chiliphil1

You know, I think that is the other one that I saw years ago. I remember a movie with him that inspired me so much and while fearless did as well and had a similar story line, perhaps the meltdown was the one that I saw years ago. I never knew the name of the movie and I never could find it but I always remembered how that movie had taken me as a teen who had given up on MA back into this world all by itself! I will have to see if I can locate that somewhere.

Indeed, I forgot about those! I don't think the turtles played much of a role because for some reason I never really related them to what I was doing and as far as the power rangers I was already training when they came out but I did enjoy the show.

Excellent topic! There wasn't any one movie technique that made me want to learn something new, but I was always inspired by JCVD and his power and stretching as the poster above me. There are a couple of movies that inspired me in general the first was Jet Li's fearless, that movie really made me look at things differently. A man has lost everything and then finds himself again through MA training, though I never had a loss like he did in that movie I was certainly inspired to find myself again. The second movie was Ip Man with Donnie Yen, he is one of the best MA actors of all time IMHO, those 2 Ip Man movies with him in them really made me take a look at myself and go, "wow I need a lot of work" The fighting action sequences were excellent but again these movies showcase the life benefits of MA, not just fighting. The final thing that I was inspired by was not a film but rather a youtube video and it was the TKD 720 kick, I know this is probably the most useless technique ever in terms of self defense but it looks really cool and seems to generate a ton of power, so I was working on that before I got injured but I will continue to try to nail that thing down, it's pretty cool.

I think that sums it up perfectly! Only do what you HAVE to do in self defense and no more. If you stick to that you should have no worries. I did want to mention an interesting tid bit though, did you guys know that back in the 70's in his prime Chuck Norris walked around with a whole group of body guards? Do you know why? Because he did not want to be sued by someone whom attacked him and he defended against! I think the biggest thing to keep in mind here is not the criminal charges you would face but the civil ones. In other words in a clear cut case of self defense the police are not likely to even arrest you much less have the case go to trial, however what you have to worry about is when the attacker tries to sue you, that is when all the training comes out into the public realm, this is the point where an attorney is going to call you the big bad Bruce Lee wanna be who was just out looking for a fight.. And believe me the attorneys who sue innocent people on behalf of convicted criminals are the bottom of the barrel, they will not hesitate to bring out any fact they find about you and exploit it.

I do understand that there is interest on any loan that you take out, however that is for third party transactions in most cases. If you buy a car the finance company pays the dealer, you pay them back not the dealer, the interest is there for the finance company to profit as the dealer already made their profit, if one pays cash then they would avoid the finance company and thus the interest charges. To my mind if you are making all the payments to the school there should be no reason for interest as the school is taking all of the money as profit, that is unless they are using some third party company but that wasn't mentioned.. I think the whole thing stinks!

I am having a hard time believing that there is a school out there that is attempting a swindle like this! My school growing up did have a contract OPTION that you could choose called the black belt club. The club was an OPTIONAL program that cost $2,000 and was financed over 2 years, this program covered unlimited classes and all testing fees until you achieved black belt, it was actually a really good deal. The program stayed in effect no matter what, I fell out of karate for a couple of years and when I went back I didn't have to pay anything because I was in this club. Those who were not in the club simply paid their monthly fees for as long as they wanted to attend class. IMHO the part where I get lost on this whole deal is that you will have to come out of pocket the price of a nice used car, you will have to commit that your daughter will be doing this into her teens, and trust me most kids don't stick with this through their teens, sure some will but most will not. Where I really got wide eyed above is when you said they charge INTEREST! Are you kidding me? An outrageous price, FORCED contracts, and then they charge interest? I would echo the above statements and tell you that it is time to move on!

Happy new year everyone!

Hey everyone, I wanted to start a thread here and have a conversation about what everyone is doing this new year's! I myself will spend my new years the same way that I have for the past several years, at home with my family and completely sober! There seems to be a huge amount of temptation out there these days, it seems the norm is to go to some bar and get hammered. I see that most places even use a free glass of champagne at midnight as a lure to get people in.As a younger man (early 20's) I myself fell into this trend and would always drink on new years, using it as some excuse. I have since grown older(late 20's) and wiser (maybe) and have learned what is actually important in this world. My views on things like this have changed greatly and now I look at these "partiers" with a sense of pity, I have been blessed with a wonderful family starting even before I wised up about these things and have been able to see that this is where I want to be. It is said that what you do on new year's will determine how your year will go, so why would I want to spend it falling down drunk? Now, don't get me wrong I certainly have my errors, my immoral acts, and my faults but I am so thankful that I was able to see life in it's reality and see how foolish it is to throw away portions of it on being intoxicated. I am not preaching and I apologize if it came out that way, I suppose in short I am trying to say that the martial arts have given me purpose and peace in which cannot be achieved by other means. I thank you all for being on this forum and for being along with me as well as each other on this journey to self betterment that we call martial arts, happy new year!

I am glad this thread is here. I am thinking of starting my own business as well, provided that I can get the capitol. My business idea may not be looked on very favorably by some but I am wanting to start selling e cigarettes and personal vaporizers( for nicotine, not drugs) By selling these products I would be in a very in demand industry while also helping people to kick the worst habit ever conceived, smoking! I myself was able to stop smoking with the help of these devices and was inspired to do the same for others. I know, I know why would a martial artist smoke? Because I was a dumb teen, that's why! Any how, I am still torn on whether I want to open a store front or just have an online/ebay business. The online business would have a few excellent benefits which would include the ability to work from home, no overhead(except inventory), less up front cost, and less day to day expense. On the other hand the store front would net more customers due to foot traffic and there would be less competition because there would be far fewer stores in my local area than would be similar websites on the internet. All in all I believe this would be a successful business and I do possess a good knowledge about the items I would be selling so I would have a good base to start with. The way that I go with the business will really depend on the amount of capitol I have available.

Thank you, I will try all of that. My wife is really going to think I am crazy now!

Hello everyone, I just received my new deluxe belt I ordered from century and this thing is stiff! I've never seen a belt so resilient to being tied! Are there any tricks you guys and girls have found to "break in" a new belt quickly? This one is cotton if it makes a difference. Thank you in advance.

This year I made the decision to recommit myself to MA this year I decided to start working toward being a better person

Hey all, I am looking to purchase myself a new black dogi, I was looking to buy the Ronin brand 12oz heavyweight gi, but I noticed the same place that sells the ronin has century iron man gis for $118 (normally $150) I was thinking that for only $50 more the century may be the way to go. I am asking this here because I have never worn an iron man nor a ronin. I have always worn century but just the standard 12oz stuff. I am hoping someone has some experience with these and could tell me if the ironman would be worth the extra money. This will not be my main gi but I need a new pair of black pants and figured I may as well go ahead and get a complete set. I was also debating a pair of shuriedo pants only, they run $105. What are your opinions on these options?

My school did this kata for the black belt grading. We did the tang soo do version you posted above and also just called it bassai.

This times a bazillion.. I hate trying to look at a dojo website and all I see is how much weight I will loose by doing "karate" or how much better my kids grades will be! I already know all of that, I just want to know about your style, I want to know if you have a nice dojo with equipment or if you're in a boom closet somewhere. Both of the local schools to me do this, the websites look like a gold's gym commercial. I also put karate in quotations above because it seems 90% of the schools within my area are TKD, only 2 are actually karate.

Personally I find that I am annoyed by schools that advance students quickly and have lax standards for people of higher grades. I have seen many times that someone will be a high rank but have zero knowledge of what they are doing, almost like they are just reciting a dance. I also have a pet peeve about belts being tied properly, I know all schools are not the same but in my school we used standard double wrap belts and you were always supposed to have it tied so that it looks like a single wrap, then the knot should be even with the strands coming out horizontally and hanging evenly. I have seen so many people, kids and adults whose belts are overlapped in an x pattern, belt ends 90* vertically, stuff like that. It's just my pet peeve though.

Good answers here so far. Just be careful of the length, too short and you look like a bjj student and too long you can put your eye out! (Seen it happen)

I think I'm going to go with a shuriedo and a ronin myself. Changing styles means I need new colors so I am thinking I'll get the ronin middle weight for daily use and the shuriedo for those times when I want to hear my gi pop. I was looking at the ronin Shia Japan cloth, and if for some reason I just cannot afford the shuriedo I'll get it but I figured for $65 more I could have the real deal I just couldn't pass it up.

I'm surprised it has not been mentioned yet, but if you say you want a good one only two come to mind. Tokaido and shuriedo, made in Japan and Okinawa respectively, second to none. Pricing will be right around your budget, maybe a bit over but these are the best in the world, period.

I REALLY like that system. Gives the motivation for kids to keep going and then once they are older they still have something to shoot for, excellent!

This is a great post! I certainly see the idea of someone quitting as soon as they reach the peak as a harsh reality, it happened to me. I am not sure how other schools do it, but within the system that I came up in since the day you walked in the door it was always " black belt, black belt, black belt" I mean you joined the "black belt club" our study guide was called the "black belt manual" in my location we had black belts hanging on the wall representing each member of the "black belt club" they even had our names on them hanging on the wall! This of course is great motivation but once that belt came off the wall it was kind of like, what now? After 1st dan there is a year before you can move up again and you are only required to learn one additional kata in that time. For me there just wasn't enough there to keep interest, I did my year and I tested and failed, I blame myself but at the same time I had no motivation to take the classes and to keep on because there was nothing new coming in, I think being young at the time did have something to do with it because it was harder to see the long term goals. I stopped shortly after the failed test, not because I did not pass but because it made me realize that my heart was no longer in it. Now I wish that I had kept going, no doubt I would be a much better person by now and most likely a 4th dan with my own school but at the time I just couldn't see that far ahead. I would have loved some sort of advanced training, someone to explain to me what I was supposed to be learning and how to go about it but I did not get that. Once the black belt goes on the learning seemed to stop, you became an assistant instructor and that's pretty much it. I now know what I was supposed to be doing after making dan and I have achieved more to that end at home than I did in a dojo, and I think that is the failure of my school as was stated above. From my own personal experience almost everyone quit at black belt, some went to 2nd or maybe even 3rd dan but then quit, the only long timers in my school, the ones that are still there are the ones who were already at least a 2nd dan when I started way back when. I think one significant event that really washed me out was the changing of my instructor. The new guy was amazing at martial arts he was a 4th dan who was a former national champion, just amazing to watch but I feel he lacked the skill to teach and inspire. The instructor before him was the one who really got me to black belt in the first place, he would push you way beyond what you thought you could do and was absolutely swimming in advanced techniques that he would gladly pass on to me but once he left, that was about it.. In closing I think my impression is that my school taught you to black belt, it was always the primary goal and in fact the only goal, once you were there you were on your own. That is why no one stayed beyond that point.

I know that in my school the colour combination of Red top, black pants would not be allows unless you are 4th dan or above. White top with black pants is reserved for 1st dan and above. Sorry I am 2 years late on a response, I stepped away from the forums for a bit and boy does time fly! Anyway, for my old school the uniform code was all white below dan with the exception of members of the "black belt club" whom could wear black pants and white gi, the red gi is allowed for 1st dan and above as well as black pants, again with the exception of the "black belt club" The other gi I spoke of is the white with black trim, often called the "master's gi" it's traditional TSD and is allowed by my old school, generally all black is reserved for chief instructors but they are pretty lax on uniform requirements, often allowing t-shirts.

I want to add another point here.. I think in some cases someone under 16 (or 18 ) could be considered a full dan without having to think twice about it. I am trying not to sound condescending on this but when I refer to myself I think I fit into that class, I have always been different than my peers. I started martial arts at 6, I attended class 4 days a week minimum from 92 to 94 I was injured and missed about a year of classes and I went back in mid 95. I was homeschooled by my instructors wife, after school classes we would go to the dojo where I would train for about 2 hours DAILY with the head instructor, then teach or help teach the junior class, then take the adult class. I did all of this 5 days a week then took the Saturday class as well, so 6 days a week every week. I was given asst instructor honors at 8 years old with a brown belt (our system has 2 brown, 2 red, then black) So I was 4 ranks away from dan at this point. I started taking the adult class at 8. I was always more advanced than anyone else in my junior classes, not just by rank but because I had the huge advantage of training directly with the instructor when no one else got to do that. When I say train with the instructor I don't mean going through kata, I mean full fledged grappling, throws, etc without much holding back, I used to complain about it but then realized the privilege I was being awarded. I want to stress again that I am not trying to brag or toot my own horn but I feel that I was a "special" case. My knowledge of the arts far exceeded most of the other students of any age, my maturity was far beyond even the adults. I was able to mentally handle the fact that what I knew could seriously injure someone so they allowed me to learn things that maybe some of the other students did not get to know. I was one of 2 "kids" that made it to black belt, NONE of the other kids in the school made it, they may have gotten to red belt but they did not go farther. I am not sure if this was because they quit or just because they weren't allowed to test for it either way they slowly started to disappear with red belts on.. I say all that to say this, I do believe that in some cases a black belt for a person under a certain age is ok, but in some cases it is not. In the case of some 6 year old it's probably not the best idea but with respect to some others it may be appropriate. I think someone who has trained with adults and proven that they are well within their league with them should be promoted without reservation. I could also bring the point that many adult black belts I have seen should not have been promoted to the rank they either don't have the mental capacity to wear the belt or their skills are useless in the real world.. I may upset some people here, but someone who has a black belt with 5 stripes on it but is only capable of a flashy gymnastics routine with some half hearted kicks tossed in is just as bad as a child black belt who has the skill but is too weak to use them. Just my .02

Dan in tang soo do/ chun kuk do style.. It's derivitive of The Chuck Norris supper system, hard to explain.

hey guys, thank you for all the input. I have still not been able to purchase the gi, but I have been doing tons of research. Upon previous reccomendation I think I will hold off on a super high end gi for the time being, although one day I will have a Tokaido or Shureido! Anyway, I have seen 3 that I think I am narrowed down to, but I wanted to see if anyone had personal experience or opinion on them. 1. Ki mugen black label ( my#1 choice at the moment) 2. Ronin shiai ( same japanese canvas as tokaido costs twice the mugen) 3 tokaido kaminari gold label 14oz ( made in china, heard good and bad things about quality) I have looked at all gi's suggested on this post and MANY more. I think that these 3 best meet my needs as far as cut and material. The biggest thing is that i'm again not sure if the ronin justifies it's cost the other 2 are in the $ 80 and under ball park whereas the Ronin is $150 Thanks again for all the input, sorry to be so back and forth on it, it's just hard to commit to buying something I have never seen or worn in person, but all the schools seem to sell is Century.