bushido_man96

I'd check with your instructor and senior students at your school. They may have a preference, and may be able to cut a deal if they have some kind of an agreement with a certain company.

TKD is considered a hard style, although there are some organizations out there that practice light contact sparring. Its not the sparring necessarily that is indicitave of how the style is labeled, but the way the techniques are performed, linerar/circular, etc. I do see what you guys are getting at, though.

I think that sounds like a damn good idea for training. Our TKD setup is just about the opposite; we spend more time focusing on getting the techniques done right, so they have good power and proper technique, and then learning how to apply them, when it wouldn't necessarily have to be done that way. You've missed the boat on this one. It's been around for several years now. The process is far more difficult than you may expect. There are several videos online about it. It's not uncommon to fail the process many times before getting it right. Until BJJ schools are a dime a dozen like most other martial arts, this is likely to exist. I begin to wonder if the resistance to the use of video examination like this has more to do with the desire to be tied to the old way of doing things than anything else. Its kind of like the way Major League Baseball has been slow in adopting the technologies available to help the umpires make the right calls. Instant replay has been good for the NFL, and they are exploring more options with cameras on the goalline for plays of such nature. The thing is, we have great technologies available to us, and I don't see why if good instructors take a good system and do it the right way, like the way ps1 mentions that the Gracie's do it, is why not take advantage of it? Most of us have already taken the many advantages technology offers our lives already, why hold it back from MA training? No, you still can't replace a good instructor from a good school. But if there are no schools or instructors available, then what do you do? So sorry, no luck for you? Bah! I have technology to help me learn! The other arguement will be the "factories," or I guess what we could call a McVideo black belt, or something like that. Well, we can't even stop that from happening to actual schools, so that arguement doesn't really hold water. What remains is to search out the options of what's available, find the good stuff, and go with it. Don't reject technology!

Wow. Bad case of the "I wannas" there. I also think its funny how lots of people get upset that MA training costs so much, but are willing to pay out the wazoo for other things without batting an eye. Take dance classes for girls, as an example. My MA school isn't nearly as costly monthly as the dance schools are around my area. But we have 3 or 4 dance schools, and they are always full, whereas our TKD membership is never as full as we would like it to be.

Agreed. Different styles just tend to do it in different ways. Like in TKD, we put a lot of focus in our basic kicking technique, along with all of the advanced variations that come along with them. Take Boxing, on the other hand, that focuses so much on punching techniques and body and head movement. Both would likely be considered hard styles, but with different emphases.

5/10/2011 Afternoon/evening Heavy bag: I did woverine uskf's punch routine on the bag, which can be found on this thread: http://www.karateforums.com/just-started-boxing-vt39255.html I totaled up 1050 punches. Nice workout. Taught Little Lions class: 5:15 - 5:45. Between classes: Yoo-Sin, Se-Jong, and Do-Kang 3. Taught TKD class: 6-7.

Thank you, Sycron! So now, I shall vote Shuri-te.

Yeah, and we all see how that ended up for Bruce...

I don't think Kung-fu involves a greater deal of focus on movement, flexibility, etc over Karate. It does have a different way of moving, probably more circular type movements, where as Karate styles tend to be a bit more linear and emphasize hard striking.

I tried to avoid it, but really couldn't. My wife and daughter were terribly interested, so I didn't have a lot of choice. I did get some reading done, though, and thankfully had to work that night. It wasn't on the radio....

I think they were on the set filming one of the Undisputed sequels, which are based on a prison fighting circuit or something like that. Abernethy had an interesting thread going on his website in regards to this video. One point brought up was that this concept may be more applicable to competition fighting than to self-defense. However, depending on the self-defense scenario, being able to know how to deliver a pre-emptive strike with minimal telegraphing would be beneficial. The strikes that came after, however, I'm not so sure I'd worry about the telegraphs. Keep blasting away, and use good mechanics to generate power. On a side note, watching these guys talk was quite cool.

As are mine. Like I mentioned, I'm not much of a Zen guy. I wouldn't even consider myself a dabbler in it. The only reading material I have on Zen is the book Chuck Norris wrote about his experiences. And, well, come on, Chuck Norris wrote it.

I also got to read a bit of a blurb on Shu-Ha-Ri in a footnote at the back of Shotokan Karate: A Precise History. It was a fairly brief explanation, but it did lend itself to many of the same aspects that Lee was talking about as well.

Congrats, honoluludesktop!

Well, I would go with both Naha and Shuri, but are they still styles anymore, as originally taught, or are they the base of the systems we have now? If someone could set up a timeline so I could visualize when each of the styles came into being, that would be really cool.

Welcome to KF, Luke!

Never too late! Go for it. You will never regret it.

As far as the "crane kick" goes, we taught that to our yellow belts (3rd gup) in the ATA, and all of our students learn that kick as a basic kick in orientation class. Minus standing on the stump, of course. For what its worth...hope that doesn't ruin the mysticism of the "crane kick" for anyone.

The tournament my school hosts yearly is just a forms and sparring event. Sometimes they do breaking, but it just depends. We have a local Karate school that hosts a yearly tournament, and this is what I've seen at it. The sparring is ok, but the freestyle weapons and forms, I don't get into so much. I think its great that those MAists are that athletic and fit, but like you, I don't think that is what its about.

Good enough for me!

5/5/2011 TTA one-steps in my gear. Stretch: seated straddle stretch reaching to left and right, butterfly, glute stretch, reverse hurdler stretch. 5/6/2011 SL 5x5B Squats: 140x5x5 Overhead press: 45x5x5 Dead lift: 90x5 5/10/2011 SL 5x5A Squats: 145x5x5 Bench press: 190x5x5 Barbell rows: 70x5x5 Abs Thera crunch: 30x15x3, 10x2 Smith crunch: 30x12x5

I don't think soldiers fight to lose, either. Self-preservation is kind of funny that way. A soldier is a member of a standing army/defense force. A soldier can be a warrior, and most likely is, if they voluntarily joined the defense force for their country's cause. The dictionary I have defined warrior as being experienced in or engaged in war; soldier. By your definition, if someone chooses never to fight then, are they a warrior? I don't believe so. Ali made the choice not to serve in the army; I don't believe that made him a warrior. Quite the contrary, actually, but that is my opinion. So, I'm not so sure the "choice" is what really makes the difference.

I'm not a Zen guy, but woulnd't formlessness be the duality of form, as opposed to emptiness, which would be more like void?

I am in a spot like this in my training right now, too. I think that your focus on delving into the applications of what you are wanting to teach is a great idea, and I think that this kind of divergence into that kind of a focus is allows the Arts to grow. My problem is I don't have a lot of options in my area, so I'm kind of stuck doing what we always do in class, and picking up training partners here and there to focus on different things. I think the biggest problem with curriculum is that teachers get so caught up in the curriculum that they are either scared to change, add, or subtract things because of a senior rank's response or getting dumped by an organization, or they don't change it because they feel married to the curriculum, and must preserve it. I'd say go follow your goals. I hope what happened to ps1 doesn't happen to you, but if it does, just put that memory in your back pocket, keep it with you, and when the time comes that a former student of yours comes to speak with you on a similar matter, you'll be more open-minded than those that were before you. ps1: man, that's a crappy deal there. You handled it very well, too. I can't imagine how you must have fealt getting lied to like that, especially the way they likely made you look like some sort of bad guy in the eyes of that girl who tested for her black belt. It seems some people have no shame.

I don't even recall what we did after I was awarded my black belt, to be honest with you. I think we just ended up having a dinner afterwards.