kanryo2

Well, Italian_guy, since you asked (I was going to just go by "karate")... My school teaches a mix. My original instructor's instructor studied both Tae Kwon Do and Karate (not sure what style of karate). For Tae Kwon Do, he was an instructor in the Jhoon Rhee schools near Washington DC. Our forms follow the ITF style (like Master Rhee), but with a pretty low stance (more like Shotokan to me than ITF looking). It's a small independent school that isn't affiliated with any particular style. Sparring with gear and with contact. Normal self-defense. We also include ground fighting (looks like regular Jiu Jitsu style to me) that we often include in sparring. While we learn traditional forms and techniques (including the high kicks of Tae Kwon Do) our sparring is based on more traditional kick-boxing techniques (we actually separate our forms techniques used for strength and balance from our sparring techniques) which may sound odd. So in one way, it's easy to fit in - we study a variety of traditional and "modern" techniques. But on the other hand, not having a recognizable style can also make it more difficult to fit in. We just call it karate at my school.

My brother-in-law has Living the Martial Way, and I've looked through it a couple times, but didn't read it yet. Let us know what you think of it... I also liked Tao of Jeet Kune Do. I read it when I first started martial arts, but honestly, I got more out of it years later on re-reading it after gaining some experience. Depending on what you're looking for... Karate-Do, My Way of Life by Gichin Funakoshi paints an interesting view of the Martial Way at the turn of the century. Karate Masters by Fraguas had a lot of short articles by a cross section of very experienced Japanese instructors during the post-Funakoshi years. (it's really a large collection of interviews). Each one talks about martial arts in their lives, and it's from the perspective of people who grew up during/after WWII, and were (are?) alive as mixed martial arts became popular.

> The super tag team of thaiboxerken and 47MM. > Whom here, are also skeptical in some way? Sign me up on the skeptic list... Let me clarify my thoughts on the "chi" debate. I thought that the description on the old 24fightingchickens sight was useful. Chi may be useful as a way to describe the "feeling" someone has as far as generating or applying energy. I don't see any reason to debate that aspect - if it's a useful way for people in their training, then why not use it? But as far as there being some undected-by-science system of channels and meridians, I'm skeptical of that. I recently read "Qigong, Chinese Medicine or Pseudoscience". It was an awkward read. It's not entirely clear what the authors believe. It starts with a classical description of qi and qigong (as if it's given as fact), then show several instances of Chinese quackery reminiscent of American faith healing. It closes with advice on finding a good teacher. So maybe they're just denouncing "false qigong"??? I couldn't figure it out. Prometheus Books usually has pretty good "skeptic" books and I'm guessing they published this translation of a Chinese text to fill a void in the debate. The books by Dr. Yang Jing-Ming present Chi theory in more detail and he presents a pretty open minded approach toward investigation by western science. But on the question of skeptism, I think extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. I'm a bit disappointed that there hasn't been (that I can find) a serious effort to conduct double-blind experiments to see how much we can benefit from Traditional Chinese Medicine. I was hoping that the first book I mentioned would have described a more complete investigation into Chi and Qigong. I'm still waiting...

>> pro force make a nice ultra heavy weight Gi that's Fairly inexpensive I just got that Pro Force Ultra Heavy Weight (from the same place - martialartssupermarket.com has good prices). I'm happy with it so far though I've only had it for a few weeks. The brushed cotton is smooth and it seems well made. I had spent more for a Pine Tree before and was disappointed that the one tie fell off right away and the label wasn't sewn on right. After I fixed the stitching myself, it was OK.

Thanks for the welcome.... Having browsed around martial arts forums on the net for a while, this place seemed to be a bit more relaxed. Some interesting debates, but not so much of the typical arguing about the best styles, katas vs. BJJ, etc.

Hello all....