Toptomcat

Functional nunchaku are pretty cheap, though I'd still look for a set that was a bit more expensive and specifically mentioned as durable. Functional swords, however, are not cheap. As a rule, when looking for a functional sword- one made of properly heat-treated carbon steel rather than stainless steel that will when subjected to any degree of punishment- you're going to be paying over $150 bare minimum: the price that you've indicated means that your hook swords will almost certainly be stainless steel. The historical/functional sword market is really geared more towards Western and Japanese weapons: in fact, this was the only place that seemed to be selling a functional pair of hook swords at all, and since it's a made-to-order hand forging operation it will probably run in the thousands-of-dollars range....but maybe your definition of 'real sword' is different from mine?

What kind of weapons do you want? If you just want basic nonfunctional demonstration weapons, then that price is in the neighborhood of reasonable. If you want weapons for display, then you might want to spend a little bit more. If you're looking for handmade historical reproductions or, for whatever reason, functional weapons that you could actually expect to use in combat, you definitely need to spend a lot more.

The book is fun, yes. The 13th Warrior isn't what I'd call a martial-arts movie per se, but it *is* a great flick.

Actually, now that I think on it, I have no idea. Seriously. Having explored the issue, and thought about it a great deal, I see no inherent nobility. There is a class of persons--the warrior class--that is made up of soldiers, policemen, firefighters, and I believe martial artists. But that class is not noble, not inherently. In fact, outside of monarchies where there is a formal nobility (and even that isn't much more than a spectacle in the modern world), I'm not sure there is any such thing as noble classes or castes. There are classes, but people do not typically think of a firefighter as being inherently better than they are, as people. But nobility, itself, still fascinates me, because I know it when I see it. Perhaps it comes from the Kingdom of Heaven (define that how you will). And I know that nobility is passed on, or at least its influence is often passed on. If one had a noble grandfather, or father, or grandmother or mother, they are more likely to be noble themselves. Or maybe it's always first generation only. And it seems to me that noble people are truly better people than non-noble people (ignoble? Lowly, common, trashy?). In other words, the world would truly be better if there were more noble people in it and less ignoble people in it. But what is noble? What does it mean to be noble? Can one even choose it? You might want to start by reading Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which has probably done more than any other single work to influence Western ideas of what it means to be noble or virtuous. Here is a workable translation. To very broadly summarize its thrust, it presents personal excellence not as any single, unitary trait, identifiable in and of itself, but as being composed of many distinct virtues such as courage, temperance, generosity, honesty, and the like.

Saying "always" puts every practitioner of the martial arts in the same category, imho, this isn't a fair statement because each practitioner is different for one reason or another. Will a punch with a step through seem to be more telegraphed than the punch off the front arm? Yes, but again, that'll differ from one practitioner to another. Experience/knowledge is still a key factor, imho. Kuma, I too like your drill and it's worth trying...thanks! There are certain attributes common to all practitioners of martial arts built on the general plan of two legs, two arms, a torso and a head. A certain martial artist can be very good at concealing the telegraph for a punch off of the rear hand, perhaps with a subtle feint, the use of counterpunching principles, or superlative timing, but the basic realities of the human body means that it will take more time to get there and involve more movement than a punch off of the front hand. In this sense, at least, I don't think it's 'unfair' to put every practitioner of martial arts in the same category in his particular case: they're always working with the same fundamental tool, the human body.

There are other kinds of good contact karate than Kyokushin. There's a whole family of knockdown karate- Enshin in particular is very interesting and has a good foothold in the West- a good ITF Taekwondo school will be quite rough and practical, and there are Goju schools out there with respectable jiyu kumite. That's not getting into alternatives like Muay Thai, either. I'm always willing to help someone find better teaching in their area- PM me with your location if you'd like a hand.

Ditto- I'm glad you managed to salvage your experience. Out of curiosity, what was the fourteen-kick kata you were working on?

Are 'serious martial artists' the kind of demographic that's likely to attend a public karate demo?

There are demonstrations purely for entertainment, and there are demonstrations for educational purposes- but I think you'd be remiss to consider demonstrations for advertising purposes, intended to attract students to the school. This is a role highly spectacular demonstrations fill quite nicely, and very realistic demonstrations may actively militate against: giving a demo of our jiyu kumite would be quite educational- it would banish all kinds of kung-fu movie misconceptions about what martial arts are like and would provide a fairly accurate window into our style's vision of how to go about combat, but it would also probably do more to scare people off than to entice them.

How much was your boxing training geared towards fighting under the amateur-boxing ruleset, specifically? What were your strengths as a boxer?

*Wince* That's really tough, man. I'm sorry to hear that you've run into such rotten luck. Remember- not just ice and elevation. Drink plenty of water, take some asprin or ibuprofen, and gently compress the injured area as well. Don't leave the ice on all the time, either- twenty minutes out of every hour is identified as ideal in a lot of what I've read.

Perhaps a better way to phrase it might be: Sportive training can be very martially useful, but if taken as an end to itself rather than as an aid to martial training it can be counterproductive from a martial perspective.

You've said in a number of your other posts that you knew you were training at- in your own words- a McDojo, and that you knew that others who weren't putting in anywhere near your level of effort were advancing up the gradings just the same. Why, then, did this come as such a shock to you? You know that their standards for giving rank are low. Why be surprised that their high-ranking people aren't up to a high standard?

So if the black belts aren't treated as a different social class, and there are those among your black belts who are fundamentally unimpressive people, from whence came this idea of yours that a black belt is a person of a different social class and an inherently noble person?

You need old Chinese masters to tell you that legs are stronger than arms?

I think the issue is that intrinsic nobility and moral superiority is a disturbingly expansive definition of 'better'.

The version of the story most know- other than Pakua people, evidently- is that it ended in a draw.

I talk about it with close friends and family members, and should it come up in a conversation with acquaintances I'll discuss it enthusiastically, but I don't go out of my way to mention it.

China, Japan, or Hawaii depending on which system identified as 'kempo' you're talking about

Well, to begin with as far as I know there aren't any kempo systems with origins in Korean martial arts, so you would probably be better off posting this in another forum.

A blue belt that can't at least teach a rear naked, a basic triangle, and a cross-collar doesn't have too much business wearing that belt...

Nope: if you're dealing with a situation in which if A then B, and if B then C, then A implies C. Your memory's off.

Depending on the rules of your shiai, of course.

Let me know about the event's rules: post them in their entirety if you can. I remain quite curious to know if they're serious about stepping things up or if it's just going to be a publicity stunt. (I'm just not going to touch that bit about TKD being the first MMA.)

To be fair, that's not a fallacy of logic per se. This translates to: 1- X has attribute Y 2- All things with attribute Y also have attribute Z 3- X has attribute Z This is actually perfectly logically airtight. The problem with this line of reasoning is in the premises: if 2 is false, 3 is false as well. Most of us seem to be arguing against the premises, not the logic itself.