SaiFightsMS

We do have a lot more movies with more quality in their martial arts scenes and we do have Jackie Chan in cartoons every saturday. Yes, we have a lot and it would be really cool to have a martial arts channel. I would really like to see quality martial arts programming. But, without generating too many new McDojo's in the process. How to increase programming and increase availibility of quality instruction? :

Unfortunately too few of us know anything approaching the full range of tai chi. There is a very martial aspect to some forms. It is also all too true that we seldom persevere long enough to learn the full range of the art we started our initial training in.

Well since it was brought up, I began my training in shorin ryu, trained in shi-to ryu and hold a shodan in Shotokan. I also hold a shodan rating in Bojutsu. Other ratings well 5th kyu in tonfa and nuchaku, and 4th kyu in sai.

Very interesting. :argue:

One tournament we had in the sparring portion everyone noticed there were two kids in the ring just really going after each other. I mean really going after each other and laughing in the process. Well it turned out it was a brother and sister. Of course the parents were laughing hysterically. Every other set of parents were not sure how to react. I don't remember who won. But I will never forget the way everyones attention was drawn to the procedings. It was all in good fun. No one got hurt. And everyone left in good spirits.

Well I have trained with kids in kobudo classes and here is my viewpoint. A GOOD sensei will not train a student with a weapon if they feel the student cannot learn to handle the responsibility. The very first day of instruction ground rules are laid down. No attacking siblings, pets, neighbors, furniture, walls, etc. Also the very first day of instruction it is made clear infractions of the rules result in the weapon being taken away and training suspended. Kama I don't think are a good choice for an early weapon. I think bo is a good first weapon. Sai are cool :nod: There are light weight aluminum sai now. And most sai commonly sold are not sharp. The biggest danger in the initial phases in sai training comes from dropping them. Foam nunchakus can also be a good thing to learn with. All of our kids use foam nunchaku until at least brown belt. And then at sensei's discretion they may use wooden ones. So there was my 3 cents worth.

Dreamer I am so happy to know I am not alone. No I have not kept all the subsequent boards. I have a few of the first's from techniques that took me a long time to be able to do. For some reason it took me 2 years after the first try to successfully do an elbow break like - in Heian yondan. Sometimes when I feel really discouraged I get it out and look at it and remember. Then I feel better. Can't explain it. But, it works.

Hello and welcome. :wave:

I just finished a book about an around the world sailing yacht race. The guts of the book was made up of interactions between the team mates on the individual boats and between the other boats. And how things changed as the race went on. Like how at the beginning of the race some teams were out to win. Some were in just to be in and finish. And at the beginning there was a lot of rivalry and secretiveness between the teams. That changed as the race went on. The teams became closer to each other. It changed more to a tone of not us against each other but us (racers) against the spectator world. Kind of made me think of how things go in karate. How in the beginning as white belts some start classes bound and determined to get a black belt. And some are just there. And how there is a bond among martial artist even if they don't necessarily practice the same style or art. Am I warped because I see similarites between the martial arts and other activities? Or am I weird because I think about them? :???:

Too bad. - For them.

Thank you, thank you dumb stuff can be amazingly funny. :lol: A wife walked into her kitchen and found her husband stalking around with a flyswatter. "Hunny what are you up too?" "Why I'm fly hunting, what does it look like?" he replies. "Having any luck?" asks the wife. "Oh yes I have got 3 male flys and 2 female flies so far." "Um hunny how to you know if a fly is male or female?" the wife asks. "Well it was easy, 3 were on a beer can 2 were on the phone." answered the husband. I think I liked the snowman better.

Kind of sounds a bit like a soap opera. As the word revoleves around Angus. I mean no insult Angus I find you to be a very interesting fellow. And I kind of enjoy your exploits. It did take a lot of control to just turn and walk out of that dojo. Wonder what kind of expressions they had?

Jiggy do you have any more stories like that you can tell us?

Breaking is allways an interesting topic. And there are other threads in the forum about it. In my opinion one of it's greatest values is in promoting self confidence. There are no great secrets to a standard break. All that is required is good technique and speed. A bit of strenght helps too. I will admit that I still have the first board I broke. I keep it for many reasons. Some I will never have words to describe. But in one way after that first break every time I started to become angry I thought about what I could do. And never struck out strictly in anger in an inappropriate manner.

Being winter now and being that cold muscles are easier to injure maybe this is a good topic to bring up again. Also do you adjust your warmup routine during cold weather and if so how?

Sounds like something that does require a knowledgeable doctors input on. Try to see some sports med people. Also sounds like you may have to modify your training to avoid further damage. I think at some time or other everyone will face a point where they either have to modify or stop, even if only temporarily. There are more people doing physcal activities at older ages now than ever before. So the knowledge of base of how to treat problems and still maintain activity is increasing.

I get a few things out of meditation/relaxation techniques others here may not because my physical situation is different. It is a non-physical way to harness emotions before they go out of control. A way to kind of get back to a more level center point. It helps put things back in perspective. As to how often - not enough.

:eek:What does a snow man eat for breakfast Frosted Flakes

Welldone and welcome back. And, I'm sure the desert taught you many lessons.

Thanks Ronryu. It is looking like Rohai is the Okinawan name for these katas. Meikyo would be the name Funakoshi changed them to when he took Okinawan Karate to Japan and popularised it. He changed the names of many katas. Only some of them stuck better than other names did. Rohai shodan seems to be the rohai of the Shor-in ryu people. Meikyo as practiced by Shotokan now was originally Rohai Nidan. I have no idea about Rohai Sandan.

Ad sounds like you are really in a hard core school. Stories like yours used to be very common. As more people began to train and younger students began to train most of the rough and tumble was toned down. It is not the best thing for retention of students. Some schools even used events like that to weed out the serious students from the wanna be's. It is your choice. You need to evalutate your reason for choosing to practice a martial art. And to evaluate the reasons you chose that style. Then take another look at why that school. Personally I would also take a look to see if other students have had those kinds of experiences and how they were handled. And to see how common such incidents occur.

Earning the right to wear a white belt. Doesn't sound like a mcdojo to me. There is a lot of hot discussion that goes on about ranking systems. Most of the time it is pointing out the devaluation of rank done by dojos that just sell rank. If this school makes a student earn the right to wear a beginners belt I would take a second look. What are the requirements for later belts? Are the higher belts also being earned and not just sold. Earning the right to wear a belt is generally a good sign.

Moobrak I know a version of all three of those kata. They are sometimes grouped together and called the "respect kata's" because of the hand position at the beginning of the katas. Some of the legend behind them say they came from a temple in China. But, like many old traditional katas no one really knows for sure their origins. Jion took me quite a while to learn. I kept forgetting what I had learned from class to class. Although Jutte may be the easiest to learn there are many things that make it difficult to do well. The pivoting using the hip movements to generate power are very difficult to do well. Jiin is kind of between the other 2 in difficulty I think. It's the kata you hate to be doing when sensei is stopping every other minute to make a correction or help someone out. It can feel like you've been in shiko dachi forever! I kind of like the way the pace changes in it though. How there are quick powerful moves and slower moves that help set mood. My favorite breaking techinique is the hammerfist like it is done in Jiin.

Spoons This guy is eating at an exclusive eatery when the waiter comes up to his table and asks if everything is OK. The man replies "Yes," but during the conversation drops his spoon on the floor. The waiter immediately pulls a spoon out of his shirt pocket. The man asks, "Why do you carry a spoon in your pocket?" The waiter states that the place is so busy all the time that the employees need to save time any way they can so they did a survey and the most dropped eating utensil was the spoon, so now all the waiters carry spoons so they don't have to go to the kitchen and get one. The man thinks that is great. Later on the waiter again stops by to see if everything was OK. This time the man notices a string sticking out of the waiters zipper. He asks what that was for, and the waiter says, "When we go to the bathroom, we just grab the string and pull "it" out. That way we don't have to wash our hands, thus saving us time. "Interesting," says the man, "but how do you put 'it' back in your pants when you're done?" The waiter says, "I don't know about the other waiters, but I use the spoon." :spitlaugh:

Stationary bikes are good. Just keep up the intensity. The new elliptical trainers are excellant. The ramp heighth can be adjusted to simulate various activities. And because it is no impact it does not cause back pain.