MatsuShinshii

Choreographed. Not real. Bad example.

I look at this as an opportunity to possibly learn something new or see a different side to things. Most will follow that statement with a reason why and explanation of their view point. Through this, it give everyone else a chance to not only see both sides and decide for themselves what they agree with but it also gets the poster's to think and respond. It challenges what we believe in and makes us think. Having said that, it doesn't mean that we have to take their advice or agree but it does make for a good conversation and an exchange of idea's. The main point of the forums is for all of us, most with different back grounds, to engage in conversation so that not only we can learn but also those that are reading can learn. I actually look forward to logical explanations that make me think about my stances. As a old Marine it's rare that my stance changes but it has happened several times since I joined this forum. That is a fantastic thing because it means that I have been able to learn something new that I would not learn tucked away nicely in my old school box. That and it's not personal or should it be viewed as an attack or that they are saying you are wrong. It's a difference of opinion. It's what makes the world go round. How boring would it be if we all agreed and there were never new idea's? If nothing else it enable you to rebut and prove to yourself that your view point is valid. Or not.

I think most would welcome you to train if called ahead of time. I would suggest that you bring along a white belt. Some organizations will allow you to wear your grade because you are just visiting and others will not. Solid post!! I believe that you hit the nail of the question right on its head!! Calling first saves one any disappointments and embarrassments. Assumption is the mother of all mistakes, and not all are welcoming for one reason or another. Personally, I've allowed "drop ins" to visit my dojo for as long as I can remember. It's a great way to see the other side of the MA from the outside looking in and vice versa. I've also had the challenge types as well. I don't play that game, and will give them one chance to vacate my dojo before I help them find the door. Our Hombu, when Soke and Dai-Soke were running it, they both being from Okinawa, had very strict protocol for "drop ins" that had to be meet to the Nth degree or they weren't welcomed. And yes, that drop-in better have a white belt to wear, unless the were dropping in from another dojo that was a part of the SKKA network where their rank was already recognized. Agreed. I can see a potential student dropping in to watch a class but if you have the intention of training you should be respectful enough to call ahead and ask if they are amenable to it. If so make sure to disclose your grade and ask what their policy is for wearing your grade in their school. Most important, be humble enough to wear a white belt. All too often it turns into a pride thing where you will not train there unless you can wear your grade. It's just a piece of cloth and you are there to learn something new. Why this is such a hard concept for some to get around is puzzling to me. If your wanting to learn something new then you're new. New = white belt. Simple really. Loose the pride and gain knowledge. Win, win if you ask me.

Wow I'm getting old. I have no idea what you are talking about. Wear the belt long enough to get the newness (stiffness) out of it and it will hold in place when you cinch it tight. It starts to lose it's rigidity and will compress when cinched. This alone will keep your belt tight. Elastic bands to keep your belt on? Wow I'm getting old.

To the bold - Everyone has their way of teaching and learning. I personally teach the applications as they learn the Kata. To the underlined - This is exactly the point made above. Toudi's (Karate) Kata were influenced by Quan Fa and as such was taught pretty much the same way. The applications are what the Kata is created from and therefore is the way the art itself is transmitted and understood. Kata would be nothing more than a dance without an understanding of the applications. I'm not sure what applications you are being taught. In all my years I have never needed two years to understand or be able to apply the applications. Yes it is a life long study and you never stop training your art, which includes practicing the applications but to take two years before it becomes effective and can be used? There is a hard rule to Bunkai - it must be effective and be able to or have the potential to end the fight. If you are learning applications that not only take years to understand and are not effective even after you have learned them, it sounds like someone has made up your applications. For one they are not that complicated. The more complicated the less effective. The more moves the longer you need your opponent to sit still. Most postures (steps) within the Kata have one or more applications associated with them. The applications fall into percussive (striking) which also include an understanding of chibudi (vital, cavity and weak targets of the body), Muto (throws, grappling and take downs), and Tuidi (joint locks, chokes, submissions and dirty tactics). There are some Ne Waza (ground fighting techniques but this is more so to return to your feet than to stay and submit). The learning progression we use is the foundation applications (passed directly down from the founder), the basic or practical applications and then the student is allowed to experiment and discover other ways to apply the applications taught and to discover new meaning of the applications. They then prove them as effective by applying them to a resistive opponent to prove their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. Not all applications will fit a students needs. This is dictated by strength, speed, mechanics, etc. etc. Once you have learned the applications and understand how they are utilized and also have a deeper understanding of how they could be applied for other situations, the student literally has thousands of answers to pretty much every form of attack. Obviously this does not include ground fighting, or at least where we are concerned. This is exactly what I was saying above. My experience is that this actually makes better well rounded students. It forces them to start to analyze the uses and methods. Self discovery through critical thinking actually teaches more than an instructor handing them the information. This is often the case when students make the transition to teaching. By teaching others and having to answer questions a light goes off and what may not have been fully understood before is now blatantly obvious. I actually developed a deeper understanding the first year I taught than I had acquired as a student. It forces you to look at things from all sides and really think about the how, whats and whys. When a student starts to understand the methods and uses they then start to understand other meanings of the applications. About 50% of our practical (we call them basic) applications came from students. They are tested and proven as to their effectiveness before being taught or practiced. The other 50% comes out of actual use in conflict by it's instructors, their instructors or theirs and so on. If there is one application (most have many but for the sake of argument) and there 14 Kata (in our case) and there are lets say on average 40 steps (this is low), that is 560 applications. A pretty good amount. But they when you realize that applications can be used together you now double that. This is just the foundation applications. They you add the practical applications and then add the self discovered applications (that have been proven effective) a student has thousands to tens of thousands of techniques and applications to draw on. The average fighter has maybe 10 to 30. The original applications either created by the founder during combat or passed down by his teacher to him create the foundation and is the art itself. On the surface most Okinawan arts are similar. It's only after you delve deeper into the art's Kata and it's applications that you find it's uniqueness. Without the Kata and it's applications there is no art. I like the way you said the Kata was built from the application. Never thought about it this way, neat approach mentally! I do feel however that as for applications being learned, learning the application should be not too difficult and can be learned in weeks or perhaps a class. Learning to use it on an unwilling attacker is another story and that’s what I meant by taking years. 90% of the time people never complete pressure test their material. Against an unwilling partner is where the test lies and most students can’t be effective with anything less then years of training it. That’s my opinion from what I have seen in the few hundred students I have taught. More kids then adults but either way I feel it takes time. There is truth in what you are saying. Applications should not IMHO have too many steps (= time) or be so difficult that the student can not pick it up in one session of class. Having said this, no one is going to be able to implement an application against a resisting/unwilling opponent after learning the application. It doesn't matter if it is striking, throwing, trapping and locking, or any other technique. No matter the discipline it takes time to develop the body mechanic's, timing, distance and reaction time (what we would call Mushin, where it has been done so many times that the body reacts without thought). There is no discipline in which after one or two lessons that the student is going to be able to implement a technique or application on a unwilling opponent. This is primarily due to the fact that in class most teach the Uke to attack with a certain strike, a certain way and with a certain speed and power. This is not applicable in a real fight because there is no one to dictate these things to your opponent. Fights are ugly and unpredictable. The only way to train for this is to pressure test students. This is done by having Uke throw a punch, not just one way, but 30 ways. At different angles, at different speeds, and at different distances. So you are right... it definitely takes time to be able to use applications and techniques against an unwilling opponent. But so does any art. If you're studying Judo you learn to off balance and throw the opponent. However until you are against an unwilling Uke you don't realize that you have to adjust to what throw you will use because things change in a split second. There is no art that after one lesson you can say that you have mastered that technique and can move on. You may have the technique and it's movements down but that is against a SET attack and as we all know real life is anything but set. This is why we do not train this way and yes, it takes time. You spoke of striking. I agree striking is picked up quickly. Once you learn the proper body mechanic's and understand how to properly utilize the body to achieve maximum power and speed most think that is all that is needed. However when you get into the ring or on the streets and you do not understand how to gauge distance, timing and how to hit a moving target with any amount of efficiency you find out very quickly that you need to learn more. This is a good thing. Time is a factor that some do not have but with time you cover all bases. With time and training against someone that will not repeat the same attack time after time, with someone that will throw a cog in the wheel, you learn to adapt and find ways to make the techniques and applications work for you. With this comes muscle memory. After years of training you will find yourself responding and wonder how you did that. This is why you train and why time is a good thing. If students are looking to be Bruce Lee after a few sessions they are delusional. It takes years to learn how to apply, when to apply and what to apply for a given situation. Unfortunately the only way this happens is continuous training. Not sure how to short circuit the system. This in large part is why I wonder how so many systems can produce BB's in record time. Anything worth learning is worth taking the time to learn.

To the bold - Everyone has their way of teaching and learning. I personally teach the applications as they learn the Kata. To the underlined - This is exactly the point made above. Toudi's (Karate) Kata were influenced by Quan Fa and as such was taught pretty much the same way. The applications are what the Kata is created from and therefore is the way the art itself is transmitted and understood. Kata would be nothing more than a dance without an understanding of the applications. I'm not sure what applications you are being taught. In all my years I have never needed two years to understand or be able to apply the applications. Yes it is a life long study and you never stop training your art, which includes practicing the applications but to take two years before it becomes effective and can be used? There is a hard rule to Bunkai - it must be effective and be able to or have the potential to end the fight. If you are learning applications that not only take years to understand and are not effective even after you have learned them, it sounds like someone has made up your applications. For one they are not that complicated. The more complicated the less effective. The more moves the longer you need your opponent to sit still. Most postures (steps) within the Kata have one or more applications associated with them. The applications fall into percussive (striking) which also include an understanding of chibudi (vital, cavity and weak targets of the body), Muto (throws, grappling and take downs), and Tuidi (joint locks, chokes, submissions and dirty tactics). There are some Ne Waza (ground fighting techniques but this is more so to return to your feet than to stay and submit). The learning progression we use is the foundation applications (passed directly down from the founder), the basic or practical applications and then the student is allowed to experiment and discover other ways to apply the applications taught and to discover new meaning of the applications. They then prove them as effective by applying them to a resistive opponent to prove their effectiveness or ineffectiveness. Not all applications will fit a students needs. This is dictated by strength, speed, mechanics, etc. etc. Once you have learned the applications and understand how they are utilized and also have a deeper understanding of how they could be applied for other situations, the student literally has thousands of answers to pretty much every form of attack. Obviously this does not include ground fighting, or at least where we are concerned. This is exactly what I was saying above. My experience is that this actually makes better well rounded students. It forces them to start to analyze the uses and methods. Self discovery through critical thinking actually teaches more than an instructor handing them the information. This is often the case when students make the transition to teaching. By teaching others and having to answer questions a light goes off and what may not have been fully understood before is now blatantly obvious. I actually developed a deeper understanding the first year I taught than I had acquired as a student. It forces you to look at things from all sides and really think about the how, whats and whys. When a student starts to understand the methods and uses they then start to understand other meanings of the applications. About 50% of our practical (we call them basic) applications came from students. They are tested and proven as to their effectiveness before being taught or practiced. The other 50% comes out of actual use in conflict by it's instructors, their instructors or theirs and so on. If there is one application (most have many but for the sake of argument) and there 14 Kata (in our case) and there are lets say on average 40 steps (this is low), that is 560 applications. A pretty good amount. But they when you realize that applications can be used together you now double that. This is just the foundation applications. They you add the practical applications and then add the self discovered applications (that have been proven effective) a student has thousands to tens of thousands of techniques and applications to draw on. The average fighter has maybe 10 to 30. The original applications either created by the founder during combat or passed down by his teacher to him create the foundation and is the art itself. On the surface most Okinawan arts are similar. It's only after you delve deeper into the art's Kata and it's applications that you find it's uniqueness. Without the Kata and it's applications there is no art.

I think most would welcome you to train if called ahead of time. I would suggest that you bring along a white belt. Some organizations will allow you to wear your grade because you are just visiting and others will not.

In the kyokushin dojo I train at, we do light contact 99% of the time. Makes sense to train that way for a few reasons: Minimizes risk of injuries Allows one to experiment without the concern (fear?) of getting hurt Kicks to the head are OK and light head contact is also OK. Just enough to remind one to keep the hands up. Had a session outside the dojo a few months ago that included kumite with folks from various dojos. Despite being told to keep it light, some either forgot or couldn't do it properly. Unfortunately I'm still recovering from a bruised/broken rib as a result of a well executed but full contact hiza mawashi geri. These are the risks we all accept when training in martial arts. Unfortunately there are those that take advantage of this and others don't know the meaning of or have no control.

I think it's obvious. No offense but point sparring serves no purpose when training for actual conflict. It is detrimental because it instills muscle memory and does nothing in terms of teaching students how to transmit full power into an intended target. Some might say that other forms of training are enough to serve this purpose like Makiwara or heavy bag training. But this is a stationary target that insures the same angle of contact repeatedly. In a real fight the target moves and the potential damage to ones own weapons by connecting on odd un-natural angles is another detriment. Yes it's real in terms of it's actually a training method but in terms of teaching students actual fighting skills it is not. And don't get me wrong, point sparring has it's place in sports and I have nothing against it for those that seek to win trophies. But it's not a real method of training when it comes to self defense. It teaches you to pull strikes and win points. There are no points in real life and the only thing you win is your life and the loser get's a ride to the hospital or the morgue. Is it real? Yep. Is it effective in teaching someone to fight? Not in my opinion.

Congrats. Well done!

In the TKD that I have done, by not allowing hand strikes to the head, we avoid the match becoming a boxing match. While kicks can be much stronger, it takes considerably more skill to get good at scoring with head kicks, and they won't usually come in with the frequency that hand techniques to the head would. I get why some have banned it based on explanations but for me I still say I'd rather get clocked by a fist than by a kick. In all the time I kickboxed as a kid I never once got knocked out by a punch but got my bell rung by two kicks. I get what you're saying, but for me I just don't get it, but I haven't been in the tournament circuit since I was a young man so maybe things have changed. I'm sure gear has changed over the years but the thing I also always found a bit funny is that the hands had pillows on them and the feet had very thin padding with no padding on the bottom. This was Kick Boxing of course. This always made me laugh a little to myself because the hands are covered with a good deal of padding, obviously based on weight classes, so much so that you had to basically put everything behind the punch to actually effect much less knock someone out but the feet are all but unprotected. Based on my personal experience, eating a heel hurts 100 times worse than eating a fluffy pillow and it makes you wonder why you're looking up at everyone and why your head feels like it's in a vise with a spike piercing your temples and base of your skull. I understand the reasons but based on my personal experience this rule is backwards if you're worried about knockouts. Knockouts are not good, but I don't think those are all we should be concerned about. Your brain will jiggle a bit each time you get knocked in the head, be it a fist, foot or anything else. Neither boxers nor football players take kicks to the head. Many of them may never be knocked out while training or competing, but both groups frequently suffer from CTE. Please don't take this as me saying we should allow kicks to the head over punches. Personally, allowing full contact to the head is a bad idea, unless you want your egg scrambled. After many years of training, I would now agree with your statement. In the past I felt that if it were not full on "real" full power it was fake. However the older you get the more your past injuries start to catch up with you and you start to realize the damage done. However I would still not take pulling punches and kicks over controlled contact with proper protective gear. I guess what I'm saying is, we chose to train/study a combative art. In doing so we assume a certain degree of risk and accept that risk. Minimizing the risk is an intelligent mindset but removing it all together also removes many lessons that can not be learned by shadow boxing and pulling every punch/kick. You have to engage to understand key elements (how you will react/how your opponent reacts/ dealing with the wildness and unpredictability of your opponent/ gauging distance and timing/ learning how to stay in the pocket when the stress component is high/ learning to function under extreme stress/etc.) Some will say that distance and timing can be learned point sparring and I can not deny that statement. However I would point out that when someone is coming at you for more than points the dynamic changes completely and so does your ability to adjust. I think that minimizing risk and injury is a responsible thing but you can not remove it completely or the realism is removed with it along with the lessons that it teaches you.

Bushido_man96, Well said. I understand your view point from a police perspective because if someone has pulled a gun on a cop the situation is escalated to a bad place. I get your points and agree to an extent. If I felt my life was in danger (there are obvious signs) then you have little choice but to take action because at that point you have to assume that your going to get shot either way and you have to take the chance. However, all to often, I have heard over the years students saying I would do this or that and oh I wish someone would try that. In all reality most petty crimes have one intended purpose and that is to take your money. Possessions that can be replaced. Executing a disarm because you can doesn't mean you should. You actually put yourself at higher risk by attempting this rather than giving the goon the few bucks they are asking for. To me life, mine or my families, is worth more than the few dollars I keep in my wallet. Everything can be replaced. I can cancel and get new credit cards, and I can make more money. You can never replace your life or that of your families. All I'm saying is if it's a non-violent crime, I'm giving them the wallet every time. If I see intent in their eyes I'll do what I have too. However and again I have never been in this situation and really don't go into area's where this is a problem. Avoidance is just plain old common sense. As far as the hero complex goes, we all know those guys that look for a chance to use their skills. It's those same guys that whine (if they're lucky) when things go wrong but they took the chance anyway. This is not a hero and should not be construed with real hero's. They just want to be one and will risk anything to get their face on TV.

Balancing family, work and training is a challenge. It was just a thought.

In the TKD that I have done, by not allowing hand strikes to the head, we avoid the match becoming a boxing match. While kicks can be much stronger, it takes considerably more skill to get good at scoring with head kicks, and they won't usually come in with the frequency that hand techniques to the head would. I get why some have banned it based on explanations but for me I still say I'd rather get clocked by a fist than by a kick. In all the time I kickboxed as a kid I never once got knocked out by a punch but got my bell rung by two kicks. I get what you're saying, but for me I just don't get it, but I haven't been in the tournament circuit since I was a young man so maybe things have changed. I'm sure gear has changed over the years but the thing I also always found a bit funny is that the hands had pillows on them and the feet had very thin padding with no padding on the bottom. This was Kick Boxing of course. This always made me laugh a little to myself because the hands are covered with a good deal of padding, obviously based on weight classes, so much so that you had to basically put everything behind the punch to actually effect much less knock someone out but the feet are all but unprotected. Based on my personal experience, eating a heel hurts 100 times worse than eating a fluffy pillow and it makes you wonder why you're looking up at everyone and why your head feels like it's in a vise with a spike piercing your temples and base of your skull. I understand the reasons but based on my personal experience this rule is backwards if you're worried about knockouts.

Alan, I understand you're view points. I guess I would talk to you as a martial artist and say that if you have years of experience (I know you have experience in Chinese arts as you have refered to them) in the arts that you have studied, then others here will pick up on that no matter how someone would portray you. Essentially you are allowing someone else to defeat you before you begin. This in terms of martial arts doesn't make sense. If someone here attacks you for personal reasons, believe me, the moderators will remove their posts. As I have already said, shamefully I allowed one person to get the better of me and I lashed out in frustration. However I had the power to shut them up all along by not playing the game and getting into an argument in the first place. I was goaded in by my belief that they did not understand and I attempted to enlighten them by explaining. In the end they didn't care and had their own agenda. I could have ended it there as soon as I realized this and just not posted again or contacted the moderator. You should not feel as though you need to hide what you have studied. On the contrary, if you earned the knowledge you have, you should openly share it with others. After all that is what we are all here for, to learn. No matter how many years any of us have or what grade we have achieved we will never know everything and will always have something to learn. We never stop learning thus the phase, always have a beginners mind. If you look at other members arts you will find a pretty large assortment of arts. As a martial artist, ranked or not, instructor or not, you should be proud of what you have achieved. It matters little what some random person that you don't know says about you or your art. You should read each post with the intent of learning or taking something away from it but in the end nothing that anyone says dictates that you take it at face value or take it as the gospel. That is solely up to you. I'm sure there are plenty that say I'm a traditional crack pot but that's ok. At night when I lay my head on my pillow, I know who I am and I sleep soundly whether they agree or not. I am not the totality of what one person thinks of me, especially someone that I don't even know. If you're comfortable with who you are and what you have studied why would you give a strange the power of dictating whether you share your journey, experiences and knowledge with those that are eager to learn? Never give someone that power. You're opinion of yourself and what you have personally achieved is the only one that counts. The trophies and awards are for others. Your self worth and pride comes from what you know and what you have overcome and accomplished. Like knowledge no one can take that from you. There will always be bullies. My father taught me that a bully is a scared little person hiding behind their size. I have found this to be true. The difference here on line is you can not confront them personally so they can keep hitting and you can never defeat them as long as they can continue to type. However their power comes from you conversing with them. Ignore them and you sweep the legs, as so many here like to say. Again just my 2 cents for what it's worth.

Learning how to shift and transition is very important. However I think your usage of the term "chasing" is off in terms of fighting. Typically fights are close range and you do not need to chase, unless your referring to tournament point fighting. If your opponent is running from you in a real fight you have already won and foot work is no longer needed other than to walk yourself to where ever you're going. Learning what is called Tai Sabaki is an excellent tool to add to your tool chest, however it does not replace. Learning foot work in and of itself is fine but you need to remember that your learning this with the understanding that the end goal is use in actual conflict. I would interject that learning foot work and striking in together is more practical than foot work alone unless you never intend to strike but instead wear your opponent out chasing you. Your thoughts are in the right place but I think you are actually prolonging your training by not learning how to move and strike simultaneously.

A particular stance (any stance) is less important than understanding how the stance is utilized in terms of mobilization and maximizing power. Too many get fixated on the stance as seen in some fighting styles and this works against them. Understanding the stance and how to utilize it when flowing from one to the next movement (essentially forward, backward, side to side movement and circular) is key to be able to maximize power through balance, rooted structure and body mechanics. Learning the stance and the techniques/applications associated with the stance is important but to get hung up on, "this is the only way to fight" or "you must be in this stance to deliver this technique", is missing the point. Like Sensei8 our stances are natural (up right, flow, balanced, speed and quick maneuverability) and as Sensei8 states, close range versus long range is highlighted in our training. Having said this our training and the importance placed on stances might differ from more modern arts in terms of intended purpose and it's uses and benefits. Too many associate linear movement with stances because of the way they are taught or taught as a specific goal (i.e. shortest distance a to b, in line). All too often circular movements are dismissed when too much importance on proper stances is given because it is taught in a line. It leads the student to move in a very linear orientation. This puts the student/practitioner in a force on force scenario instead of taking ones self out of the direct force and countering with little opposing force. Example would be that most would consider backwards movement to be week but if utilizing stances as they are taught one can maximize on any movement. Stepping back in a forward stance to make distance (I know sounds off but stay with me), then as the opponent moves towards you you move your left foot out into a horse stance and quickly transition to a cat stance (right foot forward), you are now outside of the opponents path and to their side able to strike un-opposed by force or strength. This is very basic and I used generic terms for those that are just learning but it makes the point that to concentrate on a particular stance is missing the intended purpose of the stances. They are transitions from one to the next in order to teach the student how to move and be ready to utilize any technique while in movement. If you analyze the Kata you will see this very point. It's ok to practice a stance and its techniques/applications to learn how to maximize your power and learn proper balance and rooting but to know how to transition from one to the next in a fluid way, basically mobility from one point to the next, either straight or circular, is much more important than a singular stance or the understanding of a singular stance. Just my 2 cents for what that's worth. Bob, this is obviously not describing your art or you. However after reading this before posting it certainly reads that way. Just making a clarification so this does not come off as opposing your point of view or your post.

Different instructors may interpret being successful in different ways, is the whole quality over quantity scenario. As an instructor I would rather have between 8-10 students that are dedicated and turn up to training multiple times a week and trully put everything into it at home as well as the dojo. Rather than have 20+ students turning up once a week that may not even make that and most wont put in the training at home that they should... Just my thoughts Could not have said it better. Success should be measured by the quality of your students not the quantity of your students. 1 good student that represents you and your art is worth more than 10,000 students that are mediocre at best and do nothing to advance your art. Well that is unless your version of success is the quality of your checking account with no regard to the quality of the art.

I would rather cut the costs than to loose a worthy student. Why not work something out with the student. Labor costs nothing. Have them clean the dojo, work on fixing things up (if they have a trade maybe you can use this to fix or install something, it has a value), have them help with other classes or to assist in examples (make them your Uke for other classes). I'm sure there are a million other things that come to mind but the point is to help them and to allow them to contribute so they feel like they are not a charity case. If they are a good student and good person they will not want something for free. I'm sure there are ways to make this work for both parties and for you to keep a good student.

The above explanation would not be considered a McDojo in my terms. However I will say that this is not the only answer for an effective solution to self defense. Whether you take one art or many arts doesn't matter. What matters is what you get out of them and if you can effectively use what you have learned. In fact there is the opposite side of the coin in that there are many (just check the internet) that have multiple high grades in several arts and use this as a tool to attract students. If you're one of the very few that are actually graded (earned) in several arts, then my hats off to you. However I personally see huge red flags when I see a person younger or older than me with high ranks in three or more arts. This is not McDojo, this would be fraud in 99% of the cases. There might be a few but I bet the grade was given not studied and earned. There is nothing wrong with taking other arts (cross training as it's called today). I have done so myself as well as most here have. But to look specifically for a school that boasts multiple arts and the (one) instructor is graded (highly in most cases) in all of them, beware! I would suggest schools that boast multiple arts but actually have more than one instructor which would suggest that they are concentrated on one art rather than many and you'll actually get better instruction via the full art rather than snip-its of the art. Just two cents.

Solid points. I would submit that the "nice" techniques are better used as the situation warrants. I am much like you in that I tend to favor strikes rather than arm locks, etc. However there are times when this works better than a strike or is warranted over a strike. An example would be a smaller/weaker person that doesn't have enough sense to know when they are out matched. In your mind you know you can destroy this person with little effort, but why? It proves nothing. Rather than knock them for a loop a simple controlling tactic until they calm down or regain their sanity is warranted in this situation. The guy goes home none the worse physically and a harsh lesson is learned without much physical harm. Another example is having rocked a larger opponent, controlling them/submitting them might be an option rather than delivering that last strike that could potentially have major physical consequences. It's always a benefit to have more than one tool in the tool box. Gives us options. Knowing when to use them and why to use them I think is the battle.

Incorporate the family into your training. Teach your children and wife (if old enough) and make it a family event. Even if you do not teach you can use this as a way to spend quality time with your kids and get your training in at the same time. Believe it or not, by teaching, you'll start to question more and have more Aha moments. You're training and understanding will progress. When you are learning you are nothing more than a sponge that takes knowledge in without question. When you teach you have to answer questions and prove why you do something. This forces you to look deeper and with this comes a better understanding. Win win. Family time and training.

I guess that's one way to describe it but I would call them cowards. Hiding behind a user name and the internet to call out others or to bad mouth others, knowing that you are in no danger other than via words on a screen is pure cowardice.

That definition never ever once crossed my mind! A Keyboard Warrior, by your provided link, would be stopped very quickly here at KF!! Having said that, Is this type of Keyboard Warrior on MA forums nowadays on a normal basis?? I've had the misfortune of falling victim to a KW as described, years ago on another forum.He made my life hell; this is no exaggeration to say so. An unsuspecting person just doesn't know how sick and crazy, some people are on the internet. This site "Karateforums.com" however is regaining my trust for forums and is the only one I belong to. Apart from a Wing Chun site I signed up to and right away when had finished with giving them my details, there was an attempted hack on my e-mail address. Alan, You can not control the occasional angry person trying to discredit others, other than to report them and have them removed. It's hard to ignore when someone blatantly attacks you, your art or what you believe in. I fell into the trap a while back with a particular member (will not mention name but haven't seen them post since) and forgot the most important part of being a MA'ist which is humility and to be the bigger person. I actually turned around and attacked what I perceived as ignorance and turned out being a worse offender. It's tough to do. I think of myself as fairly level headed and not quick to fight but sometimes you meet that one person that pushes all the right buttons. From experience it's better to report the incident to the moderators than to get into a war of words because you always come out looking worse when you go personal. The nice thing is, when you do cross the line or forget proper etiquette, there are others here to get you back on tracked. Believe me I know. (thanks moderators! What you do is appreciated!) There is nothing wrong with differing points of view and lively debate because it helps us see other perspectives and learn and grow, but when it gets personal that's where the line needs to be drawn. I think KF does a really good job of maintaining a civil atmosphere.

I tend to think that you would know after reading their posts. There are indications. There is a difference between someone that has lived their life time studying the arts (in depth knowledge) and someone that has read enough to get by either online or via books (limited knowledge). On the other side of the coin you could have a lower grade passing themselves off as a higher grade to gain the respect of fellow members. Not sure which is worse but I do think you can pick up on them via the way they describe, explain and question.