chiflow

greenbelt_girl15 Nice!!! That has always been my favorite Bible verse Many times in my past people fellow christians have said ill things about my devotion to martial arts.. That verse is one I will always hold dear to me. God bless Chiflow

Theres no doubt to me that in person instruction is the best However I have a couple friends that used to train people online with web cams and recorded videos. Good knowledge shared is valuable no matter what the medium is I think

Reakt, That is great that you have interest in the world of martial arts. Every art has things to offer. Some arts may be more or less your style.. My advise would be to go "dojo shopping" As you are a younger man you will be limited to what is available in your area most likely. Almost all public Dojo's will have an open door policy where you can go in and watch a few classes.. Stay for the entire class... watch and observe Does the instructor take the time to welcome you when you walk in? Does He/She approach you at the end to ask if you have any questions? There are many elements that make a good place to train no matter what the art is. The two biggest factors for begginers is safety and comfort Does the dojo provide proper instructions to ensure safe training? Does it look like something you can enjoy while you are learning? In response to your personal note: Dojo's close every day as it is hard to maintain a healthy and productive business sometimes with martial arts I think you will find most dojos to have a warm, friendly and supportive atmosphere.. There are the occasional social click clubs where there is more ego then good training. Trust your instincts when you walk into a dojo As you are just starting out I would suggest an art like Karate or shotokan An art with a good mix of skills Best of luck in your path

Wow, thats pretty cool I dont think i have ever heard of any setting anything on fire with Chi. I have heard of people being able to knock out a candle flame, but have yet to see anyone do it in person.. Do you know the name of the person who set the paper on fire?

I guess to clarify my suggestion about "t-shirts" It has been my experience that some people are not comfortable wearing Gi's in public. I know I know some say wear the uniform with pride theres nothing to be ashamed about. Well for those running a business it is important to consider all the needs of your students and even the not so bold ones. Some schools do not get into the Dojo T-shirts as far as outings: you cant really wear a GI to pizza hut But when people see a group of guys and gals in like T-shirts there gonna look to see who that group is. When they see a class having fun and being part of a group. A precentage of people will say to themselves i would like something like that..And those people that always thought about checking out a Dojo they will say to themselves.. wow they seem like a group of nice people. maybe i should check them out... great advertisement and if you form bonds outside the dojo you have deeper training partners and longer lasting students

hey Sam thanks for your input My balance and some of my kicking skills have seen a vast improvment I'm much better at high lows now I have been really happy to see myself kicking higher As i have just started to hack i know i have a long way to go but the people i hack with have been impressed with my improvement in such a short time I guess martial arts gave me a little boots...lol When i move back to Maine i plan to introduce it to my favorite Dojo The awareness factor has me shocked too im able to judge distance better. i cant imagine what this will do to my control. so i guess to sum up it has helped speed, flexibility, acuracy, kicking skills, endurance, awareness yeah im gonna have to do some more of this stuff

mix up your push up for the best results spread your arms out to work on chest do diamonds for triceps you can really improve how your body looks with pushups but like anything if you slack off for a couple weeks you will not be able to do the same amount of reps I used to max out before class and when i get out im exhausted and i get the best gains from the workouts

There are so many types these days, I have trained with pretty much all the different types and have taken some serious damage with all the cloth types it really depends on what type of training your into if you want tournament gear you have to choose from certain types some tournaments wont allow certain gear head: the traditional boxing head gear is the most protection chest: TKD gear is the best for this for woman and men. but watch those axe kicks!! and youll have to get used to the restriction on the breathing hand: I prefer the kempo and gear some call the monkey gloves I like how each finger has its own section and the feel is really comfortable shin: get some gear with straps as they are less likely to slide off mouth: I prefer the ones with a breath hole always use a mouth piece- always and make sure you form it to your mouth with hot water before use good luck

Dear Armbar, I would suggest getting out into public and do some outdoors activities If one of your students gets promoted, do a dutch pizza party somewhere Work out in the park. Go for walks or jogging with some core students Always wearing your Schools t-shirts take advantage of free advertisement such as bumber stickers and regular stickers for the little ones give the stickers out as rewards (kids love stickers) I wish you the best of fortune p.s. If you do b-days partys make sure you cover your back legally make parents sign wavers as needed and i have seen many dojos do very successful after school camps or summer camps,, parents love them!! the yellow pages are a great idea, when i was younger and i moved to a new town that is where i always started

Hey all, curious how many of you MA's out there have used hacky sack (foot bag) as a warm up tool What are your thoughts I found a couple dojos in MI that used hacky sack daily to warm up at first i thought it was kinda odd but now im all over it and i have seen some major improvements in some of my skills what are your thoughts?

hey xxstorm thought id give you some feedback as no one else jumped in yet Yes MA will help with muscle development. in a sense you could consider this kinda of a given some times it depends on the art as some arts work more on work outs than other most arts do pushup and situps, after doing this 3 times a week for a while, even 3 months youll see some serious improvement in how many you can do. when you work out your body in any fashion your bound to develope some improvments. as for your friend: everryone is different some body types are really small but really strong i had a friend back in school that was thin as a board and yet he could do curls all day it seemed. I remember once we compared how many we could both do I have always been strong, i did 60 reps and he stopped after 250 reps because he got bored the bottom line is in my opinion the MA did not make your friend this way but it helped what he already had

I have done this in a couple Dojos and loved it.. I thought it really showed some reality We also do season training where each season we do the real clothes training for example winter: heavy jackets, gloves and such (very hot very quick,, yikes) summer: shorts and sandles Its pretty cool to see how your enviorment changes things you learn alot when you do things like this,, i even changed the clothes i buy a little due to what i learned in the training.. we even went as far as to train outside on occassion this was done to show how fancy kicks and other tricky moves can be useless on gravel and wet grass we were always warned to wear clothes you dont care about, as there was many tears and even some blood from time to time..

knowing where you are would help alot you may be suprised to find some hole in the wall dojos or people teaching out of there homes or at your local YMCA or local GYMS check the internet if you have not already and also the phone book

here are some questions you should ask yourself what do you want to learn? Does HE\SHE know these things? Can they demonstrate the skills they ask there students to do? Does your Dojo offer a safe envoirment to learn and train? Are safety precautions taken to ensure no serious injury? Is the Dojo clean? JKD is a wonderful art that brakes boundries and rules for some for some martial arts is like a salad, the more you add the better it gets do you like a salad that is just salad? or do u think it gets better when you add carrots, greens and other things? you can gain many skills in the Martial arts world, and some JKD schools i have trained with have healthy balance of many skills, ground, weapons, locks, chokes check the place out if you feel good about going there and you feel good when you leave, then check it out for a while and if you find hes not for you at least you have some things to make your salad a little more colorful . sometimes it is good to get different perspectives

Many Dojos these days are going with contracts for several reasons The main one is they dont have to worry about getting there money every month. Contracts are not so bad, depending on who u are dealing with Many contracts i have seen are set up with direct deposit and you may be able to work a deal with him where as long as you tell him in advance (a week) he would be willing to let you out of your contract free of charge The art you mentioned is a good one, you will have a variety of training and skills to learn for sure (true of almost any art) I like what Champ had to say about find a teacher not a style most gyms these days have Martial Arts, your gym does not have anything you could get into cheap?