bushido_man96

It can be helpful, but is not all important. There are lots of good trainers out there that weren't necessarily great fighters. It can help, and add some credibility to your situation, but if you can't teach what you know, then the only people you will be able to help are "the naturals" out there.

Giants vs Patriots tomorrow. Who you got?

This tends to be the trend, and I think its because kids are the ones who have the time to take up activities like Martial Arts. Adults don't have as much disposable time, therefore, you don't see as many packed in adult classes. There are lots of different feelings on kids classes, what they should entail, what ranks they should be allowed to attain, etc. But the truth of the matter is that in most areas, an instructor is likely to pull in more kids for classes than adults, so a good kids program can be vital to a school.

Does it not matter whether or not you enjoy it? If it isn't enjoyable, then it would also seem like an obligation. I enjoy interacting with the students, and I especially enjoy the technical aspects in teaching moves. I enjoy watching the students as they improve from month to month, and year to year. The cons are that at times it can get frustrating, but that is good in the sense that it makes me look at different ways to "say what I mean," and forces me to become a better teacher in the long run.

Great post, Bob. Good info there on managing time and seeking help. Never be to proud to ask for help!

You will also weight the least in the morning after waking up from a night's sleep. To see if this kind of weight loss is consistent, you need to weigh yourself at the same time every morning.

2/2/2012 Forms: moves 1-19 of Yoo Sin, in an attempt to get back into form for class. Did side kicks, 5 each leg, using a banister for balance with no set-down in between kicks. 2/3/2012 Deffley C Squats: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 245x2; work: 280x2x3 Box squats: 215x3x5 Overhead press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3; work: 130x3x5 Incline bench press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3; work: 135x3x5 Front squats: 135x3x5 Seated good-mornings: 135x3x12 Hip thrusts: 3x12 Assisted pull-ups: 3x10 Later: side kicks, 3x5 each leg, using wall and no set-down.

These are not true. I lift heavy weights at the gym, and my TKD does not suffer. Heavy lifts will not "shorten" tendons. Lifting heavy weights moves the weight through the complete range of motion of the joint. Increase in muscle size does not equal a decrease in flexibility. Lack of stretching equals a decrease in flexibility. Also, if you train with heavy weights properly, they do not make you slow. Take the bench press for example. Its not a "slow" lift. It appears slow at higher weights because the lifter is working closer to his current potential (if he's doing it right). If you see the same person bench press at around 60% or 70% of his max, you'll see him moving the weight faster. "Bulking" only happens when you increase your caloric intake in an attempt to gain muscle mass. Bodybuilders take in a bunch of protein and calories to maintain their builds. Powerlifters will do similar things. But remember, power lifting and Olympic lifting are weight-classed sports, so its not just big people who are strong. Here is a link to a female power lifter: http://www.132poundsofpower.com/ Would you classify her as bulky?

You need to: (1) stretch your hips and lower back out as well as your legs. Splits are nice. But there is alot of hip muscles involved in actual kicking. You can stretch these hip muscles out practing the stances. Do it slow. And do it a little lower than normal. (2) take it easy. You have had only 10 lessons. All good advise. You can build strength in those kicking muscles by using the wall or a chair for balance, and doing slow kicks and locking them out for a few seconds, then pulling them back to the chamber position. Repeat for 5 reps, about 5 seconds out, hold 5 seconds, and 5 seconds back. Weight training with the legs is also beneficial, especially the squat. Higher level kicks come with time. With deligent practice, you will get there.

I like elbow strikes. We do several of them in our one-steps, when we are close to the opponent. In Combat Hapkido, we also made good use of them, always being in grabbing range. They are common for distraction techniques there. Good hip movement makes for a good elbow strike, allowing the whole of the body to be in the strike.

I've never seen the Muay Thai handstand kick. I haven't seen too many spining wheel kicks in Muay Thai, either.

In 6th degree form, there are basically "blanks" in the form to fill in. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking the moves the practitioner wants to do may have to be submitted to either a regional director, or even HQ, to be approved for their form. But I don't know for sure. That be a question for a regional director or other ranking individual. Or for a 6th degree.

I lift, 3 days a week. I lift for power and strength, and right now mainly do strength lifts, all with barbell. I do back and front squats, bench and incline press, overhead press and push press, barbell rows, and dead lift. I do some accessory work on the side, to help facilitate the main lifts. As I go along, I am going to see if there is a place I can squeeze in some power cleans and power snatches. I've noticed that my stances have improved with weight training, and I feel more solid and rooted in a stance. Overall, stength training is really helping my TKD.

2/1/2012 Deffley B Dead lift: warmup: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3; work: 335x3, 340x5x3 Push press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3, 135x2; work: 161.2x5x5 Rack pulls: 385x3x5 I bought some 2" washers to use for fractional plates, especially for the upper body lifts. Loved them tonight. Dead lift is coming along very well since the deload. I'm consistently locking out the weight, and I am beginning to feel more explosive in pulling, even in the later sets. The rack pulls are helping, too.

Welcome to KF!

1/27/2012 Deffley C Squats: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 245x2 Box squats: 45x5, 135x5, 185x5, 205x3x5 Overhead press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 115x3; work: 130x5,4,5 Incline bench press: warmup: 45x5, 95x5, 130x3x5 Front squats: 130x3x5 Seated good-mornings: 130x3x12 Glute-ham raises: 3x5 I switched to the box squats in an attempt to try to work out the good-morning issue I'm having with squatting heavier weight. I will work these for around 4 weeks and see where we are. 1/30/2012 Deffley A Squats: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 225x3, 245x2; work: 275x3x2 Box squats: 210x3x5 Bench press: warmup: 45x5, 135x5, 205x3, 225x2; work: 245x5,5,4 Barbell rows: warmup: 115x5, 135x3, 155x2; work: 185x3x5 Glute-ham raises: 3x5 Hip thrusts: 3x10 Assisted chin-ups: 3x10 Stretch: standing quads, toe touches, chest/tris/bis

Good article. I can see where controlling this guy until police showed up would have likely saved him the knife injury. Here's a thought. In the narrative, Mezger mentioned the guy couldn't fight very well, and that he outweighed him considerably. Is it possible that he didn't take this threat as seriously as he should have? I can see where it would be eay not to; outweighing the opponent, knowing the experience he has had himself in the ring, along with all his training. Mezger also mentioned how as he held onto the attacker, he made futile attempts to hit him, until which he point he just became irriated and tossed the guy. So after scrape one, he knows the guy has no skills. At that point, is it possible he just didn't take the threat seriously enough, which resulted in him getting slashed? I'm not trying to bring this guy down, or call him out on ego or anything like that; far from it. We review these for reasons like this, so I just wanted to see other thoughts on it.

The trouble here is that not all LEOs are training MAs when they become LEOs. They get around 20 or 40 hours of training at the academy, and the rest is really up to the departments to keep up the training, or for the LEO to find the training on his/her own. The reality of it is that not every officer is going to have the time, money, or resources to devote to full-time MA training, either. We have guys who have done Wrestling in the past, and a few of us have TKD training, and one other I know of did some Karate of some type in the past. It can be tough for some to balance their work and daily lives, let alone trying to add in a Martial Arts class. I wish it were a perfect world, where we could all be in MA classes, but it just doesn't work out that way.

When I used to work wrist grab releases in my younger days, I'd show someone "wrist grab release defense #1," and then punch them in the face. Technique #2 was...punch them in the face. It was always fun when someone would grab my wrist and ask, "how would you get out of it," only to see a fist stop in front of their nose.

First off, accidents happen. Don't spend time beating yourself up over it. When you train in a contact sport, injuries are likely to happen. This unavoidable. You say you were going light, so I doubt this was your intent. As for the injury, I suppose anything is possible. She should go see a doctor and be evaluated. Hopefully it isn't anything serious.

1/25/2012 Deffley B Dead lift: warmup: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3; work: 335x5x3 Push press: warmup: 45x5, 85x5, 95x3, 115x2; work; 160x5x5 Rack pulls: 380x3x5 I love dead lift day.

There is an article right on the front page here that has some good, commen sense advise about supplements: http://irondom.com/

Start by kicking low and slow, working on technique. A bad low kick will be a bad high kick. Martial Walrus gave good technical advise. Hopefully, those will help.

But if it's just broken down kata, why not call it Kata. Even call it kihon. Why displace it from the rest of the art and create a new label? I don't like this component of the style I am in. If we have "self-defense" techniques, then what did we spend the whole class working on? Curriclum should have a function other than providing learning material for the next rank test, in my opinion. I like to pick some things out of forms that I could make work into applications, but I rarely get to experiment with them with partners. I think separating them out all the time takes away from what the style could really be.

This is true. Every situation is different, and each has to be evaluated "on the fly," as it were. I know of a guy who, in the past, got a nasty beating in a fight. The jist of the situation is he waited too long, didn't recognize the threats, and got nailed early, often, and he came out on the raw end of the deal.Now, just recently, this same guy had a situation pop up that was similar; this time, he didn't wait, as he precieved an imenent threat; he trounced the guy, suddenly, catching him unawares. He didn't get beat down this time; instead, he ended up being arrested and charged with a felony. I know there is a saying that goes, "its better to be tried by 12 than carried by 6." There is some truth to this, but I'm willing to bet that most of the guys who have claimed this, haven't been run through the judicial system yet.