alsey

if he's asking for money that you don't really owe him, then get out of it as others have said. however, if he's asking for money that you do rightly owe him, then i wouldn't be so quick to leave. i don't really know anything about this guy, but its possible that he's done nothing wrong. i guess it comes down to how much you trust him, and how likely you think it is that he's gonna come back to teaching. for now i'd find somewhere else to train, pay him what you owe him (if you really owe him it) but keep an eye out for him coming back. i've had one or two classes here and there where i've ended up being taught by guys a rank or two above me, and it sucks. i wouldn't bother with that if you can find somewhere else to train.

i hate it when adults and children are taught together, it just doesn't work in my experience. jiffy mentioned writing out pros and cons of various options; maybe you and your husband should do that and try and work something out. i wouldn't consider teaching on your own yet if you're only just testing for black belt. my advice would be to stay at the current school for a year or two and see how things go. maybe sometime in the future you could start teaching somewhere on your own in addition to the current place with your husband.

i loved comix zone. there's that old kung fu dude in the middle that took me absolutely ages to get past. for games without magic, there was virtua fighter, one of the best fighting games IMO. before MK there wasn't much that was any good though. the side-scrolling games were brilliant but they were a completely different style of game.

i don't really know much about it, but i saw a demo once. it looks very cool, funky stances and stuff. from what i saw there is a lot of standing arm lock type stuff, and a bit of wing chun style intercepting punching stuff. the posture is strange, the legs sort of stick out forward with the body out of the way. it also seemed pretty linear. but this is based on one five minute demo so don't take too much notice of it. you've probably already checked it out, but i found this page lurking in my bookmarks: http://www.mantiskungfu.com/

people don't get their spines ripped out of their bodies in WWF :D anyway i just got deception, it rocks. loving the new raiden. at the moment i can't decide whether i prefer the dark alliance combat system or this one...anyway i won't be bored for another year or so

that annoying kid in neighbours (i forget his name, steph's step-son) does aikido, but he's lame.

i'm no BJJ artist but i don't think there's really much you can do from there. if you do manage to get out of it, then the guy on your back sucks because you really shouldn't lose back control once you've got it. your best bet is to try and get your legs under theirs and try and lift them off or roll out of it. this is certainly what i'd do in a street situation. get my legs under, try to move out one way then suddenly jerk the other way and roll. that will probably be enough against an inexperienced grappler (but certainly not enough against matt hughes ).

i don't practice bassai dai much, and its hard to describe exactly what movements i'm talking about with just text, but i'll give it a go. the first movement: the opponent's wrist is grasped with one hand and their hand pushed back with your other hand, locking the wrist. move forward, dropping the opponent to the ground. one of my favorite parts of the kata, where you turn and perform mikazuki-geri and gedan-barai (in the middle of the kata); i would interpret as a hip throw. a few moves later there is another mikazuki-geri followed by empi-uchi; i would interpret this is a trip, then an elbow strike to the head as the opponent goes down. early in the kata there is a turning soto-uke, then uch-uke followed by sukui-uke; textbook winding throws. bassai, as i see it, is a very throw-heavy kata. all the big stomping moves and turns are throws IMO. plus there are all the 'standard' moves; uchi-uke, soto-uke, shuto-uke, which can be applied in various ways as joint attacks and locks.

yeah, i guess that makes sense.

nice list! i love that gun kata stuff in equillibrium.

generally i'll use a jab to try and create an opening. i wouldn't usually use a backfist unless there's an opening already there.

i thought tengu were those bird people.

i guess if your friend's style is TKD then names are going to be a bit 'koreanised'. i think kung sun gun is probably just a korean version of kung shang kung, the chinese name of the kata's originator.

I like it! I will certainly do that, and stick to it. In fact, do you mind if I pretty much quote that verbatim in the classes I teach? yeah sure, as long as your line is reasonable. something like 'as soon as someone looks at me, i pull out the ninja skills!' clearly wouldn't be appropriate

the kanku kata originate from a guy called kushanku aka kusanku, kosokun, kung shang kung. i'd imagine kung sun kun is just another alternative spelling of his name.

i see it like this. if someone invades my personal space, they've given up their right for me to respect them. invading my personal space means grabbing me, poking me, pushing me or just stepping up into my face. basically if someone does one of those things to me, they're getting a whack across the jaw and a kick in the knee. i don't care whether they intended to injure me or not, grabbing me or whatever is an aggressive action and if someone does that, they should be prepared to suffer the consequences. i will always try to avoid a fight if i can (and i've gotten quite good at it), but once aggressive physical contact is made, i teach them a lesson. if he grabbed you, and if you had kicked him in the head and killed him, i would say that's ok. he shouldn't have grabbed you. for all you know, as soon as he's grabbed you he could have put a knife through you. of course, you have to decide what your own ethics are. you should decide on a 'line' which no one will cross. for me the line is invading my personal space as i described above. once someone crosses your line, you lay down the law!

every school i've been to or seen drills in some form or another. that's why i made the comment about the article being nothing new; everyone drills as far as i know.

don't think a katana would cut another sword. the katana's blade would probably blunt or even notch if anything; katana aren't meant for cutting metal. in kendo, the people who use two swords usually get beaten by people using one sword. of course this is one long sword and one short one, which isn't the same as two dao, but you have to be very skilled to use two swords effectively.

armbar from the side, or at least that's what i end up doing most in training.

one of my friends is in the royal marines, and he's no match for me. i can beat him standing up and on the ground, and i'm nothing special as far as martial artists go. really, they're not the best fighters. i agree with useoforce, the top MMA fighters are the best fighters in the world. at least in the one-on-one ring situation. soldiers train in a lot of disciplines. MMA fighters just train to fight and they're a hell of a lot better at it.

i agree with what he said, but it was nothing new.

we do that, though it was never really emphasised much. it was just something that i picked up from watching my sensei, i don't remember him actually teaching it to the class. i couldn't really do any of the movements without it, its pretty integral IMO and improves kime. also depending on how you apply the movement the rotation of the wrist is often involved in a joint lock.

if a guy asks you out and you say yes, he's gonna think you're interested. i would use the fact that he's asked you out as an opportunity to tell him how you feel. it wouldn't be fair on him to mislead him, and it could make things more awkward between you. just tell him you're not interested in him in that way, but you'd like to remain friends. now every guy hates it when a girl they like tells them they just want to be friends, but its better than giving them the wrong idea. if after telling him he doesn't want to be friends with you, then he probably doesn't like you for who you really are anyway.

ok, say there is this tournament in the style of mortal kombat. one on one fights to the death, but with weapons. what weapon would you take into the ring, assuming the following rules: -no projectile weapons (no guns, bows etc). -no electrical or chemical weapons (no tazers, mace cans, poisoned daggers etc) -no armor of any kind, but shields are allowed within reason (i.e. you can't have an enormous shield that covers your whole body). -you have to wield your weapons for the duration of the fight (i.e. you can't trip someone up with a staff, then drop the staff and draw a sword to finish them off. this also means you can't throw weapons). other than that, you can have whatever you want, and as many weapons as you want provided you're wielding them all at the same time. so what would you choose? i would go with a katana, because that's what i've trained to use and its very easy to disable someone with it.

LOL!