Kensai

You earn the belts as you make more posts. "i believe the karate practitioner (for example) would be perfectly capable of issueing a strike or kick before the lock/throw was put into use" Ofcourse this is your belief, but its not as simple as that. I am not trying to say that grappling arts are superior, but from what I know of Aikido you are put in a position where you cant strike or kick. Someone with locking/throwing training can deliver those techniques just as quick as a punch or kick. This ofcourse has been proved by various Aikidoka. So every style is "equally" capable of defeating another. Just depends on how good you can use it.

In Ki Aikido: White Yellow Orange Green Blue Brown 1st to 4th Dan is a black belt + Hakama 4th to 6th is white + White Hakama 6th-8th is white and red + White Hakama 8th- white + White Hakama. I think.

Ok, I'll do it. Just dont all you guys cry when I WIN! Mwhahahahahahahahahahhhhahahahahahahahahaha!

Choy Li f'u't, is a great style. Not as good as Aikido, but I am a little biased. Do they wear the traditional maderin(sp) jackets? RED SASHES I am jealous, although when I get to 1st Dan I get to wear a skirt. I have a really good book called Choy Li fut by Master Doc Fai Wong. A very good read and I am sure it would really benefit your studies. Best of Luck!

From experience a Judo Gi is better, as you'll need a tough one for all the different grabs. Dont worry about the Hakama until 1st Dan. http://www.martialartsuperstore.com/ http://www.playwell.co.uk/store/acatalog/index.htm Both these stores I use and are realy reliable for Dogi's and the like. Take a few classes and make sure you like it before you buy anything. Best of luck in studying the style that could one day make you a jedi! MWHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Or not, but flower arranging is fun to.

Cheekymusician, I think Aikido would really benefit both your striking and stand up grappling abilitys. Also as Aikido is very evasive and Karate in general is'nt, they would compliment eachother. But like I have said before Aikido takes a long long time before you can use it. I have resently relised this, due to the fact that to do your 3rd Dan in the federation I am in takes nearly 11 years! Insanity Iwama is a really cool style. I have one of Morihihiro Saitos books. Looks very similar to what I do. Best of luck in your studies.

I agree with with both Sai and Pacificshore. If he is a good Sensei there is no harm in asking to go over the bits you cant really remember. To my knowlegde if Bo kata are anything like Taijutsu (unarmed) Kata, then the Okinawans took years to study them. So to ask for perfection or even the basic movements after 6 hours is a little unreasonable. The key thing to remember is to enjoy it. Oh and welcome to the forums.

You cant force students to commit and you should'nt. If they dont want to be their then they wont be very good students. There is no such thing as "complete training", there is always more to do.

That is very sad. Well atleast you are sorted now and you will know better not to sign anything. Personally, I hate mcdojo's because they ruin the credability of good Martial Arts and good martial arts instructors. This then leaves Traditional Martial arts in the hole. As unfortunately it is TMA that are mcdojoised, especially the more popular styles like TKD (Olympic rules), certain styles of Karate, Judo and Kung Fu styles like Wing Chun. There are lots of great teachers out there, but these guys that can earn up to $125 an HOUR tar the rest of the MA community. Not the mention the actual MARTIAL aspect of MARTIAL ARTS. Saddly its only a matter of time before the styles that were considered mcdojo prof like BJJ,MT,MMA et la become the same way. I hate these guys to. But the excuse that "everyone has to make a living" does not bode well with me.

ohhhhh so many to choose from. Probably anything "on the move" which is when your Uke runs at you and tries to grab you. Especially the Nikkyo wrist lock. GRRR!

Touche KickChick, no wonder you are sooooo unpopular! Just kidding. The website does not look that amazing and its in that funny Yank money.

OHH little miss special.........."I have two liberarys". Well I have 87 books on MA so Do you think there should be a good specisialised Martial Arts books web store? Although Amazon is good, there is no other really reliable alternative.

Shotokan has high stances?! Shotokan is the king of low stances. I thought both founders of Shotokan and Shorin Ryu learn from Sensei Itosu.

Unfortunately I have no idea where to find that text. Most of the classics are hard to get your hands on. Best of luck in your search.

Well I try.................. Aikido is like cake. The different styles cut the cake differently, but its still the same cake.

Infinite knowledge. Yep thats me. Depends what you want, is it more information on techniques or historys? Or a little of both?

Your 16 JJ fighter?? I ant knocking your age, but do you live in a nasty area or something. Because I am 19 and never been in a "real" fight.

Not enough. Normal Week: Tuesday Aikido: 2 hours Thurday Aikido: open mat 1 and a half hours. Sunday Judo: 1 hours 45 mins. Summer Seminar for 2 weeks I study: 16 hours a week. (Aikido)

striking_cobra, like the ninja, Aikidoka say many things. But what we study is the MOST DEADLY STYLE OF FLOWER ARRANGING THERE IS! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! SEE NOW AND TREMBLE!

Cheers Yoriki, thanks for all the help. Just cant wait to get stuck into it.

True true

I think my class is more a of 50 50 split. Ukemi and Ki are of equal importance in Ki Aikido as the "actual" techniques themselves. So about 50% of the time we do break falls and Ki. As without being about to do proper breakfalls you cant train at full power and without Ki training it starts to look more like JJ than Aikido, more physical anyway. In terms of teaching our class in similar to that of Bhayl. Sensei will do a technique, we pair off with a person of a similar grade. Sensei will visit each group pointing out problems and taking Ukemi and demostrating with a smaller group.

The thing to remember is, learn ground work if you want to. If nto make sure that your stand up is excellent. 80% of fights may end up on the ground, but 100% start standing up. And according to Geoff Tompson (Self Defence Guru/former door man and MA expert) most fights last 3 seconds. Not alot of time for ground work there.

Sure, Usually we do basic warm ups, strechs and the like. Then Ukemi/breakfalls, both foward and back ward rolls. Ki exercises. Happo Undo (Eight ways), Furitama (side ways exericese), Nikyo, Kote Gashi, Kokyuho Undo etc. Its difficult to describe these movements. Then some actual Aikido, this is how my class usually progesses. For Dan grades, usually Knife and sometimes Bokken and Jo.

Well, if I could not use Nike-jutsu or Run-do and I had to fight. The thing to remember is that the knife is attached to a body, once the arm is trapped then I would probably hold his hands behind him and get my mates the kick the hell out of him. TRY AND STEAL MY WALLET WILL YOU! But back to reality I would probably get stabbed or hand over my wallet, which would be no good sence I am skint anyway.