WhiteBelt

I have a very heavily built sensei. My GF says he looks cute, like Santa. I have seen this man run, jump, spin, and in general do things so much quicker than people who are skinny that I've given up saying skinny people are fast. On a funnier note, my GF saw him use his belly as an attack on a blue belt. He bumped the blue belt back and jumped toward him with a kick.

My strategy is to stay alive. I try to avoid fights altogether on the street; it just isn't worth it. How I go about surviving a fight should it start is all a product of my training. Whatever I've practiced recently, or remember quickly.

We had a small portion of tonight's class devoted to point sparring. I think some people were interested in tournaments and asked for it... Anyway, is there any point to this type of training? It developes reflexes, but most of the time it's without any power. Also, a lot of the people that were into it left their guard down way too often. For example, before the point sparring I free-sparred with a blue belt. It started out slow at first, but eventually I was out maneuvering him, and faking him into my attacks. He was very cautious and the only way I could get an attack in was if I got him to attack or counter attack. He hit me once, with a side kick which sent him back... When the point sparring started he was practically diving into attacks just to get that quick jab in.

It depends on the training not the art. Whoever has more experience fighting with the weapons will win. But, two sticks vs. a staff? I'd give the advantage to the staff. I don't have any experience here and that's just a gut feeling.

This doesn't have much to do with either, but don't expect a MA to get you into shape. Sure it's fun to do MA while you get into shape. It's just not going to happen all by itself. TKD is usually taught as a sport in North America, IMO.

I've had my knee scoped, I was walking by the end of the day. I did NOT have a lateral release though. Six weeks is not all that long. You can always visit the school and help out and watch. It might keep you motivated.

Workout at home too. I've just started running, skipping, and some body weight exercises at home and they help out a lot. I was really sore at first, it's a new program, but I can already feel the difference. The most painful is the running, which makes my calves hate me.

Kata helps work technique, and your mind. On its own it will never make you a great fighter, unless you have the greatest imagination of anybody.

There was a guy that landed a powerful side kick on me when I started karate. It tooks months to heal, but it didn't stop me. Today we sparred again and my punching beat his kicks. Instead of using kicking to keep him away I used better footwork and ran circles around his techniques. I kept control of the game and decided when I wanted to fight.

I think he's sparring in Karate at the moment. He said he was too early in the Muay Thai program to spar. I guess it's the same though about getting hurt. The early belts often hurt each other because they have no control.

It can be confusing when you're learning a new combo, and everybody in the room is doing it wrong. Just keep at it and everything will come into place. Practice on your own too. That really helps if watching other people messes you up.

More like yellow-brown than black. Maybe with a few grass/blood stains.

I guess Black Belt Mag. needs the money from the ads. Oh I can tell you what those unstopable moves are. Here ya go: 1. Keep 30 ft. distance from opponent. 2. Pull out hand gun.

Search the net (google.com). If you lean back in the stretch you mentioned it will work the thigh more. You can also pull you foot back to your butt while standing, or lying down, keeping your knee pointed down, or to your other foot.

It all depends on the styles, and there are so many who knows where to start? Your average Karate vs. Kung Fu in North America is going to go along the lines of Karate being hard while Kung Fu is soft. This isn't true all the time, and is only simplified. Another thing that could be different is the weapons training that accompanies each. Karate tends to go with Kobudo, while Kung Fu usually goes with traditional chinese weapons. If you go back far enough, there is no difference between Karate and Kung Fu. Karate was brough to Okinawa from China, and developed into what we have now...

I learned how to control myself, and how to take care of my body better. This isn't necessarily from Karate itself, but from the training. From Karate I learned how to punch, and kick, like a karateka, and a few kata.

... as for weapons, car keys, pagers, cell phones are all nice too. The hot coffee was proven by that McDonalds case. I'm still not convinced that CDs are all that great for throwing, but I've never given them the chance. If you put them in the microwave they make a nice distraction though.

This art was once lost, but has been rediscovered in a Native American reserve. The ancient Native Americans developed the Way of the Office long ago because too many workers had no ambition and simply weren't going anywhere. Through this art they learned everything they needed to become a productive worker, and eventually own their own company. We've adopted the system of belts because everybody can understand it, and let's face it, office workers need a quick fix. They have the attention span of a teenager these days. There are in total seven belts before the black levels, and three phases the student goes through. Beginners wear the following belts: white, yellow, orange, green. The focus of their training is on the pre-management level. They learn how to cope with difficult bosses, and lazy coworkers. Some self defense techniques include: how to come to work late everyday, how to blame anything on a coworker, survival around photocopiers. The intermediate students wear, blue, purple, or brown belts. They focus on obtaining and keeping a management position, and how to jump from company to company safely. This is where the truely nasty techniques are first taught. We start to include some weapons training, pencils, rulers, cds, and also some trapping techniques (office mat, photocopier/paper shredder). Finally our advanced and masters students get to wear the stylish black belts. Black belts fit much better with the black suits we wear in the office, and we love to laugh at the lower belts trying to coordinate their attire with an orange belt. *cough* Anyway, at the master level we teach students how to get everybody below them to do all the work, but get all the credit themselves. Because some of our students at this level may own a company themselves, we also teach how to prepare a 'fall-guy' for when the company goes bust. Here are some quick bullets about us: *Office self defense ---Coming in late ---Shifting the blame ---Stealing the credit ---Hiding behind plants ---Running atop cubical walls in STYLE! *Weapons ---Pencils, pens, and highlighters ---Your average computer equipment ---Fun in the finance department ---Paper shredders and photocopiers ---How to turn a vending machine into a monster *Sparring ---Full contact fighting with coworkers and BOSSES! ---Using the environment ---Modern evasion techniques ---Proper timing (get them caught by the boss) Honestly, we teach so many useful techniques that we should be the only MA. Sure Muay Thai will dominate us in the ring, but in the office there is no chance for them. They are simply out of their league. We are unbeatable because we can just buy the company that owns the ring, and close it down. Mwahahaha... err anyway. Give us a call.

If you can handle them, do plyometrics (exercises that develope explosive power). Push off the floor fast enough that your hands leave it. Do this exercise only once or twice a week. You probably don't want to start this off on your knuckles. If you want endurance there are plenty of pushups to choose from. I find the hardest to be any kind of pushup where your hands are closer together. Do as many as you want; break them up into reps too. Every other day, or every two days is fine. If you need to improve strength and pushups aren't helping, get into weights.

Anytime you put your knee beyond your toes in a stance you're risking your knee, especially when you're not ready and strong enough. I'd suggest building up your legs and increasing your flexibility before you get into the really deep stances. For now, try to go as far as you can without hurting yourself.

My school has white gi for the beginners, red gi for the intermediate, and black gi for the black belt students. However, I live in Canada and train in Canada, and the significance of our gi colour has nothing to do with Japan. The only sorrow our black belts show is the pain they go through in training, but that's a good pain anyway. We're in North America, not Japan/China/Korea/Thailand/etc. Sometimes it's nice to appreciate where the art came from, but it does not mean that we need to change our culture to do that.

I wouldn't worry so much about the extra exercises at first. When I got back into karate I had the same problems. Just spar more often and it will come. Also ask you sensei(s) for any help that they can provide. If you get in close and you're not the one on the offensive, you're going to get hit. Hell, even when you think you're pounding your opponent sometimes, if it's not full contact, they will think they can easily fight back, so don't worry so much. I've sparred with some people who think too much about points and say that I would never be able to take a backfist to the stomache... when my elbo was in their face/chest/ribs.

Somebody needs to come up with MA for office equipment. If those poor farmers on Okinawa had to use everyday equipment, then maybe the defenseless office workers can protect themselves with, um, err... Oh I know, pencils, telephones, rulers, mice, etc. You could make a lot of cash selling it. Much more helpful than learning how to fight with an oar downtown. Extra style points for the first deadly thrown pencil.

Does this mean that if I just watch MA all day, and imagine that I am a master, that, that... I could beat you all up eventually? Sweet, no work involved!

I think what 24FC means is that, on average, somebody larger will dominate somebody smaller, all things being equal but the size. There are exceptions to every rule, but everybody can't be that exception no matter how much they all want it. Karate can be effective for self-defense. It depends on who you are, how hard you train, who trained you, who you're up against, and a little bit of luck. You have control over 3 of the 5*. *Yeah that is simplified but it gets the point across. You could add where you are fighting, what you had to eat, what you and your opponent are each wearing, who is facing the sun, etc. But then that would take forever...