bushido_man96

Welcome aboard! Ed has some good advise on cross-training. Let it sink in, and things will come to you in time.

Congrats to you! Keep up the good work.

The sine wave continues to be a curiosity, I think. I practice the same system of forms that Gen. Choi designed, but without the sine wave. I think that the sine wave, done properly, is supposed to facilitate what is basically a "body drop" or "gravity drop" upon completion of the technique. The body drop uses gravity to drive more power into the finish of the technique. As you can see, from watching various videos of ITF forms competitions, and the one of Gen. Choi that DWx has displayed here, you can see that it appears that many exaggerate the motion too much, thus making it a detriment to power, combinations, speed, rythm, and timing. Even Gen. Choi's explanation is a bit confusing, and very brief, with only a few examples that he demonstrates. As for what you mention about the Karate Katas, ps1, I have seen something much related to this. In reading Nakayama's Best Karate series, I think book 2, Fundamentals, distinctly shows what looks kind of like a sine wave motion of moving the body for a lunge punch, and describes it as incorrect. However, this is to be expected, as I feel that the introduction of the sine wave was soley that of Gen. Choi, being a distinction he was trying to make between Karate and Taekwondo. Now, allow me to get more long-winded, if you don't mind. I will not totally discount the usefulness of the sine wave. However, I don't fully endorse its use, either. Many times when I watch ITF forms videos, they just seem to lack power and fluidity, because of the sine wave. Again, I believe that most of this is due to the fact that the sine wave may not be taught properly. I think that it is more likely suppose to be a much more subtle nuance of movements. Again, since I have not much experience with the sine wave, I could be way wrong. However, since it seems to be such an enigma, I choose not to work with it too much, because that would be a disservice to whoever I would teach it to.

It has been my experience that when there is less contact warranted in the set-up, the hand position becomes "freer" so to speak. You see hands down, as opposed to up to protect the face, like the Boxer's stance does. Some of it may have to do with personal style as well, and we may see a few fighters who can hold a more unorthodox hand position and still fight well. Muhammed Ali was known to keep his lead hand down, and jab from there, because of his incredible speed. I don't know if the gloves would have anything to do with this choice, or not.

Good words, Cross. Well put into context.

Thanks for sharing the vid, DWx. It was interesting how they ran some of the moves together. They put some work into that.

Awesome, and congrats! It'll be good to have you back!

...hehe, or maybe more like sporadic remembering?

Congrats on the promotions and the kudos! That Shootfighting set up you have there sounds very intriguing.

Thanks for the review, NightOwl. Man, you are good at reviews! I wish I could do my book reviews as well as you do...

Take an a time inventory of your days. Get a tablet and pen, and for a week, write down exactly what you do during the day, and when you do it. At the end of the week, look it over, and see where the available holes in your schedule are for working out. You may have to do shorter duration, higher intensity exercise intervals in order to get the work back in that you are used to, escpecially if your time is more restricted. From there, you can adjust your training. Hope this helps.

I read up on that program before, and those guys were a bunch of freakin' animals! That is one heck of a workout routine.

Heal it up. Get back soon!

A lint roller is a good idea. Also, if you have the time, you may just hang-dry you gi. That will keep the hair off, hopefully. Do you have pets?

ps1 has a very good explanation. The stances are very much transitional, especially in fighting. MMA_Jim also brings up very good points on the stances. When you take a stance, you have to consider two things: stability, and mobility. Now, the higher and narrower the stane (in general), then the more mobile you are, at the expense of stability. However, the lower and more stable you make your stance, then you sacrifice mobility. Therefore, when you have to move and react to an opponent in a fight, then you want to be in a place that allows you to be mobile and stable in varying degrees at the same time, which is why the Thai stance is so good for this, as MMA_Jim mentioned. Now, if someone shoots a takedown on you, then one of your best defenses may be to sprawl. By sprawling, you sacrifice your mobility to stabilize your position. This is the transitional phases of stance work, in its essence.

Well, I think that TKD is an Art, that is also a sport. I think it can be both, but doesn't have to be. Neither do I think if it is one, that it is never the other.

Can someone explain more about this philosophy please? Well, what exactly would you like to know? Maybe I can give a little something for you.

Boy, that does sound odd. I don't think I could pull that off. You would have to have some funky hip flexibility and strength to do it, I think.

Good points, ps1. It could be school differences, or it could be just a different drill. What was the drill for? Floor drill, or in a form? It could be many different reasons. When we do our basics in class, we move our front leg in the manner that you described as well.

It really sounds like typical kid stuff. Just keep him encouraged, and let him know that you support him. Also let him know that there aren't a lot of 6 year olds out there doing something like this, and that it is very special that he has the opportunities to do these things. That may help. After the break, he may be ready to go as well.

You can sign me up for an autographed copy, Killer! I am all in!

Those "Idiots" and "Dummies" books are a lot better than they lead on....on all topics. I've read the Karate one and it is very informative. I agree this is an excellent book, although if you practice another style other than ShotoKan or Shotokai it is just another book for you library I agree. I have several of the "Complete Idiot's Guide to (whatever MA)," and they have all been well written. Most of the information is general, but there is a lot of it.

It just takes time and practice. Once you get that drive put together, you will see improvement in your technique.

Hopefully it is not a hyperextension. Like ps1 mentioned, if it persists, see a doc.