tessone

If this is the same as the hunter/gatherer diet (sounds like it), then there's a thread about it here: http://www.karateforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=2636&forum=19&10

I'm not sure I agree. At the least, it depends on what you mean by self-defense. If you want to be able to save your skin in the event of a confrontation, such training might be useful. If you want to develop significant control and the ability and knowledge to use exactly as much force as is necessary, I'd say martial arts is a good way to go, depending, of course, on the art.

I can't speak for purely grappling arts, but if there's a school in your area, you might check out KSW. It's a fairly comprehensive system and you'll get to add not just grappling, but kicks and a number of other things to your karate.

I think it's important to note that some people come to it just not knowing any better, and the marketing doesn't help. Nicely revealing that it's not really a self-defense system and suggesting other martial arts is more considerate, and also more likely to get a new student for your dojo/dojang.

I'm reading Who Can Live Well in Russia? by Nekrasov and Korean Grammar by Lee.

I'm not sure what this has to do with communism, Russia, or that poster (which is about defended the motherland--rodina--against the Germans). Certainly the government has to work on us first--I'm a big fan of not spending billions abroad and doing things like feeding and clothing our poor. However, things like this Army make it seem like Americans are the only ones worth protecting, and that doing so makes one a good citizen. Being a good citizen is much more than protecting Americans against terrorists, and every life is worth protecting.

Good luck, and congrats for getting this far! Keep us posted.

TigerKorea, this is a forum for the discussion of ideas about martial arts. If you don't want to read people talking, then don't. Additionally, there's nothing wrong with making criticisms of one's own art. Just because something is from the East doesn't mean it's perfect; likewise, just because a person is an American doesn't mean they have nothing worthwhile to say. Thinking otherwise is bigotry based on culture.

I think relationships between people on roughly the same level can be positive--look at Masters (8th dan) Barry and Choon Ok Harmon of Kuk Sool Won. Very cool people who train together, teach together, demonstrate together, and their oldest daughter is now a black belt as well. On the other hand, I think teacher-student relationships in any context are problematic and jeopardize both the student's learning, and that of people around them.

I think that's up to the art, though. I'm glad KSW is so rigorous--I've set becoming a master as a goal (I'm hoping before my 40th birthday, which is 20 years), and I know that if and when I achieve that goal, I'll really have earned it. Do people really want government regulation? That means giving control over the teaching of martial arts to a bunch of politicians in suits who don't understand martial arts.

I'd wager it was begun by right-wingers; no takeover necessary. Seriously though, this kind of thing bugs me. It puts so much emphasis on helping "the American public" and "being a good American" when the emphasis at this point needs to be on being a good person and helping everyone. So much bad is going on in the world that setting one's goal at helping a particular demographic seems short-sighted to me.

Sorry, but this is not true. TA stands for "Teaching Assistant", and they are graduate students, not third and fourth year undergraduates. One does not become a TA by "kissing butt the best", but rather because it's often a condition of receiving one's stipend from the department. Assisting (and sometimes teaching alone) introductory classes prepares graduate students for what many of them will spend their lives doing--teaching their subject at the university level. The notion that fifteen year olds teaching is not an ideal situation is not old fashioned. Simply put, no matter how good you think you are, you have to learn to realize your limitations. You're only just becoming really aware of yourself, you're still formulating your identity, and you still have a lot of growing to do. It takes a lot of time to cultivate the gift of teaching, and 15 is simply too young. That said, I'm not saying that being an adult automatically makes you mature and developed enough to teach. Ideally, one should have studied the subject (be it sciences, language, humanities, martial arts, whatever) for many years--at least 10 or so--and have spent four or five years assisting another teacher who's been teaching a long time. In America we have this unfortunate notion that anyone can just pick up something like teaching and do okay at it, and that's the reason education is in the state it is.

Nah, there's gotta be somethin' magical about em--it's more than just potassium.

Could you email them to me? I could post them on my website and people could look at 'em that way...

We're taught to step up to the leading foot, not cross it. Blade 13, you're much more apt to fall with your leg up during any kick than you are just moving your trailing foot up with your leading foot. Do you never kick?

I liked it, but liked Renaissance Man better. Doesn't get funnier than Danny DeVito.

Done.

I think TKD McGee was referring to being taught by a 15 year old, which is a bit extreme. Also, I think his point is well-taken. How would you feel if you went to university and found that the upperclassmen had taken over most classes and the faculty only occasionally taught? Wouldn't you feel you were being cheated out of your $15-40K a year? Likewise, having junior students (that is, color belts) teaching is not a good thing. I don't mind that I have a brown-black belt looking over my techniques and leading us through simple things every once and a while, but a true instructor really ought to be at least 1st dan, no matter how long they've been on a leadership team.

Welcome! Makes me wonder--how many countries are respresented here, anyway?

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but I'm not bad at programming; that's not what causes me to say what I did. I was, in fact, joking around. Even the best programmers can be (often are) befuddled by other people's code, unless it's written by the textbook, which is pretty rare. Even your own code starts to look nonsensical if you haven't touched it in long enough.

When our master is in the dojang, we work out to traditional Korean music, which is nice. When it's just the two younger black belts, it's whatever CDs they happen to bring.

I learned the first part of ki cho hyung, the white belt form in Kuk Sool Won, on my first day of class. Knowing the whole form and all white belt techniques (Ki Bon Suh) is required to advance to yellow belt.

Unless the art is very very unified, memberships don't mean a whole lot in terms of the school's respectability. However, if it's a member of fairly mainstream organizations, that means whatever rank you have is likely to be recognized in many other places, which is obviously a good thing.

As long as you're not hungry and don't feel low on energy, I don't think you need to eat more. As for eating often, I thought I read somewhere that that's how sumo wrestlers gain weight. What Bon posted about kitosis and insulin seems to suggest that eating carbs often is the key to weight problems, not losing weight. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong here. Also, it's worth noting that five pounds really isn't much. You can easily fluctuate that much in water alone. Personally, I'd suggest eating healthier, cut out McDonald's, and do more walking.

I found another one of these which is pretty amusing... Top Ten Signs You're in a McDojo 10. Your instructor has a grandmaster's certificate...in crayon. 9. The senior assistant instructor is a 4 year-old black belt. 8. The sign in the front window says the school trains in more than 10 martial arts. 7. It's a Korean art. (tessone: Hey!) 6. Your instructor tries to sell you Amway products. 5. While examining the school's tournament trophies, you find three spelling bee trophies. 4. Reading the contract for the school is considered a kata (and a long one at that). 3. No one sweats. 2. While at a tournament, your opponent finds out who your teacher is and high-fives his teacher. 1. When paying for your belt tests, the instructor asks, "Would you like fries with that?"