italian_guy

Welcome to KF

If you feel well with your body and you hear no voice inside you telling you to stop (I mean you are not psicologically tired). You are not overtraining.

I think that studing an Internal MA from a book is not good. Tai Chi Chuan form, for example, are made of so many details that you absolutely need an instructor.

Ok what I meant is not only zero-belt (white belt) but also zero-experience.

Yes I mean following the classes without skipping them too much and doing little extra practice... and still it may depend on the individual that's why I put 'on average'.

I think you cannot learn a MA by reading and practicing what is written in a book. You need a teacher to see if the movements you do are done correctly and you need classmates to practice your skill. However good books and tapes can be used while you practice: 1) to learn new combos 2) to have additional training advices 3) to have cultural (both historical and phylosophical) insides 4) to have a comparison with other MAs. Nothing substitutes class training!

I cross-train a modern martial art (very external) MA i.e. kickboxing, with a traditional (internal) MA tai chi chuan -yang style. I started doing that because doing kickboxing I felt I was losing some importatant aspects of what a martial art and a martial artist should be. So now I think I have a more balanced training and, in the future, a more balanced curriculum.

Welcome to KF (... and welcome back to MAs).

...and have you started recently?

How long does it take in your school (on average) to get a black belt starting from zero. In my Tai Chi Chuan school takes 4 to 5 years. I left 1 year tolerance in each item.

Hello, I'm 183 cm (6 feet) and 95 kg (about 211 lbs) I have some muscle but I still consider myself a bit overweight. I would like to be somewhere around 86 kg (191 lbs), or 3 inches taller

Welcome.

Welcome to KF.

I like Bruce Lee , Jackie Chan and also Chuck Norris. Don't know Jet Li but I will look for some of his movie since most of you think is very good.

Both, I agree with Treebranch I started with a purely external art (kickboxing) and yesterday I took my first lesson on Tai Chi Chuan-Yang Style and enjoied a lot.

Around 20 during a class (little tired but not much we do pushups almost at the beginning).

Welcome to KF

Congratulations

Happy new year to everyone. I will find a new art for cross-training ( probably it will be Tai Chi Chuan).

I started on march 2003 (I'm 42).

I think that also kickboxing is safe for the hands. We always keep boxing gloves and the additional wrappings. Of course we don't do any breaking (pay attention to this if you join karate or TKD). Best luck for your MA and your music career.

Yes, I think kickboxing is good if you want to spar. Anyway at the beginning I think you will spare 'light contact' so you should not be afraid too much. Then when you are ready and conditioned you will start to do moderate to full contact but if you pick a good school this will happen gradually. Usually karatekas become quite good kickboxer in a very short time I have an example of this in my school. I wish you good luck.

Mine is Victorian Cow There is a strange coincidence.... I'm cow also on the chinese horoscope.

12 oz.

I think that the advice given to you by Rich67 is a very valuable one. I do classify situation often and when the situation turns to yellow/orange I start already to take same small preventive action like moving to a place where I can defend or escape easier or pull out my cell phone or get closer to other people etc. I don't know how many times this attitude has saved me but I have never had an aggression in my life (I'm 42). Maybe I'm only lucky but I think that awareness pays.