G95champ

I actually worked on what we call snake spitting one day in my American TAO class. We curl out tounge and spit for the eyes. Pretty nice. Bit gross but nice. No we did not aim at each other but the wall outside. LOL. I have seen and was taught the Smash, Grab and Pull thing you refer to above and I do teach it.

Any traditional form of karate such as Shotokan will give you a base that will let you take it any way you want. Meaing work on the Art, Fighting, SD, sport, and so on. If you are into fighting and don't care much about the art go with kickboxing or BJJ or somehting. What schools do you have arround to choose from is the big question?

I assume your fighting people your own size. So it really should not matter.

No cheating in a real fight. I teach G.E.T. Groin Eyes Throat. Then GET out of dodge. _________________ (General George S. Patton Jr.) "It's the unconquerable soul of man, and not the nature of the weapon he uses, that ensures victory." [ This Message was edited by: G95champ on 2002-06-25 12:48 ]

http://www.kickboxing.com/knowledge/search/dynamic-frameset.html?http://freespace.virgin.net/david.kneafsey/termin.htm Found this on the kickboxing.com link on the page. This is a link to Shotokan terms. Hope that helps.

Yeah I ment first. Sorry left my R out LOL. IMO you become a better fighter faster in Thai. Because that is all you do is fight. As is true for BJJ and other such styles. Being a early black belt in shotokan has more to do with understanding the art than being a great fighter. With that said my Sensei Harvey is only a 3rd Dan and I would put him up aginst anyone. I can't put in a referance of 2 years because people develope at differant rates. However I would say if a beginner started Shotokan and a beginner started Thai after 3 months the normal testing time the Thai student would mop the floor with us. Bring us back 2 years well it would be a good fight. After that its all up to the person.

I really liked it. Unlike Blade I though the ending was great. The ultimate show of love to not take it to protect them. WOW..... Only problem I had was the mask for the green goblin. I thought it was to fake looking. I think a old fashion rubber mask would have worked better. Thats just me o.

I think I read this same post in another section. Try not to post the same thing twice. If you are not sure what section to put just go to general martial arts. Thanks.

I've done little BJJ but I had a real good teacher. I doubt this is allowed in comp. but we pinched the other guys tricep. LOL. Sounds stupid and not realy fancy but it hurts like heck. Also sort of weakens the guys arms. LOL. Don't be in such a rush to pass the guard either. The mount is great but getting there can cost you. Use your weight and gravety to wear them down some then pass the guard later.

Seen a Michael Jackson version once. They did Beat It. Had the red coat and white glove. The break dancing made it pretty cool but no one is more funny that Mike Jackson. LOL.....

I've not heard anything on it. However the Olympics already features TKD, Judo and Boxing. Im not sure OCC would got for kickboxing or other full contact arts because of the blood that may go along with it. Not to say Boxers don't get busted up but I just don't see them going for it. It may be a trial event however. That would be the perfect stage for an style vs style match up if they were to NHB in the games. That would be great.

What littel bit I know about Capoeira its not a fighting art. Its karate hidden in dances. Maybe its just me but I don't think that is good combat idea. However Im sure it would be fun to learn. From the arts you listed the Thai Boxing is the more hardcore and you will fight much more. The Hipikido is really a good art. Has lots of nice SD moves and has all your basick kicks and punches as well. The kickboxing may lead you to more of a sport than atucally combat because American kickiboxing is not much more than full contact TKD. IMO....

Welcome You will get a lot of views on what is good and not here.

Well I would say TKD is the most popular Martial Art but I have read several times that Shotokan is the most popular form of karate. I am guessing becasue Funakoshi was the first to teach the public. Then it was the fist style taught in America as well.

Welcome. Happy Birthday next week.

no blind sparring because there is the danger of hitting the other person. Howeve we do kata blind at times.

Your never to old, or to small. That is the great thing about martial arts anyone can do them at any time in their life if they got the will to.

Welcome You will get a lot of info here that will help you in your training. Hopefully you will pass some along to us as well.

There are certin combo's you wil pick up through kata practice. However you are pretty much free to develope your own. The basic combos are just stuff like a block and a counter attack. When you free spar you are fee to do whatever. 3 Step and 5 Step sparring is how we intoduce sparring to new students. Its done slow at first and you pick up speed as you go along. One person will attack with punch to a given area. He will step in and punch as the other steps back to block after the third attack the defender will counter. Its really nothing more than working basics with a partner. Teaches you control and gives you a person to make the move seem a bit more realistic. I think it is great to help you develope speed and control. I have adaped my 3 and 5 step sparring to work my takedowns and throws after the first few Kuy tests. The one punch one kill idea is sort of like this. We are not headhunters but because of the nature of the training we develope strong hips and legs. Thus shotokan has a lot of power. Shotokan students take pride in their power. We use combo's and stuff but we feel we can end a fight with out best punch or kick.

Sad thing is that happens way to much. You can go through any phone book and see 10th Dan this and 10th Dan that but we all know very very few get that far. It makes me sick to be honest. I trained under a guy who made his own style American TAO. A mix of Hipikido, Kung Fu, and bit of TSD and TKD. He never posted 10th Dan on his flyers. Which I really respected.

Upon becomming a teacher we take it upon ourselves to set a certin example. None of us are without sin. Then as Jesus said let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Now I don't think smoking is a sin I mean Moses did not put that down as the 11th comandments. However NEVER ask your students to do anything you won't. You can not say don't smoke and light up after class. Bottom line is we all have flaws. However this is like the Pastor of a church going to the stip bar or the school teacher doing drugs. When we put ourselves in the public eye we are expected to live up to a certin standard. LIke it or not. Yeah we are role models.... However don't disrespect the man because he has one tragic flaw......

Shotokan is the most popular karate style. There are lots of web sites and books out there for you check up on in. As far as you questions. (no order) 1. As someone pointed out above 5th or 6th Dan is about the highest the avg. person can get to. Because of the age limits. To go to the high Dans you pretty much got to be tied into one of the major Shotokan associaltions. JKA, AJKA, SKA, etc. However some only use a 5th Dan system. Hower you can make 1st Dan in about 3 years. However it takes most 4. 2. As far as Self-Defense goes you will pick up a lot of power moves. Which like I told another poster its not locks and grabs SD its counter strike SD. One punch one kill.... Finish the fight as quick as you can and get out of Dodge. LOL... 3. The best thing about Shotokan is that you can go anyway with it you want. It can be a great base to get into sport karate. It can be a great base to get into full contact karate. However it is best at being a art. Development of the kata constantly teaches you more and more about the art. Tons and tons of hidden moves and applications you are always finding in them. 4. I tell my studnets by the time they get past the 5 Heian Kata they should be able to defend themselves aginst a person of their build. Thats nto fact thats just a guideline. However as many people will tell you on here many white belts are much better fighters than blackbelts. So take that for what its worth. The person makes the style the style don't make the person. I took a bit of kickboxing in college just to get a feel for it and I found it mixed well with my Shotokan. However you are comming in from the other side. The one thing you will find is that your normal Shotokan class is very basic. You may spend hours doing rising block reverse punch. However that does become a great reflex by the time you do reach 1st Dan. Good luck.

I have not found anything in the Arts I don't like.

Don't know how many baseball fans we got here but they found St. Louis Cardinal pitched Darrell Kyle dead today. He was 33. They said it seems to be of natural causes. Thats a wake up call when you see a pro athlete in great shape taken away with no warring. prayers out to his family.

Hello Hope to read a lot of your posts in days to come.