Shorinryu Sensei

To me, in the realm of the martial arts, I feel that the term "Master" is given out in many, even most, instances much to freely. I've seen 18 year old "Masters", and in my opinion, that is absolutley rediculous! Master, to me, means a mastery of the system. An 18 year old hasn't mastered tying their shoes, let alone all of the aspects of any particular martial art. No offense meant to all the 18 year olds out there, but use some common sense...they just haven't been ALIVE long enough yet to be a master of anything, let alone a complex martial art.

Good for you! Yeah, shooting is fun. I can't even remember the first time I shot a gun. I think I was 7-8 maybe?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't the obvious person you need to go to if you're having specific questions of problems with something with your training...is your instructor? What are you paying him for if you can't go to him to help you be a better martial artist? If he/she won't help you, you're in the wrong dojo. You're paying them to teach you and you should expect them to help you with problems with kata or techniques. Go to him/her and ask them these questions.

It's kind of tough dojng a jump/spinning kick while laying on the floor grappling around with some guy...isn't it? I suppose if you're rally good and had a lot of years of experience, you might be able to break a board in that situation. I'll give that some thought.

Not that I'm aware of.

Sure...come on up! But i hope you don't mind the snow. I'm in WorthWestern Montana and a blizzard just rolled in with 35 mph winds and we're expecting 6-10 inches of snow by morning. Bring your dog team! I think I'll walk two blocks down to BlockBuster and get a video or two.

Basically, whatever your chosen fighting style is (karate, TKD, BJJ, boxing, etc) you need to make the other person fight YOUR fight, not theirs. That's the key. If you're a boxer, get in close and box. If you're a karate person, use the skills you've learned. TKD, go for keeping your distance so you can use your kicks. BJJ, dive for the legs and get him on the ground.

Everybody has their own definition of what htey consider personal space. For one person, it might be 6', another it might be 2'. In a fight situation I tell my students that their personal space is that space between them and an attacker that makes them feel non-threatened. Myself, I'm comfortable if the attacker is just at arms reach or more. Any closer and he's fair game IMHO. There are always exceptions of course. for instance, if she's REALLY cute, then my personal space is usually much smaller.

I agree that aikido, if available, might be a good choice. Definitely skip the shotokan though. With your physical limitations, shotokan would make them worse.

Slightly off the topic here, but the guy a couple of doors down from me has a bumper sticker on the back of his old Volvo wagon that says: "Fight like a man..get on your knees and Pray" Now, don't misunderstand here as I have nothing at all against religion, and I've been real tempted to talk to the guy when I see him in his yard about that and see if he'd really get on his knees and pray for help if he was attacked. He has a wife and at least 3 young kids (that I've seen anyway)...would he not protect them (I wonder) if they were attacked? Having faith in God is one thing...blind faith and stupidity is another.

In the 30+ years since I started karate training, I've yet to wear head, hand or foot pads except in full contact sparring. Then I use traditional Okinawan bogu, which is a lot different than what most people use. heck, I don't even wear a groin cup! My reasoning is that if you spar continuosly wearing protection, you won't learn to block as well because the chances of getting hurt are far less. You will do what you practice on the street. However, you need to do what you think is right and what you feel confident in doing. So, if you feel you need to wear head gear or any other pads...then go for it. Just remember, you won't have them on the street.

Interesting. I'll have to keep my eyes open for an ATA affiliate and check it out.

TKD doesn't do weapons as a part of the art of TKD...period. This discussion has been had many times on here. however, there could be two options. 1. Your instructor has been formally training in another art otherthan TKD and is passing on his knowledge of weapons to you. or.. 2. Your instructor has never taken any formal weapons training and is passing on misinformation to you and the other students. Unfortuantely, it has been my experience in watching numerous (but not all by any means) TKD dojangs/instructors that #2 is usually the case. Whgat I would suggest is talking to your instructor and asking him where he learned his weapons techniques. If he states he is "self-taught"..then beware, as you most likely will not be learning anything really worthwhile in the way of weapons technique.

*donning my Mr. Spock ears* Since this pertains to something your instructor said to you...maybe you should ask him? *removing my Mr. Spock ears*

There are two things that I have problems with in your post. As already pointed out, gettign a 6th Dan black belt in 4 years is virtually impossible in any reputable system. In 4 years, a 1st Dan would be acceptable, anything above that would be suspicious IMHO. The 2nd thing I have questions with is this. Ancient Kung Fu Karate? Kung Fu is Chinese...karate is Okinawan/Japanese. They are distinctly different. And to call them "Ancient"...nope...sorry, not buying that today. Do you have a websire perhaps that we can take a look at and see what we can see about it? My guts telling me McDojo BIGTIME! Can you also give us some background info on Grandmaster Owen Smith? There's nothing on the internet that I can find about him, and I would suspect if he's a grandmaster, there should be at least some mention. How old is he would be a good start, and how long has he been in the art?