cathal

That may be a motivational technique to see how far he can push you to hit harder. My suggestion would be to workout with a bag and gloves, or a makiwara if you feel up to it.

That's a good post AnonymousOne, but do you think that the changes being made are to favouring athleticism purely for show?

As am I.

A good way to tell a Judo gi from a Karate gi is that Judo gis do not use ties.

The IKCA usually has their full contact tourney in your area, aruond August. You might also want to check out Michael Billings' Kenpo Karate. 12034 Research Boulevard, Suite 2 Austin, Texas 78759

That is a very good post, good solid common sense.

That's all fine and good, however it is still misleading. You should explain this on the website.

Yes.

When we go for Shodan it may not matter which kata. If we select Bassai-Dai as our first kata, the examiner selects our second kata. If we've already gone with that one the examiner may invariably select Jion for us.

That isn't bad, I agree with the advice alrady given. Good quality video too.

It was rather embarassing to be honest, because the head examiner kept ordering them to "get into it". In the end he made them all do push-ups until they collapsed...to see how much drive they had to pass. We learned that the two adults passed. No word on the others, which perhaps means they failed.

Our sensei says that when you do a kata not only are you following through with techniques which have been taught for generations, you are also telling your own story of a fight. Your own interpretation makes it a unique presentation. Don't worry about keeping up with everyone else because you're mostly all at different levels anyway. I think you should only become concerned when you aren't meeting the goal. For example some kata should only be done within 60 seconds or so.

Where can I pick that up?

Hey all, At our most recent grading, at the first of July, four people were testing for their Shodan. Two were adults, the other two were kids. It began like they typically do with lining up in front of the examiner's table and doing basics. But that's where the test kind of deviated from the norm. In all the years I've watched gradings I've never seen one like this. Two of the testers just didn't try. There was no effort, no kime. It was rather like watching someone who just didn't care. Has anyone ever encountered something like this for a black belt grading?

That is some really good advice. Whenever any of us receives feedback from a grading we always are told that basics are the foundation of the exam and if you've failed you need to work on them. Everything else falls into place.

This school is rasising my personal alarm - I'd avoid it. But you being there, feel free to check out a few classes and gauge whether or not they're legit.

I have watched UFC, apparently not enough it seems.

In many applications the drop is to avoid a bo or edged weapon attack, assuming you didn't have enough time to shift out of range, or parry.

It hink that's relative. Any full contact system which concentrates on just one aspect of fighting (take downs, grappling) isn't the ultimate, imho.

I agree wholeheartedly with keeping away from that Kempo school, it doesn't "feel" legit to me. Regarding the rest I agree that the Shotokan dojo is fine, as well as the other two. I selected Shotokan for my personal training so I'm a little biased, but that school seems like a better choice given the other two websites. However what I do recommend is like the others have said: to sit down and watch at least one full class for these schools. Afterward have a quick chat with the instructor to get some basic information. If you think you'll get along with the instructor (i.e. they're professional and courteous) then you should be OK. I don't recommend signgin up with a school which locks you into a fee contract forcing you to pay even if you quit, so watch out for that.

I'm always cautious when I see a book in a store about martial arts...and it has secret or secrets in the title. That bothers me because it can imply that you can learn all of the "secret deadly techniques". This bothers me because a layperson can pick it up and get a very wrong idea of what martial arts are.

I am not a big fan of the UFC, I'll watch it occasionally. But if this show is touted as the ultimate in full contact fighting...how is it that someone can be determined a winner when the two fighters are still lucid, standing, and ready to fight? OK so there is a scoring system in place, which helps to counter the fact that many fighters can be relatively evenly matched. But common sense would dictate that after a long enough time one of them is going to falter. What happens if one of the UFC fighters is losing, points are stacked up against him, and yet he KO's his opponent? Does he still lose the match because he doesn't have enough points?

There are a few meanings. Kime is mostly a Japanese martial arts term. In karate it can mean 'focus' - the instantaneous tensing at the correct moment during a technique. In judo, the 'Kime no kata' are often translated as the 'Kata of Decision'. In other forms of budo the term refers to attacking a pressure point. In still another context it can be a general term describing the spirit a person has while performing a technique properly while tensing the appropriate muscle groups.

You need this for tournaments, or just normal class use? The reason I ask is that your tournament guidelines may not allow you to wear certain pants.

I can say the same thing about shy people I've seen train in my dojo, but we do not do XMA.