granmasterchen

i've done it with a bo....but not kamas....since we use the razor sharp ones instead of the flashing tournament ones....i've also worked out with swords....which wasn't too smart....if i wouldn't go all out with kamas why would i do it with a razor sharm katana? But I did and ended up slashing my finger open all the way down the side.....my lesson for wielding a sword with out a cross guard or hilt! And i haven't went all out with nunchuku either.. i would think that we would just get all tangled up and quickly go to hand to hand combat anyway.

I agree with jaymac's idea. Some times through situations where you may experience some mental stress or be delusional you can have moments of enlightenment which can forever change your outlook on life or even your martial arts training. It happened to me once when i got seriously injured and wasn't able to work out much at all. Contemplating the injury gave way to a mental understanding of how to focus more power and make better technique to compensate for lack of hard work out routines due to my disability.

i agree with everyone else, let us know what your overalll goal is and maybe we can give you some advice to help critique your work out plan. To me it seems that you are not working enough like mentioned above. You should do a combination of multiple things in small moderation and have one main area of the body to work with each day. I think you have the basic idea down, just need to tweek it a bit.

in general kickboxing due to a larger muscle group and more of an unnatural movement to your body along with the weight of your legs. We are used to moving our arms around in everyday life but not using our legs to turn off the lights, using our feet to cook or catch objects with. But in all honesty it matters on how much the individual trains. Arms and legs can each give you a great work out so it all depends on that persons personal training.

disabilities should not limit you from attaining a black belt. I believe that it is solely about your own dedication to the art and the information that you learn. My instructor once told me that everyone has their own personal strengths in the martial arts and their own weaknesses. Some people are good at kata and terrible at kicks. But if you show that you understand the technique and execute proper technique regardless of the speed or power behind it i feel that understand that aspect, if i know that you are honestly trying and giving it your all then that tells me that you are true to the art form. I have seen many people overcome handicaps in one form or another and show their dedication by continueing their pursuit to learn and never give up even if the lessons have to be modified personally for you. I have seen a man with no arms have a kata changed to involve kicks instead of punches. I have seen men in wheel chairs learn to manuever their wheelchairs in very interesting ways to execute bo staff katas at tournaments, the list goes on. It is all about you and the art, nothing stands in the way from you and your goal except your own mental barriers that you erect for yourself. That is my opinion at least.

like red dawn says, go see a doctor because you might have gotten yourself a nasty infection and you wouldn't want to let that go and get gangreen and end up losing your face or dying from it. I had a fellow martial artist friend of mine who was stubborn about getting an ingrown toe nail checked out that got infected, it developed into gangreen and he ended up having his leg amputated after he didn't show up for work and his family found him unconscious in his bed. The mouth is a very dirty area and there is a good chance that there may be an infection with what you described. Go get it checked out.

it all depends on the individual school and instructor as to what your typical sparring sessions will be like.

I think the fastest you could get a black belt in my school would be 3.5 yrs.....but that would be quite amazing and rare. We require at least one year between green and brown and another year minimum between brown and black before you are even considered for the thought of testing, but we only test those that have "mastered" everything needed for that level and all previous levels along with showing proper mental maturity.

wouldn't that be a funny coincidence!

as long as you are getting good instruction you might as well continue training. I would only move on if i thought i wasn't getting good instruction.

we had a seminar one time with superfoot and one of the students smarted off to him and just started acting all stupid.....well superfoot gave him a nice fast roundhouse to the side of the head knocking this cocky young brown belt out....funny time

i've been doing makiwari for 20 yrs and don't have any problems. The key to doing it if you choose to do it is to start out very slow and slowly work your way up to harder tougher surfaces. If you go to fast (which most people do) then you will hurt yourself and damage your hand, maybe permanently. But if you do it correctly and slowly and build up with years of practice it can work well for you. Just don't rush it or you'll get hurt.

i think by turning down their challenge and then offering them a chance to come by your dojo is a very good idea. Usually by playing it cool and giving someone that option it usually changes their entire out look of you because you are offering them something thus showing that you are "nice" and care about them in a way. Usually the mentality of individuals that would pick on others to show how tough they are are usually doing it to impress their own friends because of personal inadequacies with theirself. Thus by offering them an attempt to train at your dojo it gives them another way to make them feel better about themselves, encourages them to feel more confident about theirself so that they dont need to further trying to impress their friends. THen that person will no longer be a bully and turn out to be your friend, and then that person may turn around and help change their bully friends into nice people thus making a better society and helping in reducing further future problems.....granted we are talking about the long term effect....i think you should give it a try.

the belt itself can be bought at any martial arts supply store for under ten dollars, the reason why i charge for testing, along with my instructors is because i have to take vacation time from work and need to make up for lost money. The testings in my school consist of a minimum of 2 days in a row each starting at 7 am and going to 430 or 5 pm. Two days off of work where you put in on average of 10 hours at 20 dollars an hour works out to 200 dollars for one day, and 400 dollars for two. Two days is the minimum, if im testing black belts we take an entire week 5 work days plus weekend, thats 1000 dollars of my pay check. I charge 10 for white-yellow, $20 for yellow-purple, 30 for purple-green, $40 for green-brown, and 50 for brown- black. We only have testings once or twice a year, so there is a 6 month window between each testing (i have to build up vacation time) so when you look at it, i spend my vacation time testing students instead of spending time with my family every year. Testing for grades of black belts doubles price for each dan rating in my school as well. I don't think that we are a mcdojo, we have to survive off of the money from our main job not teaching and when you take time off you need to make up that money to pay for bills, especially if you have kids. Also on another note i only pay 20 dollars a month for my classes. The instructor raised his schools price to 35 over time, but you only get charged what ever you started with paying in my school. Just my ramble to give you another look at the reason for testing at least for those that dont run a full time dojo and require a second job to pay the bills.

teaching kids is the way to make money, unfortunately i have seen many good martial artists forget about the art form and solely focus on the money aspect after awhile, be careful and always remember to teach the art.

i think i've lost more brain cells....oh well it was worth it....

true, but i'm just stateing the fact that some instructors don't care about rank after they reach black belt and quit their own progression, or that this school may be a "mcdojo" by showing the fact that there isn't a higher ranking individual for their instructors to seek guidance from. But on a standard basis where the instructors continue their training as if the were stilll students you are absolutely correct and the instructor in the worst case scenario should be at least one step above their students. There are also some schools that come to mind where the instructor can only hand out promotions and belt rank at one half of their own level. Example would be that a second dan can only promote one to a first dan or a 6th dan could only promote a student to 3rd dan.

you may be losing fat and building muscle, in that case there may be no weight loss but you are still getting healthier. If you want to lose weight and fat focus on the aerobic exercises that greatly raise the heart rate and test your endurance like running,swimming, and similar activities. Lifting weights and many calistenics will give you more muscle. I'm not saying to not do them at all, you definitely need to in order to keep your muscles in prime physical shape, you just need to intensify and add more of the cardio type workouts.

defintely check out each school personally by just sitting in and watching a class or two....if they don't allow you to watch for free it is not worth your time my friend. another thing you want to check out is how long you want to stay at one school, if you plan on going for black belt and higher then you need to check out the instructors rank. I noticed on your first site that the two instructors listed only held a 1st dan and a 2nd dan respectively. You don't want to get into a situation where there is nothing else your instructor can teach you because you have reached their rank and level of knowledge, check if there are other instructors or a head instructor or what not.....my advice is to go in there and check them out, over all from the websites the first sounded pretty good....and the second offered very little information, regardless you can't judge a school by their website so again....check them out and let us know what you find.

being an official judge at many tournaments for the past 8 yrs or so i would say basai dai. IF you execute the kata very well then that is the best kata to do. Of all the katas basai dai is regarded in the highest tier due to the nature of the kata and its vital differences from earlier forms, in nearly all styles basai is considered to be an upper level or black belt form. If you do it sloppy don't do it, but if you give basai dai its true potential you will have yourself a winning form. i performed basai back in feb at the all pacific tournament which included bases all over japan, korea, hawaii and some people from the states and china that flew over to japan to witness and compete. By executing the form with high levels of intensity, power and proper speeds at all the right times i did very well with that form and was personally praised by many of the distinguished guests in attendance. that was also the same tournament where i won in the breaking division...but that is another story. SO my advice is to go with basai dai and do it well!

it's very cool that you started this thread, i met someone that used to train at my school from this site. I probably ran into you at least once then, wish i had some pics to try and bring back memories.

or did you know him from the tournament circle? I remember we would travel all over the place to go to the next tournament, fun times.

did you train with him?

i used to train under tom smith until i went into the military, i heard that he closed his schools down recently. I also trained with Tim Byers in the kung fu part

i trained in moodukkwon taekwondo back when i lived in ohio 3rd dan working on 4th still looking for a few forms i later came back to the state and studied some mantis and tiger kung fu as well total years training: 20 + total years teaching: 7 give or take Originally from: Ohio, Lisbon all other martial arts training and different art forms took place outside of ohio....so i don't know if that counts for your question....i'm originally from ohio so i think i fall into the group....but for now i'll leave out all the other art forms that i've studied abroad. I hold dan rank in the following: shotokan, asashi ryu, shito ryu, kyukushinkai, ninpo budo taijutsu, ITF&WTF TKD, Tangsoodo, and the twelve classic weapons Studied but don't hold a dan ranking in: JKD, aikido, hapkido, combat hapkido, judo, and many other things lol