granmasterchen

i have often thought about this...the katana....because i have done alot of hiking up in the mountains and often carry my katana with me, along with other smaller weapons....i think that a skilled individual could manage....if he was lucky... the bear is fast, plain and simple, but if you did get lucky and managed to swipe off a leg, which can be pretty easy with a nice katana, then the battle is basically over....as long as you out run the bear, what is the sense of it though???? i think it is POSSIBLE to win, but i will leave it at that.....the bear will keep attacking you....even after you have slashed its throat open or wacked off a limb....so basically if you are really LUCKY....

getting used to breaking a coconut...therefore a skull....is useful if you ever get into a serious situation where you may need to break someone's head. I train to do this with one strike, no building up, so just walk over and hit and break it....I dont compete in breaking, i just do it for fun. I like the feel of breaking stuff, its kind of a rush. I do demos...but i haven't competed yet, if i did compete here, i would easily win everytime, nobody in the area breaks cement or bricks, or anything thicker than one inch for boards ....where i am currently working on 24 inches of brick for one strike

i may be quarter tang....i have seen alot of those that are disguised as the highlander type katanas with the dragon heads.....

also try coconuts, they are the closest thing to resemble the human skull

its all in your mind.....just remember that neither of them is harder than your mind and fist and they all break just as easily....

Hello, myself and other senior martial artists in the area are trying to get a good foundation for our association and raise some starting money to throw some tournaments, we need money for the trophies or medals or what ever. Does anyone have any nice little ideas for fund raisers?

i was just elected to Vice President of the MMAA, Misawa Martial Arts Association....so i have alot of paper work and stuff to prepare just to start up some seminars and tournaments....yet i am still working on my breaking demo ,,,,i have lots of cool ideas to throw in there...Still working on the upper levels of meditation toward reaching total enlightenment....yep always working.

for wood break with the grain not against it.... i am a big concrete breaker so i will give you some tips that i give my students 1. you must be confident. If for a moment you think that you wont break the object, then you wont. The slightest doubt will make you fail. 2. Always hit through your object, picture your target 6 inches behind your object 3. breath....i like to pass the idea of chi, ki, qi, so try to build that up with your breathing before the break, breath in when you raise your arm up, slowly exhale and slowly lower your arm down to the target feeling the tension and the power from every breathe channeling its way into you arm and down to you hand. 4 never touch the object, you will feel that it is hard and get that doubt in your mind. 5 if need be, cover the target area of the object with a towel or cloth or paper towel...something that looks soft so that mentally you picture a soft target and therefore easy to break through.... also some padding may be good while beginning so that you dont cut your self on splinters or corners of broken bricks, ice shards or what ever it may be... also if you dont break it the first time, STOP, take a breath, walk away and come back to it with a clear mind, because there will be a huge amount of doubt in your mind at the time and you may cause serious damage to your hand on another failed attempt. good luck....i hope this helped you out some, if you need any other advice feel free to send me and email or personal message

congrats my friend, good job and may your students prosper under your guidance!

I agree with the others on doing knuckle push ups and breaking in the punching bags and makiwara, BUT.....this may never apply to you.....but if you ever decide to condition your knuckles i can help you do it correctly...there is a right and wrong way to condition them.....many methods actually, but if you are just looking for competition i wouldnt worry about if i were you, just stick to the punching bags and your exercises...good luck

also to let you know for simple breaks like i said before can be performed in a short period of time. You just have to be confident about the break. I had a student before that was very mentally disciplined in california back in 99 or 00 very calm and knowledgeable of religion and philosophy who had never studied a martial art and broke a one inch slab of concrete with a palm strike. Also one of my recent students wanted to attempt a break with one of my 3 inches concrete slabs, he also broke it with a palm strike... granted there is proper form and certain mental things to prepare you for it and certain things to help prevent you from harming your body, if you know these and are well prepared then it is very possible to break simple amounts with out years of experience.,,,,but like i said earlier again...dont go attempting huge amounts of bricks!

well good luck with your breaks....i am also doing multiple breaks for this event....but the big show will be the two feet equivalence of concrete in one break....the others will just build up to it....but who knows.,...i may add alot more, i still have some time to plan, the date keeps getting pushed back.

every human being has certain weak spots on their bodys, you have areas where bones are thinner than others, large nerve masses and arteries that are unprotected. It is all about knowing how to properly hit these vital areas and cause sufficient damage to that area. Now if we are talking the more mystical route of say....the five finger exploding heart technique....well.......hmmmmmmm i will say now....that i find it VERY hard to believe....yet i am sure that ANYTHING is possible....i just can't imagine any normal person or any normal martial artist possessing that kind of skill or knowledge that would make such a thing possible as delayed death or delayed paralysis or anything like that.... some things can be explained especially the instantaneous results of trauma.... or if i chop someone in a certain area of the neck they will die in ten minutes,,,,yeah that's possible....just for the fact that i have hit with enough force to either sever an artery or vein bring in blood flow....that will cause hemoraging in massive amounts very quickly and SOON they will die...or if i hit it hard enought to make the walls close in on themselves and prevent blood flow , therefore preventing oxygen to the brain and making the person fall unconscious in ten seconds....and of course if the pressure is not relieved they will die soon....stuff like that where there is instant trauma that causes coma or a scientifically and anatomically proven body part to stop its regular function can explain why it would result in a delayed death or paralysis..... my only doubts on dim mak are the simple touch to the hand of slight brush on a shoulder of someone that passes by that will kill the individual in a week....that i find rather far fetched....the whole transfer of bad chi and such....but then again, i just may not be knowledgeable enough about chi to grasp the complexities of dim mak....so there fore i will say it may be possible.

yes, you are correct. i have several blocks each 3 inches in thickness, spaced apart with pencils that have the nice flat edges on the sides.... i think it could be possible to break a large amount of concrete that is a solid and very large block... i have done 4 inch blocks before, and right now i do 3 inches since that is whats available....so i guess if you worked on it gradually it would be possible but i think that it would take a lot longer to get up to that stage of breaking....that would be sweet to see though.

my advice for you my friend would be to keep an eye out and be very vigilent, you dont want to get snuck up on. Another thing, if one had a gun, then there is a good chance that another one did as well. Play it safe, i can understand where you are coming from with the fighting is fun, i have had my share of this., The bad thing about this type of background is that it makes me very confident, which is usually a good thing, just be careful, that is where overconfidence can make us look stupid, you may see the one and think to teach him a lesson, but does he have friends waiting around the corner watching with guns??? I understand that several guys with little training even with melee weapons is usually very fun for me, but i will be the first to say one or more people that are across the street or 20 ft away with guns is not a good thing and not fun....so my final assessment and advice is to keep a clear mind and watch your back. If you can get the police to do something that is good,... if this is a NORMAL occurance where they keep harassing you, then have some one walk by with a camera that will usually make them leave real quick....especially if you are with several people and there is a camera, that way they can't just kill you and the camera man....and then take a picture,...psychological black mail.

the biggest factor and barrier to get through when breaking is the mental one. You have to disbelieve the notion that the target is hard, if you think that you wont break it then you wont , you have to be confident. its all mental in the overall view of things therefor if you want to maximize your amount of breaking materials you should probably train for years before moving up to two feet thick of concrete....which is my plan for sept as a tournament opening demonstration ...well just part of the demonstration!

basic forms 1-3 pyung ahns 1-5 bassai nihanchis 1-3 hey... something that i am trying to find more information on .....4th dan form that my instructor has told me as the Korean Kicking Kata........no luck yet trying to find it.....maybe someone in here can help with that.... we study katana, sai, tonfa, spear, bo, jo, balisong, nunchuku, three section staff, knives, throwing stars and throwing knives, and throwing axes as well , ropes.....anything really... we also do breaking...pressure points, vital points, dim mak, healing acupressure, hmmmmm

spidey would beat up old daredevil, batman would beat up daredevil,,,,

i also have lower back pains in the lumbar region. see your doctor or a physical therapist for some good little exercises.

i have broken 8 of them since they came out and were placed in the various gyms, and studios and dojos and such that i have been in.....i usually break the hard plastic and end up with a large wet mess....anything from my punches, kicks.....elbows or what not. Everytime i use a side kick or a palm strike they fall and/or break each time....

im working on internal energy and breaking... i am also writing numerous volumes on different levels of martial arts from grip strenght, to psychological fighting to martial arts stories and breaking

i agree with you all, chuck norris is the man frank dux was awesome too (bloodsport: van dam played the character of frank dux, based on a true story) and mas oyama.....amazing and ray boom boom mancini....hey you have to back youngstown when you come from the area!

UFC hits 1 AND 2 i really liked the first 3 ufcs....probably up to 8 or so...cant remember, but back when there were almost no rules...

my original style is : white yellow purple green brown black

check out the south beach diet book, it lists a few weeks worth of what to eat and for what meals...that may help you out.