singularity6

I've often thought about that, too. I don't think it's all that different than exercise clothes these days. To exercise, you really only need clothing that's comfortable and that allows full range of motion. Modern exercise clothes are made of high tech materials and have a particular look. I'd be willing to bet most people don them whenever they work out - at home, or at a gym. Are they necessary? Nope! But there's something to be said for the psychology behind it. Putting on the gi seems to motivate me a bit more.

Hi Jason. Welcome!

The basement ceiling is about 6.5' high. While I have enough floor space to do my forms, the ceiling height poses a bit of a problem with the way we execute some of our blocks during forms. Double knife-hand blocks during Sa Jang and our scissor block in Oh Jang come from a standing position, and require our hands to go pretty high over our heads (our knife-hand blocks admittedly look strange when compared to most other TKD and karate schools.) I was able to fix this a little by getting rid of the huge florescent light boxes and installing some flush-mount LED lights. This was harder than it should be, however. The person who did the previous work didn't use junction boxes. They probably avoided it because of the way the ceiling was installed in the finished side of the basement: Drywall over lath and plaster... Yeah, you have to go through about 2 inches total to get to the floor joists. The best part: Nothing was installed parallel to the floor joists!

I think you could replace the bold with "people."

We start sparring at yellow belt in our school. In-class sparring sessions are typically without pads or gloves. We spar only our instructors or black belts who've proven they can control themselves. If we spar other students who're lower ranked, pads are required. The reason for this is purely safety. We need to learn control, and they do not want us hitting someone who hasn't been trained to take a hit, if one should accidentally land. Our instructors also don't want blue and red belts wailing on yellow and green belts, for obvious reasons. Ultimately, I feel that control is something that's taught gradually, and mostly through practice.

I think that your school's thoughts are fairly universal.

This is true, but the two are fairly synonymous in the US.

I'd worry about the validity of such a study... 1) Having folks self-select to do the survey makes it invalid. Ideally, you should be looking for a more random way to select people to participate. 2) This is the internet. There's no way to prove that I, or anyone else on this forum has the necessary experience in the martial arts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ9Hklg6TOg

I contacted the folks at Seishin about a year ago. They claimed their gi were made in Sweden! My experience also says that cotton gi will shrink substantially at first. When it comes to the sleeve and leg length, I don't mind a more "traditional Japanese" cut. I'd definitely worry about the crotch riding up, though. I'll say it again: My Meijin Tropical (which is fairly similar to the Seishin gi, from what I can tell) cost me about $100 after shipping. I still love it, even after a year!

The only difference I've seen in boards is the type of wood. Balsa is a lot easier to break than pine. Our instructors just go to the hardware or lumber yards to buy big pine boards, then cut them up on table saws. What are the bats made of? I think ash was replaced by maple due to the ash borer infestations we've seen over the years... Either way, both woods are tough to break.

That guy would be gone in a heartbeat at my school.

My master instructor has told several students that they can no longer learn anything from him... Attitude and demeanor go a long way in our school! Tough-guys need not apply! That being said, I feel like I might be in a bit of a minority when it comes to why I train. I do not expect to ever need my training to defend myself. Instead, I train for physical fitness, and for emotional stability. Physical violence is of almost no interest to me, but training has been quite cathartic. Hopefully I will never be one to be "screened out!"

I wish I would have continued on my Aikido journey that I started a decade ago... Pushing 40 and doing a style of TKD that incorporates a fair amount of Hap Ki Do after not doing much of anything has definitely put me in the hurt-locker. Ultimately, you're paying for your martial arts journey. Financially, chronologically, and physically. The earlier you can start something new, the better. You can continue training karate on your own, while learning judo and iaido. This will make you a more formidable martial artist! Osu!

I'm kinda confused... You asked if you kick like a TKD student, but tend to argue against those who practice TKD and say you need to work on things? There was a post a week or so ago about sparring/coaches opinion on sparring with particular ranks that went the same way.

I'd say your kick looks snappy, but strange. There seems to be a lot going on mechanically that makes me think you're overcompensating to get the speed, snap and height. You're leaning back quite a bit for how low the knee is coming up. I'd be curious to see how effective the kick is outside of sparring (can you go through 2 or 3 boards with it?) Do you lose balance when you hit a target with resistance? The further you lift your knee, the more muscles you engage, hence more power. Power is generated from strength and technique - not flexibility. I struggled (and still do, arguably) with both flexibility and weak hips. I've found these exercises (and similar) to be quite helpful to improve my kicks:

We chamber high even if we kick to the knee. Yeah but that doesn't answer my question. ITF chamber is preferrably high too due to the power, the only difference is that it's semi circular. Mine is lower because I don't have the flexibility to chamber better. But I do get a nice snaping motion anyway and plenty of power from my big legs. my point is that you can't read where the kick will will land if it's low chambering. I don't know what technique you meant kicking to the knees, That's not aan allowed sparring technique. Do you mean low kicks? We don't learn tournament sparring unless we plan to go to a tournament. Kicking to the knee, striking the throat/groin/eyes... all part of what we do. It's pretty old-school.

I do what I can!

Which forms do you do? We use do Palgwe for all our geup ranks. I've seen our black belts do Koryo and Keumgang... Then they start working on the Hap Ki Do forms at second dahn.

We chamber high even if we kick to the knee.

Not sure, exactly... Ours might be closer to Tang Soo Do.

That's different than the style I train in... We try to chamber straight up for front, round and side kicks as much as possible. From that stance, our knee would go up. Yours is cocked out to the side. I'm not sure I'd try to kick fast like that if I wasn't able to stretch for weeks... then again, I'm a bit older than you.

Yeah, those usually get weeded out before they even test at our school.

Sometimes the most grown up thing one can do is seeking help when needed.

Stainless steel shouldn't rust on its own. If it does, I suspect it's in contact with an electrically dissimilar metal, which causes a galvanic action. When it comes to doing anything that causes dust, it's always wise to wear a mask - asthma or no.