Sabumnim

Shotokan Karate

Only read the first post so I apologise if someone has already mentioned what I'm saying. Blinking is to protect the eye from damage so I wouldn't be to worried, it is reflex and can't really be changed. You wouldn't want to though since you blinking could be the means between you keeping your sight or losing it.

Ginny says: I think that is some good advice, if he is quite young it would probably upset him if you talked directly about it.

Yellow tag.......seems so long ago. Good luck, and let us know how you get on.

tsdtony, I study TKD and have studied TSD in the past, I find TKD to be a more applicable art. As for the self defence aspects, TKD has brutal dissabling techniques that include ankle, leg and neck breaks. This martial art was developed in the military so fobbing off its capabilities because of its fame is disgraceful. I have fought in one multi-style tournament and won my age category, my art is in no way superior or inferior to another. I have won my sparring section in every competition I have entered. In the street it is even easier, no rules means you can finish quickly. If you fight enough though your gonna get finished sooner or later.

As I have said in another thread, if you generalise it will come back and bite you on the butt. A good street fighter is very rarely made and is most often naturally gifted. All martial arts come from a similar need, to protect yourself, family and friends. You will find the same technique in most arts under different guises, no martial art can make you an accomplished street fighter but it can help you defend yourself.

I agree with what Aodhan says on the tournament style front. Generalising like this is a bit foolish, to preconcieve an idea like that will end up in a shock should you fight a talented TKD fighter in the future.

Posted 151 times; you deserve a reply just for that. Continue to train on your own but I reckon you should look for another dojo. Training on your own can become to easy, you need other people to motivate you. Good luck

I've got a book for ya, Shogun by James Clavell. Read it when I was 15, quality book about an Englishman who lands in 1600's Japan with his dutch crew.

Aodhan is my little brothers name, comes from the Gaelic for little fire. My name is just the Korean word my school uses for teacher.

There's one I forgot, definitley agree with Funakoshi.

I agree that blocking correctly is undervalued, but I prefer avoidance it spends less energy than actively blocking. The art of evasion is even more underappreciated. You implyed evasion in the question but I believe it to be something totally different, that is my opinnion though.

Good luck, I might be going to Australia for the ITF World Championships (if I can afford it), I went to Korea last year but I was injured so I couldn't compete (doctor wouldn't let me ). I agree that your better asking you instructor for any specific preparation.

16, been training for ten years.

I only need my hands and feet, I am confident in my abilities.

I was five when I started and I hadn't watched any martial arts movies, but Bruce Lee is very inspirational. Tony Ja from Ong Bak is also cool, like a young Jakie Chan on speed.

Do the technique slowly and explain at the same time, their is no way he can try and give his own advice when you have shown them how to do it. If he does your just gonna have to tell him straight or tell your instructor.

My school mates stopped taunting me when I launched a kick stopping about an inch from a lads throat. People are so easily afraid, most feel intimadated thats why they have a go. To prove they can have you, so they can feel safe again. I just laugh at them. My friends also feel they have to tell people that I'm a black belt, especially girls. Like they get some kind of reflected glory. Got to say that JusticeZero is right, at school people do want to have you out. When my school found out I won my first British championship I got people shouting 'hiyah' at me everywhere. Football team mates wanting to fight me and then me laughing as they nursed a bleeding nose (I didn't laugh really). It was mostly people joking around but you get a few idiots.

I live in Manchester where everyone is thrown in together, the only racism I experienced was when half of my family was visited by the 5 0 after the Manchester bombing. I'm originally from Belfast along with my ma and her family. My dad is protestant Scottish and my mum catholic Irish, who thought that was good idea... I'm like a pitbull, seriously confused

In the only open tournament I fought in I progressed fairly easily into the final, with only a kickboxer being a slight problem. Most of the people I fought were 16 with a couple at 17 and one guy who did karate (I think?) went down after three kicks to the head. I don't know what school of TKD you fought but judging all of Tae-Kwon Do from that could prove harzardous if you face another student in the future.

Nothing special, our instructor just mentioned it and we soldiered on.

You raise a good point about the way many martial artists train for an encounter with an untrained individual. It was also interesting to hear about the guy trained by his dad, I wasn't trained by my dad but apparently I was a bit of a show off and I did fight just to show that I could. Apparently I'm an OK guy now, or so one of my instructors says...

It is a bad idea to become to set in one approach to sparring, you should try switching your methods and it will definitley help to confuse more perceptive opponents.

Congratulations

Many people who don't even do TKD and haven't ever done it talk about it as if they are experts. I study ITF Tae-Kwon Do and find it a very practical art, I agree a complementry system would be something like aikido or judo. Grandmaster Rhee who brought TKD to the UK disagrees with the sport side of the art. So we are taught the art as he teaches it, which must be slightly similar to how he learnt it in the Korean army.