atalaya

you should take pictures of yourself doing kata and different techniques so that you can document your improvement and find what areas you are doing well at and which you can improve on. this is the same general idea as practicing in front of a mirror, but has the added benefit of extended analysis. good luck!

my two cents worth: I have practiced two different styles of aikido and have learned a lot from practicing both. Aikido has a huge emphasis on balance and off-balance (I think of judo as more of a "throwing" style. Aikido is more about balance, distance and timing as a method of removing standing options from your opponent). It does take an intense quality of effort and will require long hours of practice, but I think in the end you will be very satisfied with the result-- all depending on a good school, of course.

my first sensei was a genius with this stuff! try kicking an ordinary plastic bag and keep it in the air with just kicks (obviously just for speed and endurance drills) try the ol' punch out a candle trick. (use a candle in a safe place! with fire alarms and nothing around except a fireextinguisher!) use kicks and punches at further and further distances to improve "snap" to techniques. try wrapping crushed styrofoam cups with duct tape (cubes, balls, et cetera) to throw at them have them practice dodging, punchin/kicking/blocking them as they come in

for myself, i can say that i had practiced first a style that made strong emphasis on the go(hard) aspect of karate and then i practiced goju ryu which is hard/soft. aikido was even more soft. much more friendly and leaving me with new options so that i didn't have to break an opponent's body apart to defeat him. unfortunately my first aikido school was run by a tight-knit group of friends, the youngest of which was into her mid fifties and the oldest was eighty something. they were all nice people, but very exclusive and classes were always slow and turned into the others all talking about their lives. when i changed schools i was immediately impressed. competent teachers, a very hard routine and a new wealth of techniques. aikido focuses heavily on distance and timing (as was mentioned before). also, aikido provides strong tools for defeating a larger or more powerful opponent. although you'll probably never see kicking in class, if you take your previous experience and apply what you know about aikido, you'll find that it has answers for everything. the rest is up to you if you like those answers.

okay, now here is what i know "manga" to be: manga is the japanese word used for comic books. japanese comics are usually thicker and shorter than american comics (we tend to prefer the 11 1/2 x 18" or whatever they are) and usually japanese comics are black in white except the cover. i have the full run of "dragonball" and only the covers ever got any color. now what commonly happens is that a manga (or a comic) will become so popular that it becomes an anime (which is the word used for japanese animated features, although many people confuse these terms). sometimes there will be some changes made to it but in a lot of cases it's even got the same sound effects! japanese comic books, manga, are generally printed from right to left and not left to right. they are read from right to left and from the top of the page to the bottom. this is because when they were translated into english, they just used the same print tablets. at first they tried to just print everything left to right to make it easier, but it offended the japanese authors because the characters that were left in original format were all backward! hope this helps. i did some research for this before for my school paper back in highschool, not to mention i love manga!

my favorite tool in sparring someone much larger than myself is to maintain distance. stay just outside their striking range and when they strike at you slip in quick and deliver a fast strike to a target below their center (knees are a big one, instep hurts a lot, toes will usually annoy-but should be avoided unless you are using them to "stick" your opponent in one place and deliver other strikes) then move out! stay just outside so that he believes he can hit you. if you are too far, he'll just walk forward. also, no matter how big a train is, it cannot hit you if you don't stand on the tracks. if you stay at that distance i mention, he will be forced to try a linear attack. when this happens, move off his line of attack and respond!

you might talk to the city about just an open area. like a park or something and get a small following. then, try having activities on like a saturday or something in a very public area (farmer's market?) to put out the word. in addition to getting the word out to non-practitioners, it will usually draw a crowd of people who are already in martial arts and if they like what you do, may be willing to extend the offer of some rented space. it's a long shot, but there are less likely things.

does your company have anything like an s.o.p. to be followed? (standard operating procedure) -procedures for things like job titles, hiring, firing, emergencies (including choking, bomb threats, fire alarms, heart attacks, et cetera) or missed work? if not, YOU may want to write it! This will be a wonderful opportunity to further understand the workings of your core group and give you an edge instead of being MR. 404. at my last job i had a hand in solidifying the proposed s.o.p. and it definitely gave me an advantage at company meetings and briefings.

hm. while not a very fun answer, i think this may explain somewhat: our vision of james bond is one of the youthful, womanizing, independent rogue who can single-handedly dispatch dozens of opponents and hold his liquor to a stupifying amount. james bond must remain young, otherwise he no longer fits into the caricature that the myth is built around. q on the other hand is not a character to be admired for any of those qualities. in fact, the only two qualities that we can hold him up for are his intelligence (gadgets, advice, wisdom, et cetera) and his dark humor (ghetto blaster, for the americans!) those two qualities do not require him to be young or even youthful. but in the myth, old age and treachery seem no match for youth and skill.

it may also depend on what kind of style they practice. my first sensei in goju was a very (and i mean severely) tough woman who would flatten you with a glance, but she looked overweight, until you hit her that is. after hitting sensei in the gut (and seeing that your strongest blows had no effect whatever on her) you would learn that she trained her abs more than any other muscle in her body. in goju it is kind of a body type that they aspire to: extremely developed ab muscles that will absorb the energy of a strike without damage. the quality is called "rubbery" but it does not mean "flabby." more...solid. sensei was powerful and her power came from her center.

yes! i love the suggestion to read! also, remember the points that inspire you the most about your subject and try to outline them clearly. then re-write and flesh those topics out. find a writer who you admire and read everything you can that they have written. never copy (copying is something a machine does) but instead, try to catch a sense of their clarity in your writing. you are writing, so keep in mind the audience. if you lose your audience, you have only succeeded in filling up space. speaking of the martial arts as a topic, i wrote something along those lines that you might want to take a look at. it was for an english class, it's on the karateranch.com website.

i love books! when i'm not tackling a book on the martial arts or language i usually grab some comic books! i loved v for vendetta, watchmen, sandman(!) et cetera, but also enjoy reading batman and the occasional manga or american manga title (usagi yojimbo for example). i must say that i read whenever i get the chance. my wife tries to take books from me, but i have some mild success with heavier books!

yes, 97% is what i got, too. just before someone poked themselves in the eyeball. yes. my wife and i were both "prepared" for this one because we knew it was ... like this. i've seen one that was a little more startling as it required you to look directly at a small box in the middle of a family room setting picture. on a related note, some avatars cause siezures.

i had the opportunity to see it in chinese and i have to say, it was certainly a good movie. i had only been in class for a few months (learning chinese) but i was able to understand about thirty percent. (for anyone out there worrying that 30% isn't enough, also consider the genre). still a good movie!

i see that this small point was the "death" of this discussion, but feel that some things are left unsaid. a good instructor, in my uneducated view, can take the most unlikely students and teach them the value of their lives. this is especially true of the martial arts. thus, a good martial arts instructor must have a clear view of self worth and the worth of souls. This appreciation for life will also make the finished instructor a man of all times; war and peace.

an excellent point. on conditioning: i'd like to say that i always try to use a step method. first teaching the technique, then having a student punch a few hundred times at nothing and retain that technique. once they gain experience, practice striking things like paper (you'd be surprised the number of people who will for whatever reason open their hands as they strike something). work up through sand, pads, grass, wood, stone, metal. of course, once you get up into harder substances, you never want to punch full force and when training with a bag, always use gloves or whatever. a neat idea for conditioning is to place a soft towel on top of whatever you are striking. *i once made the terrible mistake of striking a metal "I" beam full force. while at the time i was careful not to show any pain or anything, a day later it was impossible to hide my stupidity- my middle knuckle had swollen to three times its normal size and i couldn't close my hand. USE PROTECTION!

i had the wonderful opportunity of living in a foreign country and living among the people for a time. for a number of reasons i was a pacifist during this time but that did not mean that i failed to initiate an attack if i percieved a threat. did i strike them? no. i would use body language, distance, jokes, disconnected speech, et cetera to avoid physical confrontation. nowadays i must say that that seems to be the best course. avoid at all cost, even the ego. however, when all else fails, my father always said not to throw the first punch, but the second and third and my mother said to never start a fight but always finish it. advice which has helped to carry me.

my eating problem is my wife. i love her, but she cooks too good. the other night, beginning at six, she served me four meals. then i ate two desserts. it's not a big problem when we have guests or i am alone, but when it's just me and my wife, disaster ensues! pizza! stir-fry! chocolate fudge brownie ice-cream!

i have tried this actually. The problem becomes "how long can you hold your breath?" for me, the longest is a little under three minutes -and i swim regularly. however, there is nothing wrong with changing up your stretching routine every once in a while. (also try partner assisted stretching!)

when dealing with something as complex and glorious as the martial arts i hesitate to think that alcohol should ever be involved. I have heard rumors that the injestion of mass quantities of alcohol over an extended period will increase your general pain tolerance when you are not drinking, but again, i would think of this as a very strong no-no. judging by the damage i've done to myself and not realizing it until later (completely sober and nary a drop) i'd say the damage that can be done with alcohol must be extraordinary.

not this, but something similar happened to me once while i was in the mountains. foolishly i had left camp at two in the morning to go pee. i walked about a mile from the snow cave (snow caving rocks!) to the tree line and began doing business when i was surrounded by angry wildlife. just as a coyote came up to attack a thought flickered across my terrified brain and i directed my stream at the coyote! it worked and i was able to return without mishap. This may be the key to surviving a no-win situation: do something unexpected. Use your creativity and your mushin mind to accomplish what rational thought cannot. (but if running is ever an option, take it!)

This is obviously a discussion that is heavily involved with the philosphy of a martial art as much as the techniques. I would like to paraphrase a quote the wise Lao Tze wrote in his book on the Way: "... But only one in ten (people born) seems to survive all dangers. When walking through the jungle, she never fears the rhinoceros because there seems to be no place in her to butt his horns... This is the fulfilled person of the Great Integrity who leaves no space in life for premature death." Lao Tze, to me, is describing the one person in ten who may never have to use martial arts. For the rest of us the martial arts can take on a range of meanings and applications (as Lao Tze alludes to) from giving us an art to practice, a sport to play, a Way to live our lives or a way to protect ourselves or our loved ones from harm. Thus I believe there are times when in fact someone may have to use the art they have practiced. Please do not be confused. I am not saying that I would kill a person for trying to take my wallet. There are levels of defense which must be considered from both a spiritual and a legal standpoint. Legally you may only do that which is absolutely necessary to protect yourself or those under your direct protection. (please see your local laws about this! every time i move i have to look up the new law). Is the person attacking you to kill you? rape you or a loved one? rob you? ridicule you? This must be weighed properly to have a morally and legally strong response. As the founder of my first style, Mas Oyama, discovered at an early age, the application of your martial techniques may result in the death or serious injury of your opponent. Life must be considered above ego and a conflict should be avoided whenever possible. This does not mean that I train my students to be pacifists. I tried pacifism and do not believe that it can work. To paraphrase the famous quote; evil wins when good men do nothing. As far as preparing your body to take a hit: try what aikido founder morihei ueshiba used to do, uchi-gatame or softly pounding the body with fists. Then work up to iron body conditioning (stuff like rolling your shins, et cetera). I hope this has helped to bring another perspective to this discussion. at the start of a new school i was usually picked on just once by the local bully- but i tried hard to never be sadistic or cruel in my responses.

on the drunken styles, one of my sensei was being taught some drunken style and said that the main focus was definitely on the strength of the joints and the hips especially. being able to manuever your center and move around it is the tool for fluidly reacting to an attack and responding in kind. the way he demonstrated it to me was by asking me to attack him, i tried a straight forward lunge high punch. He responded by suddenly lowering his center and dipping back, so far that i was afraid he would fall over! just as i reached out to catch him, his foot lashed out and struck me in the gut. he stressed that the art should never be practiced while actually drunk.

humbly i would submit that, at least in the martial arts that i have practiced, a man depends on the earth for his strength. lowering your center is key. raising your center (as in a flip) may allow your opponent the unexpected advantage of physics and geometry. Also, remember that everything that goes up usually comes down; fighting on the street or other slippery surfaces may give unanticipated results in reality.

when routinely checking out old discussions i came across this and feel i would like to add something. i am fairly certain that in the martial arts we can all agree that one must have a refined spirit, as well as technique and while many suggest writing essays to prove the spirit or knowledge of a martial artist, i find that many of my students may not have a strong writing ability. however, a martial artist must be prepared for peace as well as war. consider musashi with his sculptures, paintings and calligraphy. i would submit, then, that the martial artist must also make themselves adept at some other skill that can be presented and tested as a way of showing the purity of their hearts. thus a master of the martial arts is a balanced individual who does not depend on the flames of war to warm him.