karatekid1975

I started MA to learn self defense. I agree with ramymensa that the defenses have to become second nature. I've been to self defense classes. One was boring. Nothing they taught would work. But the other, they taught how to use everyday things for weapons. I ended up helping in that class (I was already in MA, so they had me help the other women). I think if you have a woman martial artist teach the self defense class (with a male assistant doing the attacks), it would make it more realistic. As Beka said, and I agree, that it also should involve the most common attacks and how to get out of it. Plus they should be taught how to use verbal sparring to get away BEFORE the attack can happen. I also believe that these one time quicky self defense classes don't work. You need more training for the defenses to work. I think the instructor of those courses should, at least, explain a bit about MA and try to talk the women into taking it.

This topic was "pruned" a bit. Please stay on topic. Thanks

I took the two free lessons (plus two months for the price of one, I think it was). I didn't go back right away, do to illness. But I joined as soon as I could (I think it was a month later).

I agree here. MA is popular here, but sadly there aren't many good schools. I came from a school in NJ that was strict, traditional, good old fashion hard work gets you to BB, not how much money you can give out. Then I moved to upstate NY. I haven't found a good school yet (well, except one, but it's too expensive). Most of them cater to the above people. It's really sad.

Same here. I didn't really play sports. I walked alot when I was in my late teens, which helped with my leg stregnth. But I haven't walked for 3 years before I started MA.

In my short MA career, I'm finding out what Shorinryu Sensei said to be so true these days. I did a search and came up with so many schools in Brooklyn alone. I would suggest looking in your phone book under Martial arts, and start calling around. Go watch a few classes once you picked a few schools to check out.

EvilTed had sound advice. Get it X-rayed. I'll move this to the health forum so you will get more help.

I think you should listen to your doc. One of the mods here on KF just had knee surgery, and she's doing fine. Don't let the Orthopedic Surgeon guy at your dojo scare you. One of my old instructors also had double knee surgery, and he didn't have any infections (beside for MA and he couldn't kick while teaching for 6 weeks). I will move this to Health and fitness so you can get more advice

ghostman, you are in the middle of Martial Arts Central! There is such a wide range of martial arts schools in NYC. If you can tell me what part of NYC (Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, ect) you live in, I can better help you out. If I list ALL the schools in the general NYC area, it would take all day LOL. But here is a short list for 10018 zip code (New York, NY) that had websites. I don't know how far you are willing to travel, but I searched within a 20 mile area: http://www.kickboxingsites.com/afkka/ (Kickboxing) http://www.jujitsusites.com/sijjk/ (Judo/Jujitsu) http://www.martialartsites.com/jeffeisenberg/index.cfm?page=7 http://www.dojosites.com/sdk/ http://www.martialartsites.com/tcmai/ (Isshin Ryu) There were a TON of places that didn't have websites.

In the schools I was in (3), it was almost equal. There were a bit more males, but not much more.

Welcome to KF. I will move this to the Introduction forum, so everyone can welcome you Enjoy your stay.

That's an idea, Sai

Hehehehe new fashion trend .... yea right LOL. I'm not a fashion person. If it fits, it's clean, and it matches, I don't care for trendy fashion

tommarker, That is way south of me. It would be nice to get back into TSD, though. But that is like two or three hours away from me. Doug, I know you suggested those schools before, but driving an hour in the winter up here isn't good. Specially near Webster (lake affect snow). But doesn't one of the instructors at one of those schools teach at Finger Lakes Community College? I thought I heard or read about that somewhere.

I didn't think about that, Shoto Yea, I did work there. But it didn't work out for several reasons. I would go into detail, but it would probably take all day to write it.

I need help on finding a decent instructor in Upstate NY. I moved from NJ, and from a good dojang. In my opinion, it was a decent place to train. Tough, traditional, but laid back in a way. The instructor was awsome. Strict, wasn't full of himself, no ego, and he acted like an average guy out of uniform. It's kinda hard to explain, but I knew that was the right place for me. Then I moved up here. I looked at a few schools, but they were either expensive or too "sporty" for my taste or tried to get me to sign my life away as soon as I walked in the door. I trained at one place with my boyfriend for a while. It was traditional in the sense of strictness and disipline. But it was too "sport" for me at the time. I been away from there (well, other than watching my boyfriend take class) for a year. They changed their curriculum. It's pretty decent now. I was thinking of returning, but now they are way out of my price range. Another school I trained at, I thought was great at first. Good self defense curriculum, cheap, and easy going. But not traditional at all as far as disipline goes. The egos were HUGE there, and the standard of technique was very low (except for a few adults). I was wondering if any of you could lead me to a decent school? I'm looking for a dojang/dojo that is traditional as far as training goes (disipline, respect, hard on you with technique, ect). A place that is at a decent price range (i'm on a budget ..... need to start college soon), no more than a year contract, and an instructor that isn't "full of him/herself." No egos either. I live in Canandaigua NY, but I am willing to travel 25 miles or so. I looked around (phonebook, pounded the pavement, so to speak), but I heard that the best way to find a decent school is word of mouth, so here I am. Oh and I don't care about style, except for the fact that I'm a stand-up striker kinda person (other than Judo). Thanks in advance

I went from Tang Soo Do to TKD. I started at white, because the styles were different. I also went from TKD to TKD. I kept my rank (instructor's choice), but I decided to down grade (my choice). I think if the styles are different, even if they could be similar in some ways, start at white belt. If it's the same style, you can get away with keeping previous rank IF you can show that you DO know your stuff, and can learn the tiny differences pretty quickly (which I have done, and caught up to what my old rank was anyways fairly quickly).

I didn't know where the put this, so I put it here (Patrick will yell at me LOL). Anyways, I was wondering if anyone knows how to remove logos off of the back of gis/doboks? I have one old uniform that I really like, but I have to remove the logo for use in a different dojang/dojo. Any suggestions?

I have "trimmed" this topic because it "borderlined" on art bashing, which is against our guidelines. Opinions are welcome, but art bashing isn't. Please refrain from this in the future. Anyways, this split thing isn't a bad thing I can do splits, too. You're right though, splits are really not needed to be good at MA. But it's nice to say "you can." TKD has taught me to be patient. I came from another MA, so I had to unlearn to relearn. THAT takes patience. MA in general was a character builder for me. I have more self confidence, self esteem, ect and I'm in good physical shape

I agree G. My instructor has said I was ready, but I decided not to test on several occasions. This week being one of them. I was supposed to get my second tip for self defense techniques, but I am (I feel) really bad on the counter attacks. We have three "grabs" (lapel graps, wrist graps, chokes, ect .... depending on belt level) at each belt rank. But there are three defenses for each grap. I have also douple tested (for tips, not belts), only because I knew the stuff required. Anyways, I don't test if I feel I'm not ready, period. I tell my instructor thanks, but no thanks. He understands. He gives me his point of view, but mine also counts. But then again, I'm not one of those who have a brown belt (or what ever rank before black) for three years either. It's totally up to you (well in my dojang anyway). I hope I made some kind of sense. I'm tired LOL. Bed time

No thanks LOL. I did enough of that. That can't pay me a million dollars to do it again The "hurry up and wait" stuff had to go. Specially not there. BUT security work did get me into MA, so it wasn't all bad

I would write my whole experience with this, but it would be too long. So just read the article I wrote for KF ... http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=4969 I hope this helps

I think learning from videos is ok IF you already have a good base in a style (under a qualified instructor) for a few years, then you can get away with it. I have, but I have also trained for almost 4 years. I have started learning TSD again on my own. BUT I still have an instructor (who also has experience in TSD). I have also learned (stole) stuff from other arts from videos.

I saw the Karate Kid movies in the 80's. Ever since, I wanted to try some sort of karate, but my parents couldn't afford it. Then I got into music (almost forgetting the idea of martial arts). Then almost 4 years ago, I had a job as a campus cop, and I wanted to learn a bit of self defense. I looked around. I found a Tang Soo Do dojang. It was the only one that treated me with respect when I walked in (instead of a $ sign). I didn't know much about MA at the time, but I knew that this one was a good choice by the welcome I got. It was kind of a hybrid style, but great for self defense. I still train there when I visit NJ for long periods of time. To be totally honest, my heart is still with TSD and that dojang. I wish I could move back, but that's not possible right now. My second choice was Hapkido. In NJ I was going to take it. But here in NY, there isn't any Hapkido (or TSD) dojangs I settled with TKD (not that TKD is bad, it just wasn't one of my choices at the time when I moved up here). But it really impressed me. The traditional version is pretty good.

I also did security. I had two jobs. One was at the mall .... boring. I worked third shift mostly. You just make "rounds" and twittle your thumbs basically, unless an alarm went off. Which very rarely happened and 9 times outta 10 it was a false alarm (but we had to treat it like it was real). I also worked during the day there. That was fun. Shopping on shift Getting free-bees (coffee, food, ect). Saturday nights weren't so fun, though. We had to break up fights in the food court almost every saturday. That's when most of the shoplifters showed their faces. But greeting/helping people when needed was fullfilling. I also did security police on a college campus (lots of training for that, though). We were basically cops, except we couldn't go off campus and we didn't have guns. We did first aide/CPR, wrote tickets, broke up fights, answered calls/alarms, did investigations if anything happened or was stolen, did "bank runs," popped locked cars open, exsorted people, ect. All that fun stuff (one of my reasons for taking MA was that job). It was kinda stressful at times.