Bitseach

Yikes! Dips are triceps dips. If you imagine you are standing between parallel bars, put each hand on the bar beside you with knuckles away from your body. Take your weight on your arms by stepping or jumping up so that your body is straight and arms straight (though elbows not locked is best!). Then dip your chest down so that your chest is level with your fists and push back up to the straight arm position. One. If you go to a gym where they have the "chin-ups" machine upon which you can support part of your weight by kneeling on a padded support attached to a counterbalance, this machine usually had a dips part too. This means you can build up the muscles to do the dips until you are able to take your whole weight (if you can't already!) and is useful for creating "muscle memory".

Sometimes it is also helpful to think about your "ki" or "chi" flowing in the body like water. It's an easier image to conjure than air or less tangible things.

The "Real" and "Continuity" IRAs are recognised as being made up of dissidents from PIRA who did not want to put down their guns, bombs etc and embrace the ballot box. And it is those very same dissidents that planted the Omagh bomb, so one can hardly make the moral distinction here and say that PIRA are lily-white in all this!! Had they been really keen they would have enforced the peace and not allowed their volunteers and weapons to go to the RIRA. You and I know full well that they have ways of "enforcing". "the IRA are by far in the way the cleanest of all the paramilitries and although in resent years they are becaming less moral this is because they are becoming more of a group of organised criminals than freedom fighters" LOL. Oh, well that's all right then! This is exactly what the yobbo thug loyalists did and we both share contempt for that shower of eejits! Toto, you're just not in Kansas anymore! Slán, A bhitseach

Ah but the US is a civilised nation and the Taliban weren't. So the US should be showing themselves - clearly and transparently - to be morally superior than their enemy. Not making any specific point about treatment of prisoners here, but I do think "our" standards should be higher then "theirs" (speaking as one of the Alliance nations). After all, the Taliban are not signatories of the Geneva Convention whereas the UK and USA (I think, anyway) are. The GC rules apply even when one is fighting non-GC signatories. And no, that's not fair, but thems the rules of war!

So please forgive my ignorance but how does Brazilian JJ differ from regular old Jiu Jutsu? I tried JJ once as a karate practitioner who used to practice judo and afterwards found I couldn't move my arms for about 4 days!! (I lost a bet - if I'd won my JJ pal had to come to karate!) I found it fascinating to see the differences in the MAs though - a good, if painful, afternoon!

Er, only if I was wearing my helmet, stab-vest, riot-protective padding and had my shield and ASP by my side!

Yup, he needs to learn humility. Also he could do with reciting a few times the quotation from Baron Helmuthe von Moltke, "No plan survives contact with the enemy". No matter how well prepared one is, things can always go wrong. Sun Tzu had a few things to say about victory and defeat too, but I can't quote them off the top of my head!! Anyway, why is it still annoying you? As you say, his ego is bruised. It should heal soon (in the meantime watch sparring with him though - he'll have a point to prove for a while)

It seems odd to me to see very young black belts. And faintly ridiculous! I started MA in judo and in the British Judo Association at that time (don't know if it's still the case) juniors were not allowed to become Dan grades for that reason, and for safety. Once they reached a certain age (16?) they were allowed to grade as adults, but not necessarily at the equivalent Kyu level. This seemed to me to be a good system. They could get to brown belt and this was recognised as being bloody good! However they then had to work hard again to get used to fighting adults and grading against people heavier than they. When I started karate (shotokan) I was shocked to see some very young BBs! Incidently, as I've said elsewhere on the boards, the only time so far I've had to use the MAs physically to defend myself or others it has been an instinctive move straight out of drills, not anything I've learned through sparring! I'm am NOT saying that sparring isn't useful for self-defence (that would be silly!) but that seemingly mindless drills and katas CAN be bloody good for self-defence too. Often you DO just need one or two moves to get you out of immediate danger and then the mouth can do the rest. Personally I don't like sparring as a) I'm not very good at it, b) it hurts (see a)) and c) where I work I cannot turn up with black eyes or anything! (Oh yeah and, d) I'm a big scaredy-cat!)

Mo, True, and I'd be sympathetic to the depressed teenaged student who felt undervalued UNTIL they picked up the gun. Then they deserve all they get and confirm themselves as losers. Life is cruel to all of us at points in our lives - the difference is that most of us do not decide to kill other people to make ourselves feel better. Nobody's fault but theirs, once they pick up that gun. Don't most schools have personal tutors and counsellors these days anyway? (certainly in London they seem to) Or aren't there helplines such as the Samaritans (again possibly just in the UK) and suchlike? There is ALWAYS help available if they can be bothered looking for it. They can't.

Good for her! My old Sensei used to give a probationary rank if a person was borderline. Seemed like a good idea at the time, although he often susequently forgot they were probationary and graded them as normal the next time! LOL

Tessone makes a good point, although having done judo and karate I wish I'd done both together as each really helped in my study of the other.

What belt is he? HEH heh heh!

Did the board asterisk out ****o Ryu or were you being funny? Made me laugh either way! LOL

Hard to believe any country feeling itself unable to sign Kyoto anyway - it was SO wussy! You didn't necessarily have to reduce your own emissions (oo-er Mrs etc), but you could do a deal with a developing nation that was under ITS quota, sell them some of your waste quota, and everything came out okay! The agreement was so wishy-washy it shows how bad the non-signatories think their own waste is, that they can't even comply with THAT.

Hi Pedro, welcome, and go for it, boyo! (what do you mean by McDojo, and what sort of contract are you referring to? I haven't heard of this!) Cheers! Bits'

Sai - I had a quick shufty around the boards to see if this had been done before (I'm sure it has, mind you!) but when I couldn't find one I posted this new one. See, my board etiquette is improving by the day!!

That's HILARIOUS! What a fabulous clip!

Ca va, Mo, I disagree completely. All teenagers rebel to a greater or lesser extent and all are frustrated with the world and their position in it. Protests are plenty but these student multiple murderers (I shall not trivialise them by calling them Rambos) decide that in their protest they will kill other, innocent people. This is not society's fault (except perhaps that there are too many guns casually available) but theirs. They chose to make their protest in the most selfish way possible and they show their immaturity and lack of worth to the society they choose to reject. It's just a stupid childish temper tantrum, but with a gun. They're pathetic.

LOL - guess where I'M from, Mr Presumptive?? Here's a clue, g - Trathnona maith agat, mo chara! (tr for the non-Irish speakers, "Good afternoon, my friend!") The 'RA in their various guises have been into drugs for quite a few years now - gone are the days when they had some sort of "moral code" in the terrorist actions they perpetrated (the Omagh terrorist massacre pretty much proved that!) and would stay clear of drugs for moral reasons. They also used to stand for a united, radical communist Ireland, another fact most Americans do not realise (and that they might not be so keen to fund). The communist wing did not approve of drugs, like all good communists and eventually went off the idea of armed struggle and into politics more. This led to the birth of the "Workers' Party", who I have to say, speak a lot of sense very often! The PIRA kept up the armed struggle and after many years, started to become more lax in their disapproval of drugs. They still administer "punishment beatings" today, to drug dealers, but it's become more of a territorial thing - they don't want to lose the revenue from small-time drug-crooks who are selling on their patch without contributing to the cause. As the PIRA and Sinn Féin have now also moved towards a relative, if patchy, peace, the yobbos have moved on to smaller, more hard-core groups such as "Continuity" and "Real" IRAs and these boys and girls have no scruples whatsoever about drugs. I know a lot more about Irish terrorists but this is getting long enough as it is! All I would add is that I agree that the loyalist terrorists have been into drugs for a lot longer. I didn't mention them before as they have not been funded to a great deal by US groups, and it was terrorism in the context of the US that we were discussing. However I'm afraid you are painfully naive if you believe that Irish Republican groups don't have drugs all over their hands these days (as well as blood). And I am no apologist for either brands of terrorists - I despise all of those who kill others claiming it is for MY freedom, especially in Ireland, whether they're Republican or Loyalist. Please don't lecture me on Irish terrorists, I've lived it. Have a pleasant afternoon! Slán go foill, a chara! (tr: "see you, friend") "A bhitseach"

Mature. There are something like 70 countries represented on this forum - and it's a DISCUSSION forum!! Telling people to leave if they don't happen to agree with your world view is hardly a good example of freedom of speech, enshrined!

Oh yeah, and let me tell you, even the foam padded chucks BLOODY hurt when they hit you on the head! I am currently nursing a swollen and tender cranium from a few days ago's practice with my foam chucks! I frequently hit myself on the back of the head - this isn't too bad as the bone there's thicker anyway and there isn't too much soft tissue to be bruised but I got myself just behind the temple and saw stars for a few seconds. Always happens when I'm using my weaker arm as it gets tired quicker and then my swings deteriorate. That, and I'm just not very good yet!

I think someone's pulling your leg, they've got the story twisted or they're just trying to wind you up! How could they ban showing nunchucks? Who are we talking about anyway? I can see how the BBC might not show them, but you could rely on Channel 4 to continue to show violence, or channel 5 - both have shown "Natural Born Killers" for heaven's sake! Smells a bit fishy, this one!

Well, he was certainly interesting reading! (He doesn't seem to have much respect for Asian people and he referred to some group as being a "fairy group" - hence my comments!) Certainly a character though!

I am SO encouraged to hear this from senior and very skilled karateka! This is the true spirit of karate. Oss!

CKD - true, and it's what's hopefully going to scupper the IRA and organisations like it. There has been a lot of tacit support for Irish terrorism in the US in the past, when judges have given sanction to convicted terrorist murderers who have escaped from British prisons, on the grounds that they were really political prisoners! There was also a terrific amount of funding and gun-running from the USA to Ireland. This seems bizarre now, in the wake of you-know-what, that green terrorism was at best quiety ignored and at worst, condoned by the legal system in the recent past! However now that the world HAS changed the IRA has tried to go more to drugs, protection rackets and training other international terrorists (FARC, ETA, etc) to get more money. This will be a huge mistake for them - they have been caught training FARC guerillas in Colombia. FARC are known to be anti-American and so now fall into The War Against Terrorism (thankfully that has never been acronymed!!!) and so the US finally has to burn the bridges with Irish terrorism. There is a lot of satisfaction in Northern Ireland that finally, these terrorists have been recognised by a major funder, as no better than those Al Qu'eda cowardly rats who homicide-bombed NY and Washington.