Maestro

Here is a good one for chinese terms, as well as Japanese http://www.martialarts.com/dictionary.htm

I think a helpful approach is to be sure to switch sides a lot in sparring, even try to favor your weak side. This way you get comfortable with naturally throwing techniques from your left. Then it is easier to later refine and perfect your leftie techniques becuase they will just feel more natural. That's what I have done, and, not to brag, but I no longer prefer one side over the other.

I wouldn't worry about it too much. A friend of mine was once a lifegaurd and she was worried about the test, so she wanted to go through it beforehand. It was much like yours except with even more swimming, So we did it together and I got through it just fine, and I'm not really a swimmer. If you're in decent shape you don't have much to worry about.

I would say that any of the arts suggested by larryjf would work well. Of course I am partial to TKD, but I would say probably what you really should worry about is finding a good school. Pick which of the above you want to look at first, then look for a school. If you don't find a school that you think is a good bet to be a good school, go on to the next art.

Well, I think it's good to visualize, but forms can be used in other ways too. I also think you ought to concentrate on perfecting the motions, in which case you cannot concentrate on visualizing an opponent at the same time. I also enjoy doing forms very slowly, using dynamic tension throughout, but that doesn't serve much of a purpose really, just enjoyable. IMO, you can't achieve the same skills in forms and visulalization as in sparring. I wouldn't say that sparring plays a more important role than forms, but I do think it's important.

I love messing around with photoshop (I'm not a big fan of 7.0 though, just not used to it yet I guess), I'll definitly check that out.

Check this out: http://dave.path0gen.com/files/karatepothead.mpe

Well, I train alone for three months in the summers, since my MA school is at college, and I go home for the summer. I actually like it. I find it is an excellent time to perfect the techniques I already know. I also run with weights and do lots of bagwork and weightlifting. I also spend a good amount of time just hitting my forearms togther to toughen 'em up, you can do that anywhere, it's a handy thing. Perhaps my biggest recommendation would be to vary your routine a lot. Don't do all the same stuff in the same order all the time or you will find yourself getting bored real fast--and there's nobody to motivate you. Switch things up a lot to keep yourself interested. And katas, do lots of work on your kakas. I know your situation is different from mine--looks like you're facing a more long-term solo training, but in my opinion it is definitly not all bad. Sometimes it is nice to be training on your own, you can do it how you want and there is no one to possibly hold you back. Just make the best of it, I think you'll find it's not as bad as you may be thinking.

"Air doesn't hit back." Well said, I like that.

My Dad used to do TKD years ago, but he injured his shoulder and was unable to continue, plus there was me and my three sisters coming along and taking away all his time . He's still really good though, that's how I got into it. Now my Dad and my stepmom both do Tai Chi, Sword Tai Chi, and fencing. My Mom and stepdad aren't interested. One of my sisters is a "princess" and wouldn't touch the stuff, another is handicapped and can't, but my third sister is very athletic, and also very agressive, so I think she would be good, I'm gonna see if I can get her to try it.

Many of my close friends are from the dochang. We have lots of dating, even a couple marriages, in my school. We all have each other's e'mails, so someone will just send out an e'mail to everyone in the club saying "hey, party at my place tonight" or "I'm going to lunch at such and such in an hour, meet me there if you want." Even the instructors go out with us too. Having everyone on the same campus is really cool! We're a big family, laughing and talking right up until the instructor says "line up!" Then all the rucus starts up again right after class, it's great.

yes, spaced boards are easier. For example, if you take three boards and put them next to each other without spacers, then it's nearly the same as having one, triple-thick board (but not quite). As such, it requires that you hit it with the total power necessary to break all three. However, with spacers, you are really only breaking one board at a time, albeit very quickly, therefore you are able to exert your energy over a longer period of time, and so the neccesary power at any given time is less than that of a break without spacers. Also in a spaced break, the first board impacts with the second, so some of the energy used in breaking the first is carried into the second, and not wasted. Someone who can break two boards right together could probably break five with spacers.

"please do not tailgate, kids in trunk"

You miss the point still. Peace out, I'm done.

Umm, yeah isshinryu, there're tons of TKD schools around me too (chicago suburbs and central Illinios) we definitly don't have much Aikido, they are few and far between enough that I don't see them all over just driving around like I do the TKD schools. TJS, I don't know what sort of competitions you're refering to, but, to me, it doesn't matter. If you are right (I've no knowledge of the subject one way or the other, so I'll assume you are) and TKD has never won a world class competition it still doesn't matter to me. I know my style is effective. It may not be the best, most champion-producing art, but that doesn't mean it's not effective. The average opponent you will run into is not a world-class fighter, so to me all the debate about TKD's effectivness in high-level competition is irrelevant. The street is not world-class competition. Being effective is not the same as being the "best," if we can even say there is such a thing. What do you mean no one goes to the Mcdojos?! That's crazytalk man. It's just that no one on this forum seems to go to a Mcdojo, or if they do, at least they realize it's a Mcdojo. It's an honor to the forum, we're bringing knowledge of the Mcdojo to the world

Oh yeah! Zero reminded me; I love doing forms too. They are sooo relaxing and gratifying. When we do forms we often have multiple people attack in the manner that fits into the form so we can see how it would be used. That's good stuff. Plus, well, I admit it, they just look cool too!

Hey, it's not funny once you've done it yourself once or twice. Man, first time I stapled my tongue to the wall, lemme tell ya....

Well, I'm tired of hearing TKDists have to defend their art, and I thought that a breath of fresh air was in order, that we deserve a chance to simply say why we love it without getting flamed. So, let's hear from the people who actually practice it what you like about TKD. Let's make this a thread to talk about why we like TKD, instead of just defending it. If anyone comes in here and says "TKD sucks because of blah and blah" we will just ignore them, because we're above that. C'mon, it'll be like therapy. I'll start, then we can go around the circle. First of all, I love, high fancy kicks. I don't care how ineffective anyone says they are, I like 'em, they're fun to do. I love fighting standing up and dancing around opponents instead of grappling. I love being in an extremely traditional school where we do not really crosstrain much and my instructor teaches for free simply because he loves to teach and his master and grandmaster taught for free too--TKD is a gift. I love my fellow students (usually). I love doing calisthetics for an hour before we even begin techniques, I dunno why but when we start our one hour "warmup" I just start smiling, I cannot stop, and I've got my instructor doing it now too. hehe. Hi, my name is Ben, and I am in love with Tae kwon do. TKD es la bomba

I hardly avoided your question, you asked "what has changed to make it effective", which would imply that it was once ineffective, which is crazy, and to which my answer was that pretty much nothing has changed. I still think that people who are still arguing that TKD is ineffective should be asking themselves MY question. What has happened to make it ineffective? What has happened to render a few millenia of conventional fighting knowledge useless? As for what makes it effective, that is hardly even worth answering, Lord knows how many threads there already are about that here. It is a MA, it teaches techniques of self-defense, it is as simple as that. Yes, it has high kicks, so what? It has a whole lot more than that too. As for your post-script, I do not see how that was relevant? If you think that makes karate superior or something, perhaps you should check out the tenets and goals of TKD. We're here to make a better world

isshinryu kid wrote: That would not be the question I would ask, my question would be what has changed to suddenly make it ineffective? It's like "Oh, we hit the 90's and so suddenly all of traditional martial arts is rendered inneffective." A good TKD school is going to be taught the way General Choi originated the art, and I think you would have a very hard time convincing anyone that the Korean army didn't learn one heck of an effective MA. Nothing has changed to make TKD more effective except for the introduction at some schools to grapling, takedowns, and joint techniques. The only thing that has really changed is that some schools choose to train in a less effective manner. The Mcdojo has hurt the training methods of the art, but they cannot touch the art itself. Penguin, you have here another guy astonished at how many schools "don't follow the pattern." It would seem that no avid supporter of TKD here is the member of a Mcdojo, how very interesting Watson...

I found some other very funny ones too. Some are repeated but I'm too lazy to erase 'em. Metaphors from Student Essays: 1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master. 2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a tumble dryer. 3. The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. 4. McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a paper bag filled with vegetable soup. 5. Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. 6. Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the centre 7. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 8. He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. 9. The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease. 10. Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left York at 6:36 p.m. travelling at 55 mph, the other from Peterborough at 4:19p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. 11. The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. 12. John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met. 13. The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play. 14. The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon. 15. Even in his last years, Granddad had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut. 16. Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do. 17. The plan was simple, like my mate Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. 18. The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for while. 20. He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. 21. Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter." 22. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. 23. The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a lamppost. 24. The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cashpoint. 25. The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium. 26. It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools. 27. He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a dustcart reversing. 28. She was as easy as the Daily Star crossword. 29. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature British beef. 30. She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs. 31. Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened. 32. It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

I'm a writer, so the misspells and poor grammar really stand out to me, but I recognize that English is not everyone's first language, and most people don't really care too much about it in such an informal atmosphere. Nevertheless, I im slowlee goin insayn, and my wryting ish deteereatein frum thuh inluensis on this siyt. Also people saying that traditional styles are outdated is nearly homicide-inducing. Must. Control. Anger. Don't. Let. Them. Win. AAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Haha, yeah, I started of in college as an engineer too, I switched out of that major but I still love to argue! I like mudd too.

KSN Doug says it all. You should do something. You say your teachers cannot do anything? Well, your principal has powers well exeeding those of any teachers. Your principal has the power to make them stop or make them very, very sorry they didn't. And since Columbine and the other school shootings, I think that your principal will be VERY inclined to do so. Also, GET THE PARENTS INVOLVED. It would be even more effective to have this kid's parents going to talk to the principal instead of you. Also that way there is little chance of you catching any of the backlash from these kids.

Hmm, sorry to hear that, that sucks big time. Well, I guess now it comes down to whether or not you are willing to keep it from the instructor and accept the consequences if he finds out. Just KIAP loudly if you mess up on your test, everyone likes to see that! Good luck!