monkeygirl

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the forums!

I'm from the U.S.

Welcome to the forums!

Then what am I left with???

The drums are called Taiko drums, and Ernie Reyes' demo team uses them in their demonstrations. From what I remember of one of their demonstrations, I thought they were hitting the drums with escrima sticks. http://www.taiko.com/ For more info. Hope that helps!

2 weeks ago many of the lower roads in my area were closed because of flooding. My family lives on fairly high ground and we don't have a basement, so we personally don't have any flooding. I know some people who have 4 feet of water in their basements, though It just seems like last summer we couldn't get enough rain, and this summer we're gonna get washed out. We need the rain, but at the same time it's killing the corn, and it's too wet to make hay. Sheesh, I sound like an old local lady

I love a good D chord on guitar...there are just so many musical possibilites from a D chord! A lot of my songs use them. D, Dsus, D7, Dm7, you name it.

The real moral to this story: the best way to a monkey's heart is through her...I mean "its" .... stomach

Welcome to the forums!

Not all of the books are old, but KarateForums has a compiled list of some books recommended by members: http://www.karateforums.com/books.php

Don't confuse kickboxing the martial art, with kickboxing the fitness system. A lot of schools have Cardio Karate or Fitness Kickboxing classes, which are like Tae-Bo. They're for people who want to get in shape, but don't really want to learn a martial art per se. Unfortunately, a lot of schools and their students will just shorten the name of the class to "kickboxing", and thus confusion arises. Kickboxing as in Muay Thai, is a very good stand-up art. Cardio Kickboxing is very good for physical fitness. Just make sure you're clear on which one your school does, or you could be greatly disappointed. I'm going to move this to the Boxing/Kickboxing/Muay Thai forum.

His action scenes were pretty good in that movie, especially with the bo staff. However, his fight scenes were the ONLY good thing in that movie. Brotherhood of the Wolf was SO boring

Welcome to the forums!

Watch your class as often as possible, get a feel for the way things work, try to learn a little.

Since this thread deals with the politics of martial arts, I will move it to the proper forum

I'm going to move this to the "Getting Started in the Martial Arts" forum.

Dang, I was looking forward to a stupid (in a funny way) movie. Like "Dude Where's My Car". Shoulda known better...at least I didn't pay for it! Bruce Almighty is awesome, though, as well as The Italian Job.

I split off the disrespectful posts. RAZOR, I appreciate your helpfulness, but since I split off all traces of the disrespectful posts, I split off yours, too. In the future, guys, try not to get so upset Different strokes for different folks, eh? Take it easy. As for my opinion, palm strikes (because palm strikes are the discussion here, not just open-hand strikes in general) are very useful in a self-defense situation, along with knees, shins and elbows. The heel of your palm is the hardest, toughest part of your hand. You do not need to do any special conditioning on a makiwara in order to use a palm strike without hurting yourself. You do, however, have to have some conditioning to punch someone in the jaw painlessly. This is why a palm strike is great from a self-defense standpoint, especially for use by someone who isn't a martial artist, but simply someone who took a self-defense course or two. Not everybody has time to train or condition. Personally, I have the time to condition, but I don't want swollen, arthritic knuckles. That's also why I don't break boards. If you have wonderfully conditioned fists, go ahead and punch somebody in the jaw. But if not, palm strikes are more knuckle-friendly.

I will give you guys a warning right now: bring the conversation back to a calm, respectful tone. If it gets out of hand again, the thread will be closed.

A few years ago, we had an adult brown belt who always wore suspenders. His gi top/t-shirt would cover it up anyway, so he didn't mind. He was the only one who did it, so it made him really cool

You have captured the very essence of why I don't dance

I uh...don't dance In other words, no. But if I did dance, I would probably play DDR all the time

Arguments are a no-no in Comparative Styles, especially when they're off-topic I split off the argumentative posts in this thread. Remember, this shouldn't be about "which style would win in a fight", it should be more to compare the similarities and differences between Shotokan and your own style. From there, people can decide for themselves whether or not these similarities/differences are pros or cons. I don't know much about Shotokan, but I'm going to post so you guys can get an idea of what I'm talking about here. (going on speculation from what I've heard around the boards) From what I've heard, Shotokan uses a lot more katas than my Tae Kwon Do style uses. Personally, I wouldn't mind that because I enjoy kata. I've seen some tournament Shotokan fights on ESPN, and they seem to be right up there with Muay Thai in terms of brutality. This is much harder than the Tae Kwon Do point sparring my school does, even harder than the normal ("bloodthirsty" ) sparring we do in class. This would be a bit of a turn-off for me, because I'm fairly small and fragile...I can't really take or give that kind of punishment. Those are really the only comparisons I can make right now, but I hope you get the idea. Happy posting!

The hardest part about learning a kip-up is trying to coordinate your body to do the whole thing. Once you figure that out, it'll take you a couple tries to get enough height and forward motion to keep from slamming back down. Practice on cushy mats if at all possible. When you try it, realize that you might: - stub some toes on your landing - not get enough forward motion and smack your back/back of your head on the floor - get too much forward motion and land on your face Which is why the cushy mats are so important! Here is how I do my kip-up: 1. Start from laying position, on my back 2. Pull my knees into my chest (and butt off the floor) 3. Put my hands on the floor, close to my face (but don't push yet) 4. Kick out and up hard with my legs 5. Push off the floor hard with my hands (Steps 4 and 5 should be done one right after the other, but not at the same time...it's like a staggered movement. The timing takes practice) Some people don't have to worry about Step 5, because they don't need their hands, period. For a lot of people when they're just learning a kip-up, using hands can actually make it more difficult. Try it both ways and see how it works. I've always needed the use of my hands, but that could be because I'm female and the whole center-of-balance thing is different. Also: I find it a little easier to start the kip-up from a sitting position, just for purposes of rhythm and momentum. However, doing it from a sitting position wouldn't be sticking with the purpose of the move, which is to go from laying down to standing up, with as little effort and time as possible. Good luck!