TheDevilAside

Cool, thanks a lot for your input It might look like I'll just have to wait.

Hey, I'm from Colorado too, Boulder. Right now doing a job in Lakewood. Glad to have you on board.

If you can afford it, go for it. You'll pick up on a lot of new, useful stuff and be exposed to another martial art that you might be interested in pursuing in the future.

Man, it's been a while since I've been here. Anyway, I was thinking of starting up a martial art again, 'cause ever since I stopped my motivation for everything, weight lifting, running every other day, etc. has just dropped. Besides, I really loved doing it for the time being. However, the school went sour and I stopped enjoying it. Now, the problem is where I live there aren't very many schools around, actually just two. There are, however, a few places I would be interested in, but they're about an hour away. So, I was wondering what some of you guys have for a commute to your martial arts dojo. How far is too far? What about in relationship to the price of the dojo? Etc. etc. Just wanted to compare.

Yeah, my friends used to ask me all the time. The trick is to make sure they never ask you again. But whenever someone asks, I usually just do a fancy lock, "okay, grab my wrist.." What gets on my nerves though is when someone will punch me out of the blue and ask me, "where's your karate kung fu now, huh? Huh?"

If you've known him for 10 years, ask him, if you feel obliged to. But whatever his answer is, it shouldn't really matter. If it offends the instructor, then maybe he should have a more professional outlook on his career.

broke college student style.

I used to flinch, blink, close my eyes, the whole enchilada when I first started out. Then in about a week I stopped closing my eyes. In a month I stopped flinching. In a year I was clear as water, cool as ice. So, I would just give it time, it takes a while to untrain your natural reflexes.

Indeed, but my town is small and only has two martial arts dojos in the area, so I was looking for a locator that found results across the State. And googling, even for my State, just comes up with scattered information, 30% of which is useful. Thanks Aefibird for the links, I bookmarked them all, I'll try them out. I'm looking into Muay Thai, BJJ or something else, it really depends on what's accessible.

I'm looking for a new martial art, anyone know a good online school locator for the United States? I used to have a few, but I had to re-format my harddrive a while ago and I lost all of my links.

I think Chi is nonsense, but if you're a sincere Christian, I don't think you'll drink fire and brimstone because you believe in it or practice it. But, as far as believing that Chi is the Holy Spirit within you, I think that's a bit far-fetched. Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about the Holy Spirit improving your physical health, neither does it talk about the Holy Spirit being the force of life, and it also doesn't talk about the Holy Spirit allowing you to accomplish amazing physical feats, such as the "unbendable arm". The Holy spirit, as it is referenced in the Bible, has "spiritual" attributes, not physical ones like Chi or Ki. Before talking about Chi and saying that it's electricity, energy, or improves your health, I would first take a couple of science classes, mainly in the area of biology. Another thing, a lot of people are saying that Chi isn't mystical, it's pure fact or science. But I've never heard of any studies using scientific method that have measured Chi or observed its existence. If Chi is energy, wouldn't we be able to measure it?

I used to skateboard all the time, and I agree with battousai. Personally, I'd say about 25% of skateboarding is skill, 75% of it is guts and a high pain tolerance. How much can you do so far?

I listen to a wide range of music, but right now my favorites are probably Led Zeppelin, CCR, Rammstein, Louis XIV and Rage Against the Machine.

I don't think so, but I hear steroids work pretty well..

Dojo. More equiptment, safer enveironment.

I am a moderator for an online martial arts community of over 4,000 members One of my cousins is the chief engineer of Jeff Gordon's car, or something like that. That's about as close as I and my family gets to fame.

You're 13, buddy. All I can really tell you is... don't bother, for a number of reasons. 1.) You're probably at an all-time low as far as your confidence (in anything) goes, and confidence (the genuine kind) is what it takes to get... uhm... game. 2.) Your actions are probably mostly influenced by chemicals in your body, rather than intellectual reason. 3.) You have no idea how complex girls are. I won't even go into how confusing relationships are. 4.) You'll probably break up and you'll cause yourself 1-100 weeks of misery. I don't want to sound condescending, but I'm just telling you, worrying about it at your age is a big waste of time (and at mine probably too). I was just like you (or similar, anyway) when I was your age. It was pretty much hell, I couldn't even carry on a normal conversation with a girl because I was so unsure of myself. Anyway, moral of the story is, I'm 16 now (almost 17, woohoo) and everything worked out just fine. I'm not scared to approach girls, I can tell a joke without stuttering, and I don't shake and shiver while I'm taking out a girl to a dance, a movie, or something. You'll be fine. Just give yourself time. There isn't really some sort of trick to having "game". Women are attracted to your character, not your playa skillz. And it takes lots of time and experience to build character. Plus, girls and guys your age don't have a clue what they want in someone, and guys and gals my age alike are just starting to find out.

Nice! Plus one for righteousness

Heh, I'm pretty sure Vito was being sarcastic.

Nobody knows.

Street Fighter? That old game on Super Nintendo?

Right on! It's a great way to start the day.

People do martial arts for several reasons, the most popular ones would probably fun, fitness and self defense. I personally went into the martial arts because I like fighting, in a healthy sort of way. I don't go out and pick fights with people I don't know, I just enjoy contact sparring, working the bag, watching UFC and Pride fights, stuff like that. I lift weights for my physical fitness component. I started doing martial arts last summer, when I was 15.

Keep up the cardiovascular work. It'll take time, so be patient.

I just make a chocolate/banana milkshake (mMm) with a couple of scoops of '100% Whey Protein' in the morning.