monkeygirl

I agree with Laurie...I'd like to go to Korea and train for a few weeks in the summer...I even have a connection that could get me in! Problem is, I speak zero Korean... I'd also like to seriously hit the tournament circuit, working my way up to state and national competitions, up and down the east coast. My dad thinks that's the only way I'll be "discovered" Yes, I want to be a female Jackie Chan! Sounds silly and juvenile, but it combines the two things I love...MA and performing.

Remember that you're still young, and you need to be careful with weight training. Too much stress on your bones right now (or any time for that matter) can weaken them. I'd recommend finding a physical fitness trainer at a gym, who can design a workout routine that is personalized for you. S/he should know what amount of weight will be safe for you.

Hitting a woman = abusing her = no reason other than to be cruel. Sparring a woman = a mutual display of respect = helping each other progress in your training. They're two completely different concepts. As my brother says: sparring women is the ultimate display of equal rights. At most there are 4 girls in my class, including myself and the instructor. Our class has about 20/30 students total. If all of those guys had the "don't hit girls" mentality, I'd be left with very few sparring partners!!

I received my blackbelt about 6 months before my 16th birthday. So technically, by some dojo's rules, I shouldn't have had it yet I am definitely against 7 year old blackbelts. I agree that they don't have the emotional or physical maturity to hold a full blackbelt, and a 7-year-old should only be a junior blackbelt, just to make the distinction. However, what do you do for a talented kid who started MA at 7 years old? Say it takes about 3 or 4 years for him to advance through the kyu/gup ranks...that means he'll be a 10 or 11-year-old black belt. So, he could be given a junior blackbelt. Fair enough. But are you going to ask a kid to remain as a junior blackbelt for 5 or 6 years, just so they can turn 16? And then from there, you'll give them a full "adult" 1st dan, which means they'll learn the same old stuff they've BEEN learning as a junior blackbelt for 6 years already. But since they just got 1st dan, they have to wait a few more years until they're ready for 2nd dan, when they can finally learn something new. I don't know about you guys, but my dojo doesn't have that much material for black belts. Spending 8 or 9 years learning the same things over and over again will get pretty boring. I know that will raise the topic "Then they obviously don't have the emotional maturity." But would you ask an adult to put their training basically on hold for 9 years? Like I said, I'm against 7-year-old BBs. But there has to be a better way to hold them off. A way to keep them interested and learning until they're old enough. Most systems make it unfair for young students. They either become brown belts at age 10 and are told to wait for 6 years 'til they can be promoted, or they are undeservingly given a belt. I'm not saying that a deserving 10-year-old doesn't exist, but generally speaking, most aren't ready. Still, there has to be a better way

lol ninjanurse! The only six-packs I see on women are female fitness competitors. From what I understand, many of them don't go on steroids (could be wrong). However, they have almost zero body fat. Women are supposed to have a higher percentage of body fat than men. It's just necessary... On a related note: if you exercise so much that you lose your period, can't that screw up your ability to have children in the future? Anyway, I also saw a female boxer who had the best 6-pack I've ever seen...male or female.

I decided to be nice and not force my brother to ride in the car while I drove

Amen, niel0092. (your first message) That sounds almost exactly like my school. We teach effective self-defense stuff like elbows and knees. We get into a little bit of ground fighting, with only about two or three actual techniques. Any other ground fighting/grappling is just trial-and-error stuff...learn as you go. We also do joint locks like Laurie mentioned...similar to CDT and Krav Maga. Basically, pressure points, joint locks and a little bit of redirection. We also do katas (both open-hand and weapons katas) and flashy jump-kicks. I don't think that doing artistic things makes you weaker in realistic self-defense/sparring techniques. It just makes you well-rounded. Think about it: say someone takes golf lessons for an hour a day for a year. Then they decide they would like to learn how to swim, too. So, they decide to take swimming lessons for an hour a day, as well as still taking golf lessons. Does this mean that the person's golf game will suffer? No. It just means their swimming will excel. One does not cancel out the other. OK that's enough of my weird analogies

Woo! Yesterday was my first driving experience! We went to a big parking lot and I drove at 5 mph. So yes, I can reach the pedals I learned the value of turning the steering wheel quickly at low speeds...still working on that "smooth stopping" thing.

I'm moving this to the Weapons forum, where you'll probably get a better response

If you're talking about the actual striking surface of the bag being filled with water, that will absorb your hits much better than sand. Hitting sand would be like... punching a beach If you're talking about the plastic base of the bag (like a Century Wavemaster) I'd highly suggest filling them with sand. It may be a little more expensive, and it won't be as easy to remove so that the bags can be moved to a different building. However, those bags have a tendency to leak everywhere...it's much, much easier to sweep up a few grains of sand than to mop up some water.

Maybe I've been watching too much Seinfeld, but aren't there some kind of Good Samaritan laws? You're required to report a crime when you see it and help if at all possible, if I'm correct.

I know this was said a while ago, but I just saw X-Men 1 last night on FX. Storm flies up the elevator shaft at the Statue of Liberty Just thought I'd point out that little detail in a geeky manner

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the forums!

Plyometric drills (squats, flying squats, stairs, etc.) will definitely help you build explosive speed and power. Doing things like windsprints will help you practice moving your legs at high speed. Try doing the machine-gun kicks slowly, providing as much resistance as possible. Also kick as high as possible. Do about 3 sets of 10 of those, or as many as you can stand. Doing them slow, with resistance, will really build your leg muscles. It will also give you a good oppurtunity to really observe yourself and your techniques...foot position, chamber position, hips and shoulder position, etc. If you need to, hold on to a chair, wall, bedpost, whatever to help you balance. Make sure that you keep your upper body as upright as possible...leaning will shift your body weight from your leg to where your body is leaning. It makes the dreal too easy and it doesn't work as well. Expect to be sore for a few days.

Yeah I don't like the sizing patches either...but I do have to admit to their usefulness. That's why I'm glad I've achieved Dan ranking....we use a Century belt! Plus you don't have to get a new belt every 4 or 5 months...wearing the same one for 2/3 years will make it nice and soft When I got my Red Belt, it was Ikon. I hated that thing!!! From then on, I weaseled my way into getting Century belts.

This is a thread for Strategies & Tactics.

There are sooooo many series of X-Men...you couldn't just start at the beginning of one series, because it still wouldn't be the very beginning. If you want the VERY beginning, it'll run you around $300 for a legibly copy (that is a complete guess on the price, I haven't a clue). I remember walking into a comic book store when I was 8 (just your average store, but it seemed huge to me at the time). So many comics! I couldn't understand why we didn't get any X-Men ones...then I grew up and realized that comics are much, much more gory than the Fox Cartoons

It's when white tube socks are pulled the whole way up, and paired with black sandals and kakhi shorts....I think that's when trouble starts I always thought it was black socks with brown loafers and shorts was the problem, but I guess it works for white socks too.... I sound like some kind of sock racist!

Yup yup yup jake Still waiting to get behind the wheel....

If your school is just starting out, it probably won't be very fiscally wise to try to keep things in stock like a pro shop. A lot of schools just put things on a monthly order when the student asks for it, and then the student waits for it to come in. The three major suppliers for my dojo are: Century, Ikon, and AWMA (ProForce). From my experience, Ikon has the best quality foam sparring gear (lasts long). Ikon has very good lightweight uniforms. A lot of people on the forums here like ProForce's uniforms...I've never had one. When it comes to a heavyweight uniform, I much prefer Century's over Ikon's. It may not last as long, but it just feels better. Century has good equipment like standing bags and hand targets. They also have the novelty items like T-shirts, keychains, coffee mugs, etc. Our school orders belts from Ikon, but...I've always preferred Century's belts. They're not slick like Ikon's, so they stay tied better. I do have to admit, though...Ikon has a good system going for putting sizes on belts. Century just puts stickers on the belts that you can peel off later. Ikon, however, has the sizes on white tags that are permanently attached to the belt. That way, you can just walk up to a student, read the tag, and know what size belt s/he will need for their next grading. It also makes it easier to get them from storage. It's such a pain when a sticker falls off a Century belt...it becomes the unknown belt. What size is it? Nobody knows! Anyway, those are just my opinions on gear, etc.

I would suggest karate. Muay Thai is generally viewed as something brutal in which you bloody your opponent. Maybe Muay Thai isn't as brutal as I think it is. All I know of Muay Thai is what I see on ESPN 2, so you can see where I'm coming from. *shudders*

Normally this kind of question would be asked via PM, for your future reference.

Dating? What's that?

We used to have a tape of my black belt test. However, it isn't digital, and its location is unknown Could be in Florida or New York... It's a pretty cool tape though...shows me getting pounded into a wall! We also have tapes of some of my colored belt tests, but alas, not digital. Oh and when I say "My" test, my brother was also involved