telsun

Synaesthesia, Your view on aggresion to confidence is interesting. I am confident in my Martial Arts ability, yet I am not a very confident person when it comes to other matters people, unfamiliar tasks, etc. I am also a very placid person. Mmmm.......... I do remember reading about a cage fighter. Can't remember who he was, but he said that as his skill has improved his aggression has declined.

GrrrArg (you following me ) Yes good point. I am struggling to make my point here. Keep deleting everthing I write Well I'll just say that the 'instructor' will come unstuck. The public will see him for what he is and leave disappointed at what karate had to offer them. Or worse still they will use their inferior taught skills in a time of need and come out worse off (although this can happen under good instruction). You are right in saying that the public is naive when it comes to such matters. What happens if they never seek out better instruction? They will have a bad picture of karate from this"charlitan" that will be spread to their friends, family, etc. The damage has been done..............

Ninjanurse. I experienced pretty much the same thing with my change of instructor. Learning with him was like learning something completely new despite it being the same style that I graded to shodan in. Like I said originally despite being just another belt your BB should be worn with pride. A BB is a notable achievement recognised by all martial artists and joe public alike. If I were to sum it up as others have I would say: "Achieving your blackbelt is not the beginning, it is not the end. You started at the beginning when you begun training, you will never reach the end." I take a guy to training with me sometimes. He is a green belt. It confuses him that I still get enjoyment out of doing the same thing as he does despite having done it for so many years more than him. The thing is there is always something new to find within technique, within yourself. No material item/title will enable you to find these things.

GrrrArg (strange name ) Yes what you say about pulling the hips back before you kick will increase power and I have experimented with it. The danger with this 'extra' movement is it may gradually creep into your sparring and you will end up telegraphing your kicks. But that said it did increase my front and sidekick power. I do not really understnad what you mean by returning the hips to the original position once the kick has been delivered. I will explain the best I can how I sidekick the bag: I square upto the bag. Probably throw a couple of light ones to get my distance. From a Hanzenkutsu dachi stance, left leg forward, right leg kicking. Here goes.......the first small but v.important move is the push from the floor with the kicking leg. This gets loads of momentum going. My knee is up in front of me now hips square. Now my leg extends as my body turns the thrust is concentrated from my hip. I make impact with the bag, drive the hip further and push my other foot firmly to the ground to generate power from there. My supporting leg is not under me it is behind me (only slightly, I am not doing the splits) and all of my momentum is going in the direction of the kick. The guy holding the back has now gone and the kick is recoiled. I think that's just about it. Obviously it is a smooth fast action. Where I believe I am losing power is in the final thrust through with the hip and the pushing into the ground with the other foot (forward momentum). Honestly my kick is not that weak I can kick reasonably hard but I am in desire of kicking people of their feet. Bruce Lee style Don't get me wrong though I always appreciate advice. I was just answering wilko9999's original question of what aren't you good at and sidekick is probably my weakest kick.

Besides the training alone bit, which is a very valid point. Why are they both good to do?

My association does not exactly hand out black belts. But I do think that our standards are questionable. People do fail grades so a standard does exist but I do not think it is high enough. I would like to see them raised but I do not know to what extent. I also have the problem of putting my proposition to my seniors. Whom am I to question them? I set my own standards very high, although I cannot confess to being as fit as your requirements granmasterchen My sensei's standards are also high but I feel that the association does not represent our values. What do you advise?

I can practice speed on the bag, with more benefits(?)

Other inspiring people?

Telsun - it means devine one that everyone wants to be like............actually it doesn't it's just my nickname from work. I worked on the Selsun line, my name is Terry. Tel is an abbreviation of Terry and everyone goes round here calling each other "son" (except me, I'm to civilized ) Hence Telsun was born. It's great. My own unique word that noone else ever uses. If you see Telsun anywhere on the net it is probably me

I am happy with my life I have a lovely wife, two beautiful little girls, a modest house and car.........you get the picture. I also have debt which is a bit of a head ache but it's under control So the point of this thread? It was my first day back to work today after a couple of weeks off. I Struggled to get up but the long 12 hour day was......okay. I am happy with my life except for my work. I work for a pharmaceutical company making tablets. It's okay but I thought that I would make more of my myself than this. I dream of owning a gym/martial arts school. With a mortgage and wife and kids to support that is all it will be, a dream. I do not wish to be a millionare although that would be very nice. I want to do rewarding work that I enjoy doing, although it must support my family. I just don't know what to do with myself. Karate is my life, it is the only thing I can really confess to being any good at. But I will never make a living from it, which is very disheartening. My questions to all of you are: What do you do? Is that what you chose to do? If it is why? What is your dream job/childhood dream? Should I stick with my job and just consider myself lucky that my job is okay or make steps to better myself? Have you made millions? If so how!! Have you made martial arts your life and work? Please give me advice I really could do with some wise words

Should we only train impact training and partner work? What are the advantages of training in punching and kicking the air?

What press up/push up variations do you do? i.e wide grip, close grip, etc,etc

Yes you are right. Calmness, gentleness, etc is seen as a sign of weakness. Pity isn't it. Skill and intent does not amount aggression, but to have intent I guess that you may consider that to be aggression. May I ask Synaethesia, how did you increase your aggression?

Wow some of you must be Supermen/women I am a little torn here. As ideal as some of your tests sound I do not know if it is very.....fitting. By having to sit a written test do you feel that the uneducated would be at a disadvantage? In our association we have a rather old lady and a boy with physical disadvantages. They are both dan grades but would never have passed some of the tests mentioned. Should allowances be made for these people? I consider myself to be fairly proficient M/A'ist but would not be able to complete some of the tasks mentioned. If I am competant and could whip your butt physically and with my knowledge then do you think that I should still pass the grade? For the instructors on the forum. What do you look for when grading a dan grade? Ladies & Gentleman I bow to you for your achievements. Thank you for sharing them.

Hello Wilko9999 Well thank you for taking the time to share your exercise with me, although slightly unexpected in this thread I am very familiar with the exercise you mentioned. They will improve power to an extent as you build the appropriate muscle for the kick that you are working. You can also concentrate on your technique because you do not have to worry about balance. They will develop nice looking kicks over power kicks though IMO. I think that to improve power you need impact training. You see, doing a side kick in the air has slightly deifferent mechanics to kicking a target(?). Allow me to elaborate on my sidekick whoes. When I kick the bag it does have power. The guy, holding the bag, does take a couple of steps back. However I want to put him through the wall Bruce Lee style My problem is that I still reserve some power in my hips and do not use my supporting leg to full effect in driving the kick from the floor. I am working on it I do not work my roundhouse much as it is already way in front of the others power wise. Thanks for the suggestion though it has been excepted with a great deal of gratitude. Thanks again.

Oh yes Karate_woman. My Okinawan Goju-ryu friend. There is that, but it is still simply progression.

I never drink, never have. I'm a good boy Or should that be boring..............

HONOR. Big word, with many interpretations. My honor is not like the old masters!!!! I have never challenged anyone to a fight to the death, or chopped of their head for stepping over my sword. Two examples I recall reading, probably the two extremist Anyway I do consider myself to be honorable but I would not use that terminology. I would rather use respectful. Honorable seems such a strong word, it's a bit like saying "I dislike someone" and "I hate someone". Hate is the extreme but means pretty much the same. I consider it to be extremely important to show respect to everyone and everything.

t is commonly said that BB is the beginning of the beginning.....whatever. You have read it many times in this thread already. I do not believe this to be true (ducks, to avoid hurls of abuse ). You see passing my BB was just an anti-climax, as mentioned in another thread. Okay it was hard (quite) and it was rewarding to receive the belt but when I resumed training there were no revelations, no secret moves, nothing new really, not that I expected it to be that way. What I believe is you begin at the beginning when you first start training. When you achieve BB you would have been training for a substantial amount of time. You will find that things are starting to click into place; timing, bunkai, etc. It is simply a matter of progression like learning addition before you learn algebra. Some will grasp the whole concept before others you don't have to be a BB to do what a BB does. But you do require the skill/ experiance. Just is the case when you achieve BB your progression will not stop, things just keep becoming clearer the more experiance you gain. IMHO, just a different view point but very rarely shared

Okay guys & gals. You're keen martial artists, obviously. But are your partners? When it's time for that week away training session or another competition, how do you convince them that this is not just another social event, but an historical moment in your martial arts history? Do you have to bribe them (keep it clean please!!!)? Lets hear your reasons for training so much. My begging for a few weeks is becoming hard work and bribery is very costly.

Who inspires you? Who is your hero? And why?

Our association does not have a 10th kyu. The belt ranking system is something that I have never really given any thought to, until I joined this forum. It really does appear to be a complicated issue, but needn't be. After all it is only a belt

Okay guys and girls. Alot of us seem to be practicing traditional styles. This may over lap with another thread but I was wondering.....Do you think the master of your style got it right? Allow me to elaborate. In our style it is often said that we want to "go back" to the way that our style was originally taught. But why? Why not evolve move on. All those years back how could they possibly have got it all right. After all they were only men and women. I understand the importance of kata, etc. But why do we wish to stick so rigidly to the original teachings? Or do we. Have we evolved? What is you opinion? Is your style (association, instructor, you, whatever) stuck religously in the past or do you believe in evolving? (No disrespect to any Masters, Styles, etc Just some food for thought)

You can make any(?) style defensive if that is the way you choose to use it. Although I would agree with G95champ to my knowledge of Aikido, limited as it is, I would say that it is the ultimate defensive style due to the reasons mentioned. If you are looking for an alround M/A I would suggest Jujitsu. Which includes fighting from all ranges.

Thanks for the input Kirves it truly has given me food for thought. Never really considered ranking systems before. Now I know why