G95champ

For the patch you may just want to put. W.M.A.A. on the top line of the triangle and take the words off. That would look ok. I don't know how you would fit it in unless you ran Martial Arts Academy along the sides of the triangle and I think that woud take away fromt he man kicking. YOu have done a good job so far so no need to think you will mess up now LOL. Let us see the final product.

welcome and keep comming back

I tend to like him and think he is one of our better friends despite what a lot of people say aobut US and Russia.

thanks

I would agree with Withers the teacher will be more important than the style. Any basic karate is a good base.

Bon It was fun lol. We will have to do it again soon. Good luck and I hope you find a good kata teacher one day. I would stick with the traditional kata if I were you that way you can get many differant resources on them like books, magizines, videos. etc. Just wondering how old you are? I am 24 made my blackbelt at 18.

If we are talking about our avg. street thug who slashes yeah I think I could do ok. I would get cut Im sure but I don't think he would kill me. If were talking about a trained figher be in Martial Arts or Military that is a bit differant. Because they don't just swing wildly.

Yeah most break the pinky or ring finger because they throw their hooks with them out. Others do it because when you put gloves on you have your wrists taped up and they are more solid and they let their wrist bend when they hit someting. It more a lack on not knowing enough about boxing that hurts them than boxing itself.

Is this going to be a patch or decal for your gi? If so maybe make your triangle a bit bigger and put you name inside it. I think it looks good just wondering if you would want all that white on a patch. For a sign it would look pretty good.

I saw this a few weeks back that he was a blackbelt in Judo but I just saw some film of him training and he is really good. Lets hope George W. Bush Jr. don't upset him this week on his visit. LOL.....

I don't care how good you are there is always something that go wrong and that is just pure old fashion luck. Its better to be lucky than good becasue if you good you may have a bad day and be let down but if your lucky you always preform on a higher leavel than expected.

No its a shame it don't but there a few reasons why. 1. Colors don't mean the same thing. Many styles use a red belt as next to black and some use it as the first belt you get. This is true with about every color belt. There is not internationl system that everyone goes by. Even in some systems white and red are higher than black belts so until there is a uniform system it don't mean nothing. 2. the mcdojo as people have coined on here. People give rank to people from money and not talent. 3. Sport and competion have became more popular than the history and tradition behind the art. The true martial arts is skilled in both physical and mental. We have to many who just focus on one or the other. I have met several people who claim to be blackblets who know nothing about karate except what they have seen on tv. Be careful where you train and what you work for is what you get. You will know you good if your good and you won't need a piece of paper or a belt to tell you you are.

I would say I am a Tiger in Dragons clothing. I wait till I find the right time then I attack and keep attacking.

Crazy being the key word I would say the Phillippines they do that stick fighting stuff where they actually hit each other a lot. Thats crazy..... LOL....

Colors change from style to style and even school to school. I tend to find that most schools go from light to dark in color. Don't really know why but its seems to hold true. Our Shotokan Belts White Gold Blue Green Purple Red First Brown Second Brown Third Brown Black My American TAO belt ranks went White Yellow Orange Green Purple Blue Blue Brown stripe Brown Red Red Black stripe Black

That is what we consider the traditional arts. You only fight when you have to. I should have added that in my statement.

hello

yeah you got to take the body God gave you and work with it. There a a few minor changes you can make to it gain or loose 10lbs or so or lift weights. However you basically got to play the cards you were delt. Any body will fit any style if you work at it. Martial Arts not Martial Science.

Lets look at some of the things you said. Does this excuse you. Well I assume you ment from my coment above about being a good martial artist. We break martial arts into 3 groups. The fighting arts which are Thai boxing, BJJ, Boxing, and any mix style for that reason. The second is the traditional arts from karate to kunf fu to TSD etc. these are styles that can be used for both fighting and exercise and mental development. We focus on the tradition, and history of our art as much as the physical development. The third is the sport arts. Judo, TKD, american kickboxing, wrestling, sumo, etc. More is put on winning competions than the tradtiton and history of the art. Based on your posts I would say you fall into the fighting arts and maybe the sport arts. Thats just how we break it down o. So if that excuses you your welcome. LOL..... Weights builds power and enduracne kata does the same thing. What if you don't have the money to go to the gym, or dont have a dojo that has them in it. Just because we are in the 21th crentury dont mean some people still dont have electricy. BTW your next point made my point about kata. Anything you do and do hard will give you a workout. Do you know Herschal Walker? He played RB in the NFL for 10 years or more. He NEVER lifted a weight in HS, College or the NFL. He did 1000 pushups, setups and ran 5 miles everyday along with a TKD workout. Weights dont make you better it just a means to get better like kata is. You say you would rather have one great move over a dozen ok moves. I can't disagree with that line of thinking because I teach the same idea. You got to do what words. However I tell my students they better alwasy have a backup plan. Lets say you practice you spinning backfist 1000 times ont he heavy bag and you are really good with it. However the reason you get in a fight is becasue a dude slammed you hand in a car door? What are you left with now? If the spinning backfist is all you ever worked???? The point about Tony Mahon was that although he was by far the best figher I have ever faced he knew next to nothing about his art. He had a real hard time teaching me becasue all he could say was do this or do that. He could not explain why. They only way he taught me was by saying good if I did something ok or when I tapped I knew I screwed up. Again you say you would want to get to a place as fast as possible. Lets say Im going on vacation. I drive for 10hrs to get there. I stay a few days then drive 10hrs home. When I get home I want to remember the countryside I pasted so If I ever go there agian I will know where to eat, go to the restroom, get gas, stop and see an attraction, etc. I belive the only way you can see the forest is to look at each tree. Many of us never see the forest becasue we are blinded by the trees. If you want to talk Einstine Ill be happy to but I dont think Patrick will like us doing that on his karatefourms LOL. Great thing about Einstine is that he came up with all his theories and ideas but he himself could not drive a car becasue he did not understand how to. BTW Bore, Zilard, Oppenhiemer, and other have proven a lot of Einstiens theories incorrect. Mainly the theory on lightspeed. Because the faster you go the slower time goes by. Once you reach lightspeed you would be going so slow you could not burn the last bit of fuel needed to go past 299,999.99 km/s Thus to go faster than lightspeed is impossilbe.

Bon Have you ever watched Star Wars LOL. Master Yoda says beware the quick and eaisy path they lead to the dark side of the force. Luke Skywalker even asks Yoda once in the Dark side is stronger Yoda says no. Not strong quick and eaisy to come to you in a fight they are but not stronger. LOL As I read your response to my last post that is what came to mind.

Gichin Funakoshi said karate consisted of 3 parts. 1 was basics, 2. was kata and 3. was sparring. Funaksoshi said sparring was the most important of the 3 and kata the scond most important. Im not saying that a blackblet should not be able to defend himself. I think that above all is the main requirment for a blackblet is to be able to protect themselves. Howver I do think kata brings us to that point. You say you think you gain endurance by lifting weights and running. I will say what does muscle mass have to do with fighting? Again if kata is done correctly you will get a great work out. Shotokan like most types of karate does a some tension kata for that reason. IMO what seperates the good fighters from the rest of the class is their ability to react. You say you react best when just working on a bag. Kata teaches you to react out of repitation. The more you do a series of moves the more they become a reaction. When people first developed kata they did it with some sort of blueprint in mind. The moves do serve a purpose to teach how certin moves flow and work in nice combos. This is sort of where I think karate differs from the fighting arts like Kickboxing and Ju Jitsu. IMO karate students don't learn or become good fighters till they begin to understand kata after they advance to blackblet. In the fighting arts you learn to fight from day one and pick up a lot of tradition and stuff later on. Most karate schoold do not allow students to free spar until they have made a belt or 2. A few years back I trained with a guy named Tony Mahon who trained under one of the Gracie brothers in Brazil. We agreed that I would teach him kata if he taught me how to grapple. The first night I tried to show him some kata and it was like teaching a 4 year old. I assumed he was just talking a good game. The next night we put the pads on and he proceeded to beat the snot out of me. I have said many times all martial arts lead to the same place that the only differance is where you start. As you said kata is a tradition. I am a history teacher and I like tradition. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it so Im going to do my best to keep the tradition alive.

Well agin Mater Yoda from Star Wars is a great on. LOL. My Shotokan Sensei was Howie Harvey. As far as why its just like saying why do you love your mom and dad. He was my first sensei and guided me along what he though was the right path. He helped me when I needed it and punished me likewise.

I have for the past few years. I stopped back arround christmas. No real reason just have not gotten back arround to renewing. LOL. I really enjoy it.

By the nature of your question I assume you want us to put out popular people we all know. Becasue each of us could say our Sensei and no one would know who we were talking about. LOL. As far as famous people no one teacher martial arts better and puts it in more simple terms than Master Yoda from Star Wars.....

Bon Let me try and answer you questions some more. When I was comming up the ranks myself I saw kata as a time to rest and nothing more than memorizing a bunch of moves. One day me and another student were joking with our sensei and insted of saying KIA we were saying kata. Meaning we wanted to do kata becasue it was hot and we were really tired. LOL. He proceeded not to let us. LOL Anyhow point is I did not understand kata till I started teaching them. I still don't and never will understand everything about them but thats the fun of it. Again kata helps on timming, balacne, speed, etc. The moves can be used for so many differant things it opens your mind to differant mthods of attack or defense in a fight. If you want to freak someone out next time you spar do a sequance in a kata at them. They sort of freeze because it looks so graceful but at the same time your attacking them. If you are training for a 15 round fight kata can help with endurance. I don't really know what point you need made. However like I pointed out I think you can seperate the true Martial Artist from the fighters by their practice of kata. No offense Bon.