AngelaG

Juniors - 1 hr Teens - 1 hr 15 min Adults - 1 hr 30 min Open sessions - 2 hrs The warm up lasts between 15 and 20 minutes and the lessons vary depending what is on that week's lesson plan.

What size?

I mean you are basing it on supposition as much as I am. (unless you are REALLY old)

There's no hate here - it's just that that stuff isn't martial arts. That kid is superbly talented and would probably do very well in Olympic gymnastic floor work. Martial arts it ain't though. By the way the person on the video recorder (his mum I assume) could get a black belt in disabling people with her ear piercing shrieks!!! I find it odd to have so much hysteria in a MA tounament - ours tend to be a bit more..... dignified... than that.

I vary between Show-toe-kan and Shot-oh-kan

Not necessarily.

Hmmm it's hard to say from looking at a website but some of the things on their rang alarm bells. BUT the only way to tell is to train with them.

Cos bull shido is a bunch of... Well that word word would get censored too. I have little respect for the majority of the guys on there! Anyway I am not saying that you can't look into people, but the constant paranoia does get a bit tiresome. I know people that knew him and said he was very good - I also know some very prestigious organisations have recognised his grades. What sounds fishy about that?

Am I the only one that thinks it so weird for his parents to put so much publicity of him on the 'Net? It seems like every photo they take of him is on there - seems to me to be a great place for some weirdo to start stalking him. I know I wouldn't have a site like that for one of my kids (if I had kids). Just had a look at his kata. He is a very skilled boy, but I wouldn't call most of the videos "martial arts" - they are really just showing off gymnastic skills. In addition the overly extended (and constant) kiais were really irritating. But hey I couldn't do what he was doing - but I probably could kick his butt! The only one I would take umbrage with is the "traditional" forms one - well that is nothing like and traditional kata I have ever seen. Does any one recognise the kata he was doing by the way?

I don't think so. This is the thing that gets me about MA forums. People so quick to judge when they haven't even trained with these people. Does it make your belts any more better putting down other peoples?

Moneymaker's grades have all been verified by well respected organistaions and people.

Sorry, but that doesn't mean an awful lot to me. I do shotokan with some pressure point work thrown in.

I believe he was a student of George Dillman. I haven't trained with the DSI so cannot comment on their teaching style, but I think they are quite different now from the way Mr. Dillman chooses to train and teach. I may be wrong though, I can only judge from the OCI methods -- and I know we don't do no-touch KOs and projecting ki. However there is no guarantee that the OCI methods are anything like the DSI, but I do knwo some ex-DSI instructors that are formidable martial artists.

Not if you intend to train forever and ever

I don't think children should break boards - or do knuckle push-ups, or anything like that. Their bones are soft and still developing and continued impact can deform the bones and create a lot of problems in later life.

Except that doesn't ring true of when Karate was in Okinawa and being practiced alone, or with a one on one relationship with the instructor. Tournaments are fairly recent things.

Hi there. Rick Moneymaker is with the DSI (Dragon Society International). The Open Circle Institute (which I belong to) used to be under the DSI - but broke away a year or two ago. I never had the chance to train with Mr. Moneymaker before we split away. As far as I know Rick was respected for his skills by senior MA in the OCI. I don't think the DSI is particularly bothered by "time in grade", they just decide whether you meet the skills required for each grade - as the founder of an Organisation he would also have the "right" to call himself 10th dan anyway. He is also 9th Dan Okinawan Kempo.

Only if you know the 5 point palm exploding heart technique...

The kata we can choose for our shodan: Bassai Dai Jion Empi Kanku Dai Hangetsu

LORDY LORD!

I'm Shotokan and we do 27 kata. I would suspect the post you are referring to is only describing the kata you need to get to Black belt, obviously to get to higher black belts you need to know even more kata. eeeeeee Angela

Bunny hops - We teach this as a strangle and unbalance hold. You are behind them with them in a headlock or face bar, you move backwards to overbalance your opponent - of course if you wanna shake their head at the same time this is particularly nasty. Angela

And confronting him and his wife after that little event would have been interesting!!!

Unless it's your job I think you have to ask yourself, why was I put in this position? After all if you know a pub down the road has a notorious reputation but you still visit it every week, then you are slightly to blame and have to ask yourself why you are there. The first rule of self-defence is don't put yourself in these situations. Of course, if you are the security on the door then the situation is a bit different

I experienced this..........you know what happened?........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz! Yeah, poor you Did they leave you once you where down, or lay into you? The problem is that sometimes all the training in the world won't help you with this kind of attack. I know we are supposed to keep situational awareness but we are only human, plus they may have one of their buddies keeping your attention in the front.