Zaine

I understand and respect your opinion. However, I believe there is a difference between someone with no martial arts experience trying to learn kata from books and DvDs someone with several years of experience style trying to branch out a little bit. I'm inclined to agree with you here. I don't see the problem with a martial artist with a few years under their belts learning katas and techniques off the internet.

I don't know about this. Head kicks are pretty popular in movies and that is what a "street fighter" is going to be thinking about. They might expect a head kick more than anything else because they are familiar with TKD as a popular system of martial arts as opposed to some other system that has little to no kicks to the head.

HA! That's awesome!

I pronounce it as in "tie." Mostly because that's how it's always been pronounced to me by many people including Tae Kwon Do people, but also because (being a Latin student) the Romans pronounced the "ae" as a long "I."

Pretty much the long and short of it, absolutely. This would only be if you had to fight an attacker with a knife though. My teacher once told us to run from a knife, and to a gun.

Tons! He is not only a great martial artist, but he really grabs your attention. A great guy! I tend to gravitate towards keeping a fight too close for kicks. I love hand techniques. Yes, a kicks is the most powerful strike you can physically do, but hand techniques really do it for me. There are so many and they're just so cool!

I had the privilege of attending one of his seminars in Texas. It was amazing.

The thing about side kicks is that they are easily telegraphed because there is a little more set up in them than there is in a round house kicks. Front kicks are effective and they are fast as well, but sometimes are harder to do any significant damage on them. No one said that roundhouse kicks were their fastest kick, just that it is a fast kick to pull off in a pinch.

Very true!

Same here, if I'm kicking it's usually to your legs.

Roundhouse kicks are probably the easiest kicks to perform, so they're pretty practical. I'd use them.

And what about this 10 year black belt who is a girl? You clearly have no respect for this person as you've shown in this thread and others. Even if 9 year old girls are what you're given, you need to go with it because it's what you're given. How old are you if you don't mind me asking? I don't see this as harsh. It is, indeed, the reality of martial arts, and everyone has to learn it at some point.

True, otherwise it can be bitter.

Maybe if the prongs were at length, or at least closer than they are.

Hey now, don't underestimate the face block.

A lot of that can come from improper warm up before training. If you decide to do this I would suggest looking into how to properly warm-up (just doing static stretching isn't enough!) so that you can avoid permanent injury the best you can. However, injury can and will happen in any physical sport, so the risk will always be there. As far as those particular problem areas with these styles I can see how that could happen. It makes sense because of the way that you have to use your body and the way that you would be contorted by your opponent so that they can win.

I believe that depends on the location and organizers. Some use it and some don't. I'm not sure as to when it started however.

That is a brilliant metaphor!

I gained confidence. I never had to use it after I started taking it. I doubt they knew.

I read a brilliant book not to long ago called "Leadership and Self-Deception." It was all about how sometimes we let out bad attitude get in the way of progress, and when we do that we tend to blame others for our shortcomings, and fail to acknowledge, or even consider that it is us who is the problem. I could be wrong, but if this girl is a black belt I don't believe that it would be fair to classify her as such. Fantastic questions.

Spoken like a true sage JusticeZero.

It doesn't matter who does it, or how well they do it. If it works it works, why does there have to be any more than that?

It really sounds like you just have a bad attitude. Whatever you're doing wasn't how you pictured it, and that really bothers you so you've written it off. I don't think it's their height that bothers you. I think it is the fact that they're girls that bothers you.

The go somewhere else where they have that, or find a place where there is sparring and go to the one you're at as well. However, any school is going to drill all of those things more than they will sparring. If you're going to take a traditional martial arts, you're going to be doing a lot of drills and kata.

Because it's really easy to pick on the skinny nerd with no self confidence.