bushido_man96

I think the side kick is very powerful, and a very good kick. The only thing I see is that you most likely will have to turn your body sideways to perform it, causing a little telegraph. That is why I like the round kick; there is a little less telegraph, in my opinion.

These two styles differ enough in their focuses that crosstraining them so early should not be a problem for you. The combination should keep you pretty well rounded.

ATA Black Belt Academys are not necessarily McDojos. I ran one myself at one point. Also, check out all of your options to see what you will like the best. Good luck on the journey.

That is a great interpretation.

Just added battle axe to the mix! Battle axe and shield, also battle axe and long sword. Cool combinations. You can get a lot of hooking actions with the axe, pulling away shields and stuff like that.

I am not sure that I agree with this. True, those parts of the technique are very important, that is Power=Speed + Technique part of the principle. Improving how fast your strike travels will improve your power as well.

I like the ICHF. The curriculum is easy to incorporate into existing schools.

I liked the Dragon Times publications, but our bookstore quit carrying them.

You really show how much the study of martial arts means to you in this post. Glad to see the history of the arts means something to you. I love everything about the martial arts. I love learning about all of the styles. I like hearing other people's takes on art and style. If you lived near by, I would call you up and hope to work out together, not practicing karate or TKD, but practicing martial arts. If you are ever in this area let me know. I sure will.

Good luck to you. Remember, your best is all you can do.

I still don't agree with you. Almost every system of martial arts in practice today have some sort of "sport side" that is trained, along with the kata practice. You talk of fighting with rules, and then compare it to fighting a UFC fighter, who still fights with rules, just a different set. Now, here's the deal. When you train like this, it is decent training for preparing for a fight. Not the best training, but it is decent. You learn to move, block, counter, and adapt to your opponent's strategies. I get to spar in class with rules. And, I know that if it goes to the street, I can adapt to street fighting, i.e., kick to the legs, strike to the throat or eyes, and otherwise. If you can kick a pro fighter in the groin, or get to his eyes, then you can successfully defend yourself against a skilled opponent. And another thing you may want to consider is to not under-estimate "street thugs." Take Tank Abbot, for example. There are lots of skilled fighters out there, who have never had a lick of training. It is beneficial to never under-estimate anyone.

Go get 'em, and good luck to you.

You really show how much the study of martial arts means to you in this post. Glad to see the history of the arts means something to you. I love everything about the martial arts. I love learning about all of the styles. I like hearing other people's takes on art and style. If you lived near by, I would call you up and hope to work out together, not practicing karate or TKD, but practicing martial arts.

If I could, I think I would like to try Kyokushin. Also, I would give Shotokan a try, so that I could look at the forms and try to figure out how my current forms were derived from them. History study is great! And, I can accept the fact that TKD is not 3000 years old. That don't bother me one bit.

Nothing wrong with that!

I disagree with you here. If a black belt is "just the beginning," then why should it take a lifetime to attain? And if that was the case, then we wouldn't have dan rankings, either.

I have never got to see anything on Benny the Jet, but I hear the name says it all. I also never got to see any of Lewis' fights, either. I did see a picture of him sparring Norris in a point fight, and man, he was HUGE. I mean, Norris is average sized, but Lewis was THICK. I would not want to mess with that guy. The Master and Jr. Master instructors at my school got to meet Lewis in Atlanta, when a former Master of our association was fighting someone that Lewis was in the corner of. They got to meet him after the fight, and they have a picture with him. Man, he is still a beast. I'll bet he still lifts regularly.

There's a saying among boxers and highway patrolmen: speed kills. And it is true!

I think the only time it's purely for show is in the XMA arena. In other styles they have many reasons for the extra athleticism, such as trying to develop good health first, technical proficiency second. It isn't just in the XMA arena, it is just more noticable there. If I was to teach the self defense applications of my form, some things like kick height, stance length, and so on would be different than if I was teaching my form for a tournament performance. Self-defense = practicality. Tournament performance, i.e., kicking high, showing flexibility = athleticism.

This post is in response to the idea that karate is not meant for fighting other skilled martial artists. My response is: Why not? Don't you (karatekas) train with other skilled karatekas? If this is the case, then any karate practitioner should feel somewhat comfortable in an engagement with another skilled martial artist. Saying that training in the art will only prepare you to combat an untrained "street thug" is a little demeaning to your own style, in my opinion. Now, there is the detriment to the lack of ground work, but that is to be expected, and it can be changed. But claiming that it is not intended for combating skilled martial artists is another incorrect assumption, I feel.

Usually, after a black belt testing, I would go eat a great big feast of a meal, and then crash. After award ceremonies, I never really celebrated much. Maybe, if there was a bunch of us that would have passed at once, we could have. Good idea, though.

That is too bad to hear. I was thinking of renewing my subscription, as I have not gotten it for a while. I always liked that articles that had some training aspect to them, with different drills to do and stuff like that. They should add an "instructor's section" where various instructors can submit some ideas they use to spice up a class, different kicking routines, or stuff like that. I always liked the consistent articles they had from guys like Dave Lowry, and Rickson Gracie. They were always good reads. Maybe its time for someone else to start a martial arts publication.....(It could be US!! ).

This is a very good idea, and a good way to start training some higher ranked students for teaching. If I had a little bit more freedom with the classes I teach, I would consider doing this. Great idea. Really good for advanced classes. Another good idea for a black belt class that just popped in my head: tell each black belt that will be at the class to prepare an exercise and drill set or something like that, and tell them that they will have to spend 10 minutes of the class time teaching it, and helping the others to understand, and spend time correcting and directing. Man, I love this brainstorming stuff!

This is so true, and I like your ideas here. When I started teaching full time 5 or 6 years ago, I noticed that I was starting to lose a few things because I was so busy teaching and not training. So, I started getting to the school early to start working out myself. It is definitely easier to work yourself into the adult class than it is with kids, in my opionion. Also, the higher the ranks of the class, the more you can work with them, because they are a little more independent at learning.

I don't know why he didn't do any punching. And I think that TKD guys could do plenty of damage with low kicks, if they would just attempt them.