parkerlineage

Yeah, I can't tell you how irritating it is. I was very lucky to find sparring gear that fit me, and all my gi are made to fit people waaaaay larger than me (not taller, but wider), so I have to wrap them really tight. On the other hand, all the better to kick you with, my dear.

I just got back from Big5, and while they didn't have the hiking boots I wanted in my size (16 American), they did have Wilson Avengers - which are a court shoe, that will work perfectly as mat shoes - in my size!! I'm thrilled, in case you couldn't tell.

I like that idea a lot...I read that same article.

Parker's Kenpo: Short Form 1 Short Form 2 Short Form 3 Long Form 1 Long Form 2 Long Form 3 Long Form 4 Long Form 5 Long Form 6 Tracy's Kenpo Long Form 7 (learning) Weapons Kihon no Sai (Karate) Sai Form 1 (My instructor) Sai Form 2 (My own little baby) Kama Form 1 (My instructor) Kama Form 2 (Mine, again) Nunchuku dai Ichi (Shorin Ryu) Staff Form 1 (Parker Kenpo) Plum Flower Spear (Monkey Kung Fu) (learning) Willow Leaf Broadsword (Pek Kwar) Lok Hop Broadsword (Wushu) Double Dragon Broadswords (Wushu) Eagle Claw Form 1 (Don't exactly know the name) (learning) Kenpo Sets (Like shorter length forms): Blocking Set 1 Blocking Set 2 Kicking Set 1 Kicking Set 2 (learning) Finger Set Wow, I guess I know more than I thought.

Wow...that's crazy. We have: Short Form 1-3 Long Form 1-4 That's it. Well, aside from the 150 technique sequences.

That's rad. I made custom grips for my sai, kama, and dao - does that count?

We do some grappling, but not massive amounts...in any case, even if you don't do grappling, you should at least learn how to fall, a few things to do if you're down there, a way to defend from the ground against someone standing, and several ways of getting up quickly, safely, and efficiently.

Thanks all for your posts...and I guess we've pretty much come to a concensus that Xunlian Fu is...incorrect.

Check out my thread, "My in-store rumble". I was all set to take out some guy with a board, using it as a bo. Kenpo Staff Set owns!

My thoughts exactly...though I'm not a half bad grappler myself, and I have done a lot of training with joint locks, etc. They didn't used to call it Kenpo Jujitsu for nothing...

Wow, I can't believe I missed this thread... Did you join?

That is so stupid!! Sensei says that the insurance guys are - no offense to anybody who works in insurance - crooks, and that they're having a lot of trouble with them. But it'll all work out, hopefully.

The guy's insurance is currently fighting with my Sensei's landlord's insurance about who's going to pay what. Luckily, yet also unfortunately, I don't think he has a lot to do with it. We are finally going to get a real mat, though, thanks to insurance! We have to count our blessings, right?

He said something to the effect of: "It's important that we remember that we're all brothers here, and that we're not here to injure or harass one another. Rather than going all out on lower ranks, we should try to help them, and remember that we were there not so long ago ourselves," which I certainly find very quotable.

On my gi I wear for class/instructing: American Kenpo crest On my tourney/demo/showoff gi: American Kenpo crest, white universal symbol, parker/planas lineage, parker/trejo lineage, Kenpo crest, and last name crest top.

I got to our dojo at 9am today, only to find my Sensei had been there for 6 hours, after a drunk driver blasted through our front wall, which was double paned glass of some sort, at 3am! We spent a good hour picking up shards of glass in our front room. Ugh...don't drink, people, and if you must, don't drive, and if you must, DON'T DRIVE INTO OUR DOJO, PLEASE!! There's a parking lot in back, sheesh...

Because, while I have great respect for the Nidan who was in charge because of rank, he is not a very good instructor. He is very laid back, which is fine, but also very inexperienced in teaching; in his defense, at the end of class, he did address the matter to the class as a whole, which I thought was well done.

I hear what you're saying, and agree. Just wanted to point out that it took me a decade to get my black belt, too, so, to quote the ever-eloquent knights from Monty Python, nih.

I certainly intended it to be so, and hope others saw it that way as well. Thank you - I have always been of the opinion that we far too often lose sight of what we as martial artists truly should be.

If I got jumped, and happened to find a long, skinny piece of something, you better believe I'd be smacking people with it. Unless, of course, I could find a nice pair of 30" sharp things with handles nearby, in which case I'd dao them all to death.

Usually with great force, and enough to make you say bad words, at least in your head, if you can think clearly. At least, for me.

I have always said they should do this. I also think it should include some sort of fighting regimen, where one can go "full contact" against either a computer or a real person, where everything is legal, and injuries impede movement/reflexes/etc., but no actual damage is done, because it's all virtual. Not sure how you'd do that, but while we're fanticising...

Yeah, which I don't inherently agree with, either. I obviously did my best to be objective, but nevertheless, the kids that are...irritating...in class will start out with a lower score in my subconcious, and those that I have great pride in will do better, whether or not I want them to. And, it's not fair to them, because, for example, when I thought one of them deserved first place, I gave them the same score as a kid from another dojo and let the scores of the other judges decide.

I'm totally with bushido man on that one - we can't deny our brothers, even if they are morons. Plus, the instructor wasn't even there.

I love palm strikes, and I don't know that you sacrifice a whole lot of damage - just different kind. Eagle claw uses almost exclusively palm strikes, other than the claw, of course. I was thinking, the other day while I was at dinner (yes, I have problems), that a palm actually has about a two or three inch less range than a punch, depending on the size of your hand, and a handsword has about an inch more than a punch. I imagine that in a rare instance, that might make the difference between winning and losing - but very rare.