gcav

Is he is taking his toys and going home?

TKD or KF

There are 2 kind of swords. Those made for show and those made for combat. This one is for show, and IMO, has no practical use other than a neat decoration. The swords that are made for actual combat are rather expensive and still made by hand. As far as keeping it by your bed at night, I would go with a nice 12 gage pump instead.

Congratulations.

I think we're showing our age here. :lol

I never do.

How are you going to learn the more advanced techniques of a MA without knowing the basics on which they are built. Not every MA has the same basics. Stances, balance, weight distribution, foot placement and movement (just to name a few) are all different from style to style. All advanced techniques are built upon the basics. Just go thru it and when you get to the higher levels of training, you'll just be that much better.

I agree with prospector that styles should adapt new techniques to face the current threats that are out there today. I'm all for tradition, but that needs to be balanced with growth. My style has a "tradition" of "change". As new threats become more commonplace, new techniques need to be added to handle them.

I've been studying MAs for 30 years and I still do the "basics" everyday.

I agree with MJ.

There are some realy nice reference materials listed in this thread. Thanks for sharing.

I agree with the above posts. For conventional MAs kata are very important.

Congratulations.

Teal - If you studied karate (Japanese) and then join a TSD school (Korean), then you will very much likely start out as a white belt. Even though TSD is the most "karate" styled Korean MA, there are some differences in the two. As far as TSD being fake, if your instructor teaches it the way I learned it in Korea, then there is nothing fake about it. When properly taught, TSD is a good self defense style. But just like every other MA, there are some TSD mcdojos out there so just be careful.

I agree with ramymensa that in some situations, or places, its best to talk of other things.

Train in the right MA.

DITTO

Hello.

I am the instructor so nothing I've done in class has been funny, except for my jokes of course.

Those large fights sure can become confusing. I responded to a gang fight one night around midnight. When all was said and done, we counted 105 gang members in the fight. By the time everyone stopped sending us help, we had officers from our department, 2 other city departments, the Sheriff's Office and CHP on scene. Everybody wanted to help .lol. We took knives, lead pipes, baseball bats, chains and a sundry of other weapons off the bad guys. Luckily there was no gun play in this one.

Do you feel like we do? - PF.

I'd put my money on the old school guys.

Follow your heart.

Glad to hear that your instructor made it throu without injury. Its another example of why to train, and train hard.

I want him for my teacher.