Patrick

So, what did you all do on the 4th?

Happy July 4th to everyone in a America. Be safe. Patrick

Congrats still kicking.

There comes a point when you can really take things too seriously. It's good to have respect for the arts, as we all do, but... there are a lot of ways to look at this. You should ask yourself: do you like to be rewarded when you invest time in something? The answer is likely yes. Rewards, honors, recognition, congratulations, promotions, etc. aren't just something desired by people who reach a certain age, but by people of all ages. Kids are especially sensitive to this and things need to be fun for them to play and do, also, things need to be fun in childhood - period - or why do it? If you say "well, the martial arts isn't meant to be fun, no belts for them," OK, but understand you can say the same for any activity, from baseball to piano, and understand that you are discouraging generations from a healthy activity because your practice is seemingly too good for them and them holding a belt somehow cheapens your experience. I don't see a problem with a pack of 5-10 year olds at camp telling each other they are black belts. What's the harm? They're kids, having fun, proud of themselves. Consider that there is a lot worse things that could happen. Consider who is really being hurt by them saying they are a black belt. When a kid makes an all-star team, does it hurt professional athletes that he calls himself an all-star? When a kid gets a gold medal for some competition, does it hurt Olympians when she calls herself a gold medalist? When a kid puts on a sheriffs badge, does that invalid real law enforcement? Belts aren't toys, exactly, so don't get me wrong there, but when you are a certain age, the martial arts are a game, a sport, an after school activity. When you are 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... you care about hanging with your pals, being supported and encouraged and having fun. You have juice boxes and cookies after baseball games. Nothing is a life goal for you. You're not "on the journey of your life." You don't care about the "martial arts way." You don't get a black belt and then think "hey, I can beat everyone up." Maybe they'd joke about it, but let me know when you see a five year old go up to a 6 feet adult male and attempt to beat him up - seriously - with the adult not laughing. If you find a teacher of 5-12 year olds telling his or her students that they should use their martial art to go beat people up, again, let me know... but don't blame the students, blame the teacher. Like Alex said, you can have different levels of belts. Normal ones for adults, junior belts for certain ages and, hey, why not kid belts for the youngest ones. Belts are one of the coolest things about a martial art to a kid (and to many adults) and kids want to be praised and encouraged. Do you think a pat on the back or a piece of paper is going to excite an 8 year old? No, they want the cool belt. There is a contradiction here, as well. Many people say it's not about the belt. But, it becomes all about the belt if a kid wears one? So, again, my point is that, at that age, martial arts are a fun activity and why not? Why shouldn't 5-10 or even 12 year olds be physically active, building self esteem through the arts? Aren't martial arts a good way to stay healthy and build self esteem? Or has that changed? Is the martial arts too good for that? Is it so much better than music or baseball or ? To tell them, "you can't have a belt," would be like telling an adult they couldn't test for Yellow Belt for 10 years. People can say they are in it for the art and for the belt and I'm sure that's true, but would you really stick around a school like that? So... if you want to feel this way, that's fine, but you should be comfortable and confident enough in your own abilities and rank, to not be so bothered by kids playing a game as a hobby calling themselves black belts that you feel like they need to be corrected. Just my thoughts. Thanks, Patrick

Just so that there is no confusion from isshinryu5toforever's post, I wanted to say that I moved this from Chinese Martial Arts to Getting Started in the Martial Arts. No worries. wadebill, welcome to our community. It might be helpful if you talked a little bit more about what you want in an art and also tell us what arts are available in your area. Thanks, Patrick

I think this is an interesting thread. Thanks for starting it, isshinryu5toforever and thanks to everyone who has replied so far. hehe. Well, if you'd like, you can visit the site by typing in http://www.martialartsforums.com, too. Patrick

My pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pen2ooEykjY

Thanks for the replies. Our pleasure, Dobbersky.

Good story, thanks for sharing. I'm glad the man was able to defend himself. Actually, this left a bad taste in my mouth. The Daily Mail has a good fair use argument, I'm sure, to take images that they wouldn't otherwise have rights to (that aren't copyright to Facebook, as they indicated, but to the man or the photographer). But, their intent in doing so was to cast the man in a bad light or make fun of the man, which isn't good journalism and the story alone should have been enough to stand on it's merits. Then again, I am not 100% familiar with the type of publication the Daily Mail is. Patrick

Thank you for the submission. Patrick

Hello, KarateForums.com recognizes one member every month as the Member of the Month for their positive contributions to this community. The July 2009 selection is... Dobbersky. Congratulations!

Via Digg via TREND HUNTER.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4299144 Rest in peace.

I went ahead and gave this it's own thread. Welcome aboard, Dave! Patrick

Yes, it's fine. Thanks for posting. Patrick

Hello everyone, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. The standings have been wiped clean and the KarateForums.com MMA Picks 2009 Second Half is kicking off now with our first event being UFC 100. Jump right in: http://www.karateforums.com/karateforums-com-mma-picks-2009-ufc-100-vt36655.html In addition to the previously announced changes aimed at making the game easier, we've made one addition, big change: we've dumped the point system and the method picks, so that you only have to pick the match winners. This should make it a lot easier to follow. Not sure who to pick? Please check out the MMAWeekly rankings for some guidance. Thank you for reading and good luck! Patrick

Just a quick note to say that we've dropped the method pick on KarateForums.com MMA Picks for the new season, so you need to pick the winners only! Best of luck. Thanks for playing, Patrick

Hello, Thank you for your interest in the KarateForums.com MMA Picks competition. When participating, please keep the following guidelines in mind. 1. The fight leagues that we post fight cards from are UFC and Affliction. 2. All picks must be posted by 10:00 AM ET on the day of the event as judged by the time stamp on the post. Any picks posted after this point will not be counted. 3. If you skip or fail to select all of the picks for a given event, each skipped pick will be marked as a loss. The same goes for if you accidentally select both fighters participating in the same match. 4. If you would like to change picks that you have already posted, please post the changes in a new reply to the picks thread for the given event. If you do not include all picks from the event, the only picks changed will be the ones that you include in the new reply. The rest of your previous picks will stand. The most recent pick that you make for a given match will be the pick that you are given for said match. If you post your new picks after the deadline for picks, the changes will not be counted. In order to preserve the integrity of the results, post editing is not permitted. 5. For picks to be counted, they must be posted in the designated fight card thread. Please post only picks in the fight card thread for the event specified - discussion should take place in the proper forum. For discussion of MMA matches, please use Martial Arts Entertainment. If you post your picks outside of the designated fight card thread, they will not be counted. 6. If you ever feel that a mistake has been made in scoring, please contact Rusty (pittbullJudoka) and me with the details, as opposed to posting about it in the forums. It will be investigated and a correction will be made, if appropriate. 7. If a fight ends in a no contest, draw or disqualification, the fight will not be counted. 8. If there is a change to the fight card, we will update it as soon as possible. However, you are responsible for making changes to your picks, as a player. If you pick a fighter that has been replaced, and you do not change the pick, the replacement fighter will be your selection. 9. The person who has the most wins at the end of an event is considered the winner of that event. There are no tiebreakers, so multiple people can be considered the winner. If an event has less than 3 completed matches in it, there is no winner selected for the event, but the picks will still count in the total standings. Events include both the main card and preliminary matches. 10. For the purpose of standings, the year is divided into two seasons: one running from January 1 through June 30 and the other running from July 1 through December 31. Please remember that this is a game and it is for everyone's enjoyment. Please do not take it too seriously. As with all posts on KarateForums.com, our User Guidelines apply to all contributions made in relation to this game. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Rusty (pittbullJudoka) or me. Thank you for reading, for your interest in the competition and for visiting KarateForums.com.

http://www.kevinvanaelst.com/photoapple.html Via Digg.

Didn't say they would be! Hehe. That said, as a turkey dog, I think I'd like to try The Chihuahua (minus the bacon). I do like avocado.

http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/10-Off-the-Wall-Hot-Dogs.html Via Digg.

Hello, Thank you for visiting KarateForums.com. The KarateForums.com MMA Picks 2009 (First Half) competition has come to an end and, before we get into the results, I'd like to thank everyone who participated this season, as well as Rusty (pittbullJudoka) and Brian (bushido_man96) for managing the competition. Thank you. With that said, the final standings have been posted. Here they are: Most Points 1. pittbullJudoka - 294 2. ShoriKid - 277 3. bushido_man96 - 243 4. KarateEd - 24 5. 50inches - 22 6. eagle-ace - 14 Most Wins 1. ShoriKid - 78-48 2. pittbullJudoka - 75-61 3. bushido_man96 - 64-60 4. KarateEd - 7-5 5. 50inches - 5-5 6. eagle-ace - 4-7 Events Won 1. ShoriKid - 6 1. pittbullJudoka - 6 3. bushido_man96 - 3 Winning Percentage To qualify for the winning percentage lead, you must have picked in enough events so that you have picked in more than half of the total possible number of picks for the entire season. 1. Shorikid - .619 2. bushido_man96 - .516 3. pittbullJudoka - .513 Congratulations to Rusty (pittbullJudoka) and ShoriKid on their victories. Thank you for reading. Sincerely, Patrick

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2009-06-23-mcmahon-appreciation_N.htm Rest in peace.