spinninggumby

Wow u trained with Benny? That must've been crazy. Regardless of whether or not he is the BEST kickboxer of all time, I have no doubts of his amazing ability and dedication. You gotta tell me more about that sometime.

To Whom It May Concern: You may not feel the 'need to make any statement to authenticate your credibility', but u sure do a good job of insinuating and hinting in all of your posts that you are ultra-bionic android-who-cannot-be-touched-by-any-mortal. Nobody here assumes that you are an uneducated street punk, please do not assume that of any of us here either. Likewise, nobody is Superman and free of error regardless of the amount or quality of training they've received. If you would like to think of yourself as Superman, that's fine. But don't expect that of everyone else here b/c uh, we just aren't as gifted as you.

Traditionalists, amid their advocation of the retainment of original customs and philosophy (which somehow Anonymous One, you seem not to value since it does not help you 'out in the battlefield'), should also realize that without change, improvement cannot occur. It is arrogant and rather stupid to assume that your art/style has reached its pinnacle in any area and has no more room for improvement. I understand why you would think that olympic karate is an insult to traditional karate, b/c to u it may devalue the worth of karate because people in the olden days only had their skill to assure them that their lives were somewhat protected. I am not saying that olympic karate is a step up or a step down for karate. You may think that it makes things worse because it destroys the whole 'karate was a sacred practice which held great meaning for those traditional practitioners because of how important their skill was to defending their lives in the feudal era or something'. But it is just simply the way the activity has evolved. I am so sick of saying this but sheesh in this day and age, self-defense isn't an absolute necessity, and we have the appreciated luxury of walking outside our homes without fear of warriors on horses trying to impale us. Karate has simply branched out from being just a practice necessary for survival to being an activity that many can enjoy without the fear of getting their skull smashed in or their legs broken. So what if the whole life or death atmosphere is watered down. To me, I think that it is great that there are people around us of all ages that can practice karate just because it's fun, or because it's a great way to get in shape. If you want to keep on training like you are going to go to war in five days, that is fine. Blame your country for being so damn peaceful that karate has branched out so that it's 'fan base' has included so many other types of people from all walks of life. Many other activities or practices have evolved so that they can now be called hobbies or favorite pastimes by others. There are still those who may treat the 'pastime' as a serious discipline, and that is great too. I really could care less if I receive flame from more 'traditionalists' or not. I have received training and ideas from both extreme traditional schools to new sport-oriented gyms, and I have found inspiration in both types of places. This is just my opinion but I nevertheless will always stand by it.

Stolen? Technically everything was 'stolen' from Chinese martial arts, which was in turn probably 'stolen' from some even more ancient fighting practice that probably involved either the Romans or the Turks or something like that. Anyways, IMHO, there is nothing wrong with drawing influence and ideas from other arts, seeing as how martial arts is not supposed to be about proving that your art is superior to all other arts. You practice karate. Does all your dedicated hard-core training amount to nothing or is perhaps dishonored because the forefathers of your art practiced a style which was influenced by those guys who lived in that big a$$ country right below theirs?

I agree that you should respect everyone until they give you a reason not to. It does no good if EVERYONE thinks that they should only respect someone if they feel like the person has earned it. It is better if everyone gives everyone else the benefit of the doubt first. Idealistic? Hold up. I personally feel that anyone is worthy of respect as long as they treat others with kindness and demonstrate decent or above-decent behavior and work-ethic in the dojo/dojang/kwoon/gym/(insert ethnic-sounding term for place where people practice beating the crap out of each other

I am not a big supporter of UFC, but I have read that the ability to punch through fifty billion tiles does not guarantee you an effortless win in any street fight as many UFC results have shown. (BTW I have my own suspicions about this organization since I watched a fight in slo-mo between a Japanese free stylist and this Hawaiian guy and the Hawaiian guy supposedly kicked the crap out of the Japanese guy but when I looked up close to when he was delivering a flurry of punches to the guy's face, his fist was actually hitting the fence and the camera was trying to shoot at an angle so that it was covered up). I am sure no one implied that breaking boards and inanimate objects was all you needed to become a skilled fighter, but I guess it's kinda obvious that tiles will stand still as you focus all your energy and 'ki, chi, etc. depending on what art u study' into pulverizing those blocks. Humans, thankfully, are not quite as dense, stupid, immobile, and rigid. Although I cannot believe everything I read, I have heard that kung fu/karate masters with the ability to smash through like ten tons of rock have lost to thai boxers and grapplers simply b/c they never got the chance to focus and land that one important hit. When your target is an elastic, moving, somewhat intelligent SOB who is also trying to hit you, a few more variables are added in. Of course, that is why you cannot focus all of your training on hitting immobile objects and sparring and real-life ground training is so important if you want to ever hit it big in the UFC or be the last man standing in any alley scuffle. Once again, personally, I do not like the UFC because every match I have seen involves the grunts of sweaty men until one taps out or the other one has lost too much blood (ok i'm exaggerating), but hey, the good side is that it is SUPPOSEDLY real-life based (excluding eye gouges and I dunno, trying to rip out the vocal cords and/or nads?)and once u make a name for yourself, ain't nobody gonna be making eyes at ur significant other in any seedy bar no more. :grin:

The family jewels will always be open as long as it is a high kick, LOL recoil or no recoil, telegraph or no telegraph :razz: Believe me I train with the intent of recoiling as fast as possible. But it gets stupid and incredibly predictable when you throw like 10 high kicks in a row. Idiotic of me, yes of course. But they are still fun to do. But not at the cost of bruised nads (I can say that without being censored, can't I?). Guess that's why a high kick will only work in real combat if it is unpredictable, fast, and precisely timed. I know that this is totally off the subject, but some people try to speed up their kicks and punches by focusing too much on whipping their leg or fist out fast, but actually what works better is focusing on pulling the fist or leg back quicker. It's some psychological thing or something, but it actually works. It is simple but for some reason it's something that a lot of people don't think about. :angel: :angel:

btw I don't mean to post things twice. I am just really stupid with computers. Went through 7 1/2 months of intense tech training and all I got was some stupid certificate and the ability to type fast.

M-16 innapropriate for bar fight? What bars do you go to? hehehe :razz:

M-16 innapropriate for bar fight? What bars do you go to? hehehe :razz:

Well flexibility definitely isn't everything

There are so many different types of people in the martial arts community. There seem to be those strict traditionalists who look down upon sport-oriented styles and change, and then there are those liberals and probably a billion more categories in between. However, you cannot ignore that philosophy and ideology is a major part of many traditional martial arts. There are some people here to seem to think that if you practice martial arts, the only and best way is to go for self-defense with the ability to grind the attacker to a pulp in a matter of seconds or split seconds. I know I've probably beat this topic to death and it is just my personal opinion but I feel that martial arts has so much else to offer besides killing or maiming others when they start to hit on your girlfriend/boyfriend or throw some haymaker punch at you in a bar. Anonymous One, you are an interesting case, in which you believe in traditional training yet you shun the philosophy that goes along with it, aiming for complete and utter efficiency in a practical 'battlefield type environment'. That is fine, that is definitely one side that you can focus on, but there is nothing wrong with appreciating or focusing on all the other aspects. If people never broke from tradition, we would never have had phones or computers for that matter. Breaking from tradition, in my very humble opinion, is necessary for change, and change is inevitable. Traditional basketball was played with peach baskets as opposed to actual nets. I for one feel it was fortunate that they switched. And yes, I would have to agree with some people who posted earlier and say that an M-16 and a couple rail guns might do a bit better on the battlefield than an ultra-powerful well-timed kick or punch or strike. So to play devil's advocate and add another side to this, if self-defense was your primary and main purpose why not just buy a gun? There are many sides and many reasons to why people do what they do. Don't dog it just cuz it's not what u prefer. If everybody was the same here, there would be no point in reading everyone's posts. At least, once again, that is IMHO. :angel: (btw yes I know I need to learn how to type in more paragraphs)

There are so many different types of people in the martial arts community. There seem to be those strict traditionalists who look down upon sport-oriented styles and change, and then there are those liberals and probably a billion more categories in between. However, you cannot ignore that philosophy and ideology is a major part of many traditional martial arts. There are some people here to seem to think that if you practice martial arts, the only and best way is to go for self-defense with the ability to grind the attacker to a pulp in a matter of seconds or split seconds. I know I've probably beat this topic to death and it is just my personal opinion but I feel that martial arts has so much else to offer besides killing or maiming others when they start to hit on your girlfriend/boyfriend or throw some haymaker punch at you in a bar. Anonymous One, you are an interesting case, in which you believe in traditional training yet you shun the philosophy that goes along with it, aiming for complete and utter efficiency in a practical 'battlefield type environment'. That is fine, that is definitely one side that you can focus on, but there is nothing wrong with appreciating or focusing on all the other aspects. If people never broke from tradition, we would never have had phones or computers for that matter. Breaking from tradition, in my very humble opinion, is necessary for change, and change is inevitable. Traditional basketball was played with peach baskets as opposed to actual nets. I for one feel it was fortunate that they switched. And yes, I would have to agree with some people who posted earlier and say that an M-16 and a couple rail guns might do a bit better on the battlefield than an ultra-powerful well-timed kick or punch or strike. So to play devil's advocate and add another side to this, if self-defense was your primary and main purpose why not just buy a gun? There are many sides and many reasons to why people do what they do. Don't dog it just cuz it's not what u prefer. If everybody was the same here, there would be no point in reading everyone's posts. At least, once again, that is IMHO. :angel: (btw yes I know I need to learn how to type in more paragraphs)

At my old kung fu kwoon a while back, I was always taught to tuck the non-kicking leg while performing jumping spin (or non-spinning) kicks. However, after receiving instruction on refining the 540 hook or 540 roundhouse from my taekwondo sah bum nim, I noticed that he did not emphasize the tuck of the leg at all. Also, in many tkd demonstrations that I have seen, the 540 hooks, although beautiful, do not include a tucked leg. Not that this is really important or anything but does anybody have any input. BTW my school is a WTF school so maybe the answers will differ depending on what organization you are from (traditional, sport, etc.). It still feels weird for me after converting from a strict traditional environment to a sport-oriented environment. The training is not any less or more strenuous but the ultimate objectives are definitely somewhat different.

Doing the splits is simply a high benchmark of one's flexibility. Anyone who has been training in martial arts for any significant amount of time knows that the ability to do splits does not mean that you have the ability to kick high anyways, coz you need dynamic flexibility for that. Whether or not it is necessary to have that much flexibility under your belt (no pun intended) in a real fight does not really matter, it simply cannot hurt for your muscles to be more limber when practicing those kicks, low or high. (Although I have read that excess flexibility can be detrimental in some circumstances, i.e. squat lifters with overlimber quads). Being able to do the splits just means that you are really flexible in the hamstring/hip/adductor/gluteus area, and it is usually only a good thing for overall muscular health.

Hi, does anyone here speak fluent Japanese or is able to translate Japanese words into English? I know this is a weird request but can anybody translate the song that I have cut and pasted here (it's by the Japanese group The Pillows and it's from the Furi Kuri Anime). ANY help at all would be greatly appreciated, thanks! Btw I don't really consider myself an otaku (big Anime fan) but this is just somethin that's been buggin me for a while *Aoi karashi no hanabira ga Kaze mo naku yurete 'tara Boku no tameiki no sei de Oboete 'nai kedo kitto sou sa Nichijou no yami ni kurumari Jiyuu ni shibarete Kimi to yume wo mita mabushisa de Jibun no kao matomo ni nozokenaku natta **Yogoreta boku no kagami de Utsuseru tatta hitotsu no Nisemono ja nai hikari Kimi wa boku no hikari Nejireta yoroi wo nuide Tabi ni deta kagyuu Ame ni sono mi wo utarete Suriheru kedo modoranai ze Machi-iro no shinkirou kara Mata hakidasareta Yappari bukabuka no tsumasaki ga Jama da kara yotte gomakashitai kedo Donna kutsu wo haite 'te mo Arukeba boku no ashiato Tachitomareba sore made Boku ga owaru shirushi **Repeat Sarenai sono kioku wa Itsu ka nakushite shimau darou Katachi wa nokoranakute mo Kimi wa boku no hikari *Repeat :grin:

At my traditional kung fu school, it was not uncommon to walk out of sparring class with bruises all over your arms (not from getting hit, but from blocking), not to mention cuts/scrapes or broken noses. Many of these injuries don't even occur from your opponent, it may be because you burned yourself on the mat/carpet/floor or you were stupid or impulsive and you twisted or slammed your foot into something other than flesh. Fortunately, after much conditioning your arms do not become so easily battered. It was especially hard for me since I was a 125 pounder going up against people that were sometimes 180 and beyond. Some days would be good days and some days you just wouldn't feel like you had a handle on things at all. And I don't care if you have a helmet or not, a solid sharp kick to the head does not feel good. However as I did this for a few years, I felt that practical real-life sparring was not my primary interest. I was willing to go through the injuries and the pain/humiliation/extreme loss of ego as long as the end result was worth it, but to me I wanted to explore and focus on other aspects of the m/a. A real fight is neither pretty nor choreographed nor long, and it was just my preference to focus more on stunt work and acrobatics because to me there is more to martial arts than being able to pound your attacker into the ground, despite the fact that this was the traditional primary goal and purpose. Being able to defend yourself with utmost precision and refinement is only one of the bonuses of intense and efficient training, but to me the real goal is to learn more about yourself, and to keep learning. I may sound too idealistic to many people but I have thought many things over and over and this is the conclusion that I want to stick with. :wave:

I have always been taught to fully rotate the supporting foot 180 degrees regardless of the style, although it could be different in some styles that I have not been exposed to. Although this is just me, I pivot the supporting foot 180 degrees while chambering/cocking the kicking knee as high and as close to my opposite shoulder as possible, and then I extend. I have read that you should focus on leading the kick with the knee as a guide instead of the foot. I think that a full 180 degree pivot of the supporting foot is necessary for full correct extension and prevention of inflammation of the hip because it fully opens up your hips and pelvis. My main practice lies in taekwondo and wushu, so many other people may have different opinions or takes on this. On a side note, even though most people chamber their kicking leg so that the leg still remains perpendicular to the floor, I usually try to make my leg as parallel to the floor as possible while trying to touch my kicking knee with the opposite shoulder. I guess there is no proper way to do every single martial arts technique (excluding the extreme basic mechanics), as long as you are not getting hurt and it fits your body the most. We are not robots meant to work the same way.

Sometimes the reason why you should leave your current school isn't necessarily because the dojo/kwoon/dojang is one of those commercialized schools involving half-a$$ed instructors (which, in turn, produce half-a$$ed practitioners). My old kung fu school was very traditional and taught/covered a variety of different aspects of Shaolin kung fu, including long fist forms, weapon forms, ground fighting, full-contact sparring, and bag and air drills. However, I wanted to narrow down my focus a bit more and I felt that the school's main emphasis focused too much on full-contact. I have no problem with developing your full-contact skills, but it just wasn't my utmost priority concerning the martial arts. Plus I will have to admit that I am much more drawn to forms, weaponry, and drills over wrestling on the ground with sweaty guys. So you could say that I do not exactly embrace every aspect of the art I was studying. So I left an incredibly good school with very solid instruction to find another place which would offer me more specific and narrowed-down training. Just trying to put in another perspective/view on how things could work out

Hello everyone. I am 22 yrs old 5'9 125-130 lbs black hair brown eyes and I live in Seattle, WA. This seems like a great place for everyone to share ideas and perspectives without too much flaming. I am relatively new to the net. I got into Aikido when I was 6 years old but I quit after 8 or 9 years due to homework in high school. After high school I began training in a traditional kung fu school. The material was covered very thoroughly and I was able to receive and become exposed to weapons, grappling, forms, as well as the usual kicking and punching. However, I was looking for something more specific and I did not like the school's extensive focus on self-defense. After leaving class each night with bruises for a few years, I found that I was more partial to the demonstrative and beauty of the martial arts so I transferred to a wushu school and got into taekwondo. I have a very open view towards martial arts in general and I am fortunate to have been exposed to so many different things. and I do not believe that any one art is superior to another, and even though I do not value the self-defense (and the original purpose) aspect of martial arts as much as the others, that is just my personal opinion. I look forward to meeting and hearing the different feedback from everyone on this board. One of the best things I like about martial arts is that the more experience I get, the more I still feel like a beginner

I suppose that the intended definition for 'art' in the martial arts world is different from mine. To me, art is anything which involves your creative mind, anything which allows you to express your creative mind in an outward way, whether it be throwing a punch, putting poetry on paper, performing a spinning kick, or singing your heart out. As for the physical activity part, I would feel that all (or at least almost all, if I am missing something) of the so-called martial-arts related activities are considered physical in nature, although the extent is different for each one. As for whether or not what you practice is 'art', this may be an unconventional opinion but I feel that it is art as long as the movements in which you create are a result of the many emotions and creative desires within you. I realize, however, that the intended traditional definition for 'art' in the martial arts sense refers to the 'art and science' of defending oneself or engaging in combat.

I suppose that the intended definition for 'art' in the martial arts world is different from mine. To me, art is anything which involves your creative mind, anything which allows you to express your creative mind in an outward way, whether it be throwing a punch, putting poetry on paper, performing a spinning kick, or singing your heart out. As for the physical activity part, I would feel that all (or at least almost all, if I am missing something) of the so-called martial-arts related activities are considered physical in nature, although the extent is different for each one. As for whether or not what you practice is 'art', this may be an unconventional opinion but I feel that it is art as long as the movements in which you create are a result of the many emotions and creative desires within you. I realize, however, that the intended traditional definition for 'art' in the martial arts sense refers to the 'art and science' of defending oneself or engaging in combat.

Unfortunately, if you are a seasoned veteran of WTF tkd tournaments, you will know that it is illegal to kick someone in the back so many practitioners develop this false sense of security from repeatedly performing turn kick-spinning back kick combinations. I guess that's why you hafta distinguish from tournament tkd and tkd used for self-defense. In real life obviously it would be much more practical to kick someone rather than spin first and then kick even if it means sacrificing a bit of power and flash. Of course, if you guys weren't talking about tkd sparring anyways, then ignore what I just said,

I know that I don't suck at Scrabble but for some reason every time I play the online version of the game, I end up losing. I even lost to my friend, whose vocabulary is somewhat shall we say lacking. Anyways no offense to her but I am just a bit puzzled since I usually do fairly well in real life. Of course, I don't think anyone really cares, but hey I'm bored

What if you were wearing spandex? No flexibility impediment there :razz: But then depending on where you are from, you would get shot on the spot