moriniuk

If that's what you choose to believe then great. I fail to see how meditation has to be seen as a religious practice. Could you please quote the chapter and verse of where this instruction is in the bible. I'd be interested to see that.

There are lots of different forms of meditation and many of them actually focus the mind on something in particular such as your breathing or even love and death. An easy way to start meditation, and these 3 methods are basically the same thing, is to focus on the breath. This is called vipasana meditation. Either say to yourself as you're breathing in, "I am breathing in" or "rising, rising, rising" or count your breath in from 1 to 6. As you're breathing out say to yourself, "I am breathing out" or "falling, falling, falling" or count from 1 to 6.

Great technique. Blocking with the shin bone is strong but without conditioning blocking bone on bone is going to hurt. The outside or inside of the shin can be used but this is weaker against a strong kick. Blocking against the thigh is ok for combat sports styles that don't allow head punches and the fighters tend to fight at a closer, toe to toe, range. This is not so easy to apply from a longer range. Mikazuki geri and fumikomi. I'd say too slow and you need to be very accurate. Getting out of the way is ok but sometimes limits your counter attacks. A nice fast front leg push kick defence is nice.

The technique at 2:16 made me laugh out loud.

Imagine there's no judo It's easy if you try No bjj below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today Imagine there's no karate It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no taekwondo too Imagine all the styles living life in peace You, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one I hope some day you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no kung fu I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world You, you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one I hope some day you'll join us And the world will live as one

I attended a course with him in the south of England about 20 years ago. I was only one of about 150 other karateka, so I can't really say that I've trained WITH him. I was just in the same room. I learnt some interesting little things though that have stayed with me.

1 Have you ever trained with a different style of martial arts? Yes, lots. 2 Have you ever trained in another country? Yes, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. 3 Have you ever trained outdoors? Yes, garden and park. 4 Have you ever trained so hard you couldn't stand? No. 5 Have you ever had dreams about training? Yes 6 Have you ever been knocked unconscious during training? No. 7 Have you ever intentionally lost a fight? No. 8 Have you ever run from a fight? Yes. 9 Have you ever cried during training? No. 10 Have you ever saved your own life with martial arts? Yes, from a knife weilding maniac. 11 Have you ever saved another person's? Yes, A famous UK Muay Thai master who shall not be named.

Yes, there were 4 small books. Karate, Judo, Aikido and Jukado. The box had a picture of JKA Shotokan's Sensei Enoeda on it for some reason.

I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to remember that the 'do' was for aikido. Bruce Tegner's box set of books were the 1st martial arts books that I ever bought. I didn't rate them and passed them on many years ago.

Stance: I can only really talk about Muay Thai stance. It is shorter than boxing stance and hips and shoulders are more 'square' to the front. This way it is easier to use your legs to block kicks. Sparring: In my opinion you should be sparring. I have complete beginners sparring at the end of their first session. Stand up clinching: Not the same as ground fighting. It is about footwork and off-balancing your opponent to create openings for knee strikes, elbow strikes and throws. Hope that helps.

With a vertical fist punch, like in Wing Chun, the elbow is angled down and it's easier to keep the shoulder down which puts the arm in a better structual position to allow the whole body to be used to generate power in the punch. I think Shukokai jodan punches use a vertical fist.

Ballistic stretching is pretty much universally considered to be a dangerous form of stretching nowadays. Maybe you meant dynamic stretching. I'm not buying into the hot bath idea and I wouldn't waste my money on a machine. It would probably make another good place to hang your clothes in a couple of months though.

It's easier if you suspend the board from some sky hooks, but make sure you have the bottom of the board facing up.

Nice. The final destination for most exercise machines. Drying or storing clothes. I wonder if makiwara were ever used for similar things on old Okinawa?

Competition is used to achieve dan grades in Judo.

The Tae Kwon Do kicks that have been mentioned so far, side kicks, back kicks and spinning round kicks are all effective kicks. They don't need to be adapted from Tae Kwon Do to work in Muay Thai because they're all Muay Thai kicks already. They just don't get used very often. A very famous fighter from the 1980's called Samart Payakaroon often used the side kick (teep kang) very effectively. There's also an old style technique called 'kwang liaw lang' or 'deer looks back' which uses a side kick or a back kick as a counter attack after your opponent had dodged your round kick. A spinning round kick is known as 'jorakay fad hang' or 'crocodile thrashes its tail'. Again, this can be used as a follow-on technique if your opponent dodges your round kick. If you care to look deep enough there isn't much lacking in Muay Thai.

Mai pen arai krap! That's not the name of the kick by the way.

Thanks for the replies. The general concensus of opinion to retain the original name is what, deep down, I always thought was the best way to go. I am going to shoe horn in the additional name though.

I'd just like to get a few views on the following. I've been running a martial arts gym for a few years in one particular area. I'm about to open another teaching the same style in another area about 7 miles away from the first one. My question is, should I keep the same gym name or should I use a completely different one? Regarding branding etc., I'm not exactly on a par with McDonald's or Coca Cola so it's no big deal for me to have the same name. Also, I've got a great idea for a name that I'm itching to use. Thanks in advance.

I'm a little confused with the terminology of some of these kicks. From what I'm reading above, people seem to be suggesting that the 'crocodile kick' and the Brazilian kick' are the same. My understanding is that the Muay Thai 'crocodile kick' or jorakay fad hang (crocodile thrashes its tail) is a backwards spinning kick and the 'Brazilian kick' is a high level downwards round kick. This is also known as naka kanod hang (serpent coiles its tail). So both very much original Muay Thai kicking techniques without the need for any TKD influences.

Just to be clear, there is no such martial art as Muay Boran! It's just an older form of the modern art that most people are familiar with nowadays. It's like comparing older styles of Okinawan karate with modern more sports based styles. They're both Karate. To say that real Muay Thai is only available in Thailand is like saying that real Karate is only available in Japan, which obviously isn't the case. I've practiced plenty of Muay Thai in Thailand and in the UK, and if you're in a good gym in the UK there's no difference between the two. The old regional Muay Thai style of Muay Chaiya is openly taught in Bangkok at 3 different schools, all with direct lineage back to the style's founder. I regularly train at one of them. There are no 'forms' in Muay Thai. What they have is a collection of attack and defense techniques that have been handed down over the centuries. These are known as Mae Mai and Luke Mai (mother and child). Think of these as major and minor principles and concepts. They are practiced with a partner in a similar way to kata applications.

There are a couple of mawashi geris from the ground in Shotokan's Unsu kata.

I went to a week long Karate 'summer school' in the UK years ago. Apart from that I now regularly train in Muay Thai camps in Thailand.

Belts are clearly a Western addition to the martial arts. Wasn't it Jigoro Kano, the Japanese founder of Judo, that is credited with introducing the modern belt system?

Good answer, Brickshooter. In my opinion it's far better to count the time in actual training hours rather than elapsed time. I'd also agree with those figures.