cross

Sounds good Sai. Kyokushin is often taught for competition purposes. i.e. low kicks and punches only to the chest ( these are not the only techniques learned, but are used most often). It also can have great application for self defence situations.

Great article Martial_Artist, Keep up the good work

Effective at what?

Different things work for different people. You should try it and see how good it works. Be sure to report back to us.

I agree with everything you said Killer Miller. tenkamusou, if you are in the street it is not very often that you will come up against a person with martial arts training. Also you can't expect you instructor to make you a "ultimate fighter". Im sure you learn some very good techniques in your training, but its up to you to work on them until they become a reaction. Also focus on the techniques that work best for you so you can customise the way you fight to better suit yourself.

It sounds like you try to stay our of fights has much as possible which is good. But if you have to defend yourself and you get suspended think of it has a well earned holiday. As long has you know that what you did was right then it doesnt matter. One thing, if you have to fight hit them with open hands strikes so that when the principle asks you if you punched him, you wont be lying if you say no.

The others who posted are correct in saying that it completly depends on the person. But i usually find that at about 6th-5th kyu is when people decide to dedicate themselves to karate, or quit.

Yoko Geri - like someone already said good for closing distance. You can feint high with the hand and hit low to the knee or ribs with the kick. Also if you are in close and can get you knee up quick enough you can really push through them with the kick. Mae Geri- good kick if you are close just to snap up the the groin (kin geri) or bladder area. Also used to stop your opponent closing the distance by hitting them in the chest with the kick. ( watch a good mauy thai fight and you will see what i mean) Another thing, alot of the time these kicks are safer and quicker than mawashi geri.

ok

We dont use gloves

A Hammer Fist's Foul play?? Guess the karate ive been doing has lots of illegal techniques then

Whats you point cymry?

Yeah and Mas Oyama a karate-ka kill numerous bulls with his bare hands. But not every boxer is like Mike Tyson and not every karate-ka is like Mas Oyama.

You can replace the word "boxer" in the previous sentence with the name of any other martial art and it will still be true.

Maybe Karate isnt right for you. But dont diss something you have done for "a couple of weeks".

No problems, good luck with finding something.

some reasons are : better fist alignment, slightly more reach, less risk of arm and elbow damage, sometimes more power.

Lord Apocalypse, I saw a company called "Tao Sports" in a martial arts magazine. They are in london and offer the "Tao Grappling Dummy". It looks pretty good, constructed of us military standard cordura and is triple stiched. It weights about 55kg (110lbs). Take a look at https://www.taosport.co.uk for more information. Or more specifically you can go to http://www.taosport.co.uk/shop/bags/index.htm and click on "g-man" in the menu.

My bat sense's tell me you are angry Sho-ju. Well concidering that human arms normally go inside sleeves, then that means the sleeves are arm shaped. I dont see anything even close to being arm shaped on a heavy bag. But i will agree that using a heavy bag to practise "ground and pound" and getting the feel for a weighted opponent is great. But for PRACTISING locks you need something that has at least a resemblance to limbs.

But a heavy bag has it all, i mean arms legs and everything.

I think we are all going to fight a telephone book taped to a tree at one point in our life. But seriously, the phone book thing is a good idea. I did it myself with 2 trees next to each other so i could work some "multiple opponent drills".

interesting

DokterVet, Have you actually tried doing what your talking about? If your triceps are doing most of the work in your punches then you are doing them wrong.

I dont smoke.

Thank you.