Sam

Good suggestion -but failing that - i think its probably a resume detailing sporting achievements in karate - grades / tournaments, etc.

Good luck, and welcome!

Hopefully it wont take that long, the nasty leg injuries ive seen from someone taking a blow when landing a complex aerial technique

yep, many martial arts can be applied in both ways though, its generally down to how their taught....

tall - range, and generlly balance, can make their base wider generally proportional to their height.... depends on build though

very few MAists can take a beating like a boxer can... nor do they train as hard

lol, ive never really had any experience of it, but i can see where the asian bias may come from with some people

yeah same here.... tghought we migt but then it just passed

http://www.kuksoolwon.com/ - its a korean martial art... .not cmopletely dissimilar to Karate.

Try it out first - rather than just quit. Go on d oa couple of lessnos, and see what you think

Never realised this place had been going this long, cool!

fair points scottnshelly - it could just be when he got back to it he realised he didnt enjoy it as much as he did before and so was looking for a reason to leave- just to have a possibility, although i think what yousaid seems more likely.

you also wouldnt try 540 reverse turning kicks. And ill say what i seem to say alot - its not necessarily what you learn but what it teaches you...... I.e. if i can kick a moving target at head height with full power, then im easily going to be able to hit a moving target at chest height.... If i can stay airborne long enough to do a 720 back kick, i can probably vault a fence... You learn to do a technique itself or do it in a certain way, and otehr than just being able to do it, you also gain in other ways..... fleixiblity, power, accuracy, balance..... Im assuming most TKDers know that a bending stance would be awful for Self Defense, but for balance its good practice.... same iwth a lot of things..... So long as when you train in TKD [and im talking about WTF / ITF] you remeber that some techniques are just rediculous for self defense, you'lll be fine - try and work out what the technique teaches you. With some WTF styles though i would recommend doing something about learning more hand defense and techniques, but thats a personal oppinion and doesnt relate to all WTF styles.

Hey - i thought id posted this. About training for joint locks..... Trianing wehre the opponent keeps coming may work, as it allows better simulation of someone attacking you, rather than just a single technique, and alos means that you wont be dealing with the smae order of attacks, and therefore learn to position yourself better for the restraint / lock, etc.

To add to that actually beacuse i didnt fully explain my self - you most likely competed against WTF style sparrers, they dont use their hands much if at all - that particular style of sparring has developed to take account of their rules for Sparring, and therefore it may not be the best judgement of TKD to base it on a match against WTF style sparring [not criticising WTF at all] - as they train within a specific rule set [well 99% of the ones i know do]. Does that make sense?

Sorry my post definitely came out wrong. I was in a rush - what i should have said is there are loads of threads on this, and the general gist is that there are 2 main types of school: 1. Sport 2. Traditional Sport breaks into WTF Olympic Style sparring; and ITF semi contact style with some full contact in some rules. Traditional has many variations, but you could consider the Sport and Traditional completely different arts, that happen to share a couple of techniques.... Again apologies if my post seemed rude before

Lol, depends on the style of sparring really doesnt it though... full contain to KO, point spar, full contact points, NHB, etc... you could maybe get one in, in a semi contact point match ITF style, if it were one of the lighter weight divisions. I myself love aerial techniques just for the amount of balance it gives you, and the jump power it gives, just makes a lot of other things easier to do - good for breaking to.

welcome!

Didnt say there way anything wrong - was just saying thats why a lot of it looks the same - only so much you can do....

Wow, thats ages.... like 12 weeks.... cool Ive got a 3 month holiday coming up before i run off to uni....

There's also only so much you can do with jumping and kicking!

Yeah i know how you feel, first time I had to take a class warm up, or just a class exercise kept getting everything confused and didnt know how to explain things... ith appens and you;ll develop your own style and get used to it.

Merriam Websters Dictionary of Law;

yeah, its always nice to see people with a bit more control going in for things like that...

Ah thats what i thought - I study the Chang Hon form set....thats probably why ive never heard of it Aodhan - i was just listing form sets in no particular order....