SBN Doug

Just make sure there are no open windows, etc. in front of you. A passing bird, dropping leaves and so on can break you concentration when you're trying to meditate with eyes open.

I agree. I'm looking into possibly teaching some classes at the Y. Mostly because I have a career and don't have the time or money to open a stand alone school. No dojang of my art within an hour, so I have to open my own if I want to pass on what I know.

No time at night. Too busy shuttleing kids to and from sports, piano, dance, etc. I got into a pretty regular schedule of getting up at 5:45am, working out for a little over an hour, and then getting ready for work. Took a while to get used to it, but I arrive at work a lot more energized.

O.k., I haven't been keeping up with this thread, so I'll throw a late two cents in. Thai_Kick, I'm not going to question your opinions, but here's what I'm seeing. Everyone seems to be basing our opinon of who is "worthy" of a black belt on the criteria of our own art only. In your particular art, with it's strengths, these are probably worthy critera. However, we all need to remember that not every art is alike. That's why so many have evolved. One statement was that competition wins should be a criteria, but someone in KSW or Hapkido would not be allowed to use even half of what we know in that competition. I myself would probably get beaten by a Muay Thai practitioner if not allowed to use any techniques. However, those in striking intensive arts might benefit from this kind of test. Physical strength is a powerful tool in a "hard" style. But in a soft style, general fitness is all they're concerned with due to their philosophy of re-direction of force. In a style focusing on "internal" power, they will not focus on external as much. I guess the point I'm trying to make is we should not judge the skills of a practitioner from a different art based on our own art's criteria. What's the saying? "Don't judge a man (or woman ) until you've walked a mile in their moccasins."

Welllllll, technically no. That is not necessarily everyone's ultimate purpose for studying martial arts. A large percentage, but not everyone.

ckdstudent, That wasn't the question I was addressing. Of course the instructor has a responsibility to properly represent what he teaches. The question was, does the student hold any of the responsibilty for "breaking the McDojo chain", as I'll call it. The way I read Borzoi's statement was, that a McDojo teacher may very well have been a McDojo student. This student thought they were being taught effective techniques. This student excells (who wouldn't at a McDojo ) and decides to open their own school. They now propogate the McDojo taught material to another generation of students. My opinion is that there IS a responsibility for the student to break this chain once it has become apparent to them (if it ever does). Should they not care that they are learning bogus techniques, then they've made a decision to continue the chain. Should they care what they are being taught, they then shoulder the responsibility to leave and find a legitamate MA school. A long time back in this forum (or at least it seems a long time back ), I gave my history with my first organized MA instruction. To make that long story short, I realized that the guys running the school was hanging out with drug dealers. I didn't have proof he was using, but just associating with these guys was against everything I felt the MAs stood for. I also found out the magazine cover he was on was bogus. I was a senior in a VERY small town, and this school was my only chance to study. I had been wanting to study for a few years by that time. I walked out, knowing I would have to put my MAs studies on hold for another who knows how long. It became MY responsibility when I became aware of what was going on. I wouldn't be able to put all the blame on him, as the instuctor, if I knew it was bogus and decided to keep going there. Sorry, I tend to ramble when I haven't finished my coffee yet.

I've heard some of you guys in TKD say you DO learn some controlling techniques as well. Do any of you learn weapons, or is everything empty handed? I don't mean you learned it on your own, or your instructor learned it on his/her own and taught it to you. I mean are there any weapons in your 'official' curriculum for promotions? Similar question for you Hapkido guys. Except, I know you learn weapons. My question to you is what weapons at what levels?

There is a TKD or Karate place on most every corner in this country. Even non-TKD schools sometimes advertise TKD to catch those students that know that term. It's taking on the same weight as Karate around here. Unfortunately becomming a generic term for MA school. As far as the "true" TKD and it's high kicks, they CAN be formatible when done correctly. However, you have to have a high level of athetic ability to do them correctly, which takes a lot of training, which makes it easier for some to just say "they don't work" rather than putting in the extra effort to perfect them. I practice KSW, and there are a lot of the same high kicks in my curriculum. We just don't learn them as soon as TKD. All the jump-spinning kicks, double leg jump kicks, flying side kicks, etc. I'm just not super flexible, and don't have as much spring left in my legs as I used to. So, I'll probably keep most my kicks low as well. I also prefer the Hapkido portion of my art. However, I can do them if the need arises. Say, someone is uphill from me, or on top of something.

You're not the only one. From what I can tell so far, the biggest difference is that KSW and HRD use hyung, and Hapkido does not. I certainly wouldn't be heart broken if I didn't have to learn any new hyung. However, I'm at the level where I'm mainly learning weapons forms now, anyway.

A lot of the original upper belts broke away from the "organization" because, they say, of the way it was being run. If you read to the bottom of that link I gave, you'll see some of it. For this particular forum, I wanted to keep to the similarities he describes between these three Korean MAs.

Posted this link over in a thread in Korean arts too. But since it links the three's history so much, I thought I post it here too. Try to ignore the feud going on in the HRD organization resulting from this accounting. Personally, I don't care if mine was first or not. I love KSW and will stick with it as long as I can. http://www.hwarang.org/Personal.html

Hey niel0092, If you're still looking at HRD, you might want to read through this. http://www.hwarang.org/Personal.html http://www.hwarang.org/Warning.html Looks like some interesting links between HWD, my Kuk Sool Won, and Hapkido. Also some skeltons in the closet. What you can't find on the web nowadays.

It's their responsibility as soon as the get to the point where they know there is a difference, and care. Same as any other purchased product or service. If you know there is a difference, and care that there is a difference, then "buyer beware" is usually the safest advise.

So, for those of you in Hapkido, are your techniques broken out into groups, or are they random? I ask because Kuk Sool Won has them grouped by type of situation you would use them in. i.e. wrist grab techniques, double handed grab, grab from behind, etc.

Don't confuse "involves" with "requires". Hapikdo, BJJ, , Judo, Aikido, Kuk Sool Won, and any other similar arts depend on redirection of force, the physics of leverage and motion, and the anatomy of joints, muscles, and bones to create a great deal of force. They do not "require" someone to have a great deal of muscular strength to use them. In most cases, you will be able to defend against a much larger attacker, once you've become proficient. However, you should still observe a few classes first.

You've only been studying 3 years and you're going for 2nd dahn already? I thought it took a lot longer than that in Hapkido. How many techniques (and whatever else) do you need to learn for 1st dahn? I was in Kuk Sool Won for 8 years before getting 2nd dahn, and I'm moving faster than average. I thought KSW was pretty similar to Hapkido.

We have self defense routines at our tourneyments. However, I would never commit to performing with that many partners. Unless you're talking about all six are in the same self defense routine. Even if it is all one routine, 5 days is not enough time to become proficient. I would suggest a couple of them not use you, and use each other, so everyone has more time to practice. 5 days + 6 partners + 10 techniques = less than satisfying performance

Yep, that's the problem with Korean history. Each martial art tends to throw the slant toward itself...including my own.

Hey KarateMom, Any chance of getting him to go along with you?? It's early and I'm just getting my coffee, so forgive me if you already tried this. What's the worst that could happen if you don't make up the class? Probably just delay one promotion, which isn't too bad. You want to be in it for the long haul anyway. Interesting point about your daughter. There have also been threads here as to how old the children should be before starting. My personal opinion is the 8-10 range, depending on maturity. Good luck.

Yeah, I've read some on HRD. It's in the MA lineage chart I posted a link to in this forum. It's not pure HRD from thousands of years ago, but it still seems quite comprehensive. It shows many similarities to Hapkido and my personal favorite Kuk Sool Won.

I agree that the regulation should be done by the "Federation" that the school belongs to. In my case the World Kuk Sool Won Association. Unfortunately, there would still need to be legislation requiring every school to belong to one. How many "hole in the wall" schools are there out there that don't belong to any governing organization? Too often, the problem with getting the government involved is that they try and take full control, and then you can't get rid of them!

Glad to be of..uh..reinforcement.

Yeah, nothing feels better than to really earn it.

My wife's asked me this too. She claims to remember to like around 18 months. I don't seem to have much before 3, riding my bike, around the time the training wheels came off.

Tobias, Of the ones you listed, that's the one that sounded most interesting to me. Our master said he would be starting us upper BBs on the long spear next time he came up.