iolair

Depends how much time I have etc., I usually go about 4 miles at 8 minutes/mile, I try to do enough longer runs that I can run 10km (6.3 miles) completely comfortably... ... though I actually ran 26.2 miles in the London Marathon 5 years ago. Needless to say I did a lot more running in the build up to that!

I don't like to work any particular joint or muscle hard for two days in a row - I think it's much better to have a recovery day in between (when you're either resting, or working different parts of your body, or working the same part but only lightly). This allows the joints time to recover from any microinjuries and the muscles time to develop.

I'm currently writing a book for language learners, and would be interested if you could answer a couple of questions... (if you're verbose, please let me know if you're prepared to be quoted either with a name or anonymously)... 1) What were your reasons for learning another language 2) What are the main barriers or difficulties you've had in learning another language 3) Which language(s) have you learnt, and why those? 4) Which learning methods or courses have you used; which did you find effective and which ineffective? 5) Did you learn a language in high school? How would you rate the state of your ability in that language when you left school? Thanks!

I don't use jumping kicks - and only practice them enough to teach the basics of them. 1) They leave you too vulnerable 2) My time is short, and the time spent practicing jump kick IMHO yields better results by spending it reinforcing basics.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... Go here --> http://www.judoinfo.com/techdrw.htm and scroll down to the Armbars/Joint Locking Techniques (Kansetsuwaza) section.

Urm... Humans ARE primates.... Kingdom: Animal Phylum: Chordata SubPhylum: Vertebrates Class: Mammalia Subclass: Eutheria Order: Primates Family: Hominidae (the Great Apes: also including Chimp, Gorilla, Orangutan) Genus: Homo (also included Neanderthals) Species: Homo sapiens Interestingly though, the Neanderthals seem to have had a much better developed musculature than we did. They also had larger brains than us, in order to control the extra muscle! (I bet they would have made great grapplers!)

When I've tried hand-stand push-ups (which are a GREAT shoulder exercise), I've done them with my feet balanced against a wall.... it had never occurred to me to try and do them balanced (gulp!).

I'm mainly Kickboxing and Ju Jitsu... I do some home training, though unfortunately don't have nearly as much time as would like for it.... Every day I do basic striking technique work... not a huge amount, just 20 reps (each side) of my 15 major strikes, but 100 reps (each side) of whichever technique I'm currently focusing on (for example, this month it's side kick). I'm gonna build that up to 200 though. Sometimes I'll tie my belt at shoulder height round my punch bag and do some turn-ins for common throws as well. About 4 days a week I do between ten and twenty minutes on the heavy bag I have hung outside. Twice a week I do "Tae Bo" Advanced workouts from DVD (not good martial arts, but a damn good workout). Once a week I take a run of between 20 and 35 minutes followed by body weight exercises (lots of abdominals, plus assorted push ups) Once a week I use loose weights, with exercises that cover multiple muscles (bent over row, bench press, squats, etc..)

What is the mix of grappling and striking in your personal style? (i.e. the art or combination of arts that you practice and use). Having done Karate and Kickboxing, and found myself well suited to them, I'm taking Ju Jitsu to make myself a more rounded fighter. But, I still consider myself to be a striker - just a striker who happens to grapple too!

Yes, I believe he injured his knee doing Judo ... and as you said, the result was that when he took Karate, he worked one leg twice as much when the rest of the class changed legs. There used to be an inside joke in Judo circles, that your Dan grade number was decided by the number of serious knee injuries you'd had. It is actually pretty common. You can reduce the chance of joint injuries to an extent by building up the supporting muscles round the joint.

Thanks - those videos showed me everything I needed, and were "only" 10 minutes each to download... Now I just need to repeat it a couple of hundred times until it become familiar! Some of it is quite familiar from the Pinan kata that I half-remember from 14 years ago!

The current club I go to: Tetsu No Otoko Ryu "applied" Ju Jitsu Please feel free to tell about your sparring, whether it is full contact, or point based or somewhere between We vary between light contact and full contact do you perform breaking techniques? No what kind of hand strikes? elbow? knees? headbutts? All of those... The punches we do are the same as Western Boxing. low kicks, high kicks, spinning , jumping? Lots of low kicks, never higher than kidneys ... but strangely there are a couple of spinning techniques pressure points? self defenses? grappling? Some pressure points at higher grades, a lot of self defense, a lot of grappling both stand up and ground do you practice the native countrys' terminology? inconsistently. It seems to be used for most throws, but rarely for other techniques weapon use? what kinds of weapons? what levels do you learn weapons or special techniques? we practice defence against knives, baseball bats and similar, but not fighting with them and also tell where this school was located and your instructors' names for the purpose of individuals that may be interested in learning more about martial arts in their areas. located in Faversham, south-east England.

In Karate before the styles I've done did not have the Heian katas, so I'm teaching them to myself from the internet now. I've got a couple of good images which show the final state of each move, but not in detail how to get there (videos are no good - I have a 56k connection!). In the last four moves, you end up in kokutsu dachi (back stance) in a knifehand block (shoto uke). Exactly how do you move into these positions? Thanks! BTW, is there any relationship between the Pinan Kata and the Heian Kata, or are they entirely separate?

Interesting... In developing your system, have you looked into... 1) Western Fencing 2) Irish Stick Fighting 3) texts by Nick Evangelista on traditonal Western stick fighting 4) Escrima ? Have these contributed much to your system? (It does seem that in the one area of fighting with short sticks, the Japanese have lagged behind others).

I remember reading about a study which said that woman who fought back against rapists suffered no more physical injury, and much fewer psychological problems, compared to those who did not fight back. As for money ... if I thought they would go and not harm me if I gave them my money, then they're welcome to it if they're armed. If I think the nutter will harm me whatever I do, I'll attempt to remove them immediately.

Kyokushinkai Karate (and also Seido Karate - an offshoot style I first tried) White Blue Yellow Green Brown Black Tetsu No Otoko Ryu Ju Jitsu (current style I'm studying) White Red Yellow Orange Green Blue Purple Brown Black Kickboxing as I teach it I use the same grades as Ju Jitsu above except that I don't use Red. Gunlann (not that I have any students yet) Red Blue Green Black Grey (instructors would wear a white belt with a black stripe while teaching)

I do something similar as part of my private workout ... I didn't realise it was a common black belt task! I have the following... 1) 5 kicks, same leg, without dropping leg Front kick, Roundhouse to front, Side kick to front, Hook kick to front, Back kick to rear. (I do these every day for balance - both fast and slow) 2) Compass kicking Side kick, pivot 90 degrees, side kick again, pivot 90 degrees Repeat until balance or attention fail.

If it takes 10000 repetitions to "own" a technique (a commonly quoted figure, though not scientifically backed up as far as I know), how long do you reckon it takes to achieve competence in an art? How much time does all that practice need to add up to? Let's go for kickboxing, as I can sum up common/essential techniques pretty well off the top of my head... Jab, Cross, Hook, Uppercut, Front kick, Roundhouse, Side kick... that bunch will see you through most situations if you're good enough at them. Just from my own tastes, I'll add in the Hook Kick too. Individual techniques are pretty lame on their own, so let's add in, say, 12 simple combinations of these essential techniques. Finally, simple defensive moves need to be drilled just as well: slips, laybacks, ducking, shoulder raise, leg block, inside and outside parries. You also need to practice your footwork, but we'll assume for now you combine that with the techniques. That brings us up to a total of 27 techniques to practice 10000 times each, or 270000 repetitions by the time we've done the whole lot. In an intensive workout or training session, let's say you have 30 minutes technique time (the rest made up with cardio, sparring, stretching etc etc). We'll say you spend a third of the time resting or moving between techniques, which gives you twenty minutes when you're actively practicing them. Let's call it a technique or combo drilled every second (maybe generous, but it'll do as a starting point). Our remaining 20 minutes = 20 x 60 seconds = 1200 seconds, 1200 repetitions. If we divide the 270000 repetitions required by the 1200 techniques per training session, it suggests that the number of sessions needed to master the basics is 225. If we assume that a diligent martial artist should have a session that includes all his basics three times every week, then we need 75 weeks, or about one and a half years, to master the basics of an art. Anyone think these figures relate to reality? By the way, can anyone give me a figure of the total number of techniques (including movement and defence) for their art: (a) for the essential techniques of the art, and (b) the complete art.

I have also always trained bare knuckled - on heavy bag, focus pads, and sometimes on wood and stone. I've never had any persistent hand pain, stiffness, or other problems as a result. I would definitely hesitate to recommend this to other people though - when I'm teaching kickboxing, I always make sure my students use bag gloves etc...

IMHO If you wanted to become a great competition fighter (do they that kind of competition in Aikido?), you've left it a little late - but not impossibly so, especially if you're already fit. If you want to become a black belt, competent aikidoka or even (eventually) an aikido master, all these targets are completely within your grasp. It just depends on the magnitude of your enthusiasm for aikido and your staying power.

The account I've read "Bruce Lee - Fighting Spirit" says he died following a Brain Aneurism, compounded by the fact that the woman he was with at the time it happened delayed somewhat in getting medical attention. She was afraid of the compromising situation his being in her hotel room could cause. Doctors at the time said it was mostly likely caused by a one-in-many-million-chance rare allergic reaction to the headache tablet he'd taken before he laid down. From what I understand of Aneurisms though, it's also possible that they can kind of sit around in the background if you have one and burst (fatally) at any time. Lots of conspiracy theories arose about his death after (and before) it actually happened. Apparently there were several times rumours Bruce had been murdered by the Triads etc while he was still alive, well and filming!

In all 3 Karate clubs (Seido, Shotokan, Seidokan) that I've been to, I'd say the ratio is about 60 to 70% Hand techniques, 40 to 30% Legs. As another poster said, though, kicks are used very seldom in Kata. (In TKD forms, they are also a lot less common than hand techniques I think?)

Three times a week, on my heavy bag.

Although we still have the coloured belts, at the Ju Jitsu club I attend we grade like this... you don't have to aim for a specific grade. You show the examiners exactly how much (or how little) you feel that you can, then they award the new grade appropriate to your achievements. I (skipping 9th Kyu "White with tab" and 8th Kyu "red") got my 7th Kyu yellow belt after only 3 weeks in the club, because I was able to apply my past Judo, Karate and Kickboxing knowledge. I know a lot of clubs would make you wait, though.

The best idea IMHO is to make sure your training/sparring includes times when you hit like you would in the ring, then you can get used to it. However, with the best will in the world, training will never be like the ring. Your adrenaline runs much higher when you get out there on the canvas. Personally, I pretty much "turn off" emotions in competition - I'm not vicious, but neither do I notice the pain much. My wife has said watching me fight is like watching a ballet dancer - graceful and controlled! I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but at the (fairly low) level at which I've competed, I've done "above average", but not brilliantly.