bushido_man96

I'm a ninja.

I hear you there. I usually don't eat much of anything, because I don't want to do all of that moving around with anything in my belly. The nerves don't help much, either.

It does seem like the older adults tend to be a little more self-conscious about how they will perform. If you can get them over that hump of the first few months of training, and they begin to perform with more ease, then they just fall right in.

First of all, welcome to the forums! Like Jiffy mentioned, talk to your instructor, and let him know that you are trying hard. Just keep with it, and practice hard. It will come in time. If you are worried about the testing that is coming up, just don't test. Wait until the next testing, and see if you feel more comfortable by then. Martial arts should be learned at your pace, not anyone else's. Take your time, and don't rush anything. Best of luck to you!

Hey, great site. Thanks a bunch!

You should try it. It'll surprise you. It is a very nice complement to the sause. The flavor blend nicely.

Good luck!

Have them at the front of the school, rip the belt off of them, and then tell them to leave and not come back. However, the likelyhood of this opportunity presenting itself is not high, so it would be more verbal then anything. Again, this is worst-case scenario.

For the same reason I don't try to fly a plane without training. Sure I could go through the years of trial and error of those before me, or I could just find out the best way and then take it from there. Also, what we would learn in todays society with these weapons is nothing compared to those before us that depended on these weapons on a daily basis just to keep them alive. You can still learn from the past without the use of forms. This kind of research has been going on for well over 10 years now in regards to Western fighting systems. You can get some great information from this site: https://www.thearma.org.

most of white crane is about A.Evading the first strike B.Hitting eye or throat ( sometimes a pressure point) C.killing body in many cases the same blocking hand (front hand) does the strike too, and if back hand does the blocking then front hand fingers hit the eyes at the same time. here is Matayoshi sensei doing a crane kata and a Monkey form Thanks for the information. The form was very intriguing.

Cool stuff.

From what I understand, this pulling back of the fist to the hip/rib is supposed to simulate the pulling in a grabbed arm/wrist/hand. Therefore, if in fighting, you don't have ahold of something, then this pulling back motion would be wasted.

All three work with knives. I didn't realize this as well. Thanks for the information, elbows_and_knees.

Patrick McCarthy is an amazing karate-ka with a very deep insight into the traditions of martial arts and if I remember correctly, he is the only non-japanese person to be recognized by the dai-nippon butokukai as "Hanshi" I have done some training with him, read his books, and attended seminars. He is very good at what he does. You can check out his site at http://www.koryu-uchinadi.com/ for more info. I have been to a McCarthy seminar and found him to be less amazing than you describe him. He was rude and overbearing with many of our members, and was verbally abusive and disrespectful when correcting technique issues. I was wholly unimpressed with him, as he was grossly obese and very egotistical, which was very disappointing as I had awaited our seminar with great anticipation. With respect, Sohan Boy, that stinks. Waiting for a seminar, and then having an experience like this. I am sorry for you. This is one thing about meeting our heroes. We want to so bad, but then we find out what they are really like. Sometimes it is good, and sometimes not.

Patrick McCarthy is an amazing karate-ka with a very deep insight into the traditions of martial arts and if I remember correctly, he is the only non-japanese person to be recognized by the dai-nippon butokukai as "Hanshi" I have done some training with him, read his books, and attended seminars. He is very good at what he does. You can check out his site at http://www.koryu-uchinadi.com/ for more info. Thanks for the info.

When we were weapons fighting last week, I let out some yells in the heat of attack, and when I had some good 'finishes.' They weren't really kihaps in the sense that they were flat yells in stead of coming from the gut, but you could call them war yells or spirit yells. I usually only let one out when it is a finishing strike.

Toi-Gye also flows well, and is nice and powerful.

yea, I checked it out at the library but need to buy one for my collection. I am actually becoming quite fond of Mr. Kim. I like Ultimate Flexibility as well, everything you need to know about dynamic and static stretching. You may have read it as I have seen your posts and your very knowl edgable about MA. I am reading Teaching Martial Arts by him now. I have read Teaching Martial Arts, and I also own a copy of The Martial Artists Desk Reference, also by Kim. I also own Ultimate Flexibility, but have not read it yet. A very resourceful person.

That's ok, we can see the analogies.

Very nice form, very graceful. Quite soft, compared to the forms that I do. I would love to see the applications of all the hand techniques.

I understand what you are saying here. We are told to use it to emphasize a technique. I would rather emphasize the technique by knocking the guy over, or knocking the wind out of him, but that is just me. Not that I want to hurt the opponent, but in my style, we can win by knockout. Sure beats dancing around for two minutes!

Thats very true. TKD just has gotten a shaky name becuase of shaky people using the name. I can't understand this, either. Why they have gravitated to TKD, I don't know. I will admit, that in my original organization, I got my black belt in right around 2 years. However, I was never guaranteed that I would get it in that amount of time. I will also say that I have had very good instructors throughout my period with TKD, and in this I have been fortunate. Two years or 4, I don't know which to argue. I think some of it would depend on the curriculum. None of my TKD schools did bunkai, and honestly, I had never heard of it until I came onto this site. If I started my own school, I have learned a lot of things that I would change in order to make my students better. Maybe someday I will get to put it into practice. I have a thought. My dad was in TKD many years ago, but never quite made it to black belt. He was a good fighter, though, and I think I will ask him how many years he was doing it, so I can maybe find out what the time requirements were like then.

I thought that as soon as he pulled it out. But the actual sword guy was wearing a shirt. We can't have that! That ain't right!

I was just going to comment on the kali use of knives, parkerlineage. Darn, you beat me to it! You're reading my mind, aren't you?

That's what I think too, parkerlineage. No such thing as a gentlemanly fighter. No such thing as a fair fight either.