lordtariel

It actually sounds like a lot of fun. I was thinking broken fingers from the person holding the board on a missed swing, or a swing that was thrown too hard going through or bouncing off the board and into one of the people holding. Nothing life threatening, just a possibility for injury. If you have a hardwood bo like oak that gets stored correctly and isn't one of those toothpick bos, you shouldn't have any problems at all with the weapon breaking.

Wouldn't a hard punch with a lighter in your hands actually break the lighter, or deform it badly? With plastic one then you'd run the risk of cutting your hands on the next punch.

The rules regarding contact really depend on the person or organization putting on the tournament. With ours they wind up being moderate contact everywhere but the head which is either light contact or just touch. Those restrictions are relaxed for black belts though. If you're concerned with sparring, you can always compete in kata.(If there is a kata division)

Hopefully your sensei is the kind that will know the difference between a bad strike and a bad person holding. If the person holding flinches or runs away and your sensei doesn't pass your son simply based on that, I hate to say it but maybe you should find somewhere else to train. That's interesting though, I've never heard of breaking with a weapon though. I would think that would be kind of dangerous.

It's interesting to see the differences across styles. Does anyone know which was the first style to use the pinans?

Wow, your first post made it sound like she knocked him on his butt and then mocked him about it. This puts things a little more into perspective.

You can improve a little, but it's more likely you'll just maintain. My suggestion is to ask your instructor if you can go to the advanced class the day you can make it and one of the classes you were in previously another day.

Have you considered pool exercises? There's a lot less resistance on your body when you're in the water, so it's easier on the joints.

This is a problem that I have, but as I get tired, my control and technique start slipping. It's something I've noticed and been working on for a while. Maybe he was just wearing out. That or like other people said, he's trying to push you. He might not even know he's doing it. Maybe just a comment like "could you lighten your hits a little" would do the trick.

There was a similar post to this one a while ago and I really liked the answer someone gave. They said something to the effect of

Well, with the lower colored belts I know they usually add stripes as they approach their next belt. For example, a white belt with three stripes on the tip usually indicate he's almost ready to test for his next belt, while a yellow belt with one stripe has just started to master the skills needed for his rank. Maybe this is the case with your black belt, although this system is usually only used with the young kids, and in our dojo, it's just strips of electrical tape around the belt. You should ask the instructor about it.

This is something a lot of people don't realize. Say tai chi and people automatically think "Old person in the park." Just because it's practiced slowly doesn't mean it's used slowly.

While hard, consistent and long training in tai chi will allow you to use it as a combat system, my experience is that tai chi is really great for augmenting other martial arts systems. What you're doing in tai chi is teaching your body how to move properly on a really precise level. Proper body mechanics equal better performance with physical activity.

I practice shito-ryu so my pinan might be slightly different than yours. In pinan sandan(3) you come across cat stance, back stance, square stance, and forward stance.

I've seen incredible people just fall apart when they were competing and I've seen some people who didn't do well normally shine. Maybe you'll mess up, maybe you won't. Don't be concerned about what other people think of you. The people you train with on a normal basis know your skill and the people from other places, you probably won't see again. Even if you take last place in your division, you're still farther ahead of all those people who were to afraid to compete. And on top of all this, I believe your post implies that you're a yellow belt? If that's the case than it's great. Nobody expects high proficiency when you're still beginning. That's the best time to compete because nobody expects flawless technique and you get your first tournament stumbles out of the way with other people who are having their first tournament stumbles, not more advanced belts.

Wow, sorry to hear that. Glad it turned out ok for you.

The body NEEDS time to recover. If you really want to work out every day, try varying your workouts. Work on strikes and punches one day, kicks and stepping on another, throw in balance drills another day, stretching the next. By training different muscle groups, you give the others a chance to rest. Not to mention spicing up your training a bit so you don't get bored.

Not to mention, those trophy's just sit around collecting dust and taking up space. I have precious little of that to begin with.

Yang style has some great application, but I'd have to agree that Chen style's probably the most overtly martial. Yang's somewhere in the middle between the harder and softer styles of tai chi.(Hard as in stronger movement, not as in hard style martial arts)

While amusing, I do think the comment was a little over the top.

Do martial arts discipline you? Yes, if you want to get good you have to be disciplined. Is there a spiritual side to it? Sometimes. It depends on your definition of spiritual. If you mean as in religion, some places do, others don't. My guess is that a Y class isn't going to throw religion at you. If you're talking about developing your spirit as in fighting spirit, most arts do. If by developing your spiritual side you mean self development through meditation, there's a little of that too. Like I said, it really depends on the instructor and the type of class.

I think competing is good whether or not you are "good." You get a chance to train with somebody outside your dojo, get to learn how to perform under pressure, and it's just a lot of fun. I don't like how serious some people get about competing, to me it's just another form of practice.

I took two years off of my tai chi classes then came back. I thought it would be awkward, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a little at first. Some of the people I'd trained with were gone and others had just started that had caught up to me, but by the end of the first few classes I was back into the swing of things. Talk to your sensei and see what he has to say. If you left on a positive footing there shouldn't be any problem at all.

I think if someone who knew what they were doing wanted to give you clues as to how good they are, they probably could, but that would make them not that good of a tactical fighter. You don't want your opponent to know how good you are.

I haven't ever practiced it but Chen style seems more overtly martial that most of the other styles I've seen, but I think all styles could be effective if practiced properly.