busling

I started after we met. She is happy that I am training to be able to defend us both. She is a bit worried that I am now more likely to get into a fight. Overall she is pretty happy with it. She likes the positive impacts it has had on my body.

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- Increased flexiblity. - Mental exercise (works both sides of the brain) - Improved physical co-ordination. - Strengthen your back & core muscles, reduces back/neck pain - Teachs you how to learn physical activities easier.* * I getting married soon, as my fiance' and I have been attending dancing lessons. My martial arts training has allowed me to quickly pick up the dance routine that we will be doing.

My diary has been invaluable so far in my training. I highly recommend it to everyone. I think you will find more uses for it then you realise.

martialman101 I see your point, and initially that is what I wanted to do. However the more I thought about all of the different martial arts and how little I really knew about them; I thought it best that I let people know how they can best research the arts for themselves. I believe that if people go through the above process it will become evident to them which martial art is best for them. eg. I tried to think about who would be suited to judo, vs boxing vs karate. In the end I released that anyone could do any art. It really comes down to what interests them.

Muaythaiboxer I dont have the full details of the 20 vs 1 fight. What I have been told is that it was on a ship. William was standing on one of the side walk-ways. It was really narrow and hence he could only be attacked by 1 or 2 guys from each side. The 14 fight that my SiFu was involved in, was a running street fight. Ie. Smash one or two guys, retreat a bit, spliting them up, smash the next 2, repeat. This was no story of standing in the middle of 14 guys. He had to work to the blind side to ensure he could escape and to maximise his attacks on the thugs. Yes some of them were armed. The ensuing court case was thrown out as the judge couldn't believe that one guy took on 14. Regardless of weither you or I believe these stories (I wasn't there so am only going on my SiFu's word) we should all know that with correct positioning, luck and good stand up skills, it is possible to take on multiple opponents. I have a few years to go to reach those skills.

Great post taiji fajin, that was really well done.

There has been a post on this forum regarding this subject. You will be well served by doing a search for it. I seem to remember that it was discussed until the person who asked was able to perform it to his satisfaction.

One legged squats really work your legs hard. They may help develop some extra power for you.

Thanks ramymensa, do you have any information that we could add to it, to complete it?

[editted] 1 April 2005 - Talk to teacher section expanded with comments from Pride&Poise. This guide is intended to help people who are new to martial arts pick a school and a style that is right for them. The Basic Process to choose Martial Art that is right for you is: 1. Determine your motivations 2. Research schools in your area 3. Research the styles that are available to you 4. Talk to Teachers and try classes 5. Consider other factors 6. Pick your style and get started ** 1. Determine your motivations ** Everyone’s motivations for starting martial arts are different. Most likely as you progress through MA those motivations will change. You need to understand your motivations before you can decide on the art that is right for you. Your motivations will really decide the style/teacher that is right for you. A few of the more common motivations are: - Health and Fitness (A sport to keep you fit, or get you fit, something to improve your flexibility, stress relief) - Improve your self-confidence - Seen it in the movies and want to be able to do cool moves - Self-Defence - Desire to be tournament fighter ** 2. Research schools in your area ** Create a list of schools in your area. You can find them from the phone book, on the Internet, by word of mouth, advertisements on community boards, especially at universities. For each school find out as much information as you can, specifically: - What style(s) do they teach - Do they cater for fight/MMA training - Who is the main instructor - Do they have assistant instructors - Is the school full-time, or run out of a hall/gym - Normal Facilities (showers, lockers, car parking, air-conditioning) - MA Facilities (wooden floors/padded floors, gym equipment, punching bags, bag mitts, focus mitts, Thai pads, kick shields, head gear, etc) - When do they hold classes. DO NOT worry about how much they charge, that will come latter. ** 3. Research the styles that are available to you ** Now that you know what schools/styles are available to you in your local area, you need to start working out which one is for you. While doing this research keep your motivations in mind. It is up to you to educate yourself about the arts that are available to you. There are several valuable sources of information for this purpose: - The Internet - look at lots of different sites about the styles that you are interested in. - Martial Arts magazines - beware that sometimes magazines are really just advertisement materials. - Karate Forums of course. Now that you have a basic understanding of the arts you are interested in post on the forums and obtain answers to your specific questions about the arts. Make sure that you mention what your motivations for starting martial arts are. ** 4. Talk to Teachers and try classes ** Go to each school, talk to the instructors, let the instructor know what you are looking for and ask him if his school sounds right for you and WHY. If you don't know what you are looking for, or even if you do, ask the instructor what benefits you can expect to get from studying under him. His answers should sound interesting to you... if they don't, it might not be a good match. Also, be wary of an instructor who doesn't emphasize that you will need to work hard to acheive those benefits, or who makes promises that don't seem realistic, like guaranteed promotions. Watch one of their classes and try out a class. The first class is almost always free. Check out the facilities for yourself, watch how the students and instructors interact. After you have tried their free class is probably a good time to ask them about the costs involved. Make sure you ask about mandatory and recommended equipment costs as well as uniform and tuition fees. ** 5. Consider other factors ** - Does the school offer the type of training you are seeking? (Street oriented, Mixed Martials Arts or traditional training) - Does the school have sparing, either light or heavy or both? - Do you think the school focuses on quick results or a longer more professional journey through the martial arts? - How often do you want to attend your martial arts classes? If the school is not set up as a full time 5/6/7 days per week school does it offer enough flexibility to ensure that you will be able to attend classes at least once a week? ** 6. Pick your style and get started ** Now weigh up all of the pros and cons. Make a decision and get started, once you start you life will forever be changed for the better.

My Si-Fu has written an article on this very subject that will appear in the Australian Blitz magazine. I know that doesn't help you now and probably won't help at all considering you are 4000km away but you never know your luck.

I can't really understand what you are trying to achieve. Is it a full step forward instead of a half step forward?

I agree with it being down to the practitioner. Come to think of it are there any slow martial arts, apart from Tai Chi

I understand Rick Spain (Wing Chun) holds the world speed punching and world speed kicking records. However that comes down to the practioner(sp?). Your definition of fast would be needed before we could come up with an answer to what is the 'fastest' martial art.

Part of our forms is the practice of breathing. We breath in deeply through the nose, pushing out our diaphram(sp?) to completely fillout lungs, then breath out through our mouths tensing our stomach muscles to fully expel the air. This also functions as an abb workwork. Breathing out when you strike, will help should your opponent counter punch. If they strike while you are breathing out your chance of being "winded" is lessened.

Here is my suggestion for the second draft. You will notice that mainly I have have just shuffled around the sentences, as I tried to improve the flow of the article. *********************** I am writing to encourage all karate students, especially the young. My friends have said to me, “You have your black belt, why don’t you quit?” Karate is not about getting a certain colored belt. Many people stay with karate just so that they may achieve a certain belt, whether it is green, purple, brown or black. Once they get that belt, they quit. Anybody can buy any colored belt they want from a martial arts distributor, but not everybody can stick with karate. When I went to Japan and trained with Seto Sensei, I noticed that there were no colored belts until green. His students remained at white belt for 2 or 3 years! This was humbling because when I first started, I was very concerned with the color of my belt. It took me a long time to realize that karate is more about learning than what color your belt is. I think, I finally learned this lesson after I became black belt. Instead of focusing on the color of your belt, it's better to focus on learning. Never let yourself get bored. Always try to learn something from each class. Give each class your all. Someone pays your tuition, whether it be you or your parents. For every class you take that you don’t give your all and learn something, the money you or your parents paid has been wasted. Right after I earned a black belt, I became bored with karate. But lately I have realized how learning is much more important than advancing. As Sempai Sydney Shimabokuro said in his article, “Once you get you black belt, you realize how little you really know.” Even though I cannot advance in rank at all for at least 2 more years, karate is more interesting than ever. Good luck to you in your karate practice.

The content of the article is great. I think that it could do with a bit of editting. The article could be made to flow a bit better. Currently some of the ideas are presented in a jumbled order. I will make some specific suggestions for improvements shortly. It is a good first draft.

In my experience bullys only respect strength. My suggestion is to attack him viciously. He will not expect, you probably won't win. However he will respect you for it. Show no fear, he will back down from then on. He will take the path of least resistance and find someelse who is weak to pick on. If you stand up for yourself (victorious or not) you make for a hard target. You have to remeber that he is picking on you, to make himself feel better about his own insecurities. He wants to feel strong and powerful. Make yourself a hard target and he will find someone else to pick on.

Furthering AngelaG tip, try to sound humble. When I talk to students with less experience then me (I dont have much so that is not many students) I relate my experiences to the troubles they are having. Hopefully this lets them realise that we all have troubles to get past in martial arts.

I would suggest that you pick one technique or aspect of the art that you were bad at. Talk about why you had trouble with it, and what you did to overcome those problems. Then put in tips/trick for understand or executing the technique. This will show the young people that all black belts have had problems in the past. It is how they push past those problems that allow them to reach black belt. Another idea could be pick one kata and talk about it in detail, explain why the kata is structured the way it and how parts of it can be applied in combat. This is not really a motivations article, but it would make for interesting reading.

My instructor has fought 6 guys several times and his record is 14 guys. Of course they weren't all in a circle around him. He positioned himself and them so as to split them up. Using positioning and hit and run tactics he was able to defeat them. His teachers, teacher has fought and won vs 20 guys. However that was on a narrow ship walkway were they could only really come 1 or 2 at a time. He was eventually subdued by a net being thrown over him. I myself would probably be turned into mince meat in any of these situations.

ShirKhan Along the lines of distracting your opponent, with a confusing statement/question. I have been told that just before conflict, it is a good idea to ask your opponent "didn't we good to school together?" It a question that will make most people think, maybe I know this guy? Do I really want to punch him? I have never tried it, but it seems to ring a chord with the raping the sister statement, as a confusing line that gives you a small advantage.

Our style is continually being refined. For example how we defend against an outside to inside swinging knife attack has changed. This was due to the instructors learning a much safer way to deal with the attack. Also on a different note, our school has recently reverted to a more tradional focus. More forms and technique as opposed to conditioning and bag work. This was due a business decision, as there are heaps of MMA schools in our area, but none that teach quality Wing Chun. However it is still the same style, Wing Chun. It is not like we switched from Wing Chun to Tai Chi.

We sometimes start drills from what we call the "neutral position". The reasoning behind this is that is in a "street" situation you will not always be in a fight ready position when the trouble starts. Hence in our drills we move from neutral into a better position before dealing with their attack or launching our own. Most of our drills are done from the Forward position. Another reason to train in the neutral position is during combat you will sometimes find yourself in the neutral; position as you and your opponent move around. Hence it is good to trained in fighting from that position. I agree that given a choice I would adopt a front position outside their blindside, before the fight really got underway. Neutral Position >> Feet slightly more then shoulder width apart, both feet parallel and pointing forward.