isshinryu5toforever

some of my friends play cricket. It's a pretty neat game. I've become friends with some of the fencers. It's funny to see if they think they can take an experienced Kendo guy. As far as their being any new or unusual sports around, I don't know if you'll really find any. I think in today's culture, we've been exposed to most of them.

Our belt testing fees start at $20 and go up from there. Dan tests are $100 flat fee. We're completely independent of organizations, so we charge what we think is fair. We make deals with families. We don't charge them inornate amounts of money, especially if there are 4 or 5 of them. Our monthly dues are only $30 for two classes a week. And again with families we cut deals.

I played football, baseball, and ran track in high school. I passed on college football to go to NYU. I ride bike, still throw the football around once in a while, and lift once in a great, great while. Martial arts is a large part of my life, I am on the NYU Sport TKD team, but I'm not completely obsessed. There have to be other things in your life that are more important than martial arts. It works that way with anything.

the magazine gives monthly tips. They also tell you which fast food is better for you, even though none of it is good. Like eating Baskin Robins ice cream rather than Cold Stone ice cream, even though I admit Cold Stone is great. The magazine is $4 a month without a subscription. Not bad.

Men's Health always has a pretty big section dedicated to weight loss and weight control. I subscribe to it, because it's a good source on a lot of things pertaining to men. Not only health, but style, entertainment, etc. They have stories from their Belly off club too, where they focus in on one guy who used their system sucessfully. Some of those are pretty interesting to read.

I was promoted to full adult black belt at the age of 11. It wasn't that my physical prowess was enough that I could take on a gun toting madman. I was promoted because I had the heart and determination of a black belt, and the common sense and intelligence to avoid hazardous situations. I know what you are saying about many young black belts, but I do believe that any sensei worth learning from would recognize those who are worthy and those who are not. We must simply have faith in those individuals who are in charge of these dojos. I do not expect every black belt to be completely qualified to deserve the rank, because there are dojos out there who hand out belts. However, I do believe in my heart that there are many unheralded sensei out there who dread having an extremely talented youth, because they know that some day it will come time for them to make that difficult decision on whether this child is really ready for the responsibility of being designated a black belt. This is just my .02

The pedaling motion especially when clipped in causes you to use your muscles in such a way that your hamstrings tighten up. This is true, but I have been cycling for a few years now and average around 50 miles a ride at least 5-6 days a week. I can still do the splits. The nerve damage happens to a small percentage of the population (crosses fingers its not me). And if your dad is only going back and forth to work, that's not high enough mileage to worry about nerve damage. He may catch the cycling bug though as many do, and then he will want to invest in a better bike, and yes a better saddle. Tell him to act like cars don't see him, because in reality they don't. Take it from someone whose been hit by a van. Always wear a helmet. Get some cycling gloves too, they help keep your hands from going numb and in the event an accident does happening can keep your hands from being scraped up. Any other questions, just ask it looks like we have at least a few people on here who cycle.

one bad thing is if he doesn't spin uphill in the right gear, he could hurt his knees. It will help his aerobic capacity. It will also help him improve his lactate threshold and overall physical endurance. He may develop more slow-twitch muscle fibers, which will keep him from being able to sprint with the best of them, but the benefit is that slow-twitch fibers work more efficiently thus giving him greater endurance. So all-in-all, yes it is a good activity for fitness.

AP exams don't do you much good at NYU so I chose not to take most of them.

That's nothing unusual. At the beginning of the trip you were using muscles you weren't used to using. Conoeing and portaging are physically difficult tasks if you're not used to them. I went on a trip like that once, we had two portages on one day that were over a mile each. I wasn't very big at the time, but I was used to doing a lot of physical labor like farm work. So, when it came time to portage, I was outhauling ex-military men. Your body simply adjusted to the stresses being put on it. As for you being able to bench press more, that comes with time. You're almost always going to improve until your body reaches its edge. You said you're a sophomore right? Those bench and squat numbers are good, but not extremely impressive. You should see a rise in those numbers over the next month or so. What you have gone through though is a sudden explosion in progress. You probably plateaud for a long time, and now you're going to see the benefits of the hard work. It's what happens when you workout for a long time. A similar thing happened to me between freshman and sophomore year. My freshman year I was benching 215 and squating 315 for a long time, then over the summer I pushed over the plateau and his 270 on the bench and 390 on the squat. So, massive explosions in strength happen after long period of staying the same.

Double promotions are an interesting subject. Here's a situation. What if there was a student who had been a shodan about a year, and knew all of the weapons and empty hand katas necessary for his sandan. Then his instructor moves. For 7 years, he keeps on practicing keeps on doing his weapons katas and keeps doing his empty hand katas. His forms improve, and his martial arts ability improves with it. Then he is finally able to get back with his instructor. I'm in this situation, and in the opinion of my instructor he believes I deserve to test for a double grading. Rank doesn't really matter to me, so when I test, I test. It doesn't matter for what. I am more interested in teaching, and I'd be able to promote my own black belts. That's the reason why I am happy to try for a double promotion.

Today's karate is about controlling your opponent, making sure that he can't hurt you or himself. That is why many lock and hold applications have been taught. Yet, many of them can be turned into the deadly applications that were seen many years ago. Even the "blocks" weren't blocks they were strikes to specific pressure points in the arm or neck, or any other area. Remember for every part of every kata, there are numerous bunkai that can be seen differently through the eyes of different people.

oh, and as for fighting advice here's a bit. True they are distance fighters, but they're all about hit and miss. They don't block very much, but they try to make their opponent miss. It's a much faster game this way. However, if you read their round kick and step right in to stop it and hit them in the chest with a reverse punch followed by a round kick it can be a very effective counter, because of the non-contact to the head with hands. The staple of today's TKD is the round kick. If you have trouble with speed at first, play the game of attrition. When they come in don't worry about scoring points. Front kick them right in the gut. Side kick right toward the hip when they round kick. If they try to "surf-in" (shuffle in their their round kick, round kick right to the side of the leg in the air. Stuff their kick. If you can make it a scoreless affair in the first round and just put them in a lot of pain, you can win the second round with a point of two. Just think of things you would hate to have done to you that are perfectly legal, and do it to them. Don't worry about scoring the first round. Worry about that in the second. Rely on strength and conditioning if you can't win the speed game. Also, find someone who you can practice the clinch with. This is a very important part of the TKD game at the level you're talking about, so try to find an Olympic TKD person to help you with this. Best of luck to you.

The one advantage you may have is the fact that many TKD players who have done olympic style TKD don't use their hands very effectively. In Karate, we do. If you can beat them to the punch that's great. This is coming from someone who transitioned from full-contact karate into olympic style TKD just this year. I had a little bit of a time adjusting to the rules, and I saw many an opportunity to punch someone in the face, but had to restrain myself. So, like they mentioned above, spar with someone who does olympic TKD. You should be able to adjust fairly quickly if you're a mid range martial artist. It's all about rules. If you're a good fighter already, don't worry too much.

Thanks for the help. Madison doesn't have a strong East Asian Studies department, I'm not even sure they have one. I know Michigan does, but I don't like Michigan. I do like NYU a ton, so it would be tough for me to decide to transfer, thanks again for the help though.

I'm from Wisconsin. I don't think we quite qualified for the pell grant just because I was working a lot at the time. It added quite a bit to my parent's income, so we missed qualifying. Any other grant programs you know of. Whether I have to pay to access applications or not, it would still be helpful, because I need the financial aid. I can try to loan my way through school, but it's going to end up being expensive.

Hey, since you do admissions counselling do you know about educational grants? I am attending New York University, but their financial aid is terrible. Difficult to understand considering they make a lot of money through their alum. Anyways, any websites or sources for grants government or otherwise would be great. I am of sophomore standing as of right now. Thanks for any help you can give me.

going to New York University majoring in both East Asian Studies and History.

Best of the Best is largely Taekwondo based

I've actually found that trying to hook up with a school's summer program or community education program can be a good way to get advertising and interest in a fairly quick manner. They may also be able to provide you with a space for a while. If you are looking for a space, try a community center or the like unless you have your own space already. It is difficult to get a place rolling, but with a few dedeicated students you can sustain a small school. My sensei has been doing it for over 20 years, and he has had maybe 25 students at the most during any given time. However, he has had several students for over 7 years, and he's had me since I was 5 or 6 so I am coming up on about 13 or 14 years with him as my instructor.

As far as eastern and western training methods go I would think that the eastern style of training would be geared more toward nature. Hardening the body through natural means. pushups, situps, being hit with stuff, doing knuckle pushups on hard concrete, hitting makiwara, etc. The western method would be more mechanical. Supplements, lifting weights, using sophisticated training machines, etc, etc. That would be the way I would define the two. As far as that goes, I like the eastern way.

If you sit there for hours and only catch one or two fish, you ain't doin thing right lol

If he got away it isn't really catchin it is it? lol just kidding. I caught a 38" northern a few years ago, other than that I caught an 18" bass.

In response to mai tai's comment about looking down on interracial dating in Korea: that happens here too not just there. And it happens to every race not just white guys. You've never seen a black girl and a white guy get funny looks when they hold hands? You've never heard the stereotypes that Asians are bad drivers or they are all math geeks. As for competition have you ever considered that they may have just been better? I know in fights rigging happens, but look at Steven Lopez. The Korean team has been trying to beat him for what 6 years now, no success yet. You can't worry about what is happening behind the scenes, you have to roll with it and win anyways. I know that some associations won't permit non-Asians to be among their highest ranks, but if you really think about it that is a point of honor. It is their national sport after all, and shouldn't it be fitting to have one of their own be the head of their association. No offense, but to them having a white guy be the head of their style would be like having an Asian be the head of the Canadian Hockey League.

both. stretch after you take a shower in the morning and after a quick warmup at night. or vise-versa, but stretching both morning and night is best.