TangSooGuy

If you really want to keep it from getting messed up. I'd suggest just going out and buying a frame for it. There are plenty of places you can get frames specifically designed for certificates pretty cheaply- check Wal-mart or somewhere like that. As long as you keep it in the frame, it ought to stay good as new...

Basically, I'd haveto agree with what Tom said, for 1st dan, and even 2nd dan...thought I was gonna die at my 3rd Dan test, and 4th Dan was a whole experience unto itself...which I'm not quite done with yet, acually... wait for your Sam Dan test Tom...do they use the Shinai in Region 5?

You're really right at about the perfect age to start - I can't see any disadvantages at all, other than as you enter your teenage years you begin to get a lot od things competing for your attention. as long as you feel you devote enogh time to it, I say go for it. I started when I was eleven, and frankly that held me back in some things, like not being able to be a certified instructor until I turned 18... As for too old..not even close...I taught a guy who started when he was 72...is now 75 and a red belt in Tang Soo Do...and could probably out-do a lot of 30 year olds whining about being too old...it mike take him a little longer to progress than some, and he may have some limitations, but he doesn't let that stop him, and he serves as a great inpspiration to me.

Well I've seen some really good ones and some really bad ones. the trend seems to be towards the more flashy stuff, which bothers me, but when done well, he music can actually be an enhancement to a well thought out form. We train in martial arts, there are two sides to that: martial and art. Music can help to enhance the art side of things, but it needs to be balanced out with the martial. Swinging too far to either side - too much 'martial' without any 'art', or in the cases of some of the musical forms I've seen, too much 'art' without any 'martial' application, is detrimental to both the practitioner and the art itself. So, if theyare well balanced,I think there is a place for them. i do not however believe that musical forms and traditional forms should appear in the same division in a tournament. I think the flavors and feeling are just too different. Each type of form should have its own division. Oh well, that just my 2 cents...

In my experience, shape really doesn't have much effect on performance, other than the fact that you will naturally perform better with something that feels more comfortable in your hand. Weight, balance, and thickness a more important performance factors, as well as the condition of the ball bearing if you are using chained nunchaku. The octagon shape would be used more to inflict cutting or gashing wounds on a real opponent, and to some provides a better grip that is less likely to slip out of their hands.

Well, I currently teach at a Y, and I consider my class a 'real' school, as does my Association, but with that said: Your best bet is to not worry about price or location or any of that, and visit all the schools you see as possibilities. gauge your overall feel for the class and the instructor, and choose what fits you best... Don't forget to ask about contract commitments, test fees (inclusing black belt), equipment costs,etc....there's nothing implicitly wrong with having these costs, but you should know what you're getting into before you sign up. MA for a whole family can be an expensive proposition, but your best bet really is to find the best instructor and class for you, as you'll be far more likely to get what you pay for that way.

Well, I saw a presentation given by Master William Clark of the ATA earlier this year. I would have to say that my overall impression of him was that he was an outstanding businessman, and something of a marketing genius even, but the entire presentation was based on different ways instructors can create programs that progressively make you more money because the students pay more to be a part of each program. Frankly, some of it seemed a little shady, but i'm not going to begrudge the guy his success. Some of what he said made a lot of sense, some of it seemed to fit the "McDojo" profile, but as I've never personally visited an ATA dojang, I can't really make that blanket statement. I know of schools in my own association I would consider having the "McDojo" philosophy, so it's not like I'm saying any one Association can be judged more harshly than any other on that front. I just question the validity of multi-tiered pricing setups that don't seem to offer much advantage to those who are paying the higher levels, which is basically what master Clark presented. It's possible i wasn't getting his message clearly, but that's what I got out of it. That said, I have absolutely no basis on which to judge Master Clark's martial arts abilities, nor his teaching abilities, nor those of any member of the ATA, so I won't deign to do so.

Closing distance really is the wy to go..take it fromme, I'm 6'3" and love to kick when I can- and I hate it when someone gets too close- I've spent some time recently improving my hand and grappling techniques for just that reason. you should work on flanking/side to side footwork in order to get around the kicks and get in close, effectivelyeliminating their abliity to kick. just make sure you don't get impaled by a foot on the way in

EDIT: Double Post....

I can't say I've ever encountered any overt racism in the dojang or in our Association. Aside from the fact that it is an art founded by Asians, and our grandmaster is Asian, some of the most high ranking and well respected masters in our association are from any number of races..i can think of two African American masters in particular who garner a ton of respect, one of whom is 6th Dan, and the other who will receive his 6th dan shortly... That said, I did get accused of racism in a tournament once, where I was told by a disgruntled parent that my ring displayed a great deal of racial bias.... convenient that she completely ignored the fact that the girl who won sparring was Asian, and the girl who won forms was African-American.... oh well, I guess we were just racially biased towards HER daughter....

In addition to what has already been posted, I strongly recommend: "Kodo: Ancient Ways" by Kensho Furuya "Traditions" by Dave Lowry "Zen in the Martial Arts" by Joe Hyams And for a classic on protocol and politics, I strongly recommend the novel "All Men Are Brothers" trans. by Pearl S. Buck if you can find it...a slightly weaker (IMO) translation goes by the title "Outlaws of the Marsh"

Well, I just got here, so I guess i should post in this thead.. I have trained in Tang Soo Do for going on 20 years...I will be receiving my 4th Dan in a few more weeks...

i knew someone would ask that... if you're asking me why I do it, to prove to myself that I can, mostly, like I said, I don't do it all that often. Every once in awhile I'll do it at a demo as an attention getter, with the whole 'don't try this at home' caveat... I did it at my 4th Dan test earlier this year because they asked us to do a 'specialty' break...but that was in March and I haven't done it since... It's more something to show how mental preparedness and belief that you can do something, combined with corecct technique, is more important to sucess than physical strength...

I currently break one board using a spear hand strike, and am working my way up to breaking two boards this way. I didn't do any special conditioning to do this, other than striking the palm of my other hand to develop an understanding of how to hold my hand and what part of the fingers to strike with. The real key is to do the strike very quickly and at the correct angle, with your fingers perpendicular to the board, creating a better penentrating surface. The idea is to create as much force as possible on a very small surface area- speed is what accomplishes this force, not strength. If you don't do it very fast and try to penetrate as though the board wasn't even there, you're just going to hurt yourself. I also tried to do the break in a very rushed manner once, and hit at the wrong angle, nearly breaking my fingers. One other thing- it hurts. Every single time I do it, so as you can imagine, I don't do it all that often...

Actuaslly, if you have the fundamentals of breaking wood down, breaking cinder/patio blocks ought to be fairly easy. Cinder blocks are actually more forgiving than wood in my experience, in that if you hit them hard enough, they WILL break, while the same isn't always true of wood. that said, make sure you keep the blocks somewhere dry. Cinderblocks are like sponges, and get very dense and hard to break when saturated with water. I usually break 3-4 at a demo, as the cleanup for more than that gets to be a real pain. I'd suggest buying extras (you can get them pretty cheaply) and do the break at least once ahead of time- and try just one first, then add on. Definitely use spacers of some kind if you're planning on doing multiples- piling cinder blocks on w/out spacers makes the break exponentially more difficult. Also, make sure your base is solid- breaking on top of a soft, giving, or uneven surface isn't advisable. I usually use a modified palm heel stike, incorporating the knife edge of my hand in addition to the palm heel. I find it gives me more power in a straight line than a swinging strike like a standard knife hand or hammer fist. The mistakes most newcomers make to breaking cinder blocks, in my experience: 1. stopping when they make contact. The blocks MIGHT break if you use enough force, but you'll hurt yourself if they don't. Put your hand THROUGH the blocks, all the way to the ground if you have to. Don't worry about pain. you'll have a stinging in your hand if the break, but it will go away. If you worry about how much it's going to hurt, that's when you hurt yourself. 2. You may hit them TOO hard. Not really a big issue- they'll break, but there are some issues with this. They won't break cleanly in half- they actually explode into fragments. The first time I ever broke 3 blocks in a demo I'd never done it before, and didn't know how hard to hit the stack, so I hit it as hard as i could, and a fragment actually flew up and hit me in the face, and gave me a nice gash- not the worst that could happen, but i'm glad it dodn't hit me in the eye...it's just something to be aware of. hope that helps...