G95champ

Intresting. I would consider a Tiger and Leaopard basically the same thing. I mean big cats. The others are much differant. So Praying Mantis or Dragon was not one of the 5.

You may feel faster. LOL...

KSN I agree that uniforms have a great upside. However the thing is this is the USA and everyone has the right to do what they want as long as it don't harm another. Self expression is key to our way of life. Uniforms will never win If it is ever taken to the Supreme Court.

A few years back you saw a lot of athletes wearing these rubber suits to help them sweat. I had one and man does it work. Problems is you can't work out more than 15 mins in it because of heat stroke and stuff. I almost always lift in a sweat shirt even in the summer. To each his one.

Weight Traing well help anyone of any age in any sport at any time. I don't care if you are jumping rope or playing marbles. If you are bigger and stronger you will be better off. I would bet you feel slugish because your muscles are tired. This happens when you lift heavy. You are not loosing skill you body is just adjusting to the change.

As far as PP go when my students ask me where they are. I say push on your own body. If it hurts you its a good chance it will hurt someone else.

In class I force myself too. However I would be telling a story if I said I put my all into it. It becomes more a repitation than anything. When I spar I only use them on what I would consider kill shots. Meaning the big punch or the big kick. If you use them to much they loose there effect IMO. The biggest effect being suprise.

Teacher speaking LOL Uniforms never - This is America and we have the right to choose. Private schools are differant but in public schools it is aginst the Constution. (voters can pass it however) Dress Code you bet - If our local schools did not have one girls would come in bikini tops. Guys would come in beer shirts and wife beaters. There has to be a line but uniforms are a no go in public schools.

BA is Social Studies Education 5-12 Working on MA in History

LOL KSN I don't know if I would say that. I have been taken down more than a few times by the same mover over and over. LOL. Types of Big guys Fat Guy - The big guy who is slow and has some power mostly because of his body weight. Not real athletic. When you spar them you can land pretty much what you want when you want to. However because of his padding he keeps comming back. Plus you fear them landing that one big punch. The Tall Guy - Someone over 6'5. They are not fat but because of there ht. they are just so much bigger than you. They got range advantages but otherwase are no differant that the avg. Joe. Manny times this guy may be skinny. The Athletic Fat Buy - Someone who is what we call stalky. They are big from lifting weights, playing sports, chopping wood, etc. (This is what I think I fit in because of my past in football) This is a big guy who has power but can move for his size as good as most what you would consider middle weights. The Athletic Tall Guy - Person over 6'5 that is both heavy and tall. 90% of the time this guy will be athletic as well because he should have been in sports at one time or another. (my borhter 6'7 295). Reach is still the big thing. Grappeling becomes had because their limbs are just so much bigger than yours. LOL. Only real chance aginst them is to hit and run. Because their size relates to good power.

I agree the mind is more powerful. Now there is just some things the body can not do based on one's ht, wt, age, health etc. however I am a fim believer that pain and stuff can be controled to a certin extent by your mind. Out of sight out of mind. When I was young and got cut I put dirt on it. LOL. I did not see the blood it did not hurt as bad. If I don't mind it don't matter right?

There is not many short cuts out there. Usually the only way to get something is to work for it. The only way or I guess I should say the best way IMO to build strength with you kicks is to kick a heavy bag. Kicking air and targets are great but for power you need to have the impact everytime. So my advice to you is just kick the bag over and over and over and over.

Now that is the million dollar question. If someone just wants to become a good fighter. They need to cross train from day one in Kickboxing and JJ of some sort. It quick and to the point. However if you want to do an art like Shotokan, TSD, Kung Fu, etc that has a lot of kata and history with it doing more than one at any time is hard. I myself would reather be good at one thing because I believe every art will have bits of everything else in it. However with that said the ground work I do is Shotokan will never be equal to that done but a BJJ person. So to each his own.

Leaf I have ran into the same problem. Elbows do a world of pain when you block with them. I am always more active with my hands so when that starts i add the jab as fake. to keep their arm up so the elbow can't block. It can but if it does the jab is open. The simplest way to get both the jab and kick blocked is to flip the arm. When you run into people who use leg blocks well its gets more difficult LOL....

Most of your traditional arts take a long time to develope quality fighting skills. However arts like BJJ and Kickboxing develope them much faster. Thus when people get into MA's just to learn how to fight. To become a well rounded fighter the mix of BJJ and Kickboxing is obvious. One lets you stand and the other work the gound.

Well I had not planned on it but I got carried away. LOL.... I am the first to say America is not perfect. Howver show me someone who is closer? We coud do nothing. Is that what you want? First of all being a sempai on this site Im going to pull rank. LOL. Don't call people ignorant, just because you disagree with them. I got a 4 year college degree in history that says I know my facts. I don't mind people have called me worse but name calling gets you no where fast. LOL.... Ill hit these topics as they jump in my head. 1. Racism - Yeah american has the KKK, Black Panthers, neo Nazi's etc. Yes every year we have hate crimes where someone kills another because of color, sex, religon, etc. However when you consider hwo diverse we are its pretty low. I mean heck Japan has next to no race crime but guess what they are all Jappaneese. I have yet to see a Afo-Oriental? Have you? LOL.... 2. Farm land - Egypt actually has great fram land on the Nile. It also has a coast that brings in lots of trade. Iseral too has decent farm land just because you are a deserat don't mean you can't farm. Afg. can't because of poor soil. At least thats what I have read. 3. Religon - Although England has troulbe with Cath. and Prod. Even though cities like NY and Chi in the US are mostly Jewish niether country has problems that face other places like India, Pakistan, Iseral, etc. There is less differance in Christianty than there is between Suni and Shiete Islam (sp) and Hunduism. 4. SDI - Reagan, Bush, and Bush Jr. have all said all American allies will be protected by the shield. It was just a few years back everyone was worried about Astroids hitting the earth. Thank me in 200 years when SDI saves us from one. We can cloan a sheep Im sure we can shoot ICBM out of the sky. Come on???? 5. The Marshall Pan - Well we did not win in Vietnam. Its sort of hard to put a plan into effect? As far as the other places you talked about I don't recall going to war with them. BTW a big part of the Marshall plan was the fact we had US troop on the ground doing everything. The people of Japan and Ger. were loyal to the US troops. Do you think the people of Afg. will show the same loyality? They may I don't know. I sort of doubt it because like you said we turn out backs and they put POW's in stell drums.... Right? I don't know how you can blame us for not watching them 24/7. I mean heck we can't even find Bin Ladden and the whole world is looking for him. That is like putting the mom and dad in jail because little Johnny built a bomb in the bathtub. Well if mom and dad had watched little Johnny in the bath tub guess what? Yeah they get child porn slapped in their face. Come on we can't watch everyone all the time. Geez...... 6. American Guns - Please the most common assult riffle in the world is the AK 47. Thats a Soviet made weapon. Also made by China and N. Korea. I don't see many terrorist running arround with M-16's. LOL that is funny..... 7. Iraq food - Thats how we treat our POW's BTW. Remember the airmen Hussain had in the gulf that had been beaten. Hey Im sure we have slapped a few bad guys arround but I would stack our reccord up aginst anyone. 8. America's homeless - LOL. I love this one as well. Hate to say it but most are drunks and drugies. Yeah some are not. However most are. The ones who want off the street can go to any YMCA and get a hot meal and shower. They can apply for unemployment and God knows they can get a job at Walmart if they want..... 9. PR - I know its about life and death however everything thing you and I see is PR. Im just trying to tell you that PR paints a pic how we want to see it. Its really simple to paint the US as the bad guy. 10. Wedding - Ok we are fighting a bunch of terrorists. Who in the first week we destroyed every major piece of anti air guns they had we knew about. An AK 47 can take down a F 14. Yeah the piolot should have checked out the target but you know what he screwed up. Don't think for a minute he thinks about it every day. Back to the question that started this. I stick by what I said in my first post. Afg. most likely will never be stable because it does not meet any of those requirements. 1. Resources 2. Farm Land 3. Coast and or Rivers 4. Stable Neighbors 5. No past (religon, leaders, culture, etc) I would love to see Afg. develope. Heck who don't Im just saying if your 5'6 your not going to play in the NBA. It can be done. Muggys Boggs did it. However it is not likely. Almost every country will meet some of those marks. Only a select few will meet all of them. The ones that do become World Powers.

The high post man returns. Welcome back....

First of all Im glad you relaxed. LOL Well my friend I am not going to set here and counter each statement you made. However I am going to say this. We are at war? Right.... Yes. Our plans are flying over Afghainstain to protect it. A wedding party fires gun shots. We assume it is anti air craft fire. What would you do? Let me put it this way your walking down the street and a guy holding a knife looks at you and says give me your wallet? You kick him..... Only to find out he was reading sign on a bus going by. OOOPPPPSSS..... When you are at war or on edge you do things without thinking. Do you think we bombed that party on purpose? America has lost more troops to friendly fire than anyone since WWII because we try and keep the bombing as close to the battlefront as we can. As far as what the NA did to the guys in the drums. Do you think we knew about that? Correct me if Im wrong but Afghainstan is not a member of the geneva convention. So the NA don't necessarly have to play by the rules. You head the saying all is fair in love and war. Well Im not making excuses but at the same time we are at WAR.... When I said stable neighbors I ment someone to trade with not invade. Such as the NAFT with the US, Mexico and Can. Or the EU now. Afghainstan don't have anyone. Why? Because of a lack of farm land, sea ports and resources they have nothing to trade. All of the places you mention have one of those things I mentiond. Japan - Has resources just not Iron. They have fish, and spices. They also have great sea ports. They have a rich history and common ethnic group and religon. The Swiss - Have tourism. People come to ski and vacation. Not sure about resources but I would guess they have coal in those hills. They are also located arround some rich people. Germay, France, and Itally. Vegas? - I assume you mean Los Vegas which is a city in a state in a country. Thus it don't have to be self sufficent. However Vegas may be the biggest city as far as tourism in the world. The state of Nevada has resources as well. Gold and Copper being the big 2. Religon most contries do have a stable religon. You can look at almost any contry and say they are this or that. With the exception of the Balkins and places in South Asia like Afghainstan that are mixed. Even the middle east is stable. You know Iraq is Islam. You know Saudi is Islam. etc etc etc....... As far as PR. No its not about PR but your saying it is. Im saying anytime American can be made to look bad we will. You don't see on TV the millions of people we send food to each day. You don't see US troops giving Iraq soliders food at the end of the gulf war. You don't see us rebuilding Japan and Germany after WWII. Its easy to focus on the bad. However if you think for a minute the world is not a better place because of America you got another thing comming. Your last statement talked about all the treaties we broke. LOL. Come on. ABM only the US and USSR were members of that treaty. Last time I checked the USSR did not exist. Should we honor a treaty with a contry that no longer exists? Thats like saying we Bob died and still owed him 10 dollars and you took a 10 laid it on his tombstone. Come on....... Let me add to that President Reagan met with Gorbachev in Iceland in 86. Reagan never gave in on SDI. Burh Sr never gave in on SDI. Clinton quit SDI in about 95. No treaty was ever set up for us to build a missle defense shield. Bush Jr. is bringing back SDI. You know as well as I do the ABM treaty is useless. If WWIII ever starts and Nukes are launched they will be from Subs not ICBM's...... As far as enviorment. Last time I checked the USA does no more now than we did 20 years ago. Saw that on the History Ch a week ago. If you wan't we can't fix the enviorment tell the 3rd world contries to step up to the plate. Why does everyone look at the US and say Racism? LOL we are the least Racist country in the world. Sure we got problems but on much small scale. LOL this kills me when I hear it. We are made up of all differant ethnic groups. Sure blacks and whites don't get along here just like in South Africa. Sure Jews and Musslims have problmes just like they do in the Middle east but guess what we don't kill each other like they do in those 2 places. Come on wake up we are the least Racist Nation you will ever find. You know what you can belive what you want to. At least you can in America. Im a history teacher. I know my stuff and if you think America has not made the world a better place think again. Im not saying your points don't have Creed because they do. However we are not the bad guy. Ofter the media even in our own contry make us out to be. Remember The bad things make a better story. You see we can't win. Even if we instal a great goverment in Afg. we have people say thats a US puppet. If we leave it alone and let them work it out they say the US don't do enough. We always get bad PR. I hope you realize that...... I sorry I guess I did counter each point.

Guidelines were step early on. Every MA competion you go to has differant rules. No head kicks or 2 pts for a head kick. No takedowns or 3 second hould rule or grapple. Pads or no pads. Boxing is boxing even olympic boxing has differant rulse about points but the matches are still the same.

Hello. I'll check your site out in a few seconds.

Im not a huge rap fan. However I always have something to say. LOL.... I had tickets to see eminem when he first started. This was like the summer of 99. Anyhow I did not go. I was like who wants to see a this jerk. I had read the press and stuff he got. You know I bought into it. However of late I have stoped and listend to what he was saying. You know what I don't always agree with him but I really admire him. He has the guts to stand up and tell it like he see's it not P.C. with him. I respect that a lot. So although I hate rap I really enjoy eminem.

We can't win. LOL Ok so we help overthorow an oppressive goverment like the Tailban. No thanks. I agree the N. Alliance are not angles. Heck they were the ones we helps get rid of years before. However if the USA steps in and uses its army to build a new goverment. Guess what they say now? Look at America not letting those people choose for themselves. Its a no win deal for us you can always make a bad PR case aginst the US. Afghanstian has always been a poor war torn country. Guess what chances are it always will be. 1. No natural resources. 2. No coast for trade. 3. Poor land for farming. 4. Unstable neighboors Pakistian, India, Iran, former Soviet Republics. 5. No stable religon, ethnic group, etc. Is the USA doing all it can? Na but if we send more money do you thnk it will be used right? I doubt it. If the USA forces change will we get bad PR? you bet. Where from? China, Iran, Iraq, even allies like France and Russia. However the question you must ask is the people of Afghainstan better off today than they were one year ago? You bet..... America don't do everything right but at least we do something. Yeah we got special intrest but who don't. In the end we will do more good than we will bad.

Each must find a way to control his or her own demons. There is a switch inside that you must find. Its like a light switch. Anyone can find it when the lights are on in class but when the lights go out on the street you got to know where it is. Yoda in star wars says it best. Beware the dark side: anger, fear, agression. Quick to join you in a fight are they. Qick and simple are the ways of the dark side. Very powerful the dark side is. Everyone has fear. Fear keeps us alive. If we did not have fear we would jump out in front of cars and junk. Our football T shirts say Respect All and Fear None. That holds a lot of truth. Anger has to be controled. When anyone fights with anger they become very dangerous. My sugestions. Learn how to breathe. I don't mean meditation just learn how to relax. Force yourslef to smile and be happy. The glass is half full. Prehaps the name Blood Talon could be changed to something more brighter. You have control of you emotions but so much of our mental state deals with here we put ourselves. As Mr. Magie said in the Next Karate Kid, "grass is green, sun is warm." LOL. Good luck remember you have control of your emotions no one else.

I saw Bruce working at a 7-11 the other day. The Alliens that picked me up had to stop off for a Big Gulp before we wemt to see Elvis prefrom at a top secret army base just outside of Los Vegas. Great concert 2 PAC started things off but the King stole the show. JFK was there as well although he was not looking to good sice Maryland is still upset of Joe D passing a few years back. Note This is a joke only a joke and not ment to be taken as anything but a joke. Hope you enjoy.......

I made my First Dan in the May of 96. I went to College that fall and joined a new club. There was only one other black belt in the club and she like my had her rank in another style. By that winter we were co-instructors. However I did not teach really. I worked with new kids but I had done that for the last year or so anyhow. The summer after my FR. year in college some women at a local school asked me to give a SD course. I spoke to both my Sensei's at the time and they said ok. They felt I was good enough to teach. After the course several of the teachers wanted me to teach their kids or whatever. I again spoke to my sensei's and they said sure. So I begin teach by mistake not plan. Oct. of 1997 I tested and made my second Dan in Shotokan since then I have tested my own students. However I did not teach to the public untill the winter of 1999. When my Shotokan Sensei closed down and moved. Several of his studenst came to me asking if I would reopen the dojo. I did only on Saturdays. I was still in College and I came home on weekends to teach. I graduated in the spring of 2000. So I taught a lot then. However once I became the Ast. Football Coach at my HS I went back to only teaching private classes. At least for now. LOL. Thats my story and Im sticking to it.