bushido_man96

I don't agree that meditating is the only way to relax. Different things work well for different people. Meditation can be relaxing, for sure. I just think it is not the only way.

I think "be aware" and "stay alert" would fit well somewhere in there, too.

A Game of Thrones; Catelyn Cat and Sir Roderik are nearing King's Landing, and get their in this chapter. In this chapter, we learn about, and meet, Lord Petyr Baelish, better known as "Littlefinger." He got the nickname from a combination of being small of stature and skinny, and because his family had the smallest estate on the Fingers. Cat's brother, Lord Edmure, gave him the nickname. Littlefinger was a ward of Cat's father, and the two grew up together. Littlefinger was like a brother to Cat, but Littlefinger loved Cat more intensely. At one point, Petyr challenged Brandon Stark for Cat's hand, and was badly embarrased. When Cat and Cassel check into a place to stay, Rodrik leaves to speak with the king's armorer, Ser Aron Santagar, to ID the dagger. However, Petyr hears of her arrival though Varys, the master of whisperers, and has Cat brought to him, via City Watch escort. We meet Petyr, and Lord Varys, who is a eunich. He knows about the dagger, and they find out that it was Petyrs, lost in a bet, to Tyrion Lannister.

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Very nice, Montana. I can see the usefulness of the move.

Other moves will work, sure. However, the round kick can still be useful as well.

Agreed. True; the fist pack just helps to augment it.

That is quite an impressive resume. You have a lot of time in training. How do you make so much time?

I agree with Ed here. I can see your concerns, BB of C, however, I just think that if you worry more about not hurting the person who is attacking you, then you will do yourself a disservice. If you are fighing someone that is trying to kill you, and you are more concerned about his well being than he is of yours, then you are already behind the 8-ball. Granted, not everyone that is trying to hurt you is trying to kill you, but that doesn't mean that it won't happen by accident.

Excellent points, especially the first one. I always tell the younger black belts who get frustrated with teaching some of the orientations that it is always easy to teach the talented students. Teaching everyone else takes someone special.

It must be nice to have a company car! Yeah, in the U.S., paying monthly is a common theme.

Our school starts at 4, but between 4 and 7, the kids are placed in our Little Lions program. In this program, they wear white belts with a colored stripe through them; orange, yellow, green, blue, brown, red. They earn stripes on their belts each week for a different aspect of training; balance, fitness, coordination, listening, focus, etc. I can't remember how many stripes they earn, but they earn 1 per week, and must make both of the classes to earn the stripe. Every 2 months is a belt testing.

Man, James, you are frickin' animal! I'm glad you are back; you make me want to push myself even more.

At the last Olympics, my brother watched a match where I think a Korean competitor knocked out a 6'7" Greek competitor. Also, try taking some of the kicks they throw, even with the protectors on. They hurt. They shock you a bit. Knockouts do happen. Sure, mainly because they don't keep their hands up, but hey, that is their deal. If they don't want to keep their hands up, that is ok with me. I choose to keep mine up. If you watch the WKF Karate matches, they are more of a point game than the TKD matches are.

XMA is cool, too, but there are lots of differing opinions on it as well. I am not against XMA, or against the use of languages like Japanese in Karate. I just don't feel that it is as necessary as many think. I honestly think that the main reason for the use of the native language is because when many of the Japanese masters began teaching those in West, they didn't speak very good English. So, instead of trying to learn the English, they went with what they knew.

I have not seen such practitioners. Even training to do so, it is never going to be a foolproof attempt to take on multiple attackers; the movies do a good job of portraying this, but in real life, it is much different.

Perhaps they need to set out a few classes. Better yet, after everyone lines up, put the low ranks in the front, and the high ranks in the back. I have done this a few times. It will get results.

I like to break with the round kick. I can do 4 boards with a back leg round kick, using the ball of the foot (standard pine boards, 12x12). I also like to do a front leg round kick with using the instep.

How so? I agree. Action almost always beats reaction. If you feel that being struck is inevitable, then there is no reason to put yourself behind the 8-ball.

i disagree , many other more accurate and quicker moves can be done in a less time frame and be much more damaging. Which moves are you thinking of?

Cross has a good start. You should practice turning your lead knee inward so that you can defend the strike as it comes in.

I am in agreement with Karate Ed on this one. If the your first thought in a self-defense situation is "I hope I can not hurt this guy too bad" then I definitely think you are going to be in the wrong state of mind.

So, if you buy a brand new car, or you going to pay for it all up front? At the same rate, if you teach, do you pay per class? I know that some places, moreso in the UK, do this, but I have never done it. If you are a student, do you pay monthly, or by the class?

1-28-08 Chest/triceps Bench press: 155x10, 165x8, 185x4 Dips: 3x5 Triceps push-downs: 90x10, 105x8, 6 Overhead triceps press: 50x10, 60x6, 65x4 Abs Decline crunches: 3x12 Hanging knee raises: 3x10 Forearms Gripper: 3x12x30 lbs.

If all I did when I taught classes was show white belts what to do, and then made them to copy-cat me, and did nothing else, they would not be geared to test for a very long time. Physical demonstration is great, but I also talk about the little nuances of the technique as I am demonstrating it. Physical, along with verbal, is the best combination. I know that there are spelling variations; that is not what I am talking about. I am talking about totally different words, Korean words, for some of the techniques that we do.