pegasi

One thing I had that resulted in the "gag" problem was that the mouthpiece was too long for my mouth. I cut off about 1/2 in at the back, and then it was fine. To get the heat 'n' mold ones to really fit tight, I found that if you suck in as hard as you can, to pull all the air out of your mouth as hard as you can, then the plastic pulls in around the teeth better. Holding it like that for a minute is a pain, but results in a better fitting mouthpiece. If you don't suck in and hold it until the mouthpiece cools, it just doesn't fit as tightly, in my experience. Pressing your tongue against the inside of the mouthpiece, forcing it harder against your teeth at the same time will also help.

Congrats! The first time you do something is always special. The first time you do a specific technique in a board break has that "feel" of the first time, since it's new to you. I felt that way about my first ever break with a punch, as well as my first break with a 360 roundhouse. That " I didn't even feel it" result is the one you should feel every time you break a board properly, good technique and good power making it feel like practically nothing at all.

To answer one person's comment about forms using round kicks, Tageuk Yuk jang in TKD uses a ball of the foot roundhouse kick twice in that form. To have more options when using a ball of the foot roundhouse, it's necessary to have a great deal of ankle flexibility to be able to pull the toes back toward you enough to get them out of the way. I can stand next to a wall with my left shoulder next to the wall, (standing perpendicular to the wall) and execute a ball of the foot roundhouse with the ball of the foot hitting the wall, not my toes. To do this, you've got to be able to dorsiflex (pull up) the foot enough to get the toes out of the way.

I have an adhd son, and there are several kids in the kids class who have add/adhd. Martial arts seems to help with some self control issues, and with a good instructor with a lot of patience, these kids grow into themselves a lot. In the rest of their lives, add/adhd kids are often at odds with the things going on around them, and being in a situation where they can control themself, as in the ma class, translates to having more confidence in controlling themself in daily activity. I must say that both parent and instructor must repeatedly emphasize that what they learn is not to be used to harm others, except in self defense, and will not be tolerated. This makes it clear that learning ma doesn't entitle the child to seek revenge for the things other kids do in school etc. I don't recommend starting MA with a severely adhd kid at the earliest ages, 7 or so seems to be much better than 5 for them to start something like ma. It has to do with emotional maturity and ability to handle not being able to do something right the first try, not so much physical growth or hyperactivity level. When considering enrolling a child with add/adhd in ma, I think it important for the parent to work with the instructor, in letting the instructor know that there is an issue (adhd) and that some allowances might be needed. I know of one parent who asked the instructor to be extra strict with her son, as she felt he needed the discipline of zero tolerance for any acting out in class. I also would like to point out that it is wise to look into a trial period before being required to sign any long term contracts, since the child's interest may disappear after a few weeks. I'd ask for a 60-90 day trial period, then consider a contract later if the child is going to stick with it.

I've another one for you.... Don't hit your instructor in the face while executing a counter to a two handed choke hold (or shoulder grab) from behind. I was supposed to trap his arms, but ended up smacking him upside the head and nose...... HARD. His words were that it worked..... he did let go.... which was the correct end result.... but I felt so bad about nailing him, I didn't mean to do that.

You might read through the "instructor central" section... there's tons of stuff on activities to do with a class, plus a lot of other useful topics.

I had a great class last thursday. Left class fine, but for some unknown reason, about 2 hrs later I had an episode of tachycardia (180+ heartrate)that lasted over 2 hrs, resulted in an ER visit and hospital admission, then a heart cath with electrical study and ablation to fix the tachycardia permanently. I've not been given restrictions, but I'm too wiped out to even consider classes for a bit. This stinks! I'm sore, tired and out of energy. I hope that this doesn't last too long, now that the problem's fixed. The whole thing was so sudden and left me stunned... I'm only 35 with no history of heart issues. The drs say class didn't cause it, which is good.

My advice on hogus is to try them on when you go to get one. Depending on your chest size and your own preferences, you may want/need a different size other than what the chart says. It seems to me that if your hogu's too large, you won't be able to get your kicks up high enough, since it can impede hip movement if it's too big. Vice versa, if too small, you won't get the encircling protection needed to take a kick to the back, I've been told that kicks to the back are now allowed in tournaments. (have to verify that for sure, but I recall being told that recently)

All of the others make very good points. It's easier to keep someone from getting a good grip on you than it is to break loose once they've got you, but you need to learn to handle both situations. We practice these in class regularly, since they're some of the most common things someone else will do... simply grab your arm, shirt, shoulder etc. So we learn how to counter those from the very beginning.

this sounds really interesting, but I don't think that I understand the description- could you try again for me? Sorry for the delay in reply, I've been busy and then ill over the last few days.... Think of having two rows of students, about 2 feet apart, with students lined up one behind the other, about an arm's length away from the student in front of them. The student kicking stands at the back of the two rows, and executes his technique as he moves forward in between the two rows. sorta like this.... x _ x <-- students in line ( "_" is where kicking student moves thru line) x _ x x _ x x _ x x _ x _ x _ <-- student to execute technique, centered behind the 2 lines When the student reaches the front of the line, the instructor calls out the next student to go, and the student who just finished takes their place in the row. The objective is for the student kicking to control their technique so that they don't touch anyone else. If someone is telegraphing kicks, they figure out real quick that they're going around instead of up the middle, since they bang into someone else before the move gets anywhere. We were doing a variation on this, using a wall, where we started with the left shoulder next to the wall, and executed left side only roundhouse kicks along the length of the wall. If you telegraph, your knee or foot whacks the wall (ours was padded). We went back and forth, doing techniques with the side of the body closest to the wall. (both left and right, back and forth along the wall) We did this with front kick, roundhouse kick, back kick, back hook kick, sweep kick, and crescent kick. I'm proud to say that I'm the only one who didn't get whacked knees or toes that night!

If you want to train as a guest at another school, I would suggest going in street clothing, and inquiring if they allow "drop in" training, explaining that you're visiting from out of town, and would like to take some extra classes while you're there. Some schools allow "drop ins", others don't. If you don't find a school that allows "drop ins" I'd suggest at least doing your stretching, even if you can't actually get in some real practice. Then, when you get home, you won't feel like you've stiffened up.

There are 3 basic stances in the taegeuk forms, the front stance, walking stance and fighting stance, that are used the most. You'll occasionally see horse stance, such as in the end of taegeuk chil-jang, but it's not as common as the first 3 stances I mentioned. When done properly, you'll see a distinct difference in walking stance (feet approximately 1 shoe length apart heel of one to toe of the other) versus front stance (feet approximately 3-4 shoe lengths apart heel to toe). One plus of having a "walking stance" is that it doesn't really have a "fighting" look to it, as the other stances do, so in a "pre-fight" scenario, you can be in a "ready" posture and not look like you're preparing to act. To me, it's a compromise between an obvious fight ready posture and a neutral posture. To the untrained, you don't look like you're fixing to go get physical, so I think it less likely to be seen as an aggressive overture.

I think he means that a student with the appropriate respect towards rank is less likely to do something to jepoardize it. In the case I refer to, the kid refused to change his behavior with less drastic corrective measures, and since his behavior wasn't truly bad, just inappropriate and disruptive, the instructor chose severe sacntions - aka being "busted" to white - rather than dismissal. Call it giving the kid one last chance, if you want to.

In my school a student was demoted from blue (5th gup) back to white belt for misbehavior in class. The student had been given plenty of opportunities to correct his behavior and had not. The head instructor demoted the student and told him he had to start from white belt again or leave the school. He tested for his yellow belt last saturday and passed. What do you all think of this? I think that the head instructor showed some compassion in giving the student the demotion and a chance to start over, instead of just kicking him out. He had basically been a "benign" disruption to classes, hadn't done anything mean to others, hurt anyone, etc.He hadn't listened when corrected about his disruptive behavior, and he got some major consequences. Look at the lesson this kid, yes, a kid, learned by losing the rank it took over a year to get, and actually sticking it out and starting over. It took a lot of courage to stand up there and retest, with everyone knowing the rank that he'd had before. To me, this shows that the instructor's decision was the right one. It sure is one lesson that the kid will never forget! Has anyone had a situation like this, where the student was demoted and given the chance to start again, instead of being summarily dismissed from the school?

I wore glasses when I trained in shotokan, and the frames with the spring loaded hinges help immensely in reducing the amount of damage and need for repairs. I also wore one of the neoprene glasses straps that slip onto the earpieces (croakies was the brand name), the neoprene held on with sweating and all much better than the cloth ones, and I could slide the strap up the earpieces to keep my glasses on a bit more snugly than I normally wore them, which helped to keep them on my face better. There are also flex frames that you can literally twist and they'll return to shape. Havent tried these, but think they'd probably hold up well.

I agree that its hard to see others who aren't making an effort get graded when they should be passed over. It's frustrating, but happens. I just try to focus on what I'm doing, and the progress I'm making. It annoys me to have to work with classmates with no "spirit" in their training, but I just try to put as much as I can into my own training, and if they inadvertently get whacked for being too slow or getting the exercise wrong, and aren't making any effort.... so be it. They made their choice, and I mine. Kez, sometimes all you can do about the slackers is to try to avoid standing near them if possible so that you can pair up with someone else. If nothing else, try talking privately to the instructor about changing up how the class pairs up, so that you don't always have to work with the one next to you who is so lacking in motivation. I actually like working with those junior to me, it helps me reinforce what I know to help teach someone else. I also get more drill out of it, and a new element of challenge in old techniques. Right now there isn't anyone senior, so I don't get to work with others higher up than me, only a couple others of same rank.

Bags of rice make great weights... very flexible so that you can just lay them over an ankle, or put in a bag to do curls, etc. I would suggest you investigate the possiblilty of having a hypermobility disorder. If it's diagnosed, then perhaps you can get referred to a rehabilitation specialist who is experienced in dealing with loose joints, and will know the best things to do to strengthen them. Meanwhile, just use care in what you do in class. Don't push for speed, focus doing things correctly and avoiding hyperextending your joints.

My instructor tells the kids "no baseball bat kicks" to point out that they're kicking straight legged, instead of chambering the kick. It also means that they're telegraphing, swinging the leg around like a baseball bat.

Yes, I realize that there's differences between hitting a moving target and a stationary one, etc. The show does provide some valid explainations for how martial arts can be so effective. Their explainations relating things to car crashes may seem out of context to us, but considering that the engineers were taking the information in relation to their experiences with evaluation of car crash effects on people, you can't blame them for phrasing their analogies in reference to what they're experts at. They could have done better in that respect, choosing analogies more relevant to the rest of us, but I think the show was informative anyway.

Has anyone else seen a program on cable tv called Fight Science?? It was on recently. In it they evaluated different techniques of different martial arts using science to evaluate the techniques in scientific terms of impact strength, damage caused, etc. They had a group of engineers that work with crash test dummies work with some world class martial artists of various styles to determine the reality of what martial arts can do to the human body. They determined that a one punch knockout is possible, that the ninjitsu death punch could really cause death by stopping the heart, that Taekwondo's spinning back kick was the most powerful, etc. They also looked at why power breaking can be accomplished by the human body, if the agility displayed by ninjitusu practicioners is real, etc. This was a very interesting show about martial arts, covering information about different styles, including the use of weaponry. I definitely would recommend watching it.

The words sensei, dojo, ichi, ni, san, shi, go etc are Japanese and used in a lot of karate styles like shotokan. The words dojang, dobok, poomse, hana, dool, set, net, etc are korean and used in Taekwondo and other korean styles.

In my area Target is carrying a weight vest now that they didn't used to have. It's a vest with pockets that you can load with up to 20lb worth of weights. Maybe you should check that out.

Congrats! Glad you made it!

Crescent and sweep (reverse of crescent) kicks are useful as a "defensive" kick in that you can use them to block a punch, or to "sweep aside" the arm/weapon an attacker has, and open up their body to a follow up attack. We're taught that crescent/sweep kicks are primarily used in combination to set up for what follows, not as a standalone move.

In the title.... I passed.