Kirves

What do you mean by "defencive"? Wing Chun is very aggressive and offencive style.

It depends on the school. Some schools don't treat white belt as a rank, so they won't test you for it. Some schools, have white belt as one of the ranks so it's just like any other color: you can only wear it if you know the techniques required for it. Remember, white is just a color among the rest of them. I know several styles where white belt does not mean a beginner, but it means one rank among others. I have tested for a white belt myself in one Okinawan karate style. It was just their ranking system and that's it.

Full contact doesn't mean "anything goes", the more dangerous techniques can be controlled or prohibited when going full contact.

Ha! Fireka, that was a good one.

Hello, nice to hear we have another black belt among us. Please keep posting, so we can all tap into your knowledge.

Trees are not as hard as walls. Hit walls without protective gear and you will ruin your joints in the long run. Find some of the softer trees (or ones with thicker "skin") and begin lightly, it is healthier. There are makiwaras sold that can be put straight on the wall. Or get the bean bag that Wing Chun people use, it also hangs on the wall.

Getting hit in the head while training does two important things: 1. Trains the neck muscles to withstand the blasts (even strong neck muscles won't help much if they aren't used to striking). 2. Trains you mentally so you won't flinch or panic.

And break the fingers once in a while.

A judo jacket is usually thicker than a karate jacket, because it has to withstand more punishment. In judo people constantly grab and pull the jacket, when in karate that happens a lot less. So don't worry if the karate jacket isn't as thick as some judo/jujutsu jackets.

I don't do Kyokushin no more.

A.S.A.P.? #1: Krav Maga If I had even a month to prepare, then BJJ.

Thanks, I'll have to look that up! In the meanwhile, one of the best parts of the film is when the kungfu school reveals that they have taught one of their stupider students wrong kungfu as a joke. The kungfu they taught him doesn't involve techniques like "monkey steals the peach" or what have you in the common styles, but it has techniques like "hit your fist with my chin" and "strike your knee with my balls"!

Yeah, in Europe, at least earlier, mysticism sells, if you put up a new "karate school" everyone just passes it by thinking "oh, another one of those". But if you put up a KickinSquirrel Moo Sool Dojang everyone's thinking "wow, I haven't heard of that, I must go in and see what it is!". I have gotten the idea that in the US it is the other way round. If someone wants to open up a new school, he'd better use a familiar name like "karate" or everyone's coming in ordering Chinese.

You are being given good advice here. Take heed. The club seems to be what is known around martial arts circles a "McDojo", like McDonalds, they sell bad quality product with a high price. The price overall seems pretty high, but in itself isn't a red flag yet, just a yellow one. Sometimes it is that expensive if you want top quality, but, but, not like this - no way. But the long-term contract and the promise of a black belt - there's the red flag. Never sign a long term contract like that. Ever. Honest schools have no need to do that kind of rip-off/scam deals. And they can't promise a belt rank like that. Or yes they can, but they can't surely guarantee that it was deserved based on skill, so they only promise a rank, not skill. Go elsewhere, ask prices and deals, shop around.

-Did he already tell us to stop beating him? -I don't know... I didn't hear anything... Did you? -Well, he did kinda whine for a second... -He did say something about a towel... -He did? -C'mon, and let's not tell mom about this! -"Simba, of course you don't understand me, I was talking in riddles!"

I think you gave a good explanation of the gendai budo styles of karate.

I'd recommend MT any day.

I rented it. The movie is awesome - all the dorkiest clichés of imported B-class Honk Kong kungfu flicks are exploited. Scenes ripped off from an existing movie, rearranged for a new plot, new voice acting dubbed over (with all the stupid mistakes that are found in any voice acting of a kungfu-flick - tenfold!), new main character added digitally on to the screen and so on... The new plot is awesome, a baby boy barely escapes while Master Pain kills his family. Then the boy, "raised by various rodents", master of Rodent style kungfu, goes after his revenge on Master Pai... Oh, he insists we call him Betty, okay, the guy goes after Betty to get his revenge. The plot is funny and the tricks are funny, but half of the jokes are in the method as well. The whole voice over dubbing is a joke. In old imported HK movies, there often were only couple of actors who did different voices for different characters. Well, here there is only one actor who does all the voices.. And just as in the b-movies, the actors speak English with a Chinese accent (how stupid is that, does that mean the Chinese are actually speaking some other accent or what?). And as all the b-movie voice actors were bad, you see that here too; when a man is yelling with his face all red with anger, the voice actor speaks calmly and nicely, and sometimes vice versa. And the translation was always a problem with the old HK imports... Here there's a scene where a guy talks on endlessly while the voice only says "I don't know" or something like that. It just can't be explained, must see! And if you've seen any Bruce Lee movies with the "eye closeup zoom" in the beginning of a fight scene... Well... You'll see a lot of that.

So you can beat them and when you do?

Totally up to the organization that ranks you. Different arts, styles and organizations have different ranking systems. If we are talking about Shotokan only, then you may be correct.

You need to go to a dojo where training is so intense everyone sweats from every inch of their body.

When you are below black belt, you are a student of the art. When you are a black belt, you practice the art. Would you want to stop just when you learned the basics so you could start practicing?

Happy B-day! Yeah, I use karate in one way or another just about every week as a security guard. But the situations where I have been so far "on duty" have been quite mild. No guns have been pulled on me, or any other life-and-death experiences. The drugged robber was the worst I've had to deal with and I don't really know how good I would have been as I got help, and I was drunk. And it was also my first real fight - so I was inexperienced too.

Sometimes those who got it "naturally" don't appreciate it enough to develop it to their fullest potential. On the other hand, some guy with bad natural talent may feel insecure about this lack of ability and works very hard to compensate it. With determination the less talented can become better than the talented who never felt the need to excel in the area. This is similar to bodybyilding and strength training. Many people who would have natural talent to becoming a bodybuilding champ or a powerlifter, don't do it as they never get the spark to give it a go. Most people who begin bodybuilding or strength training, do so because they feel insecure about their weak and small body and want to fix it badly. I think a lot of people start up martial art training for the very same reason: for some reason they feel insecure and hope martial arts will fix that. An example of this is the action-movie actor Dolph Lundgren. He has said in many interviews that the reason why he begun karate and bodybuilding was that he was shy and insecure about himself. He felt that if he didn't have such a feeble body and if he knew some martial arts, he'd be more secure about himself. And everyone can see what happened. Just my 2c.

Yeah, hiya, the more the merrier.