Tobias_Reece

On the contrary, a lighter one is used for kata.

In my style it is generally accepted that you should use a tapered staff for balance/nuki-bo.

Elephant with stiletto.

I assume your instructor asked you this question as I have had many people ask me this before.

Normally everyone says "Shoalin Tsu Kenpo" or "Shoalin Gung Fu", but the answer you are searching for is neither of these.

I knew the answer once, but I have a habit about forgetting things I don't care about j/k

Ciao

G95

Yeah, the thing is in England when the census was done a person went to houses and wrote by candlelight - forcing bad spelling.

This mean in one census you could have been Reece, but on yor death certificate you could have been Rees etc.

One story is that my family used to live in a house, but when the landlord came round to collect money they would pick up their blanket (which contained everything) and ran to the next house. This went on for years and years.

At the moment, my mother has spent months (if not years) trying to find Harriet Ann Kettlewell.

I'm still trying to link myself to a famous Lord or Duke, but I'm afraid all I can find is Peasant William Greaves of Mudtown LOL

G95

Please tell me how you found this out - my family has been tracing their ancestry for years and can only get as far back as 1820s.

Maybe its because all my family were a bunch of nailmakers and vagrants LOL

My favourite movies in no particular order.....

"Labyrinth" - fantastic movie starring Lord David of Bowie. All those goblins *shudder*

"Forest Gump" - quite a popular movie, but I think you either love it or hate it.

"The Awakenings" - movie starring Robin Williams about a mental hospital. Pretty damn good.

"Rainman" - hey, guess I like films about people with mental problems.

"American Psycho" - hee hee......."I'm going to kill you"........hee hee....... "Every morning I exfoliate etc."

Thats about it I think - oh, but that "Monsters Inc." film was good - especially cos I watched it with a sexy lady

Ciao

Please note

sais=ZAI

kamas = GAMA

Just had to get that off my chest

*Racking brains*

Paris was the Prince of Troy (I think). He was the son of King Prium and Queen Hec-something.

My greek mythology is a little rusty - about 6 years ago I stopped reading about it and took up shark studies.

Now I've just got into Cryptozoology, but I still pride myself in being about to name the genus, family and order of most sharks.

My God I lead a boring life.

(Could have posted this as a poll, but decided not to)

What does everyone think of vocational qualifications? What do you think the benefits of vocational qualies are compared to academic - and vica versa.

Any feedback would be appriciated.

Cheers

Once again I've ended a thread.

I can see the tumbleweeds passing by

Eminem just found a niche in the market - quite like the Spice Girls.

Music is all commercial now. I can't see that changing.

You could be right KickChick, but then again you could be wrong. We just don't know.

Oh, and the Okinawans didn't call then tonfa - tonfa was a japanese name. Tsun kuwa, tunkua are acceptable - but hey, thats just me being picky.

We run with the WUKO rules, just like every other school should do if they want to compete.

Oh, but that doesn't mean that I actually like the WUKO rules........

We could go on rambling and rambling about theories, but that is all they will be - THEORIES.

MY GOD - I'm sounding like and ex-member of KF.com (can't mention names - I'll get into trouble!!!1) ........ quick, better slip out of that mode.

You make lots of fair points Leaf, many of which haven't been thought of before.

A quick copy and paste job I think......

Much has been written about what the sai is. (Sai being the singular, zai the plural.) In fact statements can be read that the sai is/was this or that. I would like to explain the theories of origin as told to me by Shihan Nishiuchi and Sensei Bolz, both of the International Okinawa Kobudo Association. As they explained these theories, the proverbial "penny dropped" and made the other theories I had heard or read less creditable.

 

Before being educated by Shihan and Sensei I had been told or read that the sai was originally a tool for shifting hay. Now in Okinawa there is not too much in the way of hay farming as the main crop is rice (the penny drops). Another theory was the sai was used as a digging tool to plant seeds with by the Okinawan peasants. In Okinawa there are insufficient minerals to produce steel in vast quantities. Steel would have to have been imported, thus making it expensive and probably unobtainable to the peasants of Okinawa (the penny drops again). The four theories of origin.

 

1. The Manji sai is thought to have been developed by studying the Buddhist symbol, Manji. The Buddhist symbol resembles a reverse swastika and represents the philosophy of yin-yang. It is uncertain whether Chinese or Okinawans invented the sai.

 

2. Some think that the sai was devised by the inspiration of the kanji of the Japanese writing for "right" and "left".

 

3. Another theory is that the shape of the sai resembles the human form, which Okinawans believe to represent authority. Okinawan police would display the sai as a badge of office, much the same way that Western sheriffs and U.S. marshals wore the "tin star". Because of the expense of owning sai, only higher ranked (higher paid) police officers could afford sai.

 

4. The fourth theory comes from the sai being based on the design of the Okinawan ladies' hairpin, kanzashi.

 

These are the theories that Shihan and Sensei explained to me. They made a great deal of sense to me, as did their other theories of the Okinawan Kobudo weapons. Because of the lack of documentation we have to rely on these theories, but the theories must contain an element of support to make them more substantive.

Hope this helps

Sorry, missed this topic but just caught it today.

The main reason for the zai not being thought of as being farm tools is because of the materials used.

Metal was not readily available to the peasants.

Another theory is that the manji-sai was a police symbol used in much the same way as a badge.

Anyway,this seems to be quite a popular topic

Hmmmmm...

Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Anything by Tracy Chapman (not the album anything, but anything )

Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morrissette (sp?)

There is a Penjak Silat club where I teach Kobudo. I've never seen any of these techniques, however, only basics done like karate.

Seems pretty diverse though - and I like diverese things (pretty much like my ex girlfriends)

Kensai

Nakayami is frowned upon in the karate circle for demonstrating very simple application (eg. a punch is a punch, a grab is a grab etc.)

Morris and Trimble have quite a good book out, which shows lots of bunkai, but once again can be quite basic (nevertheless, its a great book to have)

A good guy to look at for bunkai is Ian Abernathy. He really stretches the ideas of bunkai - plus his video is pretty good.

Hope I helped

Drop a line to Ashley Beck - u can find his address on https://www.ashleybeck.com

Ashley is a open forms specialist, but also uses capoerra (sp?) very effectively.

Another option is actually to find a dance school. Many schools teach cappoerra as a dance, but I dont think thats the type of learning u want

Cya

You use atemi-wasa al the time in Shotokan.

You strike Sugetsu - Atemi-wasa

You strike Kinteki - Atemi-wasa

Ummmmm........I'm about to go to bed but first I thought I'd just scan through a few posts. I came across the Achilles tendon post and thought "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I pointed out the story of Achilles the Warrior". They I realsied that G95 had already done this.

"Hey", I thought, "that looks good, I'll just see if it brings back memories of my Greek Mythology obsession I had when I was younger"

Then I read it........then I realised it was quite inaccurate.

Please, G95 or anyone, correct me if I'm wrong with the following (but I'm sure I'm not)

-It was actually Ajax and Hector who fought to a draw.

-Achillis and Hector did fight, but Achilles won, not Hector.

-After the fight, Hector was then tied to the back of Achilles' chariot and dragged around (I'm sure there was a certain number of times around a certain building but I can't remember!)

-It was not Hector who killed Achilles but it was actually Paris.

-Achilles was nearly invunerable (due to his dip into the River Styx), except for his ankle (which was not dipped in). The god Apollo was angry at Achilles (I THINK it was something to do with some other God, but I'm not sure), and Apollo blessed Paris' arrow. The arrow found the heel of Achilles, and therefore killed him.

And yes, there is a lot more to this story then seems, with many different variations - but I just thought I'd point these few bits out.

But, like a said, its been a lot time (if these times ever existed), and stories get passed and changed and passed and changed.

Let keep his Greek convo going - oh and G95, I'm not trying to make an enemy here, you're one of the good guys

Cya

I think the hardest thing is to find a balance between being strick and being their friend.

Somehow I seem to have developed a trick - I talk to the class in a friendly manner, but when I want to get down to business I simply raise one of my right fingers (no, not in a rude manner)

It works, but I have absolutley no idea how it came into action.