TheDevilAside

Uhm, no. High reps, low weight = endurance. Low reps, high weight = raw strength. Listen, you can't get bulky without becoming stronger as well. There's no such thing as huge muscles and little strength, if you train naturally. As far as what supplements do to you, I don't know, never tried them. And dude, Van Damme is a beast. Becoming as powerful as him is enough of a challenge. Don't worry about accidently lifting too much weight and waking up looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger the next morning. "Oops". I'd say do all of it. Do bodyweight exercises, do high reps and low weights, do low reps and high weights. Do cardiovascular work. Become a renaissance lifter

The argument is in the topic's title. Karate philosophy vs. Female vanity. Get rid of your vanity, it's not a good character trait to have. Just leave the makeup at home. I'm with Luckyboxer, I don't see how makeup is beneficial or necessary in training.

I wish Chi could cure my cold right now.

Hooah! I practice Kenpo, even though I'm quitting my training for a 6 months or so because of school.

Every martial art practice kinetics, I guess. American Kenpo just tries to make the practicioner aware of its basic principles. Even though "kinetics" has the word, "ki" in it, it doesn't have anything to do with Ki.

weight gainers? Lol, like.. McDonald's? Stay away from steroids. Build yourself up naturally. As far as supplements go, first start lifting weights and build some strength. I'd do it for at least 1-2 years. After that you can choose any route you like.

Uhm... I, personally, think "Ki" is simply the result of concentrating. I don't believe you can use it in a battle, because, well.. your first couple of fights (at least), the last thing you're thinking about is harnessing your Ki energy. Ki is debatable.

Haha, it's all good. Yeah, the quote I actually said myself during an argument I had with a teacher. I didn't want to give myself credit because I'm sure it's just a paraphrased version of something someone has already said. Not trying to expand my ego by having people compliment it, I just thought it was a cool point that people might enjoy.

I'm 16. I'll create a seperate thread of people are interested in it.

Rabbit, Fire. For the longest time I thought I was a dragon, until I looked up a chart. Being a rabbit sucks >:/

Hahaha.. ...haha, damnit, I can't think of a comeback.

Them actually making fists and punching each other instead of just doggy paddeling at each other ...just kidding, no offense to any of the ladies that do martial arts. What I meant was, it always gives me chills when I see women (or, usually teenaged girls) that take on that warrior (amazonian?) attitude where they actually want to draw blood and get revenge, or just physically hurt someone severely. Maybe that's sexist, I don't know. I don't care whether two rowdy boys are fighting it out until one's out cold, but I guess with women I see it differently. So.. fist-fight = a vicious fight with intent to seriously harm. Where you hit with a fist instead of an open hand, heh.

They were? I didn't know that, I thought they only used them as entertainment.

Haha, yeah, I noticed the trend too. I've never been in a serious confrontation where a stranger wanted to kill me or whatever. They were always with people I knew that had a grudge against me (or vice versa). Funny, I'm friends with most of them now. It's been a while since I've fought anyone. I like fighting, too. It's exhilerating, but I really hate getting involved with street fights (is a fight on school grounds, or in a gym still a street fight?). I always felt a bit guilty, and sick afterwards. But, my insecurities always got the better of me. I always had to prove myself to the biggest, baddest tough guy out there. ...Rambling! Sorry :/

yes, Project: Mayhem indeed.

Girls getting involved in "fist-fights" with each other? That makes me sad. Girls are now afraid of being called "wussies" if they don't fight? That makes me even more sad. Whatever happened to the empathetic and fair maidens we would joust over? Heh.. Bah...

... Europe is 'Western'. We do have some of the best weaponry, along with Germany. The H&K's are good (I'm sure all of you have heard of an 'MP5'), a lot of US Forces us H&K weapons. Russia has the crappy kalishnikov which is popular because it's easy to produce, cheap, and does the job. The SVD sniper rifle is okay, though. And the Westerners did invent guns, actually. The Chinese were using the powder for fireworks, they just never thought of aiming those fireworks at their enemies. "Martial arts has nothing to do with Asia" or whatever the person said, is a pretty broad statement. Some martial arts have Nothing to do with Asia, and Some martial arts have Everything to do with Asia. That sounds better. Everyone says something stupid once in a while.

I don't really know about all of this conditioning stuff. I kind of bought it for a while, but I never really tried it much. I think it's simply genetic, some people just have strong hands, some have weak hands, and I doubt conditioning will repair the gap very much, without some unwanted 'side effects'. Also, conditioning to avoid pain, I'm not so sure about this, I'd say work on it mentally. Just get used to it. Stop killing your nerves, just start conditioning your head so it won't allow pain as a distraction. I think my hands are genetically superior Because I used to (bah, never do this) punch concrete, wood, trees (especially don't do that), etc. because I was a pretty angry and stupid person at the time. However, I never had much of a problem with the pain. My knuckles would be swollen for about a week (not really sure why, though, because it'd happen even if I didn't break the skin) and it would hurt like hell to grab things, but pain was never really stopped me, and I didn't permanently damage my knuckles, I think. Except for when I punched trees, I ripped off a substantial amount of flesh doing that... stupid! Anyway, I think it's genetic. No?

better yet, fire a gun.

I would hope not..

I can see how that would work in a confrontation with a stranger in the city or something, might make them think you're a bit crazy. But in school? I would just laugh if someone did that, no offense. You have to be careful what you do in school, especially high school (if you're American, not sure if England has a similiar education system, but I know Germany and Switzerland don't) so, I would say for the most part, don't growl at a bigger, stronger person, or kick them in the groin, or make scary faces. Because they know they're bigger and stronger than you, and they believe (whether it's true or not) that they can mop the floor with you, so I don't think growling is going to affect their confidence much. Uhm... you are. Why didn't you let him beat you up? He would have probably done less damage to you, and spared you the bill for breaking the window. Come on, you're joking, right? Lol, man that's funny to picture. Luckyboxer pretty much said it. I don't think I can add much. Just be aggressive. If you're in the fight already, being defensive isn't going to do anything. Forget about "self defense". Once the person has crossed the line, be aggressive, don't let him drive you into the wall, force him into the wall. Don't lose your head, though, just exploit every single opportunity you can. Don't hold back.

Hehe 1) I log in using the link. 2) It depends on what sort of mood I'm in. Sometimes I work from the bottom up for a "lighter diet" or vice versa.

I would add more groundwork to American Kenpo. But other that I think it's pretty damn good. However.. I have a few disagreements with how my school trains. The teachers are very competent, no doubt. But they go easy on us, way too easy. The teachers themselves are pretty "hardcore" I've seen them train with each other, but when it comes to us, the students, they go completely soft on us. We can only do light contact to medium contact sparring, with gear. It didn't used to be like this, but they changed it. The worst warm up I've had in there was having to do 25 push ups and a few crunches. Easy. None of the students in there are really being pushed. But that's okay, because I can always work out other places. What really bothers me is how lame the sparring is. Almost no contact, it really sucks. I can't fight when I'm forced to hold back like that. Oh well. My town doesn't have anything else to offer.

Could've been useful during the Civil War.

This is true. There've been numerous discussions in this forum about what you would do if someone were to mug you. And a lot of people said that they would rather just hand them what they wanted and avoid a possible serious conflict. That's what the Bible talks about in that verse. It's a practical method of staying out of trouble Great article, by the way.