Iron Fist 05

Of course, there's always the law to think about But personally, I like a knife. I didn't like knives much until about a uear ago, I met one instructor who studied Filipino blade fighting and it blew my mind how fast and precise he was in his techniques.

ONE THING I READ IS THAT YOUR CENTER OF GAVITY IS LOCATED(DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR???) "JUST BELOW YOUR NAVEL." jUST THOUGHT I WOULD THROW THAT IN.

One theory that I have about 'mind over mater,' ki, anything along that matter is that if you believe that what ever you do will work, it will work. The placebo affect. If you wanted to begin controlling your ki, you will first have to BELIEVE that you can, or that your ki actully exists. you must do this before you use your ki. One very basic exercise that I have used even before knowing about ki,chi, etc. was to say or think to yourself that the pain doesn't exist. This also works if you are cold.

dows anyone have any info on Zen? I am trying to find out more about it.

Does anyone have any tips on meditation? I have only recently started meditating. Also, why do you meditate? Is it for a clear mind, relaxation, MA, what????

I have never seen a TKD match in place, but I was watching the Titan Games on ESPN2 and they had a couple of mathces on there and all there was was kicking! Now before you think to yourself, "hey what a loser!" I do know that TKD is mostly kicking, but is it really ALL kicking? It would seem logical that there would be an occaisonal punch here or there. ............or is TKD a real rival of western boxing?

Is any body in the American Society of Karate or have been in it? If so, what do you tink about it? If not, are you in another group and which one?

I found a video online @ martialartslive.com that has a video about really conditioning your body. It is some pretty extreme stuff. You have to see the pic on the front of the video cover. I bought it , but it hasn't came in yet, otherwise, i would tell you if it was good enough.

I have never had a black gi, but i know that if you turn your jeans inside out, it will keep the jeans form getting too faded in one wash. I don't know if it would work with a gi, but it's worth a shot. It couldn't hurt!

oh *DUH!* sorry guys. I ment to say KarateKa. I thought it was called a KarateKi. Sorry bout that, but thanks for the tip.

So it completely ignores any achievement made before you become a legal adult? Well, yeah. I know it sounds really harsh. Some of the kids in my class are really high in rank. But the reason why is because in my association all adult white belts must perform a kata (h-form 1). For example, if a youth purple belt is finally old enough to be in the adult class, he can't really keep his pruple belt for two main reasons: 1) He/she has to be a white belt to do their kata at a tournament 2) He/she can't stay a purple belt because that means that they have already been in the adult class for awhile, and they haven't. Our youth and adult classes are run differently and taught different things. Ya, when I first heard about that, I had the same reaction as you. But it makes sense now.

Wow! man that's a lot of different belt rankings. American Society of Karate goes like: YOUTH white yellow orange green blue purple (3levels of purple) red (3 levels of red) When a youth is old enough to go into the adults' class, he starts over at adult white no matter what rank they are. ADULTS white yellow orange green blue purple brown (3 levels of brown) black (7 levels of black)

lol no i'm not talking about a gi. that's just the uniform. i know thatt. I just hear people say on this forum things like "a KarateKi could do so and so...." or somnething like that. That's what i'm tlaking about.

how can you register yourself as a weapon?

Ok, i probably should know these, but I don't. So... What exactly is a karate ki? Why is it that some instructors and black belts have on a belt that appears to sometimes be falling apart, like the edges especially are fading away, or almost chipping off the blackness of the belt?

hey i know a person that teaches free karate lessons, but not in houston. it's in the suburbs

Don't get me wrong, i love katas. They're one of my favorite things about training. And I know somewhat about the history of them and how they were at one time the only way MAs could be taught from one person to another. But I always hear paople saying things like: "If you never learn katas/without katas, all you would have in karate are just meaningless techniques."......or something like that. WHat I don't understand is why that is. Why are katas THAT important? That's all i'm wondering. I'm not a karate basher or anything. I'm just trying to more understand the meaning of katas. Thanks.

"joe-Jitsu - cool name.

Who says that we have to keep any style exactly what it was intended for? You? Everyone has their own opinions and views about martial arts. If we didn't, there wouldn't be as many MAs as there are today. So don't ocme in here and say that we have to learn Karate only to be able to fight well. Yes that's why I am in it, but i know lots of people that are in MA to be in better shape and just to simply keep active. I'm sure you are a very good fighter and would probably be able to kick my ass( I am a yellow belt in karate), but that still doesn't give you the right to tell us that we suck at what we do and why we do it. What is your style anyway? Now, whatever I say to you will probably not affect YOU because you will probably always hate on Karate, but hopefully this will be able to show people your ignorance in your own post. Just thought I should add this: Ninja Master joined KarateForums on the 17th. That's today! This is his 1st and only post on Karate Forums. Sounds to me like Ninja is just a basher.

I'm in American Society of Karate and I was wondering is there REALLY a difference betseen yellow and gold belts? The ranking of belts are: white yellow orange green blue purple brown 3 degrees of brown black there is no 'gold' in there anywhere, so is there a difference in yellow and gold other than the color?

lol thanks. i hould have known that -*smack*-

If you look up kata in a text book, in short, it is "a formal exercise" Which it is, but there is much more behind it than just an exercise. One of the most important parts of katas is tension. Which is very useful. Katas are basically techniques in a sort of graceful like form. They do contain punches, kicks, and blocks. So If you tense up your muscles while you practice your kata, you actully build muscle strength, primarily in the muscle areas that are used to punch, kick, etc. To me, THAT'S FRIGGIN AWESOME! But my personal favorite thing about katas are that they just look so cool! I've only seen a couple performed, and they might look really simple to some people, but they do take a while to learn. Katas are one of my favorite things to do when i'm training.

I'm ordering a karate uniform online, but the sizes are this: 0 I have no idea what this means. I'm a size 4 00 in the uniform that i have right now. Which 000 one whould I choose?

Listen, the reason why I got into martial arts (i'm a yellow belt in karate) is because of the self defense. Not for exercise or the art form behind most arts. Not for sport (UFC). I am in it to protect myself on the streets. Now USUALLY a person that knows a martial art is not a person that will go around fighting people on the street left and right. Usually people doing that have no or little MA training. And even if they did know a MA (let's say BJJ since it rivals karate and has been talked about a lot in this message board), they're not going to wrestle you in the back of an alley. They're going to try to beat you up. Wrestling doesn't do anything but let you control your opponent. Unless you're going to use some kind of joint maneuver on him or hit him while on the ground, when you let go of him, he's going to get right back up and run away or keep on fighting. Now even though i'm still in high school and i'm not too experienced in any MA, I still try to keep an open minded opinion about all styles. It seems to me that if you put two good Martial artists in a ring, one Karate and one BJJ, the 'BJJist' would win. And possibly the BJJist would win on the street aswell, but that will most likely not happen.