Spartacus Maximus

Judging a karateka by the colour or condition of their belt is unsurprisingly common. Given that the belts system and culture of it is so strongly ingrained, it is probably not something that people do consciously. It is mostly unintentional. Judges, karateka and the public alike tend to focus on the belt without thinking about doing it. Having all the same colour belt or no belt at all takes the attention away from biases and allows judges to focus on the practicioner in a more neutral way.

There is hardly any sure way to know exactly who one us dealing with as far as casual acquaintances and strangers are concerned. Fortunately, being able to immediately put distance between oneself and these people and simply refusing to deal with them is the easiest thing to do. The only thing that might make one stay around long enough to make a stupid mistake to aggravate the situation is pride or ego. That feeling that if one does not fight, one is somehow weak.

The belts is an arbitrary symbol endemic to the system that uses them. If the one practising is focused on developing and improving skills for their own sake, a belt as irrelevant and whatever else the person might be wearing. When a belt is not worn, acquired skills are still there.

Making threats of physical violence is usually the sign of an emotionally unstable personality. These types of people have such difficulty controlling their emotions that they will be overwhelmed. Although it can be exhausting to deal with them on a regular basis, the risk of being attacked is low. The best solution is to simply leave the person, let them calm down and talk to them when they are rational again. On the other hand, the angry person might be mentally unstable, have a personality disorder or sociopathic and psychopathic problem. There is no indication of this unless one is well acquainted with the individual. In that case there are other physical harm is imminent, but the risk can also be eliminated by just leaving, while remaining alert and prepared. Whatever the situation, using force is only the solution if escape is not possible without doing so, and should only be done in the process, or for the sole purpose of removing oneself from danger. If giving the other guy a bloody nose allows you to run away, there is no point in breaking his arm.

Observing is certainly the first thing one ought to do before choosing where to train and whom to learn from. Without information, the choice is just chance and as in anything left to chance, the results are often not exactly as one would have expected. Shotokan or Shotokan. Choose wisely, the difference between the two is in the dojo, on the floor, not in the name of the "style"

Some children do have some natural advantages such higher level of concentration, or certain personality traits like perseverance. These qualities, however, are not fixed and must be allowed to develop further through encouragement. If taking some time away is necessary, then it may be the best solution. For young children though, the best method by far is making the martial arts(or whatever it may be) a natural, routine activity. A half hour or so of martial arts fun every day is better than a one or two hour session two nights per week.

How many regular police officers actually have time to train at least on a weekly basis with the nightstick/baton in addition to their service firearm? How many have never gone beyond the few short sessions taught at the academy? Adding anything that requires more training to become functionally effective would certainly put an unnecessary burden on them and would increase costs for little additional benefits. This is the reason why police departments have specialized units instead of training every officer in the use of every tool/weapon at their disposal.

As a parent nothing there is nothing quite like being able to share a lifelong endeavour with one's son or daughter. The longer the child enjoys practising, the longer she will pursue it. In the beginning it is much more important to communicate how fun, interesting and beneficial the martial arts are than the actual technical aspects. Children are much too immature physically and mentally to grasp anything more complex than gross motor skills and basic coordination. Playing and having fun on the other hand, is understood right away.

The only other criteria that matters besides the instructor is one's training goals and purposes. The wisest and most fitting choice is whatever style has what one is looking for and both TSD and Shotokan can be the best choice. In the two styles there are so much variations.

The instructor is more important than the system. There is absolutely no reason to choose shotokan over tang soo do or vice versa if there is no information to make a choice other than the style itself. There must be a reason to choose one or the other.

Letting go of previous experience can be very difficult to accept, but in the end it is the wisest choice when attempting to learn a new system. Harder still when it is the same system or something very similar. "Forgetting" a belt harder the "higher" it is.

An inexperienced or insufficiently trained nunchaku wielder is probably more of a danger to himself than such a person wielding a nightstick. In any case, the type of training police officers recieve with their weapons, including firearms is far from intensive. With all the regular work to occupy thier day, how much time can the average officer expect to train and practise with their weapons? The only members who have additional time to train experience are either special units or those whose personal background included applicable techniques such as service in the military or a martial arts background.

Recently, it has been the cold of the coming winter and shorter days. Training in the heat of summer was not so difficult, even in the humidity of the local climate. Something about the cold seems to drain energy away and require twice as much effort to get the usual rythm started. Soreness and muscle pains also feel worse and take longer than they usually do to fade away.

In the beginning, it was useful to make a detailed plan of exactly what to do for each day. It is quite helpful as a self-motivational tool, but when one reaches shodan it makes more sense to concentrate on one or two things to improve for each day of individual training.

Weather and seasons can disrupt training rhythm. It has happened at one time or another to everyone and each person has a way of dealing with it. Usually it is the hottest or coldest time of the year. In these seasons people find it harder to maintain their usual training. What ways are effective to get through these times when the weather seems to disrupt one's energy levels?

How effective is it for personal use? Do you make a schedule for yourself or do you make a random choice only minutes before starting? Personally not into doing too much planning in advance. There are some who feel it is necessary to know and decide exactly what they want to practise on each day. Others prefer to plan only as far as the next day. This seems like a better plan because it is more suited to focused practise or improving one or two specific things. Longer range planning seems to work better for general training or teaching others.

Nunchaku does not seem like a viable idea for a police tool or defensive weapon alternative. hypothetically, if it were adopted it would have to be in replacement of something already in use. Otherwise it would only add to the weight of equipment a modern officer carries. In addition, it requires much more time, training and practise to effectively wield nunchaku than a fire arm or nightstick. Police already have 3 or 4 choices if one includes tazers as standard issue.

In many martial arts schools, the instructor has some sort of established teaching or training programme. This is a useful guide and a good way to organize training but it can also be a great help for personal training. How much or how little is useful to write down? Does it work for your personal practise or not?

This is unfortunately not a new idea. It has been suggested or tried and failed in several police departments in the past, most of the time rejected in favour of other alternatives. The tonfa-style nightstick was one of these and was adopted as early as the late 40's. Usage became generalized sometime in the 70's

True or not, it sounds like it could be a plausible story. Progress in martial arts skills is something very personal. No two students are alike, nor do they learn at the same rate. What makes the difference is personality, effort and perseverance in training.

A good training session ought to included both types of stretching, but any sort of static stretching should be at the end. The most intense and dynamic part should be the first 5 minutes. Non-stop speed combinations kick/punch or repetitions of single techniques are excellent for this. It is much harder than it seems and most beginners will struggle with a single minute. After doing that the body is warmed up and loose enough. Next in order is the usual programme of drills, kata etc and finally static stretches such as splits or other similar exercise. Doing it first makes little sense because the muscles are cold. One does not warm up by stretching cold. Warm up and increase heart rate, and then stretching is the correct way. A simple experiment to try is to attempt a stretch cold and see how far one can stretch. Try again at the end of the training session and compare.

The makiwara is still used in many shapes and forms in every karate dojo on Okinawa. As for the kakiya, it is much rarer these days although several books and treatises on the subject mention it. For limbs there is a round post type makiwara or a square post, both of which had slits cut to a quarter down lengthwise and wrapped with rope for springiness. Besides that there is also a bunch of bamboo sticks bundled together used for training fingers. The wooden dummy in the WC design appears useful, but maybe the spacing and position of its limbs could be slightly modified to suit karate better. Maybe strong springs instead of pegs so the limbs are movable.

It certainly seems that such training is not a staple of martial arts as it once was. Nowadays it appears to be limited to a few older instructors who are among the last generation to have learned it. Often times these martial artist are regarded as old-fashioned.

The dummy is known from wing chun, but maybe it might be interesting to know whether or not the dummy was invented and devised specifically for wing chun or if it was generally in use in Chinese systems. With karate itself being heavily influenced by Chinese systems, it is a little surprising that the dummy was not adopted by more okinawan systems. If one were to try adapting the dummy to karate, what sort of changes would be useful if any?

There is a method for toughening areas of the body. It is much more than mindlessly bashing one's body or limbs with a hard object and there is a safe way of doing it. The problems and injuries arise when beginners or those who use incorrect technique try to do too much, too hard and too quickly. Full force is never, ever used when training.There is no correlation of cause and effect between these practices and arthritis or similar conditions. A well known case study was done with Mas Oyama's hands over several years. No change was noted in the internal structure of his hands, nor did he develop any cumulative injuries or problems from years of daily makiwara training. this study and the results are easily accessed through Google.