tessone

You don't need to tell me what Christianity teaches. Having been raised Lutheran (and I continue to practice), I know just a bit about it. In case you missed it, most religions are "anti-religions" under your definition. I can think of very few traditional religions which allow one to get into heaven/paradise/Valhalla/whatever and still believe in another god. Anyhow, read Romans 2. While some churches which associate themselves with the Christian faith are intolerant (think of the South of the last century), Christianity itself is a very tolerant religion. It teaches not to judge, and the guidelines outlined in the Bible are for personal guidance and are not intended as a basis to condemn others.

Read what I've said above. It's only because naive people look to belts as an index of ability that there is a problem at all. There isn't anything wrong at all with a school dividing up its curriculum and assigning belt ranks to various parts of that curriculum. In this system, holding a particular belt means you know the curriculum (techniques, forms, etc.) up to that rank. It doesn't say anything (or doesn't say much, anyway) about your physical abilities or your ability to apply what you know in a self-defense or sparring situation. People need to stop associating black belt with comprehensive knowledge of an art or the ability to beat someone up. All a black belt means is that a person has gotten to a specific point in the curriculum. It's a useful device for setting goals and assessing progress inside the curriculum, nothing more.

This is something the World Kuk Sool Won Federation has dealt with, too. Back when the world headquarters was still in San Francisco, some black belt (maybe a master, I can't remember for sure) started a school and wanted to change some things, etc. The organization sued him, but the courts ruled that since Kuk Sool Won just translates to "National Martial Arts Association" in Korean, the name is too general and it can't be used as a service mark. So the other guy got to call what he was doing Kuk Sool as well. Of course, that's been a while, and the nice TM appears next to Kuk Sool Won everywhere, so maybe things have changed. But I'd suspect "The Way of the Fist and Hand" (or in more direct language, "Fist/Hand Martial Arts") is too general, so one particular organization can't get their hands on "Tae Kwan Do" as a trademark.

I'm reading Either/Or by Kierkegaard (highly recommended), as well as still working on Korean with Elementary Korean (King).

What people can't forget is that martial arts teachers in America are not monks. Unless they teach in addition to a full-time job, this is how they put bread on the table. Not only would they like to eat, they'd like to be able to afford the same things everyone else does. Think about the number of students in your school. Multiply that by the monthly fee. Does it come out to a comfortable monthly income, after you take into account rent for the space, taxes, paying for utilities, weapons, advertising, etc.? Sure, there are greedy martial arts teachers just as their are greedy lawyers, greedy doctors, etc. But just because you'd rather pay a bit less to train doesn't mean you're in a McDojo and your instructor is out to steal your money.

What in the world are you talking about? What is an anti-religion?

Rebreakable boards! Sadly, ours are about broken out--there's no challenge in them any more. But it's nice so students don't have to wait for a testing or breaking seminar to get some practice in...

Free squats, perhaps?

Can anyone say "Darwin Award"?

Where do you live? It seems rather idiotic to say you have to be licensed to defend yourself. Guns, sure. No problem if I have to tell people I have something which is easily deadly and more frequently used offensively than defensively. But martial arts? Buh?

Welcome to the boards, Pedro!

While I don't have anything against Muslims or the Islam faith, I would like to say that the gods are not the same. Simply put, the Christian god is a triune god. Three persons in one god, and Christ is one of those persons. Christ is god. Muslims believe Christ was a prophet, but not god. Allah is not Christ, nor are there three persons in one Allah. Nothing wrong with any of the faiths, but the gods are different.

I did know that. That's why I'm excited.

Agreed. That's one thing I like about our instructors--they can really push us hard in the dojang, but afterwards we often go out to eat, cut up, joke around, etc. As long as you can maintain discipline in the dojang and still act that way outside it, it makes things much more comfortable for the student.

I'm wary of any diet that lets you lose a lot of weight quickly. Has he come off the diet? Did he gain weight immediately after? I prefer a much more gradual program; it can involve a lot of work, but the weight loss shouldn't be immediate, or chances are it won't stay off.

Whoa. I'm going to try the first few weeks in a cycle til the end of June, then when I'm at Middlebury and have time and access to a swimming pool, I'll try six weeks of the program, as I'll only be there six weeks.

Are there any arts which teach a Korean equivalent to the sai, or is that restricted to Japanese arts? I'm pretty sure it's not in the KSW curriculum (although KSN Doug or somebody can correct me if I'm wrong).

All this discussion about 540 spin kicks has me feeling ill. How in the WORLD do you keep from getting dizzy during spin kicks? I still have a lot of trouble with 360 spin kicks on the ground, and really need some help not getty dizzy...

Oh no! I'd managed to avoid this thread for a while, but now that it popped up on Recent Posts...well...the Diablo CD is right next to me. Maybe I could play for...just...a...minute......

On the contrary, I thought that while Fight Club the novel was amazing, the film was equally so. And though they each had different endings, I'm glad the book had its ending and the film had its.

That's a pretty big question, and no one has an answer. Ingrained responses from back when we had to fight for survival (Rousseau says so)? Corruption by society (Hobbes says so)? General meanness? Stupidity? Who knows?

I just checked out Episode III on imdb.com, and James Earl Jones is credited for the voice of Darth Vader. Whether that'll be a voice from the future, or a voice for Anakin in the Vader suit...well...who knows? But it should be cool!

Heh. Chrte Bowes, Eno Ram of Advil

And who can forget... "I'm sorry Mario, but your princess is in another castle!"

And about forms, I've been taught that kicks are done at a slow pace and hand strikes at a fast one. So while the whole form is fluid, the pace changes depending on what you're doing. This may only apply to KSW forms, though. You'd probably do best to ask your instructor.