bushido_man96

Yes, this happens, and it can be remedied. When you stretch, I assume you are stretching straight down the middle. Try this: Don't sit on the floor, but stretch down as far as you can, and hold yourself up with your hands on the floor. Then, stretch to the right side by turning your hips over, and stretching the right leg straight, and the left one slightly bent with the knee on the floor (this used to be called the American splits, if that clears anything up). Keep the right leg straight, and the toes pointed up with the heel on the ground. Then do the left side. After doing the stretches, get back up in your splits, and go to the left, and then right, and then back left. The trick is to be as low as you can without having to pull up to get to the left or right. This will help you work through your range of motion. The problem with stretching is that if you don't do some moving, it only stretches one position. So by getting some motion (not bouncing), you can stretch through the range.

Get into a front stance, and prepare to do a reverse punch. Get a partner to hold his hand over your fist, and have him resist as you push out your punch. Vary the resistance to suit what you want. Try doing a 10 second punch as the finisher. Also, don't forget to work your full range of motion, so after you complete the punch, have your partner pull on your fist as you pull it back, or have him push against your retracting elbow.

I want to keep a big block of ice in the living room, and when my wife answers the door for my daughter's dates, the first thing they see when they walk in is me crushing it....and then I'll stare 'em down, and say "10 o'clock."

Kata is the perfect solo workout for the martial artist. I believe that there are advantages to be gained from doing it slow (strenght, focus, concentration) and from doing it fast (speed, anaerobic capacities). The wonderful thing about doing a form is you can take one, and choose if you want to work on speed. To do this, you make all of the moves fast. If you want to build strength, you sit low in your stances and hold them while performing slow, tension movements. And, if you want a cardio workout, you string a bunch of them together, and do them continuously for a period of 15 to 20 minutes. Or, you can just practice one form over and over for this amount of time. Forms are personal interpretation, that is what makes them great. If you practice something one way, all of the time, you lose flexibility in your self. As Loren Christensen said: "You can't do the same thing every day and expect different results. Do something different!"

This is a good question. It would all depend on the level of fighting they will be doing, and how much protective gear they wear. I would say problably older than 8, but I could be wrong.

That is a nice website. Thanks, man.

Sounds like you got a good training thing going for you. How many hour a day do you train?

I was kind of hoping to find a guy named Best as the head instructor or something. That aside, it doesn't look too bad. Nice bios on the instructors, and they have resumes, so to speak. My question is, can you get all of that training from the school, or do you just pick one and go? Or, if you want to do more than one, do you have to pay extra? Personally, I think having that many options available would be great, but I would like to play around in all of it. That is what I would find out.

Very good points. I am pretty sure there aren't many takedowns present in my TKD forms. Maybe some joint manipulations, but not many takedowns.

One free class may not be enough to decide, so I don't blame you there. As far as high kicks go, it may be instructor preference, so check with them.

That is a good point, Aodhan. I thought the ATA's system was very well put together, and the fact that you can earn the black belt in 18 months is not a bad thing. When you get to black belt, it is ok to still have some things to learn. Kind of along the lines of this and the McDojo discussion, I sent my daughter to swim lessons this year. She is in level 4. Well, they had 8 days of lessons, and then they test, and if they don't pass, they have to repeat. Of course, they don't have to take more lessons if they don't want to. Now, we pay for this service, and if they fail after less than two weeks of training, they just say we have to do it again. They actually told us that not everyone passes the level on the first try. Now, if martial arts teachers came across with this attitude, I'll bet people would freak. Don't know, but I thought it might be relevant. At least in the martial arts, if you don't feel ready to test, then you don't have to.

Quote Shui Tora: That being that! Or have I missed the point? Nope, you haven't missed the point. You're good.

Taking little steps forward while you are moving around can get closer than you might realize. Try it while you're sparring next time.

That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, Andrew_Patton.

Cathal said: I agree wholeheartedly with keeping away from that Kempo school, it doesn't "feel" legit to me. I wouldn't discount this school completely based off the web site. Maybe the owner doesn't have a good web designer. Cathal said: I don't recommend signgin up with a school which locks you into a fee contract forcing you to pay even if you quit, so watch out for that. I have a direct deposit contract through my school. My instructor doesn't like have to collect the bills. Also, for those that sign up longer, they get a better deal on the class fees. Just because a school uses contracts doesn't make it a bad school. Most of them should have a 3 month trial period you can sign up for, or something like that. Personally, I think it would take about 3 months to see if you like what you are doing, anyways.

Not sure on that one. I imagine round where traditional, because it was a grain milling tool. I say, whatever you think.

Not sure if I caught Conquest or not. I do remember some shows where they actually compared different types of weapons fighting, and had some historical fencers to bounce ideas and stuff off of. That was kind of cool.

We can argue this until we are blue in the face, and we won't get anywhere. When I punch towards someone's face, I am looking to bloody a nose (or break it), water the eyes, etc. I am not aiming for a miniscule point to hit. There are some points that are great for use, but they are easier to deal with, like the brachial plexus and common peroneal. Also, like I said, joint manipulations work well, if you can adapt them. As far as not requiring strength to apply them, this is false. You can't just touch a pressure point and do damage, you have to apply the pressure, and this is going to take some strength. If your ability to grip weakens, and your ability to hold other body parts to apply the pressure, then you start losing ground. One may retain this strength for a longer period of time than punching strength, but it is all in how you train, and how you take care of yourself as you get older.

OUCH. That sounds painful. I had a student tell me that not once, but twice, while drunk, drop down into the full splits. Only problem was she couldn't do the full splits! She was a little sore, needless to say!

Kind of off topic, but I notice this skewed view of shotokan as of late. Sounds like it gets picked on a little, like TKD. Don't understand that.

You have a good point here, but as an experienced MA practitioner, I will pick up one of these books and not think twice about it, because I truley believe that there are not secrets in the martial arts.

Train all of your low rank material: forms, one-steps, self-defense requirements, etc. Practice all of your forms in order, nonstop. If you train hard all of the time, and make around 3 classes a week, you should have no troubles at all. Good luck!

That's what it is all about, right? Learning. The other day I decided to go with a two weapon system...long sword and battle axe. I learned a lot.....like I don't know how to block my right side against a lefty worth a darn. I did learn some positive things, though, like hooking weapons with the axe, when to lead with which weapon, etc.

No, just like boxing, the KO always wins.

Here ya go. "Martial" means "war," right? Now, not every culture that has gone to war over the ages, let alone been successful in war, has been a buddhist culture, right? So there ya go....easy answer.