monkeygirl

Hmmm....my "sensei" has lots of stories about his childhood. I have a few stories about him (both good and bad ) from teaching and how he's helped me or the goofy things he does. My instructor is a cross between the wise sensei (caring, kind, helpful and patient) and your Uncle George ("What's that on your shirt?" *flips your nose* "haha!"). The outcome is that he's like a father to his students (especially to his leadership team). He's still an excellent martial artist and a wonderful teacher, but I guess he just doesn't see the point in being stuffy. However, this is not true for blackbelt tests. He transforms into another person; completely serious and critical, and completely scaring the crud out of us (well, me anyway). He doesn't scream at us or anything, but it's really freakin me out. But then again, everything's freaking me out during my blackbelt test *scared*

I just saw "The Accidental Spy" by Jackie Chan. One of his better movies, really! There's actually a point where he fights completely butt-naked. That was gross. The fights showed Jackie's trademark originality in his fights (gotta love the way he gets out of the taxi cab), but not as much as films like Rumble in the Bronx or Mr. Nice Guy. I can't wait to see the Tuxedo. Plot in Accidental Spy was OK, but you can't expect much more than that.

Ah... the wonderful re-enactment of lunch... I did this at: 2nd brown test, 1st brown test (right on the middle of the floor! I threw up on my glove and then hit somebody with it. Not intentionally of course), once during training for blackbelt test, and I probably will tonight, during my blackbelt test! I have my toenails their lucky shade of dark gray. I'd paint them black but I'm not goth. I've been painting my toenails the color of the belt I'm testing for ever since green belt. Anybody else have good-luck charms or rituals? (oh and if it involves some chanting and a cow, don't bother)

Actually, my instructor specifically told us to pace ourselves. He wants all of the fights to be even because they are equally important. We should still be dead at the end, just not after the 4th fight. (we'll probably have at LEAST 7 people in the circle that I know of...I'm pretty sure we'll have more) thugtkd- I dunno, we just do forms. Maybe you'll recognize some of the names (sorry, I know my spelling is wrong on these) Chon-Ji Do-San Pinyon/Advanced Form 2 (I think the Advanced Forms aren't traditional) Yol-Guk Pinyon 4 Pinyon 5 Hwa-Rong Chung-Moo anyway that's it. Sparring style is full contact except to face and below belt. Hand and feet are used. Superleeds- guitar is coming along pretty good! Thanks for asking I play every night before bedtime After my test is over I'm looking at taking some guitar lessons.

10 years old when Princess Diana died 8 years old at the time of Oklahoma City bombing 7 years old when O. J. Simpson was charged with murder 5 years old at the time of the bombing of the World Trade Center* 3 years old when Operation Desert Storm began 2 years old during the fall of the Berlin Wall I remember Princess Diana, Oklahoma City and O.J. Simpson (man, was I only 7? sheesh time flies) but nothing else. Guess I was carefree at 5.

While I agree with KickChick about stretching every day, I do have a warning: HEAVY stretching should be done no more than 3 times a week. It can overstress your muscles, just like lifting weights to the max every day can be stressful. So some light stretching (make sure you lightly warm up your muscles first with some jumping jacks or whatever) is good every day. Make sure you do each stretching motion slowly, or you could pull/tear a muscle and completely ruin the point. Our class is 45 minutes long, so we do about 10-15 minutes of stretching. In the advanced class we usually grab partners and do Bill Wallace's standing and floor stretches so we can go at our own pace.

It's not nice to kick people in the back! Whether or not they're a heavy person makes no difference! lol

I got my friend a Bruce Lee book for his birthday...some "personal thoughts" or something like that. It was basically Bruce Lee's opinion on a bunch of different subjects (fighting, honor, relationships, even dating...). After flipping through it, I wish I had gotten one of my own

I don't see what all the hype is about. The season premiere was incredibly stupid. I'm glad I wasn't waiting forever, because I would have felt very let down. The Sopranos is extremely juvenile. They love the fact that they can show sex, violence, language, whatever, because it's HBO and they don't censor. The rest of my family watches it (still don't know why), and I've given it a few chances, but every time I watch it, it's yet another boring and stupid episode. Perhaps someone can explain to me why it's sooooo great. Oh, and please don't take offense at this, if you like it, you do and that's fine. I personally can't stand it, but that's my own opinion.

I don't really think mixing is a good idea. If you're looking at ONE school that does both of these, then that's one thing. But cross-training where you do two styles each at different schools, can be bad. Especially with the extreme competition between schools and the blackbelt community. You may end up training from someone who hates your other instructor. Also, I get confused easily If this were a perfect world, however, and I didn't have to worry about that, I'd mix WuShu because of its flashy style and beautiful forms, and TKD, simply because I can't imagine life without it. I might go for BJJ, too, to satisfy my father's need for me to know self-defense.

So...in other words... nike.

May the forums be with you...

Welcome to the forums!

Well, Phase 1 is over...Phase 2 is tomorrow night. Let's just say I've done better. I don't know if my instructor is trying to mess with my head or not, but he came up to me after the test last night and said "What was wrong? I was disappointed." I put everything I had into that test. It may not have looked that way because I was still pacing myself, but man I was dead afterwards. My nightmare begins tomorrow night...self-defense, sparring and running. (not necessarily in that order) It's not the self-defense in general that I'm worried about, it's the knife defense. I think my t-shirt is going to be very red Sparring...ugh ugh UGH ugh ugh. I'm going to die, folks. Good-byes should be done before tomorrow. Running...well, we have an hour to do 3 miles, and I'll be lucky to get it done in time. Oh well...what will be, will be, right? I'll just give it my best, and if that's not good enough, I'll train harder for next time.

<--- laughing so hard

Well, today is the day. In about 13 hours I go to class and begin the test. Thank you all for your support and advice! I will definitely let you know how it goes after Saturday night (when I find out myself!). It turns out that on Wednesday night we'll be doing self-defense stuff, and part of that is doing "red marker knife defense". You wear a white t-shirt. Anywhere you get "stabbed" with the marker will show up on your shirt.

Here goes: Monday & Wednesday- Family Class (all ages as long as with family) 5-6 pm, Beginner Adult: 6-6:45 Intermediate 6:45-7:30, Advanced 7:30-8:30 Tuesday & Thursday- Adult class 4-5 pm, lil ninjas (5&6 y-o) 5-5:30, Beginner Kids: 5:30-6:15, Intermediate 6:15-7, Advanced 7-7:45 Self-Defense class 7:45-8:30? (class hasn't started yet) Friday- Free sparring session 4-5, Lil Dragons (3&4 y-o) 5-5:30, Kids Blackbelt Club 5:30-6:30, Adult Blackbelt Club 6:30-7:30 Saturday- Private lessons as scheduled. Sunday- DAY OF REST FOR THE WORN OUT INSTRUCTORS!!!

My school has a sticking hands drill (tho we call it "sticky hands") You (A) start with a right jab. Your partner (B) blocks to the inside with his left hand and brings the hand outwards. With right hand, B chops A's elbow. A throws a left hook. B blocks with chopping (right) hand. B follows up by pushing off A's hooking arm with left hand. B counters with a jab with right hand. Now it's A's turn to do all over again. OK so that was bad trying to type it out, but it's something like that. Is that what you all mean? It's basically like a kata with a partner. You build up speed until you stop thinking about it and it's more like a twitch reaction. Also helps condition forearms.

Really Tobias_Reece? I'm not too worried about using nunchaku in a fight situation, so I kinda prefer that spinning garbage My dojo does weapons katas...and that's pretty much it. We want to get into weapon sparring, but that's a long way off...everyone has to get face cages and they're like...$70. BTW do you train in kamas, too? Looks like that's what you're holding in your avatar. If you're looking for effective weapons training, I hear arnis (filipino stickfighting) is good. If you're ever trapped in a lumberyard somewhere it should be useful

4 days 'til my blackbelt test begins!! I am soooo freaked out!! I'm feeling a lot better about it than I did before, but OMG... Just thought you should know!

isn't that instructor just great? ;P (said instructor is my brother )

Our school's contract is just like that. (see kickbuttmom's post...she's my mother) But think about it: 6 months MEANS 6 months! You can't just whine your way out of a contract. We've had many people attempt to do this. Martial arts training is not about the money. In my school, it never has been. But the money IS needed for rent, utilities, etc. If you think about it too, contracts help keep prices lower. By knowing that the money will be there every month for rent, prices don't have to skyrocket. Think about MA contracts as your cable bill: even if you didn't watch TV that month, you still have to pay the bill. Contracts are not some horned demon out to get you...they're for the good of the school and therefore the students.

I admit that Jet Li has some awesome fight scenes. But when I watch a movie (well, normally anyway) I don't watch it JUST for the fight scenes. I like it to be funny/enjoyable, or at least stupid enough for me to pick fun at. Jet Li's movies are none of these. The action's great, blah blah...but the stories suck. They're just really bad. I MUCH prefer Jackie Chan's movies. He may not have as fancy of fight scenes sometimes (maybe it's because he doesn't use wires..?), but they are always creative, and the storyline is pretty good. Jackie Chan is a goofy guy. The movies may not be Oscar-worthy, but when they're bad, they're stupid enough to make fun of (e.g. "Gorgeous" where his girlfriend was...6 years old). So, it's still entertaining! Van Damme is a girly man. I have a post on that somewhere around here. Segal is kind of boring...although I did like the few scenes from Exit Wounds I saw, and that one where he's in a coma (that's my fave) Snipes...he was okay in that one with Stallone lol i can't remember the name. Blade was pretty good...haven't seen the sequel. The biggest problem with MA films are finding martial artists who can act, or actors who can kick butt. I'd love to change that but I don't think it's gonna happen.

Is the class moving too quickly for you? I'm not saying that you're slow...there are plenty of times that I've been doing a kata at a good, healthy pace, but the Speedy Gonzaleses start goin "Eeba! Eeba!" and are already done!! When this happens to the point where it messes me up, I just shout "slow down!". This may not be an option for you if you come from a strict dojo, but if you can get away with it, do it! You might want to stick a "please" in there somewhere, though. To be perfectly honest, this is far more frequent in the kids' classes (although I have seen one or two adults). Speak with your instructor and let him know that you're having this problem. He may give you a funny look like you're ADD or something, but that's OK. Do a kata for him after class without anyone around, to show him how good you are. Once he realizes your problem, things will be easier. He may even give you some advice or work something out. From there, it's your responsibility to focus very hard on your kata. Think only of what YOU'RE doing. It will take time, but it should come. So your instructor may not be able to help you, but at least he'll understand that you're not just a hopeless, untalented student (which some instructors believe exist). One more focus tip: Try looking at the floor while you do your kata. It's a bad habit to keep up, but it will at least keep you from looking at everyone else.

Um...you spelled "joining" wrong.... That's the only thing that needs correcting, other than that everything sounded fine and spelling was good Nice to know we have some people who appreciate good spelling!