Why_Worry

In my style there is a kata like this where it is a breathing kata and you are supposed to be tense, but not from the muscles. You breath to let the chi flow through your body and if you are tense it wont flow so you have to relax and let your shoulders drop and just move without thinking so much. What i have heard many many times from my senseis is "Your breathe moves your chi and your chi moves yoru body but if you tense your muscles it cant move." Tense katas like this should be tense from chi which should energize you not drain your energy. You chi will keep your body strong but moving smoothly and it works just as well if someone trys to push you (In this kata sometimes senseis walk around and randomly push people to see if they move). you just need to relax and let the chi move and move from yoru center of chi so all you really do is move you hips and the rest moves but try to make yoru chi move you instead of muscle.

Oh, i forgot to say that i would really worry about it though.

I wear a gold mezuzah (jewish necklace) and i kinda feel as though the flow of chi is better when i have it on, but sometimes i do feel slightly heavier with it on, but somtimes i feel lighter. The only problems are that sometimes when doing real fast/strong punches or kicks where i move from the hips real fast to get the chi into it my whole body moves but my head stays face the same way and when i breath sometimes the necklace flys into my teeth, so most of the time i take it off for that purpose but i dont feel it hinders me mostly and i kinda feel a light pressure on a pressure point on my chest where it is and i feel as though it kidna opens up the meridian in t the center of my body although sometimes it gets a little itchy to be honest. Although sometimes when i do yoga and its bikram so its like 110 or 115 degress the necklace actually starts to get hot and feels a little like a sting when it touchs my body.

Wow that makes sense but makes no sense either from what i hav elearned. I have learn that tense muscles blocks the flow of chi, but i guess if you have it all in one spot, yoru kinda invicinble in that one spot so that is actually really useful to realize. It kidna traps the chi.

You sound kinda like i did a couple of months ago. If you want something flowly or elegant you should see some of the masters practice. Its amazing to see them. Everything is so smooth and looks like no effort. BUt just do wha tyou want and dont be held back, but make sur eyou knwo what your doing first too.

whoa, thats weird. I cant picture jackie chan sueing somebody for one, but i guess he has a reason now. Thats wired. Keep us posted. I kinda hope Jackie wins, but i'm probably a little biased towards him for a bunch of reasons.

I go to a local community center where there are very good teachers (just so you dont get the wrong impression) and there are four sessions per year that in total last the whole year, but nobody relaly knows when they end. Each session costs 100 dollars so in total the whole year is 400 dollars, and we dont pay for belt tests (but we do for belts) becuase there arent specific dates, your just tested when the senseis feel ready. The only thing is thatyou can only go twice a week and you cant go there to practice as no one is there the rest of the week besides the classes. But the sensei's are married which makes them even mroe friendly somehow and the whole palce is like a family so you can stay before or after class and practice if you want.

Just remember, yoru instructor wouldnt let you test unless you ere ready. At my school the instructor makes sure you are ready by not telling you when your gonna test and during one of the class just pulls you aside when he feels your ready (and sometime after you do a set amount of katas at home and write a thougthful essay)

He does get a bit too much attention. I mean one of the best martial artist i have ever heard of was Itoman Bunkichi and how many of you have ever ehard of him. He could jump like 15 or 20 feet straight up and do amazing things, not to mention he was really fast at dodging and beat a few samurais just be dodging their sword attacks. THen there was a man named agena who had amazing strong fingers and fists. He could also jump pretty high. But to answer the question, the correct breathing differs in each style. I learn to be calm and have no anger in my breathing, but in self defense classes sometimes peopel are told to be angry although what i learn is that drains your energy very quickly and it can tense up yoru body so you dont get the chi flowing and you dont get as much power. The are other ways though, jut in wha ti practice alot is focused towards peaceful ways. And splits...the only use for those is in capoeira because that was originally supposed to be looking like a dance so the slavers wouldnt mind the slaves practicing. O and in a few styles splits are used in strikes like in a kung fu style the practitioner rises their foot al the way up and grabs in kidna in a split then kinda falls down into a split. Its weird to see

Its kinda crazy how you do things without even knowing. Like my sensei's told me two stories about how they were at a wedding and the bride and groom where making a speach and they were foucsed intently on them and a candle from the cake next to them fell and both there hands without even noticing shot out to catch the candle then they were like whats that so they look to the side and saw it in Merricks hand (He's taller than his wife tracy (other sensei)). Another story is that they were at a Flea Market and Merrick was talking to a man and behind him two pots from a stall fell and were about to crash and without even thinking merrick spun around and caugth the two pots and turned around and kept talking. So its not so much your reflexes get better, its kinda your actions get better and if something is coming at you you are more likeign to get outta the way, also your awareness gets better without you even realizing it.

From what i read, the some of the styles of monkey in kung fu are basically drunken martial arts.

If they are PUSHING me i would slide around them and push them from the back into each other then walk away. But if that doesnt work and you actually need to fight i wouldnt recomend do a million strikes. Maybe just do a couple to each person fairly light. You know, just enough to make them say "Ow, taht really hurt." Just like hit them in the solar plexus so they bend over for like a few seconds and walk away. or just put one in an arm lock and most likely the other people will stop for the moment. What i would do in a big group is i would just slide aorund and push them into each other and trip them and make fools of them without really hurting them punch except for a couple of light punches to make them bend over for a few seconds so they dont want it to happen again. However it happens, just make sure youd ont wind up on the ground being kicked and stomped on.

Two books that i would say are very very good books, are "The weaponless warrior" by richard kim which i just basically a lot of cool storie sof okinawan masters and the book zen in the martial arts which is just a more peaceful book kinda. But its kinda boring if you dont like that, but the weaponless warrior is deffinately a very godo and interesting book.

Eventually you will get mroe flexible, but you dont really need to kick very high to do some damage. Kicking low is really effective too unless in your style you have to kick high for other techniques.

Yeah, white warlock said it better than i did. Thanks for correcting me, i forgot about that.

When i say commercial/franshice i mean places where the way the instructors got to their position is that they payed 10 thousand dollars, went to a few seminars then were handed their black belt and a certificate. You need to find somewhere with people who have actual experience. If it a school which has branches, thats perfectly fine i think its pretty cool cause you get to hear about other peopel and meet new people every onc ein a while. You just have to make sure the instructor got to their position from experience and not just money and a few extra hours.

Just to say something, i never get in fights at my school but thats cause no one has ever challenged me just cuase that sort of thing doesnt realyl happen at my school (or at least to me as i try not to make fun of anyone i dont care if people make fun of me) but according to your theory of what a McDojo is, if its correct then i go to a Mcdojo according to your standard. But our "McDojo" deffinately doesnt produce the same kind of student that a commercial or franchise would. At my the karate dojo i go to, it is at a community center but the teachers are still very good (they are two 4rth degree black belts who are married so they work very well together and benifit each others knowledge). But we almsot never do sparring and all relaly releases, drills and kata so just to point out that just because you dont really do sparring a dojo is a mcdojo, its places where the instructors dont know what they're doing and they just paid 10 thousand dollars to go to a few seminars and get their blacks belts so they can teach that they can be classifed as a "McDojo". I think alot of the problem now adays is that franchise/commercial schools are giving martial arts a bad name especially arts such as Karate and TaeKwonDo so taht even if someone finds a good school everyone when they hear about what they practice/study they assumeits just a silly hting. The same goes for community centers where youc an find very good teachers because all they really do is teach and arent there for money. When i tell people i take karate at the JCC they laugh at me then a couple of seconds later they usually try to punch me and then they stop laughing when they fail over and over again.

Yeah, with me even though i'm a lower rank than most people at the dojo i go to, i still find it fairly easy to spar against alot of the other people (except like 2 other people and the two senseis) so sometimes i just kinda play around and have some fun although some of it is really useful for building momentum and if you are awaring of whats everywhere you can block while spining and kinda of make the strikes into blocks, but i wouldnt really recomend doing it in a street fight. In a street fight just kinda dodge and take them out and wlak away. But just have some fun and play around when sparring. Dont be afraid to try something crazy like backing up and runing at them even if you enver learn anything like that in class. Just have fun.

And martial art is deadly if used, but a martial art should never be used to kill someone. What i had to learn for my orange belt was awareness. Awareness of what you're doing as well and how much it take to take out someone but not to kill them. YOu need to realize what your doing and the only reason someone would purposely kill someone is if you were taught completely wrong.

You shouldnt try to learn techniques from books or movies as thats almost impossible if you have no martial arts background already, so i would recomend sticking with history, philosphy and other thinks like that. A good author is Richard Kim and he has written a good book called "The Weaponless warrior" which tells about great okinawan masters. YOu shouldnt underestimate how much you can learn form katas and repetition. If you repeat the basics over and over and over again they eventually become part of you and you automatically do them without thinking. Also katas are very very useful. You repeat something over and over again until it is infused in your muscle memory and you just move without thinking and the moves become a part of you and you move iwthout thinking. Its osmetimes refered to as "Moving zen". but if you still feel like sparing is the best way to learn then thats fine. But make sure you stay away from commerical/franchise schools or "mcdojos". If what you want is a sparring style i would recomend goign with KyoKushin karate or muay Thai boxing although i recomend just finding a dojo that seems to be a nice place where the instructor seems to know what they're doing.

Its kidna wierd because at my school people will just kinda randomaly walk up to people and hit them so every once in a while someone tries to hit me and i just step around them and dodge and they are like "Whoa, do you do karate or something?" I'm i just say "Actually yes." So some of the people at my school think its pretty cool but some of the other kids think its kinda stupid/silly. But i kinda like it when people are ignorant and think that its silly/stupid. Its actually pretty entertaining to be honest.

lol, all that stuf he did is horrible, but its still pretty amusing to read. If you find out when they are going to show that on t.v. make sure you write it here. Thats gonna be entertaining to watch. But even if i miss it, it will probably be on the news if anything breaks out so i guess its kinda hard to miss. But i fyou ask me its good he was kicked out because he was giving your style and of course his "Ninjitsu" a bad reputation.

I dont meditate that often but what i think of it as is a state of mindless awareness. I try to stop thinking but be aware of everything and i fyou knwo how you ground your self to the ground in martial arts using your chi to go into the ground, i do the same when meditating but send my chi out in every dirrection trying to connect to everything and just be one with the trees even the walls and t.v. in the room and the phone as its part of the world.

What Manabimasho1 is good advice for the most part but i dont see anything wrong with chambering the fist (in fact you should because your center of chi (hara) is right near your hip so when you move your hip you are shooting out the fist from your center of chi which puts chi into the shot but if you want to see how many punches you can do in a few seconds when one hand then its probably mostly muscle power but it can be chi if done right but i like chambering my fist and found it can work pretty well. What my teachers tell me allt he time is "Muscle is limited but Chi is infinite." They also tell me in order for the chi to flow you have to be relaxed and tense muscles block the chi flowing. YOu ahve ot move from yoru center or your hara which is slightly above your "lower area" and its the center of your gravity basically. Its yoru center of chi. If you are relaxed your body can move extremely fast and you have to breath as that moves the chi. You need to train the chi to move the body and at first you need to just do the techniques while breathing and attempt to make the chi move and just remember to breath and be relaxed. Also adding a little snap in your punches or kicks or whatever sends the chi into the target. When my senseis where learning they would be at the local community center so they had showers there where they would fill a bucket with water and throw it over the curtain rail then they would punch it. There were two ways of punching it. 1. They would punch it and it would just be pushing it making it go foward (there isnt anything wrong with this either but it doesnt really use chi, but its still effective just so you know) and 2. They would punch it and send their chi into it so the bucket would move all that much but the water would kinda shoot up showing that it still damaged it, but it didnt really push it. Its really up to you how you want to strike but i prefer using any method that utilizes chi because even though i am fairly tall/muscular i prefer not using muscle because it is limited and i can easily be strong simply by using chi instead.

That one website is jsut annoying. I'm no expert in ki/chi but what i have learned from one of my karate sensei's who does chi therapy for a living is that you need to be relaxed for the chi to move through your body and breathing moves the chi and you just kinda have to let it flow an dbe relaxed.