tufrthanu

Well I think if you are going to attempt to break a brick for the first time (which I have never attempted) you should use a front thrust kick. That is probably the safest technique there is. To Hudson I have a friend that does Wah Lum Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu...their temple is down in FL. I wonder if thats what he means. BTW, breaking isnt meant to teach self defense its meant to test proper technique.

Well ottman 25 seems pretty reasonable...especially if thats near to what the belts cost. Nick that seems like a pretty good deal to me.

I really must encourage you not to buy second hand equipment. Studies have shown that alot of sparring gear loses its effectiveness very quickly. If you would post how much you are willing to spend I bet someone will know of a place you can find new stuff for cheap.

Well first off it should be said that gloves protect your hands not your head. If you are having problems with getting hit in the head you should buy some good head gear. From what I've seen the oz thing seems to go by weight class though. Heavyweights wear heavier gloves cause they punch harder.

Well ray we have a shotokan dojo here in MN that is somewhat famous and it takes along time to progress through the ranks there too. However I just dont see the justification for it. Although it could be your just not pushing hard enough. If I was told to do a side kick for 3 years before attempting a reverse side kick it would take me a long time too. If I was told to do the reverse side kick after the 2nd month I should have it down in fairly short order.

I suppose it also gives her an opportunity to charge you for every test as well. 12 belts is too many. When my father took TKD in the early 70's there were only 5 belts. White, Yellow, Green, 5th Blue, 4th Blue, 3rd Brown, 2nd Brown and 1st Brown. At my current school there are 10 belts. I think any more than 10 is just too many...if you need that much of a reward process perhaps there is another field you can go into...or do tournaments.

Here is a great Forum I found online...of course you will have to register to post but if you have sword questions this is the place to get answers. http://swordforum.com/

I asked a friend of mine who believes teh japanese term is Sekka Ki.

2 times a week for a total of 2 hours should get him in there in 3 years not 1.

As I put in my previous post Sam that months to black belt would be if already had a dan ranking in a similar art. If you can not learn a new set of forms and combos in 6 months then you just arent being diligent about it. And as to the year to BB the two most famous men Bill Wallace and Joe Lewis to do it in a year or less came along in a time when that was almost impossible. Now days if you come to the dojang every day that it is open and take every class that they offer and also perfect the techniques I don't see that you couldnt do it in a year or 18 months. Now that wouldn't be the vast majority of people of course but its possible. And once again I must emphasize look at the individual. If he can do 360 round kicks that look fantastic and knows all the forms and can perform the self defense stuff without even thinking AND he did it in a year he definitely deserved it.

Pressure points also do not work well on people that are drunk or high. With the average person however the trick to the pressure points is if you find one that doesnt work switch rapidly to another one on a different part of the body. And to remember that the ones on the head are much more effective...that one below the cheekbone if struck can knock someone out...due probably both to immense pain and probable trauma to the brain.

The reason I have been given is that raising the hands to a normal fighting posture opens the torso for more hits. Since the judges do not score punches like they should the only real benefit you are getting from raising your arms is to not get kicked in the face, however, the great majority of kicks land on the body and so they feel its more important that thats where their hands should be.

5 years is too long IMHO. Unless you are going once a week every other week. If you have recieved a dan ranking in a similar art I would think the time would drop to months not years to learn the new material. Joe Lewis is about the quickest I've heard of to recieve a black belt at 7 months. From starting that is. But as we've seen he was pretty exceptional.

A year is possible an alot of tkd schools...especially if the person is there every day for 4 hours. That's to first dan. If by stripe you mean like 2nd 3rd dan and what not theres no way you should get those in a year. If you are very diligent 2nd dan in a year...3rd in 2 years. And so on. Generally it takes about 2-3 years in most tkd schools to get to first dan and then whatever dan your going to figure that number of years from first. So from first to second is 2 years. From second to third is three years. And so on. Unfortunately alot of commercial schools pass the bad students with the good students so its really hard to say whether its a bad school or not. The best thing is just to look at the individual. It personally took me 3 years...but I was a 2 times a week person I just managed to pick stuff up pretty quick.

I would bet some of the chinese styles have something similar as well. And you are right people do do it barefoot...it just takes speed. I always hit the wall and just slid down it, but I think I wasnt going nearly fast or hard enough.

Basically pressure points are areas where nerves or muscles are that when pressed rubbed or punched cause pain. Forget the 7 year death and all that crap. Some very good pressure points are just above the elbow towards the inside...you can press it with your thumb. Theres one just above the knee slightly to the inside of the leg. There is one in the pit of the collarbone area. I have also studied some of the ones in the jaw. In the majority of these cases what cause someone to pass out, unlike a traditional knockout that is cause by brain trauma, is from overwhelming pain. Sort of like what happens when someone gets their foot blown off and then passes out. Unfortunately these spots have different effects on different people. For instance I respond very well to the nerve above the elbow and was in extreme agony just from having someone push their thumb into it, however, there is one in the forearm that I had a guy wail on that had absolutely no effect at all. BTW to all the people that have recommended subduing a prisoner by pushing into the point at the base of the throat or behind the ear those are not the wisest spots to use as either one can cause death if you accidently press too hard...which is possible during an adrenal rush.

Here's the problem with the olympic TKD sparring: It's not that the tkd practioners dont do punching during their regular training but the judges never hardly score a punch, so it becomes pointless, literally, for the competitors to attempt to punch each other. With some minor rule changes and instruction to the judges to start scoring punches you would see alot of the hands down chicken fighting disappear.

Great Post beer-monster! I totally agree.

Both the USTU and the WTF had problems with corruption in leadership over the last couple of years. Hopefully those problems have been settled. I think TKD is still in for the next olympics. Wushu will be introduced as a Demo sport at the 2008 Olympics and therefore there will be no official medals given. Kind of like taekwondo was in 1988. The host country of the olympics chooses if they wish to put on a demo sport.

Lots of different kinds of TKD alot of which aren't the stuff you see in the olympics.

There is a guy named Chris Hoshiyama in scottsdale that teaches okinawan karate. He's pretty good. So is Milt Calender however I'm not sure where milt calenders dojo is currently.

The wall can not only be used for back flips but for kicks as well. You run up to it at an angle jump onto the wall and then jump back out into the room and do a round kick for instance. One of my instructors could do one off two walls, where he would run at one wall, jump onto it run up that wall and then jump off an adjacent wall and do the kick out into the room at a height of about 10 ft. I think it just takes alot of practice and speed. As to the kip up that also takes speed and you will have to be a more slender person. Basically what you have to do is start by kicking your legs up so that your weight shifts onto your shoulders. Put your hands over the same side shoulder to give you support. Then once you get to the point where your legs are up in the air bring them back to your chest and kick straight out...like a stomp kick. Then use your stomach muscles to pull your torso off the ground. Unfortunately I was never able to do this move and its one I think you kinda gotta learn just by trying it out.

What exactly do you consider a serious grappling style? Speed favors the smaller opponent...and I think strength is more important to grappling than it is to striking as power, which is what determines how much impact there is, can be increased with with more speed or more strength.

Well as I said my preference would be for a generalized grappling event for the Judo, jujitsu, aikido and hapkido people and a full contact kickboxing event for the karate, taekwondo and kung fu people. Any combined event would leave alot of styles with something to learn. Thai fighters would know nothing of Hip throws for instance and jujitsu guys would know nothing of spinning hook kicks.

Here is what I posted in the Korean styles folder since Aefi shut the thread down due to repeats: There are 6 combat sports in the olympics they are: Boxing Judo Greco-Roman Wrestling Freestyle Wrestling Taekwondo Fencing The competition is very fierce...in taekwondo there is kicking to the head and it is full contact but there are no punches to the head and not much defense. Boxing and the 2 wrestling categories have alot of different weightclasses. Judo and Taekwondo only have four I beleive: Fly, Feather, Middle and Heavy...I think. I'm not sure that fencing has any weight classes however there are 3 sword classes: Foil, Epee and Sabre from least to most difficult in that order. As to the nations that dominate: in the martial arts it is usually the asian countries...in boxing it tends to be the US, eastern europe and cuba. In wrestling it tends to be eastern europe, the us and the middle east. In fencing it tends to be western europe. As far as who gets in the process is quite complicated for like the taekwondo...you have to win so many matches and if its against a champion you have to win more...stuff like that. The only regular tv channel that broadcasts karate regularly is ESPN 2. They broadcast the creative forms competitions form ISKA and also the american K-1 competitions...big whoop...but thats what we get. _________________ Sho Dan American Tae Kwon Do 5th Gup Sin Moo Hapkido Long Live the Fighters!