Bon

I still don't understand why you need to make up the class, WHY DO YOU ?

Damn, that sucks, man. Looks like you have a lot of travelling to do for your MMA events then.

Yeap, they are.

Karate is a poor style to pick for self defence in my opinion.

Some of the mistakes in my opinion are showing fear, pain, your intentions by looking where you're going to hit, etc. And, the biggest mistake of sparring is saying to yourself 'I give up', the moment you lose the mental battle with yourself, you've lost the physical battle with your opponent. NEVER EVER tell yourself you've had enough - it's more a mental battle than physical. Another one of the biggest mistakes is that because they 'won' in sparring, they don't think about how they could improve.

I think imposing rules is pretty stupid, unless you want to work on something specific, such as punches. Maybe you could pick some of the techniques you are allowed to use in sparring, such as your weak techniques and work on them within the rules. Just a thought. I used to do boxing only when I did kickboxing to work on my punches and defending against them, so when we mixed it up with the kicks, we found it a lot easier to make combos, etc.

Breaking!

I'd imagine there's a very low percentage of women buying those magazines and they target them at males. I agree that they don't really do anything to help make the martial arts more appealing to women by providing sexy images of women on the page next to men who are sweating and bleeding.

I cannot disagree more strongly with some of the points made here. Age comes into play when teaching ? You have got to be kidding! Age is merely a number. I started school when I was 4, so most people in my grade a year older than me. We have about 15 people in our grade who study some first year University mathematics, me included. Using the logic behind some of the points that have been made, that would mean: I am too young to teach my fellow students. I'm not 'qualified' enough to teach someone taking first year University mathematics, despite the fact I know it. I have to be a professor before I can teach something as simple as calculus. Don't you think that's a little absurd ? Teachers go to University, study Mathematics for 3 years, maybe 4 if they do honours. They get a job as teaching, they forget EVERYTHING, except for what they have to teach. There are teachers in the mathematics department who don't know first year University math because they haven't taught it at school! Does that mean I can't get help from them with high school mathematics because I am on a 'higher' level than them since I know first year University math ? You know the ironic thing ? We have a University student come to school for a couple of weeks and he was more help to me and my friend in making a 3D game than any of the teachers in the math department, the teachers were of no help at all. My sister is 15 years old, she is incredibly intelligent and attends a selective school. As a result, they teach them far more advanced stuff than what they should be learning to keep them interested I assume - she knows harder and more advanced mathematics than me and the people in my math class. Should I not ask her for help when I need it because she's only 15 and she's only in grade 10 ? That would be ridiculous, she is far smarter than I and many other people ever will be which is why I ask her for help. Her age has nothing to do with her ability to understand things or explain things. When you understand something, you can teach it. If you can't teach it to someone, you don't understand it.. Age and years of exeperience, do not in any way reflect someone's understanding on a certain thing. You, traditionalists, are so wrapped up in the traditional way of doing things, you are interfering with your own learning. Does it matter who learn something off ? Where you learn something ? Or, how you learn something ? I think you need to leave your egos at the door, because they're hindering your learning. Belts don't mean jack all in this day and age.

Tazee is right on the money about speed. Force = mass * acceleration, so if you're small, you wanna execute the technique faster so it hurts.

Cross training is definitely the way to go.

If you like power like me, you might wanna have a look into boxing, kickboxing, muai thai, kenpo karate, judo. If you are only young, like 13-15, you'll probably get taller and heavier, so don't worry too much about your body type now, think about how it will be in the future. Do you want striking, grappling, weapons, all of it ? If you want all of it, you'll have to cross train a bit to supplement weaknesses. For example, boxing won't have any weapons training or grappling. It depends what you have in your area though, look up the arts you have in your area, then research them more to see what you like the sound of, check a few of them out.

You're saying you can't get nearly as much power by twisting your hips and keeping your hands up ?

Very good post!

I'd have to say when I was really sick, something shocking. I had an intense ear infection in both ears, I felt like shit, I can just remember laying on the poof in pain before going to the doctor's home out of hours because I was so bad. I barely had the stregnth to stand up, all I wanted to do was lay there and die. I can't remember how old I was or much else, I can just remember the pain.

I don't throw too many roundhouses, unless I can get a shot that is completely open and I drop my right hand to an extent when executing the kick for more torque. I am a fan of the thigh kicks though and don't really drop my hands, as I just turn my body in and ley my leg go.

Very nicely put. That knowledge is absolutely useless unless you know how to apply it. Knowledge is not power, knowledge applied is power. If you don't spar, then that knowledge is basically futile. While you are off doing your pretty katas, I and many others will be fighting. Who's going to win a fight ? 'Traditional arts' ... That's ALL they are, tradition. There are new and improved arts, techniques, ways of training which are much more effective.

Btw, saying 'I do not have time to warm up' is an absolute load of bullshit. If you can't do something properly without causing damage to yourself, don't bother doing it at all. Without the warm up, you'll get into your kicks and the next thing you know, you've pulled your hamstring. Do NOT neglect the warm up!

Dynamic stretches every morning and before every workout. If I was to do one type of stretch, it'd be dynamic. Makes sense since kicking is a dynamic action. If you do a search on flexibility/stretching, you should bring up old threads in this forum. An excellent book is 'Stretching Scientifically' by Tom Kurz. However, this ebook, http://www.enteract.com/~bradapp/docs/rec/stretching is very good as well if you take the time to read it.

Finally! Nice kicks by the way! =) What was your sparring like ? The sparrring was always real hardcore where I did kickboxing, people still had bruises the next week. Good to see the board break in there, that keeps me happy!

I doubt this is something you'll find many videos on, it is the *street*, not a set up environment. Here's an old thread where there's a link to a street fight that was recorded http://www.karateforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2319 If you find anymore clips of street fights, please post them.

haha, I like it =)

FULL CONTACT!

Well done, Sherlock. Always changing contexts to fit your argument. Sorry. If I changed that to why would you support running as if it has universal application, would that be better ? If you support something, surely you must feel strongly enough to suggest it, otherwise you wouldn't support it, would you ? FYI, superleeds said 'Do you mean for self defence? In that case, running is probably the best art.' That's a pretty bold and definite statement to me, as if it's the be-all and end-all, which you appear to firmly support. If you read Jade's post, he recognised there are situations where you CAN run, so he did not offer a 'universal' situation. Nevermind, perhaps if you had more structure in your sentences, I wouldn't take 'you must assume that your opponent is faster or has better endurance' in the context of running, instead of staying and fighting an attacker.. I didn't reply in the same context, or to the point being made, so I haven't 'responded' as such. What's wrong with running away instead ? That would be precisely the example I gave you, and yes, a hypocrite. See above, he recgonised there are situations where you can run, then offered another solution. Do you think Jade might find it insulting he's being called a hypocrite when you've misread his post ? As far as everyone else can see, you're the hypocrite, you haven't properly read his posts and you have criticised others, including myself for doing such. Again, you didn't read the posts properly.

lol, wha ? Flexibility == stretching ...