Zaine

I don't know much about how you break into the fighting world. Bill "Superfoot" Wallace did because he was famous within the kickboxing world already. Joe Rogan was also well known as a celebrity personality and MA enthusiast when he signed on with UFC. I would suggest finding some amateur events that will hire you to do it first. Small events that you can use to help get your name out there. Also, start a podcast that is related to the MA that you would like to start promoting for and promote yourself like crazy.

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

Firstly, welcome to KF! That sounds intense! However, I wouldn't suggest it. Throwing 10000 punches won't necessarily increase your skill and as you get tired it may in fact hurt you. 10000 punches thrown incorrectly will only make it harder to relearn how to throw a proper punch. Instead, try to do 10 good punches 3 to 5 days a week on a bag, it will benefit you far more.

I would have done the exact same thing. Part of the reason that the time is required is so that you can find out the character of a person. Any BB is a representation of your school and, as such, letting someone come in a test for it is a risk. What if they go out and start a lot of fights? Also, it's a kick in the face to people who have been putting in the time at your school. Why does this guy get to come in and test for black belt? I think that you did the correct thing.

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

Great observation!

Great post Bob!

Congrats Archimoto! Well earned!

Solid post!

First let me say that the term "man up" is not going to be a good term to us (I would personally argue that everyone should strike it from their list of idioms). Second, I think that there needs to be two conversations with your sensei. One on the part of the woman requesting that she not fight your son and the other with you and your son requesting the same. Not everybody comes into MA wanting the same thing and if she doesn't want to get hit full strength then that's her business. I also think that you and your son should do some control drills so that he learns the appropriate amount of power to use while sparring. Lets be honest, sparring is a lot different from a confrontation on the street. In a sparring match, the object is to learn technique and what works, not to throw the most powerful punch and do the most damage to your opponent.

Absolutely! You can't let something like this get in the way of your life. MA is fantastic and many people have incorporated it to become a huge part of their lives but they usually make sure to make time for things such as family and responsibilities (i.e. work).

I second this, I would like to know how everything went.

Ninjas were supposed to be proficient with every weapon.Being a comic book guy, I can shed some light on the decision. The comic book was originally a parody of 4 other comics (Ronin, Daredevil, New Mutants and Cerebus). He got some of the ideas for the weapons from from these books (bo and sai from Daredevil and the twin swords from Ronin, I'm unclear where the nunchaku came in but I imagine that Bruce Lee plays a part here) and thus we have our iconic weapons with our lovable Turtles. Source: The creator did an interview for Heavy Metal magazine some years back. It's probably easily found with a Google search but the magazine is NSFW so I'll avoid linking it just in case something inappropriate would come across.

Firstly, welcome to KF! That was a fun video! Thanks for sharing!

Good luck!

Good point Zaine and totally agree with you, I am balancing my training in the Gym but my question was which muscle group is important for my karate practice and as I got from your reply was SHOULDERS ! My answer remains the same. I don't think there is a single most important muscle group. I believe that each of them are necessary for good technique. Your back creates balance. Your legs help generate power. You upper body helps to create speed.

Here's a quick video of a sword and buckler sparring match. Watch how the shield moves every time that they move the sword. Drew nails it pretty well. Bucklers are small and used (at least by us) as additional defense.

This may seem like a cop out answer but you should work out all of your muscles (not all in the same day though). The best thing is to have a good balance through your entire body, not just focus on one area. Focusing on one are can create imbalance in your MA techniques.

This is the best advice. Like all others have said, it's best to contact the authorities and walk away from the situation.

This is correct. In what I've learned of sword and buckler so far, every time you move the sword, you also move the buckler for additional cover.

Before entering the world of WMA I also stereotyped it as such, but learned quickly that I was wonderfully wrong. Being that I have studied WMA I am also not surprised by the wound distribution. However, I very much enjoyed reading the article and it's always interesting to think about the differences, thanks for sharing!

Welcome to KF! It's great to have you!

First off, welcome to KF! It's great to have you here! There are a lot of ways to increase your flexibility. First, I would ask your Sensei how they do it. You've just started out so your flexibility will progress as you do. After that, I suggest checking out Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, he has a great stretching regime that my school picked up (however, I think he incorporates ballistic stretching and you should ignore those stretches as they can tear at your muscles, I can't remember for sure)/ Also, try out some dynamic stretching techniques on days that you're not in class, they really help as well. As for the frequency, the American College of Sports Medicine suggests that you stretch every major muscle group at least twice a week. You can do more, but don't overdo it. Finally, if you want, try out some yoga classes, those will be very beneficial not only to your flexibility but also to your MA training.

Welcome to KF! Looking forward to your future contributions!

Congrats! Well earned!