monkeygirl

A little overdue, but welcome

1) Survive through the year (ya beat me to it omni!) 2) Get my driver's license (as you can see, these two go hand-in-hand) 3) Improve my MA (too much to go into detail ) good luck everyone!

Magik, would you personally like to go to class 2-3 times a week and participate in your definition of a "No-holds Barred" match every time? Would you like to be constantly elbowed in the head? Better yet, why don't you go without gear or any kind of protection? That would definitely be realistic, but the instructors would be sued after oh, say, the second death/maiming/fatal injury of a student. A lot of times, when people say they are "full-contact", they mean they are as full as you can get. Believe it or not, there are schools who make absolutely no contact, period. Ever. "Full-contact" is often meant in comparison to those schools, which are abundant in my area (the no-contact kind, that is). Also, most martial artists (I should hope) would have a definite advantage over a robber/guy in a bar, because most assailants are not going to have experience in MA, they'd just be brawlers. I'm hoping this is true, because I hope that the instructor would be wise enough to teach discipline to his/her students so they don't go running around attacking people on the street. You say that "claiming dominance based on a sport and not in a real life confrontation is ridiculous". You should, therefore, appreciate that to put down a style in general, simply because it is a "sport" is also ridiculous. Sport has its benefits too. Say a woman on the second-story of a burning building is going to drop her baby out a window and into the arms of a person below. Is she going to choose: a. Joe Blow off the street b. The wide receiver Obviously, the wide receiver has more experience in catching football-sized things, such as babies. He would be the optimal choice. Sports allow us to practice skills like catching, running and grappling. Joe Blow can probably catch too, but the wide receiver is more trustworthy. So, you can see that there is a big difference between a basic skill, and one that is practiced well. To everyone: Most styles vary from school-to-school, and vary even greater from practitioner to practitioner. This causes such a wide range of individuality that to put down a whole style, without ever having met the practitioner you assume will lose, would be foolish. If a person is skilled and experienced in their style, they're going to be a formidable opponent, no matter what the style. I understand that many of you are simply trying to defend your art/style/opinion, and emotions can rise and conversation will get a little heated. Believe me, I've been in the middle of it before. But once the flame wars and name-calling begin, thoughtful discussion--the whole point of the thread in the first place--dies away. So please, keep an open mind...try to see the other person's side, too. Most importantly: If you can't play nicely, you can't play at all. Fighting leads to threads being locked! Happy posting

At my school, it used to be that black belt tests were on a Saturday morning, and completely closed off. And I mean CLOSED OFF...they mounted cardboard in the windows and wouldn't even let family watch. Only the judges and people testing. Testings were also pretty brutal. People came back with huge bruises all over their body, and one guy even got knocked out. And the stories they would tell.... Of course, with only a few witnesses, it would be very easy to embellish, but for the most part, you could tell they were true. I've heard of some schools who have blackbelt tests in a basketball court so they can hold the 300 PARTICIPANTS!! Testing includes a written portion and some other kind of mental task before the big basketball court session.

Here's what I can remember of my test (even though it was in September 2002, most of it got beaten out of my memory ) : The test was a week long, three-part test. There were 7 hopefuls: 4 for 1st degree and 3 for 2nd. Monday: Forms/Artistic portion. On this night, we had to do every single block, kick & punch from white belt to brown about 10 repetitions at least. The "mega-kata" -- Every kata from yellow to brown, nonstop with no break in between...the last move from one kata immediately transfers to the first move of the next kata, so that it flows as if it were one. That night I think we did One-Steps, too...kinda like artistic self-defense. It's pretty much about 20 different defenses for a single stepping punch (from both sides). That was Monday. On Wednesday night, we did all the running/fighting/realistic stuff. We ran 3 miles, then came inside and our instructor gave us a pep talk. Which only freaked us out more. Then we moved straight into self-defense. There were several stages of this: 1. With a partner, doing random attacks--all 7 of us are working at once, so there's no spotlight yet. 2. In a circle--one person in the middle, the other 6 joining hands in the circle. Person in the middle doesn't know who's coming or how they're attacking. 3. Knife & Gun defense-- Attacker has knife/gun, defender has nothing. 4. Marker defense-- Testing people wore a white t-shirt...attacker had a red marker and tried to "stab" us while defender tried to disarm them. If you had a red "stab" mark on a vital area, you died. Then we had fighting: there were about 6 people (all upper black belts) on the outside of the circle, I believe. The person in the middle had to fight each one in order for about a minute or two...felt like forever. Let me put it this way: some of us were literally knocked to the ground and beaten into walls. Monday & Wednesday determined whether or not we qualified for Saturday. On Saturday, people testing for 2nd degree had to run up a local mountiain and perform various physical trials. Then, everyone came back to the dojo and did everything all over again! Blocks/Kicks, Katas, self-defense, one-steps, and a little fighting. However, the purpose of Saturday was to be a showcase, for family and friends to see. It wasn't supposed to be a bloodbath (although we got a bit of that anyway). Then, that evening we had a banquet where we were all presented with our belts (everyone passed), except for one guy--for entertainment we had a MA demonstration done by the demo team (5 out of 7 of the testers were on this team), and during one of the skits, I kicked him and he hit his head on the wall--he was in the hospital getting a staple. He's okay; we laugh about it now but it was pretty scary then. Anyway that's my long blab about my test. Believe it or not, in hindsight it was actually pretty fun. (I say hindsight, because at the time I was scared out of my mind)

neat-o! I wondered what had happened...figured it was yet another something I missed for the two weeks I was gone. You never really realize how much time that is until you look back on it ..

As long as people aren't running and jumping off of walls and doing impossible backflips, you should be ok for realism. There's unfortunately a problem of realism vs. flash. Everyone wants to have flashy fight scenes, but nobody wants to be rolling their eyeballs in the theater. As far as flash goes, speed is always good. Jumping-spinning kicks are acceptable, too. As long as the technique does not require any kind of wire or acrobatic equipment to be executed, you should be okay. This will win you big points with hard-core martial artists Mix it up: use different submission techniques such as wristlocks, in conjunction with your regular punches/kicks. If you're feeling really adventurous, you can even try throwing some props in the mix (e.g. Jackie Chan's use of a ladder in..."Rumble in the Bronx" I think, or the bamboo umbrella in "Drunken Master"). It all depends on the level of skill the actors/stuntmen have, or that you can access. Find some skilled martial artists in your area, preferably instructors from a school that has a demonstration/performance team. Hope that helps! Oh, and don't forget: monkeys move products

Hrm...when I saw this topic, I thought you were going to ask our ideas of what utopia would be. Too bad... Sorry, I've never even heard of that game. Too busy playing FFX I guess

Ah yes of course I'm famous...all the citizens of Monkeyville know my name and love me...small female monkeys wish they were me and... ....and... I'M NOBODY SPECIAL!!!! WAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! *sniffle* at least I'm kinda special in here...

Hey whaddaya know....it's one of those rare moments I'm on this week. My dojo is moving too... across the street to a location that is 2.5 times bigger. We finish moving tomorrow...it only seems fitting that KF is moving too. Sorry if I don't sound too excited but I'm kinda depressed right now...had a very nasty musical experience in public. Kinda crushed me. Oops I'm dumping on ya .

Wow...I think I would heave if I ate that much. I think one of my main problems is that I really don't like to eat that much. Add that to a general lack of hunger, combined with my *ahem* "cooking" skills.... However, I will concentrate on eating the 6 meals and drinking more water. (I drink maybe....4 glasses a day, currently) Tomorrow may be a good time to gain some weight Not being able to drive hinders this soooo much. I just can't get to a gym. I honestly haven't weighed myself yet...lemme go run to the scale 96 lbs with clothes on. That's bad even for me, but it's 3 lbs more than a few days ago.

Welcome to the forums! Hope you enjoy your training once you start! I'm pretty sure there are a few people on here who don't train...take Patrick, for example

Welcome to the Forums!

yes it is whimpering for mercy.... However I do have one more thing to say: The reason why it's different between the methods of solving the problem is the Order of Operations. As we've seen, it makes a very large difference how you solve the problem, and obviously 9x3=27 is the wrong way to solve it. This happens with any math problem that works that way, and being stubborn isn't going to change the laws of math .....believe me, I've tried....

I think you guys seem to forget: (or perhaps this is what Red J was saying) The 3 guys DID pay $10 each They DID each get $1 back The bell hop DID keep $2 It's not as if it never happened, it did...then the change got screwed up

Thanks for your quick reply! I think I might have a doctor's appointment coming up anyway...seems like I go every month. Arrrgh don't fill up on ice cream and fried foods? hehe just kidding...I don't really pig out on that stuff much. Except, one time I was trying to gain weight so I ate...three bowls of ice cream a day *bows head down in shame* It didn't work.

From what I can tell, immovable body is just....well...thinking heavy thoughts Basically it's the unbendable arm but in a downward direction (got that from KickChick's link )

This forum was getting a bit stale so let's freshen it up with winter cheer! (ok so i'm laying it on kinda thick) Let's hear your Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Winter Holiday stories! They can be jokes, or something that happened. Just remember to keep it clean, and refrain from any religious bashing as this shouldn't turn into a flame war. And please forgive me if I've misspelled your holiday. Here's mine: About 5-8 years ago (somewhere around there), my family and I were at my uncle's house for Christmas dinner. We had all the good stuff: baked corn, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and a beautiful huge turkey. My uncle carved up the turkey and served to everyone. When he was finished serving, he realized there wasn't enough room on the table for the turkey, so he set the dish on the floor next to him. The afternoon wore on, and not much attention was paid to the turkey until it was time for seconds. My uncle turned to the turkey next to him, and found their dog making short work of the meat. My uncle blamed the dog for the whole incident, and everyone else filled up on potatoes. There's just 6 days 'til Christmas, so hurry *loves Christmas*

I'd like to (heck, I NEED to) gain about 10-15 pounds. I have no time limit, but soon would be nice. Every time I get sick I lose weight, and I really can't afford to lose anymore. The weight (or lack thereof) is affecting my training; lack of power, being knocked down constantly. What I want is this: to reach my goal weight (somewhere around 110), and stop gaining weight. I don't want to get where I'm uncontrollably gaining weight. Considering that I'm genetically skinny, though, I should be alright. My mom tells me I won't gain any significant weight until after I've had children (I tell her that's never happening, but that's another issue...), with the way our line of women works. So what kind of diet do I need to have? High carb? High calorie? Understand that I work out 3-6 days a week between taking & teaching classes. In my health class I figured out I need about 1800 calories a day, based on weight/exercise levels. But that's just a rough estimate. Is this something I need to see a nutritionist about? Truthfully, I don't want to make the trip, and I'm getting really sick of doctors (orthodontists, optometrists, physicians, hematologists... really getting annoying) If anyone can help, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

Welcome to the Forums! I am also 15 years old (although, depending on the occasion, I may act much much younger...just warning you now)...plus, I was born in Florida! South Daytona I love it there, I'm going back after Christmas (yay!) Anyway, welcome!

Yikes....that does sound scary. Let's hope that the majority of people don't get into the Green Monster too much. I have heard that Century is very very money-oriented. They came out with their own NAPMA-style program after they split from NAPMA. From what I've heard, they very heavily encourage lots of little fees everywhere, such as charging for private lessons, testing, etc. etc. My school doesn't agree with the politics of this and we're sticking with NAPMA. The hard part of this is that we still order from Century, simply because they have such a huge selection. Ikon is still in its toddler, developing stages, and can't really compete yet (although their gear is really good). We're trying to off-set this by ordering through AWMA. But yes, MASUCCESS sounds rather a lot like a McDojo newsletter. Since I haven't read it, I can't presume to judge (hehe I'm learning a bit about judging lately) entirely, but that's what it sounds like. However, I'm not exactly sure that Century expects everyone to do every single thing in their magazine. Perhaps they do, but that isn't very realistic. I think people just pick a few that they like and run with it. Anyway, that's my opinion. Oh, and congrats on finding a good school, Laurie! It's relieving to hear that someone has escaped the throe of a McDojo. Hehe or for a cornier expression: "escaped from the fry-cooker"

Hrmm... "immovable body"..... I wonder if that can be executed quickly enough to be useful in sparring...I'm constantly getting kicked and knocked down (see weight description in earlier post).

Woo! I got it to work last night! I weigh only like....*ahem* 95 lbs ....and my brother is like, 150 somewhere around that. He was literally jumping on my arm and couldn't bend it. Freaky......

Some of the best Sci-Fi/Comedy you will ever read: "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams. Most book stores have the anthology (the series is 5 books long) in a friendly blue book. Just remember: Don't Panic.

Welcome to the forums! You sound a lot like a Neil from my school...in fact for a minute I thought you were!