danbong

Kajukenbo also combines striking with lots of takedowns and locks.

Besides flexibility, muscle strength plays a part, especially with side kicks. So besides the partner stretching mentioned by CTTKing (an excellent excerise by the way, we did that one in my hapkido school) try to do side leg lifts and also slow motion side kicks while supporting yourself with a chair or against the wall. Focus on good form and hold it out for a bit at full extension.

For the ones whoo don't want to be there, I pretty much agree with Jiffy although perhaps instead of flat out kicking them outof class you can instead become stricter and stricter with them. That's what our head instructor did with a couple of kids. After a while they usually drop out. For the ones that just have a hard time getting it but seem to be motivated - just keep telling yourself that those are the ones who benefit the most from good martial arts training. They are the kids who typically do not have much opportunity to be winners at anything because the have such a hard time getting it. Your class becomes the environment that nurtures them and gives them encouragement to keep trying until they succeed. So keep your standards high and be firm about doing it right, but be positive and encouraging at the same time. My father-in-law's finest teenage black belt was one of those "total disaster" students for a long while after he started, but was a totally different student when he reached shodan some ten years later.

Just out of curiosity, what was the name you wanted to use? Also, what association do you belong to and who is your sensi's sensi?

TKD is kind of like shotokan with the hips always facing front in the kata. You will probably use front leg kicks a whole lot more in free sparring. Free sparring often starts at a much lower rank. Kata bunkai is typically not requirement for promotion. Step sparring is not an exercize to prepare you for free sparring - instead they are self defense techniques. And most importantly - can an overweight person do well in TKD? Heck yes! It will be harder than if you were "normal" weight and all muscles, but you CAN do well.

If you have healthy and strong joints, wearing weights should not be a problem while doing "normal" non-workout type activities.

It is not such a sure thing as that. If you hit the sternum with sufficient force, you *may* stop the heart. That is why some of the younger baseball leagues require players to wear a small chest protector. So it could happen, but you should not count on it in a real fight.

Studying multiple styles can be very good for you, *but* studying multiple styles too early can be bad for your development. It's not just a matter of confusion. The big problem is it takes a great deal of concentrated effort to become truely skilled in just one style. To get really good you have to do a whole lot more training than just attending class. In fact, perhaps you should ask your instructor for a recommendation on how you should be training on the days you don't have class. I think Parkerlineage has the right idea. If you train hard, about two or three years after you reach black belt you should be ready to train in another style.

You should not have to come up with a reason for why you don't want to go out with him, you should just have to tell him you are not interested in dating him.

How well did that program work out?

I would wait until you have trained for a couple of years before taking up a second art.

If you stay on good terms with your instructor you could have him test your students when they get to ranks higher than you should be promoting them to. But that shouldn't be too much of a problem. If you open a school when you are a nidan, you should be able to make sandan before the 4 years or so it typically takes to make shodan in shotokan has passed. Of course, I am assuming that you want to teach within the context of you staying within shotokan and continuing to train in it yourself.

I would say start with either BJJ or Muay Thai and after a couple of years start training in the other one. Of course many BJJ schools that train for MMA competition teach MT to prepare, so you might not even have to find an additional school. In terms of selecting a school there is no substitue for watching classes and trying them out. Also compatibility with the instructor is important. Pay close attention to the skill level and attitute of the senior students - they demonstrate what the instructor can do with his students. And lastly, beware of hype. Any good martial arts school can improve your chances of surviving a fight. Some can improve your chances more than others. No school or style can make you an invincible machine.

I don't like the 2 inch belts. They are stiffer and somewhat harder to tie. Mostly I just think they look a bit tacky.

The way you handled it was old school and that's what traditional martists would expect to be done in that situation. It shows a total lack of class for them to rough up juniors.

elbows_and_knees - I'd appreciate it if you could find a link to the bjj way of getting up.

So you are saying that in the early post WWII time period Koreans would not study a completely Korean martial art until it added movements to make it look Japanese?

In my shotokan class the side thrust kick is performed with the base foot at 90 degrees and it pivots to 180 degrees. The side snap kick is performed with the base foot at 90 degrees the whole time. In my hapkido class our side thrust kick was performed with the body fairly upright. Our base leg pivoted to not much past 90 degrees. It seems to me that the amount you base foot pivots depends on the amount of body lean you have and how much you turn your hips over - the lower you have your body and the greater the hip turn over, the more your foot pivots.

http://www.kajukenboinfo.com/

If the chinese kempo school is a branch of the universal kempo organization, it is part of the kajukenbo family tree.

There is one in Concord http://www.jdsport.com/index.html?dir=/dir/Martial_Arts/Kung_Fu/Eagle_Claw/index-2-1859-20761-0-0-.html and one in Sacramento. http://www.eagleclawsacramento.com/school.htm

I think it's great that you are becoming a role model and mentor. I hope it leads to many females sticking with it and progressing at your school.

Most hapkido schools do quite a bit a kicking. And in most hapkido schools and pretty much all aikido schools you will be doing a whole bunch of breakfalls - they can be tough on you physically - you might want to wait on that until you hip is better. Perhaps escrima/kali might be a better choice for you right now. Having a weapon would be a great equalizer for lack of mobility.

RNC => Rear Naked Choke As for the throwing an opponent who has applied a RNC that is "sunk" - sometimes the throw might get you out of the choke, sometimes not. I had a RNC applied to a partner who was at least a good 50 pounds heaver than me while he was on his knees. He did a shoulder throw on me and I kept the choke on and did a shoulder roll. This led to a position where I still had the RNC applied and allowed me to easily to get my hooks in too. He tapped just a few seconds later. As previous posters have said, once the choke is sunk your chances of escaping are pretty small - mostly you have to hope that they have left themselves open for a strike or there is a chance of using a pressure point to help. Neither of those two is a given for the exact situation you are in.

I would definitely go for a grappling style - judo or bjj would be good. I would also go in as a white belt. After all, you are deliberately studying something very different than what you have a black belt in.