tommarker

Yes. I'm a bigger fan of yawara than cane, actually.. due to my age and unwillingness to carry a cane. Did you just see the movie Twisted?

Staff can take awhile to learn. Your instructor might be giving it to you now, with the hopes that it will look good when you're required to know it.

Jlee, Are you sure about the wrestling thing? At my old high school, Cross-country was in the fall, wrestling in the winter and track in the spring. What events do you run? Weightlifting and upper body strength really improves the 800m times. Half the kids on our CC squad were wrestlers, and used the season to get in shape for Wrestling. I would try to get into wrestling just to have access to the weights, and to learn some fundamentals that you'd get in wrestling a lot faster than in martial arts. Plus, you'll make some friends who will stick by you. Strong friends Being friends with guys on the track team just means that when you get in trouble, they will run away. Fast. This is EXCELLENT advice. I know that you don't want to hear that right now, but it's the truth man. Eventually someone is going to make you mad just as an excuse to give you a major beatdown. Good luck man. Learn to box, wrestle, do pushups situps and pullups and keep running.

Atemi-waza. Seriously.

A shot of wild turkey. Actually, it doesn't go away for me until I'm in the room. The best thing I've found to do is to get there and talk to other people, make sure the junior ranks are doing OK, are feeling good, stretched out, etc. In other words, I put myself to work ironing out other peoples anxieties, and before I know it, I'm in the middle of the test and feeling fine. If it is your first test, just keep in mind you wouldn't be testing unless your instructor had confidence in your abilities. You don't have to go out there and be the next Funakoshi. You just have to be decent for your level. Testing becomes more and more about testing your mental abilities as the test wears on. It's once you've been going for awhile and your feeling tired that they start to look at you and see if you have what it takes. If you can keep going strong and working as hard as you can throughout the entire test, chance are you have what it takes. It also helps to pee before you bow in. Trust me.

That is a bold statement.

A pretty common thing in that age, actually.

Jackie Chan did a lot more than that. His family sold him to the opera company at a very young age.

There is a Choy Lay Fut book out there outlining one a fan form.

Cool.. Do you set up/execute throws and locks in sparring? I realize that every group has their own "tournament" rules, where things that are practiced in the classroom aren't legal points because of the danger involved... but do you do "informal" sparring where you are allowed to put on a lock, or load up a throw (without necessarily finishing it)? How would you describe typical sparring strategies? Is the longer range preferred, or is it more to setup the throw? Thanks for all the info, and I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about what is a rare art in my area.

Jackie Chan was trained in the Peking Opera. Lots of acrobatics and martial arts. I've heard him in various interviews discuss hapkido as an art he's studied formally.

Bassai Dae.

actually, i meant empty handed sparring... I was just typing without any sense of organization.

Great article Doug! As I look at the emblem for KSW, am I seeing a yawara (dan bong) wrapped inside the fist? I'd be interested in hearing more about how the staff is trained in Kuk Sool Won. Do you tend to use the staff more by holding it in the middle, or is there a lot of work holding the back end? Lots of circular motion for momentum-based strikes, or more spear type thrusting motions? How would you describe a sparring match between two students?

Ahh, the articles are just like that "photo album" feature i never look at...

look at the very top of this page on the right side. there is a red bar that has a few menu choices. The 2nd one is phot album (I was browsing this place for almost 6 months before I first noticed it!)

I like the toe-kick article. I know we've discussed that here before as well.

Since KSW came up in the other thread, I'd like to maybe take some time and have a positive discussion on the art. I'll admit, I know very little about Kuk Sool except that it seems to have a lot of very circular movements and deals with a fair amount of sword work. For example, is it a striking oriented art, or more focused on locking and throwing? Or both? Is it primarily an empty hand style? Or is empty hand used more to create a foundation for weapon work?

One of our club's instructors is a semi-professional photographer. The one thing we have is lots and lots of photographs. It's great that I can see pictures from my first gup test, all the way up to my last test.

Let it go, Señor Lopez

No offense man, but people living in glass houses.... Questionable history: I think ALL Korean arts have suffered this at some point. (Other arts too, to be fair.) Funny looking Uniforms: Umm, when you think about it, the dobahk IS pretty silly. You're basically saying "my funny pajamas are somewhat more serious than your silly pajamas." I've seen quite a few TKD GM wear some outlandish dobahk as well. Jhoon Rhee has a gold one. JP Choi is pretty snazzy as well. Obsolete: Kuk Sool does at least recognize weapons, and the possibility of encountering them. I think you only ace you have left is that is a "Fringe" style, i.e. less popular. Hwa Rang Do has a pretty bizarre history surrounding it, but to say that it, kook sul, and hapkido are the same is like saying, aikido, ju-jitsu, and aikijitsu are the same. If such fringe groups are so silly, in your opinion, why even fret about them? Taking away business? Flashy pajama envy?

http://www.karateshorinkan.com/store/c000002.htm Shureido are made in Okinawa, so don't be surprised if US Customs affects the supply.

The finish isn't as nice as one you might get from Canemasters, but it is in the same league in terms of functionality. A friend of mine broke his Livesay cane, but this was more due to bad maintenance than anything. For some reason, the cane didn't like sitting on the dash of his car all summer, dealing with heat and humidity, and it developed a nasty crack in it.

I don't have any of his products, but I've handled a few of his knives, canes and the WA sticks. He's a good guy who makes a good product. His knives are used by very "serious" people.

It's a good organization tool and it gives students a short-term, concrete goal to focus on.