AnonymousOne

I bet there are more claims about how to lose weight than just about anything else

There is a site online somewhere that translates from english to japanese and gives you the kanji. Thats where I got my avatar before the management here moaned and made me take it down

There are no magic forces in chi

Perseverance is a trait that can be developed. When you are excited enough about achieving a goal - you will pay what ever price is necessary to achieve it. But the question is "How much pain will you put up with to get what you want?" Perseverance is directly related to desire. How badly do you want a certain goal?

Why worry about what other people think?

It is inconceivably rediculous to give a 7 yr old child the rank of Shodan. In most respectable schools there are physical requirements for Shodan, that a kid simply cannot do. In our school you have to be at least 18 to make Shodan. Its an adult rank not a childs.

I learn dan grade Kata's as a Kyu grade back in the 1970's from books. Got them pretty right apart from a few minor points

Black belt ... Shodan ... is the equivalent of mastering how to hold a dummy in your mouth. You are still a babe, with a long road to hoe

Its a rip off

What are you going to do to correct this and when?

Boredom? If you have set realistic goals for yourself and are actively working on them, the things you need to do to achieve them become easy. Labouring over one technique assiduously may become boring to some people, but they are losing sight of the end result. If you are result conscious rather than task conscious you wont ever get bored. Boredom is a mental attitude and a choice to make. Laying aside boredom and concentrating on the excitement of getting better everyday will set the great aside from the mediocre. If you have set a goal that you find exciting then the tasks you have to complete wont become boring but rather exciting. For example for the last 20 years or so, I rise at 5.30 am and go running. One day I will run 4 miles in about 25 minutes and then next day I will do sprint training and then the next day back to my 4 mile run and so on. It’s the same old thing day in and day out 6 days per week. Do I get bored? Never! I awake with excitement, despite the weather, about getting out there and working to improve my abilities. In the evenings I train in various things, depending on the night. However my schedule has me performing hundreds of repetitions of the basics I have been performing for 40 years. Do I get bored? Never! I love the fact that I can continually improve my abilities, skills and techniques. In fact I thrive on adversity. I am 48, and I love the fact that people my age when they are overweight and can hardly walk up a flight of stairs, that I am able to outrun 98% of people young enough to be my children and outgun to a significant degree, students who are assiduously training and entering contest fights. Training is wonderful. If we concentrate on goals, that is, goals that are exciting and motivating then boredom should never come into play. However your training goals must be believable. Set goals that stretch you but at the same time you have to believe you will achieve them through hard work. If you have those two factors sorted out then training, no matter what it is, becomes exciting. During the day at work, I will suddenly be reminded of the schedule I have for myself that night and there is a deep sense of excitement about going at it one more time. Despite the fact that my training schedules, which are custom designed and extremely hard work, I find myself having a great deal of enthusiasm about completing the work that I have demanded of myself. Massive repetition doesn’t bother me because I think to myself, "What will this lead to?" and then think about the end results after working this way for months and years. You see the focus is on the goal not the task. The task would be boring if I didn’t have a clear picture of the goal in my mind. So think about the goal, not the task One more point. I am very grateful that I am able to train. Many many years ago I got very sick and was in hospital for 2 months. I couldn’t do any training obviously. I tried to do some light exercises but the doctors and nurses busted me! I thought then how horrible it would be if I had some long term illness or some disability that would stop me training for the rest of my life like many people. In this time I gained a new appreciation for the fact that I can train and I counted my blessings and I am very grateful the good Lord allows me the health to be able to do what I love. We need to count our blessings and put them into perspective. Like the old saying “You don’t know what you have got until it is gone” is so true.

Its not age that is your problem is just your bodies particular problems. Many people assume that because you are a certain age that you basically cant train much anymore. That is simply not true. I am 48 in a few months and I am fitter, faster and stronger than I have ever been. Its true I havent stopped training in 40 years but there are many case examples of people doing incredible things. There is this guy in England who started running at age 59. A few years later he was winning 26 mile marathon championships in Europe. And we was competing against people less than half his age. There is a case of a lady in the USA that took up running at age 60 and now at age 75 she can run 50 mile marathons. If you search the net you will find many incredible and inspiring stories

Have you ever tried this? In traditional Karate there are two types of side kick (yoko geri). The thrust kick - Kekomi The snap kick - Keage The former has power and the latter has speed. As an alternative method of getting the best of both worlds try this. Throw out your snap kick as you would in a normal way, but just before the kick reaches its pinnacle, suddenly thrust your hips into the kick just like you do with a normal side thrust kick. Now this becomes confusing for some Karate-Ka who have always practised those 2 kicks in the traditional way. It just takes a little more practise to develop the co-ordination to perform the kick. It’s a little tricky at first but in time you become much more co-ordinated and end up with a very fast and powerful kick. If your school doesn’t like this kind of hybrid method development (like mine), then simply try it at home and adopt it in sparring. I am sure you will love the results. http://files.turbosquid.com/Preview/Content_on_2_20_2003_10_43_47/CLIP_FIGHT_SIDE_KICK_LARGE.JPG8FFE2720-C64E-400D-8E159A9AC6F69ECB.jpgLarge.jpg

This is an excellent guide The principal for boxers is the same for martial artists http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym3.htm

It would take a miracle!! As others have stated, 9 years of training is a massive difference. Assuming the same training regiment someone who is 6 months ahead of you ought to beat you. Someone who has been training only for one year hasnt even approached basic levels of fitness yet

A good training weekly schedule should include the following in my opinion: Warm ups Stretching Aerobic conditioning Anaerobic conditioning Balance training Plyometric training Equipment training Weights Agility training Foot work Basics Kata Kumite Cool downs

Yes it will help, however you may not get a nice view nor see some pretty girls whilst running on these machines Haha

Its no different to public speaking. The more you do it, the more you get used to it.

I dont think traditional karate will disappear at all. There are 50 million Karate-ka around the world with enough teachers to preach tradition. There is one major advantage to Karate getting to the Olympics and that is the type of training will need to be examined. Utra performance will only come from ultra training methods. Karate will then climb up to the training regiments of the boxing world and perhaps receive some much needed cash for training methods research and thats a good thing

Who is Ed Parker?

Who is Parker?

Our school has a number of exercises which involves blocks, kicks, punches and variable direction turns that are not Kata but just exercises.

Hmmm How fast was Bruce Lee? Was his punches ever measured to accurately determine that actual speed and power? Was his kicks ever measured to accurately determine that actual speed and power? What contests did he enter to prove he was better than anyone else or are you just taking this on hearsay? I am sure Bruce Lee was very skilled but how skilled can never be measured... the mans dead.

Hollywoods rendition of martial arts to reality; is as about as far apart as Venus and Mars

And you'd win. The issue is what kind of strength you are developing, at least from what I'm reading from everyone. Even with weights, if you don't do them explosively, you are developing the slow twitch fibers more than anything. This will result in a very powerful kick, but it may not necessarily be a fast kick. You'd need to do plyo's and speed drills to develop that aspect of it. Aodhan You are 100% correct. Thats why complex training is so valuable. When I say complex training I mean: One set of fast explosive bench press followed by say one set of plyometric pushups Or One set of fast explosive squats followed by one set of squat jumps