TheDevilAside

I have the same problem, with what another person posted, my art is American Kenpo (developed by Ed Parker). Anyway, everytime I say that some fool will think it's some macho WWF bullcrap. So I've just started calling it Kenpo, and if they ask for what style, I say 'The Ed Parker System'.

Some of you are going to murder me for saying this... but I listen to Eminem while I'm in the car to go to the school. :/ Not the new Album (The Eminem Show or 8 Mile) but the old on, the Marshall Mathers LP, and Devils Night gets me pumped up... But my mom doesn't always appreciate me for listening to Eminem, so I just pop in Custom then.

I researched this martial arts cult a little bit. I found a handfull of websites of schools that teach this 'art'. And wow, I sure am impressed. They are very careful when they describe their art, using lame attempts to prove that their art is the most the most effective using loose scientific statements. And boy, Grandmaster Kim "Iron" Style makes even super man look bad. Check this out, these are some of the things Kim Style has apparently been able to do. http://www.oomyungdoe.com/achievements.htm It includes everything from jumping off 8 story buildings to pulling vans with his teeth. This reminds of me of the malepregnancy.com hoax website, very, very well done. This cult has obviously been around for a long time.

The other week I had one of those, I just couldn't get the techniques right. I did the same thing over and over again and I always made the same mistake. It got me terribly frusturated, then the next class went a Lot better. And I reazlized, wtf? I'm only a white belt and I've only known these techniques for 3 classes now, I shouldn't be doing them perfectly. (we start off as a no-belt, and I had just tested for my white). So now I am no longer a perfectionist. Though I wish I were a perfectionist in my academics... blah.

Wow, then I must be atleast a 6th degree black belt in Kung Fu now! My arts: American Kenpo - White Belt Kung Fu - 6th degre BB Haha, I wish.

Sorry about the double post. Haha, did you notice that c-o-c-k-y was replaced with a star (*)? I didn't even know that was a curse word?

...And besides, have you ever gotten kicked in the groin with full force? I have, I don't have the heart to do that to someone who's just a bit too cocky and arrogant.

...And besides, have you ever gotten kicked in the groin with full force? I have, I don't have the heart to do that to someone who's just a bit too cocky and arrogant.

My friend (not a martial artist) got into a fight at school once with a popular jock-like guy. Anyway, my friend wouldn't have stood a chance but he kicked him in the groin and finished the fight in 3 seconds. When he told me about it I was clapping and yelling "good job!" until the next day. Next morning he went to school every boy was shoving him, pushing him, hitting him for no reason and he got into some serious after-school fights. I didn't find out until later that the reason was because he took such a 'cheap shot' and a 'respected' bully. He won the fight, but that particular fight caused 100's more. So I learned my lesson from him, I've never kicked anyone in the groin or gouged their eyes. Just for that reason. And besides, I can beat them without having to do that. However, if the situation were actually threatening (meaning: if someone's trying to do a lot more than just give you a black eye and rough you up a little) I wouldn't really care how I hit him. ...Except now at my highschool I hear that kicking is cheap? Wtf?! Aw well, I'm gonna kick em anyway

I'm a white belt, and the second week of going to karate I was shown a few basic things with them. Ofourse, I was hooked and I bought a wooden set online, after around a month of screwing around with them, I had to buy ones with foam (I hit myself in the back of the head everytime I tried to do that under-the-elbow move). Now that I'm relatively fast with them and can perform the basics without hitting myself, I'm totally hooked! Though I'm getting bored since I only know the basics, I should ask one of my instructors to show us some more nunchaku stuff again. We switch off with learning weapons every other week. ...I actually went on the internet to see if I could find clips/pictures of Bruce Lee with nunchucks, just so I could learn so more stuff. I worked too

I pay 100 a month, I can take 2 classes a day every day of the week (except Sundays, oh, and on saturdays only one class per day) and every class has 2 (sometimes 1) black belt instructors actively teaching. So far, I've never had a class taught by a brown belt, only *. instruction. So... compare the cost to the quality of the school. 30 a month doesn't you're getting 30% of what you could get, and 100 a month doesn't mean you get 100%. I suggest you set a max for yourself, then look at the schools quality. If you find two schools that you like equally, take the one that's cheapest

My first one was... well... Short-Form 1, also very Korean sounding.

I wouldn't be so much worried about their sex as I would be about the physical strength. Say I was a 5'6, skinny man and this 6'3" ex-con, bike gang member came at me swining her fists, I would definitely make sure non of those fists seriously hurt me. If she was some weak crack addict that was trying to stick me because I wouldn't give her money to buy her her next rock, I would just run. Actually, on 2nd thought, if that ex con came after me I'd run like hell too, lol.

I prefer striking, I can't really tell you why, it's just my personality I suppose. Which one is more effective? It on the setting of the enveironment the most. For instance, in say a regular bar or highscool fight, striking would come in more handy, because your opponent is going to most likely try to fight you with striking methods (like boxing). Grappling arts aren't exactly ideal for that type of thing. But let's say you're in the army, then striking is useless, because you're going to be carrying so much eguiptment that you won't be able to properly strike in the first place. But also, in a "regular bar fight" (you can't really call any fight regular). If you and your opponent gets you on the ground, which happens in a lot of fights, not all, but a lot, then grappling would be very useful, where as plain striking won't help you very much. And my solution to this problem? Cross train. A lot of less traditional striking schools blend in grappling techniques. So I suggest you try to find one like that. But this is my biased opinion. I've tried, and personally dislike grappling. So I'm not stating pure fact, I'm stating my opinion. So please don't start a flame war, people.

American Kenpo would work. It was designed for street fights in the US. It's a very fast, effective style. It was designed to get your opponent on the ground as quickly as possible. And it focuses a LOT on multiple attacker techniques, since it's most likely that you will be attacked by more than one person. The only problem is that American Kenpo almost does no ground fighting at all. That's why it's good to cross-train in BJJ or something, my school offers grappling seminars once a week. There's also a lot of weapon training. Empty hand vs. armed and vice versa. I can't really tell you what Martial Art woudn't work in a street fight, becaue no matter what MA you train in, it will give you some type of advantage. For instance in Tai Chi, the extremly soft techniques they use aren't too effective in a dirty street fight. But the conditioning you get from it, like the flexibility, speed, accuracy and control you get from that martial art will help you a LOT! But also keep in mind that Tai Chi isn't purely a fighting art. The fighting aspect isn't even half of it.

If the school is linked with an organization, for instance the International Kenpo Karate Association, then that is usually a good sign, and means the school is above average. But I would also research the association, if it doesn't have a website or isn't very reputable.. then it's a an McDojo with an McAssociation, lol. Visite the school before you join or sign anything. Watch the studends especially! If they move good.. that means the teacher taught them to move good. How the students look is more important that how the teacher looks, because the students are the product. And.. ofcourse.. you could always ask them

Wow, that's very interesting! I'll have to try that.

Steven Segaul is for real. A friend of mine (who now has a black belt in Shaolin Kung Fu) got to train with him.. well her school did. She said he was an amazingly effective in multiple attackers.

If he were seriously trying to knock me out, like you said the situation would be, then... I wouldn't beat him to the ground and then continue to punch his face until the structure of his skill collapses. But I would hit him hard and as fast as possible... hard enough to keep him from ever daring to do it again. Because if you hit soft, he'll probably come back with his friends seeking revenge. If you break one of his bones... he won't be able to come back But that, ofcourse, is if he's seriously wanting to hurt you.

"The best way to judge a man's character is to give him power" -Lincoln "One has to break a few eggs in order to make an omelette" -Stalin "I do not know what weapons world war 3 will be fought with, but world war 4 will be fought with sticks and stones" -Einstein "Everyone is intelligent, some people just prefer to express it in stupid ways" -anon "An eye for an eye will make the world blind" -Gandhi "People say that I'm a bad influence, I say the world's already f*****, I'm just adding to it" -Eminem "[Cursing in french] is like wiping your ass with silk, I love it" -The Matrix Reloaded "Anything is possible as long as you believe in it, is bulls***! You know why? Because that's what I believe" -A friend of mine

Even if this was supposedly the deadliest martial art on the planet... I still wouldn't take it. You know why? Look at the name! ...Lethal-o, hahaha! What the hell? Sounds like some martial arts action figure you can get at Toys R Us! "Hi, I'm Troy McLure, you may know me from such martial arts scams as..." Lethalo would make a good Simpsons episode.

That kind of thing happens to me all the time. For instance, once I caught a ping pong ball going extremely fast towards my head.. I didn't have a clue what I did until I saw the ping pong in my hand. And sometimes when I get into fights I can grab their fists without realizing or intending to do so. I don't know if that is even what you guys are talking about, lol, but it's weird. Now if only I could find a way to intentionally do such things.

Thank you so much. You've really cleared things up for me! And as far as making sure the school isn't an McDojo, how exactly can I find that out? I mean, I'm not an expert on martial arts, so how can I recognize one? So far the only proof I've found is that all of the schools are tied with martial arts 'alliances' for instance, the International Kenpo Karate Association, ect. I'm going to be visiting a few schools this coming week. So maybe you could give me an idea what to look for? ...one of the schools instructor is also a 5th degree black belt. But I've also heard that in some cases that doesn't even really matter. Well, atleast you cleared up one thing for me... but now I'm full of questions again, heh.

I'm no meditator, or master of Ki... I'm actually not even sure what Ki is. But has anyone ever tried getting rid of pain? I don't mean popping some tylenol. I mean actually focusing on not feeling any pain on a certain spot. Lately I've been experiementing... and with quite some success! Whenever I get bruised, cut or injured in any other manner.. I try to focus on ignoring the pain. And it works very well.. I haven't gotten to the point where I virtually feel no pain, but the intensity decreases dramatically. However, I have to keep on focusing on it or else the pain starts again. At one point I even purposely cut myself about an 8th of an inch deep into the skin of my arm (very stupid! I'm never going to do that again) just to see if I could make the pain go away. I got to the point where all I felt was a mild throbbing, but if I quit concentrating on making the pain go away, it would increase to a sharp stinging again. I was amazed. But the infection hurt like hell afterwards! So has anyone tried doing this? I'm going to keep on trying just to see how much progress I can make. Except I won't PURPOSELY hurt myself again.

...What is the deal with American Kenpo and the creator of it, Ed Parker? I am hearing so many stories from so many sides... I'm completely confused. Some say Ed Parker re-designed kenpo/kempo to make it more effective in real life situations in America. Others say Parker is a phony who stole all of the Kenpo/Kempo techniques, added his name to it, some numbers and called it his own. Anyone have an opinion? I would like to know... since I am torn between choosing a Tang Soo Do, American Kenpo or Karate school.