granmasterchen

i have always trained bare knuckle, not just on bags but on every thing.....many will disagree with this method.... so continue your research and do what feels right to you...

i agree, get out and hide from them.....1500 dollars is just insane, the only time i have heard that price for lessons is when my friend and i got personnally invited to train with the gracies back in the 90s during the time when the 3rd UFC came out , and that was for training with them and the trip and stay in brazil....so no, bad school...and according to the research that has been provided for you i would agree that it is bad instructors too....i am used to seeing prices ranging up to 40 dollars a month.....that will work out to 480 dollars a year....about a third of what you would be paying. So I hope that you find a nice small school that charges a decent amount that you actually like. Good luck.

you will hear various responses on this topic, but as long as you are only hitting a punching bag then you should be good for now with minimum to no worries.

well welcome to the post.....if i were you i think the best bet would be to look it up on line and see what you get. maybe if you ask your instructor or fellow students you can find out more information and that would help the rest of us out here on getting you additional info.

martial arts should be the great philosophical binder to take us away from these distractions in life such as racism, sexism and religious bias, as martial artists we should be above all this and be able to look at one another as human beings and brothers and sisters, we all travel a path of higher knowledge and understanding, some may be further along than others, but we should all help those that need it.....we should be better by studying the martial arts, we shouldn't be primitive and barbaric....open our minds and understand, no one is better or superior to anyone else and by the training that we go through, we should all know this.

sometimes i will, sometimes i dont......on a normal work out i will do some jumping jacks, then stretch touching my palms to the floor keeping knees and feet together and not bent, then straddles and front leg and side leg stretches, sit down reach out and grab the bottoms of my feet, legs wide and touch my forehead to the floor, groin stretches touching my knees to the floor....then maybe some running for more of a warm up, then more stretching than before....also stretch the calves.....then i am ready for class,,...even more stretches, including arms, neck, shoulders and upperbody....so it depends...on what i am doing, if its just normal at work, or when i dont have time to really get into it, i will just do the straddles, leg stretches, and palm touches....

i will still be training until the day i die, i know many people that train at old ages...look at jhoon rhee the taekwondo guy, he's in his 70s and is simply amazing...then there are the average people that are also around that age that still train, there was a woman in her 80s in my school before i left for my touring of the world several years ago, and there are many in my schools that are over 50 so i know for certain about myself that i will train and practice for my entire life, it is my life, plain and simple, i dont worry about injuries from training either, training is what keeps me fit and allows me to survive, its not what kills me, that is everything else in the world.....

push ups, and duck walk, one of my old instructors loved to make people do the duck walk,...squat down grab your ankles and waddle around the outside perimeter of the whole class room several times, and if you werent squatting he would add another lap to each time you got upright.....made your legs feel like rubber....fortunately i didnt have to do it much, only when i forgot upper level forms after years of being away in the military...but thats ok.....

"Several times a day" oh yeah, gotta keep stretched out, just in case i have to do a spinning kick 2 feet over my head... I have become very flexible over the many years....wow, im getting old....

it is all gathered from different instructors over the years.... but that is how we get better, by learning new things....my instructor taught us bo, jo, nunchuku, katana, three section staff.....knife....i think that was it for my first instructor....but i was also learning other things at the time, so i am trying to remember only the weapons that he taught us....sorry

just because they dont know of chi, doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. just because i dont know an individual in spain, doesnt' mean that individual doesn't exist. i dont believe in wind, because i can't see, yet it is still there...... i believe that there is truth to all these stories, yet at some point there are those that exaggerate the tale to make it sound even better. I believe in chi and all that, i have performed demos with sticks and board breaks on my body, done breaking with various body parts, all the black belts in my art must break a concrete slab with their head for their testing, we do kicks to the groin with focusing the mind to cause no pain, and i have seen where the iron chain/iron shirt/ iron coat is performed with swords and spears being pushed agains the body with out the blade piercing the skin, there is a guy in texas that shows how to bend a knife on his throa,i know of pressure points, and vital points that you can cause death with by hitting them, so why is it impossible to cause delayed death or paralysis....? I think it is possible, it involves more study into the human anatomy and such....but yeah, i think it can be done,....as for running on walls for an extended time, flying and shooting energy blasts, well that is still a stretch for me to believe....so until i learn differently that is where i draw my line of fact and fantasy

i prefer a few, but a class full is doable as well...i prefer to have the students that are WILLING to go all the way, the ones that are truely dedicated and want to learn.

good post, makes you think, an even better question (i think) is : does a modern style make it better than traditional? does tradition make it better than modern? i think that regardless of the time that the style was created, an art is passed on knowledge from one master to another through out time, i may see something that i like from one style and incorporate it into my style, 20 yrs from now one of my students may create their own style based on my teachings but add some new stuff that they have seen and call it something new. That modern style is still based on my modern style that is based on my masters modern style that was based on his masters which eventually will turn into a traditional style somewhere on the timeline. So what i am saying is that if a style is effective , that is all that matters, we shouldn't bicker about who's style is traditional or what, because if you break it all down all styles have roots in traditional styles...and if it works and we are happy with our own style and it helps us grow into better human beings and martial artists then that should be all that matters. Thanks for starting this thread, lots of thought can come from this.

the first UFC's were great! you DID have broken bones ( many in the face , but i remember royce gracie breaking a young kung fu guys arm, and just look at Harold Howard, and Tank Abbott splitting heads open) KO's (Do I really need to point this out???) there WERE groin attacks (Keith Hackney vs jo son) so that i would say is a good example of full contact....now, though, it has rules and i find it less interesting as in the past.

i like to smile and laugh when i get hit ....i use psychological methods of destroying my opponents when i fight them, if you destroy their morale you have already won....

i agree with justfulwardog....get some practice fights going on before hitting the big time, most full contact kickboxing matches are not governed by rank, ....only weight and/or age....so get yourself ready to fight against pros if this is something that you are interested in. There are alot of these types of tournaments in the states along with japan, and thailand, other than that, i am not too sure...

yes, i do, and i am helping in a seminar for some of these self defenses march 13th

i like to go bare knuckle when training....

miyamoto musashi by far is the best.....and if you haven't had the chance to read his book of five rings, it is a must for all martial artist that are looking to take their skills and knowledge to a new level

on average i see two breaks in the air performed at one time, usually two boards or sets of boards held out to either side that are then kicked by an individual when he/she jumps and kicks out with the heel of each foot., yet i have seen some where they do three kicks to break three times.....but i tend to enjoy the simple breaks, simple techniques, but with lots of stuff to break, like my instructor for example will break 8-9 concrete slabs with his head....that is cool, i also like to see people do palm strikes, straight punches, elbows, ridge hands, chops, and such through several layers of concrete....i also enjoy seeing ice being broken, baseball bats and similar things, boards dont do much for me....unless it is a huge amount, now granite slabs are really impressive....i have also been to a demo where a guy took a sidewalk panel and had it on his chest while laying on a bed of nails and had his students smach the sidewalk panel with sledge hammers, that was cool too....i personnally like to have individuals break 2x4s and sticks over various areas of my body, that is pretty cool for the audience. I hope this helped some

make sure that the diet you are on is safe for the types of work outs that you are doing. You need to make sure that you are getting the proper nutrients into your body so that you can get stronger and stay healthy...

are you looking for hand and foot pads,,,,do you want head gear, chest protector, groin cups, shin pads, forearm pads, mouth pieces....there are lots of stuff for every area of the body....what in specific are you looking for

my top kicks would be....hook kick, and different fakes....i really like the nice and simple roundhouse kicks too.... hand techniques....i love the back fist....ridge hand is nice, palm strike, spear hand.....i really like hand techniques.... then there are elbow strikes, finger attacks, sweeps and other little fun things,,,,,

i forgot to mention the numerous knuckle injuries that people may get from breaking or doing things they shouldn't....

here on the base we teach moth styles simultaneously....they both came from the same place....you can learn anything if you have the right mind. Since we are teaching with the military and people move a lot , we teach both styles so that when the individual moves to a new base, that individual will have the knowledge of the art regardless of what version of tkd is taught at their new base.