KickChick

http://ksdi.net/wybb.htm Check this link out .... the school boosts the youngest black belts in the world!

Good things come in small packages ... Patrick you are spoiling us ... !

Welcome back to the martial arts ... and to KarateForums!

Hey Ann .. Welcome to KarateForums .. (any friend of Laurie's is most certainly a friend of mine) Glad you managed "somewhat" to register here. Please come back to Intro to let us know your KF "name" ok? Yep kata for Japanese Karate and Hyungs/Poomse for Korean .... so you chose Shotokan huh? That's ok I still like you! J/K LOL ... I have tons of links on "katas" however they are Korean/TKD hyungs/forms/poomse/katas/.... sooooo I'm sure our Shotokan members can and will help you out ... right guys???

OMG!! ...I have an 8 yr old to do those things to me ... I don't need to go looking for it! Yikes .... my heart's a thumping!

... hey I know you! We are looking mighty fine now aren't we!

Like I said .... I was blown away ... the sentiment is indeed there ... maybe we all don;t agree 100% (and I maybe 99 1/4% ) I wish I had written that one! I am so glad you all (so far) liked that! ....

I was blown away by this article I read this morning and wanted to get right back here to post it for all of you! It mirrors quite a few thoughts of all the members here ... you may or may not agree with alot of it ... but this was martial arts "Once Upon a Time".... Once Upon A Time - By C. M. Griffin Taekwondo Times - January 2001 ONCE UPON A TIME... ONCE UPON A TIME. ..Martial arts instructors were tough, strong and intelligent. They taught the arts because they wanted to uphold a tradition in the arts. They taught the arts because they loved it and wanted to share with others. They taught the arts because they believed it was their calling. They taught the arts to give something back to the community. They did not pursue it as a business, as a vehicle to make money. ONCE UPON A TIME.-.The measure of success of a martial art instructor was good, strong, smart, tough, respectful students. It was not the size of the school or the flashiness of a car that indicated success. ONCE UPON A TIME.. .The dojang was a place of sweat, pain and sacrifice. It was a place where strong moral character was forged in the fire of extremely hard work. It was not a social club where one gathered to meet friends. It was not a place of music and health drinks where the beautiful people or the "chill crowd" goes to be seen in the place to be. ONCE UPON A TIME... Martial artists considered the training hall a temple dedicated to the excellence of human personal achievement. It was not a cheap daycare center or a convenient baby-sitter. ONCE UPON A TIME...The martial arts were not for everyone—and were never intended for everyone. If someone could not keep up with the class, if they could not "get" the techniques, they were never promoted to the next level. Certainly the martial curriculum was never changed to meet the slowest persons needs! ONCE UPON A TIME.. .Students had to actually know and perform the requirements for each belt promotion. They were never helped at the test or told the answers. They didn't have black belts standing around to help them remember particular techniques. Students were never promoted just because they showed up. They had to be able to do the techniques and with a certain level of excellence. ONCE UPON A TIME.. .Promotion exams were not a major social event. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, wives, boyfriends, and girlfriends were not seated around the testing area watching the students perform. Testing was private; after all, it was possible to fail and have to retake the test. ONCE UPON A TIME. ..Everyone strove for improvement to reach that proverbial high bar. The bar was never lowered so that everyone could rise over it. If you couldn't reach it, you worked harder. We strove for excellence and were not satisfied with mediocrity. ONCE UPON A TIME.. .Everyone was not so concerned with rank and titles. Everyone wasn't a shihan, soke, kwan jang nim, or grandmaster. They were simply sa bum nims or senseis. There certainly were not any thirty year old grandmasters. ONCE UPON A TIME. ..The black belt had meaning. A brown or red belt was someone to be feared and respected. A black belt was something else. A second degree was extremely difficult to get, not even to mention a third or fourth degree. There were no 15 year old second degree black belts. Becoming a black belt was a long hard road to travel and required extremely intensive study. ONCE UPON A TIME.. .Uniforms, gis and doboks were either white or black. You could identify the school of a student by the simple patch on the uniform. The name of the school was not emblazoned across every stitch of the uniform and it did not look like a reject from a Fredericks of Hollywood catalogue or the costume of a cartoon super hero. ONCE UPON A TIME... Techniques and philosophies worked and you knew they worked because they were tested against peers in the dojang or at a tournament. Plain, simple and true; if your philosophy did not work, you got your backside handed to you. ONCE UPON A TIME.. .Martial arts magazines were filled with information about styles, systems, training methods and tournaments. They were not ads or pseudo articles espousing the virtues of a particular school. ONCE UPON A TIME...If you were in martial arts you were part of a unique, small and elite society. It was a society rich with history and traditions. You were proud to be a part of that society. You were not belittled or degraded; people did not walk by the dojang and make fake Bruce Lee noises. You were respected and you earned that respect. ONCE UPON A TIME. ..The air was cleaner, women were much prettier, flowers smelled fresher, men were tougher and stronger, candy was much sweeter... or was it? Was it just the perceptions of the world through the tinted eyes of youth? Maybe, it seemed so long ago, once upon a time...

Sorta like lime Snapple (which is a popular juice drink here in the States) .. which brings me to this. Snapple now has these very "did you knows" on the bottome of their lids now! I drink diet rasberry ice tea Snapple and here are some I've had: Did you know: .... there are over 30,000 diets on public record .... you expend more calories sleeping then watching TV ... the average 'smell' weighs 760 nanograms .... a snail breathes through its foot ....you can get "real facts" too! http://www.snapple.com/index.asp?Pageid=3&subid=3a&contentid=3a

ah yes, "doing it alone" ... I'm sure there are several martial artists here that do ... train alone..... In fact, outside of the dojo I'm almost sure most of us do. I have a room with a wall mounted mirror to do my form in front of, a wavemaster, various free weights, resistance bands to work on kicks, balance beam... etc. etc. 'Cept for sparring ... everything else can be done .... alone.

http://quiz.sereine.net/img/aim.gif You're AIM, probably the most popular instant messenger out there. The bad thing is that you're run by a bunch of corporate arseholes, but what isn't nowdays? CaraMilk (Just stuffed full of surprises. No one ever knows what you're going to do next. ) http://www.thevishal.com/quiz/root_beer.gif

One and half to two boards shouldn't form blood clots if you have been sufficiently training to break. In order to prepare to break with a knife hand you should be executing knife hand strikes to a heavy bag. I've done 3 boards no problem (and as I said) do wrap your hands. It does protect the wrist and any injury of piece of wood entering the inner portion of your wrist. No one should break if they are not so conditioned to do so both physically & mentally! Only "trained" professional martial artists!

... already have the t-shirt and really that was all that I was personally interested in on the list ('cept for "other" items that I would like) but do not appear on that long typed list of yours! Do the boxer shorts have "karateforums" across the buttocks??? sorry Patrick!

Jack ... you beat me to that one (I've posted a few there!) Keep it simple & fun! Simple game of 'dodge ball' helps them move quickly, helps coordination and timing. also .... check out this link with tips for teaching "little dragons"... http://home.thezone.net/~sdowney/teachinglittledragons.htm

... part of my DVD collection now. I thought it was funny (much like Ace Ventura)....same guy who directed Ace stars as "The Chosen One" Rent it ... it is pretty funny ... just a parody on those only Hong Kong flicks (actually inserts new scenes and over dubs dialogue to an old 70's flick) My teens were in stitches over it! Somebody rent it and come on back and tell me it's not funny!

If it was an intentional hit to the face than it is opponents's fault ... but if you happened to move into the direction of the punch and did not block, well I would assume you are at fault.

Ok ... this is coming from a mother of 3. I was brought up by an Italian mother ... taught to cook, sew, etc., although my mom worked full time. (my dad passed away when I was 3). I helped her out by cleaning house and making dinner many a night! I now have a daughter and son who I try to instill the same things taught to me when I was growing up. The thing is I wanted to learn in order to help out due to the circumstances. My son (17) shows more of an interest in cooking than my daughter (15) who shows more of an interest in boys! She does know how to make a mean peanut butter & jelly tho' ... It's not important to her ... now. ( ... but that is a whole other story -- teens that don't want to have anything to do with their parents! HELP!!) Problem is fast food! When my son is hungry he rather run out to Subway (sandwich shop) than to take the makings out of fridge and assemble. Lazy? Yeah, sometimes.... Everyone should learn to cook both you guys and girls ... it is necessary when you get out on your own to at least be able to do the basics (... but if you can do a cordon bleu -- woo hoo!!!) I'm terrible at eggs. That is my husbands specialty .. so he's the breakfast guy! As far as, cooking dinner .... (especially Italian) ... I have to thank my mom for that! She taught me ... but then I wanted to learn and enjoyed it! (... and still do!)

I'll tell you what's next .... First of all , don't limit MMA to just "men" ... we women are also involved in the sport! http://www.fightergirls.com/home.htm ... and actually men DO enjoy seeing two women ground fighting and mounting each other! ... go figure!

John Woo's "Red Skies" is on tonight! http://www.usanetwork.com/movies/redskies/

"Boot to the Head" http://www.bonsaidojo.com/audio/taekwonleep.mp3 :lol:

Hear Bill Cosby's take on Karate :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: http://www.bonsaidojo.com/audio/karate.mp3

Oh and one more thing ..... it's "Tang Soo DO" ... not "doo" "DO" means way of life or art. (TANG" means Tang Dynasty of China, which reflects the shared cultural background between China and Korea (617 -907AD). "SOO" means hand, but implies defensive strike. "DO" means way of life or art)(

Medical authorities recommend losing no more than two pounds per week. When this is done through increased exercise and decreased calorie intake, weight loss will be due primarily to fat loss. It may be possible for some people to lose a maximum of four pounds in a week without dehydration, but muscle tissue will be lost along with the fat. It is not possible to lose weight faster than this without dehydration occurring. Losing more than 2% of one's body weight (3 pounds for a 150 pound individual) in less than 24-48 hours will result in a decrease in aerobic performance and endurance. Losing more than 5% of one's body weight (7 ½ pounds in a 150 pound individual) in less than three-four days (72-96 hours) will negatively effect power, muscle endurance, aerobic performance, muscle strength especially in the large muscle groups of the legs, and mental concentration. Such weight loss can also decrease the body's ability to cool itself. Losing more than 2% in 24-48 hours or 5% in 72-96 hours does not seem to have any negative effect on performance lasting less than thirty (30) seconds. Rapid weight loss can also increase the chance of developing gallstones ... so for weight loss are “slow and steady" ... chances are you will put all that weight back on just as quick as you lost it! Like I have posted before .... I don''t believe in diets ... you need to change your eating habits permanently and stick with it .... for the long term in order to achieve long term results!

In the Okinawan/Japanese systems wearing a black belt is a sign of maturity.... in other words, the student has demonstrated mature physical growth, knowledge of the physical basics of their system, has demonstrated, over time, an ability to make sound judgments and has shown mental maturity. In terms of the definition of a "black belt" there are many different ideas. Some systems promote students who are good athletes ... can kick high, punch hard, or win at tournaments. There is nothing wrong with this idea, but a "traditional" view of the black belt implies mental maturity. So if it's "sport" karate ... maybe getting a black belt means something entirely different! I do believe there should be a "junior" black belt rank to recognize a 'child's' proficiency. Can they teach? Sometimes. Sometimes better than some adults. Can they make sound judgments about people? Sometimes. But not always. That takes experience and years of development. Should we "hold them back" until they are 16? Sometimes but not always. Those 'children' who demonstrate the ability of black belt status should be given junior black belts (IMO) and a full ranking should be held off until mental maturity has been demonstrated. I believe there are different situations regarding a child receiving black belt rank. The master at our school has 4 children 2 of which received their black belts at age 9 (they have grown up in the dojo and they live and breathe TKD everyday!) .... Is there such a thing as "senior citizen" black belt ... cos' I've seen some "older" students IMO that shouldn't have a black belt.

Well, this was a little funny , happened just last week, .... our group of black belts (myself included) lined up to do some advanced techniques moving down the floor while the lower belts were watching. After doing a few spin kicks down the floor I noticed this white "piece of something" sticking out from my pant leg. It happened to be a dryer sheet which on the next kick flew up and landed square in the middle of the dojang.