Harpoon

Don't see how it will help. If someone is serious about highjacking an airplane they will come in armed, either with a gun or a knife they smuggled in, metal detectors can't stop one of those plastic blades that are sharp enough to inflict some serious pain. I can't imagine a flight attendant trying a sidekick in a crowded isle against some baddie who's holding someone hostage with a knife. Although I do agree some training will help. Martial Arts weren't something that was only usefull in combat back in the middle ages (feudal Japan or something)... a Samurai trying some Karate on an armed opponent would find himself dead. In todays society, weapons are no longer brandished publically and certain areas are devoid of them... so an extra edge in unarmed subduing/combat would help.

My TKD dojo has a really stupid knife defence system. It involves you using a belt to control the attacker's knife hand then coming behind them with their hand still tightly held by the belt. I'm gonna cut you! Sure let me just get my belt out... one sec...

Wow must be tough living in Britain...

Well, I started TKD to "kick some ass", specifically after I had my "ass kicked" several times. True, people say that TKD isn't the best thing to use in a real fight, but then again size, agression, surprise are the predominant factors in a fight before any sort of training comes in to play. And with sparring, no matter the art, it gives you a taste of competiton and makes you more comfortable with fighting another person, even if its in a closed, controled enviorment without the danger and adrenaline that spawns because of it.

I wonder if those sidesplits really did effect jean claud van damms (sp?) ability to have children..

Punching and kneeing and kicking low... sorta dumb that a black belt in a martial art would use the exact same techniques as a completely untrained person.

wing chun is good, probably the only art where blocking is actaully effective because of the short, economical movements. It also builds on the humans natural reaction to attacks (hands go to face and body corkscrews away).

My instructor always goes into a fit when I learn back while kicking. He makes a show, like "Do you walk like this?" and starts walking around with his upper body leaned backwards, ignoring the fact that you cant be perfectly straight when kicking higher because your body doesn't allow it... i mean even the friggin' T-Shirt we wear shows a person doing a side kick, and her upper body is horizontal lol. But yeah you should try to keep your back as straight as possible, your head up especially, as it keeps your balance and you wont fall backwards when strike comes to shove.

Sort of stupid.. if these are real fights than all the fancy forms and blocking will be forgotten and it will turn into a slugfest where size and agression are the only things that count. But I sorta think it would be cool if schools of various arts sent their best to compete in a NHB tourament.. ala Bloodsport

In spinning kicks do you spin on your lead leg and kick with the back so when the move finishes the leg that you had in tow before is now the leading leg?

What argument?

Cuz if you educate yourself you get a good job and lots of money so you can buy an expensive car, house, etc... and then your happy.

Yeah your right about the high kicks, but TKD's main focus is that the power in most kicks comes from the leg snapping out at the knee to avoid it being caught and manipulated.

Also, you you gotta remember the old Stress Reaction Syndrome. The definition of SSR as it relates to combat is ; “ a state where a “perceived” high threat stimulus automatically engages the parasympathetic nervous system” The parasympathetic nervous system is an autonomic response process which, when activated, one has little control of. Those of you who have been in a situation like this may recall feeling the butterflies in their stomach, increased heart rate... all signs of the fight or flight mode your body is kicking you into. You loose fine motor skills (hard to use your hands and fingers), develop tunnel vision, your reflex time as in responses to stimuli in increased by 58%. So even if your advancing in some colorfull form of Kung Fu with many different moves and responses to attacks... you'll be forgetting most of that stuff (blocking blows from a bad man swinging fist after fist at you when your eye can't track movement so fast and your reaction time is reduced by half?) Practice makes perfect: if you practice basic strikes and kicks and escapes over and over and over again untill they are automatic to you, then and only then will they be usefull in a street situation. The state of mind your in also matters. The SSR syndrome makes your main muscle groups stronger, takes blood from your face and other parts of your body into those muscle groups, the adrenaline gives you a pain kille, etc... so in my opinion these all favor the agressor, who is just swinging his arms with big hooking motions, who is not as afraid as his victom, and will feel any blows he suffers less. Of course, if your sparring against someone you've known and trusted for years you can pull off alot of fancy stuff and do all the techniques properly because you know you are in no real danger: you probably have protective gear, it's a learning experience, and there is no primal fear invovled.

Well of course men are better at Karate or almost any other physical activity. I mean, there's a reason in all major sporting events men and women have their own teams and do not interact. But it doesn't mean they can't do martial arts... if a woman has to defend herself against a guy bigger and stronger than her on the street she can do it with the extra edge of knowing a martial art. Not to mention the other reasons for doing MA (fitness, etc...)