JackCrevalle

No wonder you don't punch, you guys don't wear hand gear.

This is a very perceptive observation. Just yesterday I was talking to a friend and mentioned something about MAs and she said, "You don't do that do you?". I told her yes, but since she is a work friend i added, "but I don't let a lot of people know that". She went on to say that her (grown) son was in TKD and she didn't want to know what he did because she said he had broken his friends leg at one time and came home with bruises, etc. I really wanted to know more about what her son was doing but it was obvious she really didn't want to know details of his MA. When I came home with a bruised up leg from being kicked there several times, my wife asked "Why do you let people kick you?". It definitely seems to invoke some kind of visceral response to be injured in a MA versus another sport.

I read about a lot of people using these machines but I've read in couple of places now that passive stretching does not translate into dynamic flexibility so I'm wondering why people buy them.

[Edit: sorry I was trying to agree with an earlier poster and between my post and the one I was trying ot agree with several other responses got in. Then I screwed up who I was trying to agree with.] I agree that you don't need your BB to get respect from students. In our dojang we have lesser ranked belts assisting the instructors. This is, I believe, part of their training towards earning their black belts.

Swimming. Also, ironically I've read that cycling is ok for people with knee problems. Of course you still need to see the doctor before doing any exercise if you have problems.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Boxing-1533/Headache-bag.htm

It doesn't say you'll come out a 4th degree BB, it says you'll have the skills to pass the certification for 4th degree BB. Later it says: "Graduates can earn up to a 3rd or 4th degree black belt." Well, so can non-graduates for that matter.

I just read an article last night by Bill Wallace about how he uses only 5 techniques. Basically for the reasons you outline. In the article he comments about fighting street fighting and to paraphrase him says that when you are in a fight for your life, you fight like it's a fight for your life. I see a lot of these threads and they all try to analyze the legal consequences but few if any of them I think emphasize or even mention the fact that the aftermath of a confrontation is a legal crap shoot at best. And a crap shoot that you alone are likely to pay for monetarily win-or-lose (at least here in the US) or with your freedom should it go to court. Here in the US martial arts training can be considered the use of a deadly weapon and so a defenders response could be judged according to the threat, in the less than clear, or outright biased, memories of witnesses. Best advise, walk away at all costs.

Call me stupid too then because that's the first thing that came to my mind when I read the post.

My dojang has those Century boards and according to my instructor the the black is supposed to be the hardest however he said the brown is "just crazy". I'm not saying they are less consistent than wood, just be aware they may not be consistent even as they are supposed to be to each other.

I'm thinking about getting a Wavemaster bag but I've got no place to put it in my home. I was wondering if anyone kept there's outside and how it held up if they did. Summer temps around here seldom get above 90 deg. F and winter temps rarely go below 40 (although this year was an exception).

I'd like to "practice" at the dojang but that's pretty much off-limits when class isn't in session. I'd also like to practice in my home but I don't have enough room in any one place to do say forms. I usually end up practicing in a piece of the backyard mostly out of sight of the neighbors.

Bushido-man is right again. After suffering through pain in an ever-increasing number of joints, I finally ditched my Internist at the time (who was treating each joint problem as a separate malady) and went back to see my then retired Internist. She sent me to a Rheumatologist who told me that I not only had arthritis in my feet, knees, elbow, hand and jaw, but also in my shoulders (which hurt but I attributed this to using my arms to save my knees when getting up). After trying the standard medication for arthritis of this type, she put me on a another that has basically eliminated the symptoms. So, I went from taking 2400 mg of Ibuprofen a day just to function and being "barely able to walk" to being able to do TKD. My regret is that I was denied correct treat long enough to suffer permanent damage to my joints. Many arthritis suffers augment their treatment with alternative treatments, I still take glucosimine and chondrotin, but I couldn't function without prescription medication.

+1 for Black Belt magazine. My wife subscribed for me so I don't know the cost. After reading other threads about MA magazines I probably would never have subscribed myself, "all ads, no good articles..." but BB magazine has plenty of articles of all different levels and any MA you could think of. I'm way behind in my reading of them because of the amount of material.

I just starting using some ankle weights my wife got after knee surgery. I love them. I do stretch kicks using cable pulleys at the gym but I found these to be much better. Much more range of motion and more realistic. I think it definitely improved my range. Most are 10# each and most allow you remove weight. Cost $15-$40 depending on the materials. Beware of the ones that have plastic pouches filled with sand. Some advertise that they go up to 20# each. I just started using the full 10#.