monkeygirl

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome back! Injuries suck and it's always nice to get back from them The bo I use is a Century graphite bo and it's pretty light. Has a nice shine, too, AND because it isn't wood it doesn't warp. However, if you drop the bo, the paint will chip quite easily. Don't confuse this with an aluminum bo though, or you'll be vastly disappointed those things weigh a ton. Century also has a Competition bo that's an ash color. My brother uses a 6' one, and it's as light as my 5' graphite (I'm a shorty ) Finally, ProForce has some incredibly light bos. These things spin so fast, and they only cost about $20. A far cry from the norm of $50. However, they tend to warp...a lot. In a month or two, they look like they should be strung to shoot arrows. However, they still are the lightest thing I know. Happy bo hunting, and don't be getting hurt again!

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Alrighty guys, now we're just plain off-topic...

I assume you're look for people on a national level. As far as people that compete often and on a national level, you may want to check out some of the people that compete in ISKA tournaments. These are the tournaments that appear on ESPN (that is, when ESPN decides to include us MA weirdos), and have quite a few talented martial artists. The main competition in forms & weapons come from Teams Charlie Lee and Paul Mitchell. I'm not too familiar with the fighting champions, however. Of course, there are many martial artists on KarateForums; many of us are successful competitors and wouldn't mind being on MTV But seriously, we have a wide range of practitioners from many different styles; each with their own viewpoint. You never know, maybe we have a celebrity hidden in the threads. Do you have any idea of when this will air? I expect it will be in the fairly distant future, but I'd hate to miss it.

OK thanks for the info! Argh but now I'm really curious Must....resist!!

If your pants are a bit too long, and they have a thick waistband, you can try folding the waistband outward. This works especially well if the pants are loose in the crotch. I have to do this for all of my Century Heavyweight pants. As far as washing a belt goes, it can make the belt fall apart. Also, the belt will probably fade...the strong dyes aren't usually meant for washing. It may seem kind of "gross" to wear a "dirty" belt, but it's not like you're gonna lick it or something. Not only that, but you have a layer of clothing between you and your belt. If you still want to wash your belt, talk to your Sensei to make sure. Depending on the school (and how traditional it is), washing a belt can be an extremely disrespectful act. The sweat and dirt that collects on a belt is symbolic of the hard work you've endured in your training. To wash the belt is to therefore "wash away" your training. Your sensei may not mind if you wash your belt, but you should know why he may not approve.

Erm...did I miss something? Sounds like another deleted post

I'd be interesting in hearing this too...for example, which wood warps the least? I have a graphite bo which I love, but it just doesn't have the nice feel in your hands that the grip of wood does. For one thing, graphite can get pretty cold.

The Blue Bomber has come to KF! Think of Patrick as your Dr. Light... Wow, a Game Programmer at 13? You sound very talented. I can do a bit of HTML and that's about it... And you're a fellow TKD practitioner to boot! Welcome to the forums, hope you enjoy it here!

Hrm, that is a good point. Perhaps some kind of uplink from user's webcams/digital camcorders would be interesting. The best way to do it now is to record yourself doing the technique (or find somebody else who already recorded it), upload it to your personal website (if you have one), and provide a link. Links are much better than embedded directly in the post, that way it doesn't take too long to load.

It started at 6??? Argh, when I came in it was 9 pm and just a bunch of fighting. I enjoyed watching the Reyes fight and the fight after it, but the fights were all kickboxing and didn't help me much. I prefer watching the kata competition to pick up new moves.

I suppose it depends on which style you practice. I think that most styles have it pretty well worked out though; most styles that wear a gi are not inhibited by them, and styles that don't wear a gi feel it suits them just fine. Personally, my gi is very similar to what I wear normally, depending on the season. In the summer we can just wear t-shirts, no gi jacket (we wear shirts with the school logo to keep it all uniform), and all the rest of the year we wear a jacket as well. Whether or not a gi is realistic for its style/on the street, could be an interesting topic. Perhaps a new thread could be started on this, with some good supporting evidence to back your points. However, try to remember that the original point of this thread is to learn what gi brands would be best for IdiotSavant. He needs a gi and probably has no control over whether or not he gets to wear one, so let's try to keep this on topic .

I would have to agree with Martial_Artist, but not always. Some people are just plain mean, and decide to hit someone because they WANT to, not because they need to. When emotions (and hormones) are running high, anything can happen. I think that's why so many teenage guys end up bashing each other's faces in (which brings us back to Magik's point ). This is a good question because there are so many different answers. I don't think any one answer is right or wrong. As in many other things in life, fighting is circumstantial, and each case is different. In addition to fistfights, let us ask: why do people verbally fight (yelling at each other)?

Wow, talk about an experience! I don't know how hard it is to get into the Shaolin temple, but I'd say it's quite a privelige, and a fairly unique adventure. Please, keep us informed while you're there!

Welcome to the forums! Hope you find a good dojo.

Welcome to the forums! Here's to wishing you the best of luck and least of injuries!

Hrmm let's see...I've learned a couple things about friendship through the dojo. I've learned that close, true friendships should be nurtured and cherished, because people who put up with my crap are hard to find. BUT I've also learned that some people will never change for the better; when that happens, the only thing to do is move on.

Girls vs. Guys, Staff vs. Members...doesn't really matter to me, I just wanna play Hehe we could do "whippersnappers" vs "geezers" ... under 30 vs. over 30

6-16? In the same group? That's a pretty wide age range, but these drills should work for everybody. You could try teaching them some basic requirements for yellow belt level, such as whatever blocks/kicks/punches, self-defense moves and katas that are required. You could even have them breaking strips of balsa wood for fun...older kids could break 2 to three strips in a stack. Fun drills like dodgeball can be used as teaching tools. Dodgeball teaches kids to stay in a sideways fighting stance, in order to provide a small target. Adding rules and complexity also help: e.g. if someone gets hit with a ball and/or comes out of their fighting stance (other than to pick up or throw a ball), they're "out". We do a drill called Bag Jump, where the big heavy kicking shields are stacked up and kids jump over them, working Plyometrics (leg strength...tell them it works plyometrics at the beginning of the drill, and then quiz them on it later). Start with one bag and then increase it every round. If you run out of kicking shields, take two Wavemaster bag tops off of the stand, stand them up, and add shields from there. Bag Jump is primarily a tall person's drill, so you can try Sudo Stance Limbo. This is where kids go into a Sudo Stance (or your equivalent: a deep fighting stance/horse stance would work), and they have to keep going deeper and deeper. The "limbo pole" can be a bo staff held at each end by a person. Each round it gets lower and lower. This drill teaches kids not to "bounce up" as they advance into a stance. They shouldn't be shuffling forward, rather stepping around, switching sides with each step, like walking while sideways. Then, for fun you can do normal limbo, going backwards, etc. There's tons of fun drills that I could tell you about, I just don't have time to type them all out right now.

*gasp* the evil creature was mentioned!! Everyone has provided some good advice on techniques, etc. Just stay calm, listen to your instructors' advice as well, and learn from upper belts. If you ever get the opportunity to fight them, ASK LOTS OF QUESTIONS!! The worst thing you can ever do when fighting an upper belt is to let the opportunity go to waste. At the beginning of the fight, ask them if they can help you a bit. Learn some combinations and counters, etc. Most importantly, don't freak out. When that happens, you're slow-moving and jerky...when you move at all. Don't worry about looking like an idiot. I look like an idiot every time I fight I get kicked to the floor about 5 times a match.

Nerve locking is very real. You'll hear a lot of discussion on pressure points in the forums. There are three applications that I know of: Blocking, Pinching and Pressing. Blocking is used when your block activates the nerve. Say for example someone throws a wide "haymaker" punch. If I do a double armbar block (blocking with the pinky-side of my forearms, both forearms vertical), my forearms are meant to hit the nerves on my attacker's bicep and wrist/forearm. "Shocking" these nerves will cause the attackers arm to go completely numb. If he was holding a weapon, he wouldn't be anymore Pinching is just that: pinching the sensitive areas such as high on the inner leg (try it ) or underneath the bicep. Pressing is when you apply steady pressure to a nerve. Take, for example, the nerve behind your ears, just behind the jaw-joint. It's a little difficult to find, but when pressed correctly, can immobilize the body briefly. I say "briefly", because after a while the victim of the pressing will want to get you off of them...they'll still be in a great deal of pain, though. As you can see, these are just different ways of going about the same thing. They may not all be practical in a street fight if you don't know what you're doing, but they do work. There are, however, some people that can withstand these pressure points through sheer will and tensing of muscles. But for the most part they work. I noticed that this is your first post, kungfufan. Why don't you hop on over to the Introductions forum and introduce yourself?

OuCh! Sounds like a few of us need some good long baths in Epsom Salts! I seem to have some bad luck in the dojo. Since the eye thing happened, though, I wear a face cage on my helmet. Keep 'em coming If there's a story behind your injury(s), feel free to elaborate!

Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy the discussions!

Congratulations! You have just summarized the plots of every MA film known to man! I don't know of too many black-and-white MA films, but I will do a google search for you and see what I can find.