Icetuete

agreed - the other questions then @ paolung

yes it does. last week i began to try out listening to music while trainng, and it does pretty good but i would listen to it while doing kata or something. but for punching/kicking training ur arms it is ok.

yeah, heard of it... but i dont know very much about it. this might be helpful though: http://www.hanmudo.com/ http://www.martialartsresource.com/Hoshinsool-online/hanmudo.htm

u might wanna ask in the "getting started" channel. i'm sure it'l be moved - get much more help there. as for ur problem; i dont know much about this Tai Chi u mentioned but Judo is said to be very well for both fitness and self-defense. visiting both cant be wrong and perhaps u r able to take a few training lessons for free. since u wont find out what style u wanna do for the next years by taking one or two classes, u better talk to the instructors and/or students abuot what u expect from the art and about the school. then decide what u r more comfortable with. besides, when u realize after a year or whatever, that the style isnt right for u, u can still go check the other. when u cant make up ur mind at all, u can still join both j/k p.s.: welcome to the forums.

yes, TKD indeed is one of the most versatile martial arts i think. it can be taught in so many different ways, like the olympic point sparring u pointed out @ Shoryu, or the flashy looks style of the demo teams, the self defense, the sport (meant as physical training for fun/fitness) or even the military style. one the one hand, this is very good, but on the other side, this makes it difficult for beginners to find the right dojang, because they r soo different. not to mention the McDojangs that make things worse.

i like this procedure best

welcome to the forums zile, why dont u write an indruction? doing it for sport does not have much to do with an effectiveness of a style. styles can be highly physically challenging and have devastating effects. i assume u were talking about the tournament aspect of tkd?[/url]

some of these are reall funny

was quite an effort to write that wrong, or should i say "to vrit zat vrong"? luckily enough, german is not the preferred language

yes, there r dojos that train this style here in germany, but they r all too far away. frankfurt would be a 5 hour drive at best, and for 2 or 3 classes a week it would make 10 to 15 or even more hours of driving. even if i had the time, i couldnt afford the gas needed. i found out about a dojo in Bonn which is "only" about one hour from here. i thought about going to university there. if u had information about any other Budo Taijutsu dojos... i would appreciate it

thanks, but i think i'll give it a shot anyways. i am not sure yet whether i will stick to tkd since i will be off to university in 1 or 2 years anyway. other styles i am interested in like Budo Taijutsu, Mantis Kung Fu and such arent available at my place. was difficult enough to find something that suits me well.

have fun and train hard . tell us how ur trip was afterwards!!

i am wondering about this for quite a time and decided to ask those who probably have the answer: the grapplers themselves; so here it goes. grappling is considered to be very important in self defense and it sure is. it provides u with many ways to defend urself against many different kinds of attack. but how do u end a fight as a grappling-only martial artist? in tournament (be it against strikers or other grapplers) u won the fight once u pinned the guy down/performed a good throw or whatever. but keeps ur attacker willing to get ur purse or to remodel ur face from standing up over and over again? sure, falling on asphalt hurts, espacially when u dont know how to roll, but the purpose of many grappling arts is not to hurt ur opponent. pinning ur opponent down on the street cant possibly work since he might pull out a knife from nowhere and besides, what sense is there in pinning someone down? that cant be it. so how does a grappler end a battle? and what if there are two of them? thanks in advance!

very good job, keep it going

absolutely correct!

in that case we come back to the "anything can be used as a weapon" concept and people would be arrested for owning a shovel, a spoon or even a pencil. knowledge of the arts only comes into play after u having beaten up some mugger/bullier or whatever. when u used ur skills to deliver more harm than the judge thought would have been appropriate u can go to jail and no one cares what the other guy wanted to do in first place, but there many threads discussing this already, i guess.

for example?

my arms and legs do not scare me

to a certain extend problaby not, but the health and life of my loved ones/friends and myself are worth many more. though i respect every form of live, the value of a full-time mugger/bullier is veyr questionable to me when the only thing he does night after night is threatening innocent ppl. gladly i never was in a situation where i had to judge about this/where my property or my health got threatended or when i had to blow up a gas station besides, weapons scare me anyway... i wouldnt feel compfortable carrying one. be it a knife, gun or whatever.

what belt are u holding currently, please? didnt really understand i'd like to know whether there r certain uniforms in this style or do u just wear some sports outfit. what r some of the street techniques like and is street combat the main focus of Seven Star Mantis style? Is there a difference between "normal" Mantis Kung Fu and the Seven Star system? is the focus on kicks, strikes, locks and r there grappling elements? how important is strenght and flexibility? why did u choose this style above all the other Kung Fu styles? did u do any MA before and then switched to Seven Star? man - theres plenty to know

these are all very cool styles. if ur daughter wants to start tkd, why dont give it a go? u might want to ask ur wife about the styles before u do ask us it cant be wrong to read a little about all of these styles and perhaps visit all of the dojos. in case u aint got certain aims regarding specific style u can still talk to instructors and join the school u feel most comfortable with.

yeah, thanks that at least helps me something

cool idea and very well performed: http://www.astercity.net/~tobik/pingpong.html

what is this Kung Fu style mainly about? what is the difference between SSM Kung Fu and other Kung Fu styles? what is the belt system like? does it teach u good self-defense? can this style bring u into shape? i only know that its about 350 years old and that Wong Long (shaolin monk) created this style using the movement and fight techniques of a mantis and a little monkey. ur help is greatly appreciated. anybody here practices this style? thanks in advance.

so u primarily train in weapons for self defense purpose? may i ask whether you do carry ur weapon with u when u go out or do u use whatever u can get when it comes to a dangerous situation? what weapon do u use for this purpose?