theswarm

Neil, punching thin air etc is practicing basics - if your basics are poor, chances are your kata will be poor. Going to your point of full contact and point sparring - Those are just sports related, I consider sports aspects a bit of fun but are not the things I take as seriously as my other training. It's funny when people talk about how styles that don't do 'full contact' would never stand up in the real world. In 'full contact' they're not allowed to strike the head - so what most full contact styles just do is guard the torso - what happens in the real world then? well you can take punches to your torso but when someone smacks you in the face - there's a surprise. no contact - same problem. just add the torso in. Dirty tactics are deceptive tactics - they work well against people not trained for the unexpected. Dirty tactics are like Capoueira or Drunken Kung Fu (no i'm not saying those are dirty fighting arts - i think they're awesome) they have surprise moves, but once you've trained against those sort of unexpected strikes those dirty tactics usually end up more dangerous to the user. Take an eye gouge for instance - the motion is not much different from that of a punch - except your striking with your hand open and a very vulnerable part of your hand (IE NOT the base of the palm) if something were to clip that vulnerable part of your hand you've just screwed your hand up and given your opponent an advantage. I'd rather just punch someone on the nose and make their tearducts well up. dirty tactics are effective but i think they're waaay overrated. My favourite dirty tactic is biting versus ground fighters. It's like having a 5th limb.

if I had space and a little time i'd remove my jumper/shirt (or use my bag) and wrap it around my arm to use as a shield - this would be my leading arm and my blocking arm - i'd try and create any distractions or use any surroundings to my advantage. It's not hard to use your jumper as a distraction even if it's around your arm just have the arm dangling out so you can whip them in the eye, it's longer than their arm and your arm and longer than the knife. If at any point i had considered my opponent distracted then I would start a chain of attacks and I certainly wouldn't attack in a straight line - I'd be aiming for lower limbs - what's a knife attacker most likely going to expect from someone who challenges them? someone going for the knife arm or knife - so i'd be using groin kicks knee kicks and as fast as I could front kicks (hell i dont want that fermory artery cut). I think the whole thing for me would be based around trying to disorient the attacker THEN going for the disarm, disarm straight off to me seems like suicide (then again if you don't have the time or space removing your jumper is kinda suicidal).

To me belts are stepping stones, short term goals that I aim for every now and then - sometimes they are a reminder of how experienced a person is (I try not to pay attention to belt level but sometimes you can't help it, especially when it's your first time sparring someone - our 1st kyu's and above are allowed to throw a whole lot of other techniques that lower grades aren't allowed to so sometimes I do pay attention. Black belt is my long term goal in karate, but it's just the representation of that goal. In reality, my goal is to become the best karateka i can be and black belt is just symbolic of that (yes I know i can improve past black belt but that's not my point). I don't see it in time - i could spend 10 years doing the same old things and still be the same skill level I am now, or I can push myself closer and closer to that goal everytime I train or practice. It's dedication. To me Black Belt is a level of self discipline that will allow my mind to push my body to continue when even my body has given up, the self discipline to calm myself down or walk away in a situation of unnecessary conflict, the self discipline to be confident and because of that confidence stay calm when necessary, the self discipline to smile when I train and I know I need to self correct, and simply do- rather than kicking myself and getting frustrated because I might be in a position where my karate is plateauing or not as steadily improving this is one of my most important a positive attitude and outlook on life. The body does what the mind tells it to.

another one similar to that lipstick one and less costly buy a pack of long pieces of chalk and get someone to try and mark the other person as much as possible i've always been curious about using legs as knife defence though - even though I know there's that fermory artery in your leg.

something that sounds like King geri but i think it's kin geri or something? Is groin level kick. ushiro geri back kick ushiro yoko geri back side kick yoko geri side kick konsi geri (i'm not sure of the spelling of this) side kick down to the shin oombi geri (once again not sure of spelling) hook kick side back fist - yoko ura uchi front back fist - ura uchi rising elbow strike - hijiate round elbow strike - mawashi empi or mawashi ate (not sure about this one hence i always call it mawashi empi) haito - knife strike coming from behind the body (sort of a discreet knife strike) shuto, outside and inside ( does anyone have the japanese names for it being outside or inside?) knife hand strikes with the outside part of the knife hand. chudan, and jodan tsuki - stomach and head level punches uppercut - ? jodan age uke - rising head level block uchi uke - inside to outside hooking block soto uke - outside to inside hooking block gedan barai - downward sweeping stomach/groin block gedan uke - acrossward sweeping stomach/groin block chuda(or chuge?) uke - double block (one uchi uke one gedan barai) mawashi uke - this is the one where you windmill your arms and you never use it in a fight except what you practice actually kinda helps you get used to moving your arms and rolling your hands. han zen kootsadachi (short stance) zen kootsadachi (long stance) ko kootsadachi (back stance) neko ashi dachi (cat stance) sanchin dachi ( pigeon toe stance) heiko dachi ( ready stance) kiba dachi ( horse riding stance) shika dachi ( sumo stance) heisakodachi (feet together) (not too sure about this one) anyone remember the name for a sweep?

try 1500 hours + would make a good instructor and I guess you can't even really measure it in time

This is where you say white belts, one strike per count, red belts four strikes per count kiai on every strike and don't sacrifice technique for speed.

i hated sparring when i first started now it's one of my favourite things. There was some point when I hated kata too but now i'm practicing it alot more at home and liking it - As soon as you take every move apart and practice and perfect every technique and movement it is so rewarding.

just get strong abs you don't need to have a visual six pack to have a six pack. Aesthetics aren't worth that much to screw with your body for. Fitness is the number 1 there - I reckon anyway.

hey how do you balance for one arm push ups? does anyone else find knuckle pushups take alot more strength than normal pushups? for every 3 normal pushups I do I can only do 1 knuckle I have really flexible fingers so fingertip pushups are difficult because my fingers just bend back - they're like rubber sometimes (a friend who does aikido tried to do some aikido technique on me and I was just staring at him going yeah and?)

what is your Gi made out of? Cotton? Canvas? or other? I just ordered a canvas gi - i can't wait

when I as sempaiing and I wasn't allowed to wear a belt for months my gi would ALWAYS come open it was sooo annoying it'd be like 'hello world this is my chest'

i have a karate diary it's not compulsory i just started it today and wrote about 4-5 pages worth of stuff. Combos, stances, basic techniques, kumite, movement, footwork, kata, bunkai of kata, drills for all of the mentioned, things done outside of karate to help me improve etc etc etc.

the best source of calcium is actually mixed vegetables eat up and enjoy!

speaking of skipping i am retarded - I'm trying to learn how to skip I always keep getting it caught in my toes

move your feet so that attacker 2 is behind attacker 1 and you dont have to be fighting on two different directions i'd rather deal with 2 attackers from one direction than two directions what i'd do after that would probably get my ass kicked - but i'm more the kind of person that uses my surroundings as well as my training - if i have something in my hand i'd throw i'd be throwing it at whoever is closer's bridge of their noise to stun them

elbows uppercuts and headbutts although i only train in elbows but i might not be able to get my elbows around or up

i was going to suggest instead of holding onto a chair just practice kicking over the chair and if the chair has a flat surface along the top put something on top of the chair and practice pulling your kick just before it contacts if you are wanting to learn control

most games are pretty inaccurate with styles but dead or alive 3 is fun tekken tag is great mortal kombat 5 is alot of fun but i dont take any of their fighting as 'this is what this art is' because i look at something like mortal kombat 5's conception of karate and go huh what the fuck oh yeah like my first strike is going to be an outside shuto

started a month before 21st birthday now 2 months till my 22nd

i know someone that was getting mugged by a knife wielding attacker - he grabbed the blade with his hand (and we're not talking that whole ninja grab the sword without getting slashed business) and punched the guy in the face - his hand still has the slash wound - and the knife wielding attacker ran.

too many warnings after a max of two I would've made him eat his words, but you have to consider the environment - not too comfortable hitting someone on a dancefloor - it's really hard to guard yourself from being hit by unknown attackers- so if it had've been me (i hate saying this) I would've smacked him 3 and walked off. Either that or I would've just moved off somewhere that guy wasn't so not to cause conflict. Depends how peaceful i feel at the time.

i like strong independant women - and as martial arts doesn't dictate personality i couldn't say it was necessarily true. However I could see how strong willed a person was by their attitude in martial arts, and if they happen to be an incredible person and attractive too then cha ching!

i wanted to try out this school that was teaching kendo and iaido but the iaido sword costs like 1008 dollars (AU) and the kendo armour is like 800 dollars

yeah but Iron body arts require some pretty hardcore things like no sex etc