niel0092

MEDIC!

Thanks everyone. I'll update you all after the test as to how it went. I'm getting really excited for the big day!

That's awesome karatekid1975, I'll do the same for you! My final check before the test is on Wed and I expect to work like a dog! Last night they worked me over a bit doing a ton of conditioning and wed will be all forms and some self defense I'm sure. It was fun but I'm really pooped today! Thanks to you too iceman, I will! My family will see me doing MA for the first time as well as friends and the new girlfriend so I'm sure I'll have a few butterflies in my stomach. That's ok though, the butterflies are just there to let you know you're alive, right? LOL

Hi everyone. Just wanted to let you know that my blackbelt grading is this Sat. Wish me luck!

Love the movie and the series so much I bought them all. Great stuff.

No worries.

Never did JKD so I wouldn't really know. Seems to fit the concept however...

Cool. Thanks for the help guys.

Really I just wanted to see peoples opinions on the subject and begin a dialog in that direction. At this point in my training I think that knowing how to avoid being taken down would be a good thing to learn. I also realize that starting with that right of the bat is probably a horrible idea and I need to get some fundamentals first. So maybe my thoughts have been changed a bit due to this disscusion. Cant say that's a bad thing. That change in my thought process led to the new question. Maybe it should have been a new thread as well... Anyway, thanks for all the input.

Very nice discussion gang. Let me try wording the question another way. When you get a new student at your grappling school, what do you teach them first? (ok, so it's almost entirely a new question, but still valid I think) When I started in judo (only tried it for a semester back in college) we began with learning how to fall properly. After that we proceeded to several sweeps, a few throws, and some very rudimentary ground work. I feel like a semester was just enough to give me a taste of what judo was like, not much more. I did like it though and it made me curious as to how to add the things I did learn to my game and what else I should probably learn (hence my inital question). -Clearly, so there's is no confussion on this point, I am still a complete newbie at grappling. All input is appriciated.

Well, I do agree with h2Whoa that learning a grappling system would be best but I possed the question to the group to get an idea of where to start. I may switch to a grappling system in the future but right now it's not in the cards as it were. TJS, Karate25, Sub, and the others have given me great ideas so far. It's just something to start with... Thanks, and keep the ideas comming folks!

Capoeira. I should have specified, sorry.

Not sure I'd like it. I know our school teaches a lot of things other WTF schools dont teach and a few things that are quite rare in other TKD schools in general. For example, we teach a set of forms called Chong Bong which were created by one of our masters in the mid seventies. These forms are special to us as they help remind us of our own heritage as it were. If we were to standardize TKD I'm sure these local forms (they are particular to Song Moo Kwan in MN) would be dropped. No matter that they are almost as old as the Taegueks, no matter that they are special and unique, they'd just be dropped. We also do alot of Kali. Would I have to drop that in order that TKD become standardized? No sir/madame, I dont like the idea at all. Inclusiveness, as another poster stated, would be welcome however.

Whoops, also tried Tai Chi Chuan but I didn't like the school. Also tried Hapkido at another location. I really liked the hapkido but it was a bit out of my price range. It's kind of funny though. I went to the school to try a class and showed up in just sweats and not my tkd uniform. The instructor was an older Korean gentleman and his head student ran me though the drills and basics before class started. I did the class with everyone there and when class was done everyone was very impressed with me. The head instructor asked if I had done a MA before and I told him I had. He then asked me if I was a BB! What a great compliment to have an old school Korean master just in from Korea ask if you were a BB when you were infact still brown. I smiled from ear to ear! (and promptly told him the truth)

TKD: 6yrs, blackbelt canidate (testing in Nov) Judo: 6mo -just enough to see what its like (it's great!) Kali: ? I kind of learn this informally with one of my instructors and a few other "regularly attending" kali students so Maybe about a year and a half for me. They've all been doing it for some time now.

I always wanted to try this art. It just looks like it'd be so much fun!

It's about 15-20 min of travel time. Not too bad really.

Thanks for the replies folks. I esp like TJS's advice to keep it basic and do the few things you do know well. Sub, what exactly is a pummeling drill?

If your kick only made him mad then you did it wrong. Enough said. The whole ITF vs WTF vs ATA thing is getting kinda tired folks...

Just a clarification on RNC, does that stand for Rear Naked Choke?

I was just curious as to which few techniques you all feel a striker should learn to round out their game, given that a full commitment to learning a grappling style may not be feasable. I guess a list of three to five techs is what I'd be looking for, maybe a breif explaination of the tech as well. My gut feeling is that learning how to sprawl would be key as well as learning how to keep a guard position and escape from a mount. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

Depends on the night. Monday- just my uniform and water bottle. Wed- uniform, water, and sparring gear. Friday- water, bag gloves, focus mitts, kali sticks, but just casual cloths and not a uniform. I should look into getting some Thai pads for this class as well...

My test is next month so I'm still deceiding on what to do. I may have a party to watch MA movies and drink sake that my roomate bought while in Japan, we may get the UFC on pay per view (nov 19), or we may go hit the town. Maybe I should make a poll and you can all deceide...

orion, that was awesome!

I think the BB test is about $100 for us and colored belt tests are about $30. I do know that the money from these tests is used to buy equipment as our instructors are not paid for their services.