aefibird

Im Olympic TKD (sorry for all the questions but I don't know much about it!) do the fighters have to fight to the end of the time limit regardless of score or if one player has reached a particular score before the end of the time then do they get the win? e.g. if one person had reached (for example) 5 points then would that be the end of the match or would they have to fight it out to the end of the time and just see who scores the most points? I hope that makes sense...

Personally, I think that's a very good comparison. I respect the athletes in the WWE for all the hard work and training that they have to put in, but it is still entertainment. Same with XMA. Those who are good at XMA put a lot of effort into their training and come up with good MA-based entertainment.

I've had a couple of people ask me to show things to them, but both have been interested - both actually started coming to classes because of what I showed them (I don't think it was anything impressive, either, probably just a bit of punching or a couple of kicks!). Both of the people have been interested enough to stick with training; it was obvious when they asked me about karate that they were interested, or else I wouldn't have shown them anything. Other than that I sometimes just get dorky comments (usually from people at work) like "Daniel-San" and "can you karate chop this table in half?"

Good luck greenbelt_girl15. It's hard getting arthritis at a young age - I'm 25 and I'm starting with it in my hands and wrists.

Get well soon KarateKid and Pride & Poise!

Blitz gi are generally good quality. I have a couple of Blitz karate gi and I had a Blitz judo gi when I trained in Aikido. Blitz uniforms are good for everyday practice and also for competitions. Their Red Label (Silver Tournament) Karate gi is very tough and is suitable for me to use in karate when we do ground work/grappling. However, Blitz have been having a lot of problems with their 'cusomer service' department lately (there's a thread on here about it somewhere) and I wouldn't recommend ordering direct from them. I've ordered direct from them before but I've had so much trouble that I'd never buy direct from them again. If I want anything from Blitz I usually buy it from one of their registered suppliers. I've ordered from Paragon MA before and they're usually pretty quick and have good service. They probably will ship overseas - they sell a lot of their stuff through eBay, so they probably sell intenationally. Try also Karate Kid - they specialise in Karate, Judo and JuJitsu equipment and they do ship overseas. They sell Blitz and other brands along with their own range of goods, which are top-quality. EDIT: here's the link to the Blitz thread.

Wing Chun and Chen style Tai Chi Chu'an.

Thanks! Also, if there's such as thing as Tae Kwon DO is there such a thing as Tae Kwon JUTSU?

I've just been reading through the thread by Liam_K about first breaks and a thought struck me (sometimes I even get more than one thought in a day ). When you break at your school, does the school provide the boards, spacers, blocks etc etc or do you have to provide your own? If the school provides, does the money come out of a separate breaking fund or is it covered in the cost of lessons? Also, in breaking competitions, does the entry fee cover the cost of the boards or do competitors have to supply them? Finally, does anyone use re-brekable boards? My Sensei has done a lot of breaking in the past (long and funy story of how he got banned from the town hall because of a demo) and is wanting to introduce it to his students. None of us has ever done any breaking before, so he's toying with the idea of getting some re-breakable boards for us to start out on before we work our way up to wood blocks. However, he's never used re-breakable boards himself, so he's a bit unsure whether to spend the money on them or not.

I know that TKD has been infuenced by Japanese martial arts in the past (and Chinese, but most martial arts have been influenced by another somewhere along the line), so is the "Do" in Tae Kwon Do just simply a word borrowed from the Japanese (like in Karate-Do, Ken-Do, Ju-Do etc etc) or is it a word in Korean in its own right and just has the same sound or meaning as the Japanese? Thanks.

Aefibird is the cute lil' creature in my avatar. <----- Aefi is also my nickname from a Ghanaean friend of mine (it means beautiful spirit). The cockatiel heard the word and repeated it (he can 'talk'), so I called him "Aefibird".

OK. Gotcha now.

Hw many people/styles use hammerfist and how many use shuto? In my class we use the hammerfist techniques for Heian Yondan (as described above). However, the kick would be better used if it was aimed elsewhere,or even omitted altogether, rather than used as an arm break technique - something that seems a little impractical to me.

Keep on practicing! I'm sure that you will get it in time. Just remember that it is better to be slow when practicing but to have good technique than it is to be quick with bad technique. Work slowly at it and then build up on your speed and power. If you feel the need to hold onto something when you're are practicing then do so. You can always try without holding on at a later date when you feel more confident. Good luck!

Ah, I will soon - I promise! I'm gonna get some pics done of all my tatts and post them up here.

Good luck TKDmom!

As the thread about 'favourite Olympic MAs' has been resurrected, I thought it would be good to have a discussion about MA and The Olympics. What MAs would you like to see in the Olympics? Which would you remove (if any)? Would you change any rules for any of the systems?

That's whay we let kids train at our dojo. (j/k!!!)

That sounds like a great assignment! Good luck with it - I hoe you have a fulfilling experience.

Your instructor will probably let you know when he/she wants you to test. Just keep training hard and then you will be ready for when the day comes!

That sounds interesting - if you manage to find out more about it from your friend then please let us know.

Excellent! I can get Spike TV so I'll make sure I catch some of it.

In order to advance belts in BJJ do students have to compete or does that just depend on the school?

Please remember to keep your posts polite, respectful and on topic. Thank you. Good luck with your Judo class Seersin!

OK, thanks!