monkeygirl

Don't kick. The only way you'll really lose your balance on a wet floor is to pick your feet up to kick or start running. Knee strikes would work because you'd be holding on to him, but palm strikes, wrist locks, etc. would be preferable. But then again, it probably won't come to that, hopefully.

Ohhhh yes. There is always at least ONE student who has B.O. problems!!! Just make a general announcement to the class, telling everyone to keep their gis and bodies clean, but also stress the importance of a powerful deodorant. See the humour in the situation, and portray this to your students, rather than simply lecturing them on hygiene. Make sure they understand the seriousness of the situation, however. It's very difficult to focus on technique when your attention is devoted to staying conscious in spite of strong odors! EDIT: I had a really awesome fainting smiley here, but it isn't working

1: The page is wayyy too long, considering that there isn't even any content at the bottom. Also, one menu bar is enough...there doesn't need to be a horizontal AND a vertical bar. If there's going to be a menu bar on the left, it should probably be in frames just to make matters simpler. When you have frames, you don't have to worry about putting a bunch of code in for the sidebar on every page. Also, the sidebar menu links could be buttons instead of text links, which take up too much room and are hard to read. Small, simple images would be preferable: easier to read and more aesthetically pleasing. Make sure the images are small though, not all of us have cable modems. The sidebar menu needs to be on every page for ease of navigation. 2. A good site loads quickly, is pleasing to look at, is well organized, and is unique. I hate pages that are just a background color and big text. Organize your information in an interesting (yet easy-to-read) fashion, utilizing tables and frames. Make a nice, simple color scheme so that everything looks pulled together. Find a nice text size that doesn't look chunky. An image or two is nice, but don't overload your page with GIF animations and huge images. It's disturbing to look at and takes forever to load. If you use a background image, same thing applies: make it a simple repeating pattern, rather than one huge image. NEVER EVER EVER put background music on a page!! If you want music, then allow your viewers the CHOICE of listening to it, i.e. they have to click a link to hear it. Make sure your page has a sense of continuity...don't use different fonts and background colors for every page, unless you really want one or two pages to be very different. If you can learn how to use them, Cascading Style Sheets will be your friend! You'll probably want to hand code the website using HTML and JavaScript. Doing this gives you full control over the loading time and look of the website. Programs like FrontPage add a ton of unnecessary code that bogs down the loading time. 3. This is my brother's website that he uses to test out projects and web designs. It's pretty cool...check out the "games" section, he made all of those. Other than that site, I don't really browse around looking for good examples of web design, so I can't really help you out there. 4. Good luck!

I prefer the sitcoms, but A-Team was pretty cool Then again, I wasn't even alive back then...

I'm a blackbelt My old dojo's system seems to follow yours fairly closely, Azmyth. Trust me, I know how frustrating it can be to have to wait for promotions. There were times when I knew all of the material for a belt before I ever received it, but I couldn't test for green belt today and blue belt tomorrow. Rather than being bored for four months, I just started to study the next belt's material! I did this by watching the higher ranking students in my class, which sounds like what you already have in mind. Doing that can be good as well as bad, however. Good: You aren't bored, and you'll be at an advantage when you actually get your blue belt and start learning its material. Bad: You might spend so much time learning the new material that you don't practice the "old", or current, material. Also, you'll just end up being a bored blue belt who's trying to learn the material for the next belt. Obviously, there are other potentially bad things about this, but I did it for 8 belts and never had a single problem. Is your instructor the type to delay your testing for another 6 months if you so much as even mention the word "test"? If not, I would suggest that you talk to him, and let him know that you think you're back in the swing of things, and finally ready to test for blue. Hopefully he'll be understanding and allow you to test. Just make sure you aren't acting overconfident with him...I was never the type to delay testing as I mentioned above, but a student's attitude DID greatly affect my decision of whether or not to test him/her sooner. Good luck!

Welcome to the forums! Wow, Sai...congrats on your 5000th post!!!

What about Dinty Moore? He has mighty good stew.

Please give some comparative reasons as to why you would choose one over the other (e.g.: I would personally choose Judo because I'm small, and the style is practically designed for small people, utilizing leverage. Also, I love to kick, so boxing isn't a good fit for me.).

Actually, I think staying light on your feet (and therefore being on the balls of your feet) is better for your punches than your kicks. If you can move quickly, you can quickly and easily get in range for punching. For kicking, it all depends on my mood. If i'm fighting defensively, I prefer to hang with all of my weight on my back leg (flat-footed), and have my front foot barely touching the floor. This puts my hip in a good position for a roundhouse or sidekick with my front leg, which is usually the only leg I kick with. If i'm fighting offensively, my weight is more centered and I'm on the balls of my feet, so I'll probably lead with some punches before I move on to kicks. As for improving your speed: weights help a lot. Improving the strength of the muscle makes it easier to perform simple tasks. The easier it is, the faster you can move. Just make sure that you practice some speed drills throughout your weight training. I say this because I think muscles can slow you down if you don't train them to be fast as they grow.

Umm..."South Park - The Movie" isn't exactly one I would classify as a good, thought-provoking film.

#9, The Performer. Most are true, some are not.

When I'm in a fantasy/sci-fi mood, I reach for anything by Anne McCaffrey, especially the Acorna and Dragonriders of Pern series. Anything by Douglas Adams is a good pick, too.

This sort of thread belongs in the Getting Started in the Martial Arts forum, so I moved it here

Yeah, I just like to cheat with it...get a tank or flying cars or uber-handling and drive really really fast. I especially like to play it in front of my parents and then ask if we can go practice driving

So it doesn't matter that I've been playing a wide variety of videogames since I was four, for a total of 12 years? What a shame I enjoy Final Fantasy games for the same reason I enjoy Harry Potter books...they're fun and easy. Anyway, back on topic: I really liked the original Virtua Fighter games in the arcade, but I really don't care for #4. It's not even that I was that bad at it...I got up to 2nd kyu without losing a match on my first try ever. I just prefer other games. I've had an urge to play Grand Theft Auto for about a week now, but I haven't had time thanks to homework. [/whining]

Ok, this thread was really never a good idea...it's just plain offensive. Closed.

For your future reference, the "edit" button allows you to fix your spelling errors after you've already posted.

Everyone can drive a car, but not everyone can keep it on the road... I hate "drill instructor" type senseis. Half the time, they end up traumatizing their students.

Here we go: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=8082 Thanks.

Yeah, the guy was pretty unappreciative. It's better than SNL's "Bathroom Monkey".

Our beginner's classes were 45 minutes long, and the advanced class was an hour long. Also, the family class I taught (included all ages and ranks) was an hour long.

Oh. Sorry, nothing interesting there.

Trunk monkeys have been used by my family for years..."ancient Scottish secret", you could say. :D Monkeyyyys :D

Those graphics were state-of-the-art at the time! They're still pretty mind-boggling in the FMV's, considering the technology they had to work with. I love FF7, no matter how corny, confusing, or silly it may be

When you're looking at something from a price standpoint, the main question you have to ask yourself is: WHY is it so cheap? Do you have to have a sharp, bladed (or, in other words, REAL) sword? If not, you may want to find a wooden, lightweight version of the weapon you will be practicing. This will serve several purposes: 1. Lightweight weapons are nearly always the best ones to start with when you first learn the weapon. That way your brain can concentrate on learning, rather than on "omg this is so heavy". 2. Sharp, metal sword: stab yourself in the gut Blunt, lightweight wooden sword: minorly bash yourself in the head. Maybe. 3. The wooden sword will most likely be cheaper than a quality "real" sword. By using the wooden one in its place, you'll gain some time to save up for a "real" sword. I don't really know much about swords, but that's just what I would do if I was in your position.