lordtariel

I agree. Shin kicks, stomps, and sweeps, can be done at very close range. They're all kinds of kicks.

Wish I did, it sounds interesting. Personally, I think most people are shocked and offended by this behavior, but they would be afraid to get involved. Just because you study martial arts, doesn't automatically make you immune to fear or bad motives. There's good and bad in everything.

It depends on the system. I've seen places where it's white-yellow-orange, places where it's white-orange-yellow, and places where you start at yellow. Either way, yellow belt is a fairly early rank. Some places, it only takes a couple of months to get to yellow belt. You also have to remember that not everybody is that good at sparring right away. If you've been training for four years, you're probably going to do better.

Ninja Truth: http://www.karateforums.com/ninja-kata-vt32258.html

Here's the thing about this. Everybody above you is sempai, everybody below is kohai(I think). Doesn't matter what your rank is. As a white belt, everybody's a sempai. As they progress, they slowly start to fill in that role a bit themselves. I look at the position of sempai sort of like a big brother. Someone you can go to who's not necessarily in authority that you can go to for advice. If you're really concerned about how you're getting separated from the rest of the students, talk to your sensei about it, but in some ways, you have a responsibility as a higher ranking belt to help out with the lower ranks.

I agree here. It's one thing to listen to cds and read books, but the fastest way to learn a language is conversationally. If you know people who speak Japanese even as a second language, spend a good amount of time when speaking with them in that language. Not only that, instructional courses tend to lean more towards formal language and not what the everyday speaker uses.

Saw this on youtube the other day and figured I'd share it. Crazy, these kids are only 11. http://youtube.com/watch?v=mI78jcoXnbU#

Best bet is to keep your distance or run away. Possibly look for an improvised weapon. rocks, a bottle, a chair, whatever you can find to keep out of range. You might be able to win going toe to toe with him, but the odds are pretty low. But then again, I'd say odds are pretty low you're going to encounter someone who pulls two knives on you in a random fight. As I side note, I've also noticed that a longer second weapon is more often a hindrance to them unless they trains that way.

I would be very hesitant to try and learn it on your own. The two arts are quite different from each other and it would be better to see if you could at least take a few introductory lessons in tai chi before going off on your own. I agree that The Idiot's Guide to Tai Chi is pretty good. Another good one is Ultimate Guide To Tai Chi : The Best of Inside Kung-Fu. If you're interested in martial applications of Tai Chi, then I also recommend Tai Chi Martial Applications by Jwing-Ming Yang.

It really depends on the situation, I'd say it's probably more uncomfortable rather than painful.

To an extent, I'd consider this more an awareness test than a memory test. If you had told that student he had 30 seconds to memorize what color shirts people are wearing, that would be testing his memory. His mind is focused on the task at hand and it's a matter of recalling what he saw. Awareness is more of a peripheral thing. You're focused on something but need to be aware of what else is going on around you. Someone confronts you, but are you aware of your surroundings and his friend sneaking up behind you or completely focused on the person in front of you.

Well, to not help things much the answer is yes... What I think the original poster was referring to though is your favorite way to train in an internal art. There's things like push hands, Chi Kung(Quigong), Tai Chi(Taiji), Silk Reeling, meditation, and a million other forms of internal training. and they can be used for everything you've talked about. I've only studied a few of these though so I'm not an authority by any means. There's some good posts in this forum about the topic of Chi/Ki and what people's view about it are if you're interested in it.

I agree, I'm curious as well. Welcome to the Forums!

Funny you should mention that. I just read an interesting article about 90 out of every 100 Americans owning guns. http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3533675

We offer kobudo independant of Karate. That's proably going to be a judgment call of the sensei though. I don't see the harm in it, but it really depends on the instructor. Some teachers require you take open-hand arts from them before taking weapons classes to ensure the person's not going to flake out on them after a few weeks.

The only down side to borrowing would be if you had to compete at the same time as the person you are borrowing from. That being said, I always keep my older equipment and belts for loaners in the dojo during tournament time.

Plain ol' white for me. The only time I could see using a colored gi would be for a grappling art where you're on the ground to avoid having the gi look filthy.

Welcome to KarateForums!

They could change the title to "Enter the Snakes... On a Plane!"

I am undefeated in all of Japan. Of course, I've never been to Japan so that pretty much guarantees I'm undefeated there.

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to the Forums

The wiki knows all... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku Its got a list of all the different names of the kata across styles. Try a search on one of those variations. Hope it helps.

I have to. If I can't perform a belt-required kata, I get temporarily demoted to that belt level until I can prove I have improved.(It has happened to people in the dojo) I try to take 20-30 minutes once a week and just go through every kata I know, back to back. It doesn't take that much to keep them fresh though, a technique is a technique. Learn those techniques well and kata simply becomes a sequence of moves. A violent square dance if you would.