searcher

I carry a tactical folder sometimes, but the most effective weapon I carry on a regular basis is my maglite. I have yet to be given a ticket for carrying a flashlight.

Isshinryu is for the most part geared well for American body types. With the stances higher and the kicks lower. My Isshinryu instructor had a great emphasis on fighting application and sparring. IMO it is a good style to develop fitness and fighting skills. What style do you study that is a mix of the styles you mentioned, it sounds similar to I-ryu?

The reason that there are no Japanese made swords realy available is that the Japanese government limits the number of swords produced by a smith and his apprentices. They are allowed to only make around 12 swords per month and these are highly sought after. I researched it and many of these katana start at $30,000 and go up, but you get what you pay for. Were talking hand selected ore and hand-forged, super-high quality blades. Some sword-smiths have a several year waiting period and it is still difficult to get on the "list" to get one. I would suggest if you want a high-quality katana then go to Bugei and purchase one. Before you go and pay several thousand dollars for a sword get a book on katanas and do some major research. I suggest you get the book "The Craft of The Japanese Sword" by Leon Kapp, Yoshindo Yoshihara, and Hiroko Tateno Kapp. This book is very good and it will help you make a wise decision.

There are a great number of ways to strengthen your wrists for punching and all of the ones already mentioned are great. I would also say that lifting weights is great, ie. wrist curls, hammer curls, and reverse curls. There is one way to work the wrists that many would say in kind of funny, but is very good and that is milking cows. I know some milkers that have superb wrist strength. I am not joking around, if you have access to a farm give it a try.

Monkeymagic- I was not always interested in "karate" for self-defense. I grew up watching alot of old kung fu inspired and samurai type movies. This is what I would say peaked my interest in karate. At the time when I finally got to start studying it was more for self-defense reasons than probably any other. As for a more "intimidating" style, I had very few choices in what I studied and I had a friend already in the school. Now as to a more intimidating style I have found that it is not the style that makes the difference, but the one performing. I have had extensive military training and the techniques that are taught to the military is what I had learned as a low rank, the difference is that in the military most are in excellent shape and they can make almost anything work. Ihope this helps out.

It all depends on why they are being unruly. If the entire class is that way then you need to look at your teaching style. If it is oly one or two students find out why they are that way and procede from there. As for the discipline part I would say do something that they can learn from and still get there butts worked off. I have tried the pushup thing and it only leads to more unruly behaviour and/or a loss of students. If you are trying to run the school as a business then the loss of students is a problem. Work with your students not against them.

Here is some food for thought. Do you think that maybe your sensei sees a lot of potential in you and he/she wants to push you to be better? I have had several different instructors and the one that brought me further than any other graded me hard to get me to realize my full potential.

I started my training after finally getting tired of getting the crap beat out of me by the same group of guys. I had a lot of family resistance, except for my dad. I endured the daily butt kickings until I was old enough to drive. I had a friend who was being instructed in Hawaiian Kenpo Karate, so I went and joined the class. Now this is not to say the only reason that I joined, afterall I grew up on Kung Fu and the numerous other sunday afternoon kung fu shows. I had started picturing myself as becoming a master and smoothly kicking the "bullies" teeth down there throat. This mentality changed very quickly as I started getting some mediocre skills. As I got better I found myself realizing that I was gaining an unfair advantage over my so-called enemies in that I trained to fight every day of the week and the only fight training they had was bullying other kids, myself included. I have to admit it, but I was slowly gaining self-confidence and this is actually what made my bullies leave me alone and go on to an "easier" target. After a while I forgot all about getting even and became really focused on my training. Now as to answer why I am still training today, I met my wife in one of the schools that I was training at and we both love training together. We both still strive to improve our skills and we hope to pass on what we have learned to our children. We train on a regular basis for competition and for personal advancement. I have given up on getting a higher dan rank than I am already at. It seems to me that once you reach 4th-6th degree Black Belt it is less what your karate training has done for you and more what you have done to advance your style. p.s. When it came to getting bullied it was not like I was a runt or a "geek". I was one of the best high school track and football athletes in the country. I was also not fat or had anything that made me stick out, I was the target of choice and that is the way it was. As for the bullies that I had, I see them once in a while and they won't even look me in the eye. Bullies tend to be cowards, especially when they are not in their pack. I hope this helps you out and I apologize if I rambled on endlessly.

Anyone have any other places that they consider to be good at learning or perfecting knife skills? Afterall, I thought that is what this thread was started for and not for comparing battle scars.

Anyone have any other places that they consider to be good at learning or perfecting knife skills? Afterall, I thought that is what this thread was started for and not for comparing battle scars.

I train mostly in JUKA gold, but I also have a Ronin brand gi for competition. When it comes to gi bottoms I like Century contact pants. Tokaido and shureido are also very nice but I can't seem to get a gi to fit better than My JUKA.

Without a doubt, the best place and people to learn how to knife fight is Sayoc Kali. They are the best and so far nobody has been able to prove otherwise.

I think it has less to do with the different styles and more to do with the repetition of the same techniques. I had an instructor that had bleended different styles and it worked very well, but his downfall was that he covered the techniques to infrequently. This led to a lot of confusion and a very high turn over rate of students. He would have been alright if he had more reps of the same techniques. I had an advatgae in this setup due to previous training, but most did not. If youo want to see if an "eclectic" style works take a look at Kajukenbo.

you can use a search engine. The one that has them written out that I know of is https://www.familykarate.com but there are others. the form in kenpo is form 7. Panther productions has them onvideo.

Go to ringside.com and check it out they have loads of equipment. They are headquartered not far from where I live and I have used a lot of their stuff.

If you are interested in it for show, and I am not saying that is only for show, you should check out Ed Parker's American Kenpo or Kajukenbo they have forms that I have seen done in competition.

It has been shown that wearing ankle weights can lead to shin splints. They could potentially create what is called "musclular efficiency" and this would slow down the gains you would see. If you use them for kicking be sure to take it slow and easy ther is a great risk of injury. Try using them to build up your outer hip strength by holding it out to the side.

wado_lee, I am hoping that I am not the one who has offended you, my comment was to be directed at the third party that was mentioned in the origional post. If you thought my comment was directed at you I am hoping that this clears the air.

I once heard a bokken-do master say, when asked" where is the real sword at?", how would you like to be a demonstration. I am not saying to kick the crap out of the guy, but let him know you are willing if it comes to that.

I have found them very beneficial in my own understanding of the "real" world and of my own strengths and weaknesses. I love every aspect of knockdown karate from training and mental preparation to the jitters that you get before a fight to the thrill of laying it on the line. We all don't always win every match, but in losing we learn the "full-contact karate truth" that it is a whole lot less painful to win than to lose. Now for your last question you posted I have been in tournaments within my own style and open style knockdown tournaments and I like the open style better it keeps you on your toes more IMHO.

The first time my nose got broke my little sister kicked me with her cowboy boots, the second time I got a headbutt and it shattered, and after a few times I stopped counting. I have yet to break it while competing, always seems to happen in training. After a while you can become a regular expert on how to set your own nose. Now as for ways to make it heal faster there are none, but for the bleeding side of things get some silver nitrate and rub it in your nose, this will cauderize all of the blood vessels in your nose.

There are actually no muscles that are able to be built for the solar plexus, but if learn to always exhale upon impact it does help out. The closest muscle group you have for the area is your upper rectus abdominus and the onlye way to build it up that I have found is doing "zone crunches".

You should check out Dog Brothers martial arts. They do a lot of single and double sinawalli and it might also help somebody find you an instructor if we knew how far you are willing to drive and your location. You might want to search for a seminar also.

I am 6'4" and I weigh 220 lbs. I can do three way on the splits. My Wife is 5'7" and weighs 120lbs, excellant roundhouse.

I am not for sure, but my father has heard of a Muay Thai gym in Coffeyville, but other than that I have no information about any in that area.