NightOwl

I like this philosophy more. I prefer to do a quick warm up and get the rest of the exercise through training. I love to learn, and if half of my paid for time is going to exercise, I feel a bit like there isn't enough material to cover a whole hour so exercise acts as filler.

It's so much simpler in Korea White - Black (sometimes brown). Problem solved...in my mind at least

Sorry, I know of one in Oregon that I've been to but I'm unfamiliar with anything north of the border. Try the yellowpages or do a search- I'm pretty sure that there will be one if not more in your area.

From what I've read, the tie to the cossaks is more or less not true. It 'legitimizes' the system and hearkens to a pre soviet era, but it is similar to many Korean arts trying to tie themselves to old warrior traditions. It seems to stem from soviet era programs (which might have bits of old fighting traditions in them) and military SD training along with lots of concepts and fighting theories. Systema itself is broken into different styles, much like 'Karate' or 'Kenpo'. However they do share many common elements. As with any art, it depends on the practitioner and school. However, systema sometimes has problems with too much theoretical, rather than applicable moves, and a lot of people with pseudoscientific claims. For example no touch/light touch knockouts, claiming if you touch a certain part of the body to make someone strong or weak, untested medical claims, etc.

This is something that I struggle with. To be honest, the 35-40 min workout takes up sometimes more than half the class. While I realize the need to be in shape, you could easily streamline the process with less time spent on low impact stretching and using randori or something similar for cardio in which you exercise and learn at the same time. Half the class is way too much time for my tastes. In BJJ, you were expected to do your stretching before class, and light sparring was used for a warmup (and trust me, that definitely counts as cardio).

YES! But not the new stuff- I actually went back and saw some old episodes and they were pretty good.

I know what you mean! I got an extremely severe case of Mono which ended with me up in the hospital for 5 days (don't recommend Japanese hospitals in case you were thinking of going). I've finally gotten over it in the past couple of days- but I can't engage in contact sports until April due to risk of internal organ rupture and other such awesomeness. My Judo training has been so fractured, that it has been extremely difficult to progress. In fact, I'll probably be set back almost to square one once I get back. It stinks not to be able to train. You have it a bit harder though in that your movement is limited. see if you can work on upper body stuff. Any kind of exercise will help curb the cravings of the drug known as martial arts

My girlfriend is korean so I'll see what she says. Her brother competes on his college's TKD team in Korea so I'm sure one of them knows.

Ew ew ew! I am a quasi germaphobe- all this talk of no washing makes me sad

I'd agree- bag work, speed drills, light sparring, etc can also function as warm up. Or conversely, you can always tell students that the crunches they are doing are for the sole purpose of toughening up their stomachs so that they can 'take a punch' . I've also been to places that did laps/some other warm ups for about 10 min, but offered a separate conditioning course (although a good part of the sparring was warm up as well). However I've been at the opposite end of the spectrum as well. My TKD class was usually about half exercise, and at my Judo class, I've timed it up to 40 min . At that point I'd rather be learning then warming up.

I could go for a good MA book.....any suggestions? I've been reading a lot of a magazine called Mental Floss lately.

What I want to see is a black belt club kind of like those airline clubs you see at the airport. I'd definately be down for overpriced martinis

For some things though (like a basic roundhouse kick), I don't know if it really matters how you refer to it in class. If you do a lot of international tournaments and seminars however, it might be good to learn the name for it I think

That sounds interesting- what does your gym use for the curriculum usually? Today I am going to do some shadow boxing as well as work on footwork for judo.

So what's the overall choice for best steak? Rare/med-rare/med/med-well/or well done? Maybe I should just become a vegetarian.

due to my limited memory and attention span, I often forget if a topic has been addressed before. Therefore, I proudly present the SPECIAL EDITION of the topic (just you know, in case) : How much time should be devoted in class to warming up/exercise? How much is too much? Should it be part of class at all? Your thoughts, please

Reading around, it seems like there are some shady practices going on too like black belt clubs and the like. I don't mind if it is just for exercise though- I have no problem with someone teaching tae bo. But most tae bo people aren't making claims that it is one of the most effective styles for real life confrontations.

Works for me.

Here's the official homepage:http://www.choikwangdo.com/index.php Like you mentioned, it's a TKD derivative- apparently based out of Georgia (?). I looked at some videos on youtube as well, plus from another Choi site (http://www.eackd.com/index.php?page=multimedia). Personally I think a lot of it is hype- the kicks are similar to TKD (although sometimes looking a bit 'loose'), and it uses boxing style hands. However, look at this statement found on their site: That's right. No sparring at all (they don't allow training with other arts either) and a heavy emphasis on attracting a family audience with exercise claims. The only sparring video I found on youtube was non contact and didn't look so great (http://youtube.com/watch?v=QRQjV0ABQM8&feature=related). While I do think point sparring is not the ideal, it is a lot better then forcing your practitioners to not make any contact at all. Apparently, this art has a following in the UK and US. EDIT: A bit more research- apparently the grandmaster made a lot of enemies in the world of TKD politics back in the home country. Also- his grandson was given a blackbelt at 2 years old! Don't believe me? I dunno, it seems like something to stay away from in my opinion. TKD, TSD, HKD, etc would probably be a better bet.

Well I finally caught some episodes of Fight Quest! I must say- I think I like it better than Human weapon. However I am a bit conflicted on the matter- Fight Quest is a (more or less) serious look at a martial art. They don't go for the tourist attractions, and for the most part the fights are not held back (comparison in a little bit). Human Weapon on the other hand is kind of...well, fluff. The history is horrible, many techniques are played up for mysticism, and they even mention the 'nose to the brain' myth! Also, many of the fights are more or less light sparring matches (there are of course exceptions). HOWEVER, it is entertaining. And really, that's what it is- entertainment, not enlightenment. A great example is the ninjitsu episode where they go to the equivalent of a playground, learn from primarily non ninjitsu guys, and try and spar guys who have a policy of no sparring (and do quite well against them). Despite that, it was fun to watch, and I think that sums up human weapon nicely. FQ on the other hand, definitely has a fighter's mindset. They are there to train hard, not travel around. They also don't want much held back, and will say when a technique isn't always the first thing you should rely on. This appeals to me after seeing the evolution from 'Fight Science' to that one British show to Human weapon. Mind, it is still entertaining, but it doesn't sacrifice too much realism for entertainment's sake which I appreciate. Speaking of which- the fights are much much better. Just compare the intensity of the kyokushin spar in HW to FQ and you'll see that there is a big difference. Anyhow, I plan to post some reveiws up soon (and maybe a movie review?), so look for that.

Humph! No need to get cheeky! *ahem* TKD: The Final Human Weapon Review. (AKA: Taekwondo! it's Taekwon-fun!) Alright folks- it's the final episode of season 1 (and maybe forever). So why not cover the most popular art in the world? The final episode is fairly good- the goofy pop look into an art is in order with all its good and bad parts, and the fight is one of the best in the series. In fact, the whole thing is like one long commercial for teakwondo- it certainly came off looking like one of the toughest arts that they have shown. By now you should know the drill; they start off by going to a home base (the 'cookie kawn' as they called it), and pick up a tornado kick. This is followed by a security firm visit (kick combo), a group of Tekkyon (sp?) revivalists (a textbook back kick), a hwanrangdo group, and the big spar. This is of course filled with the usual somewhat questionable historical 'facts' and one liners, but it is fun to watch. The final fight is brutal, with both hosts getting fight ending injuries. All in all, a good one, and we'll see if the History Channel picks it up again. However I recently saw a little show called fight quest and...I think they have competition. Details in the fight quest thread.

Also, some of the least humble people who talk down to others can be found in TMA. I don't care much for the super 'hard core' attitude either- but I don't know if a fake atmosphere of humility and respect is much better. I learned how to be a good person growing up without a dojo, and the self improvement angle is off putting to me because it rubs off to me as a marketing ploy. It all depends on the person, whether they are a karate grandmaster or an mma pro. What they study doesn't really matter. The hard rock and flashing lights at mma events are there for a reason- it draws in the coveted young male audience (plus you have to keep in mind that early mma competitions were somewhat underground and there remains a bit of that). I agree with you that it is a bit much at times (and goodness knows, I could go without the screamo music ) .

From what I've seen the Japanese seem to treat the belt like any other part of their uniform (although I've seen some embroidered belts that probably are taken extra care of for looks). I usually don't wash my belt as much as my gi, but every now and then I'll throw it in there.

I can ask my korean friends....

That wouldn't hyperextend the leg- you'd have to actually extend the leg beyond normal to do that. I've yet to see a punch (rather than a catch) work to stop a full speed kick. For the Judo defense throw, it isn't going to help if you brace against their kidney- he's going down, not up. Also the human hips are much much stronger than anything you could do with your arms- hence the reliance on them for ground fighting. Also it doesn't address the other types of throws which have a completely different setup. As for the neck break- that would hurt but it wouldn't nearly have enough force to break the neck. Not to mention, opening both your arms up like that would leave your center line (to borrow a wing chun term) open up to pretty much anything.