Zorba

hahaha. at least karate practioners dont get "Is that anything like Karate" oh, and dont forget "I know a guy that does that, his name is john smith, do you know him?"

its not really a money maker if there are 10 levels, why does it matter if each level has its own belt or if 3 belts have 3 levels each. you still have to grade thee same amount of time.

maybe they figure some people get their black belt and slack off. could be a test of character more than anything else. dunno, just one idea for their side.... i do know some clubs have a junior black belt then you retest again once you reach the age that senior black belt has. in WTF its 16, but its not really a black belt, its called something else but i cant remember

i think there are 10 steps before black thats how it generally is at most martial arts that i know of. The videos are really well done too, when the guy is facing backwards, an inset picture comes up filmed from the other side.

hey, for those of you that do WTF, or if your just interested. check this out. http://shinrhotaekwondo.com/image_gallery.htm

i too am in to cars, tho mine isnt modified as much as would like (2000 Subaru WRX). I am also in to Indoor Cricket and ten pin bowling, tho dont get too play them as much as i would like. I am also in to texas holdem tho again, dont get to play as often as i like. would love to organise a regular home game.

i do like to improve my rank as quick as i can, but not because i like saying i am good because i got to this rank, but i like work towards improvement, and have my improvement recognised. when i first started TKD i spent 3 years between pre black and black belts, but it wasnt because i wasnt good enough, i just hadnt gotten around to it. i told my sempai that i want to grade to 5th kyu at the next grading (in 3 months) and i only just graded to 6th kyu at the last grading (december). he told me that i would need to improve a bit. therefore i am striving for the improvement that will acheive me that rank, not the rank specifically. does that make any sense at all?

i dunno about being licensed to carry one, but in australia, if you are travelling with a weapon of any kind, you must be on your way to or from a place that is the prime reason for having the weapon (ie, class, demonstration etc) and they must be in a case and then placed in a non passenger compartment of the vehicle ie the boot (trunk for all you americans out there), roof box (those massive boxes on top of roof racks) or a lock up trailer. i also beleive that with guns, they must be unloaded and the ammunition kept seperate.

i wont give advice on the girl side because no one can really know what you are feeling. people say its only 2 months, but they dont know whats been happening. my aunty moved accross the country for a guy she met while on a holiday. my cousin moved to italy (from australia) for her man. and both of these were short term. as for martial arts. dont stop, you will regret it. if you dont train for a year you will take a massive backwards step in flexibility, skill and fitness. if you cant find a school there, then train for yourself, and forget about competition. if you want competition, go fight a wild animal

er... i dont think that was an issue considering the american release of the big boss was titled fist of fury. and that came before chinese connection. couldnt use the same title for 2 movies, and i guess they figured people might think chinese conection is a sequel to french connection, but this time more violent and with bruce lee edit: as for my inspiration, would have to be a combination of karate kid, bruce lee and my dad that got me interested.

it happens all the time hugh laurie is english, but puts on an american accent for the show house.

depends what you want if you want another striking art then i would recomend shotokan, as they have a lot of similarities, but also a lot of differences that compliement TKD if you want grappling, then Combat hapkido will give you some good upright techniques and throws, while BJJ will give you a lot of good round work with not many if any throws. or you could do a weapons art like Kali. it all depends what you want to learn.

Also check if your school is ok with tournaments. My old ITF club did not beleive in competition, so if i wanted to compete (which i wanted to, but didnt know how to go about it) i would have to enter as an individual, without a club, and also get a blank gi/dobok to compete in

I am currently studying both Shotokan and am a TKD BB (ITF) as mentioned by Jiffy and have just moved in to WTF Taekwondo. I find that the WTF style im doing now and the shotokan go very well together. As someone mentioned shotokan has a lot of hand strikes while TKD has a lot of kicks, but the good part is that the moves they do have in common (low blocks, body blocks, front kicks, sidekicks etc) are pretty much the same. this is good because you wont find yourself at karate class doing TKD stuff (ITF is a different story tho as the club i was at had some differences to the karate (and WTF) im doing now, which isnt doing me any favours) about taekwondo and shotokan being similar, from what i have read, tae kwon do is loosely based on an ancient korean sport done by different tribes etc etc (like most arts) but it also seems that the japanese were a major part in korean history, and its only a recent thing that taekwondo became formalised as basically the taekkyon kicks (all those high flying things you see) and shotokan striking. if you google tae kwon do shotokan history you will get a lot of info about it.

i am surprised at the closed mindedness of some instructors. I have had one instructor say to me that it is a sign of disrespect to him if i bow to another clubs instructor. personally i think it comes down to a money thing. if you can afford to train with someone else, you should spend all your money at one club. bah to that i say. if you want all the money, teach different stuff. there is only so much you can learn at one club. when i reached my black belt at my ITF club, i stopped learning. not because i wanted to, but because they stopped teaching me. they also didnt give me the opportunity to attempt to teach myself, and if i wanted to learn more i had to do it in my own time. hell, in the 5years i stayed there as a black belt, i think we did the black belt form maybe 3 times in class. to much emphasis was in the lower belts that the black belts got forgotten. but we werent allowed to go elsewhere to learn either. people say "im a karate student" or "i do TKD", well i do martial arts. i may be limited to 2 styles by time and money, but not by my instructors. cheers to all the OPEN MINDED instructors out there.