Why_Worry

Just as a comment, internal energy does not contradict the belief in g-d. In fact, in the kabalah which is a jewish text, they talk about internal energy. I dont know if your jewish, but just liek christianity or Islam, it is a monotheistic religon (belief in one god), and so ki does not affect the belief in g-d at all. G-d created so much, what makes us so sure we can see everything G-d created, maybe there are things we dont even know are there because our human senses cant pick them up. Ki might just be something that most of us dont believe in because it can not be easily identified with the five senses. Also, i'm thirteen too, or now fourteen, and the best way to just get good at this time of thing, is practice. I've realized that i should practice more often and since a few weeks ago, i've been trying to practice everyday for an hour or two. School gets in the way though.

Whoa, no comment really except dude thats ceazy, i gotta try that in class when i'm bored

Capoeira probably has it, but in capoeira, they usually try never to let their back touch the ground, so i assume its not a favored technique, but just a way of getting up. As for myself, i can only roll, but thats not hard at all, you can learn it is probably a half hour. Once you get it though, its really usefull.

Good job, but just remember that if there are people like that who annoy you, you can learn alot from them. If people randomly hit you, thats even better because it will help keep you aware all day and in turn make you a happier person and a better martial artist. However, if someone is bullying someone who cant take it, then you should stop it. Just remember you dont have to hurt them too much, and hopefully not at all. Just a few, uh, sugestions... try say sweeping a leg and catching them, that would embarrass them, just make sure you will catch them. You could also grab a pressure point, once they see you hurt them so much with two fingers, they wont get you again. However, if you know who you are, there should be no reason to be offend by other people.

Oh, but we do have in our system. Its one of the most important parts of grounding ourselves, pulling ourselves up and other ways of manipulating it. We also use it to withstand a blow or make a stronger blow. We dont used many pushes or thrusts, but snapping actions to increase the flow of chi. i just realized, uh, i study karate. Anyway, chi is part of our system in karate. However, you are probably right that we are thinking too much about it, it just comes with practice and relaxing, not discussing it and thinking too much.

There's no right way to kick and no wrong way. But also, assuming you're talking about the snap of the kick. The snap is realyl important because it releases your chi. Also for example, if you hit someone witha towel, it doesnt hurt if you just let it go straight, only when you snap it back does it hurt.

Oh, just remembered, if you do insist on taking more than one martial art, i recomend thatyou take ones that are more different than alike. This is because you can get confused. My sensei was told "the hunter that chases too rabbits" story before even though it was hsi sensei who recomend he take the second martial arts. Just saying you would most likely be more happy doing one thing/living on life, but of course, the oppostite is then true if wha ti said is true. Sorry, if thats a little confusing, just know that in some way, whatever you do is correct and a good idea.

Well, i'm not really sure what to say to most of those. But you can't really tell for sure if you are using chi, so its best to just stop doubting yourself. But a fun excersize for learning to punch and release chi at the end is you punch right in front of a candle and you punch right in front of the flame and it will put the flame out because you punch then release your energy and you arm comes back a little bit. The best way to figure all this out is to jsut go to a martial arts class and learn from the teachers. They can tell whether or not, and its easiest liek that because you can tell in person, but not much adivce to be given on line. Also, some people believe that too much muscle mass inpedes the flow of chi, however my sensei's haven't ever told me anything about this and we still to muscle building excersizes such as push ups so i dont really pay much heed to this. Another good excersize though is to walk, but from your center. Move from your center too, do everything from yoru center. You will notice if you walk from your cetner too that you move straight, not in a bumpy motion going up and down as you walk (its strange how you never notice everyone else moving up and down). Also, breathing and making your chi flow through your body is good. There are some katas which are just breathing and making your chi flow to protect yourself and ground you. Remember, breath moves the chi, but being tense stops the flow of chi, so relax. Also, there is the excersize of imagining a ball of chi inbetween your hands and then feeling it (the more you do this, the bigger ball you can make) then rotate it and pull it out and feel it resist, then push it in, and feel it compressing. So yeah, those are just various things i could think of.

hahahaha, I dont really know any advice to give, but i just wanted to say that first part was funny to read but also congratulations on getting married! Hope you two have a wonderful life together.

I would sugest something as much like your past experience as possible, becaus ein my opinion you should just become very proficent in one thing becuase there are many different ways to reach one goal which goes along with the say "free yourself of dualistic thinking". If you take a soft martial art or a hard one, youw ill be just as fast in the end and just as strong. But that is just my opinion.

I personally think that master is not a litteral title in most cases, and there is always more to learn and more ot build on. I think as you learn more, you see how much more you can build on and how much more there is you dont know and so you can never perfect something. Of course though, master can be used as a title to say that they are you teacher, or you respect them. THere is a different between calling someone you master out of respect and calling someone a master.

I think that if someone really wants to learn, teach them as much as you can. If someone just cares about going up belt ranks, let them. Its their problem, although you could also take the opposite stance and dont let them get anywhere until they realize that the only way to get somewhere is by trying. Remember that if you want to get somewhere, unless you start moving there, you're never gonna ge tthere.

Sorry everyone. I havent written anything here in quite a few months and since them i've realized i was pretty obnoxious before. Since then i've realized that just about anythings possible. I should sa that something is worng or doesnt work or something else, because everythings possible. And a quote i like "To every truth there is the opposite which is just as true." Now go have fun posting more

Oh you where? Or actually thats just a statement, not a question. Thats cool. I was just kidna curious, but nothing in particular. Just kinda felt liek posting a topic. But i've heard alot about the shuto society and how tom handest's just amazing. One of my senseis told me stories about him and of other people there. I think they were there like 20 years ago about probably though. Uh yeah, i dont actually really have any questions though.

I agree with you, but i was just curious as to how you do that? I dont know if what i'm doing is working. I mean i guess it is, but i dont want to become some huge muscle man guy, i just want to make myself strong, not huge. So yeah, just curious as to what good excersizes are.

Oh, ok. That makes sense now.

Uh, sorry to contradict you, but if your growing, you dont want to use alot of weight because this can stunt your growth. And plyometric training is training to get explosive power in the legs (i.e. jumping). A good way of doing this is DROPPING off a box or something then right away jumping back up. You dont want to strain yourself with that much weight.

Well, i call it a dance art because its learnign to fight from basically a dance. It doesnt have the same feeling as a dance but they use instruments and music so it resembles a dance, just you get other thing sout of it.

oh its fine, i wasnt very clear either. Thomas Handest isnt my sensei, that was a couple of instructors back. And his only teacher wasnt Willem Reeders thats why what i practice isnt kunato (He also studied with Masaru Shintani, Sandy Scott, Robert Trias and gerard Durant). ALthough we did take a few katas or forms from it. Do you guys practice the banah kata or actualyl form since kata is a japanese word or do you practice the four point form/???/kata?

Thanks. even though i'm not christian, its still nice to hear a religous person such as yourself saying that martial arts dont contradict religion becuase i have always wondered that as a lot of ideas come from other things liek zen or yin and yang, and i've always wondered, but it seems a bit clearer now that there is nothing wrong with it all.

I'm not really sure were to put this so i just put general martial arts. BUt anyway, i'm sure alot of people have heard the arguement that believing in ki is against beleiving in g-d, or an arguement clsoe enough to that. Last night i was at karate class and my senseis were on vacation so one of the black belts taught class. The man who taught class was a rabbi too and he said that in the jewish text the Kabbalah (i'm not really sure how to spell it), it says that your center of power is in yoru stomach or the area where your hara is. I just thought that was interesting that even in some religous texts it says that you have a hara or center of ki, just uses different words for it (or in this case hebrew for it). Just sharing that thought as i thought it was really cool and helped me believe in ki more as now i know that i can believe in g-d and ki at the same time and there is nothing wrong with it at all. The only difference is that i'm using a different language to say center of ki

yeah, i knew that stuff, and i think you got what i meant, but i probably wasnt clear enough, (just as a side note, the multi color cords are usually meant to match many of the colors of the flag [not always though]). I probably just wasnt clear enough so thanks for clearing that up for other people.

Well actually i study karate with an influence by a few other styles. Who was your instructor? Cause my instructors also studied in philadelphia. By any chance have you ever heard of teh shuto society or Thomas Handest? Just curious. But thanks for the link.

Just as a side comment, if you want to jump high, do those squats, but take away allt he weight and do them as fast as you can. Training muscles for strength is good in most cases and helpful but you need to train your muscles for speed too, which means you should do something that doesnt take weights and just move them as fast as you can. But also thats actualyl relaly cool yoru trygint to start capoeira. I'm also 14, i'm 6 foot and only 160. I'm not built like you are from what i've read of your work outs, but i have also always though capoeira was realyl cool and nice and interesting. Good luck finding a place, but here is also a website that is really interestings jsut to see some things and mess around when you get bored although odds are that if you use these techniques, its completely done wrong, but its still fun. Just look at this website, its fun if not for martial arts, then at least learning to breakdance. http://www.caporehber.com/stil.htm (i wish ic ould do a cartwheel though, that woudl amke all that stuff so much easier [just as a question, since you did gymnastics, how do you do a cartwheel or like back handspring anyway?])

I was looking at the lineage of my senseis and their senseis and i noticed like 4 instructors back there was a man named Willem Reeders. I read that he practiced kuntao which was an internal art form. I was curious about this cause i knew that he also learned fighting so i couldnt realyl figure out what kuntao was. I was just kinda curious if anyone knows anything abotu Willem Reeders or Kuntao. Willem reeders was pretty famous so i woudl suspect someone would knwo soemthign abotu him.