OneKickWonder

I've tried sparring with tight fists. I find I don't move as well. I certainly can't block as fast and I can't flow so well. That said, that could be simply because self perpetuating thing, in that I practice open hand more because I move better that way, and I move better that way because I practice more that way. I can see pros and cons to both. Closed fists are stronger and less prone to injury of course. But open hand, even if it's not actually faster and more fluid in general, does give the advantage of being ready to turn a block into a grab, in theory, although in our sparring rules we're not allowed to grab in free sparring.

That's a good question. I think instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I'd take moves that already portray distinct self-defense maneuvers and build my form out of them. Unless I figured something out from my own unfortunate experience of self-defense, and could come up with a way to mimic that movement that would look different than anything I've already seen in a form. I think it would have to be something that had been seen to work on multiple occasions against different attacks. Otherwise lots of forms would portray the 'lucky punch' or even wrap one arm around the head while swinging the other arm wildly. My point being, lots of things might work once, even if they are just blind panic reaction. That doesn't mean they are generally good moves.

When I used to train as a teenager, in wado then kung fu, the instructors were very mean. But they were mean because they were instilling discipline while teaching combat. Back then, this was the 1980s, I've heard it was even worse going further back, being a martial arts instructor was a free ticket to be violent. They would step us mid technique, make us hold our position and focus while having a leisurely walk around inspecting. And then they test someone at random. A totally unprovoked punch to the face to see if you block it or evade in time. Or a leg sweep to test how solid your stance is. It sounds horrible, but it sharpish develops your mental readiness and attention to detail. If you blocked or dodges their random attack, they'd look at you for a moment, you'd look straight back at them with no emotion on your face whatsoever, they'd pause, you'd keep staring, then they'd give a subtle nod and move along the lines. I remember one day at kung fu. We had a new guy. He was only on his second or third class. Our grandmaster visited from China. I guess if he'd known this guy was only on his second or third class he might have cut him a bit of slack. Anyway, he'd stopped us mid technique for inspection. There we all were eyes forward, no expression on our faces, machine like. Except the new guy who was looking about and smirking. I saw grandmaster in my peripheral vision slowly heading down the line inspecting us. He got to me, made some subtle adjustments to my posture, and moved on. I remember being surprised that he walked straight past the fidgety guy. Then suddenly, all I heard was HAI. ... BOOM. The grandmaster had delivered a dragon tail sweep and the fidgety new guy had literally gone airborne, and crash landed flat on his back. He never came back to class after that day.

Johnny was just a perfectly ordinary hormonal young man. Daniel was the bully.

Depends on two things. What legal jurisdiction you're in, and whether the name has been protected by trademark or patent within the same legal jurisdiction. I assume this is in the US?

If you create your own form, which I think is a good idea by the way purely for ones own personal development, how do you know the principles it conveys would actually work? Some of the older forms come from a time when there were fewer reals and more live combat experience. But how do you test new ideas without smashing bits off a resisting opponent?

Thanks all. So reading between the lines so to speak, it looks like oss / osu is an imperial Japanese thing, and the okinawans dislike it. Much like the old bassai / passai pronunciation debate. That being the case, if the shotokan club I intend to go to is old school, oss will be absent, as Funakoshi identified as Okinawan. If it's been swept along into the mainstream, perhaps it will be more imperial Japanese influenced, in which case every exhale will sound like oss after a time. Does this sound about right?

When I was a white belt testing for my orange belt. Why? Well every test since has been physically harder. But my body has been prepared for it so that cancels out the increasing physical toughness. But more importantly, my mind is prepared. I know roughly how long a test lasts. I know that, for example, once they stop asking us to show off kicks and kick oriented combos, they'll ask us to demo hand techniques. Or once we start demonstrating forms, it's only a few forms then one fight, break a board, then we're about done for the day. Whereas testing for my orange belt, I had no idea. All of knew was I was exhausted, drenched in sweat, and they kept asking us to do more and more things. I had no idea how much longer I'd be on the floor. Or how much longer I could remain on the floor without ending up actually, on the floor.

If I migrate back to karate, will I find myself saying and writing 'oss' all the time, or is it optional? I watch a lot of YouTube videos to see how other styles do things, and if I can relate any of my experience to it to gain new insights from others (I don't try to learn martial arts from YouTube, but I do like to see how others apply techniques I'm familiar with). Trouble is, I'm often drawn to read the comments afterwards. If I look at videos of any other style, the comments are fairly mixed But for karate, it seems there's a considerable use of the word 'oss'. I don't remember anyone suffering this affliction years ago when I practiced wado. Is it a new phenomenon? Is there a cure? If I go to shotokan as I'm planning to, will I constantly say oss to my friends, my family, my boss at work? In TSD, as far as I'm aware, we have nothing comparable. But that's possibly because our formal expression of gratitude is komapsumnida. Not exactly catchy.

If I think about the injuries I've accumulated throughout all my years in martial arts, they can be broadly put into two categories. Wear and tear/overuse : These are the usual muscle strains and light sprains, and a few episodes of tendinitis that thankfully resolved with conservative treatment. Impact injuries : What would martial arts be about if we didn't take the occasional knock? This is basically bruises and in my case, one broken bone. I'm not concerned about the first category. That can be mitigated by training wisely and resting correctly. The second category though, if I were to break it down further, I'd say probably 90% of my injuries are to fingers and thumbs. I'd further say that the majority of such injuries are the result of blocking kicks, where I partially miss the block, and end up receiving it on my fingers rather than palm of hand or wrist. In tang soo do and other styles I've practiced ( except wado ) we use both open hand and closed techniques. I generally prefer open hand for blocking, as it allows me to move more fluidly with less tension. What do folks think on this? Do people prefer to keep tight fists when sparring? Perhaps there's some technique adjustment or hand strengthening strategy that reduces finger sprains? Or perhaps there's nothing unusual about my situation and sprained fingers and thumbs are just an occupational hazard of our pass time?

Sounds good. If the teacher is good and respectful, then I wouldn't worry too much about other students. When you step into the training hall, there are really only 2 people in there. You and the teacher. Of course you have to be aware of everyone else, so you don't collide with each other. The exception being in any form of partnered work. Then there is only you and your training partner, and an awareness of the teacher. Every time we set foot in the training hall, our goal is to become better in some way than we were last time we practiced. The goal is not to be better than anyone else. It is to be better than your earlier self. If there are people there laughing at you, that means they are comparing themselves to you, which in turn means they are not focusing on their own improvement. If you can focus on your self in spite of others laughing and judging, then you have an immediate advantage. You will improve faster than them in every way. Good luck and stick with it. Your determination and focus will pay off.

Excellent selection of clips showing excellent simple effective applications. Although the poor guy with the spinning hook kick in the last video showed us exactly why high kicks are high risk. I particularly liked the 3rd one, with that Emilio chap showing front kick, and the next one breaking down spinning back kick. There are 2 guys that have taken relatively simple techniques, and refined them to perfection. Surely that is the true spirit of karate, or any martial art.

At the very least 1st degree black belt. I can't speak from a TKD perspective but in our karate group this wouldn't be considered good enough for 1st Dan. But as others have mentioned, you cant base a grade/rank on one technique. K. Then I guess the standard of ITF TaeKwondo is worse. Every black belt in this clip throws a far worse roundhouse kick first clip With respect, you are asking on a forum for people to valid your kick. So if you are unsure of your own technique, how can you judge others so harshly? The kicks in the clip you criticise look fine to me. They are not as fast as yours. But speed counts for nothing without power, stability and repeatability.

The reading analogy is an excellent one. But let's take that analogy and analyse it a bit further. Years ago, up until around my childhood, certainly my parents school days, reading was taught through repetitive drills with the alphabet. I recall writing the letter A hundreds of times before moving on to B. And I remember the whole class monotonously droning out the alphabet in bored unison. But I also remember very simple reading books. 'This is Peter. This is Jane. They play ball'. That kind of thing. I hated school. Everyone is know that is at least as old as I am also hated school. It was boring and repetitive, and I speak to many people in their 40s or older that still admit they still don't feel like it gave them much of an education. Most of us that achieved anything did so after our school years. Fast forward to present day. My kids were and are being taught to read using a combination of techniques. They still drill the boring stuff, but for much shorter periods of time. And it is mixed with a big dose of practical stuff. Things have moved on. Folks in education have advanced the science of teaching. They have a better idea of what works. Both my kids love reading, and bizarrely, they love going to school. They find it fun. And guess what, they are advancing far faster than I did at their age. Perhaps the same is true of karate or martial arts in general. I don't understand why some schools obsess over the 'traditional' way. What they mean by that is Funakoshi's way. One man's way. Because Funakoshi wrote rather disparagingly of 'some hot blooded youth' who might want to spar, and how kata alone is enough because you can practice anywhere and don't need a partner. Maybe it's time to move on. We no longer have to beg to be taught. We pay some money, and we usually have lots of choice of teacher and school. Repetition is good. Having a boss at the front that can motivate and instill discipline is good. But if it gets to the point of being boring and tedious then people will start to vote with their feet.

I think the key point here is that there is no such thing as a grade for one kick. At least not that I've ever heard of. Your grade represents what your instructors think of your general martial development. It's so much more than technique. It is attitude, spirit, physical ability and so much more. Techniques are just a training tool.

I'd say whatever your instructor thinks, having seen in in context, after a minimum of an hour's worth of constant action as found in a grading, where he can see how it fits with other techniques and when fatigued.

TKD - Goju - Ketsugen - And I believe some Shorin and Shotokan, but I cant recall for sure - I know there were seven arts and a good portion of his training was at an authentic TKD monastery in Japan - as the story goes, he was a military son and he helped defend another kid in a street fight who was part of a monastery and was thus invited (as one of very few Americans) to train in the the monastery. I have no idea if this story is true, but it is what I was taught. - It is a shame that not more is shared about this art - That Kata's are beautiful - the core value was (in this order) Respect - Discipline - Intensity - over and over this is what we were taught - No disrespect but the story lines of the golden mantis, the dream of a tiger and dragon fighting and becoming one and the fact that he defended another kid who just happened to be a student in a TKD monastery in Japan and was invited as one of a handful of Americans has a movie just waiting to be made from it. Too reminiscent of Bloodsport, KungFu, etc. I've never heard of the art and am very wary when it comes to Westerner's creating their own art. They typically are a hodge-podge of techniques without true understanding of how to make them mold together. You mention Kata... What are the Kata? Do they have names we would recognize? Is there examples of them that can be watched (youtube, etc) What are the core principles and techniques of the art? Close techniques, long range techniques? What percentage split of punching/kicking? Etc., etc., etc. The question has been asked several times and we have gotten little more than a history lesson on the founder, his dreams and the like. What separates this art from others? How were the 7 arts put together and what are the 7 arts that you mentioned. How long did the founder study each of these arts? What grade (rank) did he attain in these arts? No disrespect but if you're going to introduce an art you should at minimum describe the art other than the history and Dojo Kun. How is it that a 25 year old holds a Judan? Get the duct tape because my head just exploded. Your art might be valid in terms of fighting but I can't buy into a 25 year old Judan. This is a home grown art..it is very unlikely that you will recognize any Kata's, even if you knew the names... Why are you so focused on tradition... Lack of vision and open mindedness is why so many karate black belts find them self on the wrong end of a street fight....I am responding to this post only because someone asked to learn more about Che-lu....if you find the story and history hokey, than get beyond that and visit a dojo and see the actual art in motion..you can find fault in every art...if martial arts did not evolve, it would become obsolete. Lets be clear - I am not introducing or advocating anything - I am simply providing answers to the question asked, based on the information I have - I do though find it disappointing that the martial arts community seems to have such closed minded tunnel vision when it comes to accepting a new form that is not 1000 years old. Every art was created out of necessity and has it's strengths and limitations. Lets not forget - this art was first introduced in 1975 at the monadnock regional championships, where master mason took first place. In my opinion the legitimacy of a fighting style is the result of its effectiveness against an opponent....otherwise your just dancing. There is being cynical (narrow minded) and there's skeptical, meaning to be unconvinced based on relevant contradictory experience or knowledge. The style may be a perfectly good one. But it would be hard to take it seriously with an impossible back story and claims of a 25 year old 10th dan. Some of accept that the fairy tales and implausible ranks are just marketing, and don't necessarily say anything about the style itself. To that end, I'd be interested to some videos of it in use if you can recommend any on YouTube?

I've read and re-read this but still don't understand the significance of the name Christopher. Is there an inside joke here or what am I missing? Perhaps some people find folks with that name more trustworthy, as it's derived from Christ? As opposed to a more Islamic sounding name, like Muhammed you mean? I hope it's nothing like that. Apart from being blatantly racist it would also be plain silly. I'd be willing to bet that exactly zero people ever have ever looked at their newborn child with awe, and declared, I will name him Christopher, so that he can be a more successful mugger as his victims won't defend themselves from him if he wears a name badge with Christopher written on it.

I see this issue in our association. It seems terrible to me. If it wasn't for the fact that locally, our instructors push the boundaries a bit for our benefit, I'd be out of there. In ours, training in anything else is unofficially be very undeniably frowned upon. And if someone does come in and show some skill that is outside of our curriculum, it is not studied to see how it could fit, it is completely ignored. The governing body is like the head of a religion. Our late grandmaster is quoted as saying that he could spend a whole life studying one art. He has no time to study another. This seems to have been taken to mean that nobody else should. When I think he was just expressing his own personal opinion.

Ball of the foot is no longer an option for me for roundhouse. As per my opening post, and the reason I asked about instep vs shin, I have arthritis in my big toe joints. Put simply, my toes can only bend a small amount. In my left foot, I have about 45 degrees dorsiflexion at my disposal. In my right foot it is considerably less than that. Less than 30 degrees. In a normal, healthy toe joint, when you reach maximum dorsiflexion, the ligaments will restrict any further movement, and cartilage will serve as a last buffer. Push too far and it will sprain. A few weeks of conservative treatment will normally fully restored it. With osteoarthritis, the limit is imposed by bone surface grinding against bone. Any knock that impacts the joint means considerable pain, sometimes for several weeks. This is when I usually dust off my walking stick and stop training for a while. This is an issue I see regular in the martial arts community. There is a widespread, inate reliance on all conditions being perfect. Like humans all have the exact same specification, can train the same way, can perform the same techniques etc. I hear it all the time. Advice like, be light on your feet and keep moving is a common one. Few people consider that the very nature of combat means that at any point, you may no longer be able to move one of your arms or legs freely. People train for the conflict that might happen 'in the street',that street being a well lit street with a good level surface and plenty of room to move, on a day when your whole body is functioning at its best, and you're wearing loose fitting clothes, and your attacker completely fails to do anything that might impede your ability to move freely. A minority (it seems) do consider more realistic things. Limitations. The need to improvise to make the best of a less than perfect situation. The need to look for ideas from styles outside of one's primary style for variations that they can pinch, to help make their main style work better for them.

If I go to shotokan, I fully accept that I'll be a complete beginner in that style, despite years of tang soo do, and wado and other styles prior. Tang soo do is, in theory at least, very heavily influenced by shotokan. In fact some say TSD is just shotokan with more emphasis on kicks. That being the case, if I go to shotokan, what should the etiquette be? Let's say on my first class, they ask us to do, for example, high block from front stance. Do I do my best TSD high block from front stance and wait to be corrected if necessary? Or would I plead ignorant and wait to be shown their interpretation of said techniques and postures? I want to show that I'm open to new ideas and their way of training. While at the same time I don't want to be tedious with them if their way is almost identical to the way I'm already familiar with.

Animals use their intelligence too. Years ago we had a dog. For some reason the horrible dog of our neighbourhood used to bully our dog. Our dog would always come off worst in these altercations. Fortunately she never came to real harm. The horrid dog would for some reason cease it's random attack as soon as it was clear it had won. I think it was purely a dominance thing. But here's the thing. These random attacks always took the same format. Always the bully dog started with the same trajectory of attack, and always aimed for the same spot on my dog's throat. Then one day, we encountered horrid dog again while out for a walk. Once again it attacked from the same angle, going low and aiming for my dog's throat. Except this time it would be different. This time my dog waited till the last second, dropped to her belly, and grabbed horrid dog my the throat. For the first time, she had dominance over bully dog. She gave it a bit of a shaking down, before pinning it. Horrid dog was terrified, and after a long pause of my dog standing over it, pinning it down with jaws around throat, we convinced our dog to let it go. It legged it, and never attacked our dog again. This is one story. One story alone doesn't really count as proof of anything. But I think it was pretty clear that it was pure instinctive strength against strength.

Can't say... Tae Kwon Do seems to be holding. Yup, TKD’s holding. Is there enough room for both is the question. Will it split TKD’s fan base and doom both? I don’t see them as distinct enough from each other in the layperson’s eye to coexist. But that’s just me. And I’m a karateka and I find WKF sparring pretty boring. How much of the general public will find it interesting enough to sustain it? Only time will tell the answers to all those questions and more. Well, I for one am really looking forward to karate in the Olympics. I find Olympic TKD to be worse than boring. I find it quite upsetting. TKD is a formidable style. It takes many of the good bits of karate, with bit of other styles, to make an awesome system. I believe several armies use it as a base for their unarmed combat training. What we see in the Olympics is not martial art. It is a travesty. A game of high tech tag where two players where pads with sensors in them, and while their arms flop around as though completely dead, they kick tag each other. A computer records the strikes and scores them based on which sensor was tapped. It would be more fun and more sporting to watch lazerquest. Of course karate has rules just as anything does when played as a sport. But here is a chance to try again, and hopefully not turn another fine art into a joke. Still, there's always Judo.

But if my knee is parallell to the ground when connecting compared to vertical? Which is the proper roundkick configuration? If your knee is pointing up, it's not a roundhouse kick. There is a kick that sweeps round that does have the knee pointing up. That's a crescent kick, or in Korean terminology, ahnuso pakaro chaki (don't know if that's spelled even close to right). Crescent kick and roundhouse kick are very, very different kicks.

We have a very severe language barrier. It's very hard to go into details under such conditions. I have tried Forgive me for being a bit blunt. But if you are asking on a forum for basic guidance because you don't feel you can ask your teacher, is it not time to find another teacher? It's one thing to seek advice and opinions on possible variations or new ideas. I know for fact my chief instructor does exactly that, although perhaps not via the Internet, but by occasional sessions with other teachers. We know he does. He tells us all about it after he's been. But it's another thing entirely to bypass the teacher about principles he teaches. Have you considered the possibility that your teacher thinks there are other things you need to fix before getting bogged down in details of a kick? Our instructor for example will completely ignore imperfect leg action in beginners until he can iron out their flailing arm and nonexistent guard issues. Once they start to tighten up their techniques, then he'll start ironing out the more minor (but important) details. Again forgive me for being blunt, but have you considered the possibility that he gives more attention to those that value his input?