Tao

He has links on his site for other schools if you want to search around for other styles.

Go to https://www.ssmma.com/MMAStore/TrainingTapes.html Sensei Steve Stewart is in Canada. He teaches the late great Ed Parker's system of Kempo, good stuff.

Even if you have to drive to Homestead for a good teacher, it will be worth your while. There are other search engines you can do karate searches through, and I'm sure you'll get an eye full for your area.

Go to https://www.google.com type in Miami Karate , I just got about 10 pages of links that came up. Unless your teacher's thought is for you to overcome this situation, he's not helping you.

Hey gunit, Thanks for that link, very interesting!

For my black sash in wa lum gung fu the test started out standing in a horse stance for 30 minutes doing an excersize called buddha's breath. I had to go through a number of self defense techniques, some full contact sparring, and forms. I had 17 hand forms and 3 weapons forms I had to do as he called them out. Some he would call out to do in mirror image which was a real challenge. I was hurting for a couple of days after, but it felt good because I knew I had earned it.

And the meaning of that is? Is there a particular article on meditation?

Hey coco, Have you read anything from Grand Master George Dillman, or any acupuncture books like the Deadman's book? If you do some research you'll find there are alot of posibilities for self defense that to the untrained eye will look like something super human, but in fact is very simple.

If it was every class, I agree that it would be a waste of class time. The above excersize I do on my own outside of class, among others. It was taught to me some time ago and I continue it even though I'm not with that Sifu anymore. It is good to do this type of excersize with a group of people from time to time for energy reasons. I feel the reason a Coach/ Sifu would have you do this in class is: 1. Not every body will do this on their own, and it is somewhat of an incentive to do so. 2. If you are doing it wrong, or there is room for improvement, he can help you fine tune it properly. As for any kata or bunkai also.

Du 16

I practice an excersize called Buddha's breath, it is a combination of deep breathing and stance training. You hold a very low horse stance for 39 long deep breaths, turn to a low left leaning stance for 39 long deep breaths, turning to a low right leaning stance for 39 long deep breaths. It is an excellent chi generating and stamina developing excersize. fragbot, seems you still have alot to learn.

Even with a hard style there are yin and yang type of attacks which you can use ki projection with and make it that much more effective.

Welcome Jonus, You certainly have done your homework. It is good to see someone who is well informed and serious about their studies. I can tell you will be a positive influence to this forum.

1) Is the practice "lifting the sky" used to clear blockages of your chi flow? Yes, in your heart and small intestine merridians

Learning the microcosmic orbit is a good start for meditation. It helps the body's energy somewhat reset and get's it flowing in the proper direction. You can read about it in a book called awaken the healing light by Mantak Chia.

Guessing from your name I'd say you don't think about what you're doing, just reacting. If you can fine tune your aiming point and be that more effective..... Why wouldn't you want to focus in on these points and totally destroy your attacker?

"Do any of you believe in the death touch?" Anything is possible. As we learn about pressure points, we learn how vonerable the human body is. You hear stories in the news about some kid catching a hokey puck in the chest and dying on the ice... how? Could it be just the correct angle and direction of a dim mak point being stimulated at the propper time?

Class is not the place to be meditating. You should be doing that on your own outside of class. Your Sifu should guide you on how to meditate on your own, but when you come to class you should be conditioning, or learning bunkia.

Certain styles train just for sport, others train for real application. You have to pick what works for you best.