TigerDude

Getting caught being tested for the fight is nothing short of stupid. There are plenty of ways to avoid detection when you know the date of the test. If you want real testing, go to the random-type used in many international sports now.

Practice, Practice, Practice. Thousands of repetitions. Kick into a bag if you want to develop power, and if you are trying for power, you need to practice also what you do when your kick misses.

According to Thomas Kurz, the only time you should stretch before activites is when you need your full range of motion for the activity (like martial arts, kicks in particular). For this, you should do dynamic stretches (not the strech & hold thing, which he generally disdains anyway). For all other activities (like lifting, running, cycling), you should warm up before the activity, but not stretch. Stretching before an activity weakens the muscles, leading to increased risk of injury. The time to stretch is after an activity, when your muscles are warm. I would expect that the original poster was able to do the split because he (or she) was already warmed up & therefore more flexible than normal. The reason he hurt the next day is because he injured the muscles stretching them too much. The best stretches to increase your range of motion are "isometric stretches." These involve tensing & relaxing the muscles being stretched, and work wonderfully, but are quite difficult to do (at least for me).

I would question a style's effectiveness if all techniques are thrown from the "traditional" stances. Since you are relatively new to the style, however, you may be just still learning the basics. As for polarity/chi/etc, believe it or don't. I personally don't think it matters to the techniques, other than for visualization purposes.

Reminds me of the Jim Carey sketch: "Like all beginners, you attacked me WRONG!" lol

Lift weights. When baseball players want to be stronger swinging the bat, they don't swing heavy bats, they hit the gym.

I would say in the US that the biggest problem with humiliation would be if you happen to "win" some street encounter. The humilated guy goes to his car & gets a gun/club/knife/gang of buddies/etc & comes back & kills you with it. My recommendation for everyone is figure out your manhood before a fight so you don't feel you have to prove it with your fists. Life is too short.

I believe that rest is the only cure for broken ribs, so your doctor & your pain level would be your guide. A "slipped" disc could mean a lot of things. I have found that my back problems were greatly helped by karate training & the core workout you get. That said, if you have severe back problems, I doubt you would be able to do most martial arts.

Well, I found a video where Stutely uses his hips to throw a good punch. Not very revolutionary. Maybe I'm missing something?

Good replies. Thanks, folks.

Pretty much the only way to get stronger is to work out. Do compound lifts to failure. As mentioned, you will have to eat plenty, as well. Don't forget squats - they help upper body strength as well. The #1 lift for egtting stronger.

My son (11 y.o.) & I started Goju Ryu in January 2006. We took 8 weeks off in April/May & now he says he's not interested in going back. These are classes we attended together. He failed a testing for for 6th kyu in April (that I passed) but he says it's not part of the reason. He would pass this grading easily because he understands the requirements now. He says it's boring & he doesn't like getting hit. He has no problems generally, though, with rough play & takes (& gives) shots from me quite well. I'm a bit disappointed, because this has been great for getting me (& him) in shape, and I love learning new things. I also hate losing a year-plus investment, since we seemed to be on track for brown belt in another 12 months (3 brown belt ranks in our school). Any recommendations? Thanks.

Thank you for starting a discussion. I believe your discussion of striking is good, but your physics isn't quite right. Power is the energy is takes to move something over a distance at a certain rate. It is not related to the damage done by a strike. Momentum is speed times mass. Kinetic energy is one-half times speed times mass-squared. Momentum is what moves things when they are hit. Kinetic energy is what damages things. The momentum of a bullet is actually very low (despite Hollywood silliness), due to the low mass of the projectile, but the kinetic energy is high due to the high speed. A 127 grain 9mm bullet travelling 1250 fps would have momentum of 3.1 kg-m/s, and a kinetic energy of 594 Joules (kg-m^2/s^2). A punch, depending on the assumption we make, has much more momentum, but actually a similar amount of kinetic energy. Assume a 25 pound arm at 30 feet per second, and the momentum is 104 kg-m/s, and kinetic energy is 474 Joules. The reason the bullet is more deadly is a combination of the small size the impact is distributed over, and the properties of the human body. At the slower speeds of a hand-held weapon, a very small diamter is required to puncture skin, like a knife or ice pick. I do agree that striking power will primarily be the combination of speed and mass that can be put onto the target. There are lots of ways to acomplish this, which is what must of us in the striking arts try to get better at. Also, depending on what you are trying to do with the strike, concentration of that power may be effective. The Principles of Increased Impact and Double Impact make good physics sense. My belief is that beyond the physics of speed & mass, there is little science behind our various martial arts' stances on what a good punch or kick is (big circle, small circle, linear, rooted, heel up, surface damage, interior damage, etc.). People know what a hard punch feels like, but beyond that... I am not trying to knock your analysis, but I see lots of explanations of these things, and many tend to be contradictory (sp?). I do know that I'm a pretty big guy, & if I hit someone with a hard straight left (I'm a southpaw), I'll likely break both my fist & his cheekbone. Maybe I'll get better one day so that I'll have a better option. ;^)

There doesn't seem to be a lot of info on Chito Ryu on the net. It would seem to be a style encompassing several Okinawan/Japanese karate styles. I found a reference to the founder Chituse instructing in Funakoshi's (the Shoto in Shotokan) original dojo, but also references to many other Okinawan masters. Some of the kata are also found in Goju Ryu, so there is a link there. It looks quite interesting! Info on Shotokan is everywhere. For beginners, I believe it tends to be a powerful, linear style with strong punches and kicks. Most people will tell you that the instructor matters more than the style, so look at both classes to see which you think you will fit in better with.

I don't know if your style will have conditioning as a big part, but core exercises will help a lot. Kicks work your abs/obliques more than you would think. Anything you do will likely help, but pushups seem to be fairly standard in martial arts training. Good luck, & welcome to karate-do.

Our instructor hands out the grading sheets at the end of the session, with scores & comments.

Ha Ha! I hope you got Tank!

Maybe you should take a look at what you're doing that's hurting your joints. Any doctor is going to say, "are you doing something that might be hurting you? If so, you should stop to see if it is the cause."

Definition comes from not having body fat over your muscles, and I think it has to be pretty low. Sorry.

Seconded. I have the 1st one.

Welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard! I live in Acworth.

Walmart has a pretty complete selection of protective goggles.

I don't know that I agree with that. If I wanted to protect myself, I'd carry a pistol.

Welcome aboard!