monkeygirl

Chinese arts seem to be known for fluid, beautiful motion (i.e.: Tai Chi and Kung Fu...and don't tell me that Kung Fu just means hard work, I don't have a more specific style name for you ), emulation of animals, and the arts are known for being "softer" styles. Anyway, those are the stereotypes I'm familiar with. I don't have any personal experience with a Chinese Art, so I can't give you the facts. I'll move this to the Chinese Arts Forum.

Mr. T has T-cell lymphoma, but he isn't dead. In fact, I think he's beating it! I pity the cancer cells ...

Funny post, but I have to wonder about the title, too....I'm intrigued.

I think a big problem is the common image of ki. I've experimented with ki myself...unbendable arm, etc. It's just focusing mentally to be able to do incredible things physically. Unfortunately, the media tends to portray ki as this mysterious magical force that can create fireballs and kill a running yak from 300 yards away.

Gotta love H*R puppets...first with The Cheat, then with Homestar as John MacEnroe (yeah I can't spell his last name but whatever).

Keep in mind, this may be due to the fact that you haven't been training very long. Your dojo might incorporate conditioning as you get higher up in the ranks. Anyway, some good ones are: Shin & forearm conditioning -- just steadily whack them on things and they'll get stronger oh, and bruised, too. If you're going to be stretching every day, warm up your muscles with some cardio...jumping jacks, jogging, etc., and then do some LIGHT stretching. By light, I mean thorough and soothing, but don't push yourself to reach new heights of flexibility every day. The max times you want to push yourself is three times a week (space them out...monday, wednesday, friday). Any more than that and you could stress yourself out. Since you're training 5 times a week, however, you'll probably get all the stretching you need there, IF they stretch thoroughly. If they only spend 5 minutes a day on stretches, you'll want to stretch on your own. Strength training is an important part of martial arts training...I don't know why, but so many of us (myself included for awhile there) think that strength training slows you down. Just make sure that your weight training is balanced...if you work your biceps, work your triceps too. If you work your hamstrings, work your quadriceps, too. That way the muscles can work together equally and you don't sacrifice speed. I competed in my first tournament in my second month of training, one of the best things I ever did. Tournaments are great learning experiences, and also a lot of fun. I wish I could go to a tournament a week, but I have neither the funds nor the transportation I can't answer any of your other questions, sorry. However, you may want to take some of these questions, and post them as threads in other forums, like the Sports or Health, Training & Fitness forums. Also, cruise around some of the style forums (Chinese Arts, Korean Arts, Grappling, Muay Thai, etc.), read some of the threads, and you might be able to get an idea of the different styles, in addition to whatever answers might be posted in this thread. Hope that helps!

I have to question your reasons for training, or for wanting to increase the power of your punches. Just because someone makes fun of you, doesn't mean you can beat them up. If this person were actually physically hurting you, that would be a different story. But as it is now, you need to be the better person and walk away. If anything, that is perhaps the best lesson martial arts can ever teach you...how does that saying go? "The true master never fights" or something like that. Besides, what kind of friend makes fun of you like that? My friends and I nag each other all the time, but it's never serious or cruel. The next time he makes fun of you, you may want to tell him how much you dislike his "kidding". Do it in front of your other friends...if they're true friends, they'll support you when they realize how much he's hurting your feelings. In any case, I don't think that violence is the answer.

This is Strike 2, guys. Other than kenpo4life's post, I haven't seen a single post discussing techniques, training methods, etc. I need to see theories, information, and comparisons to support what you're saying. Is there some sort of weakness in the way that Muay Thai fighters throw their kicks, so a shootfighter can catch them? Or is a shootfighter no match for a MT fighter's rock-hard shins?

Thanks, MadCapoeirista. What about power? Does that just come with a lot of speed?

Rather than making the instructor come to you, you may want to organize a bunch of students, get transportation, and go to the dojo yourselves. Some instructors can be lazy and unwilling to travel. IF you have a lot of people interested in the BJJ training: You might be able to work out some kind of flat rate with the dojo. For example, you can offer $100 per lesson, no matter how many people from your college come. That way, if you bring 20 people, it's only $5 a pop. I just used those numbers as an example, but I think you get the idea...the more students you bring, the less it costs each of you. It's also a benefit to the instructor, because if any of the people in your group are local, they have a cheap way to try the school, and may eventually decide to stick with it long-term. Explain to the owner/instructor/whoever that you'll be guaranteeing him a certain amount of business every time. That will look pretty attractive to a school owner, especially if he has a smaller school. This really won't work with a small group of college students, however. You probably won't be able to offer enough money to the instructor to make it worth his time. My other suggestion: Have you searched the resources at your college? You never know, you just might have a BJJ blackbelt or two on campus.

Thanks again for your help, everyone. Heidi: thanks for the tip! I tried relaxing my upper body and the kicks were much easier. I think I'm getting closer to getting this down. Obviously, the muscle training will be a big part. Still welcoming more tips

Cute poem UHF converter...isn't that some kind of amplifier for TV signals, back when they were really weak and far away? I'm gonna guess that UHF stands for Ultra-High Frequency, but I really have no clue.

I remember having/witnessing a few of those matches...good times

Welcome to the forums!

Patrick just knows I would lose by a landslide and it just wouldn't be fair

Yeah, when you get into hardcore freestyling, the true genius of the genre comes out. It's like a battle of words, which I can definitely respect. That's probably the only time I've ever really enjoyed listening to rap...which is inconvenient because it has to be live. Yeah, I'm down.

Well, I sleep in as much as possible on weekends. Normally, I'm in bed around 10 pm and wake up around 6 am. Plus, I was trying to sleep off the MA workout I had that day. Gosh my hips were sore. [/desperate attempt to stay on-topic]

Sorry if I was unclear, I'll try to fix that: I know you weren't suggesting that we teach kids lethal techniques, and I didn't mean to portray as such. What I said still holds true, however. If the kid is bratty enough, it doesn't matter what the technique is: he'll use it to hurt someone. Trust me on this one!! We used to have a 5-year-old who, in the 5 minutes before class began, would run around the mats attacking the other students, and the instructors! Most of his classes consisted of sitting in the corner . My point is, the dojo is NOT the major source of discipline, the parents are...and teaching children discipline seems to be an area that parents are seriously lacking in these days. 2 hours a week of dojo time just can't compare to the other 166 hours a week that the parents spend spoiling their kids. My school was lucky enough to only ever have two or three of those kids at a time, but if your entire class is full of little heathens, what can you do? The class is trapped; the instructor doesn't want to teach techniques that the kids are going to turn around and use at day care...it doesn't exactly look good for the school. True, a violent kid would be knocking around his day care buddies anyway, but it's the moral equivalent (excuse me for exaggerating this slightly) of giving a wife-beater a gun. Now he has a tool, and now it's YOUR fault. Do you see where I'm going with this? If you're lucky enough to have a nice class like JohnG's seemed to be, then you can teach them lots of things...we often taught Stranger-Danger and Fire Safety when the bullies left. Why didn't we just ask him to leave, then? My dojo was a McDojo to the extent that its owners were very money-oriented. The only time the school EVER asked a student to leave was when that student's grandfather consistently became unbearable (disrupting class from the parent's seating, even shoving one of my best friends into a coke machine, a 14-year-old assistant instructor at the time). My older brother, the head instructor of the lil' dragons class, had a talk with the most violent kid's mother. She basically told him that she brought the kid there for discipline because she knew he was out of hand. She wasn't even trying to discipline him at home. Besides making the kid sit down a lot, there was nothing else that we could do. I think these spoiled, abusive children force McDojos and dojos like mine (relatively legitimate training but very greedy) to "play" at martial arts and babysit. What else can they do? I hope that long-winded post clears things up a bit.

That's true, he did say that 45's would be easier to throw. That still takes a lot of hip rotation however, to be able to go from one to the next. Thanks, everyone! Keep 'em coming

Congratulations everyone!

How long have you been training under your sensei? I simply ask because I know I wouldn't work ANY sparring or strength training, and a limited amount of bag training with someone who's only been around a week or two. This is for several reasons: Sparring: It takes a certain adjustment period for people to get used to moving in the martial arts, and during that time, I don't think they should be punching at anyone. Strength training: If you work strength/power in class, the problem is that not every student has perfect technique in their punches, etc. If they then go on to punch a bag as hard as possible (meanwhile their wrist is limp and hanging down), they could cause serious damage to themselves. The same goes for bag training, because an overambitious student or two might punch harder than they can handle. I would wait about 4-6 months before beginning that type of training, but that's just me.

I dunno...the members of team Paul Mitchell are definitely very talented. Very talented gymnasts, that is. I've never seen any of them fight and that worries me. Their routines are absolutely amazing, I just can't stand it when someone does 50 backflips and one kick in a kata and calls it martial arts. There's more to it than just looking pretty!! Speaking of which, they do have MARVELOUS hair.

I recently started training in TKD again, this time with a friend of mine from high school. He's a 2nd dan, and his style of TKD is very different of mine. For example, at my old school, we never did double kicks. There are many other new things he's teaching me, but I'm having the most trouble with double kicks. To clarify what I mean: double kicks are when you start out with a back leg roundhouse, then jump and throw another roundhouse with the other leg. Eventually, you're supposed to be able to throw these consecutively, to where you're throwing ten kicks right after the other. Here's my problem: I can't get my hips to rotate enough between kicks. As a result, my kicks are pretty sloppy, and my shoulders are ending up square with my target. Also, I seem to get closer with every kick, so that by the time I'm on the third one, I'm hitting with my knees. Finally, I can't get any power off the kick at all, but I think that will probably come with time as I learn to do the kick properly. Basically, I'm screwing the whole thing up. I need tips for: - Hip rotation (the sides of my abs get really sore after doing these, I don't think I have the proper muscles for this.) - Maintaining a proper distance from the bag/target - Overall execution of the technique Any help would be appreciated, but especially in those three categories I mentioned. My friend has been very patient with me, but I'd like to get this down before his patience wears thin! Thanks

Well, correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't a lot of martial arts schools in Asia kind of like boarding schools? Obviously, they're not all like that, but I know I've heard of a few. When it comes to being serious martial artists, a lot of these kids spend their entire lives living at the dojo, learning at the dojo, etc. In America, we don't really have anything like that. If we teach a child to gouge someone's eyes out, they might go home and try it. We have no idea, because we aren't with them 24/7, and we have no control over their discipline. We have no control over what their parents do, nothing. If a child lives at the dojo, the sensei becomes his father, sort of.

Sounds like a good comic strip.... "Who knows what evil goes up a chimney down but not down a chimney up? Umbrella Man!!! With his trusty and ferociously decorated umbrella by his side, nothing can stop this crime-fighting duo!!" *sigh* this is what happens when you wake up at 12:30 in the afternoon.