Dijita

I think you need to figure out why you are in sooo many "hardcore" fights. Personally I don't believe martial arts is for you.

As soon as I can figure out a good aplication for mouse clicking I'm bringing it to class. Left click! Right Click! Kiaaaaai LMAO!! Best response ever!

100% Ask your instructor. Anytime you are unsure of something, ask your instructor. A lot of organizations are very strict on what patches can be on a gi, and if you plan to enter tournaments sometimes it can be even more strict. I like patches on gi's in moderation and if they mean something. It makes me proud of the dojo I am from and the style I train in. All of the Kyokushin Gi's in Canada (that are part of the IKO 1 at least) have the Kyokushin Kanji on the chest and then on the shoulder we have the Kanku symbol that is known to all Kyokushin people. It looks like this http://www3.telus.net/public/dijita/kanku.gif A lot of the times Kyokushin practitioners that have this on their gi's shoulder have a symbol from their countries flag in the middle of the circle, so for mine I have a little maple leaf instead of the red circle that is pictured from a Japanese one. Oh yeah, I also just wanted to add. My biggest annoyance that I have ever seen in regards to gi's are the clubs that have the HUGE logo spread right across the entire back of the Gi. I don't know why, but for some reason this just screams McDojo to me.

I train about 3-4 times a week on average from about 1.5-2 hours each session.

I think maybe it is because it is natural for men to instinctively use power. So when they go to spar they probably think they can just out power their opponent by hitting really hard. If you look at beginner climbers, women are generally better in the beginning because women tend to push with their legs upwards, where men will try to muscle their way up the wall by pulling themselves up with their arms. I also think that in general, women tend to underestimate what they are capable of physically. I'm sure the media and social upbringing as a lot to do with this. So if a person feels that they are not very good, than they will trust the advice of someone who does quiet a lot and are more likely to try and implement what they are taught.

I think movies can create false expectations. I'm sure there are a lot of people, especially kids, who watch cartoons or movies with martial artists and they see all the fancy choriagraphed fighting and they think that they want to be able to do that. So a lot of the times they go and join a club or get mom to get them into a club so that they can do what they saw on TV. What happens is that the student with this false expectation joins the club and often times will be disapointed because they realize that after a month or two they can't do what they saw on television that they are still working on basic strikes. I'm sure it works both ways though, I'm sure the media has brought some people to the dojos to find that they really enjoy the learning process and the amount of dedicated work required to be successful as a student.

Well, Shihan Isobe came and visited our dojo last night. It was such a great class! I love being taught by different instructors to see what kind of teaching styles there are out there. He made us work very hard and he was such a pleasure to have as a guest in our dojo. This weekand has been a great weekand. Not only did Shihan Isobe come teach us, but our instructor tested for his 3rd Dan at the International Black Belt Conference. He had to do 30 consecutive full contact (hard contact for you nitpickies) fights with a fresh fighter each round. He felt preety good about it, but wow he wasn't walking all that great in class yesterday. I'm so happy for him though.

I'm a women, and I'll fight ya. Mwahahaha... if you stood there and continually took hits from a girl, you're going to eventually wanna hit back Actually there is a girl in our class, that ALL the guys in our class would be aprehensive about fighting. She is fairly young, powerful, and has placed 2nd in the Worlds 2 years ago in Kyokushin under knockdown rules. Man, she is amazing to watch.

Just so you know, there are good chiropractors and bad ones as well. Yes, the popping noise... any chiropractor that does this is only going for a short term fix. Most of the time when your back is out of alignment, the reason is because one side of your backs muscles developed stronger than the other side which results in the spine being pulled over to one side. A good chiropractor knows this and works with the patient to equalize the strength of all the muscles in your back to help straighten it out over the long term and to relieve the stress.

I love it, my favorite art that I have tried. Maybe this sounds mean, but I love being allowed to hit people really hard.

That is an awesome link! Thanks for it! Notice the picture are of Kyokushin people? hrmmm??? mwaahaha!

LMAO! Haha, nice, Montana is just south of me too. RawR!

Thanks! I usually train with a parnter. I bought a set of kick pads to use with my boyfriend. So we train at home as much as we can. I like your combo idea. What's with the tire though? Is that a strength balance thing?

[quote name="Shorinryu Sensei" It is a major no-no to try to use your hands/arms to block a low kick. It places your head totally at the mercy of your opponent. We do several things aginst kicks like that to the thigh. One' date=' is to block a kick to my leg with my own leg. Shins buddy...shins! Yeah, it hurts at first...but you get used to it. Moving out of the way is another method. We put out weight on the balls of our feet generally..or at least, the front foot. This allows us to move backwards very quickly because we're "primed" to push backwards if needed. Another method, if your opponent is slow and telegraphs his kick..is to move in (and angle) on him. he can't kick effectively if you're right on top of him. [/quote] That's EXACTLY what we do. I agree blocking leg attacks with arms or hands is just scary! Guess we aren't too much different. We are on the balls of our feet as well, it's quicker to move and it keeps you balanced rather than weighted. Umm.... is your style anything like Aikido (I think that is the one I'm thinking of). It sounds like it because I'm preety sure they use the opponents movements against them. Anyways, just to clarify, I'm a girl, so please no more "buddy"

When I punch, and pivot my feet, I can pull it back easily and I'm still squared off with my opponent.

Thanks ShorinRyu Sensei. I thank you for your information. I think we do a lot more things in common than we think, it's probably trying to describe it on a message board that makes it seem so different. We tend to stand a lot more squared off as well in our style. That equipment you guys use is expensive!! I think I have an idea of what it looks like. Holy cow. We don't usually wear safety equipment. We were helmet and mouth guard in tournaments in colorbelt division, but in the open division I think you only wear mouth guard (oh and the guys wear a cup). Is there a website where I could find out more about your style?

No, no worries, I enjoy the clarification and the discussion, so likewise I hope no one is taking my comments as an anti you post or an anti style post. I was talking under the assumption of roundhouse kicks myself, since that is what we use a lot of in our style. From what I was reading, it just sounded like he keeps his foot firmly planted with no rotation. To get more technical, I'd have to say I probably don't pivot my foot straight to the back unless I'm doing a roundhouse to the head of someone much taller than me. Otherwise for most of my kicks I probably pivot my foot about 3/4 back. Sidekicks I pivot my foot 180 to the direction that I am kicking. I'm still interested to know how his style would block leg kicks. Our styles sound so opposite so it is just very interesting and educational to know what is taught differently. For a good part, we condition our bodies to take the hits, and kicks to the legs are almost always blocked by doing leg checks. Which essentially is bringing up your leg to block with the shin.

I'm not a kickboxer or MT fighter.... I do however participate in Kyokushin which is a full contact Karate. Our roundhouse kicks are almost identical to MT kicks. I have a great respect for the fighting ability of MT fighters so I was wondering if anyone had any really good ideas for some kicking drills that I can try at home when I'm practicing?

Shorinryu Sensei Is your style a strictly about evading when it comes to defense? I'm curious. Do you use blocks if someone was to kick at your mid thigh? If so how does your style block those?

I forgot to mention, I pivot my feet/hips when I punch as well. It again gives you power, plust reach without "lunching". (I hope I'm not coming across as rude or disrespectful, I really like this conversation because it is interesting)

When I think about it, you couldn't even kick effectively past your opponents center line without pivoting the foot. You'd essentially be "ending" your kick when it is not at it's most effective point. (We really hijacked this thread didn't we?)

We don't use our body weight for attacks, we just use the snap of the hips to make the kicks effective. Not only that, but like I said earlier, if you don't rotate your foot at all, you're going to eventually injure your knee. Our tournaments are probably much different. Our tournaments are about hurting the other person sufficeintly enough that they lose the will to fight. If you're not commiting your kicks with a lot of power then you're going to continually kick that person and they are not going to go down. We learn to evade attacks as well, but we learn a bit differently. As opposed from shuffling back and away from the opponent, we learn to shuffle at a 45 degree angle towards the opponent. So for example if someone goes for the kick, you shuffle in and strike them in the solar plex with a punch, or you can knee them... but the thing is, there kicks are rendered useless since it is not going to hit you effectively. Hehe, so I'll never be convinced that not pivoting your foot is a good thing. You risk injury, you lose power, and you lose reach. By reach I mean both height and distance.

I don't do MT by the way, I do Kyokushin Karate which uses similar roundhouse kicks. I only used MT as an example because it is more recognized.

Wow that is interesting. I could never kick without pivoting my foot. I like the power. I like to be able to hit hard enough that it downs a person. I can't see how it can happen without the twist of the hips or the pivot of the foot. I do agree that lunging your punches is a bad thing. We are taught to keep our posture straight, but we still use our hips to give power to our punches and strikes. It does have the potential to leave you open, especially if you are fighting someone who is good at evading an attack. There have been times where I went for a kick, and the person shuffled back away from me, my kick went past them and I got kicked in the back of my leg and there was nothing I could do. However I still rather be commited to the attack and have more power, than to hold back. It's a different style of fighting, so to each their own eh?

Yes, that will relieve the stress on the hip joint, but it is poor kicking technique. Your balance is off, your hips/back will be more turned towards your opponent (whether you realize it or not) making you more vulnerable, and you are losing power kicking that way. Just an observation. Uhh... no. I disagree. If you're off balance then you are kicking improperly. Not pivoting your feet results in loss of power because it is impossible to snap your hip with the kick, all the power comes from the hips (this includes 98% of techniques btw), ask any MT fighter. Not only that, but by not pivoting your foot, you risk tearing ligements and tendons in your knee.