StrangeBacon

Alot of martial arts are good for self defense, it mainly depends on the person training and how well you can apply things in certain situations. Regarding the school, take a look near you and see whats on offer, most schools will give a free taster lesson or let you sit in on one. Write a list of questions you'd like to ask so you dont forget anything at the time, and make sure you think you'll get on with the people there, no matter how good a martial art is it wont work if you quit after 2 weeks. Hope this helps and welcome to KF

Agree with Red Lizard, some great clothes and books on there, being from the UK i find it very convenient

Entertaining vid but im not sure what it had to do with the chudan zuki in particular, thanks for sharing though!

I've not seen the film but i think they way the trailer was set up interviewing people as they left the film is an interesting way to present it, sure it would work with certain films but not all of them of course.

An insight into how long you have been doing karate might help, as for the stance ps1 is right, it could be because you're flat footed and seeing a physician could well help with that. However it could also be underdeveloped calf and rotator muscles too, how old are you if i may ask and whats your activity level like? It could even be problems with the supporting muscles too, stances like kiba and zen kutsu dachi require strong quadriceps. Try doing a few light sets of sumo squats and foot extensions to warm up the muscles and get the ankle moving and keep working at it. If non of this helps see a doctor as mentioned before.

Your body should get used to that then, regarding the kick, do side leg lifts and aim to progressively get higher over the 3-4 sets till you reach your full range of motion without dropping the trunk as this accomodates the stretch in the hamstring and uses the hip flexor more, using this method with the front and back lifts too you'll be able to more effectively isolate the hamstrings. Stretch statically after workouts and (especially if you're working with weights) do a cooldown, i cant stress the importance of this enough, a proper cooldown will flush the lactic acid from the body and lead to greater flexibility and less soreness as a long term result. There are a number of factors that affect flexibility at any one time such as sleep, nutrition (salt intake ect) previous exercise ect but you should be seeing a general increase week by week, dont get too discouraged if you can stretch to a certain point in the morning and not the same at night, like i said theres a stupid amount of things that will affect it. Hope this was helpful.

By sore and tight do you mean pain or discomfort? If its painful you should give it a day or two, so just do them 3 or 4 times a week for a few weeks or just cut out the evening session to give them a full 24 hours before the next one. If its just discomfort then the body will get used to it, its like hard weights workouts, the first few will leave you struggling to move for the next few days Ask your teacher in regards to the kicks as he'll be able to see whether its your strength or flexibility thats in question its very hard to tell and offer corrective advice over a forum when i cant see what you're doing.

A good stretching routine will usually take a good 6-8 hours a week worth of commitment to develop a good level of flexibility and then only 1-2 hours a week to maintain it, the best way to reach this is to do 15-20 mins of dynamic stretches twice a day preferbaly in the morning and evening for a few weeks, and then start doing isometric stretching no more than 3 times a week, at the same time reducing the dynamics down to once a day after you reach your desired level of flexibility. You only need to do the dynamics every morning to maintain that level in addition with your martial arts training, that should be enough. Make sure to do martial arts style dynamic stretches as opposed to the borderline useless fitness style stretches though (squat to overhead ect)

Well, a fellow sword practitioner! Havent found many of those outside my dojo Welcome to KF Kensei and great intro!

Looks like a killer towards the end! I like drills like this traditional cardio tends to bore me so its always good to find interesting new ways to tire yourself out.

http://www.trickstutorials.com/index.php?page=content/flexibility The videos for the dynamic stretches arent working on the site, but this guys youtube channel has them all http://www.youtube.com/user/86itachi The site also goes into nearly every static stretch possible and explains in detail with pictures the proper ways to perform and maintain flexibility using isometric/pnf stretching. Is brilliant its helped many people out bucketloads. The book, Stretching Scientifically by Thomas Kurz is another great resource. If you still need some more info on stretching just ask, im a personal trainer by trade and i'd be happy to help when i have a little more time Hope this helps.

I've seen a few copys on ebay, they deliver to poland.

It depends how adept a person is at each kick, i find dropping the opposite shoulder to the leg as a mawashi geri is peformed lends to more power and greater stability, there are other ways of performing it such as keeping straight on and pivoting around the knee but i personally prefer the former due to the body being in a more preferable position for stepping through with another technique. I cant really comment on the flexibility in the hamstrings as i've always been able to do full splits and kakato geri's to jodan height so its never bothered me. Try to imagine you're looking at the opponent with an eye in your left shoulder as you do a right leg mawashi geri and instead of pivoting (whether you do or not) get the knee up and fire the kick from there, i find the position is more effective in opening up the hips and being able to get the kick out there faster. Sorry if i ended up rambling just my 2c.

Went to see this on Wednesday night and absolutely loved it, one of the few films i've seen where the audience were laughing out loud, action scenes were great and it had that blend of tongue in cheek comedy and story that keeps you entertained throughout and being a massive fan of the TV series i was a very happy chappie Characterisation was very good too imo, Rampage Jackson playing BA Baracus couldnt have been better and Bradley Coopers Faceman was spot on. Anyone else had a chance to see this yet? If so what were your impressions?

Next doors cat nibbles the back of my arm He's purring and perfectly friendly too guess animals are like people, everyone has their own weird things

The main point i was trying to get across was to have some carbs beforehand, maybe the potato was a bad idea but hey i'd just woken up

Im pretty sure you could find a free torrent if you looked hard enough.

Hey Cameron, welcome to KF

Heres mine: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000460885656#

The instructor is going to influence the syllabus to a certain extent, he'll have been taught a certain way and he'll teach others the way he's been taught (most of the time) it might not nessessarily be the best way but its the way he knows, so yes things change with instructors. Regarding a style with more kata than sparring, again that'll come down to the instructor most of the time, i believe theres more sparring in general nowadays due to competitions and the rise of MMA. Im not 100% sure which styles focus on kata and the arts side more, i know mine does and we dont compete but we arent a mainstream style like TKD and its iterations. Like i said before go round the schools, do some research on them and speak to the instructors about how they run their dojo, you might find you like Bunkai, which, if you dont know is using a kata against real opponants so you can break it down and see how each section is intended to work, kata analysis i suppose you could call it. I personally like that because it shows you the applications of what you're learning but puts a small element of the contact in there too so you're learning about strike distance and placement of techniques too, im not a massive fan of sparring either. Hope this helps

This. Also i'd say take the banana out and use something else, bananas cause the body to release serotonin, a relaxing hormone released after sex, it'll have a counterproductive effect on your run The 5 mins it takes to microwave a potato would work even some wholemeal bread with a bit of ham. Like Jay said you need protein within about 20 mins after you finish exercising to stop to body entering a catabolic state and canabalising the most metabolically available tissue you have for energy.....muscle! In an ideal world you'd need a ratio of 4:1 carbs to protein, this makes Quinoa PERFECT for a post workout snack And of course as suggested use an isotonic drink during to replace electrolytes lost while sweating, choose one with a good even spread of minerals too Hope this helped

Its a Combat Anxiety Management Plan i believe Not really a style, more a combat enhancement, its english translation is Rossiyskaya Otechestvennaya Sistema Samozashchity, Russian of course

I agree with the above points about the science on the subject, i personally havent ever had an involentary lucid dream or even a night terror, i consider myself quite lucky in that respect Be interesting to see if anyone else on the boards has had that "out of body experience" in the middle of a competition fight, not just that but things like time dilation have been reported too, most can be explained away by chemicals in the brain and the effect of adrenaline but it'd still be interesting to hear if anyone has experienced this.

Not sure where to put this, but i'll post here, feel free to move it if nessessary. I read an article in an issue of Martial Arts Illustrated that i'd recently aquired off a friend, the article was about lucid dreaming and being able to train yourself to wake up inside the dream itself and consciously inhabit it. The writer descibes using this state to create mental training areas where one can practice without the constraints of time or physical harm such as in mentally constructed street scenarios, or indeed just use them for entertainment, i mean who wouldnt want to mess about in a dream world being able to do anything your mind can create? Anyway, im rambling, the point is i've never really read any of this in depth before and i've heard of out of body experiences from soldiers in wars and such but being able to create one at will seems rather advantageous. The person described in the article was Dr Rory Mac Sweeney from Robert Devane's Irish Hitmen Squad, he's won european championships and world championships with 22 years MA experience and doctorates in genetics, he seems to know what he's talking about but i'd like to see your opinions on the subject. The website specified in the article - http://www.wakeupinyourdreams.com/ Discuss

Many thanks. I was actually looking at the dojo in Finchley. The website doesn't offer much of an insight into that particular school though, just Kyokushin in general. Best thing would be to go down in some free time and sit in on a lesson see if you like the structure