tommarker

Tang Soo Do was spread in the United States in a similar vein. Servicemen who learned it in Korea such as Dale Drouilard, Robert Beaudoin, Chuck Norris, Robert Thompson, Robert Cheezic, and opened studios. The second wave consisted of Masters sent by KJN Hwang Kee to be official representatives in the US: Ki Whang Kim, Shim Sang Kyu, Jae Joon Kim, Jae Chul Shin. These Masters settled down in different areas of the US and produced a great number of students who went on to open schools. Many of these Masters also went on to form their own Associations. What was called "Korean Karate" was mostly Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwon Do. I had always assumed they went with "Korean Karate" because no one knew what the hell Tang Soo Do was. http://pages.cthome.net/redtsd/page2.html has a whole lot more info.

You are describing many Tang Soo Do schools. Where in Germany are you? I know of a few schools in your country.

is there another name for it perhaps? i have never heard of the way of the wolverine... and practicing such an art in my hometown would get you run out on a rail

do you have anything useful to add? or are you just here to tear down things you don't agree with without ever offering any better solutions?

my school teaches neither Tae Kwon Do nor Hapkido

As a runner and a biker, i always have to be prepared to engage in mortal combat with trees and their branches. No one likes to get slapped in the face by a shrubbery.

it doesn't really sound like you've tried to understand it either.

our association crosses in the back.

Some martial arts federations have scholarship funds. Not exactly a full ride, but hey...

Sai are a lot of fun to work with. They aren't as flashy as some of the other weapons can be, but they are fairly versatile. Getting hit with the butt end, or struck across the face with the tines (especially when held in reverse grip) doesn't sound like a good way to start the day. They are also excellent for building dexterity and hand/forearm strength. Done properly, they should also help you focus on using your hips correctly as well.

I think he means what part of the country you and the studio are in. If the studio is in a retail space, it will be more expensive. If it is at a university club, it will likely be more cheap. Nationwide differences factor into this as well. That said, most places in my area charge about 50-80 a month.

In the hands of a skilled user, they would produce quite the bowel-evacuating reaction.

I've always wondered how much a person's fighting style could be influenced if they learned something like the 3 Naihanchi/Tekki before moving to the Pyung Ahn/Bassai/Kong Sang Koon family forms.

I would choose to train in flexible weapons. Rope, chain, whip, chain whip, etc. in terms of improvised weapons, you usually have either flexible or rigid weapons. Long rigid weapons (ooh!) translate to staff work, shorter sticks are like basic kali movements, and tiny rigid weapons are used in a yawara fistload style. skills with the flexible weapon are a little more difficult to develop, and aren't as intuitive to use. with a flexible weapon you can: - whip - slash - block - snare - choke - throw - lock Flexible weapons are everywhere, and almost everyone has at least one with them. Belts, shirts, jackets, can be readily used. towels and bandanas are perfectly innocent looking until you've been wrapped up in one. Power cords, ropes, phone cords, ethernet cords, chains, bike cables, etc. all have very nasty applications. Where you would snare an incoming strike with a belt, a thin weapon such as a phone cord will dig deep into the other person's skin and make a pretty nasty choking aide. Outside of sanitized socialist wushu, the chain whip is a pretty nasty concealed weapon

not to be overcritical, but the knives on those late-night shows are usually thought to of low quality. A lot of the time, their folding knives are direct ripoffs of copyrighted designs made by Spyderco, Cold Steel, Benchmade, Emerson, etc. http://www.spyderco.com/ makes some of my very favorite knives. If you ever get a chance, go to a knife show (gun and knife shows usually aren't that good) and see some of the custom work done by local and regional makers. There are excellent things to find there, and the makers are usually more than willing to talk about knives, etc.

Good job! Did any of the people you sparred use the strategy we'd been talking about?

http://www.szaboinc.com/ http://www.1sks.com/

good point... i get to play grumpy realist

Good luck, and let us know how that works out! This strategy is very popular in the mid-high level gup ranks. I think it's because at about that level, you find you can do it pretty well.

I'll say this.. The way that the chick uses the sai in Daredevil is a complete fabrication of how one would attempt to use them in reality. They don't slash people, and they certainly aren't thrown like darts with rifling. So the chances of someone teaching you to use them in that manner are slim, because it's bollocks to do so. Your only chance is to just buy the DVD, put it on slo-motion and try to imitate what she's doing. But as I've said, why you'd want to do that is beyond me.

instructors often spar only at the approximate level of the student. sparring your instructor shouldn't always result in you getting your butt handed to you. perhaps he was trying to teach you some concept by giving you an easy way in. I often do this with our students. When I think they are getting the impression that they are as good as me, I turn it up a bit

there are a few in the US, but a lot of them are tied into cults. buyer beware.

if it is one of those one-legged sparring folks who just throws kick after kick after kick, they expect you to be somewhat intimidated by their ability to do so. steamroll them. close the distance, and if you accidently knock them on their butt... take the penalty and see if it throws them off their game. best thing to do is get a friend who can spar that way and experiment a few times.

When a rebreakable board BREAKS -- and I mean literally breaks instead of coming apart, it can be bad news for the holder and the kicker. We had a rebreakable board break during a spinning back kick, and the edge on the board ended up slicing the kicker's leg open. Of course, this could happen with regular boards too, I'm sure. And rebreakable boards suck for hand techniques

it shouldn't take much instruction to do things wrong