Mu Ryuk

Yeah... You can get your black belt in Shaolin Kempo Karate by ordering videos, taping yourself doing the requirements, and sending them back. That's really all I have to say. Tone - XMA means "Xtreme Martial Arts", or gymnastics with a few kicks and punches thrown in.

Six days a week at Tang Soo Do (one of which is Escrima class at my Tang Soo Do Dojang), as many as six at Kickboxing/Boxing. Sometimes I'll go into the Tang Soo Do Dojang on Sunday if I feel like working out (I have a key).

15-20 hours of class a week. I didn't count the time spent before/between/after classes, but that probably amounts to another four hours a week or so.

Been there, done that. Keep on truckin', and leave them on the side of the road.

Sorry to hear that man, but still, congratulations on one year back. I'm sure you'll come back stronger than ever!

April 5th, 2004 to April 5th, 2005 may have been the fastest year of my life. One year ago tonight I returned to American Karate, and I haven't looked back since. It's hard for me to believe that one year ago tonight, I came home feeling worthless, like I was complete crap, and like everyone would always be better than me, all those people who went through class easily, when I could hardly keep up. Now here I am, one year later, and I am (not meaning to sound arrogant) one of the best students at the school. There are very few people who beat me in sparring, far fewer who can beat me on the ground. I'm probably one of the top three forms competitors we have, and in the top ten sparring competitors. I've lost fifty pounds and gained a will to push myself more than I ever thought possible. I know the thrill of victory and the dull, aching burn of defeat. I know how to end a fight with grace, a bow, a brotherly embrace and a "good fight", regardless of whether I win or lose. I thank everyone here for the support given for my tests and tournaments, the advice given to my repetitive questions, and for simply putting up with my random, sometimes pointless posts. I thank you all, and stay tuned. Who knows what the next year will bring I leave you all with a great quote: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt (26th U.S. president (1901-09), 1858-1919) Tang Soo!

I'd like to train permanently with Team Quest or AMC Pankration.

Tournament Results Forms Division AK-51: MISSED. I wasn't sure if they announced it, and when I asked the official in charge he ignored me, TWICE. I'm almost 100% sure I would have won forms, that's what I'm best at. Sparring Division AS-152: Default first place (only person in division). I fought an exhibition match with someone from a higher division who was also alone, lost 5-2. Male 14-17 Sparring Grand Championships: Lost 4-3. Hell of a fight, and he had to time out to beat me (fight to the two minute mark rather than beat me to five points), but everyone there, including my opponent, thought I should have won. I was jipped four points...one from a Ridgehand to the head, two from a Roundhouse kick to the head, and one from a clean Roundhouse to the body right before time was called. Oh well, that's the way it goes. I'm looking forward to the next tournament in May, because the guy who puts it on is very well organized, and talking to him yesterday he said he is going to have all the rings set, so you'll know what ring your division is in as soon as you sign up for it. Thanks for the support.

I'm not sure what it is you want to read about, but I'm sure there is a website for it!

Saturday, April 2nd at Carmel High School. I'm doing forms and point sparring. I really am tired of point sparring, but oh well...competition is competition, and I'm ready to go out there and win it.

http://www.msu.edu/~cooleyky/bobtakesone.MPG Listen to that impact...first time I watched the video, I damn near jumped out of my chair.

This is something of a write-up, I posted it on Myspace. I'm finalizing some more technical notes (though it'll probably take me a few days, I'm pretty busy) and once those are done I'll have them up as well. Here goes: If you don't see the sign first, you probably won't even know Team Quest Fight Club is there. It's tucked in the back of a used car dealership. When you first walk in, it seems more like an office than a world class mixed martial arts gym. But if you ever drop by, you'll soon learn different. Day 1 8:00-9:00 P.M. Matt Lindland & Robert Follis We worked on different techniques from Pummeling. Some of the details we covered were to always keep the underhook hand placed on the opponent's overhook, ready to dig as soon as they move. As in everything else, head position was stressed as being extremely important. We worked on getting double underhooks, single underhook, and doing a takedown from that single underhook. 9:00-10:00 P.M. Randy Couture & Matt Lindland Randy showed us how to move into the single underhook position from a jab parry, as well as from the Muay Thai stop hands, where you parry the jab, block a cross from coming with your lead hand, push the jab down and circle into single underhook. Finally we worked on moving into the single underhook by throwing a right hand (or left for southpaws) and penetrating with it. By forcing your opponent to respect the punch and cover up, it opens up for you to move into the clinch. Day 2 9:00 A.M.-12:00 P.M. Matt Lindland & Robert Follis We started with groundwork. There was a constant stress on options throughout the camp, so we worked on having options in likely situations. During the groundwork, we were working a lot on keeping our head higher then our opponents, because having elevation gives you a lot more options and makes you stronger. Then we worked on more techniques from the clinch. 3:00-4:00 P.M. Matt Lindland & Robert Follis We worked on finishing on the ground, various chokes and how to take different top positions. 4:00-6:00 P.M. Randy Couture & Robert Follis A bunch of takedowns. We did drills to work takedowns from the clinch, and from punching range. We learned how to use the wall/cage/ropes to our advantage by using their flex to move our opponent so we could slam them, and then keep them there. Day 3 9:00-11:00 A.M. Randy Couture & Robert Follis Finally, ground and pound day. We started with two short drills from the clinch, both takedowns. Then we went to the ground and learned how to get to the knee ride position, and how to keep your opponent from escaping it the three most common ways, swinging their legs across you and pulling guard, grabbing your leg and sitting up, or rolling away. We talked about diet and nutrition, as well as some conditioning. A few key things that were very stressed: Always have options. One option is no option, because it's all you can do. The guy with the most options is probably going to win. When on the ground, keep elevation. This gives you the ability to do more things, as well as more physical power. Head position, in the clinch and on the ground, is very important to both offense and defense. This one's obvious, but you have to completely integrate your striking and groundwork...one makes the other better. If your opponent is worried about you knocking him out, he's not worrying so much about your takedowns. If he's worried about you pounding him out on the ground, he's not so worried about you submitting him. Everyone there was awesome...I think half the guys were expecting Randy and Matt to come in for twenty minutes each, show us one drill and leave. But they were there all the time, and the seminar was small (eighteen people out of a maximum twenty-five), so everyone got individual attention. Randy, Matt and Robert all personally worked with everyone quite a few times. I would suggest that anyone who has the opportunity to go to a Team Quest Mini Camp does so, because even if you're already damn good, I'm willing to bet your game will improve. Their Training Manual and DVD are both excellent as well. I'd love to go back and train with them as soon as possible. If anyone has any questions, feel free to contact me and I'll try to answer them as well as I can. Email: Tsypkin@gmail.com A I M: Mu Ryuk Yahoo Messenger: JTsypkin Also feel free to ask in this thread, or send me a PM.

No, it was all drills. The only live work we did were some escapes.

Got back from my trip to Oregon for the Team Quest Mini-Camp on Sunday. It was an awesome experience and God knows if I could I'd live there. Randy Couture, Matt Lindland and Robert Follis were there all the time, and the camp was only eighteen people so we all got personal attention. I learned a great deal. http://photobucket.com/albums/v302/Tsypkin The four newest pictures are from the mini-camp. The first two are myself with Randy Couture, the third is me and Robert Follis, head coach of Team Quest, and the fourth is a "decoration" in the gym. It's half of the mat that covered the octagon at UFC 34 when Couture faced Pedro Rizzo for the second time. The stains are Rizzo's blood. How symbolic I'll have some pictures of me with Matt Lindland up soon, as well as a group picture of everyone at the camp.

Did my first wrestling session today. It's twice a week, Greco-Roman and Freestyle. Mainly I got whooped by guys 40-50 pounds lighter than me. But that's okay, the only way to get good is to get beat. I think I did alright for never having wrestled before. Although every time we tied up, I kept thinking "knee, knee, knee!". Probably a bad idea. We did a short jog for a warm up, then went into some basic drills. Pummeling, 2 on 1, underhook, some takedowns I don't remember the name of, two of them, then one called "shoot the moon" and one that was basically a one-arm shoulder throw only you drop to your knees. Then we wrestled. I had three matches, won once and lost twice, but I'll be honest and say I only won because I have a lot more power than the guys I wrestled against. Also did some slow rolling for technique with bigger guys. It was fun, I'm looking forward to doing it again. Every Tuesday and Thursday night until July. When I got home I cooled down with a drill of 50 pushups, 100 squats and 30 burpees in five minutes or under.

Thanks Heh, you joined KarateForums on my sixteenth birthday. That amuses my feeble mind.

Hey all, Just wanted to share a photo from my test, and my Certificate Of Rank. http://photobucket.com/albums/v302/Tsypkin/?action=view&current=GreenBeltTest.jpg http://photobucket.com/albums/v302/Tsypkin/?action=view&current=TSDCertificateGreen.jpg In the photo are Carrie, me, Jessica, black belts in the back are Mr.Beeson (assistant instructor, 1st Dan Tang Soo Do), Mr.Addison (1st Dan Tang Soo Do, 1st Dan Wado Ryu Karate, 3rd Dan Gyaku Nami Do), Mr.Durney (Head Instructor, 1st Dan Tang Soo Do), Mr.Sharma (1st Dan Tang Soo Do)

XMA must die, XMA must die, XMA must die, XMA must die, XMA must die. XMA must die. I don't like XMA, by the way. P.S. XMA must die.

Thanks 1KickKo. I skipped rank because I trained Tang Soo Do at the same Dojang for about six years before this, then I returned and chose to go back to white belt. On my first test I skipped two ranks, from white belt to blue belt. I know the material through red belt (which I was a week or so from testing for when I left). My former instructor passed on from stomach cancer in May 2003, at forty-five. When that happened I realized how much I missed the school. I came back in April 2004, and while the school will never be the same without Mr.Attebury, Mr.Durney is doing an awesome job of keeping the school and his spirit alive.

Most famous would be "karate or "kung fu", simply because the many people who do not practice or study the martial arts refer to everything as karate" or "kung fu" unless it's boxing, which isn't considered a martial art by them.

ARGH! YOU'VE FOILED MY PLOT! FOOL!! No, seriously though. I tested yesterday. I was skipped one rank (from 7th gup blue belt to 5th gup green belt). I did pretty well on the test I think, could have been better. I wasn't alone, that's for sure...Mr.Attebury (my late instructor, R.I.P.) was there with me, helping me out. I got a second wind quite a few times, especially during jumping kicks, when at some point I started pushing harder than I thought possible, getting a good three to four feet off the ground. Thanks for all the (sort of) support.

The nerves are starting to fade away, to be replaced by the cold determination that can only mean one thing: It's time to do this. So let's do this. 2:00 P.M. Sunday, February 20, 2005.

Hey everyone, I will be spending March 18-20 training with Team Quest in Oregon. It's 10 hours of training over three days, and I'm sure it's going to be intense. For anyone who has done anything like this, do you have any suggestions as to what I can/should do to get ready? This will be the first time I get any serious MMA training...and who knows, maybe three days will be long enough to convince someone to let me move in with them so I can train with Team Quest...heh. I wish. You can find out about it the mini-camp here: http://www.tqfc.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=6&tabid=22 Thanks in advance!

"Hai" is Japanese for "Yes". As far as I know, it's just coincidence that a lot of people (such as myself) Kiai like that. I guess it's just an easy sound to make. "Osu" is...well, I'm not really the person to know about that. Sorry.

I'd go with Kyokushin personally, an hour and a half is quite a drive, and I'd go with Kyokushin either way...but it's worth looking at the Kuk Sool Won school. Good luck!