JusticeZero

Mine are 90 minutes. I try to break it up as 15 minutes - Music 10 minutes - Ginga and basic kicks (warmup - footwork and basic movements. I suppose if I was an asian stylist, i'd replace this with form/kata or some such) 20 minutes - Paired line drills ("Walking basics", was what a Goju told me their term for it was) 30 minutes - New material, paired drills 10 minutes - Practice roda (sparring) 5 minutes - Cooldown stretching It never quite comes down exactly like that, though, after i've had time to assess the current status of the students. I once stopped everyone in the first few minutes and we ended up doing 75 minutes of ginga practice.

As an aside, the "caffiene headache" is reportedly caused by the blood vessels in your brain having to 'adapt' to having a non-reduced level of blood available to it. Kind've a disturbing thought, huh?

Coffee will make you tired. It doesn't 'give you energy', it cannibalizes your reserves (which take several days to build up) and "gives you energy" by reducing blood flow to your brain and limbs. After a couple of hours you crash and are more tired than you would have been had you never picked up the caffiene to begin with. I'd just go to class tired. I find it hard to believe that you will remain sleepy after your warmup and when you are practicing physical skills.

If unable to step sideways, i'd step forward into ginga with my lead foot closer to one of the two walls next to me. When the charger gets close reach into him to slap/elbow him to get a connection and use a full body twist to roll him around me, which will possibly drive him into the opposite wall. I shouldn't have to deflect him all that much. The usual reaction is just to step out laterally and come back from his side or back. If he's leaving his face open, though, a forquilha that turns into a palm to the eyes might work better. If you can get a hand on his face and line of vision like that, you should have no problem piloting him whichever direction you like, be it a loop de loop, nosedive, or whatever.

Capoeira Angola Afro/Brazilian traditional system. Tends to be a bit esoteric, but nonetheless effective. Concentrates on developing an extreme level of mobility in the spherical realm, moving under and around attacks or deflecting attacks by rotating the body. Contains movement techniques (ginga, negativa, au, assorted other movements to familiarize students with moving at unusual angles and orientations comfortably and safely), kicking techniques (primarily, but not exclusively, circular kicks to the upper body), evasive techniques, close in techniques such as elbows and head butts, sweeps, and takedowns. Is one of the only arts which teaches one how to use stances and body positions that are in the general realm of 'sitting' and 'prone' as fundamentals, removing much of the fear of losing one's footing. (The only other one I can think of offhand being Harimau Silat.)

OK, i'm probably one of the least qualified people to answer this question, but it's probably better than no answer.. Wing Chun appears to mainly focus on the centerline, using primarily short, linear punches and close in trapping techniques. Low line kicks, which seemed to involve almost no hip movement at all when I saw them last, and close in footwork are used defensively and to set up. Some students, presumably poor examples, seem to idolize the whole "centerline theory" to a cultlike degree and overuse rapidfire chain-punches. Others seem to become overly involved in the extensive contact sensitivity exercizes used as drills to gain skill in trapping range. Both are focuses of the art, though not the entirety of it.

...like I said, why are you blocking kicks in Capoeira? Capoeira does contain blocks, but they aren't, as a rule, catching a kick that has actually gained momentum straight on. Redirecting, sure. Stuffing, sure. Blocking? Seems out of character for all the stylists i've seen so far. If you are only blinking when you block, and you don't block, do you have much problem? Is it better when you are on the offensive while you are being contacted because you are performing a counter??

It's spring and the snow is melting, so I went outside to work out some of the cabin fever blahs. Then it occurred to me that my "lawn" was fronting a major street with lots of foot traffic and that there's plenty of kids wandering around. Seems like a good way to draw unwanted attention, of the strange kind. Any good suggestions for out of the way training spots that might be nearby?

What lineage of capoeira are you doing and what are you experiencing which is making you block? Which direction is your hips facing when you do esquiva lateral, and is your negativa knees-together or L-shaped? And could you be more specific which techniques are making you blink? For me, it seems like I blink less if I make my esquivas large, because it brings my head out of the threat zone more completely. Forquilha will make most anyone blink, though, not much to do about that.

Just find a good school. Not a big one, a good one. The art doesn't matter all that much. One where you can see the intent in the movements of not only the teacher, but the students. One that you can imagine enjoying going to class and doing the techniques. Then do that. Seriously, as long as you're training hard with resistance and intent and good instruction, you'll get to be effective - and in any case, fighting skill isn't all it's cracked up to be. It doesn't take that long to develop, it's a skill that you're unlikely to need much, and it won't hold your interest for long.

As I recall and have heard from others experiencing the same things I did, the culture in schools is pretty messed up. While walking away from a fight when there is nothing at stake but one's ego is a good thing, from a pragmatic point of view, a child also needs to be able to publically demonstrate a willingness to use violence effectively in order to preserve face. Hardly a peaceful or enlightened thing, but leaving one other kid bruised and bloodied over a relatively minor slight now will likely save a child from quite a bit of pointless conflict and victimization over the course of their educational career. Don't start fights. Don't go looking for fights. Don't try to pump yourself up as some 'tough guy' because you just end up looking stupid. But the first fight to come to you under the watchful eyes of your savage peers, finish in a way that there is no doubt about your willingness to leave any future challengers in more pain than the minor pleasure of harassment is worth. I'm not a fan of teaching people how to be victims. As uncomfortable as it may be to admit, on occasion, violence really is the answer.

Chi doesn't exist, it's alternatively a mnemonic for how to perform feats of skill and 'fool' your body into performing properly and a catchall term for any 'unbelievable' trick made possible by basic physics (breaking blocks with a hammer, etc). Thus, there is nothing TO measure.

In my experience, there tends to be some point at which a completely reasonable request for force or change is met with utter refusal. With female students, unfortunately, this seems completely typical. Whatever point it is where any student, male or female, begins to "be weak" (Not in actual weakness, but in no longer even making the attempt), that point represents the outer limit of their development. Almost always, that limit is well below that needed to become a teacher. Maybe 70% of male students hit that wall and never go beyond it. Maybe 98% of female students do. Exceedingly frustrating when you're spending the lion's share of your time trying to help get them to do something and they just won't even try. Usually something like "When i'm standing on my hands, push me over so I can do the falling exercize." and then i'll get barely touched. I didn't ask for superhuman strength, but when someone is in a rooted stance driving with their whole body and legs into me when i'm in a handstand, I should feel enough force to at least give me the momentum I need to do the breakfall I want.. and they won't do it no matter what for months, so I feel disrespected and frustrated and my training is disrupted because they won't even attempt the commitment required to do the drill no matter how I ask. If I have to spend several months of not being able to practice some things with someone because they will not under any circumstances even do more than a feeble symbol for the movement I am supposed to react to, do you think I will support that person for advancement? No. But I ONLY get that treatment from women, and I get it from the majority of them. Show me some female students that won't lock up at some level of mediocrity and I will show you people who will someday, if they keep working at it, be teachers. But I see very very few. If you are a woman who pushes yourself to do things like that, I congratulate you, but realize that you are likely the only female in your class who has any potential of becoming a teacher, because pretty much every other female in your classes that you see is, or will soon be, simply marking time, absorbing some learning but no longer progressing in any real sense.

Mm. Not that odd I suppose. If I was in Ruby, i'd still be teaching.

A belt is a worthless strip of cloth. You can buy one cheap at a martial arts supply store. It has no value. The only thing of value is the skills you learn, and that takes time no matter what. There was a story I read once. An airplane pilot wanted to leave someplace in a bad storm, wherupon he was told, "Your airplane's engine may have passed a routine inspection, but we have found a small crack in it. If you try to fly out in this weather, it will fail, and you will crash. As your airplane plummets toward the ground, will it give you comfort to trace the inspector's signature on the inspection certificate?" A fast black belt is a cracked engine. It means nothing, it's a worthless trophy. Maybe you can woo the ignorant by your posession of the magical symbol of potency, but your skills, when push comes to shove, will be no better than the low ranked guy at the school down the street who started at the same time as you and has put in as much time as you, who differs from you only in that his teacher doesn't hand out belts like they were candy.

First: You will be asked to teach. This can be for many reasons, but it will happen. Get used to it. Second: You might want to go to your instructor after class and ask him how you can improve your teaching skills. Recount what happenned and where you were uncertain and ask what you can do to improve next time. Teaching is a skill too. Third: If someone wants to do it differently, remember: There may be many ways to do a technique. Some of them are even correct. But they are in class to learn how to move like a specific ideal of technique, not to jazz around with some funky variant they learned from some guy who was doing something different. There are a lot of movements in other lineages of my art that to a novice look like they would snap right in - but in reality, they would force us to break our form and be vulnerable to do an isolated movement that doesn't fit with our strategies, then have to snap ourself back into the movements we are used to. For THEM it works fine. Their movements are all made that way, they build their game out of coming out of things in certain directions and such. "..But Mestre Soandso does that movement THIS way.." - fine, then go train with Mestre Soandso. We're here to learn how to move like the head of -our- lineage, not like Mestre Soandso.

Frankly, from the time I have helped teach, there is no student harder to teach than one who is cross training in another movement style. I crosstrained in Taiji for awhile - I would go to class for two hours, then later go to Taiji for two hours, then have to spend FOUR hours doing nothing but cleaning the Taiji out of my reflexes before I could train properly. Most of the crosstrainers take a month to learn what rank amateurs who have never done anything amazingly physical learn in a week. I spent four weeks trying to get someone to unlearn their other movement style enough so that they could perform adequately the basic footwork taught in the first class.. and last I saw, they still couldn't do it without having to concentrate on it. Now if you're talking about bicycling or lifting weights or something, go ahead and do those. They won't get your wires crossed.

Long ago, some peasant walked up to a martial artist practicing his palm strikes by breaking boards. "How do you do that?" asked the peasant. "Many hours of practice." "You're lying to me! Noone can do that!" The peasant spit at the martial artist's feet and stormed off in a huff. Another peasant approached. "How do you do that?" he asked. "It's just a matter of precision and having good body technique. See, you have to move so that you bring your hips and legs into the action of the strike." The peasant spit at the martial artist. "You're lying! You can't punch something with your legs, that's silly! Noone can do what you're doing!" The peasant then stormed away, leaving the martial artist to his training again. A third peasant approached. "That's impossible! How do you do that!" By now sick and tired of being spit at, the martial artist shrugged, wiggled his fingers cryptically, and said, "It's magic. You have to be in touch with the chi of the universe." The peasant bowed. "I understand. Teach me, o great one!" There is something to be said for focusing techniques and meditation and the like, but in the end, people expect to learn about ki so they can throw Dragonball Z type fireballs, teleport around and pretend to be some sort of wu-tang Doctor Strange. In reality, all the mystical feats i've ever seen are attributable to standard physics, psychology, and biomechanics, albeit often very hard to pragmatically explain ones. There are no fireballs, no magic star wars force, only skill.

I am in Anchorage, AK. I study Capoeira, one of the lineages which identifies itself as Angola. O meu apelido e Baleia. We do not flip, we do not jump, we are not circus acrobats, we are traditionalists who want to play a good (read paranoid, treacherous, and passive-agressive) tactical game and hit like a house on the off chance that we are someday cornered like a cat in an dark dog-infested alley. I would hope that the odds of finding ourself thus cornered are greatly lowered, but I suppose zero is ever elusive. Nonetheless, I am not the one to talk to when you want help with your double spinning backflip breaker flare thing. Though not fully a teacher, I teach a class as a monitor, at the request of my instructor and with his guidance. This place seems to have a fair amount of traffic. It's good to be able to hear the experiences and views of others.

They have that in Alaska? I'm impressed. Then again, last quarter I had two competitors that I know of in the Anchorage bowl (Well, one was in Girdwood..), so it shouldn't surprise me THAT much.

IMO, and there is quite a bit of debate on this, the whole "Regional"/Angola" thing is almost more akin to Northern/Southern in Chinese martial arts. Different "Regional" schools I have seen actually have pretty dramatic differences in form and traditions, as do "Angola" schools.