craknek

LOL.. in order to throw someone to thr ground, you have to get in close to them. Boxers just dont come in and start swinging like animals, boxers like any other MAist wait for a good time to strike... and as for you moving in and taking a Boxer down.. LOL again... ok. Move in and let him hit you.... IF...IF your still on your feet after a jab and a haymaker... you may be able to take him down. Nick D.

My money would be on Tyson. I really do get tired of people dissing Boxing, saying that Boxing cant compete with other MA's. These people always seem to bring up these past matches when Kung Fu Masters or Karate-Ka masters have beaten boxers... but there are two things that that always forget to mention. They forget to compare that the AMATUER boxers are fighting masters....and second, they are fighting in a controlled setting, in which the boxers have to wear there gloves. The gloves do diminish some of the power and dmg that is done... that is why they have to wear them. Everyone tries to force home the fact, that since there form of MA teaches them how to grapple, kick, punch, blah blah that they are superior, because all the boxer can do is punch. There is a strength in that though. All the boxers do is punch..... think about that. They spend hours day in and day out punching speed bags, hard bags, people. Boxers have a wide array of combos and refined and devestating punches at there disposal. An avg boxer can land about 3-4 punches in a second or less... maybe more then that and I dont mean lil love tap punches, punches that are gonna clean your clock. Boxers also put themselves through some very very rigid training... and I would have to say Boxers as a whole have the best physiques in MA as well as the most conditioned. Alot of the Karate, TKD, Kung Fu students in my area are no where near Boxers in physical conditioning. Where MA's do forms and katas, Boxers are getting belted in the ribs, stomach and face by punches, medicine balls, etc. Taking a strong blow to a part of there body is not something unfamilar to them. I get sick of critics talking about how they would kick him in the stomach with a thrust kick and then do a round house and its over... pffffttt please! You better be packing alot more then that. Think about how many boxers get there jaws broken.. from being punched.. and they are using gloves!! Imagine getting hit, with a closed fist... Bottom line is this. In a street situation.. where you are fighting a well trained, hardended Boxer... you better be ready to do 3 things.. 1. DIsh our some serious serious attacks... 2. Be ready to take some serious punishment... and lots of it and 3. Be ready to use tactics outside the scope of your MA.. (like using trashcans), because a boxer, even though they are taught to fight, they are a natural brawler... and would nto hesitate to use whatever they could. Nick D. Yellow Belt TKD

Just wondering.. what style(s) has the most effective Hand strikes? I would imagine Wing Chun or Karate? Nick D.

Im sure it serves its purpose to those who do karate. But you have to understand, if something thinks its worthless, then its worthless to them, no point in trying to say its not, unless your trying to justify it to yourself Now, from what I have beeen reading all over the Karate Forum boards, Katas were orginally created as a notebook for the karate students to use to remember what to do... and how to do it... a stepby step instruction.... that was shown to you.. since at that t ime, they were not allowed to use paper to write on. With that said, maybe people still practice Katas for that same reason, maybe they do it for spiritual health, like Tai chi, and maybe it todays time and age Katas are not really needed, since the times are a little different lol. Hey, Katas are awesome, really, if I ever wanted to do tai chi and couldnt, I would try and learn to do katas from someone. Nick D.

Yea, my instructor said he can work with me to make me a more optimal fighter. Your also right, I do like getting in close and throwing a good punch combo.. im not afraid of getting hit. your also right, I like trying to overpower my opp... being 235 lbs, that comes kinda easy to me. So I have kinda adapted the Muay Thai theory of kicking... Quick, powerful and devestating kicks.. .to the mid section. Nothing flashy for me. lol. Nick D.

I do have a question about me personally. All throughout my MA career (currently TKD), I have always had a lot of hitting power with my hands. My kicks... however, are powerful when I do thrust versions of kicks, straight kicks, or side kicks. Crescent kicks and roundhouses, no matter how much I strectch, I just can not get enough zip on it. With a thrust kick, I can easily take someone off of there feet. I have fairly large legs... from Football... and it gets kind of difficult for me to swing them high into the air... anything in the mid section though.. I can do great.. really great..... My question is, can you be effective at TKD at higher lvls, if you can not execute the high kicks with enough power, or should I go and do Karate which is 50/50, which would probably do me a lil better since I like hand strikes??

Listen, just because I opt to rigid training and some body conditioning, just because I would rather full contact spar, does not mean I am training to kill someone, or hurt people. That is like tellinmg a football player, that because he would rather go into the gym and do some power lifting instead of learning techniques, would rather go out and injure someone, when all he is doing is trying to better himself. When I train, and when the instructor trains, we make sure that our goal has 2 objectives. The first objective is to make sure we know how to fight, for tournaments, competitions, etc etc. Now, if you wish to do katas, maybe that will help y ou win forms and what have you at tournaments, but we train to win the full contact portion of it, nothing wrong with that, doesnt mean I want to hurt someone. Just like my instructor told me when I looked at all his trophies, he said that all those trophies are there because he had to physically show and beat someone to get that trophy and thats what I want to do also. The second objective is for real world use. I am not sure if Katas are going to help in a real world situation where you get in a fight, with 1 guy, 2 guys, 3 guys etc. We train to be strong and powerful so that we can handle ourselves in real situations. We spar all the time, to see if our techniques really do work on a real person, etc. So again, to sum it up, as I said, Katas are a benefit to some, but not all, I personally could care less about forms or katas. Please, do not associate that we want to maim and kill people. Nick D.

At our school, we practice doing takedowns as well when we get to higher lvls. Brown belt and above I think is when you can start applying takedowns and grapples. As for using the back leg for power etc etc... we mostly use the front leg as a setup for the backleg. The reason is obvious, more power in most situations, since you have a longer distance to get to your opp, your leg has more chance to generate energy as it hits your opp... where as teh front leg is kinda like a jab.. and the back is like a haymaker =). The best thing to do is train both legs and become powerful with both, that way, you can switch up what your side your fighting with during the fight and throw your opp off (do you guys fight with Hard stances.. or do you freely move around like Jeet Kune do fighters do? We move and bounce around and switch from being left handed fighters to right handed fighters back and forth constantly). Most people, when they get kicked hard and move, is because they are moving from the pain. Rarely have I ever talked to someone who took a 2-3 step drop after being kicked, who said it was to powerful for them not to move. Usually they say it was becuase it was a strong kick and it hurt. lol. My instructor offers private lessons, in kempo body conditioning etc etc to make us tougher. Sounds crazy I know, but it really works. When i get hit, I can feel the kick, but i dont let it hurt.. so I dont try to step away from it =) Nick D.

We do about 15 mins of stretching. From there we do some forms.. and the rest of the class is full contact sparring or conditioning (such as hitting the bags). Nick D.

Korean Martial Arts as a whole is a pretty complete system. Somewhere in the Korean martial arts there is something for you...TKD for kicks.. ChongdoKwan for close promixty hand strikes.... Combat Hapkido for Takedowns and ground grappling. If you want to learn a lil weapons like Kendo, just take up Kumdo, which is like Kendo, except it involves a more complete fighting system, such as kicks and takedowns... The korean martial arts is truly amazing. When I get higher rank in TKD, i want to go to Korea and maybe study some martial arts which generally only appear in Korea. Nick D.

Yea, TKD is more of a distance art. If you do move in close, its only to do a combo, and then you pop back out.. to make some distance. If you wanna learn to fight in close.. just do some training in JJ, or Korean ChongDoKwan or Combat Hapkido. Nick D.

yea, Im not sure why TKD gets picked on either?? I mean, the way I see it is like this, TKD has a gripload of kicks (80% kicks, 20% punches). Not all kicks are to the head, alot are to the body as well, and some can be improvised to hit below the waist. if a TKDist was to condition his feet and shins, man.. that guy would do some devestating power... .. Afterall, the whole leg and shin conditioning works for MT kickboxers.. and they do alot of kicks. The beauty about kicking is real simple also.. power. There is so much more power in legs then in your arms. When you develop enough leg strength and technique, when blocking kicks, it doesnt matter, your gonna feel the impact anyway. If you dont block, your gonna feel alot more then that! I remember I was watching a UFC match, and this guy swung a side kick.. the guy blocked with his arm.. needless to say, the guy blocked the kick, but his arm was broken. Not many punches that I know, will do that to someone who blocks =).Not to mention, in real street fights, imagine being kicked by someone who has hard leather shoes or steel toed boots on... oh my god the pain!! I think TKDists who get in fights, get to caught up in the drama of trying to do flying kicks and flashing crap instead of using what would be really effective (kicking in the knees, hips, groin ribs etc etc)... or people who pick on TKD just say that because other people do. I would never ever ever wanna take on my instructor in a real fight somewhere on the streets.

Our TKD instructor wants us to practice our forms.. but not devote our time to it. He would want us to do some forms, but he would rather us hit a bag or spar against a lively person. Katas and forms are very important to some, but not to all. Me, personally can see the benefit of sparring more so then Katas. For one, when you spar against a real person, you are apply real techniques, and you can see first hand whether it works or not. If it doesnt, then you know you have to work on it, and try again. Our instructor will let us know, after we spar, that we have to work on thsi kick or that kick, that we have to twist our hips more, or put more shoulder into it, or that when a roundhouse comes, and we block it to follow up with this or that etc etc. I would also rather hit a bag. When I hit the bags, I can feel if i think i got enough snap into that punch, I can feel if I got enough turn in my kicks, not to mention when someone watches me hit the bags, they can critic my style. When I am at home, I practice alot on my striking techniques (this is from previous MA, not my current TKD that I am taking now). And to top it all off, after every training session, at home or at the instructors, I always stretch and then mediatate. I mediatate to even out my energy in my body. So, to me, katas, just wouldnt work for me. But as I said, everyone is affected differently by the MA's, thats why they are so fulfilling to people =). Now, I do spend a considerable amount of time practicing blocking techniques. I even go as far as to have my friend throw punches and kicks at me, slowly at first... and as time goes on, the faster he would kick or throw.. to condition my mind to re-act. Nick D.

Most of our punches are thrown into the mid section (to wind your opp)followed up by a elbow strike to the head, or a knife edge chop to the throat. Now, understand, when we throw an elbow at someone, sparring, we dont do it as hard as we can, as we dont want to really hurt our teammates.

Our instructor teaches us how to use the flashy stuff only so we can make rank. He also encourages us sometimes to use some high kick stuff and roundhouses, so the students can get a feel for it. For the most part, he teaches us to kick with speed,power, and torque. He mostly teaches us to use kicks into the mid-section,chest, and throat. He tells us to use the highh kicks only as finishers... for example, if you keep kicking the guy in his mid section taking away his air, he will start to lean more towards guarding his body.. which will leave his head available for a nice well placed turning spin kick, round house kick, jumping crescent kick, etc etc He will also get mad, when students spar, if they dont follow up kicks with punch combos sometimes... he says doing to many kicks, will make you predictable, so by punching, you will throw your opp off a little bit. Nick D.

Well,.. some say this war is over the rich oil fields that iraq has, and I tend to agree. Greenpeace.org did a very good article on this war a couple of weeks ago. The article basically said that Exxon, is the most politically influential company in the United States, Exxon an oil company. President Bush and his father are both Oil Buffs. Dick Cheaney was a former president of the largest oil broker service. Condelezza Rice even has a Oil Tanker named after her. At first I was skeptical that the war was all about Oil... until I heard several of the last speeches that Mr. Bush gave, in which he made it very clear that he urges the Iraqi people to not blow up the oil wells, how the main objective in the beginning of the war is to secure the oil fields, etc etc. Mr. Bush, I believe, also said that he is going to only allow american companies into Iraq to help rebuild it at first. Now, I am sure we will see several american companies, like a McDonalds, maybe a warehouse company, and probably an Oil Company like Exxon =). Anyway, I am not looking for any flames, but I truly do believe that this war is about the Oil. Nick D.

I was wondering if any of you could share some of your exercises you do to build up A)Stamina and endurance and B)Strength So far, my instructor told me to get a bag and start hitting it (kick and punch) for about 30 seconds non stop and keep trying to work up from there, to maybe 45 seconds non stop, and then 60 seconds non stop. Problem is, I dont have a punching bag, and it will be a lil while before i can get one. Is there anything else i Can do to build up my fighting stamina? Maybe put some weights around my arms and legs and just practice doing non stop kicks and punches into the air?? (even though I would rather have the resistance of hitting something) Please, any help would be useful. As for strength training, does most of your kicking power come out of your thighs? If so, how can i build strength iin them, without having to squat 400-500lbs. Also, as for punching power, how can i increase that? I know that your shoulder strength plays alot into it, but what else effects it? and what exercies can I do to increase it. I am not looking to gain muscle mass... I am looking to make the muscles I currently have.. stronger. Thanks in advance. Nick D.

My instructor teaches us Hapkido, Combat Hapkido, TKD, ChongdoKwan..... our instructor is a total korean nut!! lol. He has dabbled in Kung Fu, and said he likes TKD better, dabbled in Ninjitsu and said he likes TKD better lol... I guess he likes TKD for a good reason, he is very good at it =). Nick D.

People always say that TKD cant be used in street situations.... I dont understand. I mean, sure, if your going to try and kick people in the head the whole time, its not practical. However, if you fight the way our instructor teaches us, and kick in the midsection, and legs.. Im not sure how it would not help you? Especially if you have trained to teh point where you have lots of torque and power in your kicks... I would hate for my instructor to kick me, with shoes on, no pads, man.... that would hurt lol. If you were to condition your shins and feet.... you would do some serious damage. Nick D.

WOW!!! I got kind of winded when fighting my instructor tonight but it stil felt great! He was very impressed for a newbie white belt. He said I have incredible torque and power in my legs, he said he could feel it in his arms when he blocked my kicks, and that is counting that I had foot pads on, and he has taken kempo training. He said I need to work on my punches, Im hitting him like a boxer. Being 240lbs though, I was still knocking him back a step or two when I hit him, only problem is, since I hit him and keep pushing my punch into him, It spreads the power out over his whole body, so he wants me to work on 'snapping' my punches to concentrate my power into one area. Anyways, so far so good! He said he cant wait to get my a lil more higher rank, as he seems to think i am goingv to be a great fighter for his school. Nick D.

For future reference, should I go to practice every night? Or should I go 2-3 nights a week, leaving the other days available for me to practice what I have learned at home for several hours, and dedicate more time to stretching? I work full time, and I noticed that when i get off from work, I Zip over to the instructor. By the time I am down with the instructor, I have to go home and eat a late dinner and spend some time with my wife. By the time that is done with, Its almost bed time lol, and I have very little time to practice. If I go to the instructor every night, yea we do some stretching, yes we do some forms, etc etc, and yes we do some full contact, but I do not get time to practice what I learned the night before, and I do not get time to stretch for a half hour to an hour. So, I was wondering if some other TKD'ists out there can tell me what they do. Nick D.

Thanks for the tips Fury! Ill use them on my instructor tonight!! Nick D.

I just got back from my 4th night of TKD training... so far I am very sastified!! I am really enjoying it! Tomorrow night I actually get to do full contact sparring with my instructor. Of course, he is not going to fight back, he just wants me to come at him with the basic punch and kick moves I have learned, to practice against a real person, and not the bag . Nick D.

Would it be possible for me to pick up some very well put together guides and books on Kendo and my friend and I practice with each other? I can not see why you could not, although an instructor would be better probably as it would increase your learning curve. Even though I would be self teaching myself In Kendo, I would still make the 50 mile trip once every week or two weeks to a Instructor in the town next to mine to have him critic my forms, etc etc. Nick D.

Well, he offers two classes a night on Weapons Training, and 2 classe a night on TKD and Hap, you can attend both kind if you like, or you can just take weapons training or you can just focus on TKD or Hap. He does not make it that you have to take weapons training or vice versa. Nick D.