G95champ

Welcome to KF hope you keep finding your way back.

Can't answer 2 but number one is a BIG yes. Honestly I do not think people need to start MA till their mid to late teens. You are not behind anything. In fact your learning curve should be greater now because you will have the mental ability to pick things up quicker. Good luck and welcome to KF....

What about the classics. I still got my atari 2600. Pac Man Pit Fall Space Invaders Defender Combat and Breakout Those 6 are classics and will always be fun. For the first Nintendo what about Mike Tysons Punch Out Techmo Bowl The Legand of Zelda Metroid and Dragon Lord???? There is still nothing better than going to any vido arcade and finding the old Pole Postion game or the original Crusin USA and going for a drive. LOL.....

I am glad they work for you. There is nothing wrong with knowing them, teaching them, working to improve them. however they got a greater down side than up IMO. If head kicks worked you would see much more of them in NHB fights. As far as on the street only a person with great flexability can get them off because like I have said many many times. 1. Your in blue jean or dress clothes. 2. Your may be in dress shoes, boots, or sandles. 3. The ground is not solid aka gravel, mudd, wet grass, etc Im sorry but IMO blocking a head kick is really very simple. 1. just move 2. Your hands are already there no differant than a punch. 3. with the exception of the front kick you can see most of them comming. I am not putting down high kicks I just disagree that they are good for SD.

KarateMom Point sparring is a differant beast. I never win point soarring matches with other black belts. I loose more than my share to Kuy ranks as well. I have good speed but at the same time a big guy will never be as good as a little guy in point sparring. Simply because our strengths are not what it takes to be a good point fighter.

IMO its just where you are not used to using those muscles in that way. It will or should pass with time.

Sorry Im a football coach and we face this every year. The only way to get them better is rest. Once you get them better there are a few things you can do. 1. Wear high socks when running and working out. This keeps the muscles tight against the bone. You can also tape them up or buy one of those bands you see basketball players wear but IMO high socks is the best bet. 2. Light weight lifting with calves and step ups wil help build the legs so it don't happen as much. Again not much you can do but rest....

Well I have taught at a YMCA and out of my home. In both cases I like to keep what we do in the dojo to ourselves. If you really want to see what goes on in class join. I don't mind people comming in to watch but I don't invite them either. When schools are public it does invite trouble makers. T.R. said,"walk softly and carry a big stick" Thats what we try and do.

90% of the time I am in a full Gi. The other 10% I will be in shorts and a T shirt. This is done on what I consider our open sessions where its not really a class but where people can come in and work on what they want with my supervision.

1. First of all they watch one class before they can start. This tells me a lot. If they set and watch and are intrested it means they are going to take it serious. If they are restless and goofing off then I question if they really want to be here. 2. The first day the train. I will put a student in charge of the main class. He or she willl go over simple moves and combos. This gives them some needed work teaching and lets me work one on one with the new person. 3. The last half of class I will take over and bring the class together to do kata, spar, SD, etc. In each situation the new person can basically hop right in with everyone else and go at their own speed. While I am free to move from person to person as needed.

Reaction. If you can react you can do ok reguardless your training style. Too many times people are caught off guard or just lock up. Style or Art IMO don't matter as much as personal readiness.

We had a Lau Guar person on here by that name. You may want to search the member list and PM or email him about that style.

Another point about the low stance. We teach to shift into the low stance to deliver that one big kill shot at the end of the combo. This give you more power. Sure it may look old fashion but like the old saying goes" if its not broken don't fix it". A quality shotokan black belt can hold his onw with anyone IMO. Just as a quality TKD, TSD, Ju Jitsu, etc can. The problem is that there are way to many black belts out there that are not that good.

Welcome my fellow shotokan friends.

College Football 2003 for PSK2 rocks I also love GTA3 and can't wait till 4. Madden is always a winner no matter what year. Back in the summer we played a lot of Tripple Play Baseball but since College Football came out its not been touched. LOL.

Now thats a post. LOL. I ate 2 sandwiches and drank a pepsi while reading it. LOL.... Good stuff...

Welcome

I played Football and yes MA was a huge help.

Shotokan teaches the low stance for kata, and practice. You will see us do one and three step sparring in it. However I have never been taught to free style spar in it. The low stance is to build power and strong legs. Also gives you good leverage on people who want to rush. I understand your point but at the same time I don't think anyone actually teaches people to fight in a deep stance. With that said every style has its weakness and things we do not like about it. I will agree with Xtreme Fury that your Sensei has a problem if he wants to kick people in the groin. SD is differant that just proving a point. I would also like to say that if he was able to kick every student in class in the groin the class was not taught very good in the first place. Shotokan teaches the down block first of all. Any quality white belt should be able to protect his groin. This is in the combat section. I will be the first to tell you Shotokan is not a great combat art. Because of the focus on kata more than anything. However Shotokan students will have more power than most people equal to them only because we work the low stance over.

I have poor eyesight that is the only reason I am not in the army now. I have a dozen friends who went to the guard or into actual service. I'll do what my country asks or needs of me.

Here is how he picked the name American - The country he lived, was born, and served, and where the style was made. TAO - mean the way Karate - empty hand. So the way of the American empty harnd. Karate to most people is just a generic term that refers to MA. So I don't think it was a slir on Korea as much as it was just a marketing idea.

Chin Na

Most boxers do not consider themselves Martial Artists. We MA usually like to bring them into our group.

I don't see it ever being as popular as Little League Baseball or High School Football in the towns across America. However no question it has grown. How big can it get well that is hard to say. Karate or MA hurts itself to much. 1. Unqualified teacher and overanks 2. Hollywood helps and hurts 3. There is not national rules for tourneys (differant everywhere) It will always be a second leval sport IMO. However as a hobbie I think it can reach higher levals.

Welcome back I have read a lot of your old posts.