mushybees

Why is tying it up not an option?

I like that

I shant lie, I had to google it but yes I do know what it is and do understand it. We sometimes incorrectly use the term kime. It's basically aligning the body and creating momentary tension to efficiently transfer our mass during striking followed by immediate dropping of energy to relax and not hinder any successive movements.

I don't think either of them were impressive. She was fast and closed the distance with ease but with no power and being satified to land just a single punch with an accompanying kiai meant it was all for naught. He looked half asleep and frankly a shambles

We train a lot of techniques that are utilised in shiai kumite where 70% of what we learn is abandoned

I have no experience in TKD but if the mechanics are as you described it appears to be trying to generate power through dropping body weight at the same time as impact, not before as you described initially.

I'm guessing you mean flow drills based on locking techniques? If so, we do a few drills with locks but it's not big emphasis in our club.

Daniel: Hey can you break a log like that? Miyagi: Don't know. Never been attacked by tree.

Top tip, cheers. The webbing used on the blitz odachi is made of tissue paper, kind of put me off the material altogether.

I wish I knew where to source drawstrings. The webbing drawstring bulltahr mentions tend to snap after a few months, it happened on my blitz trousers. I swapped the drawstring from and old pair and its been great. I find a narrower drawstring works much better. Some bjj guys use paracord. Not sure what that would be like.

My Seishin also has "made in パキスタン" written on the inside and it came from an official uk distributor.

That crest is from the inside where it's screen printed, though with such poor stitching I'd question whether it's legit too. I've had a Seishin direct and though the stitching wasn't as bad as David's it was still less than I would expect for the money. The vents for me are a gimmick and I don't find it any cooler than my Hirota medium weight. The high waist is very comfortable but not unique to the Seishin, I'll be opting for one whenever I get a new Hirota in the future. It's certainly a nice looking dogi but nothing special. At least my one wasn't, I suspect the initial run were very high quality and it's been paired back for more mass production. That's fair enough but it should be reflected in the price.

I don't see the point of correcting the static stance. As JR said above the actual karate is found between the stances. If the mechanics of the technique are correct the end position will be correct but you can't get there consistantly by changing the end position alone. If the mechanics are correct and effective and the hands or feet are out of position by some small margin the stance would still be correct imo.

Isnt it more important to stress things like the actual strikes, in particular from stances used in free fighting? If you practice kata correctly you should be simultaneously training both amongst other things. Emphasising one over the other isn't necessary. A bit of a Sophie's choice imo. I've never had anyone correct my stances to be to so precise as in your experience. You're right in that they don't need to be so precise in self defence application but there's a quote I like from a greek poet named Archilochus that might be of interest: "We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training" Do you train for competition or is your school focused on it? I personally don't like shiai kata and don't think it's good for karate when there's more emphasis on appearance than effectiveness.

I don't know that it is inconsequential. Being able to advantageously shift your centre of gravity and weight distribution in an unconconscious manner doesnt come without practice.

The same way people the world over independently developed the bow and arrow they also developed similar solutions to empty handed combat. We have the same number of arms and legs and they're constructed the same way. It's possible that chinese and japanese grappling arts both have a shared progenitor and some concepts may have been developed in tandem. So they may be siblings. Also jujitsu isn't just locking and throwing. The art owes as much a debt to Japan's indigenous armed martial arts.

I also own the Seishin so I'll share my opinion of it. It's a nice, sharp looking gi but nothing remarkable. The material is nice enough but if you care more about effectiveness than making loud sounds with your strikes it's not really one for the plus column. I generally wear 14oz gis and with its thinner material and vented gussets I was expecting to feel much cooler in the Seishin but I don't find that to be the case. It's nothing special in terms of finish in the stitching either. I didn't know it was made in pakistan. I didn't expect it to be made in Okinawa either but it makes sense why it looks just like any other middle of the market dogi. The seishin isnt a bad gi but I do have buyers remorse. It's an obvious high profit margin item with a reputation I suspect is built on an initial run of gi which were a much higher quality. It needs to be about £100-110 to be good value. I own a Hirota from Japan with custom length sleeves and legs which was £80 less than the Seishin and it is far and away the better karategi. I'd recommend a hirota in a heart beat.

I started training about 4 years ago at 31. My hips have been sore since the day I started, kicking just isn't good for me but I train 4 days a week and my kicks have improved so I can do all kicks head height and with sufficient speed and power. I really need to get myself to a physiotherapist to check out my hip mobility. I'm sure it's just a shortened ligament or muscle imbalance that's limiting me but I've always put it off. You've inspired me to get off my butt.

Do you mean best practise to protect your joints during training? It's my understanding that there are very few non-synovial joints in the body. I'm pretty sure every joint manipulation I know is on a synovial joint but I haven't given the lubrication of the joint any thought. The only think I concern myself with is which way to twist, bend, push or pull to get the desired effect. I'm not a grappler so I wouldn't mind an example of what you're discussing.

Concentric contraction feels strong when punching, kicking etc but it feels strong because you are holding back energy. The muscles shorten and you tense. Can feel great but it's deceiving. Eccentric contraction means the muscle lengthens and the energy you've generated is efficiently transferred to your target. Doesn't feel as strong but there's also a satisfaction in feeling all that energy leave through, for example, your hands. What I do is imagine my hands or feet extending further than they really do and visualising the path the energy is taking through my body. That epiphany is wonderful when it comes, it's like the rabbit hole has gone even deeper and you begin to realise how shallow your understanding of your art was.

I work full time, married and have three young kids. I rarely train less than five hours a week in the dojo but at least two of those hours are spent with my two daughters in the class so it's not optimal. Last week with a weekend seminar I did 19hrs but that's really not typical.

I work with a bunch of tradesmen who are a mixed bag intellectually. I try to keep it to myself but some ask what my interests are and it can become unavoidable. When someone asks if I can beat them up I remark that they seem like a decent enough person so we'll probably never know. If they press I invite them to come train which normally illicits a scoff. Fine by me. People are generally really ignorant about martial arts. At worst they know only what they've seen on TV and those who have trained a little don't realise that they never really got to see their art properly.

To me a keyboard warrior is someone who will say something online, via text message etc that they wouldn't say in person. It can be someone acting tough, or opinionated or just obnoxious. YouTube is full of keyboard warriors. Hate the place.

They are here to stay and I like it. I disagree. There may be very rare occassions where a woman who is particularly genetically gifted may fight a man but it won't ever be the norm and imo will never be more than a curio. I will be against it on the basis that, to make it work, a male ufc fighter would have to operate under a handicap of some sort to level the playing field. I don't see the point of it. It's patronising for the female fighter and for either outcome the victory would be tainted. When a fighter from a lower division moves up for a fight they do it at a disadvantage but the rules aren't altered to suit the challenger. If there are no concessions made for the female fighter there is no competition for all the reasons I've already discussed in this thread.

Of course there are but are you saying that's the reason why men and women are divided in all but two olympic sports? Or are you suggesting that I am such a person? I assure you I'm not but I'm also not going to drink the kool-aid and hold an opinion in public that doesn't align with what I believe and know and what the general concensus is. Two women in this forum have told you that they don't think men and women competing at top flight mma is a good idea. There's a term you might like to look up while you're googling. "Mansplaining" I'm not a scientist and don't claim to be. I use the term generally, sort of and mostly because there is quite a lot of variance, within what is considered, the normal range of human physique and I am always open to being proven wrong. There is always an exception and no absolutes. There are small, weak, not very powerfully built men and tall, strong, powerfully built women. Unless something unprecedented happens they are not going to meet in the highest echelons of mma because being relatively strong and powerful for your gender is a bar you have to hurdle to reach that level of competition to begin with. This isn't blindly following the consensus. I can and have articulated why I believe this is the case. You haven't put forward a counter argument other than to create this false narrative that I am in some way afraid of women and can't think critically. I really don't understand your motivations. For the same reason the NFL have musicians put on shows during the Superbowl. The fans are there to watch football but can still be entertained while they wait. Again I have to ask if you have actually watched the video you have linked to? The real fighters are stood in the corners of the ring. Waiting to fight. I can appreciate kata for its aesthetics but that isn't fighting. Martial arts isn't fighting. Heck, self defence isn't necessarily fighting. There are overlaps but they are not synonymous. Chloe Bruce displays great flexibility and nice kihon but nothing else. She may be capable of fighting a man at mma but I haven't seen it. If you genuinely can't see that then we must surely be speaking at cross purposes. The question you've posed is whether we'll see men and women compete in mma. If you already had an entrenched position and choose to mischaracterise the argument and/or people who disagree with you, why did you ask the question?