Steve_K

I am aware of your official standing as an unranked martial artist, and I respect that absolutely. I myself am reluctant to accept these three year practitioners holding a black belt as truly skilled. I personally care more about how long someone has trained. Obviously, if I were to be challenged by a 30 year practicing 1st dan black belt, I wouldn't assume I could defeat him because I myself am a 1st dan black belt (practicing seven years) However, it is my beliefe that counting these unskilled three year black belts in the statistic, can make up for truly skilled, unranked martial artists, which I'm sure there are a lot of, including kung fu practitioners. In response to your statement about "people who would rather study under a 3 year practitioner holding a black belt, than they would me" It can be difficult to put trust in someone with no proof of experience. Granted a black belt isn't always proof enough, but it is at least some kind of a device with which someone can measured, along with their years of experience and the reputation of the school they trained in, and as for the person who would rather train under a three year black belt, I can't say that they are using good judgement either. As for pride being a reference to egotism. Having pride isn't egotism, pride is a sense of self importance and esteem, egotism is an exaggerated, and excessive sense of self importance, closer to the point of feeling superior to others. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying all this because I LOVE the concept of ranking, and think that someone isn't skilled if they don't have a black belt. However as an instructor, it is good to have some form of researchable credentials such as your certificate and the reputation of the school you were trained in. Wouldn't you rather be treated by a medical doctor from Julliard than a doctor with a diploma from an unknown school in an unfamliar country? Like in "The Cider House Rules" (if you've seen it) It is entirely possible for someone to be fully qualified, in the movie's case as a doctor, but with no documentation of instruction and only the person's word to go by. There are plenty of self proclaimed "unranked, skilled martial artists" who are just jerks that learned a little of this art here, and little of that art there and claim they have developed their own system, and call it Jiu Box Fu, when in fact they are just guys who cannot commit to steady training under an instructor and think that they already know all about fighting. No I'm not accusing you (White Warlock) of this, but people who ARE like that are a disgrace to the martial arts just as much as those "McDojo" black belts. When I started this topic, I was only curious.

I'm not worried as to how many "black belts" there are in the world, I am just using that as a guideline to find how many truly skilled martial artists exist. It's like asking how many people have a driver's license to determine how many people there are over 16. and those who wear a black belt to boost their ego, never deserved it in the first place. We don't need to wax intellecutal and philosophize about what a black belt is and means, and judge the character of those who have earned them and are proud to wear them. and by the way, I care

I found the best way to practice these, is if you have a big trampoline. practice using the bounce of the trampoline and get used to throwing all of your weight into your legs/feet, keep practicing and gradually using less bounce and more of your own body. When you finally start practicing on solid ground, you may not be able to get all the way up at first, but you will be farther along than if you hadn't been practicing. Case and point, practice on a trampoline.

Where do you come up with this stuff??? Your profile says you're learning not one, but 4 different martial arts...aren't any of them teaching you anything about fighting multiple opponents? If not, go find a good Shorin Ryu school. The tactics you are suggesting with acting silly and faking seizures will just get your butt kicked. I actually believe that could work, if you knew how to fake a seizure, and did it well... if you just looked like some jerk thrashing himself around on the ground, they would just beat your *. It that would be your angle, then you would need to study acting and theater, not martial arts. No offense to anyone with epilepsy out there.

Does anyone have any solid statistic on what percentage of the world population has a blackbelt? I have been told that less than 1% of the world's population has a black belt in some kind of martial art. Can anyone confirm this or correct this? i would definately believe that <1% of people are truely PROFICIENT at the martial arts, but I just would like to know about official black belt martial artists and the ratio of them to everyone else. Thanks for your responses.

I don't use the word fail, but when I test a student and find them unprepared and unworthy of the next rank, I end the test and tell them that they need to be tested later. A good instructor can tell halfway through the test if the student will pass or not, unless it is a blackbelt test, and unless he/she is a complete jerk with no regard for his/her student(s) they would probably stop the test before finishing and having to tell them they failed.

When it comes to fighting and things that can endanger your life I believe in two ways. 1) Find a source for courage, in the case of fighting, a source could be fighting for your life, fighting for someone else's life, or just for the well being of someone else. 2) Having the willingness to die or be defeated, and totally disregarding yourself, or complete selflessness, by laying down your life. or for milder challenges like in class sparring, tournaments, test taking, non-life threatening challenges. - Simply convincing yourself that it is okay to fail, and if it happens you will just do your best to become better afterwards and that you will eventually overcome the challenge later, or be able to recover anything that is lost due to your failure. The first method works by placing unbelievable stress on yourself that you can push yourself beyond your own limits of courage. The second method eliminates fear in almost a self destructive kind of way, as if you are expecting the worst and almost wanting the worst case scenario, but if you survive, that is okay too. and the third method eliminates stress and fear with the knowledge that in the end you will be okay and failure just means that you just have to succeed later. I abide by every one of these philosophies and have applied each of them many times, and they work. I hope this helps.

Shenmue is the greates role playing adventure fantasy game ever, the first chapter came out on the Dreamcast, and the second (in america) came out on Xbox. It a classic adventure story told in modern times (1986) in japan (1st) and china (2nd), it uses the "virtua fighter" engine for the fights. The hero learns moves throughout the game and they are added to a long long list of present moves in the categories of hand strikes, kicks, and throws. I can't even begin to describe how amazing and addicting the story is and how rich the surroundings and non-playable characters are. If you ever get a chance to play either of them, DO IT!! however the story isn't over yet and fans are still waiting for the final game to come out and conclude the story, hopefully it will be fulfilled in the next year or two.

I understand the uses of Ki energy, such as combat oriented uses and health oriented uses. My question to anyone who is experienced in this is, 1) how do you harness ki for striking purposes? 2) how do you harness ki for defensive purposes such as absorbing strikes? and 3) how do you harness ki in a healing aspect. It can't be just the fact that I exercise my ki therefore my strikes are deadly, I feel no pain, and I am in perfect health. Thank you very much for your insight.

I think you heard that tactic on "Rurouni Kenshin", but if you are a crazy runner, it could work.

Kung Pow and Street Fighter(live action) There are plenty of other suckfests but those two take the cake, in my mind right now. I love movies and don't generally believe in walking out of them but Kung Pow was the only movie I ever walked out of and I would walk out of Street Fighter if I had the chance.

"SHENMUE" BABY!!!

I can't really decide. All three have their own unique feel and appeal to them. The first one is a good coming of age movie, meeting Mr. Miyagi, Daniel and learning Karate. The second one is cool because it takes place in Okinawa and we learn more about Mr. Miyagi, and plust Daniel gets to fight in a death match which is super sweet. The third one is cool in my opinion because of the more serious involvement of Krees and his friend Terry, which I like especially because we get to see Mr. Miyagi fight two exceptional, experienced, adult martial artists and kick their arses. BTW did anyone notice anything in particular about Terry's (Thomas Ian Griffith's) fighting in that movie?

I don't know about consciously trying to put them out of business, but I agree they are a problem. They create too wide a spectrum for the standard of what a good martial artist is. A black belt at a crappy school may only have the skill of a 5th kup/kyu at a good school. It makes it so that simply the title of "black belt" isn't enough to know that someone is a fine martial artist.

uhh... a reverse punch is a very practical technique, I use it all the time.

I practice traditional tkd, chung do kwan, which is derived from traditional shotokan, although my school isn't very traditional, and we definatley use punches when sparring.

I would say that if a short and tall person with equal intelligence, strength, stamina, had the exact same training, the taller person would have the advantage obviously because of his/her reach. However a good instructor will teach a person to utilize their size advantageously, if that were the case, I would say both fighters are matched. It really is all about training, preparation, and anticipation.

Another variation of the wheel kick is like a spinning hook kick where the leg is straight, striking with the heel, as opposed to "hooking" it in by bending your knee in at the point of impact.

If you think about it, every martial art was started by someone or a group of people who ultimately didn't know what they were doing. I think creating and mastering your own art is definately feasible, but it would benefit you or anyone trying this to have a training partner even if they didn't know anything, just to practice moves and self defense with. From what I read the famous Gracie family had to do just that. From what I understand, Mitsuyo Maeda originally taught the Gracies jiu jitsu, but didn't teach them to completion, leaving them with just the basic principals from which they developed their very popular, and effective martial art.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but people should realize that boxing is a sport that prepares the trainee specifically for "the fight" with strictly applicable techniques. Now a karateka or whoever is generally trained in techniques for fighting, self defense, kata, philosophy, history etc. making their training over a multitude of facets. Now to my knowledge, boxers aren't trained to defend certain attacks like takedowns, chokeholds, grabs or whatever like most martial artists are or should be. However if a said martial artist trained more specifically for fighting like the boxer, it then comes down to who trained harder, mastered their techniques better etc. But a boxer does have a more immediate advantage after one year of training than a martial artist that started at the same time.

I understand what you mean. What I often notice in MMA fights, is that the fighters will trade punches in the beginning, but they seem to be looking specifically to go to the ground and stay on the ground, because when they have an opportunity to stand back up, they instead try to take the mount on their opponent. It is my contention that tournaments like the UFC are often more of a jujitsu/jiu jitsu competition that ALLOWS the competitors to strike with hands and feet, but is in general a ground fight. A stand up martial artist would do just fine in MMA as long as they mastered ground defense and escapes, and they could generally just forget offense on the ground unless they were forced otherwise.