Alan Armstrong

For many Yoga is a way of life. Interwoven with culture and beliefs. Just popping out to the Yoga club Luv because of boredom; want to improve my mind, body and spirit while there. I'll try out that line on my wife the next time I go to the pub for a pint. I'm starting to think that a Yogarate club is needed to fulfill the needs of the open minded inflexibles. Does Yoga and Karate really help to develop the mind, body and spirit? Or is it just something we are told to believe without question?

I was abandoned from my original style. We the students helped the sensei to build a new school and then he sold it for profit. Not opening another or seeing the missus of students. So I turned to JKD. As it is a contradiction for a JKD martial art school there wasn't much choice way back when, (40 years ago) other than to go it alone and join up and practice with other fragmented MA individuals. Joining other disciplines for a year or two and taking seminars gave me insights to how other martial artists operated. It worked both ways at times for me to learn from them and them from me. When for instance a student found it impossible to defeat me the teacher would tell them my weakness and they would win. I would find there weaknesses also which was difficult for some to accept. Belt ranking has no meaning for me anymore. Great for those that it does. As my first teacher was a Black Belt and had no guilt or inhibitions on selling out his student, so my respect for those that wear a black is not 100% based on trust. My initial interest in martial arts was to defend myself from bullies as I was an easy target growing up. As my interest in the MA is almost 50 years worth my perspectives have changed considerably over the decades; for better and for worse. I practice Chi Kung about 30 hrs per week every week of the year. Enjoying all the health benefits from being a multifaceted martial artist.

For me it was to see and test the strengths and weaknesses of styles. I walked away all the richer for it. It cost me a broken finger using a JKD block against a round house kick. Black belts that were loosing against me complained about it; while I was wearing a white belt in there style...

Cross training with many styles can get a martial artist in trouble. Martial art teachers don't like what they don't teach in their class. Students with high ranking belt in one style don't do so well against MMA white belts in their class. Rules of conduct differ also such as take downs allowed in one style and not another. What seems to be a technique such as a spinning backfist in one style is considered flailing in another. What is your opinion?

Slow and steady will bring your flexibility back. Relax more. Tense less. Laugh more. Worry less. Muscles love heat and massages that will improve flexibility. Find a stretching partner to do pnf exercises with. Having a partner for stretching is your key to success. Use the tapping out signal when it hurts. Many solo stretching techniques are fine in the initial stage but it will plateau. With a stretching partner your flexibility will start to gain a new level of confidence. PNF with a partner is the way to go. There are more stretching exercises that can be performed with two than there is going solo. Stretching may feel sore in the initial stages but in a short amount of time that sensation will be replaced with the actual tug of the muscle being stretched. Take time out for a while if you have over tensed or over worked your muscles. All of the muscle relaxation techniques available should be always kept close at hand. Also like ballet dancers do, try stacking your hips more and bring your knee higher in front, on the side and from behind also. Far more height is derived for kicks by using ballet dancer warm up exercises.

I believe in pandiculation warm ups and not static stretching for the initial stage of preparing muscles for action. Stretching depends on many factors such as age and experience. Preparing muscles to do specific tasks need to be primed and ready first in a gradual way. Rotating all joints in the body in a circular motion should be considered first before any stretching movements. In this way the body is becoming warmer and the nervous system is awakening muscles to get ready to perform. Intensity of stretching should be in correlation to the heat of muscles becoming warmer. Both of these factors go together to reach the stretching peek for prevention of injury and for performance readiness. Rule of thumb is the older you are the slower and longer warm up time required. Asking cold muscles to perform without adequate warm up stretching equals trouble.

The more I contemplates on Wing Chun as an Oceanic martial art still the more it makes sense to me that it very well could be. Wing Chun is a practical style that lends it's self well to fighting on a boat and on dry land; how about on ice also. Wing Chun on frozen water would still work because of the sliding footwork method. Wing Chun has been described as a geometric style because of the use of triangles for strength in stances and body positioning, straight lines for attacking as the shotest distance and simple twisting curves when simultaneously striking- blocking and deflecting. Geometry is how sailors navigate along coastal waters, it would stand to reason that geometry could also be good for fighting with also. Wing Chun is supposed to be invented by a female yet I see more females leaning towards Tai Chi for instance. I don't imagine women banging their forearms on a wooden post to toughen up their muscles or bones either. The people I see attending Wing Chun seminars look like American football players and not women or feminine men. There is a sensitivity aspect in the 'Chi Sao' practice. Also sensitivity to fishing with a rod while one of the two main weapons of Wing Chun just happens to be a rod. Also the same muscles to pull a fishing net on board a boat are similar to the hunched forward arched back and using the arms in a circular motion in Wing Chun. My theory is not to dispute history altogether. Wing Chun is said to be 300 years old. Could have went through many adaptations in all that time. Shaolin monks techniques and principles are open and honest; Wing Chun techniques are a contradiction to their belief system. One of the points that I'm drifting towards is the similarities of the names of Greenland and Iceland. Greenland has more ice and snow than Iceland. As Iceland is a greener place than Greenland. Could it be the same for Wing Chun for misinformation purposes. Wing Chun has one of the best deceptive hands systems around! Could the Wing Chun story of being invented by a woman be a ploy to deter macho men? If Wing Chun is Oceanic, then the training methods could be improved upon. I suggest using ropes within the conditioning process. For example to climb up and using ropes ladders as the military use in basic training. Ropes do have a similarity to arms also, don't you think? I have noticed some Wing Chun practitioners adapting the arms of the wooded training dummy for arms that have springs. The same idea but with thick rope could also make for an interesting Wing Chun training aid for grabbing and trapping techniques. The mook jong wooden training dummy looks to me as if it's original function was intended for wrapping rope around it and latter adapted for fighting practice equipment. Wing Chun is a very profound style of Kung Fu. There are sensitivity and propreceptive aspects still to be discovered within this style. Bruce Lee found just a few hidden gems in Wing Chun; what's next to be discovered?

When over training is not efficient; then it is too much. Most of us are guilty of it. This is why we have DOMS. Delayed-Onset-Muscle-Soreness. Under training can also be an issue. Training incorrectly another issue. To be happy when training is what keeps me coming back for more. To be goal oriented: bigger, stronger, faster, is a young person's game. Maintaining and promoting good health is efficient training.

Martial artists like to mix things up. That is why fighting is called " mixing things up"

In Karate takedowns, footsweeps and grabbing is allowed in TKD it is not allowed. Could be different to that in other places that I have not attended. The point system in tournaments differ also. Double points are awarded in TKD for strikes that make contact in the air. A full point is awarded in Karate when a strike is considered to be a kill. When sparring TKD fight standing tall while in Karate they prefer a lower stance. Karate Kia TKD don't shout...

I like to do my MA training outside. There is a free adult exercise area next to a running track. Many athletes frequent the place and many young eager to build muscle do callesthetics there also. Core practice is my main purpose for going there. However threre are nice thick "gymnastic type" parallel posts that I practice striking and blocking on. As I use the "no mind" concept, I don't seem to care who is watching. I'm not big or muscular or intimidated easily. As I'm about 60 years old some of my generation likes to do things the hard way just for the fun of it. Some days I will return home with substantial bruises after hitting the posts very hard "extreme chi kung" about 100 times. There are other young martial artists that try a little of what I do and give up very quickly. Having practiced there for as many as 200 times I have never had any bad/good comments or incidents.

Wing Chun is none traditional Kung Fu. Yet is said to come from Shaolin monks. The Shaolin temples were legal sanctuarys for many outlaws. Shaolin monks absorbed many fighting styles from travelers. Nothing of Wing Chun is animal or insect based. For me there is still a feeling or intuition that Wing Chun was devised from aloft a sailing vessel. Most styles of martial arts we don't think or dispute that they were intended for fighting on dry land. How difficult is it with a little leap of the imagination that Wing Chun is Oceanic in nature? Ip Man was from an affluent background but this doesn't mean the style's origin is also. People on sailing vessels needed self defense just as much as people on dry land. Martial art combative techniques on a sailing vessel would differ because of the movements caused buy being afloat on water; Wing Chun stances and stepping or sliding in this case work perfectly with this idea also. Same holds true for using the Chi Sao techniques.

Hi Patrick! I will try to put it another way. Karate stretching. TKD stretching. Yoga stretching. TKD stretching is all about being able to throw high kicks or jumping kicks and multiple kicks if need be. All of the main fundamental TKD stretches are different than Yoga and Karate stretching for the exception of a few techniques. Yoga stretching techniques are not designed to improve kicks but TKD stretching techniques and exercises are. Improving flexibility with Yoga doesn't guarantee better kicking abilities. The strength and "kicking flexibility" that TKD offers those that want to improve their kicks outweighs Yoga without question! Flexibility without strength can cause a person when kicking to damage a hip joint. Karate being a very solid style such as block hard then hit hard is not dependent on loose kicking legs such as in TKD. So Karate stretches are different than both Yoga and TKD because there needs are different. Karate stretching is similar to body builder stretching were they stretch solo while balancing in a type of low stance. TKD stretching is more upright as standing against a wall or sitting with a partner pushing your flexibility (pnf) limits to the max, doing both legs at the same time. Plus in addition using many Yoga and Karate stretching techniques also but they are not primary. Ohh did I forget to mention Kung Fu stretching techniques also. Having said all that, TKD stretching goes even further than all that! Yoga is better suited for slim built people and Karate is better suited for short muscular builds. It goes far beyond body types there are also character and cultural differences to be taken in to consideration also. To sum it up; the Karate Sensei should give the student the skills, all skills to perfect the style in question. For the student to look elsewhere for information outside of the Karate style is neglecting that student's needs. Mixing martial art styles is in fashion right now but there are consequences to consider. MMA practitioners could be for the most part chasing greener grass than looking at the grassroots of their Style. I believe it is wrong to take Yoga to improve one's flexibility for Karate kicking, unless the Yoga teacher is also a Black Belt in Karate. Flexibility is one thing 'kicking flexibility' is something very different.

Cannot help think that Wing Chun is a fighting style that is seaworthy. Or was developed for sailors. If so, this changes Wing Chun's persona considerably. I tend to believe that those that used the style or developed it were very strong and agile people that sailed the high seas or worked on fishing vessels perhaps. If the stories of the Wing Chun origin were temporarily put to one side for a moment and temporarily replaced with a root from seaworthy martial artist, a new breed of martial artists is discoverd or born. Sailors of the past were very strong due to there daily tasks of fishing with nets and keeping a ship or boat afloat. The Wing Chun weapons (the butterfly knives and the extra long wooden pole) are very much in keeping with seafarers. The 'mook jong' wooden dummy is in keeping also with a ships sailing mast. The Wing Chun center line theory could be without much imagination be based on the brow of a boat. Also the Wing Chun propreceptive training would be very advantages for trying to balance on a sailing vessel while in combat. What if; Oceanic Wing Chun?

If we loose our sense of survival at any time we are likely to get killed or badly hurt. Run over by a car or fall off a mountain top. I think that survival skills may have changed to monetary skills instead. Not survival of the fitest but survival of the richest. It has been said that attacks happen mostly by people we know. Which makes SD more complicated than it already is.

As we in the West take what we want from the East and in our melting pot put them together, there is bound to be clashing of points of views and perspectives. Yoga is from India. Taekondo from Korea. Karate from Japan. Three very different and distinctive cultures. We in the West may have oversites when we re-teach there ways or techniques and miss out things that don't seem important but in fact they are. All of the customs and rituals that belong to them which are important to them, but for us a Buddha head makes for a great door stopper. These cultures are ancient and we have much to learn from them as they are. As we put these cultures in a "BLENDER" we will loose out on there individual virtues. Yoga is a beautiful self contained way of living one's life. To be reduced to a stretching routines I disagree. For Karate to be taught by none Japanese in an incompleteness manner, I disagree. For Koreans having and teaching a complete style with "stretching included" as an Olympic sport; WELL DONE KOREA!

Good answers DWx. As we both have TKD and TC under our belts I cannot help but agree with you on most points. The kicks of Wing Chun are low. Mobility is not an issue for this style. They move very quickly at an alarmingly fast rate of speed. As they the Wing Chun stylists do well against other none kicking styles, they don't do so well against punching style's that do kicking also. Wing Chun stylists will in time need to re-think and adapt to changing times. Maybe the answer is as simple as Wing Chun fighters needing more training against the kickers? Or incorporating all of the basic martial art kicks? Those that have noticed this abnormality have already added a kicking style to their Wing Chun! Therefore stretching in Wing Chun for kicking purposes would ultimately lead to a reinvention of the wooden practice post (mook jong) sprouting legs.

I belive it is wrong to take Yoga classes to improve your karate (regarding flexibility) Karate teachers should be more aware of their students needs regarding flexibility issues and help them! This is my intent for this bold statement. To take Yoga to broaden one's self that is another matter. Or any other subject is of course fine also. To take what I say 'out of context' is also wrong and is also out of my hands.

Seems that flexibility is an issue for many martial artists. It discourages and frustrates many martial artists from progressing to higher belts. For forms and katas using high kicking techniques looks great but in the real world techniques using too much flexibility can be counterproductive? What are your thoughts? Many MA styles don't bother with flexibility or high kicks, are these styles less important than those that do? Is high kicking a demonstrative sport or a practical combative maneuver?

TKD martial artists don't run down to the local Yoga club to get flexible. They have exercises built in to there system that covers there specific needs. I've practiced: Yoga, Karate and TKD. The major problem with Karate is not enough warm up time spent on muscles before class. Martial artists that specialize in kicking techniques are continually stretching muscles during the day, every day. Not enough time is spent relaxing tense muscle's in Karate but plenty of time is spent in making them more tense and tight. TKD stretching is a major part of there conditioning. TKD 1 Hr's worth should be spent before class getting warmed up and light stretching. Stretching at intervals during class with a partner and at the end of class more stretching for the cool down. Karate practioners actually need more time to get warmed up and stretched because of the amount of dynamic tension they practice with techniques. Japanese are great ones for bathing in a tub. Not for washing purposes but for relaxing tense muscles; they don't need Yoga but just a simple hot bath!

Your Sensei should help you with your flexibility issues. You are not the first or will be the last to have flexibility issues in a dojo. Partner up with others and help each other out. Stretch during the day every three hours for 5 minutes. Then increasing to every four hours for 10 minutes during the day. Muscles stretch that's what they are supposed to do. We have a built in mechanism to stop us from over stretching them (spindling) Get past this and Yoga may not seem so important any more. Or if the magic of Yoga is the answer why haven't you joined them? Yoga type exercise's should be a part of every martial art style and not viewed or considered as cross training!

All types of exercises are beneficial when done correctly. Then gradually other factors come in to play such as increasing weights or speed. Poor body postures such as in Wing Chun, curving the back and hunching the shoulders, maybe good for fighting but from an exercising point of view can lead to health issues over time. Tai Chi practice leads to correct body postures and improved balance, without proper posture and balance all types of exercising will over time cause damage to the joints. keeping a straight lower back when doing any kind of stretching is a must. Correct posture cannot be over stated. Using weights without proper or correct posture will also cause problems in latter life. Mobility implies movement. Circular movement once again points towards practicing Tai Chi. This is why Tai Chi is the most popular martial art in the world. Adding some resistance with weights could make Tai Chi more popular with the younger generations.

To do other things to improve your Karateka such as Yoga is wrong. The reasoning for this is that a style a complete style should contain everything you need to succeed. If you feel the need to look elsewhere to improve your style then your style is considered to be incomplete. Do people that practice Yoga do Karate to improve there Yoga? To improve your karate practice more Karate. The person to ask if Yoga will improve your Karate is your Sensei. Yoga will change your neuromuscular connections for better or for worse; depending on your Yoga teacher, only time can tell you this. Yoga is meditative without moving. Tai Chi is meditative with movements. Yoga works for BJJ because the static or slow moving floor movements use many of the same neuromuscular patterns found in both styles. Karate works well with Judo, Aikido and Samurai, because they are all interconnect using many or the same muscle groups in techniques.

Sounds like you have let yourself go and now you need to find yourself again. I suggest that you get re-acquainted with your body. Find about all of your limitations first. Maybe make a list or a dairy. Test yourself with easy things first like walking and swimming. How many pushups and so on. Prepare your own food nothing processed and also keep a record of what you consume. Change your exercise and eating habits first. Sounds like you have had a wake up call on taking better care of yourself, this is a good thing. Hang on to this idea and run with it. I visit a free fitness park near by. There is a running track and also an area with monkey bars and so on for adults. People of all types of ages and fitness levels frequent the place. Just being around people that are in the same mindset for self improvement is encouraging. Learning by watching others doing there routines is great for picking up new idea. Personally I've picked up the need for speed by adding sprinting to my list of exercises. I am using the afterburn effect with my workouts. I started using weights when walking. Everything I read was against the idea of using bodyweights resistance training except what the military do that actually build there basic training around it. This type of training burns fat and gains muscle. Personally I like the feeling of using ankle weights. Some days I will wear 8 kilos worth on each ankle and do housework. Most days I'll wear 2 kilos on each ankle for walks or staircase running. Wearing ankle weights at work was fine for me and didn't interfere with what I was doing. As everyone is different you are going to neef to find out what works for you and what your realistic expectations are. None contact fitboxing is the latest fad in my neck of the woods. Any type of exercising that you enjoy doing-just do it. The exercises you need to do-just do it. The food you like that is not good for you replace 50% of it with food that is good for you because this is what your body needs for your workouts. When you fall or fail get up again and try again. No excuses!

There is a great range of opinions here. Another option is learning about pandiculation. Not many people know about it that should. The theory is to have a body yawn every 3 hrs to reset the length of your muscles. Dogs and Cats pandiculate about every 3 hrs. We humans can learn from them how to stretch correctly. We don't have a fur coat attached to our skin but they do. Heat, massage and relaxation play a major part in increasing flexibility. Tension and coldness is what will keep you stiff. Tension held in the neck and shoulders will create stiffness in the rest of your body. Another technique for gaining flexibility is to incorporate the idea of sleeping to the muscle you are stretching. Don't work on being flexible, think of it more as quality time out to breathe again and to release unwanted tensions. I see so many runners stretching their calf muscles before they go for that long awaited run with a strained look on their face, as if it supposed to be painful to stretch; far from it. Just get relaxed and smile while thinking about the cats and dogs that pandiculate naturally. Ballet dancers spend about three hours pandiculating or stretching before every performance. The warmer a muscle is the further it will stretch. Stretching a cold muscle can damage it. Cartilage in joints and tendons also need to be considered to be a part of your flexibility. Not just in the legs but in the entire body. Flexibility should be thought as giving full mobility for the entire body from top to bottom and to stretch the almost 600 muscles that keeps us going each and every day.