lordtariel

The way I see it. If you can meet the proficiency requirements, there's no real reason why you shouldn't, at least at the lower rankings. I can understand a sensei not wanting people to go to their dojo, test all the way to black belt in a few months and just leave.

Ah mat burns, I remember them well and still get them from time to time. Sometimes it helps to bandage then tape them while working out if they're really bad. As bushido said, they'll get better in time. Also have a look at how you're stepping when sparring. I found for a while that my back foot tended to slide more on it's inside edge when stepping and that caused a lot of burns untill I corrected it.

Oak is your standard for a hardwood staff. It's heavy, has a dense grain and is fairly reasonably priced. I wouldn't recommend it for tournament as it's heavier but it's great for strength training. Ash is a good choice as well. It won't take as much abuse as an oak staff, but it's much lighter and faster and has decent strength so you can use it in tournament and in training. I have a white oak bo that has seen some reasonable abuse and held up fairly well. The light colored grain is nice and the weight ensures I get a good workout. Here's a page that has a sort of graph about the different traits of oak, ash, and purple heart wood(Don't know much about that one) http://www.murasakikobudo.com/pages/whypurple.html Hope it helps. Also... a bit of useless trivia... Did you know that hardwood doesn't have anything to do with the strength or heaviness of the wood. Balsa wood is considered a hardwood. Hardwood comes from deciduous(broad-leaved) trees while softwood comes from conifir trees(Those with needles)

Welcome to the forums.

There are several different forms in the Yang style curriculum including weapons. Here's a couple of websites that you can learn a little more about it. As I have only studied Yang style, I couldn't really give you much of a comparison between different arts. I have found Tai Chi has taught me quite a bit about body mechanics, posture, relaxation, stance and meditation. Everybody practices Tai Chi differently and you'll soon be able to pick out who was a dancer, gymnist, or martial artist in their background just by the way they move. It's really interesting. Here are some web sites for you to check out. http://www.taiji.de/taiji/head5e/index.htm This place has several videos of the different forms for the various different families. http://www.yangfamilytaichi.com/

Welcome to the forums.

We hold ourselves up on our fists with our fists off of the mats and on the carpet. After a while we come up and look at our knuckles. If we're doing it right, the carpet indentations will show only on the striking portion of the fist. It's another good way to make sure you're making a proper fist.

I've found it usually works best for me if I just space out.

Anybody here watch Avatar? The few episodes of that I watched were pretty good.

We did a very interesting drill in class today. We stood in line and our sensei had us doing simple reverse thrusts. He then took one of those large stretch/yoga inflatable balls and told us we were to do the same reverse thurst at chest height. As soon as the rubber ball reached where the punch would end we were supposed to fire and knock the ball back to him. He then bounced the ball at us so we had a slower target to hit. Rather than doing a straight reverse punch, people were going higher, lower, or in some cases, just swinging wildly trying to connect with the ball. If you connected correctly, the ball flew straight back to the instructor. If you were off line, the ball would fly in random directions and you would have to chase after it. It's not a drill I would recommend for younger students because it can hurt if you do it wrong. One of the kids didn't make a tight enough fist and hurt her wrist. At the same time though, it's easy to tell if you're doing something wrong.

Not to mention the fact that with those hard edges on some shoes, your kicks can become much more damaging.

I've never tried that one, but the only reason I drink gatorade or powerade is because it's a lower-sugar alternative to pop and most of the flavored juices. I usually buy it in the powdered form because it's much cheaper and you can make it to the flavor you like.(I usually water mine down quite a bit) No good can come of drinking a carbonated beverage and then going to exercise.

You obviously wouldn't want to train in a $500 suit... but you could probably find something that fits similar and train in that. Most of my friends buy their clothing based off of how well they can fight in them.

Mine comes out of one of our first cookbooks. It's called Northwest Wild Rice Soup. It's a chowder with wild rice, ham and vegies.

It's a gim, also know as a jian, straight sword, or tai chi sword albeit a bit fancy.

Generate your own Anime-Style Attack Move(Goku eat your heart out)... http://www.seventhsanctum.com/generate.php?Genname=animepower ..... Exploding Energy Crusher

I'm with Sohan on this one. You should respect your fellow students and not train with them. Where I work, sick time eats up your paid vacation first. You aren't allowed to take unpaid time off until your vacation is gone. So many people come in sick to save their vacation and sneeze and hack all over people.

Hope you let him finish before you did

Very nice... wish I was that good.

Good Luck!

If the other guys saw you take down three guys by yourself then they'd probably break and run... especially if you were separating their last meal from their bodies. Three on one is bad, very bad... your best bet is to attack to put yourself in a position to run away. Barring that, you have to take one of them out immediatly. Few people have the reflexes and timing to deal with three people at once. When it's down to two on two, keep one of your opponents between you and the other opponent... that way only one can come at you at a time. Your best bet is to not walk down dark alleys or other dangerous places at night, spend a little more time sticking to lighted streets and main roads.

What's in a colored strip of fabric? It's the peson that's important, not the belt. If you can double test you should be back in no time. If you can't get up there that fast, you probably shouldn't have the belt.

For the novelty factor. If I wanted it for self defense, I'd stick to my regular tonfas.

I'm on a two year contract and pay about $65 a month and get to go to any class during the week and have all my testing fees covered. Unlike a lot of places, if I have a legitimate reason for leaving(like moving or serious illness) I can get out of my contract so I don't mind it so much. It ranges in southern oregon from about $50 - $100 a month depending on the school.

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