aefibird

I'd suggest to you that you try out several styles to see which is best for you. There's people of evry body type in most of the martial arts, from short and thing right up to tall and built like a tank. Martial Arts has something to suit everyone, regardless of size. Try out a few lessons from each of the MA clubs in your area until you find something that 'sticks' You'll probably know what is right for you as soon as you try it. Good luck in your search!

Wing Chun Kung Fu is a great style for self-defence. WCKF is usually described as 'no-nonsense' and 'logical' - both of which it is. There are kicks in WC, but it is hand work that is more predominant. There is also grappling and ground work, but this is not usually trained in by new students. I'd say that Wing Chun would be a great system for you - go fer it!

What MAs are you interested in taking up? One MA school locator that I know of is Martial Info Try also Budo Search, Martial Arm and Ultimate Martial Arts. Good luck in your search!

That's OK. I'll move it to the Health, Training and Fitness forum.

We train every week in street clothes. My sensei holds a 'fight club' where we work on self-defence and street style encounters. We also have full-contact sparring sessions on this night too. Training in ordinary clothes and shoes can feel wierd if you're not used to it. However, I think that it is essential for everyone to have some experience of training in street clothes. Techniques that feel great when you're wearing a gi or a uniform can be totally different if you've got a pair of jeans and a sweater on. It's important to train in shoes too. It's fairly likely that in any street/SD encounter a person could find themselves in they will be wearing some kind of footwear.

Yes, don't!! I got my toe caught in someone's rolled-up gi sleeve at a competiton once. It ended up breaking (my toe, that is, not the gi) and was stuck out at a funny angle. I would have thought that the competition organisers would have told competitors that rolled up sleeves were not allowed, but still... If you want your gi sleeves to be shorter, then roll them under and press them in place with a hot iron, or get them taken up. I tend to have two lengths of gi. I wear shorter sleeves and legs (above the ankle and just below the elbow) usually, but if I know we're gonna be doing a lot of grappling or ground work then I wear a gi with full-length sleeves and trouser (pant) legs.

I use starch on my lightweight gi (the one that I keep for when we're having a very rare hot day in the UK) - it comes in a spray can and I just spray it on lightly before ironing. I don't bother to starch my heavier weight gi. Like Jussi said, they keep their shape and and look well enough with just a little ironing.

Hi JusticeZero! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Hi Armbar! Welcome to Karate Forums.

As long as one person knows what the other person is talking about, I'd say who cares, right? True.

Cool pics! I especially liked the second picture (the blue bike).

I agree. (yes, spray me with that fire extinguisher too!! ) I'm usually a fan of anything sci-fi/fantasy but I just can't seem to like Buffy.

What sort of video's are you looking for? Full-length movies, MA clips, humour vids, etc etc?

Congratulations Shorin Ryuu - you deserve it.

Is that your new MA style??

http://www.jkd-kbh.dk/video/karate.wmv Excellent video clip! :lol:

I know someone (over the net) who trains in Lee Kune Kung Fu, is that the same as Lau Kune Kung Fu but just a difference in spelling?

IMO a student should try to be the best that he or she can in order to honour his or her style and instructor.

Welcome to Karate Forums Brenda! Thank you for your advice.

My karate school uses the following 10kyu/10dan system for karate students. We don't have ranks/grades for kobudo. 10th kyu= white 9th kyu= orange 8th kyu= red 7th kyu= yellow 6th kyu= green 5th kyu= purple 4th kyu= purple with 1 white stripe 3rd kyu= brown 2nd kyu= brown with 1 white stripe 1st kyu= brown with 2 white stripes 1st - 10th dan= black (no markings on belt to denote rank) My school follows the belt system for our association. I just wish the association would drop the stripe belts from the list (i.e. get rid of 3 of the kyu grades). There's just no need for that many grades IMO. When I trained in Aikido we had white belts for mudansha (kyu grades) and black belts for yudansha (dan grades). Dan grades were also allowed to wear a hakama. In my Wing Chun school we have coloured sashes and informal grades (no testing, Sifu just moves us up a level when he thinks we are ready). However, we don't wear our sashes unless there's a special visitor (like a guest instructor) or if some of the students are performing a demo. Our grades are: red (levels 1 & 2) yellow (levels 3 & 4) green (levels 5 & 6) brown (levels 7 & black (levels 9 & 10 and instructor level).

Yes, they are. :up: One of the UK sattelite TV music channels had a G n R evening a couple of days ago. I watched most of it - brought back a lot of happy memories of listening to "Paradise City" and the like when I was a teen.

I'd always thought it was New Wave Of..., rather than New World Order...

XMA is entertaing to watch and I have alot of respect for the top XMAers - they're great athletes. Very well said, cathal. We're all here to learn from one another and have positive discussion, not to pull down anyone else's style just because we don't agree with it.

Mother's slaps are always 100% effective... The mere threat of them is usually 100% effective too!! All mum's should be secret agents - they have an uncanny ability to sniff out trouble before you've even thought of it.

Defending against knife attack is pretty hard. I've been taught a couple of ways of knife defence, but I wouldn't really ever like to try them out in real life. It's hard enough when your opponent has a rubber knife, so I should imagine that a real knife would be more difficult.