White Warlock

because then he would have two jo sticks? Seriously though, as i mentioned earlier and Orion stated again, if you're planning on buying a different bo stick, just do so... and you'll then have two bo sticks. One for home, one for the dojo.

Just to be the pain here, i've visited plenty of ATA schools and found 'shoddy' instruction. If said organization is working to regulate instruction quality, i can only assume they're at the beginning stages of these efforts.

This is a metaphorical short i wrote a few years back. .............................. Something caught my eye the other day. As i was leaving a friend's house, I came upon a cardboard box, taped ineffectually about the ends, dustied and dirtied. It looked like any other box, except it was elongated and carried with it no noticeable markings. No brands or labels, no weights or measures. Only the tell-tale scratches of an item having been dragged through a grassy field. But I was captivated by it nonetheless, and my hands quickly went about removing the tape that held it so precariously together. This action flooded my nose with minor speckles of the dust that i now noticed had encrusted itself at the corners and the edges of this simple cardboard box. I sneezed deliberately and regained my composure to finish the task at hand. In short order i was able to remove the tape, which fell apart and wrapped about my fingers, a child to a stranger's knee. Without bothering to release the grip that the tape had upon me, I reached into the carboard box and allowed my fingers to flutter about inside. My palm finally rested on a plastic enwrapped item, so I gripped firmly and wrested it from its home. More dust escaped into the air and once again I sneezed deliberately. Wiping the remaining speckles of dust from my face, creating unsightly streaks in the process, I gazed through the aged-dimmed plastic and noted a beautiful little present inside. A handmade wooden snooker game, just as dusty as all before it, with only one little handle, snapped cleanly, and tied to a wooden soccer man. A reminder, perhaps, of what needed to be mended before it could be used again. Odd that it would be dusty, even through a plastic bag and a cardboard box, but dusty it was. I reasoned that it must have laid in a garage for quite a long time before it was placed in a bag, then laid even longer before it was placed in that simple cardboard box. How long ago had it lost the interest of its owners, i could only speculate. But now, after being shelved and ignored for countless years, it had finally been discarded. To me, it was a beautiful thing. Simple, yet functional, it held a charm all its own. Yet I could not dismiss the questions. Why would someone work so hard to create something so personal, then bag it, box it, and toss it out of mind? Then I thought of my life. Of the things that I had done and the people I had hurt. Of the times i had worked to build my life into its simple beauty, and how i had bagged, boxed and tossed it out of mind. I thought of my life, and of this snooker game. We spend so much time and effort on creating our existence, but when one little thing breaks, we package it all away and hope for it to mend on its own. It will not, of course, but the dust will nonetheless settle and time will take its toll. Eventually we will either snap out of it and race to find our snooker game, or mourn its passing. Had we only fixed it then. - White Warlock

Which is why you can't have rules...

That's what i just said.

Above statements are correct. You are your own worse enemy here, in that you expect to be accomplished in something you need to learn. The martial arts isn't merely about kicking, punching, grappling and screaming in pain, it's about developing coordination, stamina, patience and insight into human behavior. All four, my friend, will require an understanding on your part that you start as a beginner. Many people have backgrounds that include activities where they had opportunity to develop their coordination, so the 'new' people you see practicing and presenting decent coordination... they 'learned' it somewhere else. Don't let it phase you. The knowledge and skills you do have will eventually find a place in your martial art studies, and you'll be watching them struggle, instead of the other way around. But, even if that day never comes (which i truly doubt), remember that the arts are for you. For your growth and your benefit, so don't be bothered with how well your fellow student does... just with how well you are doing now, compared to yesterday. In time, you will be able to look back and remember what you couldn't do that you now do without thought. And no, these aren't words of encouragement... but of personal experience.

Aye, that's what i do. All 47 parts of me.

The inherent problem with trying to study under one teacher that provides a mixed-martial art program, is that he likely has not developed a deep understanding of each aspect of the arts he presents. I've encountered 'far too many' mma competitors that have a few good techniques, and then a flue of improperly presented ones. Worse is when they start teaching others their mistakes. It is better to study particulars from those that have actually obtained a degree of mastery in their particular art, or arts, rather than the mish-mash hand-me-downs so common today.

lol, sorry about that.

Unfortunately, shortly after typing that, i got really friggin' hungry!

If that is your goal, then you need to realize that a military posture is actually unhealthy. Maybe you're perceptions of proper posture need to be reexamined.

I think a more apt metaphor would be that of food. There are different types of dishes, which vary depending on who presents/prepares it. All of it can be nutritious, but if your body rejects it, i would say stay away from that type of food. Different dishes complement each other, while others contrast so sharply that it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth for one or the other. Yet, in every meal, regardless of its origins, there are fundamental principles to preparation. Learn these fundamentals and you can make almost anything out of almost anything. etc etc...

Well, hate to say this, especially since he just received the injury and is in the process of recovery... but knee injuries are for 'life,' as are back injuries. Because they both serve as foundation joints, they are constantly receiving pressure, pull, and push, and thus never really get a 'break' in being able to fully recover. Making it worse, if you give the time for these parts to fully recover, the muscles that hold them in place become so atrophied that 'new' injuries develop. Last, injuries to those areas are usually tendon/ligament/cartilage related, which do not receive much oxygenated blood (cartilage even less so), and thus do not heal as quickly, nor as completely as say, a muscle or bone*. * There is an exception to this: A bone attaching the thumb to the concentration of bones in the palm has only one (or two, forgot which) blood vessels entering it. This bone, if injured can very easily die, and then you no longer have full function of your thumb. In order for it to heal, it must be set and immobilized for many months. Even then, it is likely that bone, once injured, will remain a 'weak-point' for life.

It is a niche' art, targeted to African Americans interested in capturing some of Africa's culture, but not knowing where to look. I.e., in Africa, not in the Bronx.

Aye, fencing can teach you plenty, especially if you were bad at it. I recommend seriously considering it. It can open up a whole new avenue of understanding.

As Maddwraph indicated, you should not ignore it. Pain is communication, the means for your body to communicate to you that something isn't entirely right. Nicole, I stated earlier that you could be 'leading' with your knees, rather than your hips. It is also possible you are leading with your hips and then your knees, but doing so with feet firmly planted, thus posing torque on your knee in the process. If you don't see it, it may be a good idea to review your circular-motion kicking techniques with your instructor, to see if he catchs what's going on.

I like Sauzin's approach, although i'm pretty sure i wouldn't go that route myself. It just seems like 'playing politics' with people who think they can act like your 'daddy.'

You want the best of the best competition on martial arts, full on? The biggest problem is the inherent intent of the arts. When confronted with a threat, our goal is to eliminate that threat, with extreme prejudice. Any rules whatsoever would interfere with being able to determine whom are the best. It is simply not feasible to present a competition on who is the best for the very fact that any rules presented change the parameters of a confrontation, and no rules would leave plenty for the deadbook. Indeed, even without any rules whomever wins may not actually be the best, but the luckiest. The one to have battled the most amount of substandard fighters on their way to the top. This was noted as a problem with the original UFCs, where people like Shamrock would go at it 110%, win every fight, and yet get injured along the way, so they couldn't get to the finals. Personal opinion, the goal of such things would not be to see who is the best, but who brings in the best ratings. We're not studying the arts for other people's entertainment.

from this thread - http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=19836

Better yet, no expectations.

i'm a leather belt

Umm, that was a summary. If you wish to understand this further, you need to undergo training. A description alone is insufficient. Even a video is insufficient.

What?!?!? no ballet schools?!?!? pfft

Organizations/associations do not define quality of instruction. I wish they would, and that they would make a more active approach to monitoring the quality of instruction their members provide, but... well... that's what ITF kinda tried to do, and it backfired. Now they have multiple associations, each with thier own perceptions of how things should be managed. Simply put, caveat emptor. Or maybe, "life is like a box of chocolates..."

Well, with a short search i found this: Jow Ga Kung Fu Sifu Gary Utterback 3450 Channeyville Road Owings, Maryland 20736 Ph: 410-257-2365 Fax: 410-257-2365 Email: utterbacksifu@comcast.net There are plenty of towns/cities near Owings, so maybe one of the ones listed in these 'multipage' listings will fit the bill, in case Mr. Utterback is no longer available. Just click on the town/city name and, of course, 'next' for more towns/cities: http://martialarts.sports-info.us/MD?page=0 And this next one, of course, is the greatest search utility known to man. It shows the 'visual location' of schools on a map. Google does it again: http://www.google.com/local?hl=en&lr=&q=kung+fu&near=Owings,+MD+20736&sa=X&oi=localr