Patrick

http://www.eternalmoonwalk.com/ Pretty cool little video mashup.

Congrats.

Congrats Bob and Ed! Patrick

Glad that you guys enjoyed it. My pleasure. I found it interesting, too.

Has anyone picked up the game yet? What console? Thoughts?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124648494429082661.html Via Digg.

Congrats and welcome.

Hey Jeet Kune Do, good to see you. Hope all is well. Patrick

That's too bad, BDPulver. My pleasure, Brian. Patrick

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/photogalleries/statue-of-liberty-pictures/index.html Cool pictures. Via Digg.

Welcome aboard, Danielsan. Great thoughts, everyone. Patrick

Welcome aboard, Mr. Simeone. Patrick

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j-naIx2ZJPF816zgNIy2Dds8ieZwD995T18O0

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/wimbledon09/news/story?id=4307143 Huge accomplishment. Congrats to him.

Nice idea for a thread, Dobbersky. Thanks for sharing, everyone! Patrick

Thanks for sharing that. I hung around at home with my family... my brother had to work, so we grilled on the 5th, instead, when he was home. But, basically, we ate some good food.

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