scottnshelly

True, but we've all been the disrespectful youth at one time or another. It's usually out of ignorance. You don't know until someone tells you, usually.

Please read the 2nd and 3rd posts on page two dated Feb 9th. They did infact train in a little Tai Chi in school, many years ago.

Definitely contrary to the spirit of what our school promotes. Do your instructors promote the intentional breaking of rules in competitions? I agree that it is contrary to honor and valor and stuff, and it's not what my Instructor encourages. It does work though. For instance, there was once this Tang Soo Do guy that would come to the competitions when i still competed. He was a lot bigger and stronger than me. In his school, they sparred full contact without pads, so when he put on the pads, he really brought the power. Everyone he fought walked away with bruises and welps. This guy was mean and tough. Everyone knew that, so they were intimidated by him before they even got in the ring, so he won most fights before the judges said 'go'. One punch to the nose right off would put him at your level though. It would calm him down and make him realize that he's not going to automatically win. And yes, drawing blood has been a disqualifier at all of the tournaments that i've been to, but not every hit to the nose would bring blood.

It makes sense though, next time you have one, play around with it. you can sling it very powerfully. I think it uses the same logic as the chain whip, but on a smaller scale. You can throw it, wrap a limb or neck, sling it, walk the dog, and many other effective attacks. And, yes one of the ninja turtles did use it in one of the movies. i think they actually did a little research for that movie - or maybe it was coincidence?

One of the best mind games during sparring is - check with the tournament rules first of course - to punch the opponent in the nose right off the bat. you may get a penalty, but it will water his eyes up to no end. you can't hardly see through two eyes full of tears. plus that plays on intimidation. a loud kiai can also be very effective.

I've only seen two kids fail a belt test. Coincidentally it was me that failed them. My father opened a dojo when i was about 14 or 15, but i taught all of the classes. he helped out with belt tests. there were these two kids - brother and sister - that came over from a "rival school". they insisted on testing for green belt because that was the way it was done at their last school. we tried to convince them not to test, but they insisted. on the test date, we had two of Black Belts from the area come in and help (4 total) they failed because they hadn't learned the material yet. they came from a different style and didn't bother learning ours. they weren't at green belt level for our school, so they failed. that was their last class.

Sometimes the opposite can be true also. Sometimes an elder belt will not respect a younger - yet more experienced and higher ranked - Martial Artist. When i was a kid - about 15 - my father opened a dojo. he ran the place, but i taught all the classes. I was a 2nd Dan, 1st Dan and brown belt at the time. We had a gentleman in our class that had been coming with his two daughters since we opened the place. We had known him and his family from other schools in the area. He got up to blue belt with us. his daughter was my age, meaning he was considerably more older than me. Anyway, one night i was sparring him and he brought it. he was hitting with everything he had, and it was obvious to everyone. no one stopped, for one because i was the Instructor and for two because they knew i could handle myself. he finally pushed my button when he delivered a full contact scoop kick to the groin (a rule that was very clearly established before any sparring). i shook it off and turned on the power. I didn't go all out, crazy, anger-blinded full strength; but he wanted to play rough so we did. that rounded lasted longer than most and we dotted each other's eyes. it ended in fun, but i think he had malicious intents of 'showing up the Instructor'. Was i wrong for disrespecting an elder, or was he for challenging the Instructor? or was i wrong for teaching that young? I've yet to experience the disrespect of a challenge from a 'young kid' as i'm not old enough yet. one day though i hope to be disrespected with the best of em...

I would think being in Alaska you be able to find some deserted places, but then again, i've never been there. I've also been looking for a place nearby that i could do some crazy Martial Arts stuff. I don't have a privacy fence, so i'm reluctant to anything where my neighbors would be watching. Do you have any parks nearby? sometimes you can find a park that has some secluded place. good luck.

Well, did anyone else watch it? It was amusing. It was the same one that played about a year ago; I thought it was going to be a new one. One part that I though was particularly amusing was as the narrator was saying ‘Matt trains if traditional Okinawan Shrorin Ryu Karate’ he was doing back flips and XMA punches and screaming. Now, I’m no expert on Okinawan Shorin Ryu, but I don’t think that’s what he was doing! In conclusion, they wasted, I mean spent, a lot of money on that show.

Thanks Kicks. I don't have an E-bay account, is it free to sign up for one? If i can sign up for one without having to pay or recieve spam e-mails, i'll sign up just to ask this guy some questions. Maybe if someone else already has one, they could send the e-mail and everyone could post questions to be asked...

I'm not too familiar with the E-bay thing. Can you contact a person selling something? if so, give me that guy's e-mail address. I have a few questions...

So, so far i've gotten that a Master is just a rank? If you were to ask someone what a Black Belt was, i know you wouldn't get 'someone who's not an underbelt anymore'. There should be more to being a Master than just passing a test and fitting the time restrictions. thanks for your input.

Quit??? You can quit??? No-one told me that!! Nah, I can't ever see myself (bad word coming up) quitting martial arts. I love it too much and it's in my blood. I don't know what the future will hold (although I've heard from a reliable source that death and taxes are a certainty...) but I should think that martial arts will play a part in my life somewhere. Eventually, I'd like to open up my own dojo and train and teach full time, but whether anything will come of that... who knows? I'm happy enough at the moment just teaching classes in my instructor's dojo and training in karate and other arts. Everytime someone asks me this i try to answer with something like 'you can't just decide that you're going to quit swimming. you learned to swim and if you're ever in water you will swim. if i'm ever in need, i will fight. after a couple years, there's no turning back, you can't just decide not to do Martial Arts. you can't just quit kicking doors closed, visualizing little red bullseye marks on people's vital points, etc.' as far as going to classes though, i already have. i'm on the evening shift at work, and there's no classes in the day time round here. it's unfortunate, but it's the way it has to be for now.

In your opinion, what is the most amazing feat that you’ve seen regarding internal arts? I’ve heard some pretty neat stuff lately about people being able to poke a finger through a coconut, blow out a candle with a hand, light a fire with their hand, standing on two fingers, and other crazy stuff. So, not counting those that are made up or exaggerated, what is the most amazing that you’ve witnessed?

For those of you who are Masters, how did you know when you became a Master? Did someone tell you? Was it when you reached a certain rank? What has changed since becoming a Master? Any advice for upcoming Masters? How long did it take after you started Martial Arts or after you became a Black Belt? For those of you who are not Masters, what makes a Master in your eyes? What are the qualities/characteristics of a Master? How long do you think you have until you become a Master? The reason I ask, is this is my next goal in my Martial journey. I’m trying to figure out exactly what I need to be doing to prepare and all.

The last school that i went to was free tuition for any one on the Indian roll or Black Belts. I qualified under the latter for free classes. those with an Indian roll card also got all free uniforms, sparring gear and tournament entry fees. For everyone else it was about $30/mo and no testing fees. I have paid as much as $150/hour though for private lessons. check around for a good price.

Wow. First of all, even though i'm only in my 2nd year of parenting, i know i wouldn't have been able to stay that calm and not go violent. but, contrary to popular belief, sometimes violence does solve things. even though i'm relatively new at this parenting thing, i get really...how do you say...protective of my daughter. My wife has some real creeps in her family (uncles and cousins) and i've never left my daughter unattended around any of them. i wouldn't have any problem at all with ripping their arms off and beating the others with them if i had the opportunity. as far as the scenario's being played out in your head, i do that all the time when my adreneline starts flowing. 'if he throws a right punch i'll do this. if he comes from the left i'll do that.' i think that's pretty normal, especially for us. also, i have empathy for you on the redneck thing. i'm from oklahoma, so nearly everyone i know is a redneck - even me. keep up the good work.

I'm going with everyone else, that it will vary. Most classes around here consist of less than 20 students per class, but from what i understand, in the bigger cities the classes are larger. Most prices in these parts are less than $40 a month for two days a week. I've paid as much as $150/hr. though. And as for the kiai's, i once had an Instructor that would go outside and close the door, standing along side a highway, and if he couldn't hear you kiai, you didn't do it loud enough. most aren't like that though, but it is important. call around, any Instructor would be happy to answer all of your questions.

I agree, however, the show is still amusing to watch. It's not infomative or educational, just funny.

Century sends me e-mails every once in a while. I just got this and wanted to share for those interested: I saw the first presentation. It was dorky, but i watched it. I know this will stir up some mixed feelings, but it should be interesting to watch anyway.

could it have been XMA? that is usually characterized by flip kicks, powerless, yet fast, punches and hand slinging, a reckless amount of x-blocks, jumps, spins, and ridiculous sounding screams.

Man, i wasted $15 on that joker! I read the whole book, even though i could tell it was a joke within the first chapter. the back cover promised to teach the ability to fly, become invisble and become immortal. his 'abilty to fly' was through meditation - and it didn't even explain how to meditate, just said to meditate. his 'ability to become invisible' was to hide in a box his 'ability to become immortal' was to write a book or something so that your memory will live on. sorry to go off topic.

now kids... i don't think that either side is neccesarily right or wrong here. i can see - if i use my imagination - str33t guy's point about belts losing their value with bad schools. but if that's true then, what's so special about a trophy. I worked hard for my belts, so i take offense to this, however, i am just guess that you've been through a bad experience or something.

i always carry a pocket knife, but more for opening boxes and cleaning fingernails than for protection. there's a screwdriver in my truck, but more for fixing things than for self-defense. i got a pocket full of keys, but they're more for opening houses and starting engines than for stabbing. my point is, i don't carry any real weapons (despite my previous post on page 2 of this topic), but i could turn a couple things into a weapon if needed. plus, my hands are registered as deadly weapons, so i guess i really am always toting weapons around!

I recently downloaded a documentary from the National Geographic channel about the Shaolin temple and stuff. I haven't made it all the way through it yet, but so far it is really interesting. Has anyone else seen this? if so, how accurate do you think it was? If you have seen it, you should try to download it on your downloading machine. thanks.