bushido_man96

First of all, talk to your instructor about wanting to start your own dojo. Being an owner himself, he can probably give some helpful info. He may be very helpful. The YMCA or rec center ideas are good ones. Talk to them about wanting to set something up, and they will tell if they are interested or not.

The problem I have with my current association is that at 5th dan, I think I am just granted the title of Master after testing. I think the test is just like the other tests, and I am not sure there are any different requirements. I guess I don't have to be called master, but I am not sure what to do here. I feel the same way you do in many ways. I to technically have the title of master but I hate being called master and tend to correct people. I am not a master of anybody or anything. I am a student of the martial arts for life. I at best am Sensei and thats all I will ever be in my mind. If I ever make it to 10th Dan I will still just be sensei. Many organizations like yours give the title of master at 5th dan sometimes at 4th dan the title bothers me. I have done a lot of research over the past few months on title and I have found that the title Shihan is normal at 5th dan. I was always told 6th dan was it. I was told Renshi was 4th and 5th dan which I have found was not the case but that it was at 6th Dan. Only time I use the title Shihan is on the promotion certificate I issue. The calligipher who did the kanji recomended it and she is japanese so I took her advice because her first suggestion was Hanshi or Soke and I did not want that. Seen to many people claim the title of soke and have not ever done anything for it and plus not understand what it is or means. A title that may be appropriate for you at 5th dan is Sa Bum Nim I have noticed korean stylists using this title at 5th and 6th dan. I am not a korean stylist nor do I know much about the true korean titles. But to be honest if you are not comfortable being called master then I would not allow it. I hope that helps a little. Thank you for the advise, Brandon. The title Sah bum nim is Korean for instructor. I will probably receive that title at the rank of 3rd dan.

To lose weight, drop the calorie intake and do 20 to 30 minutes of cardio daily. One person told me 1800 calories a day and exercise. Give it a try. You could also start lifting to gain muscle. But when you gain muscle, you will gain some weight. Try losing first, then start lifting. When you hit a target weight, take your measurements. Then once you lift for 3 months, take your weight and measurements again. Then again at 6 months. I think you will like the results.

They are ok, but you could do without them. They are nice for locking your legs into a nice stretched position where you can feel some tension, and then sitting back and watching TV for a while. Otherwise, just stretching on your own is ok, too. One thing about stretching on your own is you can do different stretches, where as a machine will usually only stretch one position. Another option is getting a pulley system to tie a rope around your ankle, and stretch and hold in a kicking postion.

When you break boards, you have to make sure to follow through. I know boxers have good power, but you may need to work on that follow through. As others have said, skip the gloves. Also, I would just go the local lumberyard and tell them that you want boards cut for karate breaking. More than likely they will know what you are talking about, and will cut them for you. Traditionally, pine is used, #3 I think. But some may use different.

Our school has a set of basics that it does at the beginning of each class, and it usually take 15 to 20 minutes to get through them. We also use them when we have orientations for new students. We spend two weeks orienting them, and then they go right into the regular class, being able to do the same warm-up as everyone. This helps to avoid confusion, and facilitate classroom interaction. Does everyone else have the same set of basics that are done prior to all of the classes? Or do you change the order and types of exercises that you do? Just wondering.

I would like to know the difference between these. I am pretty sure they are very different styles. I am sure that Kenpo is Japanese, and I have heard of Kempo being listed as Chinese. If I could get some feedback, I would appreciate it. Thanks!

That is a cool article. I like to find history on boxing, but it is hard not to find anything that isn't about current boxing sport news. It does have a rich history, all the way back to the first Olympic games in ancient Greece.

The problem I have with my current association is that at 5th dan, I think I am just granted the title of Master after testing. I think the test is just like the other tests, and I am not sure there are any different requirements. I guess I don't have to be called master, but I am not sure what to do here.

I agree that it isn't STRICTLY necessary, but is most certainly practical, useful and respectful, and in the vast majority of cases the only thing that is stopping martial artists who don't learn the Japanese etc. is laziness, rather than anything else, although I'm sure that isn't the case with you and I'm sure you're well armed with all the correct terminology. Osu I know most of the terminology used in my classes, but I have noticed that in different sources there are different words for the same techniques. In the ATA books, the techniques are different than in the TSD book that I have, and different than the Kukkiwon Textbook that I have, and those are all different than the terminology that we use in our class. To me, English is just as useful, and less confusing.

We had our kicking class tonight, and when we were doing the switching double round kicks, I found it easier to get the momentum for the second kick by swinging my hands around. I think this is what the Olympic stylists do with all of their kicking techniques. As far as the blocking thing goes, I will always tell my students to keep their hands up. If they want to adapt to the swinging hands down motion for tournaments, then I will let them, in different sparring class settings. But I will not teach hands down. Proper self defense concepts are more important to me than sparring concepts.

If they have a knife, that more than likely isn't going to happen. If someone is within arm's reach, I would rather them be armed with a gun than with a knife. I agree here. Many people think that they can take out a knife wielding opponent, but many don't realize that they will still get cut in the process.

That's good advice, now that I think about it. Usually when someone comes across that way, we tend to immediately shut them out. But training under them anyway is kind of an interesting idea. I think it is a good one.

There seems to be a lot of "self promotion" that goes on out there. I don't like it either. Personally, I will never take a promotion without doing a test for it, and if I ever get so high rank as to test for master, I would like to do it before other masters on the testing panel.

The more I hear about Shotokan karate, the more I think I would like to try it. You all are great ambassadors to your art.

I hate it when it comes to sceanarios like this in class, but sometimes, it just has to be done.

I have no problems with learning Japanese or Korean names, in my case, for techniques, but I just don't think it is necessary. I have said my peace.

I think somebody had a post about the groundfighing in shotokan. If this is the case, it makes it a very well rounded art.

Ahh, need a little more clarification here to make a response, please. Are those names of small forms or something like that?

He's my fave player in the game, i have him down to perfection. Brilliant!!! I like him a lot too, but I like Tiger the most.

Sounds like you may have just picked out a bad apple. Just let it go. One thing you should consider with MMA fighters is that they probably spend a lot more time fight training than traditionalists do. Myself, I have to work for a living, so I don't get to spend 6 hours a day training. That is where the difference lies, I think.

The reason is that punches don't score in Olympic style tourneys. I have seen guys knocked down by side kicks and not scored, but I think that was just a lame judge. They like round kicks and head kicks. My theory on why they keep their hands down is that for one, they don't block, they counter instead. Also, by keeping the hands down, I think they use them down and swing them to get momentum into some of their kicks. That is what my experience has been.

When most of us talk to each other, we don't use other languages for things like countries. We don't call Spain Espana, we call Deutzchland Germany (not sure about that spelling), and I would bet that the most of us don't pronounce Brasil and Chille correctly, etc, etc. If I say side kick instead of yeop chagi, it doesn't take anything away from it. The reason that most of the original Korean and Japanese masters taught in their own language is fairly simple: in most cases they probably could not speak very good English! (Just an opinion, could be wrong) I know the GM of my organization does not have the greatest English, and he is hard to understand from time to time. Personally, I think we read too much into the language of all of it. When I was in the ATA, there was no Korean spoken, and I still felt like I was learning TKD.

That's cool. That may be the case. I just remembered from some strategy guides I had looked at for Tekken 3, and I think that is what they said. Maybe they borrowed from kyokushin. Incidentally, in the intro for Tekken 3, Hwa Rang does the Hwa Rang TKD form. I thought it was pretty cool.

Sounds like a good deal to me. I had never heard about that before; always thought it was a striking art as well. I wish my TKD classes incorporated more groundwork. My grappling skills are very poor.