CloudDragon

Do you warm up before stretching? If so, what do you do to warm up?

What particular style do you want to know about?

What I havent seen yet is the issue of clothing, if someone is wearing a thin leather jacket, penetration is exponentially difficult when compared to a person without a shirt. Plus, most training targets are hard and do not take into account the pliability of skin and muscle, a natural defense. As far as throwing something, I would pick a baseball, better transferrence of energy, and easier to get the desired effect. In the confines of the question, I would choose a knife, because the greater weight would impart more energy. Remember, shuriken were designed to be a distraction, something to engage the enemy until you could draw a sword, or make your escape.

Dude, you would be toast, if she has ANY training, she would run you around in circles until you were out of breath, and then pound you into the dirt. Oh yeah, and by your post, you said you believed she could beat you. Therefore, you have already lost. I don't believe I can beat everyone, but if they do fight me, and beat me, by God they will work for it!

I would like to help, but more information would be nice. How old are you? Sex? Height? Weight? How often do you work out? What is your Job? Have you lost alot of weight recently? Depending on what you are doing and your fitness goals, you will need protien and carbs for muscle development and energy. Just from reading your post, it seems that you might want to include more whole grains and cereals, but more information would help. Feel free to PM me if you wish.

AnonymousOne, I cannot change you or the way that you think or your resistance to educating yourself on other peoples thoughts and ideas. Only you can do that. However, I will say that hypothyridism is not "psycho babble", it is physiological, and has nothing to do with thoughts or emotion. As far as "excuseology", that is the most obvious piece of psycobabble here. Your opinion shows no knowledge of psychiatry or the human response to weight disorders. By the way, far as I remember we weren't talking about murderers, it was about eating disorders. Until you can reply with at least some reminant of knowledge about proven scientific fact about eating disorders, or overweight people, without inflammitory rhetoric I will not honor your responses with a reply. "In the land of the blind, the man with one eye is king"

Obivously you didn't read up on hypothyroidism as I suggested. I encourage you to do this, as I feel that it will illuminate the point I was trying to make. Now reading your thoughts about suicide, I suggest that you educate yourself on it as well. The reasoning isn't "I'm fat and too lazy to change it, so I'll just kill myself". The point that I was trying to make is that being overweight or having an eating disorder isn't always about choices. My other point was; people who believe that a person can be catagorized in a set of standards of their own design, with little or no research into their standards they are catagorizing others with, are a potential danger to others. As far as a debate about gluttony and the theological principles thereof, read up on the things I listed above and if you still want to debate, I'd be glad to. Thank you for a thoughtful reply, I look forward to discussing this, and other topics with you in the future.

AnonymousOne, I believe that Kit was talking about the type of disorder where you don't eat enough. As far as your thoughts on people who are fat, I suggest that you read up on hypothyroidism and expand your knoweldge. Sure, everyone who is overweight does not suffer from this, but be sure that you get some facts before you make sweeping generalizations. And on a personal note, I know people like you. They tell people that they are fat because they eat too much. They tell people that suicidal feelings and hallucinations are their fault. They tell people that if they take medications for these problems they are weak and lazy. I wonder where these people were when I cut a person down from a noose in their bedroom. I wonder where these people were when I helped the coroner scoop up brain and skull matter after these "lazy" people blew their heads off. I wonder where these people were when their families were distraught at the loss of their loved one. "Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself"

Welcome to the martial arts! As far as grace, don't worry, it will come in time, maybe a long time, but it will come. As your Sensei said, focus on your movements only, martial art training is a very personal journey and if you are in a good dojo, you will grow at your own pace. Concentrate on what the Sensei does and do the best you can to copy it, granted you won't be able to do it like he does for some time, but take note of where you need to improve and work on that.

Gotta go with the crowd, whatever he likes best. With luck he will lean out and continue to increase strength,

If that's all you got, then it is better than nothing. There are some serious disadvantages as SS pointed out, but it is better to train than not to train.

Try this, "Mom, Dad I want to start martial arts training again." It worked for me. The thing is, parents know that you aren't the same person you were when you were 8, so they will likely see it from a different perspective.

step left, or right, depending on your preference, and do a spinning heel kick to the head, works everytime!

Being a nurse working on a psych unit, I think I can help you with this one. If you have taken the time to post this on a discussion board you are probably right. Talk to her and make sure that she understands that you want to help her and get her to a counselor. Don't try and handle this on your own, as eating disorders are usually an outcropping of other mental issues. Get your friend to help before it's too late!

All of the kung-fu folks I have studied with use the left covering right salute

Wow, not what I thought I would see, maybe the world sees the need for the 3/4 turn!

find another source for your file

I would go with fans, as they are rare, and being a lady? (hey, I've been on the net since speed was measured in baud, I question everyting!) It would be somewhat applicable in a street situation, realizing of course it has its limits. The Sai, while a wonderful weapon for their design, are in today's world a historical item and useful for tournaments, but not really for self defense.

Oh, and btw, welcome back!

I would suggest adding dormers or skylights to your loft conversion, lets light and a little warmth in during the winter, and acts as a chimney during the summer venting the heat out.

Come to my TKD school, the education will be free and the lesson lifelong.

So Blob, what goes through your mind when you think about meeting your old instructor?

I don't recall seeing this reply posted before, so I'll do it now. Lethality is a measure of the practitioner. I can learn from the cheesiest McDojo known in the world, but if I can hit someone like a ton of bricks with my reverse punch, does that make my McDojo better than any others? In a real self defense situation, style accounts for nothing, it is about spirit, determiniation, and your correct response to the situation. Every art will teach defense versus a punch, but if you can't take what you have learned and apply it, it is useless. Therefore, lethality is relative to the practitioner.

The American Taekwondo Association founder EGM H.U. Lee was once quoted on this topic, saying: "If you had a worn out black belt it meant you were so poor you couldn't buy a new one." When I see a person with a belt that looks older than they are, I wonder if maybe he didn't mean that it was just a financial issue or possibly that they were poor in character.

I spent 2 years in my first Tae Kwon Do school. I achieved the rank of "blue 1", which is approximately half the way to black belt. Today, the things I remember are, getting hit on the head by the instructor if I did something wrong, gradings that went until 10 or 11pm – full of stuff that wasn’t the grading – and at the end the grand master would just say "everyone passed" and that was it. Being only 11 years old, I wasn’t really having fun, so I left. I agree, your instructor was a jerk, smart move finding another school. My day finally came, and I was the only one grading for black belt that day. I performed my form and did the basics. Then came breaking. Turning kick, side kick, spinning heel kick, jumping back kick, knife hand strike and elbow strike, in all of which I was successful in my first attempt. Then came downward punch. I could not break it. I tried time and time again but could not do it. I have a problem with my fist, my fingers do not compress as much as most and instead of being close to right angles with the top of my hand, they are more at 45 degrees. I explained this to them and after much debate, they allowed me to do a downward knife hand. I broke the boards easily. Cool, you found a school that realizes everyone is not physically the same. Over the years I got interested in instructing. The teacher said I could not instruct as I was not available for regular training sessions. This was fair enough I thought. Very mature of you, an instructor must be accesible to their students, Suddenly, a lot of people were getting close to grading for their black belts. I did not think they were good enough. I didn’t think they were good enough to be brown belts let alone blacks. Black belts are supposed to be the pinnacle of the sport. Pinnacle of their sport? No, a black belt is a serious student, there is much more to learn, any reputable black belt will tell you that. Oh, and by the way, were you selected to be on the testing board? Sure enough, they passed. Not long after, they were taking their own classes, while I was still training with everyone else. I wasn't even allowed to fill in if an instructor was sick, nor did they use me to train the beginners at the back of the class while the seniors trained. Sour grapes? I also wanted to compete, but our master would not allow it. "It’s an art, not a sport" he would say. Also, the club was very snobbish. We weren't allowed to study another martial art while we were there. If it wasn’t Rhee Tae Kwon Do – it wasn’t worth studying. If you were found "bowing to another instructor", you were kicked out of the club. If you have noticed that, why did you stay to black belt? The last straw came when they promoted an 8 year old girl, her 12 year old sister and her tubby 14 year old brother to "junior black belt". They may have had semi decent technique, but I did not feel it was good enough to wear the black belt. Nor was there any power behind the techniques. To top it off, their grading was modified due to their age and there is not another test when they are old enough for the senior black belt. My belt suddenly didn’t look so impressive. Children don't have enough mass to generate the power that adults do, even the "tubby" ones. Therefore, they do not have the same requirements. The testing of younger students at a later date is common, as the physical ability of children is limited, it can be compared to adults when they are ready, henceforth the "junior" grade. So I left. Looking back, I wish I had moved on to another club. I know a few people that did leave and were able to maintain their belt status at their new club. It is now 4 years later and I began Shotokan a year ago. I am enjoying it immensely. There is more explanation for the reason we do things. We are encouraged to learn other arts. We are allowed to compete. Once we have our blacks, we are allowed to take our own class and encouraged to do so. Congrats to you for finding a school that you are comfortable with! I am glad for you that you are happy with the instruction that you recieve. I have been inspired to train harder to do better in the next one. And I have even considered going back to Tae Kwon Do, albeit another club. I look forward to the day that I meet my old instructor in my travels, so I can tell him what I am doing now and hear his reaction. Why? If this instructor was so bad, who cares what he thinks. You have nothing to prove to him, and trying to "rub his nose in it" would make you look like a jerk. Just be happy in your new art and do it for yourself, don't do it to impress another.