theswarm

i voted for the sai but i was thinking of the bo sai is number 1, bo a close second

i've got a question about stretching how do you know you've caused a stretching injury? a friend (who is a gymnast) once told me that any soreness afterwards is bad because it means you've ripped. I'm feeling soreness at the moment, but I stretched box splits at my normal height the other day - it just felt a bit more strained than usual... is this injury? I still have the flexibility ?

well we all grade together from 7th to 1st kyu after that they have seperate gradings and green (6th) to (5th)blue is way harder looking than orange to green was, i think they have to do double the techniques that we had to do- way longer shika and kiba dachi, way harder combinations, way better level of expected kata and they have to spar for way longer than us. Although I remember being pretty well pressured going for 6th kyu because I took it more seriously than any other grading, as a result was covered in sweat 5 seconds into the grading - my feet were slipping from them being covered in sweat. When we had to go into box splits my feet were slipping more and more into the splits because of the sweat and I knew if i flexed my hips to stop them moving I'd do them damage so I had to let them move more and more and more and relax. One of the combinations which I had no trouble doing in my prior grading - I suddenly couldn't do (Christmas holidays kinda made me suck) which was this ko kutsu dachi shuto uke conversion to zen kutsadachi with a yaka zuki (is that the right name for reverse punch?) followed by a mae geri - damn easy combination for me now and before the grading - on that day of grading with that much nervousness my body just refused to do it. So i tried and tried and managed to do it, being told to correct something at grading is even more nerve racking - because you're sitting there trying to concentrate on what your doing then you have to concentrate on what a sensei is saying to you while another sensei is doing the count and wanting you to respond to the count. Then I performed possibly the worst katas of my life - when I got to sparring, all of a sudden my usual kumite stance was higher and more rigid than usual. Eventually I got back into it...then it was over and it was all worthwhile. I came to class Tuesday after that and did 100x better kihon/kata/kumite and made sure every day i practiced anything that I had trouble with. Lately I've been walking around my house whenever I get spare time going into ko kutsadachi as fast as i can, and been doing my katas with my eyes closed (which isn't necessarily such a good idea where I practice my katas at home - ouch sometimes). So that's the story of my hardest grading, in actuality it wasn't THAT much harder than my last grading - but I was so much more calm...ahh the importance of being calm and collected.

ghoscell calm down this isn't a pissing competition we're trying to inform the writer of this thread our opinions based on martial arts and gym

fold! even if it's drenched in sweat and smells of my deodorant mixed with my sweat

karate or gym? i bought a 9 month gym membership for 200 dollars i went once a week for about 2 months i bought a karate membership for 48 dollars I went once a week for 2 months - went heaps and heaps, and I still go - and i'm still enthusiastic and i still love it. Although karate has kind of devloped my sense of self a bit as well- and I think if i went to the gym i'd probably be enthusiastic about it - the benefits of karate go beyond the physical

at the start of the class when you are on your knees bowing to whoever it is your school bows to

i was so nervous in green belt grading it wasn't actually that hard though - but do your grading as though your life depends on it. isn't 4th kyu halfway to black belt? which is our red (some schools purple)

it sounds a bit silly that they've given the person a purple belt in 5-6 months but i think you shouldn't worry about them. Their belt symbolizes nothing - your belt symbolizes months and months of hard work. What do you mean by overnight classes? what like 4 hour classes? we sometimes like once every 6 months have a seminar in which you can grade - the seminar goes for 4 classes (4 x 1.5 hour sessions)

i don't like kanji or tribal tats - people just go and get them my most hated tattoo idea is the barcode, if i was a tattooist i would hate all these things, because everyone always gets them. I have a tattoo on my left calf it's two fists breaking a rope in front of a red X which has no black outline and looks like it's been painted on my leg. A year later the red is still so damn red it looks like blood it looks awesome and I love it. I'm planning on getting a tattoo around my bicep much like a bracelet style with the word 'spirit' in fancy cursive writing

i used to get that from skateboarding

I think with capoueira it's not necessarily designed for that purpose - but to make your body very strong and able, and flexible - but it's one of those sorta surprise arts where someone flings back and kicks you in the face and your like what the fuck. i don't have enough experience with it to really make the call though

it's a dojo that sells big macs and cheeseburgers, and everytime you pay to go in they say 'would you like fries with that?' It's a good way to negate the health benefits of training at a dojo

how the hell do you dislocate your hip?

the only close to a situation I got was very similar in that I didn't really use karate training to diffuse it since i've been training karate I was at a party and my band had played, I was shirtless and this guy was trying to make off with my shirt- he couldn't understand me when I said no mate that's my shirt. So I tried to grab it off him - well anyway this guy was like a pitbull and wouldn't let go. Eventually i just started twisting his arm but i was too sweaty to twist and he jumped on my back, so i did something I kinda judo ish stepped back bent over and threw him over my back. I didn't feel what he did warranted any severe action like a punch because he was intoxicated i didn't think he knew any better. So anyway, he's finally let go, he's on the floor going ahhh my back. Gets up grabs the shirt again. The thought on my head at this point was ahhh fuck why didn't i just move the shirt. I kept pushing him away with my fingertips on his solar plexus until eventually i managed to open the crumpled up shirt and show him it was my shirt, later on we were laughing about it. dumbest scuffle EVER

I never have or never will wash my belt It's gotta be dirty!! Much like the traditional idea of the white belt dirtying to become the blackbelt I kinda like my belts being dirty because it symbolizes all the sweat and stuff i've trained with. here's a question, when taking off your belt who lets their belt touch the floor? also when going outside of the dojo who wears their belt before they get to class? Last one when in seizer (bowing in to the class) who has their belt straps on the inside of your legs rather than the outside?

my inexperience in street fights except for being beaten up 6 years ago (even though I caused the other person to run away) makes it hard for me to say ok: unless your fighting a boxer most people will pull a punch far back to get power it gives you so much time - the problem is that the extreme slowness kinda leaves you waiting for the punch - the punches never happen one off unless the person is an idiot and doesn't throw more than one punch. the way I think to win, use your legs. Of all the street and school (as a younger kid) fights i've ever seen people have always avoided using the legs. Some kind of lame honour code. Before I knew martial arts I won a school fight by doing a fly kick to a persons head. I just ran at them and fly kicked and it was over. While I wouldn't do the same now because I understand that such an attack is asking for anyone with half a brain to move out of the way and kick my ass, I'd be using my legs. sidekicks at knees and shins, front kicks to the sternum - if you've ever seen Jet Li's kiss of the dragon when that big boxer looking guy with comes into his safe house (the prawn cracker place) i'd expect me to fight with the same thing in mind, disabling limbs. So much depends on the situation - and the problem i can imagine with most streetfights is that you dont know if your against more than one person. Against more than one person i'd be manouvering one person to be in front of another person so i wouldn't have to deal with two at once. The most important thing I can say is get the hell out of wherever it is once it's over. We learn some street defence stuff in our dojo for certain things, one is being cornered against a wall and someone does a hook on you, just use a normal block and then rotate your arm to lock their arm and slam them into the wall. We've got a few for barfights, most of them are locks - the rest are ones that involve you intercepting objects before they get their power (chairs etc) stepping into someone attempting to throw a chair and cracking them one in the nose/sternum while pushing your guard above your head to stop the chair falling on your head, etc.

or visa versa I wouldn't really use kiba or shika dachi in a fight sumo stance is more of a leg strengthening exercise. Horse has practicality in it that you will find in the front leg for long fighting stance. It's in case someone tries to kick you in the knee it's pushing your knee out so it doesn't break. The most used karate stance is short fighting stance, I like it but i widen it and lower myself a little so my centre of gravity is lower. I do use a variety of other stances though in sparring such as cat and back leaning.

i spend up to 36 (australian ) a week on training we play by class not by month 36 is 6 classes a week

then how the hell would one block a round kick heading towards one's head at a really high speed? I blocked a round kick heading for my ribs with a bent elbow the other day my elbow hit the instep and damaged the other persons foot (i learnt this from it happening to me)

there were 200 people doing that, out of a popullation of 5 million Iraqis living in baghdad I don't think it's necessarily representative of the feeling there. I prefer to read news sources which don't have to answer to a government like the English Reuters (who conveniently got hit by a tank shot) the AFP, and Al jazeera sure they won't all give me as much truth as I want, but they'll give me way more than CNN, NBC etc will ever give me.

21

unless i've read wrong we already do this and block with fleshy parts I tend to block with the palm as well it allows me to grab legs that don't return fast enough. I also like to do gedan burai that sorta converts to uchi uke and traps the leg (and if i turned would break the leg) unfortunately i find blocking legs really fucking hurts my arms but they can take it, they just get really big bruises on them - i tend to just try and step outside of legs. I don't think inside - outside blocks are uselss like the outside hooking block (uchi uke) is really good for getting your opponent off centre, knife hand block much the same uchi uke is definately slower than doing a short version of soto uke but if your guard is far enough away from your body you don't need to make that much of a movement to redirect the path of an incoming punch

i'm green (6th kyu) most of the way to blue

yeah but practiced techniques become second nature so that in a fight rather than me waving my arms around block me waving my arms because more solid. Sure I don't think about it anymore, but my body has imprinted a 'jodan age uke' into my brain (although that's a block I rarely use) I tend to find versus any punch uchi uke is my biggest reaction and that's fine with me if my reaction is to do it with the same arm as them.