bushido_man96

Yep, all very true. Things just tend to change over time. It happens with just about everything.

We are often our own worse critic. But, its what drives us to work harder and get better.

20 years old seems a bit old to be getting grounded still, but if your parents pay your dues, and you still live under their roof, then its their rules to live by. I can tell you this, I don't appreciate being lied to by my kids, and being grounded from some physical activity would be the least of their worries. I teach my kids that integrity is something you work hard to maintain, and it only takes one time to lose it, and once its gone, well then good luck getting it back. You might be mad at your mom now, but, this is a good opportunity for you to learn accountability. Take ownership for your mistake, admit you were wrong, apologize without making excuses, and learn from it. This is part of character building.

Style: TKD Rank: 3rd Dan Days per week: 2 on a good week. The work schedule and the family schedule come first, so it just depends.

Well, I don't think I do, but I've never really thought about it. I tend to be rather bullheaded and stubborn at times (ok, most of the time), and at times I get this way in my sparring, like by not retreating, taking a beating to give one, etc, but I'm not always like that. Nor is that the way everyone spars in TKD; there are counterfighters out there, for instance. So, I'm not sure. Never really thought about it.

Another issue to consider is training with multiple people on your side. I don't know if you would want to call this "team fighting" or not, but I have seen where in the example of law enforcement scenarios it would be beneficial to know what one should do to help another out and not be counterproductive in the scenario.

Have you checked Google or the phone book? Try their first.

Nice. I haven't pushed that up in a long time, and I weigh ten pounds more. Hoping this new regimen will get me beyond that point. 5/25/2011 SL 5x5B Squats: warmup: 45x5x2, 95x3, 120x2; work: 175x5x5 Overhead press: warmup: 45x5x2; work: 65x5x5 Dead lift: warmup: 65x5, 85x3,2; work: 140x5 Stretch: standing quad stretches, side/front kick bar stretches, bent over toe reaches (and finally touched them on the third try).

Go Kan Ryu may be from a combination of "Go" from Goju, and "Kan" from Shotokan, and then Ryu was tossed in for the Japanese meaning of school or whatever, and that's how they formed the name. Its likely the inention wasn't to use the word "rape" in the name. They didn't realize how it would translate, but wanted components of the names of the styles they incorporated, so this is what they came up with.

Trying to set up counter striking in that manner in relation to competition is one thing, but to do so in self-defense is just asking for bad news. I'm sure there are some out there that may be fast enough to preceive the movement and counter, but thats the exception rather than the rule. Try this towel trick. Get a parnter, and stand within striking distance of each other-not quite outstretched arms length away. Hang a towel on your shoulder, and put your arms down at your sides. Tell your partner to grab the towel at any time. Try to stop them from grabbing the towel by grabbing it yourself. Hard to do. Now, change it up by starting with your hands in a fence position; it gets easier, but is still tough when you let them make the first move. The point is, action is faster than reaction, just from the nature of having to wait to react to a stimulus. Its just not a good idea in self-defense.

No, I understood what you were saying, still kicking, and I thought it made sense. My response was in regards to many opinions on how forms are taught and kept in terms of traditional means.

I would suggest from a purely self defence pespective less is more. Mastering and understanding the five Heian kata should give you more than enough from kata. Certainly learning higher kata from a book or CD will only give you the asthetic moves. I agree with the less is more ideology. If you overload your brain with 100s of techniques to choose from, it causes problems when its time to react. What you want to do instead is learn tactics that you can apply various techniques to in given situations. Thinking in the terms of tactics will be less binding than thinking in terms of techniques.

RIP, Macho Man. I remember seeing him in a few Walker episodes, and he even fought Peter Parker in the first Spider Man movie.

Welcome to KF!

All of these organizations have come along and taken things that were changed in the past into something that has become set in stone and given a label: "curriculum." Now we have the curriculum, and it cannot be changed, because this is how the great master X did it, and he was the great master, so you can't change it, because who the heck are you? (the answer is you are NOT the great master X!!!) I hope everyone can see through the satire there, but it really is what has happened. Funakoshi ended up doing some things differently than Itosu, and Itosu probably had to modify some things he learned as he got older. I do things differently than my instructor. Its the nature of the beast. But when these curriculums became more set as a syllabus, it really clamed a lot of practitioners up, because they don't want to rock the boat, when it was a lot more likely that things changed more often in the past. What I would say is this; know how it was done when you were young-know the original way of doing it, and teach it that way. And make sure your students do it that way while they can, or at least can teach that way to others. Then if changes have to happen for reasons of getting older, then make sure you the teacher let others know the reason you do x is because you are y years old now, so young pups do it the original way, if they can.

I can see what you are saying here, and I don't disagree. But many people are goal oriented, and when there are visible, set goals they can see, and know what they need to do to achieve it (objectives), it helps with motivation. I would just mention that this is the other side of the belt systems.

Many times its a body shift and blocking motion in our one-steps. In sparring, and on bag work, we will do some footwork and kicking, like a 45 degree forward sidestep, followed by a switchfoot round kick to the body, and other things like this.

5/21/2011 SL 5x5B Squats: warmup: 45x5x2, 95x3, 120x2; work weight: 165x5x5 Overhead press: warmup: 45x5x2; work weight: 60x5x5 Dead lift: warmup: 65x5, 75x3; work weight: 120x5 I forgot to add weight to squat this day. Oh well. 5/22/2011 Mile walk. 5/23/2011 SL 5x5A Squats: warmup: 45x5x2, 95x3, 125x2; work weight: 170x5x5 Bench press: warmup: 45x5x2, 100x3, 120x2; work weight: 145x5x5 Barbell rows: 65x5, 2; work weight: 85x5x5 Squats felt good today. Also checked body fat and BMI for biweekly recording: Body fat: 31.1% BMI: 38.6

Hard strikes and kicks are practical. And the body conditioning should be gradual, so it won't be a major shock to your system. It wouldn't be bad for self-defense, either. Best of luck finding a place to train!

Nah, its not complicated, its just the nature of people evolving and adapting. The reason some things change is because not everything works the same way for everyone. Sometimes changes are philosophical or even methodological in nature.

I think it will depend a lot on how the school uses kata for its curriculum, as well. In TKD, we don't do any kind of bunkai for forms at my school, or my previous one. So forms are part of the testing syllabus. In that case, more forms won't be as bad. But when you increase what you have to learn as far as applications are concerned, then fewer katas and more reps on partner work would probably be more beneficial.

I can see the sprawl possibility. I also can kind of visualize what Bob is talking about with his 3rd explanation.

I agree totally. Bad idea to let yourself get put behind the 8 ball. However, I don't think you have to close the gap first to be pre-emptive. I also think that most of what JusticeZero is talking about stems from the fact that most self-defense scenarios start with the attacker already being within range to make their attack, and if it is someone who is meaningfully wanting to engage a target, then they likely aren't taking the chance to warn the target by posturing first.

I'm not familiar with it. You might check with your local library and see if you can get it through some kind of inter-library exchange. You might check at a site called Alibris.com. They are able to locate hard to find titles, and offer lots of used books at good deals. Check there.

Thanks, Jay and Heidi. That means a lot!