mtheiss

No headgear or pads in any competition or intraclass sparring. I hope that is an answer to your question.

To answer Bushido's question most appropriately I would say the kids are wearing no protection as such (headgear and any body equipment). But then, I have one scource in England who believes that such heavy fighting should begin at 8 like what he said. I do not know how Bushido and the others would react to such a senerio. BTW, the rules are clearly 3 minute rounds with a 12 round limit unless you are going for the "knockout only" fights.

I think it sounds like he is working out very intensively. Makes me wonder if the match is 3 minutes and five rounds or even worse. Trust me, some kids could handle that kind of stress.

I was wondering, since young boys and girls now are being trained at the age of 5 (or perhaps younger!), I was wondering about suggestions about how long should the kids be testing in the training gym before you are sent into real 3 minute (12 round?) matches against their fellow students their age. Should they be around 8 or is that logical?

Sorry

I am from Sacramento, CA too! Please tell me if you get any results because i think it would be nice if we could meet sometime. Being 29, i think I am "too old", but then, it would be nice to try something new, don't you think?

I do think it was a fair decision on your part to insist that my soccer comparisons are not fair, but there are certain guidelines which I have noticed in speaking with some international teachers which could very much consider some schools "pantsies". I am not into overhauling the whole means of teaching martial arts in the USA, only that there should be specific camps set up for a particular group of good practictioning youth. Allowing people to keep their normal jobs, I think it is easy for youth to end up in certain situations without causing as much pain as if they were breadwinning adults. I feel that my views are private, but then, if you want to talk about extreme examples, I am game.

As for any karate style, you have to be good at the art. Not knowing what your sparring rules are, such as for age, experience, "knockout", etc, I would think that it is good to teach a well rounded approach to the disipline. I do have one "test" in mind, but I think it is not appropriate for the world to know it.

I think that it is good to take a holiday, but then, true believers tend to not forget the holiday per se, but not be completely devoted to what they do that day. But then, one might perpose the concept of participating in many sports or activities. Danica Patrick can be used as an appropriate example in my opinion. Then, I guess, I do not know.

There are reasons why one can be concerned about one of my chief training ideas, if you do call it a training idea. Alas, the old saying goes, one should be ready for everything...

The worst thing to do in my opinion at any form of work is to keep the training constant and even. There are benefits to taking a break or to include different sparring rules, for example.

I do not think a thing like this is appropriate for a sparring match!

If you use movies for entertainment, I can make a few which could cause conterversy and healthy debate here. It is very interesting.

I think you guys should respect all martial arts aspects as honorable. Particularly belts. In my experience it would be best to wear something that shows that you respect the martial arts and anyone else you might see at things like tournaments or shows. My suggestion is to keep a supply of good looking belts, and save any older ones for the real "special occasions".

I do not want to go into details, but I think that American martial arts training should go to another level. Just read Arena's quote on ESPN.com and I think his comments should be extended to karate, TKD, and a few other specialties as well.

Are we dealing with a drunk driver here? If so, please take the car keys away from the person before you get into the car!

I do not think it is fair to go into topics where sparring against novices is the key feature without making sure we are aware of the rules of the sparring matches. As far as "Sargent" goes, I would like to know the rules of his weekly matches so I can know the best way of how to talk to him about how his gym works.

In a car, there is only one rule of effective self defense. Just jump. If you do intend to fight this individual, I am afraid there are stories that I can come up with that are rather distasteful here, and this to me sounds very much it belongs in that group. Sorry.

It is good that you were able to go out with some of your team and to explore how different schools, teachers, and groups operated. The foundation of a good federation or diverse training techniques is a strong unified system of meetings where individuals for fun explore how everyone else ticks.

As in all sports, best way to learn how to win, and of course evade disaster, is to learn the rules first. Be prepared for those head kicks. From what I heard on here, three seconds down or two knockdowns will be a win here. Be careful.

I think it is best not to challenge instructors in front of others. That should be an off class subject.

My point exactly, but this time, you might have a legitimate legal claim against these people. it is one thing to protect property, but a completely different matter entirely if they were menacing and intimidating people.

It is good that an organization would be interested in protecting their property. UK is a modern country last time I heard, right? However, leave the matter in the custody of the courts and or sanctioning body offices. In all cases, never ever assault a class like that to intimidate students. It might make a legitimate criminal complant look menacing and Mafia based.

Stupid idea. Very stupid. Instructors are "gods". Want to challenge someone? Find the instructor to quietly ask a new student if he or she wants a challenge. NEVER GO TO THE DOJO SIMPLY TO CHALLENGE INSTRUCTOR! Rude and a very insensitive action in my opinion.

It is wrong for a new person to walk in and in a manner of a short time challege the insitution to a sparring match. I think that is a very wrong and a very irresponsible way of acting. If you care to deal with the combative aspects of martial arts, I am sure topics such as tournaments or the occasional class vs class sparring challenges one hears of would sound better. Me personally, I have my own views.