chiliphil1

I think alot of this comes from the movies and modern mma tv. These big tough guys have major egos and don't seem to respect their own abilities, it seems as though a lot of people are imitating that so you end up with the new breed of ma student. I've never had a 5th Dan beating, but one of my old instructors was a 3rd Dan who loved grappling and joint locks and loved even more to practice them on me prior to class when I was a mere brown belt.

Great points in here, as far as my 2 cents I say that kicks CAN be useful in a fight scenario, the low kicks ABSOLUTELY hit to the knees, this can be devastating on its own. If an opening comes up, a strong side kick to the ribs could be a fight ender, but as far as high kicks, it really depends on the situation. I would say 90% of the time the fight will be too close to yet those in, however if a gap opens and you can throw it extremely quick then some sort or spinning kick, most likely a hook, if it connects then it's game over but again there would have to be a special set of circumstances for you to even be able to throw it, much less connect with it.

excellent! Agreed 100% there is a saying that I like "if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns" seems to ring true in this case too.

I've posted in one of these categories before. I got my black belt at 10 full fledged, not a junior belt. One thing with the school that I went to was that once you made red belt (2 ranks below black) 3 you move to adult classes, so when you do test, you meet all the criteria of the adults, you must test side by side and keep pace with them to pass there are no lax or lesser standards for anyone regardless of age. With that said, once the black belt is earned all of the normal "privileges"] come with it, such as the ability to teach and assist with teaching, the ability to sit on testing boards for low to mid level color ranks, etc..

One other thing that I have not seen mentioned is that with heavyweight gi's, they fade over time. Washing takes the color out of the thick cotton and canvas, whereas a middle or lightweight gi will hold its color much better. All that said, I prefer the heavyweight.

Good luck, im sure you're a bundle of nerves right now! Just make sure that you are mentally prepared, watch your diet make sure you're eating properly and envision yourself performing the moves but let your body relax. Be sure to warm up properly the day of the test since you will have been spending a few days idle.

Good article, I like where you were going with it. Personally I used to care a lot more about rank, what I mean to say is that when you get a new belt every 3 months, it makes you want to get the next one, it makes you want to get more rank, in a sense it makes you greedy for it, and when you're younger as I was when I climbed the ranks you, at least in some small way want the glory of getting to a higher rank. Now that I've made it through the colored belt system, it doesn't matter as much, of course when I did get my black belt it was a big deal it mattered to me alot and I wanted to show it off, and it was cool to be at that rank. Now, I've learned that while rank matters in many different ways, now that I don't have to worry with getting new belts, and I don't really care who out ranks me I'm not as concerned about it, sure I would like to add some stripes to my belt eventually, but I've come to look at belts as a marker for your progress, and once you have the black one it simply means that you have completed your basic training and can now begin to train in the advanced portions of the art, the only difference is that you will never change belts again!

it's simply because of this: If you encounter a six year old second Dan black belt with a uniform covered in patches whose structure is dodgy and consists of flaily acrobatics, and you ask "What style do you do?" they are, by far, most likely to answer "TKD". Not to say that there aren't other arts that have schools like that, or that all schools do that, but they've generated a large portion of the horror stories that plague us all.nail on the head! This is exactly the problem with tkd, public opinion. Tkd is a very legitimate art, but today it is more known for its flashy patches, camo belts, and almost gymnastic kicks, therefore its true potential has been masked by the methods of some schools. However in its origin tkd was as serious as any art out there, but it has lost a lot of that to the mainstream, and the Olympics. It may be possible for you to find a traditional school, but you would most likely have to look very hard.

If you pursue tkd, just be prepared for a lot of kicks! Tkd is known almost universally for high spinning kicks, there is a lot more to the are, but that is really the bread and butter. You may find that for heavy tradition you will need to look into Japanese or Chinese styles. However if you find the right tkd school then they may have traditional values, one thing with tkd is that in the modern day it is considered a sport in most circles, meaning there is an emphasis on tournaments and things like that, not saying there is anything wrong with it, in fact that could be a benefit to you as per your goals. The sporting element makes it fun, and as far as bringing your kids, tkd is an excellent choice as it will offer lots to them, plus with the competition mindset it sets goals by preparing for and competing I am various tournaments which is great motivation. I think you would benefit greatly from this art because it will push you, and being that your job offers you no means of exercise then tkd is well rounded to get you a total body workout. Now, please take my comments as my personal opinion and use your own judgement. My words of tkd are just general and each school will vary on what they teach and how they teach it, but either way I don't think you can really go wrong there.

I'm glad to read that they did not have a problem with it. I often wondered this myself because my gi is either black pants with a red top, or black pants with a white top with black trim. Most dojos start everyone in plain white, so I wasn't sure if they would allow me to wear my old stuff since it is the color that it is. Truth being, I don't care about recognition for my previous training, rank, etc.. It's just a matter of this being my gi, and it's what I'm comfortable in, but either way it's not that big of a deal, since your new instructor is ok with it, then problem solved. I wish you good luck in your new journey!

For me, it's actually simple. Chuck Norris founded chun kuk do, Duke tirschel learned tang soo do with chuck Norris in Korea, chcuk Norris gave Duke tirschel his black belt in chun kuk do. Duke tirschel created the afaf system, Rick Burnette learned the art from Mr. Tirschel, then passed that to my instructors and here I am. So I guess that makes me 5th generation. However I cannot begin to speculate on who chuck Norris masters were, etc..

I have never done that, so I can offer no useful input, but I would like to say that it seems really cool to me, I like the flow of it and love how each block has an automatic strike with it.

If you want to get yourself very confused by conflicting body mechanics, movements, methodologies and standards then yes, you can train in two styles of karate. It is one thing to develop a base in one style and then cross train with other styles, but to try to conform to the curriculum of two separate karate styles is going to severely hamper your ability to learn and grow. +1 for above. I just want to mention that many people do in fact train in different arts, however you will find that most of them are either a high ranking colored belt, or a black belt before they take on the second style.

welcome, I am sure you will find tons of info and great people on here. I am fairly new myself and I love it so far!

Hi, welcome back. I am fairly new here myself, look foward to speaking with you in the future.

Welcome!

While I can understand the source of your opinion, I would not confuse the TKD schools you have seen to TKD as a martial art. I've been a part of a traditional club for close to 13 years so I have never personally seen TKD as being commercial or flashy. Agree, and I apologize for my comment. I in fact did condemn the entire art based on what I have seen. I have a book on TKD that I have browsed through, and even it seems commercial to me, which I think is what I am basing my opinion on. I suppose that my vision has been diluted by the " typical" modern TKD image, which is sport so I without considering the original intent of the art, nor thinking of traditional dojangs condemned the art of TKD in itself. As stated previously, I will most likely never train in TKD as I prefer to go with a more spiritual style, and the fact that I have already trained in TSD seems to me pointless to persue TKD since there are so many similarities, so I will continue in either a chinese or japanese style, once I get my finances in good enough shape to afford the training fees, and have the time to get in there, for now I continue to work on the things that I do know, and try to learn some things from books that are out there.

I agree with the rest of the posters. Don't cross train at yellow Belt, it will do nothing but confused you and harm your development in both styles, further I think the fact that the ATA has a camo belt is a good indicator that they may in fact be a mcdojo. In my personal opinion which is not meant to offend anyone, I don't have a ton of good opinions on TKD as it is, it seems to flashy, commercialized tobme. And there is too much of a sporting emphasis. This however is the opinion of someone who has come to desire the spiritual aspect of martial arts as much as the physical.

Done

Thank you for the input, I suppose I will take a look at hyashi then!

I think it was very good for your level of training, that was the form I always chose for kata competitions I am tournaments, I enjoy it. Your chops at the end are different than the way I learned them, we did them by reaching the non striking arm way out above your head and then snapping it to your chest as you strike with the other. The only advice I can offer would be, as you said lower the stances and as the previous commenter states, put more intensity into your movements, remember kata are practice for self defense techniques, therefore they should be practiced as though you are defending yourself. Good luck keep it up!

So, my gi is old, I have had it for 15 years, and it is a bit small these days, so I was thinking of replacing it. I am also in the market for a different color, my style allowed Dan ranks to wear red gi's with black pants, in fact now that I think about it they gave me the red one when I got my black belt, anyway. I am wanting a traditional white karate ki, I am also wanting to take up Japanese karate so I believe that white would be most appropriate for me, and I can't stand the thought of wearing the junk lightweight ones they give new students, I've gotten used to the heavyweight stuff and that's where I'd like to stay. So I am asking for your opinions, I am looking at 2 different things 1 os the century ironman, I've always worn nothing but century, even my belt is century anyhow 2 is one of the Japanese made tokaido ones. I known this is bike comparing apples to oranges, but I just wonder if the tokaido is worth the money, it is nearly double the price of the century which is already expensive. So, any input?

I wish prices were like that where I am, I am in middle ga, us. There are a couple of schools close to me, one teaches shorin-ryu they charge $180 per month, per student but once you pay for 2 you can bring as many as you want after that. I stopped by my old school a few days ago, they teach a mix of chun kuk do and tang soo do their rate is $99 per month and half off for each additional student. I WISH there was somewhere around here that did "pay per class" or blocks as the op suggested, I can't go to regular classes due to my job, but it would be ecstatic if I could go when I had the chance and be able to pay like $5 and not have to commit to a contract or a hundred bucks a month for maybe 2 classes.

perfect sense, in fact I have the same problem, I was never worth a flip at point sparring, I just cannot do light contact" taps" to score points, for one reason or the other I always got beat at sparring because I couldn't make it work with the taps. I figure if we were having a knockdown match, or if it were a real fight the outcome would be very different, but the whole point sparring thing did not work well for me.

This is exactly the issue I'm referring to! So many kids start Karate, so very few see it through to Dan which is normally when you keep them. To pass a kid because they may get discouraged and leave is a nonsense imo, as that kid is likely to leave anyway. Passing people who should not have passed is enormously damaging for MA! agreed completely, I misworded my statement, I meant the school had that view, not myself. One of the instructors we had was strict, we were required to take small tests for stripes on our belts, only when you had 4 of these stripes, plus the required time could you test for rank, but he was the exception, the other instructors I had leaned more to the side of pass them all, and then they will learn if they weren't up to snuff then. I disagreed with that heavily, and I personally had no problem failing someone who didn't meet the requirements of their rank, but was always overruled by my higher ups, hence why I think the stripes were a good idea. If you had the stripes, you were ready, if you didn't have them you could not even test.