ZakariRu

No. Its a push. =/ I competed for both the AAU and USTU as a "tang soo do competitor" Sorry. in olympic TKD you are better off throwing a side thrust kick from inside range then you are doing any other technique just because of the push.

see in TKD you ge the opposite problem, no snap just push in techniques. =/

That is the theory behind the heel being down. It is to make the technique look correct. I have trained this style before. For kihon usually I still train that way, but today? I hit hard. Even if it looks like I am not hitting hard at all. Believe me, I hit harder with my heel up then down. Its a matter of being unweighted, if your front foot is off the ground and you are the ball of the back foot your body weight is added to the punch. If you "make focus" with your feet "grounded" you are putting less weight behind the punch and limiting your ability to really thwack something. You may look like you are hitting harder but you aren't. I can give you some makiwara and wall experiments to test this. Kime=Bad karate. Espicially the Way ITKF does it. An Ippon comes from your heart, and your spirit. Not from having 2 heels firmly planted.

Scoring is based on Nishinformation. To score a point both feet must be firmly on the floor. I have seen perfect yaku-tsuki that don't score at ITKF tournaments because the attackers heel comes off the ground when they put their hip into the punch. Same with the lead leg, dont spring into the punch. It would have to be firmly planted. It almost has to look like one steps, looks strong in actuallity is very weak. No kizami-geri please.

Stretch more.

I run with my mouthguard in, the double bit kind forces very quick sharp breathes, and also gets me used to having it in. I used to have issues running distance, It is simply a matter of setting pace. I got very bored very easily still do. I cannot run on a treadmill. I can run for hours+ on trails and through new areas.

Word, David. Im gonna try and come to the big ole wado thingy. =) Call that cell number i gave you or email me at zakloo@hotmail.com and I will try to come out there before hand to train.

Karate does not belong to a nation. Karate is evolving and changing. Japanese Karate is no more okinawian karate anymore than okinawian karate is chinese.(except TKD that's just plain bad shotokan.) Right now Karate belongs to the europeans, who do kata better, and understand much more about spirit, fighting, and training. Anyway, my vote.

Thanks alot Jussi.

So I am currently training with this TKD club, not being able to find a shotokan school that doesnt suck in my area. All I have to say is WTF? 3000 year old martial art that has the EXACT same stances as shotokan. Only shotokan practioners have better looking technique. I used to compete at AAU TKD tournaments as a Tang Soo Do competitor. What a coincidence. Passai looks exactly like the shotokan version of Bassai-dai. TSD has all the japanese forms. with OKINAWIAN NAMES. General Choi stayed in Japan for a few years before moving back to korea and founding TKD right? Wasn't Korea just getting finished being culturely beaten and brutalized by occupying japan? Am I smoking crack here? I want to slap my TKD instructor and tell her to Stop lying to students about where all the poomse come from. How do you tell 100,000 martial artist they are being lied to. Funakoshi's Dojo-Kun (Funakoshi died before TKD was founded but his dojo kun is still hung on alot of shotokan walls.) Seek Perfection of character. Be faithful Endeavor Respect Others. Refrain from violence. (refrain from acting violently on impulse makes more sense) (this is a typical bad translation) The Tennants of TKD? Courtesy Integrity perseverance self control Indomitable spirit. Possibilities? It was translated to korean then to english. Giving us a korean to english translation that is almost as vague as the japanese to english. I enjoy tkd, i have a decent instructor with alot of sparring know-how. I dont enjoy how we have thousands upon thousands of people who believe everything they are told by their martial arts instructors. Thanks for reading the rant guys.

Apology accepted

Book looks interesting, one of the reviewers made an interesting comment about coming back from japan 10kg lighter. i was in tokyo for 3 weeks and returned a good 5kg (10ish lbs) lighter. I ate pretty western food though. Was some sushi, ramen, and octopus pizza. but for the most part it was "Frankburgers" and scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Jussi, go back to KU, I have been trolling this forum forever. Yargh! Adidas: Champion.

Now you want to argue semantics. In all fights I gave John's score first, and stated as such. Your attempts at ad hominem are now just plain childish, stating that he should retire did indeed imply his time as a compitetor was up, not that you held a motherly concern for him. I defended the angle you attacked. Too many shots to the head makes him sound like Stallone in Rocky, who was also a nice guy....

Suggesting that anyone needs to retire is not very nice, espicially when they are still the best chance the US has at a Men's -75k -80k or open gold medal. Anything that would set him back physically he would just work around. Look at his back problems, he is still one of the most flexible people I know. My score with John was 3-0 I fought Raffy in round 2.(Mr. Rodriguez won nationals in 03, John beat him 3-zip too) He wooped me pretty bad as well scored a wazari on him right off the bat then I let him psych me out. I believe John beat everyone but Gino 3-zip. Gino scored one Wazari. I used to drive to John's dojo in skokie, as much as possible. His friday night sport karate class rocks, his competition team on saturday is an insane workout. I trained with George just at seminar's,and the EliteMAF spring camp. 988 I was the blonde kid that John knocked out 3 times in a row. =P First year in the adult division at nationals for the AAU was awsome to get to fight John, his feints and footwork are so hard to deal from a first person viewpoint. Your IKF Sacramento? Did you go on any of the Junior team trips? I was on the first Japan trip, too poor to do that more than once.