lordtariel

Some day I would love to be a professional 3D modeler. Unfortunately with the job I have now, there's not enough time to invest to get my skills back up to par.

I have basic cable. I wouldn't even have that but it lowers the cost of my broadband to have it. I don't watch tv very often.

Welcome to the forums!

Traditional Chinese weapons were much more heavy. What you usually see in tournaments are wushu weapons made out of spring steel or aluminum. http://www.wle.com/antiques/ANT002.html Some day when I win the lottery I'd like to buy one of these.

Three monitors eh? Not a bad little setup. I couldn't survive on just one monitor anymore.

What type of wallpaper do you have on your computer desktop right now? I've got a picture of an FA-18 Hornet

Yeah, I remember it. Never really tried it though. I miss the old Jolt cola, the one they actually used real sugar in rather than the corn syrup.

One of the guys over at Bulshido apparently did put up the money, he refused to fight. They have a whole story on the guy. I'm really not big into their site, but they do have some interesting information on frauds.

Welcome to the Forums!

Must... resist... urge... to plug where I work... It really depends on what I'm buying. I usually go where it's cheapest if I trust the store so I don't have a reason...

Usually, if I don't notice it by the time I get my change, I'm unlikely to notice it at all. If I do notice it though I usually say something.

I study Traditional Okinawan Shito-Ryu. It's trademark is the large number of katas it has. In some schools a student will learn over 20 katas before attaining black belt. There are over 50 in our syllabus. Shito-Ryu focuses on a combination of hard and soft techniques.

Happy holidays Karate Forums!

Keep mine about 1/4" on the sides and back, finger length on the top. I usually spike it up.

There's lots of ways to improve your punching. The biggest one is to relax... make sure you're not putting tension into your shoulders or pulling them up when you're throwing a punch, it's going to bind you up and slow you down. Sometimes it's good to act like your arm is dead weight and you're using your body to throw that weight out there. Make sure your hip is engaged when punch. The hip is what fires the punch. Without it, it's just your upper body that is throwing the punch... you tire out pretty quick. When you use your hips, your whole body gets involved and you can go a lot longer. Lastly, make sure your punching in a straight line. Sometimes people tend to arc their punches slightly out to the side when they're punching. Since the shortest distance is a straight line, they're always going to be a bit slower than someone punching straight. Aside from that, the best way to improve is to practice, practice, practice like everyone else has been saying. It just sometimes takes time. Good luck and welcome to the forums!

I've been away from the dojo for the last week due to a cold. I'm ok to practice, I just don't want to get anyone there sick. Still drives me nuts not being able to go to class though.

I'd say going to the doc is your best bet for now. I've done a number on my knees as well from all the running I did when I was in school and when I took up judo. A lot of the pain went away when I studied tai chi for several years,(much lower impact than judo was) but I still get days when they hurt. I hope things turn out well for you.

There's a variety out there to choose from. If you're into grappeling, you might go for Aikido, Judo, or Jujitsu. If you're after a striking art you might want to go with Karate, TKD, or one of the various other hard styles. If you're looking for pure self defense you might want to look into a MMA. I haven't come across any one website or book that has a good description for every art. The closest is probably the wikipedia, and you have to take everything there with a gain of salt. My advice is to check out all of the different options and see which one excites you the most. Check out the instructors and make sure you have a legit school. If you have questions about a particular art, list it here and someone on the forum is bound to be able to fill you in.

Four for me... Formally trained in Judo, Tai Chi, and Karate... then I was informally trained in kendo. Does Kobudo count? Guess that would make five.

There's a lot of similarities between some of the katas, so that helps, but it's daunting to think about sometimes.

Making a website isn't as daunting of a task as it seems. What you need to do is figure out what you want on your website and get it down on paper. The best way to go about this is to make an outline. Think about the main points you want to get across. These are going to be your main pages. Then flesh out those topics. Here's an example of what you could do... MY WEBSITE 1. Main Page a)Welcome 2. Art Taught a)History b)Philosophy c)Ranking System 3. Instructor a)Background 4. Class Times a)Current Schedule b)Upcoming Tournaments/Events 5. Costs a)Tuition b)Additional Fees As you can see, this would be a simple 5 page website with the four categories linked to the main page through a navigation(Usually on the left or top of the page). As for the technical end, there's programs out there that build them for you graphically, but I recommend you learn HTML. It really is a simple process when you break it down. You can do the entire page with just this tool, you don't need Javascript, ASP, PHP, or any of the other fancy acronyms. Also, by doing it yourself, you can work in notepad and not have to buy some fancy expensive program. http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp This website is a pretty good walkthrough for learning html. If you decide to go this route and have any questions, PM me and I'll be able to answer questions or give you some advice. If you are interested, I'm currently redesignining my school's website, http://www.kestralmultimedia.com/matc/index.php It's currently in progress, so not all the links work right now, but it will give you an idea of how things can get organized.

I agree, it's something I had to overcome as well. You just have to let go of things. Do you mean you have problems being aggresive in sparring and going for the hit, or with participating in general?

It's never too late as well. With the CD's as well, make sure you get one where you can take it out early if you need to. You'll wind up taking a penalty on the intrest earned, but it's there if and when you need it. (We wound up having to take it out early one time when we had to move) We keep a reasonable amount in savings for emergencies. Every time our CD rolls over, we stuff everything in the savings account above that mark into the new CD.

Well, I found the transition from Tai Chi to Karate to be a little difficult to begin with since the weight distribution in the stances were different. Tai chi is also very circular and focuses on redirecting an opponent while Karate tends to be far more linear and direct. It did wonders for my Judo though. It really works your ballance, flexibility and rootedness.(Is that even a word? Oh well. ) I would say that soft styles like Judo and Aikido meld more easily than hard styles like TKD and Karate. I'm not saying it's incompatible with hard styles, but there's definitly some differences there.

As a martial artist, what sorts of things would you want for a holiday gift?