omnifinite

There's a great Karate place and a great Kempo place in/near Stafford. And there's a great Aikido place in DC (you could take the Metro I guess). That's about all I could personally recommend.

I thought swinging the guns around was silly until I saw the movie and they explained why they were doing it, then I thought it was rather clever. I don't see it happening in real life, but it was fun in the movie. They didn't really call it "gunkata" in the movie did they? Ugh. I'm pretty sure that's just this gunkatta.com guy. That site looks really, umm, well, sad, for lack of a better word. I doubt he's done any research on the statistics of bullet trajectories and preferred firing angles and such. So basically he's showing his appreciation for what he liked in the movie by completely throwing away the entire point of it. Great...

Hmm... mine didn't fit at all... no point in posting them .

It's probably just a case of CYA (cover your ass). People are all uppity and paranoid about terrorism... so security people have to take every precaution they possibly can (no matter how stupid... even if they themselves think it's stupid) because you know someone somewhere is going to find some lame reason to complain and they're going to lose their jobs over it so their security organizations can stay credible/reliable. I swear the terrorists have only done about 2% of the actual terror. The rest has been done quite willingly and eagerly by us "victims".

That's a cool story, Sai. If something can poke a hole in a can it can probably poke a hole in a person. I suppose that would be the reasoning behind it. I can't quite tell from the picture of it how it works.

I don't have any experience with it but from what I've seen I have a lot of respect for it.

Unconsciousness isn't good for a person. Don't do it to someone unless they're trying to hurt you.

aka "back to work" day... weee...

I would think the Nunchaku would be Okinawan too. Same with the Sai if it's in that list with a different name. Don't quote me on it though.

In my case it's a lot like Aikido but the circles are smaller (not to be confused with Small Circle Jujitsu). And strikes are used when necessary, but that may not be traditional.

Self injury? What self injury?

What kind of floor are they fighting on? If it's a hard floor the arts like Judo will probably do a lot more damage than they would otherwise.

Is that where you're on your back and you jump up onto your feet? I can do it with a little help from my hands (the slightest pressure against the ground by my head) but not without them... weird. Maybe you can tell him he's trying to fling his legs under himself. Or tell him to take the movements he's doing and exaggerate them even more. If a kip-up is something completely different then I apologize .

Take out some bills and try it out. It works fine then. I just did it and put everything in piles. The men end up with $1 each in their hands. The bellhop has $2. The hotel has $25, which is split into $8.33 (give or take a fraction of a cent) per guy. The guys paid the hotel $27... the hotel has $25... the bellhop has the other $2... the $30 figure seems to be irrelevant. I guess 30-27=3 is just the wrong way of looking at it.

It isn't Karate's fault that a lot of Karate instructors don't know Karate. A lot of people do have the mindset and training problems you're saying they do... but those people aren't doing real Karate if you ask me. There's still a whole lot I don't know about Karate (in fact I'm doing Kempo, it's probably a little different), but I'll stick a few of my opinions in here and hopefully I'm not way off base. The other Karate people have already covered a lot of things... I don't think that's done merely to teach you to chamber a punch, and I don't think it's really meant to be used in combat either. You shouldn't have to chamber a punch... you should be able to strike from wherever your hand happens to be without hesitation or pulling back first. I believe the emphasis on bringing the other hand back isn't meant to be taken as literally as it seems to be these days. Being taught to put the other hand at your side not only makes sure that you're constantly aware of your other weapons (and keeping them available) and not forgetting about everything but your striking fist... but it also teaches you to grab/twist/claw/whatever simultaneously... a fluid push and pull... striking and grabbing/off-balancing... etc etc all at the same time. It can be applied to a lot of things and really what the other hand is doing is just as important as what your striking fist is doing. But the fact that that element is a bit more hidden makes it easy to get ignored as the art gets watered down. People who think there's nothing going on beyond their knuckles in that usual punching movement are missing out. I've never been told that I'm actually supposed to fight in that position (or any position for that matter). I would hope you wouldn't fight in a set stance. I think this is another thing that's taken too literally by the people who don't know any better. I don't believe a stance is anything you set yourself into. I believe it's a snapshot of a moment in time. It's transitional. You set yourself in those stances as you're training so your body recognizes different positions and is comfortable in them as it moves through them, not into them. It's about footwork... being just as aware of your legs and feet (and the targets within them) as you are of your upper body. It's about understanding how to put your body precisely where you want it when you want it without requiring extra steps and without tripping all over yourself. It's all impressively fluid I think... but again, the people who think you just stand there are missing out. As for the basics being done slowly, then eventually at full speed, I'm not quite sure where you see the problem. That the people learning incorrectly aren't getting it right in the slow stage and giving themselves bad habits? I'd agree with you there. I don't think that's a Karate issue... I'd almost call it an issue that's dealt with in martial arts as a whole... or martial arts that focus on precision anyway. And the people not being taught real self-defense aren't being taught real Karate. Talk to some hardcore Shorin-ryu or Kyokushin people and see what they have to say about that. Check them for scars and missing teeth and repeatedly broken bones while you're at it . I think I'm starting to see that (in my experience) Karate that's true to its roots is actually a lot like JKD and other arts like that. It's very sad that Karate has gotten so mangled and corrupted in so many schools that arts like JKD had to, well, rebel against Karate by returning to it. There's some irony in there somewhere. I think maybe you've been fed a Karate strawman the newer arts like to adopt and tear down... and it's hard to blame them when so many schools are exactly what you guys say they are. Blame sloppiness and misguidedness and greed and egotism for all the awful schools out there that label themselves "Karate" today... not the art itself. But, just my opinions so far. There's always much more to learn.

Survive .

Interesting, I haven't heard the one about getting hurt a lot. I guess if they're just clumsily knocking each other around it's very possible . I always figured people didn't get hurt enough in McDojos. The owners would be too afraid of scaring people away to let them get that physical... they'd make more money making things feel safe than they would making things feel real. But I guess you could find any manner of corruption out there.

Check out the classes and see what's going on. I think if one happens to be taught more completely than the other, the more complete one will fill in most of the blanks the less complete one could have offered. If they're both being taught well I'd pick Hapkido hands down, but I'm biased .

As far as I know, if you're doing it right you won't feel the need to resist the bend. It'll happen on its own. The force being put on it will feel like nothing. It's the unbendable arm, not the trying really hard to keep it from being bended arm .

I hear talk in the hardcore Karate circles about blocks never really being blocks (originally anyway). Merely deflecting a punch isn't taking advantage of the full potential of the moment. When a person punches you, they're also willingly giving you a piece of their body. So I've heard stories about the original Karateka not just deflecting but "blocking" via counterstrike, and even breaking a bone or two in the person's arm. When it means your life you'll take every bit of damage you can create. I doubt it's easy to do, but if a person can pull it off I'd say it's a really effective counter. Could work with other punches too... no reason you couldn't (with practice) sidestep and backfist a straight punch. My instructor does it to me sometimes... mix a few pressure points in there and you stop using that arm for a while. I also noticed when I sparred in my last art, if I struck the person's leg when I blocked their kicks they'd get hesistant in their attacks. That was a bad idea though, I was using the bone in my forearm... a good kick could have broken something.

Oh no, I can fold all of my bills into little gliding airplanes! What does it mean?!

23.

People acting like your rank is a personal criticism of their own fighting abilities (I rarely mention martial arts to non-friends). "What, does that make you better than me?" Bah. Plus the almost complete lack of "quality control" in what we do. We never know if some of what we're taught is genuine because some things simply can't (or shouldn't) be tested. There are no "dojo police", and of course there shouldn't be, because different people want different things from their training. But there are a lot of awful schools out there giving people false confidence, and we just have to do our own research to protect ourselves. But I guess that isn't that different from other areas of life where money is involved. There's always someone trying to cheat you somewhere (intentionally or no).

Ram and Libra... Libra is Air if that's where you're getting the element... if there's an element tagged onto the Chinese signs I don't know what mine is.

Someone else here is concerned about his students' safety right? This is a self-defense course. It isn't just any rec center activity. Insufficient information there can have dire consequences.