battousai16

i dunno, my state of WI has a zero tolerance policy; a young elementary school child was expelled for bringing a butter knife to school to cut the cake he brought for his class (though i believe he was re-admitted when the family threatened to sue), but i was able to bring a sword to my school when i had class immediately afterwards. if you clear it with the office, they're generally ok with it. at least, our administration is. if they say no, accuse them of being racist for not recognizing cultural traditions, or something like that. they'll come around...

but i don't have the instinctive reflex to turn and kneel every time i hurt someone. i don't train to do that. i do it out of respect. just as i wouldn't bow when i'm encountered.

oh, we do that too... i just figured it should be made clear that there is a distinct difference between sparring and a fight... if you're in a fight, it's assumed that your aim is to hurt the other person, in which case it become quite counter productive and tiresome to turn away and kneel to wait for the other person to gather him/herself.

"However, I dislike the whole idea of facing away and kneeling to opponent during a fight." um... maybe it's just my school, but we've never been encouraged to do that in a fight

stick to what you know

oh come on, didn't you ever see karate kid 3? THAT'S how you're supposed to use forms in a fight! first of all, you should certainly be getting more from forms that just technique, rather you should be learning principles and the like too. i'm with sevenstar, if it's in your form, there's probably a way to work it, just perhaps not the way you'd initially think.

i truly hope that one day, it'll dawn on people that it's one movie...

um... if you can do it fine with a target... can't you just picture a target in front of you? that should do the trick, shouldn't it?

um... when did i say you didn't need talent to be a rapper?

ha, i saw that on tv the other night! you gotta love jackie chan

ha, only if your gaming kung fu is weak. try that on me and i'll slaughter you

oh, um... i dunno anything about those...

well thanks kicks and family, y'all have a good 'ne too

um... generally you strike with the scabbard when you're unsheathing... y'know, to plan for if they block your first cut. that way, you're a step ahead of the game. one handed isn't so awkward once you get used to it, you just have to learn to get used to the weight shifts. but i certainly wouldn't do it. a bit less control.

wushu would be my guess.

oh, then put "paul chen" into google. he makes a lot of good swords for beginners at decent prices.

i had a form where you did some strikes with the sheath... i really don't know what to tell you. don't have any websites, but yeah, it's been done.

...or you could just dull them... that said, i have a huge dogma against learning sword from a video. i just don't think it can be done, there are to many little things that go along with it that you really need someone else to catch for you, especially in the very beginning. find an instructor.

well, in defense of rap, it's unfair to say that 99.9% is comprised of "a black guy(or eminem) sitting up on stage talking about, killing their families, doing drugs, raping women, hurting ppl in general, etc. to a poorly written set of music(I don't even like calling it music) I like bands that have actual talent."... that's just commercialized rap, which i think most people would agree with. there's a whole nother world of rap music out there that deals with social and political issues and life in general and the like. not that i'm a rap fan either, but it's good to be fair. and hey, i was at that muse concert too! I see you mentioned chevelle in your list of bands; they're playing at the same place in December... the 16, i think.

personally i prefer chord, but i don't think it's a bad idea to start out with chain. it's heavier, so you build some more muscle in there, and it'll just bring you more control, i think. plus, when you switch over to chord, you'll have a much better appreciation sound when that annoying grinding sound is absent

alright, first of all: in bruce lee movies, karate wasn't evil, and not even japanese people were evil, it was racism that was evil. y'know, just to get that straight. bare in mind, in... i wanna' say fists of fury... the group of employees at that restaurant were training karate (before training under bruce), and i think it's the same movie where he fights chuck norris and he's treated with the utmost respect. it's racism that's the bad guy, not a karateka. second, kiss of the dragon, that was kali, not karate. at least, they were working with sticks, but that said, they were in a police station, so they were probably just learning how to use them to bust the knee caps of suspected marijuana users. anyway, kali comes from the philipines. so uh, yeah. third, bruce didn't say karate was useless. he said all systems were incomplete, and that one should open his mind, take what he could from many styles, and train what works for you. not just be hopelessly stuck on one style. so it's not just an anti-karate thing, it's an anti-single style thing. and finally, my wing chun class trains outside in the spring-fall season, and we get that all the time. best to just ignore it. you should be above it anyway, and just stay focused on what your doing. you'll be that much better off with it if that guy decides to pick a fight with you

this thread reminds me of an assignment my english teacher made us do... she made us write essays on recumbant bicycles... what to look for, where's best, etc... y'know, to "prepare us for buying items in the real world". then she happened to run out and by a recumbant bycycle... hmmmmm...

my guess would be that shin splints is a catch-all term that just describes anything wrong with your shins? you have 'em when you have 'em, they're shins that really hurt.

um... i've had shin splints a few times. if the pain got really bad i'd ice 'em, but that was about once a week or so. generally i could keep going, it would just hurt a lot of anything touched 'em. they go back to normal in a few weeks, but it is possible to injure them further if you're to hard on them while they're trying to heal, so... i dunno, i've never had a real problem with 'em, i think you're almost over killing it. i've never heard of surgery for shin splints... oh, and i think your navy dreams are still in reach, don't sweat it.

it's not really a matter of people pretending they can fight with spins and tosses and the like. if someone attempts to do that in a confrontation, they deserve to get thwocked upside the head. it's more a matter of understanding your weapon and getting a feel for it.