Wastelander

Well, I thought it was more like the jumping front kick in Chinto, but it's very close to the "crane kick" that everybody wants it to be so I suppose that's good enough . It certainly was a great kick!

Congratulations!

I understand the concept of using the dice, but there are more than 3 numbers on a die--what happens if someone rolls a 4, 5 or 6 when you're only counting to 3? As for the quotes, I was just poking fun because a few years ago I had actually memorized and acted out the entire Monty Python and the Holy Grail movie with my friends

I like the idea (although the only D&D I ever liked has been Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale video games) but I am a bit lost on something--they count to three after having rolled (I'm assuming a D6) to find out when they go, but that means that they each have a 50% chance of not going at all. Do you relabel the die? Also, incorrectly quoted Monty Python is incorrectly quoted

My Shuri-Ryu sensei was the step-son of a Chief Instructor (Shuri-Ryu has a Board of Chief Instructors and one Head of Style) and so we trained with the Chief Instructor (a Hachidan) regularly. It's really not that scary once you understand that training with him isn't any different than training with your usual sensei in that he knows WAY more than you. He just also happens to know WAY more than your sensei

I think that Agenda was trying to ask what we should be looking for on your channel? Are you going to be running kata on video to track improvement? Are you going to spar on video to get advice? Are you going to discuss philosophy or history? Does it make sense when I ask that way?

Just tell your instructor (as best you can, anyway) if your voice is still gone and you can't kiai and it shouldn't be a problem. Remember, when you kiai it isn't the noise that is important, it is the compression of your core and the release of energy, and you can do that without a voice.

No, I don't believe Ronin Brand uniforms are made in Japan--the one I have was made in Pakistan and it is just fine.

I'm of the opinion that fists are for soft targets so you don't need them to be super-conditioned, anyway--just enough to keep them safe if you miss. Knife hands and palm strikes are much better for striking hard targets.

I don't really develop callous very easily, so between that and the dryness of Arizona my knuckles still tear open. I would say that they are tougher than your average office-worker's hands, but they aren't warrior's hands.

I put in another vote for BDU pants, but if you really want gi pants just buy them and have a place that does alterations add pockets for you.

I'm not working on any technique, per se, but I need to work on using technique to beat someone stronger than me. I went to my first no-gi grappling tournament last month and was eliminated in my very first match because they guy was so strong that he was able to physically immobilize my hips FROM INSIDE MY GUARD (my guard game is good, at least for a Judoka, and I typically land armbars and triangles very easily from it) so I couldn't do any submissions, and then when he finally passed my guard he just squeezed my head into his massive chest and smothered me until I tapped for lack of oxygen.

The adult class at my dojo is after several childrens' classes, so most of us are already warmed up from helping in those and we skip warm-ups. Stretching prior to exercise has been shown to actually decrease muscle effectiveness, so stretching is an after-class activity to work pooled blood and lactic acid out. Our adult classes don't follow a rigid schedule, but we tend to start out either with basic techniques or kata, then move on to bunkai or advanced techniques and concepts, and sometimes we will work concepts as they are trained in other arts (tai chi concepts, kung fu concepts, muay thai concepts, etc.). The childrens' classes are more structured. Typically they start with warm-ups that consist of kicking across the mat, doing lunges, rolls, or crawls, jumping jacks, etc. After that we work basic techniques, either in the air or on bags or handheld pads/targets. Sometimes that is the entirety of the class and sometimes we work kata for the kids as well. We have separate sparring classes for both kids and adults, but my Sensei talked to me last night about working with the kids on some sparring basics to help ease them into the idea. Apparently when he gave out the official rank requirements for the dojo (they use the Shorinkan requirements as a base and he added requirements that he thought were important) he had a few kids get very upset and tell their parents that they didn't want to do karate anymore because he is requiring them to spar for rank at Purple Belt and up. Starting Monday I get to start trying to show the kids that sparring isn't scary or bad and that they can have a lot of fun doing it, all while making sure that they DON'T get hit until they get over being afraid

I don't mind talking, but I do mind not training. Martial arts training is fun for me and for the people I train with, so we will talk a bit while we train--never while the instructor is speaking or demonstrating, of course, or when we are working something full-speed, full-power (awfully hard to talk when you're busy breathing ).

I do not, personally, throw roundhouse kicks to strike with the ball of the foot--it's very difficult to pull your toes back while kicking at an angle like that, and I've messed up my toes enough that it's hard enough pulling them back for front kicks. That said, I would say sitting in kiza is probably your best option for stretching your toes, but you will still need to develop the muscles in the tops of your foot to be strong enough to hold your toes back or you will just have flexible toes that still don't bend back any further.

You are going to tear up your knees if you kick the air full-force to full-extension. It's going to take a while longer before you can increase to full-force kicks in the air, but still don't fully extend them because that is going to seriously stress the ligaments and cartilage in your knees. It takes time to develop your kicks in the air, and it will teach you to have very good control with your kicks later, so take your time so you can keep kicking into old age.

I'm 6'1" and 176lbs and physically quite weak for my size. I have only trained in karate and I can hit as hard as my strength, body weight and leverage allow. I have sparred with a former pro boxer and his comments were only on my head movement and some of my angles of attack, not my power. Boxing is not the be-all-end-all of powerful striking.

Dehydration is bad--we don't take breaks from class specifically to drink water except during intense classes or kids' classes, but we are always allowed to keep a water bottle next to the mat and grab a drink when we need it.

How long has he been training?

I go through kata or yakusoku kumite just about every day, and at the VERY LEAST I work some kihon every day. You aren't just a martial artist when you're at the dojo

And that's fine. There is nothing wrong with schools that compete a lot, and there is nothing wrong with schools that compete very little--it all depends on what the martial artist wants out of their school.

Try to keep your competitiveness under control--forcing your children to compete if they don't want to isn't going to do anyone any good. As far as tournaments go, they are decent promotional events for getting people to know the martial arts schools in the area, and they do make some money for the organizers if done properly. Beyond that they can be a fun and interesting event for martial artists to be involved in because you get to demonstrate what you know, see what other styles are out there and see how you stack up and what you might want to work on. If your friend's kids are making fun of TKD you should have a talk with your friend or their Sensei--TKD does have a reputation for being watered down more often than other styles, but that doesn't mean that the TKD your kids are learning is bad and regardless it doesn't give those kids the right to make fun of another art.

I believe it is quite a common practice to have belt ranks for MMA in Brazil. I don't really have an opinion on it one way or the other, but I thought I would throw that out there.

Oops, sorry I missed this--they were in Pekin at the Dragon Dome, but it was marketed as "HIVE MMA", I believe. The guys from Granite City were decent, but everyone else was pathetic. I'm from a little town roughly between Morton and Pekin, by the way. You have to remember that "fat" does not necessarily equal "out of shape". I have known a lot of guys with plenty of fat on them that have better cardio and strength than me, and I do believe that constitutes being "in shape" despite outward appearances.

I'll admit right away that I haven't read this entire thread, but I am seeing the "competition vs. self-defense" argument and so I thought I would jump in here. Can arts that actively compete be useful for self-defense? Yes. Can arts that do not compete and focus on self-defense be useful for competition? Yes. Does competing prove that your art will work for self-defense? Not necessarily. What matters isn't so much the content (it does need to be effective content, but most martial arts do contain similar content that has been proven effective over time) but the method of training. At my old dojo we also had Haganah classes (very similar to Krav, but more controversial) and they were actively resisting each other in practice. If they were practicing on someone who stops as soon as you start to defend then it wouldn't be very useful for self-defense, now would it? Those guys didn't compete, either, but having trained with them I can pretty safely say that they could fend off an attack pretty well. That said, I have trained Judo in two different dojos with different points of view on the art. My first dojo taught 50% tachiwaza (standing techniques) and 50% newaza (groundwork), although really it probably ended up being more like 35% tachiwaza and 65% newaza. That is because the instructor wanted us to know what to do in a grappling situation whether we were standing or on the ground and how to transition between the two. That is a self defense concept more than a competition concept--we very rarely ever competed outside of our own dojo tournaments (we had three affiliated dojos and twice a year they would hold a tournament together). My second dojo taught tachiwaza almost exclusively (we worked two classes of groundwork in the two years I was there) because that's what wins competitions, and we did the throws with a lot more commitment than I ever did at the first dojo because that would make sure we threw a resisting opponent. That all works fine on tatami mats in a competition but do you know how many times the person throwing would end up hitting their head on the floor? That doesn't work out very well for you in a self defense situation. Sure, fighting with the adrenaline rush and stress you experience in a Judo competition is definitely going to give you an advantage in self defense, but it still doesn't do you a whole lot of good if you smash your own head on the ground when you throw the guy who grabs you. tl;dr - Competition can be helpful and teach you to fight under stress, but it isn't the be-all-end-all method of determining effectiveness--how you train is more important than what you train and whether you compete. At least, that's my take on it.