bushido_man96

OK, I ordered that book last week, and I should have it sometime this week. I will dig into it, and see what it offers. Hopefully, by this weekend, I will be knee-deep in Korean bunkai!!!!!

If you can find an XMA place to learn from, they are great for teaching trick kicks.

Hopefully everything will work out for you. Good to hear you are sticking with it. Remember, nothing worth-while comes easy.

Hey, man, c'mon! I love the Whopper! But you are right. It would seem that TKD is kind of like Shotokan's little brother.

I couldn't agree with you more on this point. Sometimes competitors will try to get by with just high, flashy kicks and flexibility. I'll take great stances and hand techniques with strong, chest to head level kicks over that any time. In order to have a good form, everything has to fall in together.

With your experience in the martial arts, and having good basic technique, you could probably learn some jumping kicks from books and videos. It will be a good idea to get some feedback from someone who might be able to watch the video demo, and then watch you, and tell you what you might need to do to look more like the video.

This is a good point. It comes down to developing the muscle memory. Once it is built up, adding speed will be easier. Then, once speed has been leveled out, you can start doing speed training to improve it.

I can see some dangers in this idea. I've been shown bunkai by instructors, with no real fighting experience, that was just lame, and obviously wouldnt work against a live opponent. Perhaps it was stuff they made up, or just watered down versions of the real thing. Thats bad enough. But expecting students to just work things out themselves? Thats where this whole mess started. People can come up with all kinds of wonderfull applications for techs that might work in theory, or against willing opponents. But not much of it will stand up in a real fight. For VERY advanced instructors who have lots of fighting experience and exposure to bunkai from various styles I can see how effective bunkai could be created, but students need to get very exact instruction. Thats how they are going to learn the concepts of movement and application for their style. From there they need to practise it against an opponent. Not many students are going to have the knowledge of specific vital points and the precise use of their body tools necessary to make alot of the techneques effective. Not many instructors do either. I like both of these posts. I think that it is important to develop bunkai that is specific to each person, as each person is different, and the same thing does not work for everyone. Drag'n is also right in the sense that it is important to practice your bunkai with a resisting partner, which will help to verify the techniques of the bunkai.

Yeah, and don't forget about ancient Greek Pankration. Perhaps the first MMA event in the history of the world.

I don't think self-defense classes are as physically intensive as regular martial arts classes. The self-defense classes have a lot more interaction with partners, and is almost completely hands on. It is mostly very basic moves, and lots of repetitions to get it into muscle memory. I do agree that it is a better idea to spread a self-defense course out over a couple of weeks, or maybe even a month, with sessions 2 or 3 days per week. A 6 hour course may be information overload for the students.

Hard to keep up sometimes, huh? Things are always jumping here. Heck, I was gone for a day, and there were 2 pages added.

My goodness, I never thought there was a Karate Kid message board. Zorbasan's quote sites were cool, too. Man, I need to get that box set.

Try doing a video search on google or youtube.com. You can find just about anything on there.

You might try washing it. Other than that, you could spend some time tieing and untieing it, just breaking it down.

I think the difference is that the teens are used to a more active lifestyle.

Now rib guards, those I think I could do. I have the most trouble with the protectors when I am doing spin kicks or back leg kicks.

Those are pretty good sources that you have there. Turtle Press also has some kicking DVDs, but I have not seen any of them.

It depends really on what you want to get out of your training. Most likely they will do some kicking, and some stretching. If they are sport oriented, you will get to do a lot of target drills and timing drills to improve the sparring side. A more traditional school may focus on forms and one-steps. Meet with the instructor, and ask him some questions relating to these matters. Personally, I have enjoyed my time in TKD, and I think you will, too, if the school is good.

I have never heard this comment about the lack of using the hands.

Aaah, man, that is a good point....but I hate tapping!

Thanks for the advise, guys. I'll keep it in mind.

Wow, politics at work again.

OK, here we are, week 2, and 0-2. We had a great chance at beating the rival Broncos today, but snuffed it. It is a total flip-flop from last year, as I feared. Now it is good Defense, and a struggling Offense. Maybe it will change when Trent Green gets back. Huard managed the game ok, but he is no Trent Green. Too many passes batted down, and it is hard to get our best receiver, TE Tony Gonzalez, worked into the offense when he is too busy blocking in two tight end sets because our tackles are less than adequate. The most infuriating part about this is that the front office and staff knew how bad these guys were, and just sat around and waited for Willie Roaf to retire. Well, I said feed Larry Johnson the ball, and that they did. Rushing for almost 126 yards, and 41 receiving yards. Have to get in the end zone, though! It may be a long season. The saving grace is that the Raiders look just as bad. Maybe when they get together, they will make each other look good!

What do you think of that Troy Vincent incident? Rebuilding=bad for you. I am not sure what to think of it right now. We will have to see after tomorrow's game. Maybe this new guy will do a better job. I pay pretty close attention to what they are doing and never heard any football camp or preseason comments about T.Vincent not playing up to his ability. I just hope Takeo will be playing. He's awesome! I have Spikes on my fantasy team!

I agree with you here. I also support a rank system. However, I don't think it is necessary for all styles. I like it, but I would do a style that didn't have one as well.