singularity6

Wow, what a wonderful response! This was extremely informative! Thank you very much!

The style of Taekwondo I practice is jidokwan, and the way we train is very similar to Tang Soo Do, which in tern is similar to Shotokan. There are some differences between what we do, and the video, but the stances are similar.

Being a male is an automatic disadvantage, too. Shall we cut that off, as well? ;-p

It looks like the wife will be passing me up, this time. Bum hip. :-/

I was at 198.9 at the doctor's office. Bought a scale the other day (it's been a month) and it says 191. I'll be visiting the doctor for a followup on Monday, so I'll compare the scale there to the one I have at home to see how I'm doing.

I sparred with my friend downstate. His school teaches tournament sparring, while we learn "street sparring." He watches my body and feet, while I'm looking at his eyes the whole time. Apparently he found that intimidating! I never thought of myself as one to intimidate anyone. =/

A couple notes about the Metallica show: Testing was only recently announced - like 2 weeks ago. Our master instructor kinda calls the shots on these, and he's quite busy. My mom is actually paying for my wife and me to go to see Metallica, and SHE'S GOING WITH US! The reason behind this is interesting... I took my brother to see them during their NYE show in Detroit 1999/2000. Since my mom is a Detroit Tiger's season ticket-holder, she gets dibs and discounts on other events at Comerica Park. Well, Metallica is playing. She called me up to see if I'd like to go see them. It's quite a drive, and I knew it'd be expensive ($80 each at her discount.) After declining, she offered to buy my tickets, so I could go "in memory of my brother." (as noted in a few posts, we lost my brother back in 2007.) I declined the offer initially, but figured I'd throw it out there: "We will go if you go." I figured she'd say no, as it's not her cup of tea. Well, she's going, and so are we!

I finished the documentary yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Overall, it was very well-done. I think it'd be neat to take up Uechi Ryu for a bit to learn more (and it's available in my area!) I must admit, however... the first time I saw Senchin, I thought it was a bit odd (kinda like the mating ritual of a Bird of Paradise that wasn't gonna find a mate.) As usual, education fixes ignorance!

I spoke to a Japanese friend about this. Actually, it was more joking around, as he was taking good natured shots at my heritage too... There's no "L" sound in Japanese, so that's part of the difficulty. And the "R" sound is supposedly a soft R, similar to when the British pronounce T as in water and bottle. If you hear a native British speaker with a heavy accent, they'll pronounce water bottle as "wa'er ba'le" (sorry, I'm trying my best to spell it out phonectically). I've seen the documentary several times. Regardless of the spelling and the history mistake, I love it. It shows people training in karate in a way I'd love to train. It's a great way of training, but not the only way. Another documentary that's along the same lines that I really enjoy is Samurai Spirit: Karate. Nicholas Pettas (former Kyokushin competitor) travels to Okinawa and trains under several karate masters and asks questions. He did several other arts such as judo and aikido in other episodes. Those were good too, but I like the karate episode best. I once saw a 3D diagram of how R and L sound (this was some 15 years ago... I imagine it was the image of a solution to a partial differential equation, or something... but I can't recall the math behind it.) For Americans and most Europeans, the R and L sounds lie on two specific peaks. For many Asians, the peaks are almost merged together. It was interesting!

So much for that... Strained my hip again, and I think this will prevent me from testing this time around.

I've known that uric acid buildup in the joints is basically what gout is, but I haven't heard anything about buildup in the blood or muscles. I just did a quick google search, and I couldn't immediately find any sources that I'd trust as actual medical sources. Would you mind sharing some links?

I strained my hip yet again... either the aductor or the psoas, I think. I'll be talking to a physical therapist soon!

I'm fortunate enough to live in a VERY rural area. I can get to decent hiking trails anytime of year (except for during hunting season...) I find hiking to be extremely mindful. A good hike will force you to breathe deep. And as far as all the bugs... extra protein!

Watching a competition between two people who come from entirely different martial arts backgrounds can be entertaining. The match is far from definitive, however. At best, you can only determine who fought the better fight.

I say do whatever you like. Self defense isn't my primary focus for martial arts. I'm studying it to have a healthier body and mind. But in the spirit of this conversation, your choice of dress could take away some of the advantages of your training. Jeans (real ones, not the spandex jeans they started selling recently) could prevent you from getting your leg up as high as you like for kicks. Slippery shoes could cause you to fall while kicking, or shoes with too much grip will hurt your pivots. Leather jackets or heavy winter coats could really restrict your upper body, too (we have about 5 to 6 months of winter where I live.)

Welcome, sir! It's a great forum. Enjoy!

That is really nifty! Training options near me are limited. I'd like to find another school to visit from time to time, just for a different perspective.

This might be helpful: http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?282-Dojo-floor-space

Height is easier to answer, IMO. The way I'd figure it, imagine a really tall person holding a bo overhead. Someone who's about 2 meters tall holding a staff that's roughly 2 meters long (add an extra meter for arm length) would put you at about 5 meters. Now that's a lot of extra room - you might be able to get away with 4 meters. The floor size will depend on how you want your rows to be arranged. Rectangular? Or square? Regardless, you'll want a lot of space if everyone will be doing forms at the same time.

Ah, thanks!

My wife's cousin was interested in taking up some martial art to learn some self defense, and asked me my opinion about which one he should take up. He was of the mindset that taekwondo and karate would not teach him what he needs to know to defend himself, but kung fu would. I told him that it really depends on how the school is run, and how the art is taught. If your school focuses primarily on tournament sparring, then you'll be trained to perform in a ring with someone else who trains by the same rules. On the other hand, schools that emphasize self-defense (regardless of style) will train their students to handle themselves in an actual conflict.

All my testing certificates are stashed somewhere (so are all my diplomas, as well.) I keep my old belts in my bag, just in case they're needed in class (drills, or if I'm dumb and somehow misplace my current belt - never happens, but if it does, I'll demote myself rather than train without a belt.) I'm not sure if I'd ever display any of my certificates, belts or diplomas.

My wife and I will be testing for 5th guep on Saturday, July 15. It's going to be interesting... Here's why: We tested for 6th guep in July of last year. We should have tested for 5th back in December (due to the size of our school, testings are only held 3 or 4 times per year.) Unfortunately family stuff/travels kept us from testing. The last semester (I teach at a college, and my wife decided to go back to school) was particularly brutal, so we took some time off. We finally got back to class about a month ago. While a bit rusty, we still had most everything down, so our instructors are putting us up for testing. Well, Metallica is playing in Detroit (7 hours away) on Wednesday, July 13. We will be attending class at 6pm on Tuesday, hitting the road toward Detroit, seeing the show and then making it back in time for the 6pm class on Thursday, then test on Saturday. Let's see how this works!

Yeah, I've been helping a coworker strip the stain off his wood siding (with a wire brush.) Talk about work!

My wife and I just went on a 6 mile hike. Fortunately, we live about 10-15 minutes from some decent trails. I try to get out there at least once per week. It sure beats the gym!