omnifinite

Could you tell us the story behind it? Always good to get a better perspective on the ways people succeed (or fail) in bad situations like that.

Sounds like a school that doesn't want its bubble burst.

I think the meaning of that phrase is to not let the other person force you to play their game... force them to play yours. Though I don't quite understand the usage of it in that case.

In Korea you walk past all sorts of people who've eaten enough kimchi for the garlic to actually waft out of their pores. It was overwhelming sometimes. I can't imagine getting that stuff anywhere near my mouth.

Actually I wouldn't personally do it that way in a tournament either... but since the other guy isn't trying to stab him or break his bones or gouge his eyes out in the tournament it might be worth giving it a whirl there *shrug*. Usually I'm told it's the person who's always on the defensive in combat who ends up getting hurt.

I don't think you'd want to give your attacker that many opportunities to hurt you. Every chance he has is a chance he'll get lucky or you'll mess up. But if it's a tournament or something I guess it's doable.

Sweet and Sour Chicken and Beef w/ Broccoli.

If it helps, you're probably lucky. You're going to be forced to be better at what you do. Some of the people with a size advantage over their opponents may get lazy and not learn as much as they could have in the end.

I think with responsible teachers you're never too young to start. It seems people's problems are more with kids having high ranks too young... you can have the technique down by then but you're still developing mentally so a black belt at that age might be... "incomplete". I wish I'd started really young. Better to grow up doing techniques properly than to come in late and fight years of habit.

From what I've heard, Tai Chi masters are some of the fastest people alive. As obsessively as they perfect their body mechanics in their movements using "useless" forms, it wouldn't surprise me.

Our roundhouses use the ball of the foot usually. We also use the shins for broad general targets, but when focusing on pressure points or vulnerable areas it's just too big a weapon sometimes. Back in Hapkido we would actually spar using the top of the foot instead in order to lessen the chances of us severely hurting each other.

Joe "Aspiring Martial Artist" Schmoe decides to find a school. He starts with Karate at the YMCA because it's cheapest and he already has a membership. He gets bored with all the katas he's told to do without being told what they're for (the instructor probably doesn't know), and doesn't get to do any "hardcore" training because people don't go to the YMCA to get beat up. Joe decides to start looking at dojos, but most of them were opened by 2nd dans who learned from McDojos themselves and are more concerned with looking cool and flaunting their belts than giving serious thought to the mechanics of combat (as far as they're concerned they know everything there is to know). Joe gives up on Karate and notices a BJJ school. Since BJJ hasn't been around for decades it hasn't had the chance to get watered down and McDojo-fied yet (not to mention its higher-ups being more willing to share their most advanced knowledge with other cultures), so the techniques they're teaching really work and are very impressive. Joe's new teacher tells him all about the problems with "traditional" (somehow synonymous with "stagnant") arts and how useless and silly arts like Karate are. Joe hasn't seen anything that would suggest otherwise so he figures, "Wow, it's true, all those people are just kidding themselves." Joe then finds a martial arts forum online and shares his newfound wisdom with the world. He talks about all the things that are wrong with "Karate", and they happen to be all the same things people with real Karate backgrounds are just as sick of seeing in today's dojos. Joe has probably never seen anything even remotely resembling what Karate used to be (and still is for those lucky enough to find a real teacher in an ocean of frauds). That's my personal opinion on what's "wrong" with Karate. And before someone jumps down my throat, that's just a hypothetical story of hundreds of possibilities. Some YMCAs have good teachers. Not all schools are run by know-it-all recent black belts. Etc etc. The specifics aren't the point. The arts that were popular decades ago have had a long time to get mangled in the ego/money-machine. It seems like Karate and TKD are a few of the ones hit the worst. So just because a school has a sign saying Karate or TKD doesn't mean that's what they're teaching. Often it's just a bizarre caricature of the art with no teeth or spirit left whatsoever. And yet people seem more than eager to attack the art itself before attacking those corrupting it... I have no idea why. That's how I feel about it. I don't know if this is going to cause some kind of silly repetitive argument, but that seems to be unavoidable on the forum lately anyway.

I didn't mean smoking the hemp itself. If it's illegal to grow the plant then we get no hemp no matter what the different parts are used for .

You don't have to be an actual mantis to practice Mantis Kung Fu either.

I voted "No". I think hemp is an amazing resource, but until people stop lighting up the stuff and ruining it for us I guess we'll have to do without it (thanks guys). As for cigarettes and alcohol... I don't know which of them are more dangerous (probably alcohol)... but I honestly wish all three were wiped off the face of the planet.

Sounds like a good combo to me... *coughs and gestures to signature*

Like MuayThai Fighter said, I think abuse is often a big part of it. People who see a lot of violence in their homes from their parents most likely often don't develop those "boundaries"... they don't acquire that little voice in their head that says, "Don't hit that person... it's wrong." As far as they're concerned it's all pretty commonplace. Not only that, but seeing their parents, their models for becoming human, using violence to "solve" their conflicts... that becomes what they know. They don't learn other techniques for handling problems that arise. That doesn't really explain where violence comes from though does it . Violence comes from violence? Chicken and the egg? Who knows. Like I said earlier... I think fear and its offspring can be found at the root of most of it.

That looks painful. I don't think my hips can do that.

The bone next to the eye is kind of hollow and rather weak, so it's easy to break (which can make a mess of the internal stuff next to it). I think any nice pressure point strike to the head/neck can get the stars going if you do it right.

I think feeling how techniques work is far more important than seeing how they work.

There's a class out there somewhere that's taught badly. That's proof enough for me .

A lot of the spite I've heard towards Americans also comes from capitalism run amuck, not just policies.

The first two would probably conflict a bit with Aikido. To be really successful in Aikido it takes the nurturing of a specific mindset/approach to self-defense. Tension and hardness and aggression make you worse at Aikido, not better. Depending on the type of instruction the first two might be nurturing that in you while Aikido is trying to relieve you of it. I think you'd feel frequently conflicted. However if the Kenpo and Shodukan instructors teach you the value of relaxation and softness, I guess maybe it could work. Kind of.

I tried it for a little while but it didn't feel like it was for me.

From what I've heard, in the past ninjas were seen a bit like today's gansters. You don't really respect them for who they are and what they do, but you sure as hell don't mess with them either. A respect through fear sort of situation.