tommarker

http://www.wtsda.com/regions/index.asp?region=3 i'm not sure how close any of the MN schools are to your area.

I have no problem with police laying out hits when the job calls for it. And "when the job calls for it" is not an arbitrary choice. Police are governed by use of force rules and regulations that hold them to a considerably higher standard than if you or I had to defend ourselves. http://www.cpoa.org/Publications/Sample%20Policies/use_of_force.shtml Think about it, if a criminal gets the slip on an officer and kamikaze's them out of nowhere with a sucker punch, the officer has to respond quickly to regain control of the situation. It's not always going to be possible to pull out the OC, Baton, or gun. Why waste time with an Aikido move that -- likely -- won't work when you a quick palm strike to the chin, axe hand to the collarbone and stomp will put the ASSAILANT (not the poor innocent criminal) on the ground quickly? I'm very much against police abusing their powers, but I'm even more in favor of them going home to their families every night.

until a good prosecutor finds you making a statement online openly stating your intention to decieve the police by carrying pliers with intent to use them as a weapon.

look at your diet.

anyone here use this super fun weapon? i'm noticing an interesting problem... as I move the whip faster and it gains a lot of momentum, I find the whip handle starting to get a little slippery in my hand. As fun as it would be to send a chain whip across the room at uncontrolled high speeds, how can I minimize this risk? I'm guessing a little more practice and confidence will help, but I'm hoping there's a tip or two that will help. Thanks

It's your sensei's school, and your money. If he doesn't like your patch, and tells you not to wear it in his school then: 1. obey his wishes, no matter how silly you think it is, and continue to train there. 2. take your money somewhere else or set up your own school.

13

I drink about half a bottle of Wild Turkey the night before... but I hate tournaments

nothing works bad habits out of your technique like whacking yourself in the elbow.

You know, in Korean arts, they call a staff a bong

i'm engaged to a girl i met in my class... so there

While that sounds noble, icetuete, an instructor might interpret that as "the student who can't let go of his 'old ways' of doing things and will never really want to learn our way of doing things."

That's the smartest thing I've read here in awhile

"OK. Let's work on the drill." usually works for me. If that doesn't work, I punch at them as hard and fast as I can when it's my turn to feed a technique. Good luck on your test.

Heat before activity, ice afterwards. Stretch. Lots of stretching. Ab and lower back exercises to restrengthen your "core." And dont do anything stupid until it feels better.

you can make "competition style" nunchaku rather cheaply by going to a craft store and getting some thin dowel rods, cut them down and string them. wrap the ends with black electrical tape and use a short string so the sticks are really close to each other. Then you can usually get some shiny reflective sticker paper and wrap it around the nunchaku... the result is a pair of lightweight pimped out nunchaku. I have a pair someone online made for me that are a little too light for my tastes, but they definetely catch everyone's attention when you bust them out

I have a strong dislike for foam nunchaku, and would only recommend them if you are especially nervous about cracking yourself in the head. Mostly due to the weight and balance of foam nunchaku being bad a lot of the times. The other reason is that foam nunchaku are cheap and the string tends to fray really quickly. Short of cutting the foam back, they are difficult to restring or re-size the length of string. I prefer wooden nunchaku connected by rope, but I'm an old fashioned guy. I like the more natural feel of wooden weapons. You can also get a pair of wooden rope nunchaku for less than $10US. You have to be very selective though, since the quality of these nunchaku is flaky. Pick them out yourself at a store, and look for a pair that has nice heft to them. If you bang them together and they sound hollow, look for another pair. Go to a camp store and buy some "550 Paracord" in whatever color you fancy and restring the nunchaku as shown here: http://www.seishinkan.com/seishin/sskbuki/howto/nunstring01.htm After that, grab some sandpaper and get all that nasty laquer or whatever they use off the wood. Also look for splintering. After you've sanded them down, put some Tung or Linseed oil on them and let them dry overnight. Hopefully, the grain of the wood will come out a little bit, and they'll look a lot nicer IMHO, and will be less slick than before. You have now transformed a $5 weapon into something that should last you a lot longer, and will give you more satisfaction. Feel free to experiment with the rope types and length. I prefer the length between the chucks to be the width of my fist.

another interesting way to carry them.. do some research on the "rapid rotation baton" it's a police club that is built a lot like the Sai. It's attached 3/4 of the way behind you, with the length of the sai going up your back. Designed that way so officers wouldn't have to take it off when getting into their cruisers.

legalities aside, you would probably have to look for a custom sheathmaker or rigger to come up with something. Look up Mike Sastre or Survival Sheath. They may be able to help. Expect ot pay extra for custom work though.

who cares. just work to make yourself and your students the best you can be.

No. They are similar, but not the same. That's like saying, since there is isshin-ryu, why does shorin-ryu still exist.

In the old days, all you would have to say is "Tang Soo Do is the art of Chuck Norris!" and everyone was instantly impressed. But that doesn't carry the same weight it did 20-30 years ago It highly depends on the instructor. TSD tends to be a little more "old school" in terms of it's approach to the martial arts. Keep in mind a lot of people who are doing TKD now have their roots in Tang Soo Do. I can try to give you some general thoughts on TSD. 1. The emphasis lies mostly in the basics. Even with the higher level hyung (forms) you will still see a great deal of basics being performed. Expect lots of repetitions of basic techniques, or combinations of them. While there are also advanced techniques (jump spinning back kick, split kick, sweep, etc.) they are not practiced everyday unless you are on some sort of demonstration team. 2. While a great deal of attention is paid to the kicking techniques of Tang Soo Do, there is a strong emphasis on hand techniques. I'd say in our school (and most others that I've visited) the distribution is about 50/50 when practicing. That being said, there are some very strong kicks in TSD. Wheel and Diagonal kicks are pretty tough. Master Khan in the UK has one of the best I've ever seen. Master Hwang H.C. has the most photographed diagonal kick, for sure! 3. Hyungs are most similar to those practiced in Shotokan. The depth to which you'd explore these applications probably depends on the experience of your instructor. Some Associations may teach different forms at the higher levels, or may approach them from a completely different perspective. 4. Self defense is most often taught in the "1-step" format. I.e. the attacker punches you, grabs your lapel, puts you in a headlock, or whatever the technique is... and the defender responds, sometimes with multiple strikes, sometimes with a joint lock, sometimes with a throw, and sometimes with all of the above. 5. Weapons are not a part of the normal TSD curriculum. Some Associations and Federations have adopted them informally, and others have built curriculums and forms around them. The Association I belong to has forms for Staff, Knife, Sword and Cane. That says nothing about the various Sai, Nunchaku, Kama and Rope forms floating around. Other TSD schools may be completely empty-handed. TSD is a very dynamic art with many different perspectives on how it should be performed. I know Masters who look very much like the Hard style, while others have a very soft aspect that looks more like Tai Chi or Shaolin White Crane. TSD very much is in the habit of borrowing what works from other arts, which is a good thing in my opinion. However, it makes it very hard to make general statements about TSD. It has a lot to do with their particular lineage more than anything else. Germans that I have sparred in the past have all been very strong fighters. http://www.osu.edu/students/btsd is my studio's link. There are a great deal of things on that site that may be of interest to you.

My pleasure!

I've been known to carry a pair. Tal, they do take a lot of work, but the force generated by a pair is far more than that of a stick. But there's something to be said for a stick, too

It does in our Association I'm completely ignorant of Germany's layout. http://www.wtsda.com/regions/index.asp?region=11