ps1

If anything, you'd think steroids would have been punished more harshly. That's so crazy! It should be like the olympics...if you get caught using a banned substance...you lose! End of story.

Wooo Hooo! Great job everyone!

That sounds like a good deal, ps1! It is kind of eerie, though. I know...I think i can hear the twilight zone music off in the distance.

***Side note*** Shihan Magnuson's (My karate instructor before he died) highest ranking student has returned to town. He has opened the school back up there. I've asked him if he'd be willing to continue my training and he said he would, and even would like me to do a BJJ seminar for his school (looking for some escapes from certain ground situations). The timing is a bit scary though. I tell my story two days ago and, out of nowhere, an old instructor decides to open a school!

There is an excellent book, "Zen and the Martial Arts." It can address some of those topics and it's not that big. Also, there is a topic on this forum called, "Martial Arts Research Library." Many posters have suggested some great books on that link. I would suggest checking there as well. Here's a link: http://www.karateforums.com/martial-arts-research-library-vt8082.html Good luck.

Thanks. I continue training often. It's just not under a shihan. I would like to get back to that some time. Although it may be after I earn my BJJ black belt.

Wow! Where to begin? I guess the beginning will do. I began training at a "traditional" tae kwon do school when I was 6 years old. By the way, they said it was traditional, I don't know the difference between traditional and non traditional TKD. Anyhoo, my mom remarried when i was nine and we moved away. I had earned a green belt by that time. I trained the kicks and punches I had learned for the next year or two but the forms slipped. Then, at about 11 years old, I began training in an Indonesian form of chuan fa known as Poekoelan Tjimindi Teii (Indo-Dutch spelling). I continued training in Poekoelan until I left for the military at 19 yrs old. When I returned from basic training and AIT I returned to the school and earned my 3rd degree black belt. However, it was always a small school and the instructor finally had to close. I decided to train TKD again! The school I decided upon, though, really didn't impress me and I finally changed my mind and began studying Shotokan. I caught on very quickly and earned shodan in one year there (I trained alot:)). Soon after, the school began offering Aiki Jujitsu. I began learning that and competing and earned my aiki jujitsu black belt in two years (end of 2002) and my nidan in Shotokan at the same time. I was keeping up my chuan fa training on my own and would give lessons from time to time. Now I was teaching at the school three times/week. One day of Shotokan and two days of Jujitsu. Then duty called.... I was deployed to iraq for a year and 3 months. During that time I was tasked to teach combatives for the unit. I worked with others and learned alot about real combat. It changed me dramatically, especially my outlook on fighting. As far as a war experience, mine was very mild too. No one in my unit was injured or killed by enemy fire or attacks. Woohoo Now I return home!! Yeah!!! When I came home a new instructor was teaching the Jujitsu. Except it wasn't Aiki Jujitsu, it was Brazilian Jiujitsu. The school owner said I could take back over if I wanted. But I decided to test myself against the BJJ instructor first. It wasn't even a contest. He killed me, his students killed me, his grandmother probably would have killed me. This....I had to learn. Now I was given the responsibility of teaching the Black belt class and promoted to third degree. In addition, I began learning BJJ three times/week. Now things get weird... I was offered a position teaching martial arts for a community center that was about 40 minutes away. Of course I accepted. Now I should mention that while I was in Iraq, the organization I was under had some major falling outs. Personally, I agreed with the people who left. So when I opened my own school, I chose not to affiliate it with the org. Shortly after I made that decision, the owner of the school where I was teaching approached me and said told me he was upset I had opened the school because he wanted to teach there (which I didn't know) and he was unhappy I didn't affiliate with the org. Then he said he didn't think he'd be doing a black belt class anymore, "it wasn't profitable." Then Tony (BJJ instructor) decided to open a new school so he could have all BJJ. Of course I followed and continued training with him. Apparently, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Though I didn't know at the time. Ok, here's the point of all this...sorry it's so long winded.... There came a point when I could no longer continue with the school I was running. I immediately called the owner of the Karate school and offered it to him! Of course, he accepted. I gave him the school he wanted and it came with 20 students! Then I called him and asked if I could train my Karate at his school again since I wasn't running mine anymore. ... He said no! He was upset that Tony had opened his own school and I was training there (although when I began training with tony, the owner gave his blessing). He told me I'd have to quit BJJ. I wasn't about to do that. Now here's the worst part. The owner was not the shihan within the school. So I figured I would work with our shihan and that would be that. A few weeks later he died in a parachute accident. So I was stuck without a way to advance in Shotokan. In summary....I continue to study and even teach BJJ now. I can't advance in Shotokan because there's no one around my area who is capable of promoting me. My chuan fa instructor is still around, but doesn't teach. The owner of the Shotokan school will never get a good reference from me. I didn't do anything to the guy and even handed him more business...then got kicked out of the school for my trouble. I've been in 5 schools, kicked out of 1, had 1 shut down, moved away from 1, and didn't like 1. The only one left for me is BJJ. I'm still looking for another Shotokan school to continue my training.

I've seen the interpretation that you're punching over your shoulder. One of my instructors was a Shorin Ryu guy. That's what he did in his interpretation. Also, rather than thinking of elbows crossing in front of you. You can think of the elbow strikes moving to the rear. In this case the hand is coming across to block your face as you strike backward.

This is a slower version. It may help you see the movements better. She bounces a little though, that's not usually part of the form.

First, make sure you have the correct angle with the arms. That is...they should not be tight to your body. Then, as you switch them, make sure that one moves inside the other. I was taught to bring the low movement through the higher movement. Here are some vids of the kata. If you look closely you'll see what I mean about the rotation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alGtTKcgwgU&feature=related

Well done. Congratulations

Buy a house and get a dog! Big year for me:)

I'm glad you said something. I thought my computer was acting up:) Thanks Patrick.

I tend to agree with you Bushido. I think it would be useful if you had the time or positioning to utilize the movement. However, it doesn't seem practical to do with every movement. From a physics perspective, however, I think it would take away from the forward driving force produced by the legs. That force would be used to go up instead. Would the small gravitational forces make up for this? I wouldn't think so.

If that's how you were trained to do it, then it's not wrong. If not, you could ask your instructor for more instruction. I suppose you could do it this way. But it seems like it would take a very large sweeping turn. Unless you masked the move with a leg check or some other kick, I think it would be overly telegraphed.

Is it possible that many of the Soke before him died earlier than anticipated? I don't find this too difficult to believe. Afterall, the warrior class came to power in Japan during the Heian period (794-1185). It's reasonable to believe this is also the period when espionage units would have begun to be used. That's around 1000 years to go through 34 soke in the 9 ryu that combined to make up the bujinkan. The timelines seem reasonable to me. My argument is based solely on speculation. I admit I'm not well read when it comes to ninpo. What period does Hatsumi claim it orginated? I do find it interesting, however, that Hatsumi's art was not accepted as a traditional Ryu. Here's a website interview with Steven K Hayes that talks a little more about the reformation of Ninjitsu to Bujinkan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T50WRzzbhlY

congratulations!

Go buy some 1 inch pine boards. Be sure they are cut with the grain so she can break them with the grain. Usually 12in wide with a height of 8 inches will do the trick. Have her break them at home a few times. You'll see how weak they are. It takes very little effort. 6 year olds do it with some ease. I'm sure an 11 year old can do it. Also, is there a limit to how they must strike the board. Using a palm strike or knife hand is usually less intimidating than using a punch.

That isn't entirely accurate. Steven K Hayes teaches in Dayton, Ohio. He is a highly ranked student of Hatsumi Sensei. He began learning from him in the pre-Bujinkan era. Here's a site with some info about Mr. Hayes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_K._Hayes Here's an interview with him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T50WRzzbhlY Additionally, Ninjutsu and ninjitsu are the same word in Japanese. There are no direct spelling translations for Japanese to English. This means that people just try to spell it like it sounds. This is also why you find Jiujitsu, Jujitsu, Jujutsu, ju-jitsu, jiu-jitsu, and ju jutsu. They are all the same word, whether they are separated or have a dash means nothing as well. Although in recent years Jiujitsu has been primarily used by BJJ practitioners. Hope this is helpful.

These are good suggestions. However, that's a plethora of information. The techniques I use on people of any level do not change. That is, I have developed a way I like to move and, with some tweaks of course, that's how I will always do it. The techniques are the basics, just performed in combination. I can do vids of those combos if you like. As far as insights go...they are very positional. Perhaps I could do some vids that simply cover positions but not necessarily techniques. I'll give this some thought. Part of the problem are the size and time constraints of youtube. My videos can be no longer than 10 minutes or 100megs. 100 megs comes fast with high quality video. This is absolutely correct. For example: Two years ago I hated the knee in belly position. Now, it's a critical portion of how I move. It's extremely dominating. I actually envy some of the students coming into our school now. Tony, our instructor, has learned so much since I started. Stuff we did 4 years ago are virtually useless now. The guys are learning better was to do everything. The one saving grace of this is that we had to learn through experience, they do not have the luxury of that experience for themselves, just the end result. Anyway, this week I'll be teaching a few halfguard techniques. I'll be sure to record them and try to have them available soon (maybe next sunday). Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.

I would be surprised if there were not. Did you try typing Kenpo into the search engine? http://youtube.com/watch?v=f8OvLC28D-Y Here's two I found with a very quick search. They aren't exactly the same as the other, but similar.

Thanks for the info. Just wondered whether it was poor technique. It would seem that they are performing it correctly for their system.

It's the best system available. Hands down.

Hey everyone. I'm no TKD expert. I saw this video and was wondering if it's correct that they all bob up and down throughout the form. The reason I ask is because (as a general rule) in most karate kata, that would be a mistake.

That would depend on the reason for moving. If I'm going to throw a reverse punch, I would certainly move the front leg and drive with the back leg in order to increase the mass into the punch. If I needed to increase the distance and get an opponent to reach for me I would move the back leg. If I have a good gauge on the range an opponent has on their front kick I may step back in order to intercept it and perform a takedown. This is a very brief and generalized explanation, but I hope it helps.