Traymond

"Sijak" is the Korean term for begin. Thank you. Very close Dwx, its Kuryong - Ahp - Shi But what is spelling anyways, haha. I cannot spell french terms for nothing...bleh and I was in savate for a while haha

If the pants are bigger and baggier if can make such stances as Kiba and shiko dachi look alot deeper than what they are up to about 2-3 inches, which is alot, if you cannot hold it down that long. I prefer them because they are more beneficial to the judoka or the karateka for grappling moves. So that the pants wont get ripped. Same thing with the longer belt, if you go to such tournaments at the US open or anything with a lot of contenders, they are not going to stop and check everyones knee postition and where exactly it is. Just like using an xma toothpick bo. They are extremely light, and what benefit are they except they look good. they dont build muscle and they make it look like martial arts is easy.

But do you fear it? I am in no hurry to get their either, but why fear something that no matter what will happen.

Very true indeed, on a side base of humor I shall add.. I hope that it wouldnt take that long for me to take my opponent down though, haha.

Why fear something that you cannot stop? Fear only what you dont understand, to conquer it, try to better understand it. To fear death is to limit your life. Live it to the fullest, if your afraid of death your not as open or as free as you should be. No matter what you have to die, whats the differance between today or tomorow?

When I was in Tokyo last summer, I noticed some teenagers going around speaking japanese saying things like "One hit one kill no luck just skill". I believe that for everything in martial arts, their is only one thing that is applicable, and that is the mind, if the mind is strong then the warrior is strong. Takuan a famous swordsman once wrote and spoke. "It is not the warrior that kills, it is the Way of the sword that kills". With this in through interpretation, it goes to say that the warrior does not kill with his mind, but he trains hard enough to put his mind away and to be able to defend and offend freely not by using his mind, but just by using his body, and thats where the real strength comes from.

Some may say you may win by walking away, but if they disrespect your honor what else have you truly got that is morally significant, sure you can pat yourself on the back and say that you controlled yourself. But did you really? I never let anyone disrespect me, if they think they can do it, they will continue to do it, and that is just not acceptable. If they flip you off they do it for a reason, alot of times they dont want care about your reaction, they are just ticked off so they do it, I dont get mad. i just make it so they respect me afterwards. If someone flips your off and you laugh at it...what does it make you look like? If your martial arts philosophy tells you not to fight, then dont fight, but every martial arts wants you to have self respect. How can you respect your self when you just let someone disrespect you? At least thats my opinion, and its only that.

And that what makes everything wonderful, we all have our own opinions through martial arts, that how we grow and learn with each other.

Alot of times some things may be over looked. Would you rather spend time looking at Posture or how deep he "looks" in his kiba dachi? You cannot say that someone cannot wear baggy pants, I for one prefer the baggy pants because they allow for more room, I cant raise my leg well in those tight ones...but I am not gonna wear them so that it looks better for my tournament results. I know alot of people who do,this and it naturally disgusts me, maybe I take it to much to heart I dont know, but it just ticks me off, haha.

Very well spoken Bear, very well spoken.

I agree with tallgeese, its all about where out importance is placed, and also, what we hold key. But what we must realize is, that no matter what our art thinks is important. they might love and worship kata, you may want to be come a master sparring competitor, go ahead, do both, just push your self hard, and I think that thats what really makes a black belt.

Exactly, I agree. I dont think 13 years is enough either. It actually started with me and my sensei teaching a totally diffferant style when i was in school, as an after school club. to promotoe drug and violence awareness, well. My instructor moved away, and I took over, the school system told me to. So I teach brasshand in the school system, and at my house. All my students must be over 18, and they do have to sign consent forms with me and the school. I also had a no liability clause when im teaching with the school, and at my house we do it on state property, right next to my house which would shield me from being penalized if I were to hurt someone, but I would have to pay a fine. Brasshand, is a mixture of all of the styles that I have a shodan and up in, and the ones im qualified to teach certain things in. And yes 13 yrs is extremely short to be able to teach martial arts you totally have me on the same page with you on that one. But I will argue that I did not just step up and out of the blue decide that im going to teach. My goal is to unify martial arts, into one, so that people dont have top space them into Karate, tae Kwon do, Kung fu, they can refer to it as martial arts. It will not be done in my lifetime, but I pass on my teachings to my students so they can continue my work, thats why I teach it now, so I can unify them. My students, know that it is my own style, and it was their choice to do so. I told them that I am not one of the best teachers around, and I have even recommended some other instructors. But they stick with me. But I dont have to worry about to much of the legal part. We barely do any contact, light sparring some Jisan, and ALOT if Ippon Kumite, 5 hours of Kata a week (We have 15 katas just before shodan), but we also do alot of the spiritual and meditative arts of martial arts, such as Kiai Jutsu, We study zen koans over and over till, some of the meanings appear, then we re study them also. But I hope to grow with my students as they grow in my art.

Joe is soo bahk do, your onky martial art knowledge?.. It has no buddhist or shinto beliefs, nor does it have he concept of bushido in it. The budo arts have the concept that if it is your time to die, that it is no matter what. No matter what knowledge or skill you have, the fighter your fighting could be better and you may not even know it. Joe, does your instructor truly trust you enough to show you hidden techniques that could potentially kill, can he truly 100% share a tool of death, a technique that is meant to kill, with you? My teachers came straight out and told all of us that many things he will not teach unless you have been with him for forty or more years. I know techniques that I would never teach my students, just for the simple fact that they are not mature enough and most are older than I am. Now we are on Karma, refer back to shinto, buddhist and bushido concepts. And I notice you chose not to comment on the last paragraph, fair enough, haha.

If we were to start teaching like they did traditionally we would have no students. But you can still make the rank mean something. Like in KI kajukenpo, they wont reward you a belt above blue if you cannot defeat three lower belts per rank in a kumite. Their is no brick breaking or any breaking required in Ki Kajukenpo, but mentally they prepare you to take on shodan. But alot of testing for shodan and up are under an hour...thats just not long enough. In TKD my testing alone was 3 and a half hours, plus an hour of warm ups. In my Mixed Karate Style, testing was 5 hours total, for three people. And modern black belts dont have the attitude of black belts anymore, they think they have a black belt , they can kick anyone's rear end, it doesnt work that way. Or they go and buy all this gear that SCREAMS! Black belt. Wallets, key chaines, dog leashes, unimportant stuff.

before you can teach you have to know what you can teach. You cant teach algebra by only knowing addition and subtraction. If you want to teach how to fight, you better have alot of fights behind you. If you want to teach self defense, you better be able to defend yourself. If you want to teach martial arts, you dont need a black belt. You dont need a certification, It looks better, but legally you dont need a certification...if your accepting money you need a business license. But I teach for free so i dont need a license, I have a few shodans and a nidan, and a yondon in my own style, for me thats good enough to teach, ive been doing it for thirteen years the only thing that I think is questionable is the amount of time I have been doing martial arts, and thats about it. But my experience is their, for thirteen years I trained daily, except on sunday. For atleast 3 hours a day.

Assuming we had equal desire to live and equal skill levels, the younger and faster person would have won. That was me. One day, it will no longer be me. That's just the natural process. Fortunately, I will never have to know for sure. Even with the equal desire to live, if it would be your time to die then it would have been your time to die, but most instructors never fully teach their students everything, just in case, cases like that were to occur, as they occassionally did in feudal japan and occupied china. They always kept certain techniques to themselves so they could use them on their students if need be. You may be fast, and you may be a good fighter, you may even be the bet student of your teacher, but you are never your teacher. Nor are you your teachers teacher. I've seen 90 year old master in kyokushin style and Uechi Ryu take down 20 and 30 year olds in legitimate sparring matches. With one to five hits. It all has to do with timing and karma.

Its true that we should let them wear what they want to wear, but what good does it do for the school they represent. We compete to figure out who we truly are, we can never know if we act that way, and nor can it be known to anyone else. So thats why im against it. i dont care how they feel, I care about their evaluation that others give them, especially when it is something they do not deserve. I like the longer belts, because I have LOTS of writing, Hangul, Nihon, and I believe arabic. But im not sure anymore. But thats the only reason why I have a longer belt.

I usually eat a big dinner late, and for breakfast I eat some fish, and that usually holds me till 6 or 7 pm that night.

Hmmm its a lot like a Zen koan, its nice.

If you defeat your teacher, than your teacher did well. But sparring and fighting are to differant things as well. You would probably never beat your sensei in a real street fight. In a sparring match its more controlled.

to be blackbelt simply means that you know the basics of the art. You should always have the same conduct whether your a white belt or a black belt. A representation of the belt means only that you know what you are doing. But the true martial artist can act like a black belt even if he or she is a white belt.

If I had to protect someone knowingly, than I would have to say that I would have already accepted death, in all of its terms. But no matter what your religion, you should always be accepted to death, because its never truly the end. But I would never allow myself to protect someone as a job, because, how can any one really say that they are good enough to protect someone from death, if its your time your gone. But I would but into a fight if I thought that the person was gonna get hurt, and I was confident that I could take the person down, without causing any body to much harm. but then again, maybe I wouldn't cause I dont know what I would do if someone pulled a knife on me, I may kill the person cause Im not sure what would kick in.

Kubaton, Broom, and golf club

In Yafu Kobudo Sai, Bo, Kama, Jiwa, Chisai Kun, Eku, jo, naginata, Three section staff, Tonfa, and Yari. In Kajukenpo Bo and Sai Those are the main weapon styles I really do.

What I think is funny, is that the last martial artist I remember hearing that dies was Pat Morita...Im sure others died, but how come they never make headline news...aren't we important?