bushido_man96

This would be a nice solution, but not everyone can teach out of their homes. Aside from that, not everyone wants to teach out of thier homes. So, the only other option is to have a seperate place. It is all a part of the cost of living, and the cost of doing business. I am not so sure that you can get state funds to keep an MA business going. I don't know how the not-for-profit stuff works, or if you could get an MA club to fall under that category. In the end, there are a lot of things we could complain about when it comes to the prices we pay for them. To state that it is unfair for an instructor to charge such-and-such a price, and to condemn them for it is not the proper solution. That is one thing that is nice about capitalism; if you don't like something, you can go to another source and usually get it. I know that some things are harder to find in some areas than in others, but that is the nature of the beast. The cost of training could be lumped into one more of the sacrifices that has to be made in order to make the Martial Arts a part of our lives. As I said before, however, I do not condone the watering down of materials for the purpose of making money. The main idea is to instill your ideas and philosophies into your students when they begin asking questions about starting, and let them know how you work. Hard work, preparation, and being prepared for testings are important to you; and tell them that. If that is how they start out, and they see the standards, then they expect it in the future. If they don't, then they won't stick around anyway.

We took our 2 year old out. He was dressed as a little swashbuckler...but without the sword. He is too destructive for that yet! It was a fun time, though, and there is always enough candy left for me to have some.

Are you referring to the modified billy clubs that aren't really tonfa, but resemble them? If not, I'll just add that piece in as well. I think he talking more about a PR-54 or something like that.

In my experience, the main money making aspect of teaching Martial Arts classes is through monthy tuition payments; not so much from testing payments. At our school, students don't test if they are not ready. Other schools can do this, too. Most students (adults, anyways) that sign up for a school are looking to improve themselves physically, and some mentally and spritually. They realize that they do this by working hard, and testing when they are ready. Not because the cycle has ended. Sometimes, when it appears that someone is getting bummed out about their lack of movement in ranks, you just have to have a talk with them, and tell them the reason, and what really is important, even if they don't realize it yet.

That is a pretty good summation, Budo Tiger.

Congrats, dete!

Welcome to KF!

11-1-07 Traditional Class: 6:00 - 7:00. Good class tonight. I really worked my arms off in Basics. I tried to visualize my power manifesting at the end of each technique. In sparring, I had kind of a personal victory; I threw a wonderful spin heel kick, right up to my 6'3" partner's head, and I controlled the speed on it a bit, and he pretty much acknowledged it as sufficient to get the job done. I was so happy. After the class, I had a good stretch.

I know what you mean about the back leg side kick, Kez. I can get good power on it, but it is much slower. However, the spin back kick is much faster, and a lot more powerful.

Very nice idea, Montana. When you mention walking around like that, trash can lids come to mind. Pretty decent defense there.

I don't know. I think I would like to have a tonfa as that extra blocking layer against a knife.

Let me know how it works for ya.

I'm with ps1. That is so awesome!

Amen! There are two things that I like to look at when assessing a culture's contributions to civilization: the first is food. Fighting is second. (That's right, I put food first!!!!)

read the first 5-6 pages of the thread. apparently the weapons were not as hard to manage as we might think. AND, they did have good training for fighting! look it up, we had a great discussion back then! Yes, these are accurate points. It is true that fighting in the plate armor was a little bit more limiting than fighting without armor on, but it was not as heavy or tiring as one would think. What made the armor so good is that not only did it offer great protection, the articulation also allowed for good mobility. The perception that an armored European Knight was slow and clunky, and would get his armored limbs chopped off by a quick Samurai is fictitous. Remember that the Europeans had a long history of war as well; look at the Vikings. They loved it. There were also many Medieval Masters-at-Arms that made their career training troops. I think that many times it is blown out of proportion as to the amount of time the Samurai spent training. Of course, depending on the soldiers' rank, that would also determine what other tasks they performed, and how much time they could spend training.

There has been a seperate topic started on the subject of the Ninja. If you wish to carry on that discussion, please do so in this thread: http://www.karateforums.com/ninjas-vt32804.html Remember, keep the comments of the discussion within the User Guidelines.

I agree with traditional TKD being well rounded, if you wanted to learn this though you'd have to fortunate to find an instructor that teaches the sweeps and the joint locks/breaks as part of their curriculem. Most tend to focus on the techniques for forms and sparring and don't introduce stuff like this into their teaching. I agree. It seems that more and more, the focus in on the sportive aspect, and keeping TKD in the Olympics. However, if we stay proactive, we can make sure that these aspects of TKD don't disappear.

My original statement about being ignorant holds true. I actually didn't realize the spelling changed between Philippines and Filipino. I think the misinterpretation comes from the phonetics. Phillipines is the anglicized spelling, I think.

The only issue I would have with training something like Parkour in my MA class is that it would take away from the time that I have to train actual MA techiques, which I would rather train. That is just my case, though.

Very good point, Baron. No doubt that restricting your environment is a good idea at times. Most of the places where I work would be limited to not much more than 5 square feet of space at times. Very different than running around in a 20 square foot ring.

It sounds to me like a school that is running on a John Graden type of program. He set up programs kind of like that. When the cost is higher, is also spread out over a longer period of time? If so, that shouldn't be too out of line. There are a lot of different payment options available to schools out there. This is just another. Check out the school, look at the quality of the students at all belt levels, and talk with the instructor and ask him questions about these programs. In the end, it may be worth it. Welcome to the Forums!

Thanks, Scott. Same to you as well.

You are right, but to say that Ali's current condition is a result of his fighting career or not is hard to say. I have not heard if it is. There are many other great champions out there that do not suffer from the same condition that Ali does. Besides, the rope-a-dope wasn't a "get beat up for 11 rounds and then go on the offensive" strategy. It was a defensive and mobility strategy. Two very different things. I would be willing to bet that George Foreman took more hard shots to the noggin in his career than Ali did, and he is fairly healthy yet.

A very nice article, and I enjoyed reading it. I know that we have had many discussions on the theory behind "Ippon Kowashi." I think that this concept is perhaps rare because only a few people seem to be able to obtain or possess such ability. I could be wrong, though. I don't think that the idea should be discarded, either. I think that training techniques in such a way that Ippon Kowashi could be attained is very important, but it is also important to understand that you may be required to execute more than one technique in order to end a confrontation. I like your words here: There is much wisdom in these words. I think it would be great to be able to achieve such results some day.

I don't do much improvised weapon training, or much other weapon training for that matter. However, it can be a good idea. Very creative, too.