Cory Reynolds

I see your point, but it doesn't have to be this way. If you're dedicated and disciplined in your training, you'll concentrate on pushing yourself to keep good technique while keeping up with the beat, whether it's faster or slower. Of course not everyone in a class is going to have the same drive, that is what instructors are for. They need to keep an eye on their class to keep them motivated to use good technique. To me, the possibility of bad technique isn't a reason to turn down the challenge, it's an excuse to be lazy.

I'm all about cross training, but I think that Disturbed made a great point. People take a martial art or arts for many reasons. One of the biggest ones can be for self defense and that's fine. A lot of people like to take them though just to learn and preserve the actual "art" in the closest to the origional form that they can find. They deffinately won't cross train because they want to keep it as pure as they possibly can, especially if they wish to pass it along to others in the same fashion. On the other hand, for those who truely wish to capitalize on the self defense side of it and feel that what they are studying conflicts with what you see as being real self defense, then why stay there? There are plenty of freestyle schools out there that have done the work of studying the different styles and combined them into their own logical type of martial art. You can do this on your own also, knowing that it will probably take a lot longer and much more money. To some I guess that's half of the fun though.

Are you sure that you just didn't have the flu or something? I throw up whenever I get the flu, hehe.

Sorry, this isn't making any sense to me at all. [ This Message was edited by: Cory Reynolds on 2002-02-22 11:34 ]

Lead leg front kick, I use it like a jab.

I suggest what KickChick suggested. The book mentioned is very useful and something I believe that every martial artist should read. It sheds some light on how many traditional streaches can hurt you more than help you.

One does not necessarially need to wait to be able to judge what someones weaknesses are. There are many different kinds of weaknesses including their weight, height, posture, etc, etc, all things that can be determined in a split second giving you the chance to utilize these weaknesses. Another element of a great fighter is how quickly they can determine an opponents weaknesses.

No? Why not? Can they not understand the concept of a pressure point? Can they not hit with enough accuracy to strike a pressure point? Give kids a little more credit.

"Remo Williams: The Legend Continues," hehe

I back straight up all the time, but the difference is that I do it for a reason. I do it with the intentions of setting something up. But this is no different from when I back out in any direction. Every movement that you make should be done with a purpose and a reason. Otherwise you're wasting time and energy. Instead of saying that "angles are a better option," I would say that it is better to mix up angles, line fighting and circling to meet the needs of each situation. Theory is great but in deffinition isn't concrete. One deffinition of a theory is "Loosely, mere speculation or hypothesis; and individual idea or guess." When you learn to disprove your own theories, you know that you're getting somewhere.

I believe that one attribute of a great fighter is to be able to figure out what their opponents weaknesses are and use them against them. Use what is worse for your opponent instead of what is necessarially easiest for you. This is much more difficult than the "do what you're good at, what's easiest for you" theory because you have to be good at all different kinds of fighting. Punching, kicking, flurries, groundfighting, etc....whatever your opponent doesn't want you to do to them.

360, that's what I've heard, but I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me how you're supposed to get to your feet then?

I believe that the words "never" and "always" are good ways to set yourself up for failure. I believe that everything has it's proper place and time, and if you say "never" then you're eliminating options. And anytime that you use "always" you're allowing yourself to become predictable. I back straight up sometimes, and I back up at a diagonal sometimes, and I circle completely out sometimes. I know that a good fighter is going to look for my patterns and use them against me.

I recommend the book "Streaching Scientifically" by Thomas Kurz. It will teach you methods of streaching without damaging your muscles.

I'm still trying to figure this one out also.

Phillip Rhee also has a black belt in Aikido if I remember correctly, which he displays some of in Best of the Best II.

Why not?

I haven't read through all of the pages in this thread, so I'm probably repeating what others have said. Studdies have shown that children usually start developing their motor and balance skills at the age of 3. It's good to offer children ages 3-5 half hour classes that help teach these skills once or twice a week. Turn every activity into a game to help keep their attention. Then from age 5-6 and on they can usually start learning the basic movements and lessons that can be molded into a finer state in the future. Also, it's been proven that kids who learn their motor and balance skills earlier in life tend to do better with their academics in school. Nobody has really been able to make the connection as to why this happens, but it does and should be another good reason to offer these kinds of classes.

"Now Remember Roc, you might fight great but I'm a great fighter." -Apollo Creed, Rocky III

I like the idea of the junior black belt also. Telling a kid that they won't be able to earn their full black belt until the age of at least 16-18 would sound discoraging. But then you have to follow it up with reasons why, and how the study of the martial arts is about so much more than just earning belts anyways. By the time that they reach the rank of junior black belt, they should have developed the maturity to at least understand and accept the waiting period.

I agree totally. This is why I find it almost as important to train with white and yellow belts as it is to train with black belts. The lower the belt, the closer they are to being an untrained brawler off of the street. I absolutely love it when a white belt surprises me with an attack that doesn't seem to really make sense in the way that we think, but never the less was effective.

I'm not about to touch the wushu/kung fu part, but IMHO any martial art is applicable for self defense at the right moment. Anything CAN work if used at the correct time.

I do the same as Ronryu.

When I was growing up my parents owned a pool and I practiced training in there from time to time. I didn't take it too seriously back then, but I remember it being a good challenge. I know that physical therapists sometimes perscribe water training to people recovering from different sorts of injuries.

It would sound accurate to say that you are world champion of the 13-17 division of the Chicago world championship of the particular year that you competed It's probably only worth bragging about to people that were actually at the tournament though.