taebot

Most of our black belts are parents who watched their kids grow and improve and then decided they wanted to make changes in thier lives. We even get grandkids coming in now. You are really going to benefit from not just the workout, but by socially being around people who are always going to be upbeat and positive (as a group). Enjoy the ride!

What do you like about your style? How great is your command of English? Do I need to avoid slang?

Is purple low or high? I've seen both. Hola!

Well, the saga begins. Edited on my fourth day. Took two years for it to happen in the last place ! Starting to get to know some of you guys, and that's the important thing in an introduction now, isn't it?

I would have expected more vets. I work out with a lot of cops and vets, at least the black belts. I didn't do anything glamorous or noteworthy, just served my country at a time when THAT sort of thing wasn't very popular.

You are fortunate. Many Americans do not value that which is free. I hope no one disillusions him.

On another note. I spent some time training with Sifu JH, a student of Ark Won Yuey and I know for a fact each student of his designs their form based on the animal they are studying and the base form he teaches them. How you judge that for right or wrong? I once had a little kid, an orange belt come up to me in a tournament in Oklahoma (I had been watching him for some time and he was somewhat short of something...) and proudly said, "My name is X, my school is Y, and I'm going to make some stuff up." Man, he was honest and upfront, so I just judged it (one see SO many things in open tournaments anyway!). He made up some really good stuff. He placed. Go figure.

But mixed tournaments are not a forum for the technical dissertations of a single system. They are a performance, a display, a popularity contest, a subjective judgement. That's why a sport like ice skating has a technical and then a freestyle aspect to the competition. So for the former, you are absoutely correct. For the latter, it's more like Star Search...

John, you got one smart master there! At the risk of taunting (for KickChick ), bet I beat you to Dan Gun! I'm all motivated to go practice chongi now just thinking about it! We are such COMPETITIVE devils aren't we?

... and I am rarely satisfied with my performance. But one day! one day...

I see that you are very smart, but I want to challenge you on the idea of simplicity. That's the genious of it. You dismiss the lesson as too simple until you are ready for it. The white belt DOES see block punch, block punch, block punch... The black belt instructor sees "the basis of grading and instruction criteria." The martial artists sees a mantra, a moving mandela, a transmission not of block punch, but self actualization. Once a month, I go to a weapons class where I train with a pair of Professors. We were in a discussion of bunkai and they presented the standard explanation. I, being the wall-flower that I am, stated that I had problems with that and that I saw the move in such and such a manner... Professor asks me, "What rank are you?" I suspected, as usual, that I was going to be told to shut up (without words). I answered that I held xyz rank with our mutual head instructor for the system. "Well, if you're not coming up with some of this stuff on your own by now, then you're doing something wrong." So, I stand, ready, my valise, we, REAL men, don't call them purses, clutched in both hands in front of me as I await the bus. From the left corner of my eye comes movement and my right hand goes to my groin, my left to my head as my elbows come together protecting my centerline as I turn to meet my attacker, my left foot half-moon stepping in, my knee striking the inner thigh of my attacker disrupting his balance as my left hand arcs downward grabbing into the soft flesh of the inner thigh in a death grip as I step, again, thigh-to-thigh as Santiago would call it, and stepping behind the other foot of my attacker, I have the choice of pushing my opponent for distance or slamming him to the ground. I choose the latter. Now did I once mention block-punch? I practice chongi everyday. For REAL.

Forgive me for flagellating a deceased equine but... ALL soldiers kinda green first time they see battle. SOME turn and run. One or two gonna win the medal of honor. Everyone else is going to die or survive based on their own nature and sheer luck or fate as one would have it. I'll try to shut up now...

You do. Locked inside of you. Turn off the thought processes, do the class, no matter what it is, full out, and eventually that instructor will speak up. It may tell you to get out. It may tell you that despite what you feel now, you selected the right path.

I came up with that same philosophy from my second wrestling coach. The first one was all weights and strength training, the second coach felt if you were going to wrestle, that the only way was to get into wrestling shape. Hence, we spar a lot. [Our juniors ARE familiar with pushups however !]

Legend has it that the samuri killed by the then 13-year old Musashi was patiently trying to demonstrate why the little one should not start his own ryu ! Have a great day! Day five and I'm having fun now!