Spartacus Maximus

It does not seem to be trend or at least not a very popular one. For children, it might be common in some circumstances and there are a few martial art supplies retailers that have special “easy belts” for children that stay on and are fixed with elastic bands or Velcro(magic tape). On the other hand, it is t unheard of for certain dojo and traditional tournaments to have rules against them. For example, every tournament or karate event on Okinawa strictly forbids any additions or modifications to the basic white gi and regular belt. No pins or accessories of any kind.

The difficult thing is figuring out what is different. Many factors were ruled out because nothing has changed in 5 years. No increase or decrease of anything, same eating habits and sleeping patterns etc. Training through colds, fevers and even the flu has never been a problem either. Maybe age has something to do with it, but it hardly makes sense for someone who has always been active since early teenage years.

It rings true for both competition and self-defense. Everything in between as well. The outcome of a physical struggle depends a great deal on ones mental state. In a less than optimum state on mind, reactions, reflexes and evaluation of the situation will be more difficult which can lead to failures.

The idea of having some kind of evaluation if test for every grade is a very good one. Only a few people may relate to this or understand it fully, the fact that a rank, title or grade is given away cheapens it. Ranks etc may not mean much outside of the group that gives them, but they mean very little within it as well if given away too easily. It is very easy to falsify or forge a grade. It is much harder to demonstrate knowledge and skill which one has never acquired. The value and pride people attach to things is proportional to the time and efforts made to obtain them.

There is nothing quite like the satisfaction of finally making a connection with practise and application. Finally understanding the how and the why after a long time wondering, questioning and doubting. It is, without any exaggeration, the martial art equivalent of discovering and deciphering an old book only few have ever read. This is only possible if one never stops asking questions and trying to answer them.

Breaking boards or bats or anything else does have a real purpose for training and is not just for shows. Breaking the object is not the point because anyone can do with strength. The point is to test and evaluate correct technique and body mechanics. Power, speed and strength are only a small part of what is required to break an object.

Best guess as to what it may be without an X-ray is an injury somewhere other than the bone. A break would make full range of motion painful if not impossible. Could be also be a smaller fracture on one of the joint sections of the toe. Those are also quite painful and take a long while to completely heal and the sensitivity to dissipate. Online medical sites have lists of average healing time for broken bones by sex and age. For a healthy adult, the average time to heal a toe or finger is 20-25 days. This gives a rough idea, but a doctor familiar with the individual case can give more precise advice. Personally, a broken thumb healed(the bone) in about 21 days, but remaind sensitive for a little longer. Suprisingly, a nasty sprain without a break took much longer to get back to normal.

A question for anyone who has ever experienced burnout or exhaustion. What were the first signs or symptoms which indicated that something may be wrong? Trying to fit training time with personal life, work and other daily duties and obligations is always a struggle. More often than not, there isn’t enough time to do everything or for as long as planned. Despite having no change in workload, training and general activity, lately it has become difficult to get through it. The usual has become exhausting both physically and mentally(focus, concentration etc).

This is a very common injury and often happens when toes are improperly held when kicking or if the toes are not sufficiently trained for toe-point kicks. The big toe is the main point of contact in this type of kick and it is very easy to break it if the toes buckle on impact. As far as care goes, there really isn’t much to do. As with any broken bones, it takes a minimum time to heal completely and this will depend on an individual’s age, sex and overall health. Also the size of the bone is important. Obviously it will not heal as slow as a leg or arm because toe bones are quite small. To allow it to heal properly, it would be a good idea to immobilize it with strong cloth tape and a semi-rigid splint(optional). Also avoid any movement which requires bending the toe or putting pressure or weight on it. Continue for the recommended healing time plus a week or two.

Losing faith in someone or something usually implies giving up in one way or another. Considering martial arts, it seems that those who have lost faith are the ones who quit because they no longer believe it has any worth. Or perhaps because they didn’t find what they were looking for (yet), and gave up trying. Those who continue over years inevitably have certain periods where they question the purpose of point of training and even start to doubt some or all of what they know, practise or have been taught. This is not really a bad thing, because it is an important first step towards greater and deeper understanding of whatever one has chosen to train. It could be called losing faith, but personal experience doesn’t agree. It is very hard to lose faith in something if one continues to seek it always and in everything. Starting training over again from the very beginning with a different method allowed me to understand how little I knew and how much I had missed.

The first priority in the type of scenario mentioned would be to make sure vulnerable people can flee to a safe place and call for help. The next step is to do whatever is necessary for one’s own escape. The longer one stays with an attacker the higher the possibility for the situation to worsen. As soon as the attacker(s) are distracted, dazed or hurt, run and never ever try to stay there and give a punishment. This will also ensure credibility as a victim in the aftermath if ever brought before the law. The first priority is the escape and safety of the most vulnerable people. They must be allowed to escape and this escape must be covered by all necessary defensive action. Once this is successfully achieved, the next priority is to join them at the first opportunity. To summarize, 1. Allow vulnerable people to escape and get help. 2. Defend self quickly and escape as fast as possible. 3. Regroup, check everybody and leave. It is also a good idea to educate and inform family and friends about good habits before anything ever happens. Things like scattering and regrouping later somewhere public and familiar in the area. Another one is not clinging to each other’s arms or clothing as this impairs movement and would make it difficult to move fast to avoid a danger or counter an attack. Finally and most common sense of all: Never ever take your loved ones to potentially dangerous areas! If one avoids these obvious sorts of places, the possibility of being assaulted are nearly nonexistent. Of course those who live in an unstable territory with rampant lawlessness and daily violence can ignore this advice, but it certainly applies to everywhere else that has a civilized society with laws.

Here is a question often asked in martial arts, especially to instructors: “How do you know a technique works if you have never used it?” Has anyone ever answered such a question or one like it and what explanation did you give? How was your answer taken and was it understood?

Another thing to consider is that in any martial arts, one should not expect the training sessions to include everything every time. It is a better strategy for an instructor to focus on one or two things per session. It is more effective and beneficial than going through every single thing in the system every time. Doing that means less time for everything.

Here is a point of view based on reading biographies of several well-known martial arts masters to prove that they didn’t start as early as some might think. The average age these masters and reknowned practitioners started to train is in their teens, not 6,7 or 8. 16 years old is a great age to start and definitely not “too late”. Anyone can verify this by simply doing a little research online or books. Again many who spread and developed martial arts beyond their country of origin started when they were in their late teens or as adults I their 20’s(military men, for example). Consider Chuck Norris. He was much older than 7 or 16 when he started training in Korea.

It could hardly be called cross training if one trains in two systems of nearly the same thing. Would that not defeat the purpose of cross training if, a person simultaneously trained in two or more styles of karate instead of two completely different things such as karate and judo?

Hasty judgment is of no use. It is a common mistake to think that martial arts can be learned very quickly or that the process can be accelerated. This is a consumer mentality. Customers instead of students. Customer who become easily bored and unsatisfied because they aren’t getting what they want or think they need quickly enough. To correctly learn a system of martial arts, one must be free of that thinking. Basic techniques and fundamentals may be “boring”, but there is a perfectly good reason why these are insisted upon. Without a solid grasp of them the rest will not work! It is well worthwhile to take time to learn them correctly.

Is there anything in particular about those systems that could be discussed? Are there questions to ask or ideas to be exchanged by this post?

A truly dedicated practitioner may never be completely satisfied and continuously look for anything new of different within even the simplest kata. There is, after all, always new aspects or concepts to develop. However, a good benchmark might be whether or not one has a good grasp of a kata’s principles and can easily apply its basic techniques. That would be a good start.

Good=simple and direct with an emphasis on maximum results with minimum effort. Everything in a way that shows situations as close as reasonably feasible to reality or based on true experiences if at all possible. A bad demo is one where it would appear obvious that the aim was to impress an audience rather than be instructive by showing off instead of teaching something useful. This of course is from a strict traditional defense oriented point of view. The final word on what is good or bad will depend on the demonstrators intentions and purpose.

It might be a good start to go look at a few nunchaku models closely and measure those. Perhaps borrow a pair or, if at all possible, go to a supply store and take notes on the models on display there. Also to consider when deciding the dimensions is the density of the wood. How heavy is it and how does that affect the size of nunchaku planned. As for length, the user’s forearm from wrist to the elbow bend is a good benchmark to begin with. Good luck

First, the idea that anything is hidden in kata/forms is mistaken. Nothing is hidden, one just has to know how and where to look. A form is much like an open book. It is valuable only if one knows how to read the words and understands what they mean within their context. The number of forms a practitioner can do matters much less than how well said practitioner understands them. If learned only as a sequence of movements, kata become meaningless. At least combatively speaking. They are a valuable training tool and are meant to learn and train principles. Principles which, when thoroughly acquired, allow a person to use any technique from any part in a spontaneous way. Having said this, each system has a certain number of forms. However it isn’t necessary to know all of them to reach a high skill level. Shorin ryu karate has over 20, yet there are plenty of very competent people who have a great depth of understanding of only half that number. Less is more common. Most instructors have a specialty for one or two and a more general knowledge of the others. Learning the “choreography” of every form can be done quite quickly. What takes much longer is understanding a form enough to use its content freely and without having to think about it.

Some people need to set up rituals to motivate and encourage themselves. It is part of the mental process of creating habits. The rituals are anything done to prepare for doing whatever the main action might be. Everyone has their own rituals and most would not realize that they do these things unless pointed out to them. Especially if said rituals have been part of their daily life for a long time. Besides wearing a gi can have a practical reasons. One of which is absorbing some of the sweat that would otherwise end up everywhere else. It also helps one get accustomed to moving in similar clothing. Ideally for practicality’s sake and to save time it is better to train in a variety of clothing one might normally wear.

Indeed, the floor. Maybe that is where the survey should be conducted if it is to be considered of value to any research. It would be much more likely to obtain reliable information than asking random strangers online, who may may not be as involved in the martial arts as they say. It may be old fashioned, but a little elbow grease and a good pair of shoes goes a long way in doing any kind of serious field research.

There is a difference between the quality of self-control and learning physical control. The concern here is not about knowing how to avoid injuring a training partner, but more about what to do when, for a lack of better words, a technique seems to take on a mind of its own. Most often this happens with lower dan grades(using karate as reference) who have acquired certain mechanisms and unintentionally, without realizing it put put too much power into everything. In some dojo, this is something that is checked for dan gradings.

Indeed the same applies to anyone involved in wide-ranging sports or martial arts events. Taekwondo, however is regarded as something “Korean” by both the north and south. It is a thing they have in common and one if the most ideal opportunities for them to at least come to an understanding. This is more significant for the fact that the two countries are involved in probably the longest ongoing war(a ceasefire, not an armistice or peace treaty ended fighting in 53-4) in our lifetime.