CTpizzaboy

I learned the standard close hand blocks, but I fight with my hands relaxed and open, so I block with an open hand. Punching is tricky because I have to tense the hand before impact or its going to break. Often, if I want to hit the person fast I'll have my hands open and relax, twisting my body into the punch for a little added power.

Everyone has an ego, but there is a difference between begin humble and confident, and boastful and arrogrant. If you're confident about your abilities, you have no need to show off. You let your actions do the talking. Arrogrant people have a need to push thier accomplishments in everyone's face, and have an illusion that they are the best. In doing so, they tend to piss people off. "Do not judge other people or you will be judged and get a foot up your as$."

Welcome, John. I would like to read your views on wing chun. I'm a big fan of Bruce Lee, and his style of jeetkundo is mainly based on wing chun. I've done some pak sao and lap sao drills with a friend who took jeetkundo from an instructor named Lamar Davis.

Start off be saying to truely be able to handle yourself at gun point, you have to have a gun. You have to be comfortable with a gun, so when you encounter one on the street you don't panick. However, don't get yourself into that situation. Be aware of where you are, and who's around you. Criminals look for easy victims so "Walk the walk". My sensei has something about him that when he walks, you have a feeling that if you mess with him, you'll be knocked flat. Nobody is invinsible but when you walk with your back straight, shoulders back, chest out, people look at you differently. Walk with a purpose, not blindly looking at the ground. Obvisously, walking down Main Street would not get a gun pointed at you. But maybe that will happen if you're walking down that sidewalk where all the drug dealers and hookers are standing. If you have that gut feeling inside your stomach, that nagging feeling which saids, "Don't go", listen to it. Its great to be in class and learn how to deal with a gun but in real life there will be resistant. And anything can happen. If you don't want to be in that situation, then don't put yourself in that situation. Don't be a victim.

Hold on a minute. Karate is not effective? In what context? In competition or on the street? So from your experience, you have take karate? I'm just impling from your statement: "it has been my experience that karate is next to useless" so I could be wrong. Karate is useless equals all of karate practioners are useless, therefore they can not fight. Not correct. If martial art does not equal combat effectiveness then martial art is not martial art. Not true. Many people get into the martial art for many different reasons: improve health, self-descipline, social interactions, and many more reasons. The martial art instructor must cators to all these people, otherwise is more like going to boot-camp every night. But if all you want to do is to learn how to fight, then find a martial art that only stress that area. Obviously, taekwondo would not be a good choice, but hapkido is. With all great instructors, they bring out the best in their students no matter the style. If all you want to do is learn to fight and sparr, they will teach you how. You might have to stay late after class but they will teach you. Some school do mislead students and politics are invovle an they learn sh*t. Sure they can punch and kick, but what good is it for them if they can not apply it. Those instructors should not label themselves as martial artist.

If someone is charging at you with punches, lean back and deliver a side kick to their stomach. But any advice someone gives you is nothing, unless you practice sparring untill it hurts. Then you will be conditioned in getting hit and won't be scared of getting hit. If you have never been hit before, the first time you get hit, your body will tell you to give up. Brain to body: "Hey stupid, give up so we don't have to take this beating. We're going to die!" But if you're conditioned to being hit, the feeling isn't that bad. Brain to body: "Hey this ain't so bad. Hit me again, biocth, I'll hit you back ten times harder." Here are some advice: If it works, do it again. If you get in a front kick to the stomach, kick him again. Just kick him harder the second time because he might see it coming. If he doesn't see it, you've got him. Keep hands and feet moving. If it doesn't work, don't do it again. You'll pay for it. Trust me on this one. Don't be unsecure about your skills. Be confident. Confident is all you have.

A martial artist should not called themselve a martail artist unless they know how to defend themselve. But the word martial art is a vague term. I don't call myself a martial artist. No one I know does, not even my sensei. I called myself a karateka, or say I practice judo. If someone brag that they were a martial artist, I'll ask them, "What style they studied?" If they say, Taebo, I would laugh. Or aerobic kickboxing. I would then laugh even harder. If they say, Taekwondo, I would be a little cautious. A serious practioner of taekwondo is still a legitament opponent. Never underestimate your opponent or they will blind-side you. Who goes into an aerobic class or watch Taebo and hopes to be a good fighter. Nobody.

Bill "Superfoot" Wallace favorite kick was the hook kick. It won him many karate tournaments. My favorite hook kick combination: reverse front kick, rechamber(do not drop the leg to the floor), hook kick, place leg in front(you should end in an opposite stance).

Train hard. Get alot of sleep. Get there early and strecth out. When in the ring, do not rush. Stay calm. React to what your opponent does, instead of having a fix plan of attack. Stay calm. Relax. Have fun.

Picturing Kickchick in a bathtub just made my day.

Great discussion. MA raised a good point? What does it really mean to have a black belt(where belts apply)? Does it mean you are proficient at your style? Absolutely. Does it mean you can handle yourself in a fight? Not really, unless you been there, have taken a few punches, gotten a black eye, try out what works and what does not. How you train, is how you'll react. For some people, they'll react to the same way every time. Say if I feint, and he backs away, I know that he'll back away again the second time I throw the feint. Using that to my advantage, I'll do a reverse kick to cover the distance and throw punches when my foot lands. The street is different than training in class or in the ring, but the principles are always the same. To be a good streetfighter you have to train for it. But who wants to. Who wants to come to work every day with a black eye or a broken jaw. I have seen a great street fighter, he 'll just wait for you to attack him. He's tense but relax, always thinking ahead of you, knows to a high percentage what you're about to do, counter and punch you out cold before you get your second strike in. "The number one rule of Fight Club is you don't take about Fight Club. The second rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club. The third rule of Fight Club is only two man in the center. If its your first night, your going to fight."

I have some questions. Is this violent fight with a knife or a gun or bare fist? Are there multiple attackers? How old are you? The first two scenerio I have to recommend to avoid, unless you have extensive martial arts training. The first two scenerio don't have much of an option, you either win or die. Thats it. You either survive the attack or die. I'm no chicken, but if its a situation too much for me to handle, I'll just run away. If its you an another guy bare fisted, then there are alot of options. If he has grab you, (and your hands are free) cup your hands and slam it over his ears. The compressed air will bust his ear drums, it will hurt him, and you can run away. Never stay around to look at you workmanship. Run. If its a school brawl, like everybody been saying, hit fast and hit hard. Aim for the nose make each punch count, and don't run into his punches.

Can you train to make distance a weapon?

I guest no one has broken thier hand before, I have and it hurts. Worse, I have to wear a stupid cast for two months so the bone can grow back (which starts smelling like rotten eggs the first week), try not to sweat so the smell won't get worse (kinda hard when it accures naturally), shower with a plastic bag over my arm, and have people around me ask, "Hey, whats that smell!?!?" Mgirl is right. The last two fingers are like tooth picks. Very easy to break. They are not attach to anything accept to your wrist, while the index finger and the middle finger is attach to your forearm bone.

Its not the forehead, but between your forehead and the swirl on top is a spot the size of a quarter that I can break boards with. I know because sensei slam boards, the board is horizontal not vertical, on peoples head during demonstrations. I'm not so sure about the heel either, I know some people who have shatter their ackillies heel by landing wrong. Little tip: Toes first than heel, not the other way around. The elbow, dont know.

This is a great discussion. But must of it is going in a cirlce, especially on breaking boards. Breaking demonstration are awesome, showing sheer power. But can breaking boards develope power? It can, in some ways. If I can break one board, I can break two, if I can break two, I can break three, and so on. However, breaking is all in technique. Mr. "I can bench 400lbs" can't break nothing if he doesn't know the proper way to break it. Monkeygirl, I'm not sure your mom can leg press 700lbs. A woman's body isn't built to have big muscle and lift that much. Sure women can have big muscle, like those muscle women who compete on TV, but you have to specifically train for it for years. I'm not saying your mom can't or can, just hard to believe. And I'm not saying you shouldn't wieght train. Women do some kind of wieght training to tone thier muscles. I know a girl whom plays softball at my college who does some wieght training. She has a nice figure, and I like looking at her.

Break a person down so they can be stronger, the same way works with your muscles work. :lol: Moo, muscles are really dumb and have a very short memory. You break your muscles down so they can rebuild and be biggger, but if you slack for about just two weeks, you won't be able to lift that same amount you did two weeks ago. Yeah its strange, but its the truth. Start with enough weight so you can do six reps. When your able to get to ten reps, add more weights until you're down to six reps again. Lift until your muscles are fatigue. After that, do partials. Or another way to max out your muscles is to do combo lifts. Try: barbell curls into side raise(working side shoulder deltoids) into front raise(working front shoulder deltoids). Remember to be careful with your back, there is alot of pressure on your back when lifting weights.

This is a tough one. I would recommend you to weight train but you are a girl. I dont' know what to say. However here are some advice. Power comes form proper technigue. How are your kicks? Are your kicks controled and have a snap to it, or do they flob around like spagetti noodles. And you can't just kick the air and hope to develope power, you must kick something. Try your little brother, or if you don't have access to one, buy a heavy bag, a used one is preferred.

Try breaking wood boards without any power. Try breaking cement blocks in slow motion. However in a match, if the world was perfect and both men had the same abilities, the bigger guy will have some advantage over a smaller one. Therefore, I would have strength over agility or speed.

Maurice Smith. He's a kickboxer.

So there is a chance you might be coming back? Damn. lol. The last time I went to a retreat was five minutes ago. I used the bathroom.

If it doesnt' specify what type of karate it is, then its just some generic karate and the instructor doesn't have a certificate. There are many types of karate: wado ryu karate, yoshukai karate, ****o ryu karate, shotokan karate, and many more that I can't remember. Kickboxing is essentially karate, but without katas, weapons training, and defensive application. Kickboxing originated from karatekas who hated the rules of traditional sparring. They got together and just beated the crap out of each other, and they called this, contact sparring. Which evolve into kickboxing, somehow(hey I don't know how). A'ight!?!

I don't see how competing in tournament can lower anybody's confidence level. If you go in confident about your ability without any illusion, you have already won. Its my competive nature that drives me to go into tournaments. I know I'm good and am just going to have fun. I use tournament as a measuring device to see how I am compared to others. If I lose, I'll just train harder and know that I have a long way to goal to reach where I want to be. Nobody is perfect, but when a judge hands me a trophy that says first place and shakes my hand, I know even for just that moment, I have reached perfection. I was the best.

It takes alot of guts do that kind of stuff. You go in knowing that you can get badly hurt. But if you go in and are confident about your ability, all you probrably get is a black eye.

Great routine but I'm going to skip the running, going to save my knee for my kicks.