaps moving your center no more than a foot but causing his blow to dissipate, even throw him off balance. Do you block with open hand in the new dojo? Do you redirect? Home in on a choice spot in a select way? An example of the latter would be that a roundhouse is coming in, and you've moved towards your opponent, blocking at his knee, not the apex of his kick. In this example, the block is not force-against-force, and you're in a good position to counter. My instructor moves in a flash against a punch, shifting her center to one side while firing off a knife hand block against the punch itself, setting up a diagonal shot to the face or ribs. These are really two different ways of blocking, and sometimes, say in a tight space, the Isshinryu block (followed by a counter) is the better of the two, but in another situation, the soft block--followed by the hard hit--is the better choice.

As a high school teacher, these are the ones I often find as errors in social studies term papers: 1. The one that really annoys me is how people suddenly seem to confuse "have" and "of", as in: "I could of learnt how to write properly." 4. If you do something to change a situation, then you "effect" a change. If your circumstances are changed by an action, then the change has caused an "effect". You cannot "affect" a change in something, nor can you be "effected" by one. 12. The proper use of "its" and "it's" seems to confound many people, with "its" being a possessive and "it's" being a contraction of "it is". I was surprised that I didn't see "your" and "you're" listed. It's a fairly common mistake in writing.

I live in the NYC metropolitan area, and there were morning show DJs on the radio, mentioning that he was in a certain commercial shown in our area. It's a commercial for the New York State lottery, and three men are at a table in a diner. One is Ed McMahon, spouting out what his trademark call is; next to him is a man who does the same (I recognized the voice but not the man himself); the third man with them doesn't speak, but the DJs said it was Don LaFontaine. Perhaps he wasn't well when they did the commercial, but they wanted to include him in.

I don't know which is more amazing, the technology that creates the "Mona Lisa," or the calculations that went into designing it.

He's got a stocky build, giving the appearance of a man you'd think would be using only cross punches and hammerfists, but there's a precision and economy of movement here, the ridge hand being one of his main weapons. Considering his build, though, his ridge hand must be a wicked one.

It sounds to me like a man who's "old school," which is the way I've been described. It's a combination of striking a woman and striking someone younger. I don't know his age, but I think of injuries I've done to others by accident in the past. I wonder if he ever accidentally injured anyone? There is a way to handle this, but it has to be done with a portrayal of sincerity and firmness, rather than as an expression of anger. I was in the same situation you are in right now, but I am fifty-six, and the best student to spar against was eighteen. It's non-contact, but he held back too much; even doing self-defense exercises, he was still holding back too much. I chose to stop whatever we were doing, be it sparring or self-defense, and tell him politely but firmly "Don't do this to me." I told him more than one time that he is disrespecting me if he doesn't treat me as an equal (sounds like something a woman would say to a man, but this is a case of a middle-aged man saying it to a younger one). I told him we were both learning nothing, and that I have to pull my weight. Bit-by-bit, he loosened up, and when we sparred, even non-contact, we crashed into each other more than one time, prompting my instructor to remind us about the "non" in "non-contact." Even the self-defense techniques improved in working together. I miss the guy; he's just gone off to basic training in the Marine Corps. You have to speak up, right to him, even if it means stopping what you're doing and being firm. You might smile when he goes in slow motion, refuse to move when it's coming at you, and say that he has to make it more genuine. Don't let him think you're mad at him; let him feel that he's working with you when he does as you ask. Your instructor may or may not like it, because it gives the appearance of "making a scene," but you're not doing that, Chikara, you're doing what needs to be done to be the martial artist you're striving to be.

Good point, Fujau. The problem I had from overdoing certain exercises for the grip when weight-training was that I developed "tennis elbow." It's not the most precise term in the world, but anyone who has that pain in the forearm doesn't care what it's called. The fingers are not appendages with muscles. Examining them, you will find bone, connective tissue (ligaments), paddings of flesh, and many nerve endings, but the muscle connection and strength comes from elsewhere. That's how I got tennis elbow; the gripping (and I really overdid it, choosing that brilliant approach of "working through the pain") went up through the hand muscles straight to the outer forearm. Then I had to abandon direct grip exercises in favor of the indirect, such as the gripping of dumbbells while performing curls. (Did you know there's such a thing as "Golfer's elbow"? The pain is on the inner side of the forearm, and a friend of mine developed it from repeatedly doing the heaviest preacher curls he could manage.) Desensitizing the fingers while maintaining a strong grip seems to be the best-balanced MA approach. My question is if anyone here uses or has used a "kime bag" or an "iron palm bag," both of which are sold by AWMA. Are they genuinely helpful so that the fingers can be conditioned for strikes, or are they more of a novelty item? (Incidentally, the photo of a martial artist striking a kime bag in the AWMA catalog has him using what I would call Single Whip, and some others have referred to as a Chicken Beak [or some description like that].)

I wondered, BB of C, what your thoughts are on a school that may not be presenting itself as a combative one, or presents itself as a stepping-stone in combative conditioning? In the school that I attend, which is not even a year-and-a-half old, the children (such as the Little Tigers, who are ages 4-7) are not taught in the same manner as the adults, even though many parents want their children to be able to defend themselves against bullies. The students who are ages 8-12 are in a middle ground, in that they understand that what they are being taught is actually combative, but they would not be expected to give a strong fight against a teenager (hit hard and get out of there). The non-contact emphasis in sparring is emphasized by my instructor. As for the teens and adults, I've found a mixture of who attends. I've found the majority satisfied with non-contact; it's what they want, though they may say they want to learn self-defense, and some are there because they feel this is a sport they can do (you go at your own pace), or even for the health benefits they feel they receive. Individuals like me, who would like to do some contact, even light contact, and who have realistic confidence in the sparring gear available, are in short supply there. (We "lost" an eighteen-year-old who wasn't afraid to mix it up to the Marine Corps this month. Non-contact sparring between him and me was monitored by my instructor, who I believe wanted to strangle us on occasion.) If my instructor pushed contact for teens and adults now, I wonder if she'd lose students; if she waits, and it may be for a few years, enrollment will likely increase, and it may be much safer to introduce it then. Would you agree that, so long as the students have a reasonable understanding of what they're being taught, such as that they are taught to a certain point and no further, that the school is bona fide and is a martial art school?

I'm going to stick with "Shinta" from now on.

Not only do I think you're right, SKI, but I'm glad you gave a focus to the pain. Connective tissue, in this case the ligaments, is simply structurally different from skeletal muscle, and there are people with powerful muscles who become limited by the damage they did to connective tissue. In weight-training, the connective tissue is usually a tendon; in stretching, it's usually a ligament. These tissues can tear, and so, as SKI said, "don't rip yourself apart." Martial artists, I believe, really need that flexibility even more so than the weight-trainer. Patience--a virtue! A younger person might have an injury not because of impatience but because of a lack of instruction/supervision; an older person might have the reverse, an injury not due to lacking instruction but due to impatience, even lamenting afterwards, "I knew I shouldn't have, but . . ."

Thanks for your insights, Bushido Man. I did notice that difference between the sides regarding coordination; as a matter of fact, when it comes to kicking, I've found that, in sparring, some students will be kicking with only, say, the right leg, despite all the practice with both left and right. Truestar mentioned hopping kicks for distance in his posting, and I had been experimenting with that hop/skip movement since seeing it on videos online at Expert Village. I wonder if the modification had been introduced because so many people have or can develop bad knees. While my instructor has no problem with jump kicks herself, she makes accommodations for others if their knees will bother them. As for the fun of doing jumping kicks, the younger set in the dojang loves to do them. I have to admit, when I was on that jogging track doing the jumping front kick to just a shin-high level, I felt like one of the kids.

Congratulations, Tiger! :up:

Isn't is so that Bruce Lee got into conflict with other Chinese martial arts masters, that he insisted he would teach anyone willing to learn, not just anyone who was Chinese who wanted to learn? Unfortunately, prejudice cut both ways for him. I understand that he was not chosen for the lead in the series "Kung Fu" because he was not white, and while David Carradine did later on study martial arts, at the time he was chosen, his strong point was that he was a dancer able to do those high kicks.

Truestar, what you're doing is excellent. It should be that you take advantage of your age and dexterity and enjoy these aspects of your art. It doesn't mean you don't work on your self-defense skills, but there's no reason not to have more than one expression of your martial arts skills. Josh, I'm going to assume you're older than Truestar, who's sixteen, and I'm going to tell you that I envy you. Those jump kicks that you practice are just great to be able to do. Reading over your post, I'm wondering if it's up to the instructor to broaden the offerings of the art, although it may be that when a practitioner of a particular art becomes an instructor, if s/he has a narrow base for a background, then that may be why a broader offering isn't made. Does this mean, then, that the instructor has an obligation to his or her students to broaden that base and so be able to offer more? Maybe so.

Your thoughts are rather insightful, Bushido-Ruach. The dojang where I study is relatively new, my instructor, who is the owner, training at an out-of-town dojang that's been in business for a number of years and where she earned her dan ranking. I'm mentioning this because the average student where I study is therefore of a lower ranking and limited in experience. My school is a non-contact one in sparring, but we do self-defense drills that my instructor and her assistant instructor introduce to us. They emphasize that the way we train is the way we will fight in a street situation. What I've found is that our school's average teenage or adult student is very concerned with not hurting anybody. That's not a bad thing, of course, but it limits how realistically self-defense can be presented. I myself am not interested in harming a fellow student too, of course, but I've found that it can get in the way of my own learning, and I've had to prod my "opponent" along, with my instructor knowing that I'm not afraid to take a shot or really feel it in a joint lock. The "tapping" you referred to is actually something that students have to be made to do; they will make certain, and all-too-certain, that their punches and kicks fall short of their target-opponent. I've sometimes been paired with a student who is like that, with the instructor emphasizing that s/he has to try to hit me; it's my job to get out of the way. I've even insisted that my opponent redo the strike because it fell short; I should have felt it against my body, even if it's only a tap. My voice does carry, and when we were doing joint locks recently, I'm certain my instructor heard me insist to my opponent "Crank it up!"--but nothing was said. I do the same with my fellow students, knowing not to strike the face (my instructor is conservative on that point when we do self-defense drills), but at least to tap the body, and even to apply that joint lock pressure until the signal is given that pain is registered. I remember when I was tutored in Isshinryu by a friend of mine, and we were spending no time on kata, some time on striking exercises, and lots of time sparring. We first started with no safety gear, striking moderately, and then added gear on bit-by-bit because we were soon-enough trying to kill one another. But I learned how to take a punch and hit back. I would like it if my school permitted controlled contact when sparring, especially since sparring gear is readily available, but it's got to build up, and the individuals who are the teens and adults (especially those of us in middle age) are not of the same mind as I am regarding contact sparring. I'm still new to karate anyway, and I've got time to see what develops. But as my boys grow older, and I really want them to do well in karate, they're going to learn from me, their father, what my father never taught me. They're going to learn how to defend themselves. Not be bullies. Not start fights. Defend themselves.

Korean arts are noted for their jumping--even called "flying"--kicks. When I studied Tae Kwon Do years ago, the instructors did not instruct us in these types of kicks (I never even saw dan members performing them in the dojang), but I learned that there was a concern about students falling, getting injured, and encountering that old bogeyman, the lawsuit. My Soo Bahk Do instructor did introduce the jumping front kick to us just before the summer. The younger set, ages twelve to eighteen, had no problem with its execution and looked forward to it. The middle-aged set, though, and that includes me, had difficulties. One of us, for example, refers to his bodyweight, not coordination, and the assistant instructor worked with him to do a jump forward and a kick, so it's modified. With me, it seems to be coordination, and I have to be careful about bringing back the tendinitis I had when I overdid squats when weight-training, in that when you jump, you have to land, of course, making the knees act as shock absorbers; training for this jump means many jumpings and therefore many landings. My instructor allows me to do much as my friend does, to jump forward and fire off a kick, modifying it. But it disappoints me, thinking of my knees, yes, but having it in the back of my mind that if I'd been introduced to it when younger, I might have the coordination to require less training to perform the proper execution. I may have found a training aid. When I was a boy, playgrounds were on asphalt, so a fall in the playground was little better than a fall on the sidewalk. Now they have a material that softens the playground area, and so helps regarding playground falls. There's a jogging/walking track in the main park in my town, and the material on its surface reminds me of the playground material, only it seems to be even thicker. My boys and I like to go to the park and take two walking laps around the track; then I supervise/direct them doing their three basic hyungs off the track. I went back to the track and started working on the jumping front kick. Coordination is a challenge; I have to stop holding my breath because I feel it when I land; I don't jump high and am probably kicking no higher than someone's upper shin; the silver lining is that I don't have any pain in my knees at all. When we were introduced to the jumping front kick, it wasn't like the Tae Kwon Do one I'd first seen at Expert Village, called a flying front kick by Aaron Fruitstone. He takes an additional step, which I think gives him more lifting power. The URL of him performing it is at: http://www.expertvillage.com/video/1377_tae-kwon-do-flying-front-snap-kick.htm Mike Mallon, a Kung Fu expert, also takes an additional step from what I've been taught, although he performs it so casually that I'm envious. His URL is at: http://www.expertvillage.com/video/133354_kung-fu-jump-kicks-jump.htm The way I was introduced to the jumping front kick is the way Geoff Sterling, who is a Soo Bahk Do practitioner, performs it, one step less than the other two. His URL is at: http://www.expertvillage.com/video/90385_soo-bahk-do-kicks-jump.htm Do others here in the forum do a flying front jump kick--or any jump kick? If you do, could you say simply whether you're in middle age or not? (Old age starts at 100, so if you're doing martial arts, particularly jump kicks, at 100+, more power to you!)

While I had no doubt it would be useful against the area of the eye, it was the neck strike I'd been learning that I'd questioned, because it's to the side of the neck and not the throat. ShoriKid, you seem to refer to a stun and, I'd imagine, it can always be followed up on if need be. The "miss" can still be effective. I realize you mentioned grappling, but my instructor is still introducing us to this on a slower basis; it seems to depend on your belt ranking. This seems to follow ShoriKid's thinking, Rateh, and since I don't notice it being used in sparring, it might be an interesting surprise. Your thought seems to be to have a set-up, then perform the ridge hand, which is what the self-defense technique I'm learning does, the ridge hand to the neck coming after two strikes. In sparring, though, especially since it's non-contact, I could continue the attack after the surprise shot. I discovered this, Bushido Man, from striking BOB a number of times, to get that arc and power into it. I've learned that with this strike I have to keep that slight bend in the elbow, or the combination of the swing and the very blow itself hyperextends--and jolts--the elbow. When I did weight-training, I learned fast not to completely straighten the arms, such as in the bench press, and I'm careful with punches. Thanks!

After I posted the above, I found out that there's a new, four-volumes-become-one edition Bruce Lee book that's about to be released. It's described at the following URL: http://www.blackbeltmag.com/bruce_lees_fighting_method_the_complete_edition_available_for_preorder_from_black_belt_books/archives/687 The photos inside are "digitally remastered" for a crisper shot than the originals.

I was going through older postings, Lachrymosa, and saw this post with no follow-up. What happened with it? Was it a pulled muscle, or more? I'm asking, in that you mention a tear, but felt no pain, which reminds me of both my sister and aunt, each of whom found out that they had a hiatus hernia right where you're describing. Lots of people do and don't even realize it. A true muscle tear would be very painful and very discoloring of the area, so I wondered what it was.

I understand that the way Lee met his wife was when he was guest-lecturing, because the teacher had a background in Western philosophy and wanted someone who had studied or was studying Eastern philosophy to address his class. My own art's grandmaster, Kwan Jang Nim H.C. Hwang, has a degree in philosophy. Lee was a true scholar of the martial arts in terms not only of techniques but "body mechanics." The Jeet Kune Do video series in Expert Village has a Sifu who mentions both, and makes references to Lee's way of thinking. Lee studied a number of martial arts, and was just as open to the stengths of Western-style boxing as to Eastern "Gung Fu" as he called it (in a clip I saw of him explaining, he first said "Kung Fu," then "Gung Fu"). I believe a number of martial artists in this forum have read his "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do," and examined the drawings Lee made himself to better envision what he wanted to get across.

I don't know what weight-training you've done in the past, GhostFighter, but when working with dumbbells, using them for these larger muscles means doing the movements in special ways. Starting with the back, the usual movement is called one-arm rows. You have one foot on the floor, the other leg's knee on a bench (or something comparable), the non-rowing arm leaning on the bench (so that your torso is horizontal), and the arm pulling the dumbbell up to your side, i.e. "rowing," doing a number of repetitions (say 8-10) per set, often in sets of three. It's not the weight alone, but the combination of repetitions and multiple sets, that makes the exercise work the back muscles well. Too many people use too much weight; it isn't powerlifting, it's weight-training, and often the use of too much weight causes you to make cheating motions that result in sloppy form. The chest is trickier when using dumbbells, in that you have to lie on your back and use both dumbbells at the same time. You sit at the end of a bench (or something comparable), and pick up both dumbbells to rest on your thighs. This means that the dumbbells have to be light enough for you to get them into position. When you lie back, you have to be able to control the dumbbells so that they can be in the pressing postion as though they were one--like a barbell. They have to be light enough to do this motion. When you do the dumbbell presses, again it's sets (often three) of (say) 8-10 repetitions, not powerlifting (which would be a great weight for just a few--sometimes just one or two--repetitions). At the end of the pressing exercise, or even as a rest between sets, you have to be able to sit up with the dumbbells and place them on your thighs again. If you're doing flyes instead of presses, the dumbbells have to be much lighter than for a pressing motion, because to do flyes, you have to be lying on your back on the bench, extend both arms out wide, practically parallel to the floor without locking the elbows, and make the dumbbells come together in the same position over your chest as when you did the presses. You can't use a lot of weight; the muscles of the chest can't compare flyes with presses. Again, it's sets and reps. Different exercises, even for the larger muscles of the back and chest, take different weights, and the ability to control the dumbbells, such as to get them into position, may dictate what you can use. You can always increase the number of reps, say instead of 8-10 you do 10-12, and that challenges the muscles with the same weight. You can always add another set; three is the usual, but lots of weight-trainers will do four sets. Since it's weight-training, GhostFighter, and not powerllifting, you can concentrate of the proper use of the weight for a number of sets and reps, rather than a lot of weight for just a few reps. You build muscle when using a controllable weight for sets and reps, and dumbbells going up to fifty pounds each are a fine weight to use.

This would be like the third strike in the self-defense exercise I referred to in the first posting, the blow to the neck coming by way of the path of an arc. I wonder if you have an advantage here, DWx, in that you've practiced this motion in a special way, to let that discus fly, so you find the movement more natural. You might even be moving in a faster arc than others in performing the ridge hand, generating more force.

How unprofessional! Who is the chief instructor at your school? Have you had a word with him or her? I'm glad they have a nice program for the children. I'm wondering if your adult class may be made up of teens and older. My instructor has a rule that class is to begin on time whether she's on the dojang floor or at her desk, and so the senior student present, the Sun Beh Nim, is sometimes called upon to tell us, the students, to form a line and get the warmup exercises going. By this I mean that he or she is not told to do this, but is expected to know as the Sun Beh Nim that there is a responsibility with the position. Sometimes my instructor has to speak with a parent, is welcoming observers and settling them into seats, etc., and we students all know class begins with a warmup drill. The first time I observed this, a fourteen-year-old first dan called us to form our line and we went right into the warmup exercises. As soon as he completed them, our instructor was right there on the floor. At another time, he wasn't present, and the "senior student" present was a senior in high school whose rank wasn't a dan member, but I myself said to her that she's the Sun Beh Nim, so she had to get us started. Sure, she was hesitant, but once she got in front and we did the first couple of warmups (with our instructor right at her desk, I'd say with one eye on us), we did just fine. Our instructor then entered the dojang training area, bowed to the "new" Sun Beh Nim, gave a verbal thank you, and then went right into class. I was once Sun Beh Nim, although that was with the Courage Club (special needs) class, ranging in age from six to fifteen (except for middle-aged me), so it wasn't an adult class that I'd kicked off. The only problem I've seen with this happened when the Sun Beh Nim was an adult, say age forty, a quiet man who, when I mentioned to him that it was time to get the class started, darted his eyes over to our instructor and said he really thought we should wait for her. Before you quit, you might speak with the chief instructor about this. Is your child happy with the program? If you leave, will your child be expected to leave as well? Contracts and the threat of lawsuits are funny things. I learned long ago that you can state that you are dissatisfied and politely but firmly inform the other party that you are no longer continuing the business relationship. If a lawsuit is threatened, you can say that that is up to the other party to initiate it, and end the discussion there. I won't say more than that because it will appear that I'm giving legal advice, and I can only go by my own experiences. But I wouldn't leave before speaking with the instructor in charge. So long as you are addressing the issue politely but candidly, the ball is in the other guy's court.