granmasterchen

well it all depends on the instructor of each one of course and how they teach their chosen art, then there are the multiple versions of tkd and karate that exist today. But in general looking at tkd as it is most popularly portrayed today as the olympic competitive sport version verses the standard karate based off of the funakoshi decent there is much that each other can learn from their counterpart. Tkd in general has strong emphasis on kicking but generally lacks the skill of hands seen in karate and vice versa. Also karate in general is more of a contact based kumite fighting art where as tkd is more of the point sparring base that has basis on control. Karate in general would be better for conditioning for a street fight encounter and more of the philosophical look and ki. Where as tkd would teach us in general how to show better sportsmanship and professional competition. Each would have much to offer....but please dont get me wrong, as i stated in the beginning i am going off the most popular generalization of each art and there are many different versions of each style that have different emphasis on different techniques and strategies and of course the instructor at every dojo/dojang teaches differently from the next.

confront the problem first, let the person know how you feel that you are uncomfortable about those comments. If you act profession then hopefully they will as well since they are suppossed to be professionals. IN many places of the business world that wouldnt fly at all, NO DISCRIMINATION, zero tolerance, and so forth, if you ever go to the military then you will never find a place to be as strict once you've left. I think it is a good thing to instill proper morals in people especially in the martial arts. I view the martial arts as well as the military on the same priniciple that each of them should be training you on how to improve yourself and society, neither should be SOLELY focused on making you an ultimate killing machine, that doesn't solve anything, we need to learn as people to THINK and fix the problem without people getting hurt, not beating a problem physically. So I think that if you talk to your instructor or whom ever it is that is making the comments then the problem should be handled, if the person acts unprofessional then you should probally leave, it is a sad state for something like this to happen but it is better for you in the long run and hopefully you will make an impression on this individual and he/she will change their ways and learn from the experience as well and everyone will become a better martial artist in the long run.

breathe

i used to not wear a mouth piece....until a testing against 7 other adults at once, when i spun and blocked and all that i turned right into a shodan's spinning back fist....chipped several teeth in one shot.....started wearing a mouth piece ever since.....BUT i never wear a groin cup.....i feel it limits me and is very restricting....but that's me.....i've got some nice shots in on the groin, but fortunately nothing permanently damaging....but I also trained quite a bit with no pads, and even had tournaments where pads weren't mandatory...lol, the good ol' days. Control was a big thing that you would see on virtually every fighter though, and that is something that i have seen less and less of on today's fighters, in general.

Foreward/Roundhouse strike: personally when i am using my an elbow strike, in the context of reaching out, grabbing a head, pulling it in and striking it with my opposite arms elbow, I use the area located from the tip of the elbow to roughly 3-4 inches up the forearm. Downward/Backward strike: If you are using the elbow in a downward strike as if grappling and dropping an elbow to an opponents back or head, or if standing and delivering an elbow to an opponent behind you (striking nose/throat/solar plexus) i would recommend and use the elbow itself with roughly a one inch radius area surrounding it on the lower side of the arm (not forearm) more of the upperarm....but again only the tip area. Upper strike: if you are using the elbow in an uppercut manner i would use the tip of the elbow again and only the area in a one inch radius but this time on the forearm section of the arm unlike what i mention above in a downward or backward strike. when striking with the forearm side of the elbow you can generate alot of power and have little negative side effects, which is my preffered method of breaking. When striking with the upper arm's side of the elbow (tricep area/bottom area) you expose yourself to a nerve (the funny bone) which can be a negative aspect especially with breaking in this particular fasion, but it still generates lots of power.

the major thing about breaking is that it is VERY mental. If you have a doubt, any where, in your mind that you won't break it, then you wont. You need to feel one hundred percent certain that you will break it, then you break it. Since you have been unsuccessful lately you are placing a doubt in your mind and that is creating a barrier that is inhibiting you from completeing your break. You are also trying hard in anticipation for your test since breaking will be a part and you are now placed into a situation where you need to break to pass, so you are stressed and in your mind you are making it difficult. You need to do what fairfax says and relax, take a break, visualize, and approach it again with a clear mind and be able to say that " i am going to break it" and you need to believe it. Then you will break it. Look back, if you have broken this in the past then you can break it now, there is nothing stopping you but yourself. So be calm, don't let emotions cloud your mind, relax and get the job done.

full contact, K1 style fighting is involved

yes, spearhanding through materials is true and done in the same manner as you would a fist, elbow, or foot, with practice and conditioning. One of the tasks of our black belt test, not sure what dan it was but that doesn't matter. In the situation we are given one of those large 15 gallon buckets or something of similar size and we place a lone apple in the middle of the bottom of the bucket, we then fill the bucket up with sand and you have to spear hand through it and pull out the apple on your spear hand in one quick clean strike. so my advice would be to start conditioning, get yourself a small bowl and fill it with dried peas, and spear hand it and slowly over time move up to tougher material like sand, BBs/iron berrings, eventually you can use gravel and rough tree bark ....you get the idea, i'm sure you can find the list of materials on line if you do a search for conditioning your hands for breaking or something like that.

i would say musashi......bruce lee just repeats the same things musashi and sun tsu said many years before his time and rewrote it out for the modern world and the modern use of martial arts, i don't see anything too special about that, anyone could have read those scrolls and then decided to do a comparison to how martial arts have evolved since then and how we use them now and what comparisons can we find and so on and you have his book....yep anyone could do that., no offense to anyone buy im just one of the many many many people that aren't huge bruce lee fans.

i always thought that the word "iron" was given to any part of the body that would be used for the purposes of breaking a material. Examples would be iron fist when breaking with your fist, iron palm for breaking with a palm strike, iron shirt when you break the haft of a spear being pressed into your skin, and so. So in that aspect is how we did our iron body training and conditioning and how iron forearms would work into that formula.

very well put, I can only imagine how many people will disagree with you about sensing danger....it is a real thing and you are right, most of the time we ignore it....nicely put.

sure why not....it just seems to me that we naturally do the sine wave with out any training.

that's really cool, that black belt has a story training with several people....i really like the idea of this, if i ever get a great student sometime during my later years i think i will do this, probably at 4th dan rank to show that he/she is ready to teach their own school....or something like that.

i want someone to invent a really good martial arts role playing game....yep, that's what im waiting for

it's ok to do them everyday, but if you are just starting you need to give your body some time to recover until you get used to the exercise

that's an interesting tradition, i like it

well i can tell you from my 3 years of being in Japan that "hai" means yes, or i undertand OSU is word that is used to show as a sign of respect like when you bow to the dojo when entering/leaving or greating/leaving your instructor you say "osu" or when you shake someone's hand you would say "osu" it is a term of respect towards one another in the martial arts fields, but more based on the Japanese systems. The bow has made all over asia and we can see it in our dojos today, the handshake has been around since early europe and has grown world wide. Some styles may make you say OSU during class when you are bowed at all times, some only on certain basis and some dont mention it at all. My suggestion for you is to go over to Japan and view it for yourself in a country that created it and still uses it.

The third has a great manipulating plan executed by the "bad guys" of the story, I loved their plan.

many places over seas that are in direct relationship with military bases usually have instuctors from the states so you can have the same process continuing near or on military bases all over the world, at least US bases.

http://ryanshroyer.tripod.com/ there you go, it had moved

it was called the Shamelessly Unofficial TKD or something like that, but it might have been shut down....i can't seem to get in to the old links.

there was one that i used to visit frequently but i don't have the link at the moment, i'll try to get you one.

am i confusing the sine wave with the typical movements that the body makes when we step forward into an attack or block. Because when we do these motions the body rises and falls in small amounts....or is the sine wave an overdramatized version of this?

i studied moo duk kwon tkd, spelled slightly different but sounds the same when you pronounce it. In my school it was just like tang soo do and shotokan, kicho/basic form katas, heian/pynahn katas, nihanchi/tekki katas and basai....kicks and punches, some throws but not as much as judo, some manipultation but not as much as aikido, some grappling (very little), we did some jump and spinning kicks at higher ranks as seen in typical tkd...but it was overall standard karate type teachings......but i didn't study the palgwe forms which are more commonly seen in tkd

im sorry my terminology was so bad.....the whole "air pocket" but you all appear to know what i mean, the void of blood, something that when it reaches the brain is not normal....