torris

the needle, prison, the needle, prison, prison, prison..... any questions. Man, I agree with the poster that said "surprise". If they don't know, they can't prepare, or defend. *besides, this is martial arts, not let see who can make me lose my lunch. Yuck! That is gross. You need to stop watching all those horror flicks.

If you are a block away from the dojo, what about riding home with someone. I don't know about your dojo, but our is family, and anyone of us would go out of our way to help one another. As I said, I don't know your dojo, but it wasn't mentioned.

I know what death and detruction is. I saw it in Bosnia. I saw villages and entire towns decimated because of who they were. I saw it in Mogadishu, Somalia. Have you ever looked into the eyes of a child, so thin they look like human skeletons. And the gangsters who took the money, food, medicine, and supplies to feed those children. Man, I have seen it, been there, done that. I don't diss what you have been through, seen, or what. BUT, don't side skirt the issue. You are an experienced Martial Artist. You have trained to be in control of yourself at all times. When you kicked that guy in the groin, and he was on the ground; You went from defense to aggressor. You stated yourself, you were mad at him. That made you no better than him.

Man, it's called survival. Had you tried to start something, there is no telling what could have happened to you. You did what you needed to do to survive. I would suggest speaking with your instructor regarding the incident. He may have exactly the right thing to correct the issue. Or he may have said the exact thing that we all have said. The good thing you are alive, and mostly well, and they are in jail.

mostsolid. you defended yourself, and that is all well and good, but .... you broke the NUMBER 1 rule of Martial Arts. You lost control. I don't know you, I don't know how good you are, or what rank you are, or what style you study. But, I know that you made a mockery of the martial arts. That guy may have came at you with a pipe, but you have the potential to mame that man for the rest of his life. You should have known better. [rant] I am not dissing you. But, IMO, if you are a high ranking belt, it is on you to be the example, and show honor to the martial arts. Losing control is about you, and revenge, not about self defense. [/rant]

I needed to lose weight, exercise, get in shape, yada yada. I hate aerobics. TKD offers the benefits of exercise, and the bonus of being able to defend myself. Since I am relatively new, my reasons haven't changed. I always dreamed of wanting to do this.

I would just avoid the fight if at all possible. But if it is unavoidable, then remember "the bigger they are, the harder they fall." If he is really big, he is probably slow, and in terrible shape. Tire him out, then put a punch in the solar plexus, followed by a spin kick to the side. He'll fall like an old oak. Fast and hard. You shouldn't need to do anything, but step back. He won't be getting up for awhile.

Street fight? Just fast front kick to the groin, follow with a side or spin kick to the solar plexus, or throat. Good Bye, see ya later.

we have some strange folks here.

Ok. The first thing to understand, it's not HOW MUCH you eat as much as WHAT you eat. You need to break your eating menu into 5 smaller meals. Your most important being breakfast (Eat this within an HOUR of waking up.) Eat a small dinner, no later than 8pm (your internal clock begins to switch jobs after this time, so you can't really digest heavy meals after this time). Snack on negative calorie foods all you want. Carrots, Celery, Tomato, etc. They take more calories to eat than what they posess (hence negative calorie). I will return later with some food suggestions. Hopefully this will help. Oh! and stay away from sugar. Absolutely.

That makes complete sense.

I may be wrong, but the 5th DAN or 6th DAN and higher black are mostly honorary, aren't they. Wouldn't it be that someone who has studied and obtained this level in the arts would in fact have mastered that style. I may be wrong, but at that level, I consider them having mastered that style they have studied.

There is a better way than this?

Actually, no it's not all about belt color. My overall goal is to become a master. Now, obviously, that is a long time. I need several little goals in between. The belt system provides a nice breakdown. So it makes the overall goal less impossible. Understand what I am saying. I understand that each level up, I have learned something new, and reached a new pinnacle. Each belt I obtain is a goal reached, and the new goal becomes the next belt. It is just easier to guage.

and no, I am not advertising, just making a friendly referral.

All your needs met here

I couldn't imagine trying to start any form of Martial Art by Video only. It would take forever to learn, and no one could determine if you were doing it right or not. I agree, as an aide, great. By itself, nope.

Uhm. That was interesting.

We don't clean our Dojang, but I agree. It would add some pride to it. *edit -- Uhm, LOL! After reading that, I better add, that someone cleans it, just not the students. LOL!

Black isn't on the list. It's really too hot to be useful, but black still looks really sharp.

Katana

White to Gold is nothing. You need to know some self defense, the 4 basic blocks, and the 9 step form, and front, side, and roundhouse kicks.

Are you saying that an Olympic TKD fighter doesn't know how to fight full contact just because they participate in the Olympics? That's a pretty bold generalization. What's it based on? That was my thought?

My Master Instructor is like that....

Without belts and the grading system, there would be nothing to set goals with, no way to measure accomplishment. Although it may seem that there are too many belts, they each have specific requirments, and each shows AND recognizes that a student has accomplished something special to earn it. I say they are fine the way they are.