french fri25

well done kez!!! keep on training, this is where the real karate starts. just remember that the black belt is the beginning, not the end.

i agree with bushido man. your hands are absolutely useless at your sides so you should either protect your torso or head. then its up to you to chose where you would rather get hit. in the head, or the ribs. i'd much rather get hit in the ribs than the head, so therefor, i keep my hands up.

i have been working on my jumping back kick which i need for my 5th kup test. i can never seem to get enough rotation and end up missing my target. i need to jump higher and twist in the air more but i never seem to have enough time while in the air.

ooooo man.... that guy is insane. never heard of him until now.

i think traditional blocks are very useful. it just depends on the person using them. obviously during a fight you are not going to chamber your block, you are just going to block the kick or punch as fast as you can. i tried using parries when i first started martial arts and would always get hit in the fingers when i left my hands open. i think that mma people and sport karate styles made open hand parries because they are easier and faster to learn. plus, in point and light contact sparring, you arent going to get hit that hard so there is little risk to your fingers. in point sparring all you need to do is tap the kick or punch and you will not get hit. in a full contact match if you block with your hand open, the technique will go right through your block. if get hit in the fingers, you will probably break them. closed blocks also tend to be stronger and stand up to hard kicks and punches better.

wow. nice vid. never heard of that style before. looks pretty good, except for the lack of hand strikes

welcome to KF!!

wow... interesting. jackie has some talents i never knew about. thanks for the vid.

ok. i have long legs and many people have trouble getting near me. what you need to do is jam up your opponents. you need to circle them, get off their line. you need to use feints in order to get your opponent to throw a kick, then you move in and get as close to him as you can. you need to jam up his kicks and punches.

happy mothers day everybody!!

welcome to KF!

welcome to KF

hmmm... the instructor at my old school was in that. if you go to the ultimate black belt website and go on team 1, his name is charles chi. i think he mentions something about callos. not really sure what though. im pretty sure he enjoyed it very much. must be a great experience to go to something like that. sorry i couldnt be more helpful, but i think that you shouldnt worry about callos. if you want to join the program, you should be doing it for yourself. i personally never heard complaints about callos though.

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i love that vid. very funny

in hapkido class im overwhelmed with sparring clock... ticking... too... slow...

any type of kung fu seems like it might fit you. im not 50+ but i know quite a bit about MA. also, i take hapkido and there are 2 guys who are over 50. one is 51 and the other is 53. they love hapkido because of all the things you listed above. HKD is a soft style so we do a lot of breathing, meditation... also, there is a lot of joint locks involved so you learn to control someone bigger, stronger, and faster than you with little energy involved. hapkido uses the opponents energy against them and causes them to be off balance. also, we do moo duk kwan at my school so there is a lot of sparring, full contact and light contact. but just talking about HKD, i think it fits your preferences very well. also, in HKD there are many kicks and hand strikes available. the hapkido curriculum is very wide and should keep you busy for a while. same goes for kung fu. kung fu uses very smooth, fluid motion and has quick, lethal strikes. you will definitley see meditation and lots of mental training in a good kung fu school. the only thing is that there is less joint locks in most forms of kung fu. good luck finding a style and a good school. in order for you to help us here at KF out, it would be nice to see a list of schools and styles available to you so that we will be able to help narrow down your options and hopefully help you find a style your happy with.

i also send my prayers to the people of Greensburg. i heard it was a devestating tornado. i hope the people of the town are able recover from their losses and move on with their lives.

good job!

good luck to you kez. you'll probably do just fine. dont get too nervous about it. remember, when your in the test, dont think. just let things flow.

i never heard about a jackie chan and jet li movie coming out. if im not mistaken, i thought jet lee retired from the movie industry.

congradulations dude!

lol. pretty good.

congrats dude! keep up the good work.

looked like you did a good job to me.