Capt Jakk

If he runs the dojo in Bemidji MN, then yes. I don't have a lot of information to go on right now due to my friends in the area being TKD practitioners and lack of a web site. I have heard good things about the dojo through the grapevine though.

Thank you for the reply Montana. I believe I may have been asking for too much with a comparison. A quick description of the style would actually be helpful to me at this point. For example, when I checked out my last dojo I was told that it was a soft block / hard counter system that stressed evasion and speed. Something along these lines would be helpful. I plan to visit the Matsumura Kenpo dojo the next time I am in northern Minnesota to get a better idea of the differences as well.

The science behind lucid dreaming is pretty good. I remember it being discussed in college psychology classes. I dunno as a training tool though. Lucid dreaming can allow people to do the impossible in their dreams, like flying.

Unfortunately, the internet has turned the BJJ/MMA effectiveness vs TMA effectiveness into a black and white issue that often boils down to who can shout the loudest and ignores any shade of grey. This kind of environment means that you have to prove to me that you aren't some BJJ fanboy before I will accept feedback from you. To be honest, I find the whole argument about one style being "more" effective than another to be rather annoying. Because a style is considered more effective doesn't mean the other style won't work in a given situation. As my sensei says, "you use what you know." I know I'd rather have a couple of experienced american football players have my back in a fight instead of a couple of BJJ practitioners with 3 months training.

I will be moving in a few months and I hope to pick up my karate training again. (New babies tend to get in the way of training) I am interested in a dojo that teaches Matsumura Kenpo. I'm hoping someone can give me a description of the style and tell me the style's basic strategy. I am looking to get an idea of the differences between this style and the Kobayashi Shorin Ryu I have been practicing. I am aware that Masumura Kenpo is an offshoot of Matsumura Orthodox Shorin Ryu and was developed by Yuichi Kuda. Kuda learned Shorin Ryu from Hohan Soken but had learned karate from Shigeru Nakamura before learning from Soken. I believe he named the style Matsumura Kenpo to honor both of his teachers. Thanks in advance for the help everyone.

Alaric already showed that this is not true. When you read more about the condition it can be truly scary. If it happens, the person has a 1 in 5 chance of surviving, provided emergency action is taken right away. Chest protection doesn't keep an individual safe either as it has happened to baseball catchers, hockey goalies, and people wearing kevlar vests. Just be glad it's very rare. I only came across one incident that happened at a karate tournament but was unable to find the original article about it. I agree that it is impractical as there is no way to have the intended result occur reliably. However, I have to put it into the "possible" category because there is a medical condition that explains it. Most likely some idiot in ancient China got lucky and then claimed knowledge of "secret techniques" in order to make some money.

I came across this the other day when looking for Judo clubs. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3417799 I found it to be quite inspiring and thought I would share. Really goes to show what you can do with enough willpower and determination. May I also extend a congratulations to Phoenix for getting into the martial arts. Enjoy the journey.

I think a one hit death punch is possible because of commotio cordis. Wikipedia has what appears to be a decently cited article on it. En.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commotio_cordis I came across it while reading a review of a book about the death toll of baseball. It is when non-penetrating trauma occurs to a particular part of the chest exactly between heart beats and causes cardiac arrest. I can see this acciidentally happening to someone in a fight but I very much doubt someone could do it intentionally. So I have to say it's technically possible but extremely impractical.

Glad you enjoyed your first class. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned it yet but about the only thing that may help you progress faster is practicing at home. This allows you to focus more on the new material during classes. To paraphrase my sensei, if you spend all of class getting to where you were last time you won't learn anything.

As a trained therapist, I would say that Bushido Man is on the right track. If you both are interested in staying in the relationship you need to talk about what happened and how to avoid it happening in the future. As silly as it may sound, you need to establish rules for fighting. Ideally, you should stop the argument the moment one of you feels threatened or attacked and say that you will discuss the issue further after a specific amount of time has passed. Following this rule should keep you both from becoming overly angry during a fight. I also suggest avoiding the blame game. The issue is not who is at fault for the incident. The issue is developing a plan so that it doesn't happen again. As for using a karate move, you crossed a barrier and now feel incredibly guilty. I suggest two things. The first is to apologize to yourself. You sound like you let yourself down because you did something you didn't think you would ever do. Apologize to yourself and move on. Heck, you can even give yourself a punishment if you think it would help. (Nothing to serious though, something on the order of no dessert for a week would be appropriate) This brings me to my second suggestion. Learn from it! You know how this feels so learn to avoid it. Find out when you decided to cross that line to hit your fiance. I'd say that knowing how threatened you must feel in order to respond with an attack is an important thing for a martial artist to know. Know yourself, know your limits. Thats the best way to maintain control. I wish the best for you and your fiance and I believe you can work through this.