monkeygirl

I moved this from General Chat, since this is where it belongs Welcome to the forums!

My high school has a pretty nice gym with lots of exercise equipment and machines. I'm required to work out twice a week, an hour a day. As of right now, my workout consists of something like this: 15 minute bike warmup Leg press (175 lbs) Seated leg extension (120 lbs) Leg curl (60 lbs) Vertical bench press (90 lbs) Seated tricep extension (120 lbs) Bicep curl w/freeweights (haven't started yet) Here's what I'm looking for: 1. Suggestions for how many sets and reps I should use in my current exercises and 2. Suggestions for new exercises. I prefer machines over freeweights, but I wouldn't mind two or three dumbbell exercises. Please include set and repetition information if you can. Are there any good lower- and upper-back (especially near shoulderblades) strengthening exercises that I could do? Also, please keep in mind that while I'm a practitioner of TKD, I'm not in formal training, so I don't have two classes a week to keep up my physique anymore. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

Welcome to the forums!

LOL GrrArrg! No, I was exaggerating. I'm saying it's good that he became alert. There's a huge difference between hearing a suspicious noise, and seeing your attacker coming toward you. Relatively speaking, Rick E. did a good job of being alert. However, if an attack was imminent, standing there looking around would be pretty bad. Unfortunately, adrenaline stress is something you can't really work on (effectively, anyway) in class. Sure, there's the adrenaline rush when you perform a kata all by yourself, but that's not really the same. Although, what would it matter? Those little trolls are a bugger to hit.

I'd say it's worth looking into...a 3rd dan from my dojo taught English, German and coached football at my high school last year (although it wasn't my high school last year...I just started there). He also taught TKD classes to some of the high school students, and it was free to them (other than paying for uniforms, sparring gear, etc). He did a great job of teaching them, and the few students I had the privelige of fighting were very good...and they were yellow belts! So, just because it's free doesn't mean it's cheap in quality.

That reminds me: I worked out on the heavy bag at my school's gym (I was working out with my mom, other than her I was alone), and mom said she heard someone say "cool". I thought that was kind of weird.

Cool. I've read a little bit about Hwaorang Taekwondo (and I do mean a little bit). I think it started as a teenage army kind of thing...they were mainly archers. Yeah, that's all I know. Someone more educated will probably come along and correct me

I love TKD overall...I love the sparring & katas, I was pleased with the self-defense, plus it's fun and a good sport.

Thanks for the clarification. Well, as I said...check out the link, read the story, and all shall be explained

*drools*

I think he meant me, Drunken Monkey, but I can't be sure. :confused:

3 years???? Are you serious? 3 years is a pretty long time...if you love the school it goes by very fast, but if you're miserable, it's rough. Hopefully, all will go well for you. I Googled the HTF and found "Hellenic TKD". Are you from Greece by any chance? EDIT:: I also found Hwaorang TKD.

Finding a kickboxing school where you can train is going to be very important for you. You'll need to keep your skills fresh, as well as learn new ones and keep improving your skills. Obviously, this will help you provide a better kickboxing education for your students.

And "unrealistic" fighting can also be just plain fun! Point fighting may not be terribly realistic, but look at it this way: How do jumping jacks prepare you for a real fight? Are you going to defend yourself by doing jumping jacks near your opponent? No, they help with endurance, warming up your muscles, etc...the same goes for push-ups, jumping drills and other warm-ups/strength-building exercises you may do in class. IMO, point fighting works on your ability to strategize and adapt to a fight, as well as working on your speed and control. Of course you won't kick your attacker in the head during a "real" fight, but you will be light on your feet and very observant of how your attacker fights. Point fighting helps to focus and magnify those parts of fighting, rather than doing it all at once in realistic fighting. You can practice putting them all together when you do realistic, self-defense fighting in class. I maintain that every drill has its purpose.

Congrats, Practise! Keep trying, I'm sure you'll get that side split

Someone was impressed by your incredible technique Most people are still fascinated by the martial arts...those who practice at 3:30 am must be especially fascinating. Although it sounds pretty creepy for someone to be watching you at that early in the morning. I don't think you really froze up, because an attack was not evident. The fact that you stopped what you were doing and started looking around shows that you became alert, focused and were assessing the situation. Nobody was running after you shouting "I'M GUNNA KILL YOO SUCKA!!!" so I'd say you did pretty well.

How did I miss this thread for so long? It took me about 2.5 years...normally it takes 3 to 4, but I did a lot of extra training in the summers. Add teaching time on top of that, and I was pretty much putting in 25 hours a week during the school year, and 40 hours a week during the summer.

Read this: http://www.freshangles.com/xpressions/humor/articles/2.html and you shall understand why. It's a little violent and twisted, but it's all pretty PG-rated.

"A Separate Peace" by John Knowles. I loved the love-hate friendship dynamic between the two characters. I've lived near a prep school for 13 years (this year I'm actually going to it), so the story hit pretty close to home. Plus, it's just very well-written. Very fine book indeed

Can you say... "lab mice"? (don't get on me about animal rights, I have a fierce hatred of mice.)

Just because you aren't a black belt doesn't mean the belts you award have no validity. The validity comes from the skill...IMO, belts are just a representation of your progress, nothing more. If you're a good teacher and your students become skilled, I wouldn't see anything wrong with awarding them a belt. Now, if you were a YELLOW belt, I would think very, very differently on the situation. But you're a brown belt, and that's pretty much close enough. However, I know others would disagree and say that you have to be a black belt or certified instructor before you can promote anyone.

I went to Williamsburg, Virginia with my family during summer vacation. We stopped in at an ATA school to watch class, just for fun. The school seemed pretty good and the instructor was nice enough. My family seemed to think it was pretty good. I didn't care for it much, though. The students all say "ATA!" when they bow...creepy! I'm sure it's a great place, but it wasn't the TKD that I'm used to. I think I would pursue a different style altogether before I went to an ATA school, but that's just me.

I cannot stress this enough: meeting someone from the internet, ESPECIALLY when they've been freaking you out like this, is NEVER a good idea!!! It's just plain bad. Now, there may be a safer alternative. You could set up a meeting with this person, set up a hidden camcorder to videotape the meeting place, and then stand him/her up. That way, you're safe and you have some idea of who this person is. Even that is kind of risky, because the person could be hanging out at the meeting place the whole time. WomanInBlack, you're right to a certain extent...AOL does have a lot to deal with. But if wrestlingkaratechamp17 truly feels threatened, I think he should give it a shot. What's the worst that could happen? They might refuse to help him? I don't think this is something to be taken lightly. There are such things as Internet stalkers. Hopefully, someone's just playing a joke on you, but you never know.

Black Belt tests will vary from school to school, but I've never heard of a test like that. My test consisted of a 3-mile run, every single block and kick we'd learned since white belt, every kata strung together, one-steps, self-defense, knife and gun defense, red marker "knife" defense (we were attacked with an uncapped red marker and wearing a white t-shirt...when you got "stabbed" your t-shirt would tell the tale), and lots of sparring. Even that was spread over the course of two days, though.

I think he means teams like Team Paul Mitchell that compete in the ISKA tournaments, but on a smaller scale. I'll move this to the Sport MA forum.