nathanjusko

My mother is an aerobics teacher and has gotten such a following in her careers at different gyms that she is now planning on starting a local studio of her own. She recently (as in less than 10 years) came to Christ and is wishing for the studio to be something more than the entirely secular gyms in the area. I say secular in the fact that you have the steroid junkies, the women with sometimes outrageously provocative clothing, etc. etc. She doesn't want it to be necessarily tied in with our local Church, however, she does want it to be something more of a blend of the spiritual, mental and physical aspects that are often and should be associated with exercise. I am a first dan in Tae Kwon Do and have been receiving lessons from an assortment of instructors over the 9 years of my career, the only reason I am not higher is because of a move that forced me to start over from the WTF patterns and moves to the ITF patterns and moves. That being said, my mother recently approached me and asked if I could teach some classes for her studio with my primary emphasis being focused on teaching patterns and doing a basic drill workout. I don't want it to be another Tae-Bo but still as all of you well know doing the basics in different combinations over and over again with slight variations can be quite a workout. I am also planning on receiving a personal training certification from AFAA (Aerobics and Fitness Association of America) so I will be certified to prevent any lawsuit or legaily issues. That being said, my question is this; do you guys see anything wrong with me leaving my school (I actually left a couple months ago and have been training on my own, due to a strange work schedule, college and the fact that he (my instructor) began focusing on little kids too much in my opinion) and starting my own classes as a first degree black belt? I do not plan on testing people or advancing them through the traditional belt systems, this is simply going to be a workout program with a more traditional martial art approach (i.e. more emphasis on proper techniques and throwing the right moves than your typical gym's kickboxing or Tae-Bo class). Any input or information or anything that comes to mind would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Aim to put your foot four inches past the board if your aim is for the board it will seem twice as hard to break.

I will think of the children, and that is why I will not teach them martial arts at such an early age. I will not force them to learn something that they do not have the capacity to understand, and to do so is a rather disgusting waste of time, for both the child and the instructor.

"I wouldn't recommend the leg weights myself. Added weights make your legs harder to stop the kick before they reach full extension, and could cause you to tear ligaments or muscles in your joints and legs, possibly causing permanent injury." I am sorry, I forgot to mention when using the weights you should go at aproximately half to 3/4 speed to avoid injury. And, naturally, only use the weights once you have mastered the basic technique. I assume that you have mastered all the basic techniques, if you haven't then you should not be worrying about increasing your speed and power. Form, then speed, then power.

i know i know i came off harshly, but i am sick of both extremes. on one hand you have the new-age type martial artists who sure do know how to dress flashy and what type of "sparkly paper" to put on their kamas or staffs, but if you get them in a fight they're gonna have their * handed to them on a plate. Then you have the extremely traditional schools who haven't quite woken up to the fact that it is indeed 2004 and there are benefits to opening up your mind a bit to new possibilities, i mean the only reason that the traditions became "tradition" was because someone somewhere else disobeyed a previous tradition and it happened to be popular. My point is this, stop worrying about the clothes of the practitioner, I would much rather train with a person who knows what they are doing and happens to be wearing a "non-traditional" uniform long before I train with a "traditional" teacher who follows all aspects of tradition, but cannot throw a single technique to save his/her life. The person who refuses to teach a person dressed in a flashy outfit is just as superficial(i spelled that horribly wrong, sorry) as the person wearing the flashy outfit, if not more.

Amen, lets bring back some of the integrity to martial arts before it kills itself and we lose the good name that so many of us worked our tails off in order to preserve.

Here's a thought, how about we practice TaeKwonDo or any other martial art in whatever damn clothes we see fit, and instead of wasting our God-given time debating who's a "prostitute" or the wasted traditions of various schools of practice, we practice? Let me just ask this to MichiganTKD, if you did not have a white uniform to practice TaeKwonDo...would you still practice it? Or would you consider it a "dishonor" to do so? Let go of your freakin' pride man, or you're gonna get your * handed to you, maybe even by a person in uniform that has COLOR ON IT!!!! OH MY GOD!!! GET OVER IT

do the kicks over and over again after that add weights onto your ankles and do the kicks over and over again after that add more weight onto your ankles and do the kicks over and over again stretch lift weights run that's about it

Is anyone else out there getting really fed up with all the different branches of martial arts and ten thousand different "grandmasters" out there for each one? I believe that the martial arts have now become a joke, especially in the American schools, we start teaching kids way too early and giving them belts like its candy so that mommy and daddy think that they are doing good parenting by sending them to learn something "worthwhile" and a "lifelong" skill and to instill some "discipline". They learn nothing worthwhile, 99% of them don't last past a year and they leave with no sense of discipline. It just really gets on my nerves to see the martial arts being infested with the disease of these "mcdojos" as they are so cleverly dubbed on this forum. I am sorry, but just because you started your own branch of martial arts does not mean you can go and become a "grandmaster", and no child below the age of 10 should ever begin receiving belt ranks past orange not to mention a child below the age of 15 receiving a blackbelt is just ridiculous. Then again, this is just my opinion, all I know is that it really burns my * when I tell someone that I do martial arts and am a blackbelt and they tell me that little Bobby or little Suzy got hers when he/she was 13. In my opinion, if a person receives a blackbelt the instructor is basically saying to the rest of the world that this person can physically hold their own against anybody else. That if you picked a person off the street or a person with the same rank and put the two of them together in a fight that it would be a good fight. Stop with the pity belts and the handouts, you are ruining martial arts.

Lift heavy, basic, and intense. If you want to get strong, change your mentality to that of a football player or a wrestler, for an hour or so a day become a brute neanderthal type of guy and workout like one. Sounds funny but try it, just make sure to turn it off as soon as you leave the gym before everyone thinks you're a jock/*.

The instructor was giving the kids a time to experience how a punch feels when it comes in contact with a person, its a good thing to do since a person's stomach or ribcage feels entirely different than a target bag. What the five year old did was maliciously (i wonder where he got it from?) take advantage of the instructor allowing the students to experience a new sensation on his own body. I would have kicked the kid out of my school for that, little brat.

It sounds to me like your 5 year old kid is a little * who's going to get the piss beaten out of him during sometime in his martial arts career, the apple of daddy's eye is a bully who fights dirty. You must be so proud.

My only problem is the instructors that give kids classes and don't teach a single thing about true martial arts, a person should not receive a belt based on their knowledge of "ninja freeze" or dodgeball. I have no problems running a daycare or a babysitting type environment. However, I do have a problem with these 9-10 year old black belts who don't know jack !%!$ about martial arts, that's all. If you are going to run a "martial arts" class then you should teach martial arts, not dodgeball.

I didn't know that she was running a YMCA day camp. Ninja Freeze? Tsk..tsk..tsk.. Howz about you teach them martial arts? I dunno, just a suggestion...you know they did sign up to learn martial arts and not you know...how to play games. Ever think that maybe a six year old child is too young to learn martial arts? Ever consider saying no to a parent when they want their seven year old in your class and keeping the respect and honor in the system rather than selling out? 'cause that's basically what the instructors who teach children are doing, selling out.

Yeah for my blackbelt test we had to do 100 pushups, I can probably do that amount with my arms only going to 90 degrees. But for the test that day we had to get our chin to the ground every time, let me tell you what those 2-3 inches make an incredible amount of difference in exhaustion. It wasn't my pecs that were hurting, it was my abs and my shoulders. My abs hurt from keeping my body straight that entire time, and my shoulders hurt because the muscles are stretched when you have to go that far. But I'd probably say on a good day I'd be able to get about 70-80 good push ups in (that's nose to the ground).

perfectly normal question, in fact, everyone has that tendency just some more than others. I happen to be right-sided too, so all my kicks, punches, etc. are all better on my right. I gotta tell ya, unless you have something happen where you are debilitated on your right side, your left side is very very unlikely to ever be equal. Its almost impossible unless you consciously balance every single movement you make with your right side with your left side (i.e. writing, walking heavier on one side, etc.) The best thing you can do is keep on exactly working out the way you are, double train your left side and you'll be a fairly balanced fighter.

Thank you all for your replies.

You have three months....hmmm....this idea might work. I did it for mine with about four-five months and still had time to spare and it seemed to work well. For about a month I went into a bulking program where I gained about 15-20 pounds and trained my a#% off (weight training, sparring, running 3 miles everyday, etc.) while still trying to maintain the weight I was at by eating a lot. After i became comfortable at that weight at about 1.5 months I then went on a diet and exercise program to lose the weight, I lost the 20 pounds I gained and found hidden layers of muscle that I never knew I had. It worked out great. On my test I had to do 100 pushups and 200 sit-ups and they went by fine. I had to run 3 miles and that was a breeze, because my body was so used to doing it already with an extra 20 pounds on it was literally taking the weight off my shoulders. Also, find out what the test consists of and train by doing it over and over. If you're training for a marathon it is not in your best interest to be swimming every day. Train only necessary muscle and don't worry about the rest, it will only slow you down. And good luck to ya.

Just wondering, as a Christian myself I do not have conflicting emotions about my study of martial arts. To me, it is a system of self-discipline, exercise, self-defense, and celebration of the engineering behind the human body. However, I begin to feel somewhat conflicted about the whole issue behind spirituality found in the martial arts, and the use and development of "ki". Granted I am not very well educated on the subject, I was just curious how other Christians felt or how they feel about the "religion" of martial arts.

I have a problem with founders of various "styles" that simply do so in order to become the grandmaster of their particular style of tae kwon do or tang soo do or karate, etc. It is very rare for a person to stick with a large organazation (WTF, ITF, etc.) and be a master or grandmaster. Therefore, I do not respect a lot of claims to either be master or grandmaster in smaller organizations. I mean I could start my own organization if i wanted to and being a first dan blackbelt (ITF) I could call myself grandmaster wrap seven stripes around my belt and i suddenly have all the townsfolk thinking that they have an authentic grandmaster from Korea teaching their little five and six year olds how to do the incorrect versions of front snap kick or roundhouse without anyone knowing differently. No offense to any people here who have 8th dan instructors who "founded" their own style, but I do not respect anyone's master or grandmaster status unless they are affiliated with a very large and very respected organization. But hey, that's just me.

Slow kicks with ankle weights and shadowboxing with weighted gloves.

Eat smart, your body knows whats good and what isn't. Bodies are different down to the very way they metabolize foods. For me, I like to eat high carb the early part of the day with protein to hold me over between meals and then eat high protein with very little carb near the end of the day after I've burned the carbs off in my workouts

I read an article about this in one of those muscle magazines that are filled with little bits of information amongst loads of crap. It said that in one study the participants who had stretched a certain muscle using a static stretch did undergo a loss of power when lifting a given amount of weight. However, the ones who stretched dynamically had an increase in power over those who had not stretched at all. It all depends on how you stretch. For TKD I find that I feel better when I stretch using basic kicks and leg swings in the beginning of class and save the static stretching til the end to help increase my flexibility for the next time. THe best time to stretch for flexibility is after your workout is over. Your muscles are warm and there is little risk of pulling a muscle, also you can focus 100% of your efforts on stretching rather than worrying whether or not a certain stretch will hinder your efforts in class.

I love the side kick, specifically on my right leg. I can get mine about 3 inches above my head (i am 6'3") and it looks so amazing to warm-up before a fight with a couple of those suckers. The key to an awesome sidekick is the chamber (fold). You have to have strong side hip flexors in order to do it properly and the only practical way to strengthen the hip flexors and obliques responsible for the fold is to do slow kicks with the side kick....its really quite simple...practice doing the kick a lot, there's no way to get around it. Maybe you should invest some money into a pair of ankle weights and practice the kicks SLOWLY with those on. Your legs feel like feathers after wearing a pair of 10 lb. weights and doing just 10 kicks on each leg. My advice take it or leave it.

lived in texas for the majority of my life and now live in southern new jersey, so i have come from a very hot and humid climate to a mild one, for me, the heat actually helps me work out harder. I HATE running in cold weather (my ears feel like they have pins in them) and it takes me longer to warm up and get into my "zone". Plus, I only feel good when I am sweating after a workout, so in the heat I have a better chance of feeling good after a workout.