Kuma

He has similar posts on another forum of this same nature of him attempting to create his own martial arts style. Must have gotten the two confused as they have the same content verbatim. If you've been training in Tae Kwon Do for seven years, you already know what to do. Just hold a class session for yourself.

Hello again, Matt. I think if you're attempting to create a martial art after only 7 years of training, you might want to keep training in the one you first started off in so you're not reinventing the wheel. I'd say you simply just don't have the experience yet to even consider something like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5AZQJKw1Z8 I think this'll help.

Basically.

I think by considering a certain group as the most common type of attacker will cause you to let your guard down around those who aren't in that same category, which can be a big mistake. ANYONE can be an attacker. Male or female, young or old, large or small, drunk/high or not.

If that's the problem, he just might need a better wrapping technique then.

How often do you wash them? I have very old wraps that still give me good protection. It could just be the way you clean them.

While I do think protective gear is a great idea, I disagree that you shouldn't start beginners off by taking shots to the head and face right off the bat. My reasons being: Where is someone in a self protection situation most likely going to try to hit you? The head or face. If you get sucker punched, where most likely are you going to get hit? Again, the head or face. Most people are not great fighters and won't know the first thing about liver shots or strikes to the solar plexus. They do know though that hit someone hard enough in the jaw and you can knock them out, so that's what they're going to try for. Another reason is beginners in boxing wear gloves, headgear, and groin protectors when they fight and still get punched in the head and face a lot. It happens a lot, actually. Most of them are not very much so worse for the wear because of it. Their defense improves quickly, as pain is a great motivator to not get hit next time.

The falling step concept - is this the same as the sine wave thing? Chitsu Basically your standard karate lunge punch but more of a body feeling that you're falling into the strike rather than just stepping into it. You can find his book "Championship Fighting" on the Internet in several places.

If your gym won't let you lift barefoot, grab a pair of Converses a half size bigger than you normally wear. Almost the same thing.

Lupin1 has some good advice. Set yourself up in a proper stance by allowing yourself to look down and adjust it as you see fit, then once you're set in it get a feel for it. I actually like closing my eyes once I'm in a good stance and feeling it from my feet all the way up to my head. Doing it this way lets you concentrate more IMO. Once you've done that for a while, then you can step into the stance and from there you'll be able to adjust better without looking down.

I think he was saying rotate before impact, not upon impact. Though some karate styles do this too ("drilling", as I've heard it called), it's more something you can do without gloves than with.

You'll see this exact same rotation in a boxer's punches. If you're not doing it, you're only cheating yourself IMO.

Makes me want to dig out my old baseball cards and see what I have lurking in there.

Congratulations. The first step on what sounds to be an enjoyable journey for you.

I'm definitely biased, but I'd say Kyokushin as well.

....We study the broader aspects too.... Our kumite just involves realistic contact, and not point fighting or the "If I had hit you you would be dead" mentality.

I think ps1 covered it nicely. If you watch any videos of Kyokushin training, you'll see we devote lots of time to kihon and kata as well. Kyokushin is a full karate system: we just prefer to put our karate into application rather than theory.

Just don't hit them in the side of the knee and they should be fine. At most you'll give them a charley horse and/or some bruising. Being a tall guy, there's another option for you: knee strikes to the outside of your opponent's arms. Beat on the biceps area of their arms enough and it quickly drains the strength out of their arms and they drop them a lot more. Tall guys and high knee strikes work out well together. Train it either on a banana bag or have a partner hold a kick pad to the outside/inside of his thigh and he can hook his hand in his belt. Then just wail away.

My personal opinions: (1) The wrist should start rotating as soon as the elbow clears your oblique. (2) Starting too early causes you to lose much of the power gained from the rotation of the arm as a whole and ends up being more of a push rather than a strike. (3) Starting too late causes you to not land your strike properly and, because your power still hasn't fully formed yet, contact with your opponent effectively diminishes your strike from achieving its max velocity.

If you don't get it, then it's not for you. Fair enough. It's a challenge, not a thought process. It tests you physically and mentally. Some people enjoy difficult challenges.

Both. If I'm fighting a guy who has to fight 99 other people and I'm hitting him hard and he's hitting hard back and not quitting, you can't help but respect that guy.

It's the ultimate physical and mental challenge for a Kyokushin karateka. There's no better way to test your spirit than by taking on 100 equally tough, powerful, conditioned fighters. Kyokushin is all about spirit and perseverance despite whatever hardship you may endure, and the hyakunin kumite is one of the most grueling tests you can endure.

On review of other sources, Wikipedia was wrong on that. It's straight through, with some reports of a short break at 50- which is as impressive as hell. You are allowed some rest. Watch part of Hajime Kazumi's 100 man kumite. You have the bow in at the beginning and end so you get a bit there, plus I think they allow short breaks at certain intervals. It's still an awful long time. Kazumi's was just over 5 hours I think. http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNjU4OTY0OTI=.html

All who've made it were at least sandan at the time they tried I believe.