KickChick

Most definitely! It's a must for martial artists and actually geared to us also. There are parts of the bbok that are actually way too "scientific" even for me to understand or for that mater 'hold my interest' .... but for the most part it is very helpful as far as "how you should physically" stretch .... how to relieve the tension of the muscles around the joints to increase your range of motion.... because actually it is only muscle tension and your believe it or not --- your nervous system that prevents you from doing splits or achieving maximum flexibility. See the thread on "stretching machines" .... there are a few other members that do give this a _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-06 15:05 ]

Well everyone knows I have that book on my shelf! It's a must and you're going to find it very informative when you do receive it! Check out the link Bon provided ... there are some snipets of tips from the book there like a test to see how flexible you really are. Since I have read the book I am achieving a full side split. Our school did have a stretching machine (the old type) but it eventually leaked hydraulic fluid all over the floor ... it served the purpose basically of measuring the increase of your stretch week to week by inches indicator.

True, the martial arts were created for combat. and there are many forms of combat. It may occur in war, law enforcement duties, or simply for personal self-defense. However, the martial arts have evolved from just being fighting methods into becoming a way of life for their practitioners. Most people go through their entire lives without having to defend themselves physically... so, if combat were the only reason for learning a martial art, the time and effort would be a waste for some. A student who joins a martial arts school wants to become physically fit and be able to defend themselves but at the same time there is a desire for heightened enlightenment. "We dilute the purity of the arts when we reduce their purpose to other intended goals. " .... I tend to agree with this as it applies to a style such as TKD .... it has developed into more of a "sport" than a martial art. Its intended purpose has changed and the beauty of the style is lost by this. There are hundreds and hundreds of types of martial arts throughout the world. Some countries developed their own unique martial art while others adapted other martial arts to fit their own situations. All it takes to "found" a martial art is to give your way of fighting a new name and make yourself the "master." For this reason, new martial arts and "styles" of martial arts appear all the time. A style may refer to a specific martial art or a variation of an established martial art. Some martial arts have been in existence for centuries, some for decades, and others for weeks. "Taking a martial art doesn't make one a martial artist. Punching and kicking doesn't make something a martial art. " ... might I ask you what we call ourselves then? There are sport martial arts (such as TKD, Judo, tournament Karate), striking arts (such as (Taekwondo, Karate, and Boxing), grappling arts (such as Aikido, Jujutsu, and Wrestling), and weapon arts (such as Kyudo, Kendo, and Escrima). Different arts and styles of arts have different philosophies and goals... learning to fight being one of them of course! Specialty arts are arts that teach only a sport/competition "version" of a martial art, such a Olympic style TKD, Judo, and Boxing, or teach a specific weapon, such as Kyudo, Kenjutsu, or Escrima, or teach a form of exercise or meditation, such as Yoga, Tai Chi Ch'uan and yes, even Tae Bo or Cardio Kickboxing. Remember that these arts are taught for a specific purpose and may not be applicable to actual "fighting" situations.

I don't know whether this url has been posted before but this is a real entertaining stickman fighting sequence! http://www.web123.com/fight3.swf Enjoy!

Increasing the range of distance from your opponent may be considered a retreat or it may be a shrewd move to draw the opponent off balance. Strong opponents will follow you no matter how much you retreat, so sometimes its beter to stay within you comfort range and fight with all you got! Use range changes to draw your opponent into your attack. Taller opponents (kickers) tend to stay further away so they can use their reach. Smaller fighters (punchers) like to fight in close to compensate for their lack of reach.

LOL well if you ask a woman (like me) what strike we would use to disable our (male) attacker, of course the obvious would be a well-placed forceful groin strike ... "Strike first, strike hard. It's best to avoid the situation altogether though." quote from Bon OH YEAH! I agree also! ... Talk if you will, walk away if you can, run if you must, but if all else fails, DEFEND YOURSELF!!!

Some say the hip should finish its movement before the fist leaves its chambered position. The theory is that the larger, more powerful muscles of the lower body begin the technique and, as the hip movement reaches maximum velocity, it stops and inertia propels the fist to the target resulting in a faster arm movement. The hip completes its rotation and tenses before the arm moves, so if the lower body is properly tensed throughout the arm's movement, it may provide a stable, strong punch such the arm is launched off of a strong base. Since the hip completes its rotation well before the fist contacts the target, they are not moving forward at impact. The only mass moving into the target at impact is that of the arm. Then there is when the theory that the motions should finish simultaneously. The fist and hip motion finish at the same time. The fist's velocity at impact may not be as great as in the hip first method, but the overall speed of the technique is usually faster. Since all the moving parts are tensed at the moment of impact, greater force is transferred to the target. The hip continues moving until impact, therefore, the mass of the entire body is moving into the target. Others take the middle ground combining these two whereby you tense the various muscle groups, with the muscles closest to the floor tensing first and others building on those already tensed muscles forming in a completely tense body.

..Hey Bon! .... at least you read all of my post this time Well, we are coming from 2 different disciplines of martial arts ... in my particular practice of TKD, students are not able to use full power when practicing against an opponent in sparring. In our sparring, techniques are controlled to not injure the opponent. In target or bag work, the techniques are controlled but there is little indication of the amount of control. In breaking, control must be used to break the object without striking a board holder or the floor under the object. Together, sparring, target/bag work, and breaking teach the precise control needed and the needed power to execute in order to respond to any self-defense situation. _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-06 07:38 ] [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-06 07:39 ]

you're very welcome ad ... there is no bottom line when it comes to working out the body .... it is a complex machine therefore there are a variety of different ways to achieve muscle and work the existing muscles by toning and defining. Incorporate the same procedures in your bag workouts/resistance training too! Not sure about delivery to UK ... I believe they do.... but would it cost another $30 to ship it? ... go to site and find out!

I'm back from class. What I mean't by that G95champ is that I would probabaly find kicking very painful (actually moving in general )... and yes it was! But that is what hot tubs are for!..... ahhhhhh!!!!! much better!!!!!!! I never retalliate. Every time I get a bruise from a kick or block it is another area for which I need to fine tune my blocking defenses for. I learn from this type of pain. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class" --Choi Hong Hi, founder of TKD _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-05 22:49 ]

More topics?? Considering this is a highly active forum ... with pages and pages of threads in each forums .. I can't imagine how anyone could not find even an old thread to resurrect if they have nthing new to share, say a question or personal insight. Besides members adding new threads for discussion, our role as Sensei's (moderators) is to be able to stimulate discussion while starting interesting topics ... which I believe we do rather successfully along with the Sempai's (leaders) whose job it is to also stimulate these discussions keeping threads informative. (see all our staff names below) Spend some time searching past threads .... you might find an interesting topic to bring up again. _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-05 22:37 ]

ah ... now this thread is making better sense! Actually I am recovering from several nicely placed elbow strikes/blocks to my hip and inner shin at from sparring last night! Yeouch ... my hip is severely bruised (I am sure the bone is too)... and I can barely lift my leg (it has effected my muscle) Class should be interesting tonite!

Using weights and machines is the fastest most efficient way to gain size and strength. But you can achieve muscle growth when doing your strength training exercises. You need to work on how you perform your pushups/pressups, crunches etc. What is the most efficient and result producing way to do them and build muscle or maintain muscle you already have? Flex the muscles you are working first, get them good and tired and then do your exercise... Pre-fatiguing them. For example flex your chest or triceps muscles as hard as you can, then quickly do a set of push-ups. It's a lot harder and produces much better results. Another technique is to reduce the rest time between exercises, let's say you start with 60 seconds after a while cut it down to 45 then 30, then 15, etc. How about no rest between sets, a whole cycle of calisthenics all done nonstop that makes it way more intense. Now for chin-ups, go until the muscles are really tired or even to total failure wait only a few seconds and then do another set. How many reps did you do on your second set? Only 4 or 5 I bet, that's about what you'd do if you were doing some heavy pull-downs. You should see some growth from this style. Make it even more intense by increasing the reps on the first set and by decreasing the rest time before the second set, this is using the Rest-Pause method without weights. Try slow-Motion training taking a full 12 seconds for the positive phase and 6 seconds for the negative phase of each rep. Don't lock out in the top position and don't rest in the bottom position, change smoothly from the positive to the negative. This is using slow continuous tension, how many chin-ups can you do this way? Not many I bet, it's pretty intense. How about using dynamic tension which is flexing the muscles hard while also moving, we use a form of this in our martial arts to increase punching power. Do your push-ups nice and slow while flexing hard your pectorals, shoulders, triceps, biceps and even your lats and forearms. When doing chin-ups flex hard your lats, shoulders, biceps, triceps and even chest and forearms. Do deep knee bends and flex hard your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, hips and even calves. Keep the tension hard and steady, it will take some practice to do it all together, but you'll get incredible pump and muscle growth. How about using only one limb at a time, like doing one legged squats, one arm chin-ups, one arm push-ups, etc.. It takes some balance but it definitely makes it harder and puts on more muscle. Oh and I've mentioned Kurz's book here a kazillion times! It's really for flexibility training and not bodybuilding. I love the book and highly advise everyone to check it out! $50???? Only 18.95 here.... http://www.stadion.com/stretch.html _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-05 15:31 ]

People with more endorphins feel less pain, and vice versa. Certain techniques, such as mental imagery (Imagining a situation that is devoid of pain) and meditation may help relieve pain by increasing endorphin and enkephalin levels. "Endorphin" is a combination of two words ... endogenous and morphine. It means "morphine within". Endorphins are found in heavy concentrations in the central nervous system. They relieve pain by the same mechanisms as morphine and other narcotics. They inhibit pain by blocking pain impulse transmission within the brain and spinal cord. These substances explain why different people feel different amounts of pain from the same stimuli. Individual differences in endorphin levels, as well as other factors, such as anxiety, influence pain transmission. Pain thresholds may be high or low. People with a lack of interest in conditioning themselves to pain have a low pain threshold and will give in to the pain sooner. People who subject themselves to increasing amounts of pain stimulus are able to condition themselves to resist pain. They are able to withstand pain and push themselves to continue during painful experiences. Other factors affect pain thresholds, such as age, male or female, physical conditioning, emotional state, and attitude. Factors that may increase pain threshold include anxiety, fear, anger, depression, introversion, sympathy, and analgesics. Physical conditioning can delay the onset of pain. Physical conditioning, a healthy diet, and proper rest can increase your pain tolerance. "I am sleeping in late cos' I'm working on my pain tolerance" ... now there's a good one! Deep relaxation and concentration on a single thought helps neutralize stress. Pain is a part of life (ask a mother!), pain is a part of martial art training ... _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. < [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-05 14:29 ]

Always great to welcome a "new guy"! Welcome to KarateForums sentry! ... yet another ITF'er in TKD ... interesting to note that several of our most recent members were also _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-05 14:04 ]

Knuckle push-ups serve to strengthen the wrists for punching, building calluses, and teaching the body to overcome pain. You may want to check these out http://www.dmartstores.com/irknucir2lbp.html which might provide a little more padding for you. "Back in the day" ... knuckle push ups were performed on gravel and concrete .... that wood floor doesn't sound so bad now does it?

bear in mind [CT]pizzaboy women possess about 40% to 60% of the upper-body strength and 70% to 75% of the lower-body strength of men ... and women are able to use a greater portion of stored elastic energy than men during activities in which muscle is prestretched, such as in the countermovement prior to jumping. Women who have higher testosterone levels may have a greater potential for strength and power development than other women. An individual woman's testosterone level fluctuates, so a woman who is near the upper limit of her testosterone threshold may have an advantage in developing strength compared with other women.

In breaking you have the opportunity and the obligation to strike an exact spot. It would be stupid to kick an opponent in the thigh and expect his knee to break. You have to focus your strike exactly on the pressure point. As a fighter in a self defense situation you must learn where to strike your target. If you don't hit the right spot on your target, you will be very aware of it. It simply will not break. Practising this type of controlled kicking will help you develop focus .... this being really the "side effect" as you put it of breaking because "power" is what you incorporate into your break.

I said "substance" didn't I?? sheesh ... you really do nitpick dontcha?

... correct, yet the hardest substance in the human body is enamel.

Breaking techniques are not a goal in themselves. They must be part of the total study of the martial art. They are the means whereby you will perfect your mastery of the martial art. Breaking techniques produce more accuracy and control then does sparring. No matter how hard you hit something, it will not break if it is moves with the power of the punch. But if your punch moves faster than the target bounces away from it, the target has no choice but to break. Our school limits (multiple) board breaks and advanced techniques in which to break only to the most advanced students. Simple hammerfists, elbow strikes and step behind side kicks are often performed by yellow/green/purple belts. No ... no gloves are used (never heard of such a thing as that!) For advance techniques, adv. students are encouraged to use hand wraps for fists/wrists amd possibly wrapping ankles for hook kicks to protect achilles tendon. We are focusing on the topic of achieving power through technique here .... Power comes through the perfection of breaking. _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-04 12:08 ]

exactly monkeygirl! Yes, 8 yr olds doing breaks (5 yrs. old too!) Not so unheard of ... many, many schools instruct in the area TKD board breaking. Usually just 1 (1/2" to 1 inch pine for the kiddies) but they love to see the accomplishment! "Surely the fact that a Shotokan master says that he regrets having done that particular area of his training is a hint? " --- I said there was no need to batter your hands as Mas Oyama did ... you need to read up on the level of breaking techniques he used ... extra-ordinary! "If the board break was the hardest part of your test then you must have fairly easy tests. Actually saying that I could understand it might be the hardest, but certainly not the most demanding. " -- maybe more so mentally demanding than physical (no not hard, just the boards )... and no not easy tests by no means. Exhausting because of the mental and physical challenge .... 2 hand and foot techniques, 3 boards each ... your goal is to achieve on first try ... (I just happened to get all 4 in one shot!) Your welcome monkeygirl ... and thanks for not ganging up on me too!

Yes I have heard of "silk reeling" it is a style of movement that is associated with the Chinese internal style of martial art-- Neijia Basically it is how the body utilizes movement. For more info you can go to http://www.neijia.com

No it doesn't mean that ... but it certainly doesn't help! And incidentally ckd .... one key to understanding breaking is a basic principle of motion, the more momentum an object has, the more force it can generate. For example, when breaking a brick with a punch, the fist reaches a speed of 11 meters per second (24 miles per hour). At this speed, the hand exerts a whopping force of 3,000 Newtons, or 675 pounds. That amount of force concentrated into an area as small as a fist will break a brick. Human bones can actually resist 40 times more stress than a brick. Bear in mind ... we are focusing on TKD (monkeygirl's style although American TKD I believe). I disagree about the safety .... if you train to break early on in your instruction, you physically (& mentally) become conditioned to break and injuries can occur with inexperience and incorrect technique . If you look on my web site and my school's site also .... you can see (for example) my son at age 8 breaking boards ... they begin at "little dragons" level doing hammerfist between 2 concrete blocks. I find it highly unusual to not have breaking requirements at a (TKD) black belt test. Wow!! seems a little too "easy" to me! I found that requirement to be the most demanding and exhausting level of my test. I've been breaking for years and haven't "calcified" yet and still can do lots of other stuff with my hands!! Breaking toughens and strengthens the striking surfaces of the body, If you are a novice in breaking, you must first condition your hands for breaking. One traditional method is to lightly strike the edge of the boards used for breaking. However, battering your hands is neither necessary nor desired. Mas Oyama, the great Shotokan master, was a master of breaking. His knuckles had huge calluses covering them from years of breaking. In his latter years, he said he regretted what he had done to his hands. The knife-edge of your hand and the first two knuckles of your fore fist must be conditioned before striking against hard objects. This does not have to be a rigorous process. Just lightly strike these areas against hard objects a few time a day. Using a makiwara or heavy bag can offer this condtioning. Nice points made Martial Artist! So much can be done to "gain power" ... even those little incidentals that we have failed to mention -- a combination of so many things to accomplish power. _________________ KarateForums Sensei 1st dan Tae Kwon Do (ITF) Cardio/Fitness Kickboxing Instr. [ This Message was edited by: KickChick on 2002-06-03 15:06 ]