markusan

Have any of you noticed how students improve just AFTER they get their blackbelts. It's almost as if they now have permission to be good.

When you say resusciitate him I assume you mean he killed the guy or at least knocked him unconscious then brought him back to life or to consciousness. So he killed this person/knocked him out, by throwing him through the wall with a push...no broken ribs, no fractured scull, no blood...?

I have two questions. If you don't clench your fist hard how doest it cope with the impact without breaking or dislocating the knuckles? Would the same apply to a knifehand strike? And if a clenched fist restricts the flow of chi then is it a logical progression that a clenched target muscle would also restrict the chi flow. So say a bunch to the abdomen would be ineffectual if the abdomen was tensed. That also makes me wonder does chi flow into inanimate bodies, or are there some materials that don't "conduct" chi.

That's how I look at it too. Personal and spiritual growth to me is about learning about myself, learning how I tick. And the best way I know to do that is to put myself under mental and physical pressure. Test the system and see how I react. Martial arts does that in so many ways. It makes me look at my more primal side and also to recognise why I react to other people the way I do. When I started MA i reacted to confrontation with fear, as my confidence grew I replied to agression with agression, now I'm at the stage where agression does not concern me that much and I feel like I'm free to act more appropriately and logically to a situation. I think the thing that stunts our spiritual development is fear, and ma training lets us chip away at that fear in a supportive environment.

that's the funniest thing I ever heard. Hopefully this guy keeps on meditating so one day there will be no him to do the stealing. . Did you hear about the buddhist monk who goes to the hot dog stand and asks the vendor to make him one with everything.

Meditation to me is looking for the truth, seeing things as they really are, not colored by my baggage. I am not a "chiristian" as such but my reading of the new testament is that it's message is very similar to that aim. To get rid of the baggage you first have to recognise it (know thyself). Eliminating much of the baggage is a process of forgiveness I think. Once you let the baggage go it's much easier to relax and hear and feel the things you couldn't hear and feel before because of the background noise.

I was taught to meditate to eliminate the "me" or the "I" awareness, so in that way meditation could be seen as the opposite of selfish. Most of the time we see life as it effects us rather than life as it is, so by focusing on one thing, (I use the breath) and training the mind to concentrate on just that one thing (and not that one thing and me) allows a greater clarity. The wow moment you get from training intensely is just that. Instead of me punching it becomes just punching. Have you ever been so absorbed in a sparring session that you lose awarness of yourself in the fight. How many times have you gone home and discovered a bump or bruise and not been able to remember where it came from. The daily practice of meditation allows you to duplicate that mental state at will in exactly the same way that practicing your kata allows you to perform them at will. As for the universality of sitting positions like seiza, lotus, half lotus etc. They provide a three-pointed base to sit on, giving you physical stability and allowing you to meditate on your meditation subject without being distracted by body movement or instability. That body movement and the correction required in a less stable posture immediately makes you think of yourself, how comfortable you are or are not. With practice, as your concentration improves that becomes less of a distraction. That's why for we westerners it is often easier to meditate sitting in a chair to start off, because it is more natural for us. If you try to start in lotus position your mind is thinking "how clever am I sitting in lotus position saying mystical words and being very spiritual!!" rather than just concentrating on the breath or the mantra.

I teach a number of knife defences maybe once a month in class specifically to demonstrate that they do not work. We do the chalk exercise with red chalk on white gi. Trying to get them clean again is a convincing reminder that the defences we use do not work. Some of our instructors have become really fast but they always get marked as soon as the attacker starts using unpredictable moves. I don't know how true it is, but I've been told at a self defence seminar that even a relatively shallow cut, a centimetre or so, can cause the victim to go into shock.

We do belt tests from white belt on. My club is part of an organisation of 11 clubs and we have two gradings a year where three or four of the clubs grade together and one at the end of the year where all the clubs grade together. It's not as bad as it sounds becaus we have 11 instructors and about the same number of junior instructors running the grading/ The lower grades are shorter tests and mainly for skille development, and more of an endurance test at the higher grades. Students going for blackbelt have attended a number of special training days and other activities, including breaking tests before the main grading day, and if their skills and technique are not up to scratch they do not test/ In the case of the pre black belt and black belts the test is almost entirely an endurance, spirit and recovery test. We monitor each student carefully throughout their test hopefully pushing them to their limit repeatedly over about four or five hours. The emphasis is on sparring and powerful kata. Our philosophy is that a blackbelt may not win every contest, but they recover and come back for more. We try and make the test one that the student remembers for the rest of their lives in a positive way/. I think the system works well because it motivates me to teach each of my students as well as I can so that when they perform with other clubs they can hold their heads high. We do intensive preparation for tests and I see them as a valuable goal for training. The competition element is also useful. I tell my students that I want everyone at the grading to know who my students are by their technique and spirit because they are the best. It's a great motivator. They are grading for themselves but also for the club/

My apologies if I came across as too critical. In my real life job I see the results of new studies published every day. Most of them are studies commissioned by commercial organisations trying to legitamise their product in a non commercial way or to get media space without having to pay for an advertisement.. I have no argument with the results of the study. In fact I concur with the results. But I question why this so-called proof should bear any more weight than years of experience. Why would an academic know more or deserve greater credibility than someone who has been walking the walk for years, or of the hundreds or maybe thousands of parents who have seen the results in their children. I

We had an adhd student some years ago 13 years old and had been suspended from school 12 times that year. When he was medicated he slowed down, his speech slurred etc. Our academy has regular camping weekends for instructors and to give his parents a break we took him with us prepared for a hectic weekend. He said he didn't want to take his medication so we went along. The kid didn't put a foot wrong all weekend, he was attentive focussed, polite and helpful. He worked hard and contributed well to the group. Since then we have done the same thing with four other troubled boys with similar results. I don't know why it works but I can vouch for the method. Three of the kids are still with us and have made great progress. The other, the first boy we took away, left and gradually went back to his old habits. He is about 18 now and heavily medicated all the time. Like I say, I/m no expert but I suspect some forms of attention deficit are helped by strong authority figures.

It is important to improve, and you will. But the most important thing is to love training. Some times you get stuck because you're trying too hard. But that's a good thing. Because at some stage you will get tired of trying too hard and your mind will let go of that idea because it's just too hard to maintain it. Then you'll relax a bit and leap ahead.(until the next idea comes up and gets stuck for a while) That's what MA is about as well as fighting, it's about knowing yourself.

Aside from individual styles, do you think that the distinction between techniques is more important in the early days of your ma careere and become less so as you progress. I learnt very linear big blocks in TKD. But as I trained with Kyukushin, Shotokan and other karate styles then with Wing Chung I found those TKD blocks far too slow and rigid. The blocks became more like parries, the movements smaller and more efficient. While I trained in weapons, particularly with a bo, I found my blocking parrying motion becoming more circular and stickier(pardon the pun) Now I can't tell when a block becomes a strike, it just happens. But that said, blocks are all important in any fight situation. Not so much traditional blocks like in kata but a defensive position with hands and arms covering vital organs, redirecting the attack. It might give you the seconds you need to prevail or escape. As for bone conditioning. Does that prevent your arm from breaking or rather deaden the nerves so it doesn't hurt as much as it breaks. I would have thought it would be safer perhaps to build up some muscle around the bone and defend with that.

It ain't easy being green...kermit

Go back and look at some footage of the rumble in the jungle, Mohammud Ali, he may not have got in as many punches per second as michael chung, but that one punch was like lightning. He was scoring with his back hand and he was a heavyweight. I wonder is speed of attack the most important thing or speed and technique of defence? starting from hands down position the strike is almost always going to beat the block. Whether it's twice as fast or three times is academic.

It sounds like the fight fizzled out before anyone got too badly hurt. If you had interfered it may have escalated and someone could have pulled a weapon etc. I wouldn't recommend getting into a fight, particularly if it is low level and your reaction to it is emotional. It should be a logical decision, and one not taken lightly. You may not be doing the little guy a favor by staying out of it. Then again if he was really getting creamed a peaceful intervention may have been appropriate. Talking to the assailants, saying something like.." Excuse me but I've noticed a number of people have witnessed your assault on this person and I believe the police have been called. It might be a good idea to leave before they get here."

I find it mildly amusing that some medical boffin has made a breakthrough discovery that I think most instructors would have known about for years.Our academy has had many such kids over the years and a few adults with attention deficit. It is all about discipline and being tough without destroying their self esteem. It is also about never reinforcing their negative behaviour and rewarding their positive behaviour....just like the rest of us. There's no "unique" method. Plenty of parents send their kids to us for that very reason. Nothing new.

I like to go back to Myamoto Musashi's book of fiverings, "Make your fighting stance your everyday stance and your everyday stance your fighting stance".

I tell my students TKD is a modern martial art with deep roots in karate, chinese and yes, Korean martial arts. I have had too many karateka training with us over the years to ignore the obvious similarities. That has helped me develop my club's training philosophy. If it works, use it. And as for accurate documented histories of the various martial arts...I think the only bigger b.s. artists than martial artists are fishermen.

" The front leg kicker has another thing going for him I think. Particularly with a front kick or inside turning kick and that is that the movement starts at the extreme of your opponents peripheral vision. Your opponent sees less of the early stages of the kick than if you were kicking from the back leg. My most effective kick off the front foot is a snap front kick to the chin. I throw it after a couple of deliberately slower mid section thrusting front kicks off the opposite back leg as a setup. But you must do it with relaxed shoulders or else your upper body movement will telegraph the move.

A relaxed boxing stance heels on the ground weight on the front balls weight a bit towards the back foot so the front leg is ready to shin check the thigh or knee kick. I do TKD where we don't do leg kicks but I have a few training buddies from karate and kick boxing who like hamering the outside thigh. I like keeping my heel on the ground for an extra point of balance. I feel much more balanced that way specially bobbing under a hook or a high spinning kick. But again with more weight on the front inside balls.

What about if both your opponent's hands are occupied grabbing your lapels or pulling your head in towards them/ Kwang Gye Hyung in TKD has a double upset punch aimed to penetrate under the ribs. Chung Gun Hyung has a two handed striketo the pressure points behind and below the ears converting into a head grab. I used to spar with a guy who'd throw a face punch and a sternum punch if you got in his range, it had good shock value.

I don't think hand weights would be an efficient way of increasing hand speed. Because the weight is pulling down they are training the muscles that lift your hands, not the ones used for throwing your fists out horizontally. To work those muscles you'd need to do bench presses, push ups etc, mimicking the hand movements, but do them explosively not repetitively. But watch some docos of muhammed ali, he practiced hand speed by shadow boxing and hitting target mitts. As he proved in Zaire he could through a straight right faster than most people could throw a left jab. even hitting a bag lightly but as fast as you can helps. With repetitive punching, ie a fast flurry, it's mainly lack of co-ordination that slows you down not hand speed, so practice is the key.

Learning is all about making mistakes and having someone competent correct you and guide you to develop good technique. The video can show you what to do but it can't tell you whether you are doing it well.

I am surprised to see so many people say their religion does not affect their martial arts. I would find it impossible to adopt a philosophy or religion that did NOT affect such an important part of my life as my martial arts training. Why would you follow a religion that did not tell you how to live??