granmasterchen

MartialArthur you definitely have a point, i feel that the belt at the moment doesn't mean much due to today's society but i feel that it should mean something, i think that when we teach our students we should do everything we can as instructors to make the holder of a black belt someone that has great skill in the arts, not just a person that would be a holder of a yellow belt in a different style. I have seen many people that i feel aren't skilled enough to possess that rank, but in their own school they may be good, that just tells you about the skill of that particular school. I want the students in my school to be able to appreciate the rank of black belt and the time it took to get there, i want it to mean something, but the belt it self means nothing...it is just a belt, but symbolically it means the training that we put behind it. The training is different for each owner of the black belt and they each have different experiences so it means something different to each of them.....so i can easily see how it may appear that many of us that say one thing and say another seem to be hypocritical but we are not "really" saying different things...it's just our outlook of the thing i guess, hopefully that helped explain the situation a little...but it is a complex issue.

i think (rewatching it now) that it is a very good representation of martial artists when they first start out in the martial arts lifestyle......BUT the movie portrays him as a black belt....and whenever we see a black belt in a movie, especially during that time frame it sybolized a MASTER.....so we this "master" getting beat up and making the dumbest decisions in the world.....i swear he's an idiot.....i wonder how many times miyagi just shook his head in wonder of his incredibly dumb..."master" student....oh well. I still like the ideas though....but everything else about the movie is just hard to watch, lol

well my advice to you when breaking those type of concrete slabs is to start off straddling the slab so that the slabs aren't going left and right infront of you but straight ahead and pointing to you. If you break in this fasion the likelihood of the concrete coming back down on top of your hand is significantly less likely. I only use the stance that you were using and set up when i am going to break with my head, shuto, ridgehand or with my heel. When ever i break with my fist, palm or elbow i break the way i mentioned. I hope this helps some, if you have any questions about breaking at all in the future feel free to ask me anytime, breaking is one of my specialties.

my instructor was 6th degree last time i saw him, but that has been a few years now. He teaches MDK TKD a style very similar to shotokan and tangsoodo. The assistant instructor is a second dan i believe, he never chose to continue testing, he also has a background in some types of kung fus...not sure which. My kung fu instructor for mantis and tiger im not quite sure of his rank or his instructor....i know them both but we never did a class room type training it was always informal one on one usually....but we still trained.

skill is skill, whether you learned from years of training in the dojo or or years fighting on the streets .....when you learn how to properly fight and execute certain techniques properly then that is skill.

it all depends on the individual training in the art not the art form itself.

when you first posted this thread i thought that you might have dug up one of my videos....i'm still waiting for the dvd version of the tournament so that i can see my form on the break....

if im thinking of the same technique that you are talking about i can do it, or at least i used to be able to. It was probably within the first two years of my hardcore formal training that i saw this kick and attempted to reproduce it. At the start I didn't have great luck. I believe seeing the kick at the time off of a bruce lee and then later a brandon lee movie....maybe the crow. It took some practice and lots of working on stretches to get it to work out....i never did get it as good as any of them, but my friend and i would work self defense drills where i would have him in a side headlock and then id kick his head with that kick......overall it didn't seem too practical, it was more showy and flashy and probably made for hollywood...so i stopped working it.

i break with my elbow i break cinder blocks in this position which we call speed breaks, usually have another person hold the brick up in the air in front of them, sometimes the brick just sits on top of many other bricks with nothing holding it in place but gravity and we break it.....i am also big on breaking with elbow in the standard fastion which my last break was 24 inches of concrete for the ALL PACIFIC MA Championship back in feb of last year....wow its been awhile...

i didn't even realise it was april....lol. Conceited or not, you definitely have a nice site and many happy readers and participants here that are glad for you contributions.

I sat down the other day and forced myself to watch karate kid 3, i had to foce myself because i detested the first two. The only problem that i have with the karate kid movies is that the actual show of martial arts and acting is just outright terrible, but once i got past that i found that this movie was full of martial arts philosophies from start to finish. Overall i really liked the movie (aside from the martial arts and acting) and due to this I feel that i will have to rewatch the original two again to see if I can find more underlying philosophies in the movies. I just felt like I would post this since for years I have held a strong hatred for the karate kid movies and now I have found myself after years of refusing to watch them that this one at least wasn't that bad. It has probably been close to ten years since i watched any of the movies and i have made great changes in my martial arts outlook since then, so I have a feeling that I will find myself enjoying the whole series now when i get around to watching them.....aside from their true lact of skill and acting of course.

aaaaaaaaa yes the karate creed....i haven't heard that for awhile. Welcome to the site, share your stories and wisdom and hopefully gain some wisdom from others.

yep, either you hit yourself enough (lightly) that you learn to stop doing that move incorrectly or you hit yourself hard enough and lose the memory, and continue the path over and over and over....continually knocking yourself silly and getting dumber....

i have found that for myself if i do ten stretch-like kicks (meaning that i don't snap and keep i keep the leg straight) of a forward straight up kick, a sideways kick keeping the foot sideways (not pointed toes up when the kick goes up) and finally inside-out crescent kicks. The inside out i refer to is started in a boxing like or fighting stance, bring the back leg up and make a circular movement starting by lifting the leg to the inside of your body and swinging it out to the outside of your body. I hope these help you out some.

are you familiar with any faking techniques? for instance, use your front/forward arm and move as if you are going to do a backfist to the groin, fake just enough so that they drop their guard to block their groin then quickly change the momentum of your attack and backfist to their now open head. if you favor kicks try a fake front snap to the groin as above then change it to a roundhouse kick to the upper chest or head area.

you deserve it, congrats

getting hit with a knife hand to the neck can be very deadly. It is a very dangerous technique when used on the neck, but then again any technique to the neck is dangerous and deadly. If you strike the front at the throat/adams apple you can easy stop a fight. It causes an initial shock and can close your windpipe, thus suffocating. Just try smacking yourself lightly with a ridgehand or handknife in the throat now (lightly) to see the effect. A strike to the side of the neck can cut off blood flow to the brain by pinching temporarily an artery just like a sleeper hold or triangle choke. When you strike the artery there and it pinches shut for a moment it creates an air pocket in the blood and once that air pocket reaches the brain its lights out. You can quickly recover deepending on how big the air pocket is a small tap is easy to recover from, a powerful strike or continueous pressure like in a triangle choke can knock you out or even kill you. A strike to the back of the neck is also deadly due to a very potent vital point located there, again a light attack can drop an opponent from any of these spots on the neck and a strong attack can kill an opponent in any of these spots as well. Very dangerous and be very careful when training these techniques....only to be used in a life or death situation....unless you are looking to go to jail for manslaugter or similar charges.

i've taught self defense courses for new female military members new to the area back when i was stationed in monterey california. One of the other things i taught them was that once you are attacked do the most vicious violent things you can think of and run screaming as soon as you get away. Two of the girls that i taught had been attacked on post and each one of them beat down their wouldbe attacker and ended up getting the individual arrested. One of the girls used her keys on the guys face and hurt him VERY badly. just remember that in a real life self defense situation there are no rules, do what ever you can to survive, because there are some people out there that will try to take your life after rape, kidnapping or stealing your money.

the youngest age i would make someone a real black belt is 16 and that kid must be awesome and truely dedicated to my school and martial arts as an art studied by anyone of anystyle. Normally i feel myself that you must be 18 to earn a black belt, but many 18 yr olds don't even show the mental maturity to hold the rank.....i must feel that person is mentally and physically ready for the rank before i offer them a chance to test. SO by going on the fact of mental age compared to physical/chronological age it may differ from one person to the next. But personnally i don't feel that children of a young age (below 15-16) should hold that rank, no offense to those that do but i feel they have not had enough experience in culture, society and arts world wide to hold the rank, even if they have been studying from the age of 4 or 5 and travelling around doing tournaments of if their father is a master....you may hold the physical knowledge but not the mental responsibilities yet, just my two cents though

speed equals power comes from (my guess) Newton's second law of phsyics which states that the force exerted on something (power of a punch) is equal to the mass of the object times acceleration F (net) = mass X acceleration Power of a punch - mass X speed

motions (one steps) 1defense down 2middle attack 3high attack 4defense up 5side attack 6handknife defense down 7handknife defense up 8handknife defense middle 9inside out block 10outside in block 11two fist block middle front leaning stance 12two fist block up 13two fist block down 14two fist block middle cat stance 15side defense cat stance 16reverse punch catstance 17fingers attack 18elbow strike 19handknife straddle leg stance 20back fist straddle leg stance 21front shuto 22palm strike 23spear hand reverse stance 24spear hand front leaning stance 25chop reverse punch front snap reverse punch in 26a reverse stance 27inside out block front snap reverse punch in a 28front leaning stance 29inside out block front snap reverse punch 30reverse punch and then we do each one of those with specific turning sequences, moving back wards movements and then perform each in every different stance forms basic forms 1,2,3 kibon forms 1,2,3 pyn ahn (heian) forms 1,2,3,4,5 basai dai nihanchi (tekki) 1,2,3 kicks roundhouse front leg round house back leg jump double kick double roundhouse off front leg jump side kick roundhouse back kick step over back kick roundhouse back roundhouse jump double roundhouse back thrust jump back spin kick opposite around crescent (inside-out) outside in crescent jump opposite around crescent (jump double crescent) fake double kick ax kick jump back thrust kick (mule) step over hook kick drop side kick to the groin jump back spinning crescent kick running flying side kick jump spinning outside in crescent kick self defenses 1.block with an elbow strike 2.outside kidney strike reverse strike to the solar plexus 3.outside kidney strike reverse strike to the solar plexus downward smash to the groin back knuckle to the forehead 4. armtwist front snap 5. armchop neck chop leg trip 6. flying elbow leg trip 7 block kick with a roundhouse 8 escape and counter when grabbed from behind arms free 9 escape and counter when grabbed from behind arms pinned 10 escape and counter when grabbed from behind while walking 11side attack turn around handknife double punch 12 arm break front snap palm strike 13 back knuckle reverse punch 14 counter when grabbed from the front (arms free) parts a,b,c,d,e 15 conter when grabbed from behind part B (expand the chest cavity) 16 scissors take down 17 thrusting club/knife attack 18 over head club/knife attack (figure four) 19 over head club/knife attack (two fist block up) 20 escape and counter from a gun being pointed at you from the front 21 counter with a take down from a roundhouse kick 22 execute a dropping leg sweep off a roundhouse kick 23 escape and counter from a gun being pointed at you from the side of the head 24 counter from a side head lock plus 6 made up self defenses hand techniques ridge hand back fist reverse punch back fist reverse punch spinning back fist left and right hand jabs left and right hand cross over left and right hand upper cut sparring/kumite and some grappling fighting several black belts at once (also known as getting beat down!) -basically to see your skill vs multiple skilled opponents and see how long your stamina and endurance lasts against these odds 2000 pressure points/vital points (supposedly all), but i doubt it 15 mile run to start the test to get us tired followed by 2-3000 jumping jacks 500 pushups 100 on finger tips, 200 on knuckles 1500 situps a nice little swim....not sure of length shoulder rolls balance feats breaking one inch of concrete with fist, and palm strike. blind fold fighting (self defense really but not pre arranged) weapons : bo, nunchuku, and katana cutting a cucumber across the chest of a person with the katana(without cutting that person of course) speed and control drills....ah yes lots and lots of drills. each one of these techniques is drilled over and over at least 20 times to show that you really have proper technique and understanding of the skill. also a black belt thesis usual testing for 1st degree takes 5-7 days starting at 7 am and ending around 430 pm on average. the student isnt even recommended for testing if it is know that he/she can not perform any of the above tasks....unless of course for some handicap or disability as exceptions. But right now that is all i can think of and remember

he had two matches that he lost each time to submission against joe riley and chris brennan http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?fighterID=3749

practice practice and yep, more practice, all things come with time and dedication, nothing happens over night

and breaking....can't forget breaking, that is full power there.

interesting point, there isn't any occation where i have went full out 100% on a person during any type of sparring session....kata would be one of the few areas to execute full power other than training against bags.