monkeygirl

My favorite has to be: "they are nowhere near the airport ..they are lost in the desert...they can not read a compass...they are retarded." how ridiculous!! Moving this to Humor

We have one african-american student. We (jake, benedictbm and I) live in a really small town. The only other "minorities" we really get at the dojo are hispanic and asian, and that's pretty rare too.

If I remember correctly, I thought I saw on TV that Jackie Chan was actually a stunt double for Bruce Lee...?? Somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Just thought that was an interesting tidbit...

Although they may seem "girly", fans (or "tessen" as they are often called) were used by the ancient Samurai, considered to be a more sophisticated weapon, and a valued part of the samurai's arsenal. Check out this link: http://www.e-budokai.com/hibuki/tessen.htm Is that masculine enough for you?

Tennis is fun It's hard to find a partner who can play, though. Not to give anybody the impression that I can play! Once I get into it I'm ok. I prefer volleyball, though. Don't need no stinking rackets!

Well, personally...I wouldn't know. I've never gone up to a guy and rubbed his legs. Haven't really thought about it much However...I'm very used to seeing guys in gi pants, or some other form of long pants, to where I can't see any leg hair. So when summertime comes around and I see my MA friends in shorts...it's very strange. I'm not used to it. I just think "put some pants on!" I'm not really expecting smooth legs, but when I see the pasty white with sparse patches of dark curly hair...it's kinda gross.

tsk tsk karate_woman!! Lucky you, Doug! Once you start learning double fans, maybe you can give me some tips

Yeah we use that too...I do a kata to that song. But it gets such a good reaction from the crowds when they hear it! I guess they just don't really expect to see a humorous twist like that. You can definitely tell the age group of your audience...the 30-somethings nod and laugh. Some of the people who were watching oh-so-seriously will begin to smile and really have fun with it. Sometimes the rest of the demo team will sing along...which can really screw me up! Thankfully they only really do that in practice

This is the first time I've ever tried to learn a weapon by video. I've learned some tricks from the Kicknastics tapes, but the double fans will be the most complicated thing I've learned from a tape.

Welcome to the forums!

Congratulations on your first post! Make sure you stop by the Introductions forum and introduce yourself! I'm not sure if you'd consider this a "strange or rare" weapon style, but I've been trying to train myself to use the Double Tai Chi Fan. They are basically the fans you see Geisha hide their faces with, but these have metal blades in the fabric to weigh them down and make them a little more deadly. I have a videotape that I'm supposed to use, but... it's kinda hard to practice your tosses in the living room

Let's see.... besides MA: School Music - Playing guitar/writing lyrics & music/will be singing in the local choir again this fall Hanging out with friends & family Need to get a summer job so I can pay for car insurance eventually Working towards my driver's license Reading, especially Sci-Fi/Fantasy (although I haven't had time to commit to a book lately) SLEEP

Welcome to the forums!

Hey, whaddaya know, there already is one: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1012&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= You can take a look at that one if you want. It doesn't have a poll, though, plus the thread is fairly old. I see no harm in keeping this one right now

Welcome to the forums! Make sure you drop by the Introductions forum and introduce yourself! I'm from the US, so I can't really help you. However, http://www.martialinfo.com has a good dojo search feature. Maybe some of our London members can help you out

Well, having a two-piece may not be necessary, but there are people who just prefer the feel of it. A two-piece definitely feels different than a one-piece. Don't ask me why...maybe it's because the metal joining hardware provides a sense of weight at the center? I don't really know. I guess jake could enlighten us on this issue

Guess I spoke too soon. The songs can be a bit corny and annoying, but it's a quick and easy source of songs.

Well the song really all depends on the kata. If you're going to tailor a kata TO a song, then that's a little easier. Finding a song that fits an exisiting kata can be pretty hard. If you can do it, though, it's really cool...getting the moves to fit the rhythm, having moves that seem to fit the mood of the song..very interesting. Our demo team does a lot of musical katas, and we use a lot of songs from the Mortal Kombat soundtrack. They work pretty well. When it comes to choosing a song, you want something that is very fast-paced and upbeat very early on in the song. Most advanced katas are only about 1.5 to 2 minutes long, maybe even shorter. Having a song start off slow and then pick up is cool, but it has to pick up very soon, otherwise its just boring. Listen to some hard rock like Godsmack, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, "Punk Pop" like Green Day, Blink 182 (for a more lighthearted feel). Listen to techno (stay away from Dirty Vegas unless you want to put your audience to sleep). I always thought that "Get up, get up put your body in motion" song would be really cool. I can never remember the names of those blasted dance songs

Oops, forgot to clarify that. What I meant by "knowing" is that I know how to do them. Of course, this doesn't mean I've mastered them or fully understood all of them, but I DO know them well enough to do them very well. On a seperate note: Just as knowing and understanding are two different ideas, understanding and mastering are also two different ideas. For example: let's say, hypothetically, it's pretty safe to say I understand Chon-Ji (I say hypothetically, because if I try to claim that I actually do, I'll probably be quickly disproven ). I know the purpose for all of the movements, as well as the many miniscule facets of the kata. However, being aware of this and performing it is very different. I would have to break myself out of old habits of just going through the movements of the kata, and form new habits of doing the kata like I actually understand what I'm doing.

I don't mean to embarass you, but Sai is a "she"

http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=7492 That provides a lot of links to threads about stretching. It's also a Sticky thread for this forum. OK by a side split, do you mean the kind where you have one leg in front and one leg behind, or the kind where you have one leg to the left and one leg to the right? That's always confused me because it could be interpreted either way.

I'm going to assume you mean using the bo as a sort of pole-vault, and that you don't mean actually kicking the bo. That would hurt Anyway, yes, I've used it in this "pole-vault" fashion before, with no apparent damage to the bo. But then again, I'm a shrimpy person: 5'1", 98 lbs. The graphite bo isn't terribly flexible, but it is pretty strong. After all, a bo is much, much thicker than a mechanical pencil lead I've always wondered though: if all of the paint chips off on the tip, could I use it like a giant pencil? Graphite bo's are very sleek and shiny looking, which make them pretty cool and fun to use. The surface of the bo is very smooth. I thought this meant my hands would slip off once they got sweaty, but quite to the contrary: it actually seems to grip quite well. I've had my bo for over a year, and the only problem I've had is that the paint chips off pretty easily if you should, say, drop it in the parking lot, or down a cement staircase. Also, you may want to wipe the bo down every now and then for fingerprints, which can really muddle the shine.

Disrespect towards another style (style bashing) is not allowed, under any circumstances. I split off/edited all of this thread's posts that dealt with the disrespectful comments. Please keep all further discussion respectful.

Maybe your nana can become a TAI CHI MASTER!! Yes, Tai Chi is a very calm and relaxing art, which is what makes this video so funny

My bo is made out of graphite so it's super light and never warps. HA! See, I'm not crazy!!!! I named my kamas. The right one is Rita and the left one is Lolita. I love my kamas dearly