KarateGeorge

Shuri-te Karate: Sho Dan, 6 years Wing Chun: Purple Belt (5th kyu), 1.5 years

I don't know what you mean. In our style, fighting stance is a distinct stance, just like zenkutsu dachi or shico dachi means a specific thing. Our fighting stance is pretty much how KarateGeorge describes the fighting stance in his style. It does vary a bit depending on the sparring match, but mostly I think the variety comes from rhythm and timing more than changing up the stance. Not that I'm a sparring expert, but it seems to me that if you change the leading leg using unpredictable timing and distancing, you are getting a lot of variation even with the basic form of the stance staying the same. I think of it as the more beginning students sparring with a "pop" music rhythm, predictable, whereas a good fighter spars with the timing of a jazz musician. I refer to that as fighting "on the beat" or "off the beat"...that's kind of my own terminology though, so I highly doubt that's official lingo. When working with a beginning student on sparring, a lot of times they'll fight at a predictable rhythm, as people get to be better fighters, they'll use a non-predictable rhythm, changing both the speed of techniques as well as the pattern of striking locations to keep their opponent guessing.

Welcome!

Yeah, I'd say those are pretty good generalizations of common fighting styles. If I'm sparring someone I don't know and haven't watched, I'll kind of use the beginning of the fight to feel them out and get an idea of what kind of fighter they are. If they are a kicker, I'll often try to keep the distance closed so that we're in punching range, taking their kicks out of the equation as much as possible. If they're a puncher/boxer type, I'll try and keep a step back into kicking range and take their fists out of the equation as much as possible. I also constantly switch my lead side from between left and right and change up how I'm attacking. That being said, I do find myself tending to prefer punches over kicks, as I'd rather have both feet on the ground for a solid base of balance, but I know how to adapt to the situation, adjusting to the fighting style of my opponent.

As a general rule, having a good stance and footwork is vitally connected to how well one does in a fight. Bad stances and footwork lead to improper balance and loss of power in techniques. However, as was mentioned what stance are you exactly referring to. Sometimes people know stances by different names, even though they may be the same thing, just depending on the style they come from. For example, my school's fighting stance is basically where you face your body towards your opponent, feet roughly shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent with one foot further back than the other with the heel of that foot slightly off the ground. Hopefully I described that clearly enough to get a mental image of what exactly I mean.

Welcome! Glad to hear you've found a great family activity!

Nice shirts!!!!

Anybody else here a "24" fan? Season premiere this coming Sunday!!!

Yeah, as Tonydee said, change things up on occassion. It not only helps keep things from getting boring, but it also helps reduce the effect of diminishing returns from training too much on one thing. Also, it's no fun getting old, is it?

I think that's a well put thought. There are countless possibilities of potential situations, and though there's no possible way to imagine every single possible one, and how to handle that attack, one can prepare for the most probable situations and how to best difuse them. We then train in basic principals. Since you can't predict every possible scenario, you can at least have an understanding of various things such as reading situations, awareness of one's surroundings, and should an altercation occur, general body mechanics and basic techniques. One's ideal goal when defending themselves is ultimately to be able to react without thinking, to just be able to flow through your techniques fluidly and without pause and react accordingly and with appropriate force to the situation at hand. If someone has a solid understanding of certain principals, they can be well prepared for those remaining situations that they may not have imagined. How someone prepares and trains is different for each person too. Like you stated, what works for one person, doesn't always work for someone else. Different people have different strengths and weaknesses, body types, personalities, specific styles that they are drawn more towards and ways in which we best learn. All of these things can play a role in not just the ways in which a person prepares and trains for the foreseen and unforeseen, but also in the specific types of techniques and applications of those techniques that they train. One thing my karate teacher likes to say is that martial arts is like a big pie. What he teaches is one piece of the pie, but there's so much out there. Different ways to train, different styles to learn, and they all have a place and serve a purpose and that what he teaches is what works for him, but that it may not be the same for others.

Welcome to KF!

There's a pair of home theater speakers I saw and heard recently that I was absolutely drooling over, but at $3500 for the pair, I don't foresee buying them anytime soon.

My school uses them.

That looks like an awesome workout. I've been looking for some new ab exercises to mix into my current routine. I think I'll start using these!

Also aim to be the best "you." Some people have more or less natural abilities and/or physical limitations. Know what you're capable of and push yourself to do it to your best ability. Like you said, having the black belt as a goal is fine, but too many people put too much focus on getting that belt around their waist. It is a great sense of accomplishment when it happens and it can still be a long term goal in the back of your mind, but until it becomes a more near term goal, one would be better served by putting their focus on the goal of learning the material they're currently being taught and tackling the rank requirements for their current belt.

If you're looking for another school because you're feeling frustrated with your progress, I'd say give it some more time. Take things slowly and study the techniques you're being taught carefully. It'll come with time. Every person who studies martial arts has found themselves at a point where they were frustrated over difficulties trying to learn techniques or just hitting general roadblocks that they've had a hard time getting past....probably multiple times. Just stick with it and before you know it, you'll be able to look back on your frustration with a great sense of accomplishment. If on the other hand, you're looking for another school because now that you've gotten a few weeks into their classes, you've found its not the right system for you, the instructors are mediocre teachers, or there are personality clashes, then by all means, find the right school before you get too far involved with them. A few weeks of bad teaching can be easily corrected by a good instructor. A few years of bad teaching is difficult to overcome, as bad habits are ingrained in the student by that point. Best of luck!

1/4/2010: 1.5 mile run Weight machines - Chest, abs, biceps, triceps Heavy bag for 10 minutes (broken into 5 intervals) Pull-ups Dips Crunches

Welcome! As sensei8 stated, visit the schools. A website can only provide limited useful information as it is really nothing more than an advertisement for a school, they're going to try and put themselves in the best possible light to attract potential students who come to their website. Visit the schools, watch their classes, ask questions of the instructors (and if the opportunity presents itself, to some of the students) about their classes, and get a solid understanding of each school. That is the best way to really figure out which one best matches with your goals and interests.

LOL...shoveling a driveway does certainly wear a person out, so sure!

Recently we were introducing the intermediate ranked students in the children's class some more advanced kicks that involved spins. As one of the students (who's 8 years old) tried the kick, they missed the bag, so the black belt who was holding the bag for them reached his arm around and smacked the bag with his hand to get a slapping sound and joked to the student, "If the kicker misses the bag, it's the bagholder's responsibility to slap the bag so it sounds like they hit it." A few minutes later, that same black belt was demonstrating how to the kick would look at full speed. Since it involved both jumping and spinning, after doing it a few times he started to get a little dizzy but he decided to do the technique once more and lost his balance as he landed. I heard that same 8 year old student from a few minutes prior lean over to one of the other black belts and ask "So, if you're supposed to slap the bag when the kicker misses, what are you supposed to do when they fall?"

Congratulations!

Happy New Year! I'm not really big on New Year's resolutions, but my main goal this year is to maintain the weight loss I accomplished last year, and take it a step further with a small amount of fat loss to get rid of those last few stubborn pounds, but mostly with building more muscle (yeah, that'll probably add weight, but it's not weight from fat. )

1/2/2010: 4 mile run 2 sets of 10 incline bench presses 3 sets of 15 push-ups on an incline 2 sets of 20 normal push ups 3 sets of pull-ups (set of 10, set of 8, set of 6) 4 sets of dips (3 sets of 15, set of 10) Escrima stick drills Punching drills

For the shin pad portion, I'd recommend considering something that also has a shinstep protection as well. Not so much for the padding there, as your foot gear should take care of that, but because the instep portion seems to help the shin pad stay on properly. It seems like a lot of shin pads slide off to the side too easily while sparring....or at least that's been my experience with the ones myself and some of the others at my school have tried.

Yeah, I'm sorry to hear it hasn't been the best experience. I've never bought a stretching machine from Century before, but have bought other products from them and found them to be of good quality. It just goes to show that one person's experience may not always be the same as someone else's. Hopefully it all works out in the end with the stretching machine!