Dijita

Well I used to do Kuk Sool Won, and the stances in Kuk Sool Won are a lot more similar to a TKD stance where you stand kind of sideways towards your opponent. Now that I am doing Kyokushin, it took a couple of months to try and relearn the stance, because in Kyokushin, we keep our hips fairly forward and face our opponents. Even now I find myself having to correct my hips.

I'm not sure if this is a weird question but.... I was wondering if there is anything out there, that is almost like a shin pad that you slide on, but rather than an actual shin pad, it's almost like a pad of some kind of ice or gelatin icey stuff? The reason I ask, is because my shins are getting beaten up preety bad in class, and I have a tournament in a week, and I need the bruises to heal. I hate using a bag of ice, because it's a pain to hold there and stuff. So I guess I'm just wondering if there's something that you can just slide on, and it stays there and it provides icey comfort for my shins.

Oh man, I hope you have a good time. No, actually, I KNOW you will have a good time. I love Karate camps. I went to a Kyokushin camp this summer in British Columbia and it was SOOO much fun. It was one of the highlights of my summer for sure. It was A LOT of hard work, but on the same token it was a lot of fun and there was still plenty of time for relaxtion... like swimming, and jumping off the big bridge into the water, and marshmellows. Yes, you will have a good time indeed. Tell us all about it when you return.

Here is my advice: - Continue to train hard up until your tournament. Giver yourself a few days rest before tournament though by doing some lighter training. If you have two weeks until your tournament, avoid doing any type of training that could potentially bruise your body up (so no contact sparring). If you have bruises now, ice them every day. - Try to eat a healthy balance of carbs, proteins, and don't forget those vegetables. The day before your tournament and the day of... don't go all crazy and eat some super healthy thing if it's not normally what you eat. It's important to eat what your "comfort food" is. That is, food that you know how your body reacts too. - Practice your combos like crazy. - Do pyrimad training (kick the bags by going 1, then 1, 2, then 1,2... working your way up to 10... then back down to 1 again... then do the other side). - Tournament bouts are basically going to make your body work anaroebically (sp?). So do a lot of anaroebic training. The best training method for this is wind sprints. Sprint as hard as you can for about 100-200 meters... when you get to the end... walk back to the start... then as soon as you hit the start... sprint as HARD as you can again... and repeat this process. - Most important thing, have fun... if you win, that is awesome, if you lose... that's absolutely fine too because I guarantee you will learn A LOT and you can take that experience with you and train harder.

As there are a lot of good Kenpo schools in LA, there are also a lot of good Kyokushin schools. I suggest checking out http://www.kyokushinla.com Sensei Taku is an amazing instructor and I had the oppurtunity to train with him over the summer. Just like what delta1 said, in Kyokushin you can expect to do a lot of hard contact in class. Sometimes with protective gear sometimes without. At first I believe you will be doing quiet a big of contact, but it will be very controlled, supervised, and encouraged to go lightly at first. It doesn't take too long before you start engaging in harder contact, especially if you wish to compete in tournaments. I know that the guys in LA train very FAST... they have some really good fighters at the dojo.. and many of them are quiet powerful. I suggest you try both Kenpo and Kyokushin classes in your area to help you decide on what you would prefer.

It's not too bad. My wisdom teeth were below the gum line as well. I was given some gas to make me unconscience though. However I had more than just my wisdom teeth taken out. I had a rare condition where I had a third set of teeth growing behind my front upper teeth. The dentist wanted to get rid of those so that they don't cause complications in the future. This was probably the most painful part for me with the surgery. They had to make an incision down the center of my pallete and open it up and then drill in the bone to get at those pesky teeth. That hurt like crazy... and the stitches inbetween my teeth were the worst. However overall, it wasn't that bad. I think I only took painkillers for the first day. I'm really against pain killers so I stopped taking them as soon as I could, and it was bearable. You'll look like a hamster for a couple of days, but you'll be fine. Good luck with that!

I definately think that your general skills could be transfered to another art. Correct form and power should be present if you have trained hard in a different style of arts.... things should be picked up more naturally. At first it is probably akward because a lot of the times the technique is slightly different and it takes some time to adjust. However overall I believe that if you were strong in one art, it will show when you start over in a different art.

I think that our training is fairly high intensity most of the time, especially when there are tournaments coming up. You're in an anaroebic state for a long period of time and it is very hard training. I don't think we do any one thing that would constitute "Crazy" like trying to catch flies with our chopsticks or anything. We do a lot of body conditioning, like being punched in the stomach while doing situps and stuff. I think I'll have to experience training barefoot on snow this winter though.... yikes!

I'm preety sure it will always be free. Anyways, I have four gmail invites. So if anyone wants one, PM me your email address and I'll send you an invite.

Is this the book? By Forrest E. Morgan? http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0942637763.01._PE30_PIdp-schmoo2,TopRight,7,-26_SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg

detla1 said it best. The testing, the belts, it's not important. What is important is that you recognize that you can always improve and you strive to better yourself.

If you get blood on your gi, it is always important that when you go home, you deal with the stain right away. Rinse the blood out with COLD water, if you do it when you come home it should come out VERY easily. NEVER use warm or hot water as it will set the stain and it will be VERY hard to get out. If you do this when you get home, you can avoid using bleach which will weaken the material in your gi.

I just get annoyed by the amount of people who are 3rd degree black belt and have trained in the art for 4 years. Give me a break...

If it is your first tournament... I suggest wearing them. After the tournament you can get a better idea of how much contact your shins are going to be taking. If you plan to not use shin guards in the future then you need to start working on conditioning them and ensuring that you are kicking with the proper part of your shin as well. I would not worry about a loss of power with the shin pads. Yes they will absorb a bit of the energy, but if you are kicking with good technique it is still going to hurt the other person. I've gotten a concussion in a tournament once and the other person was wearing shin guards. I've also seen MANY people lose tournaments from getting a gedan mewashi to the thigh that brought the person down, even when shin guards were worn. So use the shin guards this time, train hard, condition the shins and then do away with them.

Hehe, the tournaments are a lot of fun, and sometimes painful. We attack as hard as we can as the only way to get a point is to make your opponenet "lose the will to fight" so for example a KO, or hitting in the solar plex hard enough at the right time to make them go down and grab there tummy, or a lot of people win by kicking the thighs repeditly until the person can't stand anymore, which is how I lost a fight once and ouch it really hurt. I love asking MT and kickboxers for advice though because I have a really strong respect for their tournaments and fighters. You guys have magnificent power and really nice combos. I was contemplating taking MT when I was looking for something to take, but I wanted to do a martial art that had some traditional elements to it plus I never really liked the clinch. So I'm happy I found Kyokushin because it kind of satisfies all my needs.

I may get flamed for this, but I agree. I don't really like seeing really young people with black belts because of the maturity, understanding and responsibility that is associated with it. I don't think there should be some set limit, because yes I've seen some fairly young people (especially Japanese kids) who have trained for many many years and can demonstrate their skill and responsibility. However anything under 10 for sure I can't see that being plausible.

http://www.gussetjeans.com/images/demo2.jpg OMG! I can totally see his junk in the picture on the right!!11!!1! (sorry, I couldn't resist)

That is awesome. I studied Kuk Sool Won years ago.. great style. Good luck at the worlds!!

I like Water Surfing My cat The people in my life The smell of wood burning The sense of accomplishment Colors Orange Juice Cereal Laughing Cartoons Making art Inspiration People to look up too Video Games Going fast on my bike The feeling of riding powder on my snowboard The feeling of conquering my fears Interaction And of course Kyokushin Karate

Sorry, I guess I should have clarified... I'm a Kyokushin practitioner that uses a very similar style to MT.... but our rules are different... we don't allow punches to the face because we don't wear gloves. So KO's are done with kicks to the heads are attempted quiet frequently in our matches. A lot of TKO's happen as well from repeated blows to the upper thigh, that is another way many people win fights.

Yes, read the post above yours.

That was awesome and I wish more people could hear it. There are a lot of things that bug me in this world and drinking and driving probably tops it the most. Everyone has the power to not do it, but so many people do. It's killing people on the roads and it's tearing apart families. Anyone that does it is selfish. Anyone who says "they're fine to drive" are ignorant. Unfortunately, here in Alberta, we have the highest drinking and driving related deaths in Canada. The numbers are staggering. The best thing you can do, is avoid temptation. If your going somewhere, where there are drinks... don't even drive there. You may plan to have one, and then suddenly you have a couple more and you think your fine... until you crash and kill yourself or someone else. I know too many people growing up who are no longer around because of the problems with drinking and driving. So yes, please, drink responsibly and if you know anyone who drinks and drives please help them stop.

Well, I wanted to see what people thought before I gave my opinion, so here it is for all it's worth. I consider myself a martial artist. When I train I train many different moves that are illegal in tournaments but I also have specific nights where I train specifically for tournaments. I focus my mind on the task at hand and am learning to clear the other thoughts in my head. I practice Kata which in my opinion is another form of training your focus. I respect everyone around me and everything related to my art. In a strange way I really respect my belt and I'm one of the few people who wear my belt for ALL my training even if it's in a casual environment where no one else does. I don't look for fights, but I enjoy fighting in competition. For me it is a great way to see how much of the things I have learned have actually become instinctual. Tommaker I wanted to point out as well, that even in my competition it's not really point scoring. Ok, well to correct myself it's one point to win... but the only way you can get that point is if you hit the person sufficient enough that they cannot fight back or they lose the will to fight. In conclusion, I don't care what this person said to me. Just like when I am drawing, my martial arts is a medium for me in which to express myelf, to develop my own style, to focus hard and continually get better, I set goals and accomplish them, I get frustrated at times, I surprise myself at times. Just like drawing, my Karate is an art. I still invite comment on the topic though. Osu!

I wouldn't mind some advice on combos that focus's your opponents attention down low in hopes to open up the head to go for the finishing head kick.

I was told by someone that I shouldn't consider myself a martial artist because I like to compete in tournaments and that I should consider myself a sportsperson. Apparantly to him, tournaments and tournament karate is a game, not a martial arts. Thoughts?