Kuma

I'm having trouble picturing what you're suggesting. By holding it upside down, do you mean striking with the hook with the thumb side down?

I would say then, if you want to be an instructor you need to avoid some of the things you've stated in some of your posts already. Five times is a bit extreme, but if he really is moving the bag constantly, well that's hard to figure out. However, posting about how you "beat the crap" out of a young kid is not somebody I would want instructing my kids someday.

Being from the outside looking in, it's always hard to second guess. However, I would like to point out a few things just from what I've read here on KarateForums and my own opinions: (1) "Teaching a lesson" to a 10 year old isn't acceptable in my eyes. If the kid doesn't want to be there, let his parents know until his attitude adjusts he's not allowed to be. Tell him either his attitude changes or he goes. Simple. (2) I can also understand 1-2 accidental hits going through on a child. On the rare occasion when I get to help out with a kid's class, the adults will "spar" the young kids and though we fight back it's never at full power. Sometimes accidents do happen, but five times in one encounter is a bit over the top. (3) You said in another post you were an instructor Holley? If so, from another thread where you stated "i BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF A KID BECAUSE MY SENSEI TOLD ME TOO BECAUSE THE KID WAS NOT LISTENING" is the wrong attitude for an instructor to have. If I read that or heard that from an instructor of my child, they would be pulled and the word would start getting around. I don't know why you became an instructor if you have just been training since December of last year, but from those posts alone your maturity level is definitely not where it should be. Martial arts instruction is a serious thing as people can be injured quite badly if you're not careful and/or being reckless. I think it's time to take a good long look at yourself and see if you really are setting the example as an instructor should.

Since I belong to a small organization, once a week I train with our Kancho. If you have the opportunity, do so, as you will grow by leaps and bounds. I'm already amazed at the few months I've been training with him and how much overall my skill has improved.

Get one of these babies and you're all set: http://www.canemasters.com/

This is how I actually injured my right hamstring with an ushiro geri because I ended up at full extension with no target. It's still not 100%.

Kata is a bit different though as you don't have the same repetitions being placed on your body you do when you're firing off techniques into the air. That's why I was always taught to never fully lock out a technique when training in the air.

Since you can't do too many foot techniques, work your upper body. Try working all your punches and blocks, try working your kata doing just the upper body movements, things like that. This way you can actually get back into training a bit better than before.

I had a sensei who could crack you with a ball of the foot chudan mawashi that would take your breath away. He made me a believer, and occasionally I'll manage to sneak one in from time to time.

In my Kyokushin training I've seen some pretty reasonable approaches to sparring. For the beginner, they often partake in both sanbon kumite (three step sparring) and light contact sparring with another student with limited techniques (i.e. all punches to body are allowed, but only one kick is allowed, usually whatever was worked on that day). As the student progresses they include ippon kumite and the sparring becomes more open and/or harder, depending on the student and how they want to train. From there the usual knockdown sparring is then practiced the most, but often progresses to other types of sparring (i.e. permitting gloves for head strikes, or "body conditioning" sparring where it's all body punches and low kicks to condition yourself).

I don't think some is a bad idea, as fitness could be one of the reasons why someone takes up a martial art in the first place. Though I'm no instructor by any means, I do enjoy the conditioning drills done with a partner the most as it not only allows you to train differently than you would outside of class but also build camaraderie. I do admit that I don't like the classes that are almost half conditioning work though. I come to train in fighting, not just get in shape.

Some styles require it. The ball of the foot is a nice impact area for the middle kick, as it penetrates the torso pretty effectively. Less useful in a real fight in my opinion, but any kick above the waist is (also my opinion). If you can do it right it can be very effective. Lyoto Machida sneaks in the occasional round kick with the ball of the foot.

Snapping out kicks and punches at full power and at full extension never works out well for you. Use the air to work on technique for now and use the heavy bag for power.

No worries, it happens all the time. I got what you meant.

Not that I can see, but if you have a friend who can work with metal they shouldn't be too hard to make.

It's an old way of thinking that some people still do, is all. It's more detrimental than anything.

OSU is such a great word that there really is no English equivalent I think. Many military organizations have words like this. Being a Marine, I've probably said "Ooh-rah" thousands of times. The actual origins of it are shaky (some theories are it's like the noise of a submarine diving, others say it's based off of a Turkish phrase that means "kill them all"), but it's one of those words that can't be defined in normal terms.

A combination of both is the way to go. I like the lead leg for push kicks and roundhouse kicks, but most of my other kicks come from the rear leg. Most of my preference is due to knockdown fighting and kickboxing.

I may come of as a bit disgruntled, but it's more like I'm waiting for someone to validate that I'm wrong here... Why would the technique for say, the morote chudan uchi uke matter? (if by more uke you mean this: )I mean, I don't think people would ever block like that in a real fight... you're better off pulling a chudan soto uke and leaving the other hand to cover your face or ready for a counterpunch or some other attack... I'm just doubting why some martial arts techniques exist, I guess. Like the morote uke, or the kokuto uko. The way he teaches it, it's a uraken strike to the inside of the elbow, with the other arm giving it a lot more acceleration for more power. Hence, more a strike than a block. After striking with the uraken, that hand can now become a kizami tsuki and the supporting hand can follow up with a shuto uchi uchi. Kyokushin is all about fighting, but we also include other techniques than what you typically see in knockdown. Not sure what kokuto uko is, do you mean the wrist block (some call it kakuto uke, others call it koken uke)? Though I'm not very good with them myself, I have seen quite a few karateka use them brilliantly. Because of their nature, nukite can follow up immediately after one as can other hand techniques.

I think the mindset of the person who received the broken finger is more important than the actual pain it causes. I've known plenty of guys who continued to play in an important game for a contact sport despite being injured (including myself). The average person who gets a broken nose will be more likely to give up than a guy who has a tougher mindset. This mindset is what separates survival from loss of life, why some guys can get shot once, curl up, and die, while others can get shot multiple times yet survive. If you have that "never quit" attitude, a broken finger will probably not slow you down as much as it would Joe Average.

I would say if you got out without having to resort to breaking their finger, then you obviously found something that works for you. Techniques like finger breaks and nerve attacks to me are just icing on the cake: if you can pull them off, great, but you shouldn't rely solely on them.

Forgot to mention: when you hurt your hamstring, you don't actually want to stretch the hamstring itself, but rather your hip flexors and quads instead. That'll help a lot more.

About a week.

I'm just getting over a hamstring injury myself from overextending a spinning back kick. I felt the pull right off the bat and knew I had hurt it. It's still not 100% but thanks to frequent light stretching, walking and standing constantly (sitting down a lot tends to tighten them up and takes longer to heal in my experience), liniments, and mild exercise (walking mostly) it's healed up fairly well. We'll see tomorrow night in class.

Since you're a Kyokushin guy, I have a good alternative for you for your hand techniques at least. Get a phonebook and a white belt, and as you put a layer of duct tape around the phone book adjust the belt so it makes a loop on top that you can wear around your neck. Now you have a good tool for punching as well as for conditioning your hands. If you're using kicks, I would double up the phone book at least.