CheekyMusician

Yeah, that's what the author of the book seemed to be saying. He was saying that the power still passes through the hips, but that it doesn't come from the hips. He was also saying that sometimes being told to get the power from your hips causes students to use too much hip rotation and block off the power coming from the legs so that it can't pass through their hips, and this makes their punches weaker.

As people have mentioned, ask the basics eg. -What price is tuition, ask if extra payment will be required for belt tests/insurance or anything like that. -Ask about the instruction, and who will be teaching you, how many classes will be available per week etc. Other than the basics, ask about things that interest you eg. self defence, competitions. -If you're interested in competitions, ask if the club participates in many, and ask when you'd be allowed to participate in one. -If you're interested in self-defence ask if the style is practical for self-defence, and ask how long it would take you to learn enough skills to be able to defend yourself competently. -Remember to ask if you can watch a class before you join or pay any money. They should be more than willing to let you, and should be more than willing to answer your questions. They shouldn't become impatient with your questions. After all, if they love the martial arts enough to teach them, they should be more than willing to talk about them to you, even if it is questions they've answered a million times before for other people. Any martial arts class I've went to has had instructors more than willing to answer my questions. Good luck!

Oh yeah, I've heard about those guys. Unfortunately I can't remember their names, so I'm of no help whatsoever. *shuts up*

Oops. Sorry. Didn't realise I'd double posted. My computer's been clamming up all day and I thought it wasn't posting the first time.

Well I don't mind sparring, but we do it so often in my club that it wears a bit thin. I'd much rather be doing padwork most of the time.

Well I don't mind sparring, but we do it so often in my club that it wears a bit thin. I'd much rather be doing padwork most of the time.

Well I reckon a teacher should have a minimum of 10 years experience to teach, not just in martial arts, but in most things. Obviously, the more experience they have, the better. I only pay £2.50 per lesson (I live in Britain). In fact, all the martial arts classes I've ever been to have been quite cheap. I went to an aikido club for a month or so and it only cost £6 a month, and you could train twice a week for that. Eight lessons for £6, I'd say that's a pretty good deal. The most I've ever paid for a martial arts class was a kickboxing class that was £4.50 per lesson. Personally, I thought that was a little over the top price wise, and the guy running the club was only about 13 (Ok, slight exaggeration there, but you get the idea). Yip, I have a funny feeling he was only interested in making a quick buck. As for the McDojo thing, well where I live I've never actually came across a martial arts club that has its own buildings etc. Martial arts clubs are usually just run out of a sports centre, church hall etc. that the club hires, so I've not had any experience with these schools that teach multiple styles. I'd say that it would depend on the circumstances, though. I mean, a school could teach maybe 5 different styles, but have 5 different teachers employed, each teaching their own style. I'd say that if it was one single person teaching many styles, though, it'd be "McDojo-ish". I could understand one person teaching 2 styles, possibly even 3 maximum, but any more than that I'd say would be a bit dodgy.

*nods* Yip, the TKD guys get a hard time for sure.

Well I've only been in martial arts for a year, but I've not been knocked out. Although once at Aikido a guy tossed me over his arm with a wee bit too much vigour and somehow I managed to land on my head. I didn't get knocked out, though, just sort of bounced off the ground head first.

I quite like Fenris' new made up word. Beautifically...kinda rolls of the tongue nicely! lol.

Oops. His name is Gary Purdue, not Pardue. Oh well, I was close enough. lol.

I think his name is Gary Pardue, or something similar. I think in the book he mentioned that he was a 7th dan (but possibly it was 6th dan, he said), but I don't know what style.

I was reading a rather controversial book today. Basically, the author said that he doesn't believe that power is generated by the hips, but that it rather passes through them. He said that when you watch any athelete in golf, football etc. their power comes from their legs, and passes up through their body. He says that he believes that twitching the hips to get more power into a move can actually stop the power from passing through the hips, and that if you try and generate power from the back leg that your techniques will become instantly more powerful. I find this hard to swallow, probably just due to the fact that as karate practitioners we're always told that power comes from the hips, and due to the fact that most of my techniques seem to be quite powerful using that hip rule. Any opinions?

I done pretty pathetically. Only got 7 out of 20.

Be careful with the contact lenses. I don't know if this is true or not, but my friend said that when she got her contacts, her optician told her to avoid getting hit in the head as sometimes it can cause the contact to shoot behind the eyeball. Eek!

*huggles* That'll change. Give it time.

Well I've just completed Heian Shodan (although, I still feel that the change into backstance at the end feels a bit awkward and that I should work on it some more), so I'll be moving onto Heian Nidan.

As others have said, the possibility of finding a men only martial art or training night is unlikely. If you do find one, then it'll probably just be down to luck, not policy and they'll still be a chance that a woman could join at any time. As someone has already suggested, try and find a striking art that you enjoy. Karate, TaeKwon Do etc. don't usually encorporate much grappling (some schools don't encorporate any grappling at all), so maybe give them a go. The only "martial art" that you might find very few females in is boxing. There are quite a few boxing schools round about here, and as far as I know there are no female members of any of them.

Well I'm all for discipline, but it can be taken too far. An instructor who shouts at adults is acceptable, IMO. After all, if an adult doesn't like it then they can leave the class and find somewhere else to train, suck it up and make sure they're good enough to avoid getting a yelling or have a quiet word in the instructor's ear, but an instructor who shouts at kids constantly is unacceptable. Fair enough, shout at the kids if they're misbehaving, or if they're high ranked kids who aren't putting in any effort, but a kid's self-confidence could be really dented by a guy like that. I agree with what's already been said about bringing it to the head instructor's attention that parent's aren't happy. Better yet, try to convince a parent to approach the head instructor if this is possible.

I am aware of that, and was actually thinking that somebody would pick up on that statement sooner or later. I wasn't referring to "white witchcraft", "wiccan" or "neopaganism", though, I was referring to witchcraft as a broad, widely accepted term associated with the occult. I was going to have used the term Satanism, but Satanists have no link with the occult as such either. Their beliefs are that you can live your life however you like, as long as you're not hurting or getting in the way of anyone else. No matter what term I would have used someone would have got mad at it, so I settled on witchcraft. If I'd been referring to "modern witchcraft", I would have used the terms of wiccan or neopaganism, not witchcraft.

Still waiting to sit mine, I'm afraid. Its horrible. I keep getting all psyched up and ready to test and then don't get to test and get told I'll do it some other time soon. I didn't even bother going to karate tonight 'cause I couldn't face getting all sick with nerves only to be told I wasn't going to do it again. I know. *slaps wrists* Waits to be lectured about not missing karate, especially due to uncontrollable fear of gradings.

How does this lack of respect manifest itself? Is it just a feeling you get? Your instructor(s) should not allow the men to treat the women with disrespect. You have the right to be treated as an equal. The club does not belong to the men. As far as knee-on-shin goes, shinpads will only protect you from light contact. I would suggest conditioning your shins. I remember from one of your posts that you own a heavy bag; try kicking this as hard as you can, regularly, using bare legs. Maybe someone could de-spider your loft first?! Regards, Bart the Lover I'm surprised that you remember so much about me and my spidery loft and punch bag. Heehee The guy is still a teenager. I'm pretty bad at judging ages, but I'd say that he's about 17 or 18. He avoids sparring with the females in the club unless he gets forced to partner up with one, and then he either turns really patronising, or turns really tough and tries to hurt you. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love it when someone tries to help me out when I'm having difficulty, but this guy doesn't so much help you out as pick fault with you (although you never see him doing this to the boys and men in the club). I also don't mind getting smacked in the face now and again, after all we're in a martial arts class not a ballet school, but although this boy is fairly laid back when sparring with the boys (or so it seems), he either puts his full power into every technique he performs with the girls, or goes patronisingly slowly and announces every move before he performs it (even if the female he's sparring with is higher ranked than him). I might be looking too much into the whole thing, though. Maybe he doesn't realise what he does is offensive to the females in the club. I don't particularly dislike the boy. He's not very often at the club, but when he is he's usually quite friendly and chatty, so maybe his actions are unintentional.

It sure is effective! To be honest I'm not very good with blocking kicks at the best of times never mind knees. I'm going to try and avoid sparring with him in the future, I think, and if I can't then I'll just have to watch out for a knee flying towards me. To be honest, he caught me a bit by surprise at the time, but even if I'd known the knee was coming I don't have a clue as to how I would have defended myself other than stepping back out the way of it.

Even if it is still straight, it could still be broken. I've had a broken wrist and a broken big toe. The broken wrist was not swollen, bruised or misshapen. It was painful to move, but I could still move it with effort. The only thing that gave away the fact that it was broken was the constant, throbbing pain that wouldn't go away. As for my broken toe, I broke it across the joint, and again it wasn't bent, just very badly bruised and swollen. Now that it's healed it has a slight bend in it, though. The chances are if its a broken toe then a doc wont do much about it, but its worth getting checked out just in case its broken in an unusual place or something. After all, you don't want to be constantly pounding on it when you're training and only making it worse and worse.

You can start any art. Don't let the fact you're new to martial arts hold you back, just pick an art that interests you, and approach nearby schools. They will all, no doubt, have some sort of beginner's programme. Stick with it, though, even if it seems hard at first. The first time I went to a karate class to watch I nearly walked out in tears. I'd always wanted to learn a martial art, but was almost certain that I'd never be able to do the stuff the other students were doing, that I'd never understand the Japanese and that I'd never be fit enough. It almost gave up right there and then, but thank goodness I didn't. No matter what art you pick you'll no doubt feel embarrassed and awkward at first, but if you keep pushing through that you'll master it in the end. Good luck!