Kfcharlie

I have been a 3rd dan in TKD for over 2 years, and while i still practice my current forms and forms for 4th dan, my favorite forms and the ones that get practiced most often are the first 3. Chon-ji, Dan-Gun, and Do-San. My absolute favorite forms are chon-ji, do-san, and chun-mu. Taebot and john g are both right, our forms are where it is all at. i don't like it when people talk about "mastering" forms, especially 3rd dans and down. there is no way. i bet i could watch any one of you do chon-ji and point out at lest 5 problems with-in your technique and give you at least 3 different uses for every technique. and i am in no way a "master" or have i mastered this very "simple" and basic form. i do believe that as you go higher in rank you should practice harder moves but i still believe that the only way to be the best and get to the level of being a master is to practice our basics every day, and not just practice them but practice them right.

Hey everyone, 22 here. i have been training since i was 13 and i must say that i have seen many differences and changes over the years. some due to experience and knowledge some due to getting older, such as the time it takes to get over sorness and injuries, and the amount of time i have to put forward to training. but i wiil not stop for anything it is a way of life and a life long quest. Jacob "You know what you know-you know what you don't know-but it is what you don't know, you don't know that will hurt you." -Master Tim Mertens

Thats right! excellent job Kirves. part of martial rts is economy or conservation of motion, keeping this in mind there is a reason fro everything we do. we do not do something just to "condition our muscles."

A little of both would be great! i know the history of wng tsun, but i would like to know the differences between the animal forms and what body types each form is suited best for and just some general stuff like that. Jacob

hey everyone, just wanted to say that this is a pretty good discussion and to offer some of my views. First of all, there is a reason for doing everything that we do in martial arts, whether it be karate or, tkd or, gung-fu. if this is not true why would we spend the time training our bodies to do something that we will never use, and don't give me that muscle conditioning bull. muscle conditioning is just that, push-ups and the like. the simplest explanation that i can give you to why we do infact chamber is to think of holding someones arm and pulling them into you as you punch. now there are many others but they would be best demonstrated and talked about. other reasons could be to do grappeling moves, tuite, or to trap something. and i agree with you on the technique thing. only perfect practice makes perfect. if your instructor is not trained well enuff to tell that you are doing something wrong, whether you are moving fast or slow, he/she has no business being the only instructor on the floor. and who ever said that you can only practice at the school why not at home, after a couple months of dedicated training you should know what is supposed to be right or wrong. and stances. i use all of my stances all of the time, wheteher sparring or doing my form or self defense, especially self defense. different techniques work better with different stances. that is all there is too it and if you don't know how your stances work practice your forms some more. all of the secrets of our martial arts are hidden in the basics and forms that we practice everyday. sparring was not invented until the okinawins allowed funakoshi to teach the japanese "karate" or the watered-down version that many people teach today. it was meant for his students to have fun and to be able to compete with one another. think about it, did the okinawins like the japanese? hell no! they hated them, so why would they teach them all of their empty hand secrets. why not teach them just enuff to make them look stupid. sparring is not meant to be the way you would handle yourself in a self defense situation, it was meant for sport and fun. so you really think that they didn't have street fights back in the olden days? if you do then you are living in a fantasy world. the same things that we face todat have been going on for thousands and thousands of years albeit the guns of course. but anything that yu evr wanted to know about martial arts is in the forms. next time you do your form think about what you are doing. and don't think, "oh, this is a low block so i must be blocking a kick or a punch" becasue that to is bull. try to push the envelope think about where your hands are in the protection postion during your block. hmmm, boy doesn't that look like a fighting postion after you just parried a technique away from you? i will tell you now that blocks are not just blocks. next time you do your form, lets say pinan 1 your first move is to turn and do a low block, right? well is the low block position the actuall move or is it just a pose? did the or technique you were using occur between the ready stance and the block pose? i think so. sorry this is so long but there is no short way around it. i could go on for years about all of this. you just have to have an open mind and a good though process and years of experience to start to come to these conclusions and it doesn't hurt to ready Karate-Do my way of life by gichin funakoshi but make sure it is the one that was published in 1922 or around there and not the 1949 publication. Jacob

**Original message** Look, if anyone can actually demonstrate Ki (as opposed to biomechanics, or other purely physical manifestations of energy) they get a million dollars. well then pay up! all of the DKI (Dillman Karate International) masters that i have ever meet can do no touch knock outs from distancess of 20 feet away or more.

hey every one, this is only my second time posting here and i was wondering if some one could fill me in a little. it seems like a lot of people here are very knowledgable? of the chinese arts and i, well, am not. i know that the northern kung fu styles are more of kickers than the southern styles (I think) and that almost all martial arts sprang form the shoalin martial arts that were brought to china from india by buddha. other than that all, or the majority, of my knowledge lies in korean and japanese martial arts. i was hoping that all of you culd fill me in on your infinite knowledge of martial arts. Jacob

**Original message** 4. I want an art that would not hand me a black belt in under 2 years. I want to REALLY have to work to acheive my goal. first of all this goal does not really matter. a black belt does not mean anything, it is just the begining. yes of course there are colored belts or at least one white belt before black but your first blackbelt does not mean that you can handle yourself at all, it just means that you are ready to learn. also, any real martial system is a great choice for self defense, but you have to be careful. many styles are more of sports or "arts" any more. if you are looking for self defense then you need to try and find a budo or something that ends in "do". in the oreint "do" has multiple meanings but in general it means the way. i practice taekwon-do (tkd) and hapki-do and a few other systems and i will be the first to tell you to be leary of a tkd school. while i love the system and all that it embodies, recently it is becoming harder and harder to find a good school that is not focused on the sport of tournament but more so the martial system. when you mentioned sparring as being a way to test yourself you are wrong. becasue no matter what you do sparring is not fighting it is sparring. it has rules and there is such a thing as dirty fighting. however, in a "real life" fight there are no rules, there is no such concept as fighting dirty, anything goes. so one of the best ways, in my opinion, you can practice would be to just do plent of repetition and form and envision your apponent standing in front of you, and some partner drills short from going out and just beating people up. Finally you mentioned something about ki/chi training. let me tell you that any true martial system teaches their style as a 3 step process. the process is body, mind, and spirit. body is no more than physically going through the motions, generally associated with your 1st dgree black belts, this alone will not allow you to properly defend yourself. next comes mind, it allows you to focus and concentrate and understand what you are doing and why. allows you to interpret why things happen the way they do in your system. and the last is spirit. this is the ki, the mystical stuff that you talk about. i too have a strong christian back ground and i believe deeply in ki power. i have even seen people be knocked out by it with out being touched, and have been knocked out my self, i have seen someone hold up a full grown man at shoulder length suporting the mans weight on his arm and keeping this guys feet 2 feet from the ground. but here is the important part, we all have it in us. we just have to learn how to harness it. in the christian religion it can be described as the breath that God breathed into the dust from which adam was born. it can be labeld as the holy spirit woking with in us. remember samson. the main thing to remeber is that it is not in any way saying that you are more powerful than God or that you are un-christian. all it means is that when you get to this piont all three steps have been completed and your body, mind, and spirit act as one. to qoute Bruse Lee form Enter the Dragon, "When i see an opening i do not stike... but it (his fist) strikes true" with out any thought, it becomes instinct. just remeber that aikido is a great system, i have done it before and really like it. but it takes a very long time to become proficient at it. where as it might only take 2-3 years to develop the ability to defend yourself through a striking system, aikido takes around 6-8 years to become good enuff to defend yourself. i hope this is food for thought. any questions or comments just reply. oh, and by the way, my name is Jacob and this is my first time posting on the forum too.