bushido_man96

Those are good points, ps1. Well argued.

I think he also has experience in some form of Escima. In one of his books, he made references to Remy Presas being one of his instructors.

Perhaps getting your child to take a class other than the one you teach would help both ways. It seems that kids think they can get away with more when their parents run the show. Don't let them think that. In the end, you just have to do with them what you would do with another who did the same thing. Perhaps sit him out, and see if he gets the picture.

7-28-08 Chest/triceps Bench press: 170x10, 215x6, 225x3 Dips: 3x6 Abs Decline crunches w/alternating twists: 2x20 Legs Leg extensions: 85x20, 20, 20 Leg curls: 115x20, 20, 20 Calf raises: 126x10, 10, 10 Combat Hapkido: 10:30 - 12:00. This was a good class. I pretty much spent the time teaching two other students; one who is advanced, and the same rank as me, and the other was a beginner in the system. My partner will ask me what we should do, and then he'll tell me "teach it to me," like how I would teach it in a class. It was a great deal, I think. Our newbee is picking up quite a bit, and is doing well. We started out doing the kicks for the rank on the heavy bag. The bag hung low to the ground, to practice the kicks on a lower line than we usually do in TKD. We did the front kick, side kick, and back kick, 10 on each leg. Then, we did a mitt drill where one person was in the middle, and two others were on the outside. One person held the target pads, and the other held a kicking shield. The mitt holder would move and circle, flashing the pads for certain strikes (at this point, jabs, crosses, backfist or hammerfist, and the jab/cross combo). When both pads went up for the combo, then the defender would follow up by doing a back kick to the kicking shield, behind him, mirroring the mitt holder's movements. We did 1 minute each. Next, we went back to the heavy bag. To get some practice in throwing full-powered diminishing (not distracting) techniques, I would come from the side/behind the bag, and grab the defender (who was standing in a natural stance) on the wrist. The defender would then respond with a distraction technique into the bag at full power, while dropping into a ready position with the other hand up to defend. All these drills seemed to work well. Afterwards, the beginner and my partner did the yellow belt curriculum, spending quite a bit of time on each technique, getting the nuances down. The class was great, I thought, and we covered a myriad of things. 7-29-08 TKD class: 6:00 - 7:00. Taught class tonight. It went pretty well. There were 7 total, with quite a few black belts.

That's a pretty good idea, tallgeese. I know that former Hall of Fame QB for the Baltimore Colts, Johnny Unitas, used to practice throwing balls off balance (I think I heard a story about that). You won't always be centered to throw that perfect technique, so this kind of practice is good for the body. Doing the same thing with the heavy bag will give you some variations as well. Fighting takes place in a dynamic environment; often times much more dynamic than our basics in the dojo. It is important to keep this in mind, and practice it from time to time.

It looks like this place may help. The diagrams it shows are simple lines, but it should help you out: http://www.taekwondo-legacy.com/index.php

You may want to research into different organizations to see what the ideals of each are. For the most part, however, most styles of Aikido are going to be evasive of striking, and tend to take a "lighter" approach to actions. But research a bit, and you'll get an idea of what they are about.

I think that you are right there, tallgeese. It helps us all come to better understand what we see happening. Its kind of cool, I think, because we have seen some major evolution take place right before our eyes.

Indeed, But I guess in a commercial world, you've got to sell yourself any which way you can. As an old traditionalist, I get a bit of a grumpy head on sometimes when I see people trying to "reverse engineer" self defense / MMA techniques into a traditional karate application. It seems everyone has gone a bit MMA mad these days, and if your art doesn't have "kata bunkai" as to how to get out of a reverse applied head lock, then it is lacking somehow. Whats lacking in this instance IMO, are good instructors and good students who understand that they are learning a complete system, not an instant fix self protection program or a sport. Anyway.. sorry...rant over, but hopefully you get my point. Z I think I see what you are saying. However, if you don't have a way to get out of reverse head lock, then it is a good idea, as an instructor, to learn how to do it, and then how to counter it, so you can teach it to your students. You don't have to find it in a form, but find it somewhere.

Blocks, I'm not as sure on. You really need something to block. One-steps are usually fairly static, so practicing them on your own shouldn't hurt you too much. Anymore, I question the validity of one-steps as anything more than a tool for low-ranks to learn to aquire targets.

I know that he has experience in Karate and Jujitsu. I think after learning a system of Karate, he broke off and did his own thing. Now, I think he is more into the protection based styles, and caters more to that. I would have to look into the 10 black belts statement. There may be something between the lines there.

Yeah, they are. Killers for sure. I hate them.

If you want to work on your reaction time, without a sparring partner, a good way to do this is to use the TV or radio. Set it to some kind of news channel, one where there is always talking, and then, pick a word, like "the" or "and" or whatever. Whenever you hear that word, throw a technique, whether it be predetermined or random. To really spice things up, pick two or three different words, and a different technique to go with each. That will help you to work your brain a bit as well.

Funny.

I liked this one. Man, the Joker was twisted. I was telling my wife after the movie, that when you watched the first Batman movie with Keaton and Nicholson, you knew that the Joker was Nicholson. When I watched the Joker in this one, I didn't really think I was watching Heath Ledger. He sold that part, big time. Nolan has the devil's task ahead of him to make the next movie as good or better than this one. It really is too bad that they can't bring the Joker back, with any kind of autonomy in futuer movies. Ledger was awesome. It is curious about Dent, too; as in what happens to him. Didn't see the deal with Daws coming, either. Shocker. Was she an original comic book character? Now, I don't know why, and tell me if anyone else felt this way, too, but when I first saw that squirrely guy that wanted to blackmail Wayne to keep his mouth shut, I thought of Robin for some odd reason. Anyone else? Or am I just weird? One thing I would like to learn is the Joker's disappearing pencil trick.

I have heard that Vista is nothing but a pain in the butt. I have not experienced it myself, but I hear enough bad that keeps me away from it. I would go with XP if you have the option.

Two words: hell, ya!

This sounds opposite to what I have always heard. It is said that we should actually use open hand strikes to the harder targets, like the head, and the closed fist to the softer targets of the body. I know that many people punch to the head, but it can be quite easy to break the hand when punching the head. I just found it interesting that this works well for you, being opposite and all. Cool, though.

You oughta throw some burpees in there, too! Just to be evil...

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Throwdown.

There are lots of bench press type exercises that you can do as well, if you find that you want to work the chest.

Good words on using the tap, and on focusing on rolling for a while, and not short bursts.

According to the info that I received from rmclain, the Changmoo-Kwan came from the YMCA Central Kwon Bop Bu. Was this a "kwan" as well? If I remember my readings correctly, Yoon Byung-in was a black belt in Karate.

Again, this is a form that I don't learn in my school, but the changing of the name to Chang Hon seems odd to me. I would like to see the technical changes made by this organization of the form. What does the "C" in ITF-C stand for?

The push-up conditioning they were doing was pretty cool. Especially that 4-person square thing.