Jiffy

There are a couple of things to dancing around your partner. Both will need practise. 1) Relax - dancing around your partner requires speed of movement. Speed requires relaxation. So, make sure you are relaxed. Tension is most evident in the shoulders and neck, so practise making your shoulders loose and comfortable when in your fighting stance. 2) Footwork - Good footwork is the key to "Ashi-Sebaki". If you have good footwork, you can move. To start off with, try a near side shuffle. That is, assume you are in a left leg forward position. To move left, you will shift your front (left) leg then shuffle the right. To move back, you will move the back (right) leg then shuffle the left. Then to do the opposite side, you just reverse it. Try this and see how you go

Good Luck. Hope all goes well. Remember, pace yourself and relax. Tension is the worst thing that kills people at a grading.

Sounds like a great idea to me. I've been thinking about the respect thing a whole lot lately. Mainly because I'm disapointed about the lack of it in our school. I'd like to see it go back a little more to the way we used to train years ago, where Sensei was very important and you would do anything to help him, in fact it was an honour to help him, regardless of how much you were paying for the honour of his knowledge.

I have only done very little Kali, but from what I have seen, I love it. All the techniques are transferrable between stick, stick and dagger, dagger, double stick and empty hand. Not to mention longer bladed weapons etc. Fantastic

In the words of Mr. Miyagi (from KK) "If done properly, no can defence" At the time at which they were popular, they were the only real projectile weapon thus giving a majorly long range. It was also easy for just about anyone to pick up and throw with minimal training. In today's environment though, obviously, it's a little less useful.

video.google.com

Basically anything can be used as a weapon, it just depends how creative you are..... Hmmmm, now.... how can I use this feather to defend myself????

hahahaha, flame thrower!!!

In ours, you can grade to one grade below yourself.

I personally think that creating your own Kata defeats the purpose of them and undermines the masters before you unless there is some new aspect you want to teach your students through kata that is not in a previous kata (unlikely)

The ability to kick high is generally determined by three things.. 1) flexibility. This is genetic and you have a limited ability to improve it. Work as hard as you can with stretching. Make sure you are nice and warm first. 2) Strength. The muscles down the side of the body are not particularly strong. Do some leg lifts, or better and more specific, very slow Mawashi Geril, over and over. 3) Technique. Make sure you are pointing your knee to the target before kicking. Rotate the supporting foot 180 degrees and flex the hips forward.

That's very true!

It's too hard to reply to the dozen or so posts since I was last on, but I will say this. Hikite is an effective method for gaining power. Telegraphing is not. As to weather it opens the defence or not, that depends on a whole load of situations, like the conditions of fighting, the opponent etc. When you consider that I can do about 6 punches a second (and I'm not fast compared to some), that means the person would have to see the hikite, decide to use the opening and acurately hit the target in a tenth of a second. Not likely.

Achieving black belt is definately a realistic long term goal. Remember, all goals should be: Specific, Achievable and Measurable. Make sure to also set some short term goals. As for the other Sensei, he should be fine. If he does have a problem with it, then you made the right decision not to train with him.

Definately!!

My father just booked his skydiving. He is 58

Exactly. Glad we were able to help!!

In this particular scenario, I certainly agree with the jack of all trades analogy.

haha

I think it's a great idea. Really helps with the focus!

I too am a chronic asthmatic and have been since I was diagnosed at 2 years of age. I too am surprised that they have told you to cease all sport. Sport is one of the best things for asthmatics when done with a little discression. Speak to your doctor and also your instructor. Most importantly, don't rush.

It really depends if the grade is recognised. See the post "Is your grade forever" in this section.

Yeah, but that's fine because you held that rank in that style. A rank is forever in my book, but that just doesn't mean it applies to all MA's. If you were training in a new style, I would say it's a different story. Glad to hear you went back.

Basically english tanslation... 1st Step, 2nd Step, 3rd Step 4th Step, etc etc

Well done. This gives me confidence that failing my students is a good thing for them.