DWx

Welcome to KF Rodders. Ask your sensei first, they'll be able to start you off and get you doing some basic stretches and more importantly get you doing them in the right way so you don't injure yourself! But for further reference, YouTube is good, don't forget to search through non-martial arts stretching videos too (such as gymnastics and dance). This site is always good for advice one stretching, it's aimed at trickers and XMAers but its all good advice for flexibility in general: http://www.trickstutorials.com/content/flexibility

Welcome John

Sorry about the loss but sounds like you had a good time anyway and came away from it with stuff to improve on

I'd say most would gravitate to the Kumite champion because, being beginners, they mostly likely won't understand the significance or challenge of Kata and seeing as most probably want to learn to fight with the Karate they'll be learning, the Kumite champion would seemingly be the person to turn to. Having said that, few people are going to pick an instructor solely based on what they've won in tournaments. Any serious student is going to be looking at all the other factors; the feel of the class, the teaching style, the ability of the higher grades in the class etc. - everything we all suggest to people who come here looking for advice on which martial art to start. Any student that does get taken in just by the trophies and medals is probably one you wouldn't necessarily want to spend all your efforts on anyway.

That looks like a pretty good link. Another thing you can do blade1116, if you know exactly what style you want to watch, for example Hapkido (since its your style), keep an eye on the US Hapkido organization/federation/association (whatever applies) website.

10 days isn't that long, I'd wait a bit longer, could turn up next week In the meantime you could contact the seller to ask when you can expect your order and they'll be able to tell you when they dispatched and when you can expect it. May just be it's gotten waylaid in the post and you'll have to wait a bit longer or they might send another one. Don't know till you ask

Anything in particular you're looking for? Full-contact? Semi-contact? Hapkido only? I don't really know too much about US martial arts but maybe keep an eye on the AAU websites: http://www.aaukarate.org/ http://www.aautaekwondo.org/ http://aauchinesemartialarts.org/ http://aaujudo.org/ http://aauwrestling.net/

Yep can confirm this. The CRB checks are pretty thorough too. Surprised you guys in the US don't have any national requirement.

Nasty stuff, never gotten anything myself but I'd imagine its quite easy to become a problem in places like dojos and gyms. I've found best practise with my sparring gear over the years is to make sure I wipe it out and that its dry after every session and then to clean it with 1:9 bleach:water solution every so often. Same with my bag. Wash dobok after every session and always remember to take any tshirts or towels I might have used out of my bag to stop them festering in there. Hand sanitizers might be worthwhile investing in. Is it your dojo or someone else's? If not yours I'd mention it to the owner as they might need to step up on the hygiene issues.

thanks guys. Saw the doc this morning who basically said yes I have sprained it and gave me a prescription for naproxen. Other than that she didn't really say much else. Just annoying as stuff like this always happens when training's been going good...

Pulled my groin or something yesterday during training, then went and trained today and made it worse! Obviously very painful!!! Anyone done this before and have any recommended treatments? Especially interested in stretches if you have any. Icing it at the moment and will go to see the doc, just want to see if there's anything I can do in the interim. Its the up and down movement that's killing me so stairs are especially challenging. Worst part though is driving is a nightmare as can't even depress the clutch pedal without serious pain

Hmm actually I know people and Bruce Lee meant that quote to mean "don't bother with board breaking because the boards won't hit back" (although basic mechanics tell you they will ) it actually is a pretty good way of saying "they won't hit back if you hit them hard enough first!!!"

I don't think your age is a negative thing. In fact I think it may be a bonus if you sell it right! I'd rather go with an experienced instructor who I knew had had years of practising teaching rather than someone a lot younger who was still working things out. Maybe partner up with a dan student of yours and open up together? Then they can get experience from you but also be there to take the load off when you're busy with other things. Seminars would always be a good thing too!

I know you've been through a tough time with everything Bob (what was said in your earlier post) but I do agree somewhat with ps1. Seems to me to be turning into an oligarchy and although you want what's best for the student body, they seem to be under represented. Not that there's anything wrong with having rules to make sure that only those who deserve to be are elected but if the coup you experienced last time came about because people were dissatisfied, you'd probably do well to ensure you remain in touch with those at the bottom of the pile. It's not my place to interfere but I think requirements such as a nanadan and a shogo title might mean you're pulling your council members from a small pool of people? A lot of boards (inside and outside MAs) have junior members/non-high ranking members on the board just so that the student body is firmly connected to what goes on at the top. For example my board of studies at university has all the professors and research staff on the board but we always have one student elected representative to represent our views and to relay any decisions back to us. Even in business most boards will have some sort of union representation. In any case good luck and I hope it works out for you and Shindokan

I think it depends on why its a tradition. If you're just doing the traditional thing because your teacher and your teacher's teacher did it that way without challenging anything, then that is a path to stagnation and archaic training methods. But if you're keeping to tradition to preserve some cultural or historical aspect then I don't think there's anything wrong with that and changing it would be wrong.

Yeah I was brought up pronouncing it "Tie/Ty" and still tend to say it this way but have been corrected to say "Tay" instead (by a Korean speaker and by masters within the style). I do sometimes wonder when (and where) the change in pronunciation came..

Fair enough Montana, thanks for your insight. I suppose in our competitions we value precision and technical accuracy above all. Things like whether a block is chest line or centre line or where the punch finishes, the lines you take. I umpire at these events and we're looking for the technical accuracy first, everything else second. I suppose that's probably why you won't get many ITFers in open tournaments. Also the sine wave thing probably wouldn't go down so well. But as a caveat, I've always been mediocre at forms so please don't make any judgements of the style based on what I've done. Like I said earlier, my area tends to be sparring or breaking and so I spend minimal time on patterns. If you want an example of what's considered "good" for tournaments see: http://youtu.be/l9Z6bhDHDDA or Although what you see there is very exaggerated.

Welcome Ken

Ditto. Maybe he just doesn't teach it?

Cool can see the photos now. Looks like it was a good event with a pretty decent turnout. What did you guys do? Just go for it or decide before each match whether you'd be just striking, just grappling or anything goes?

http://www.fightersonlymag.com/content/news/15911-thailand-government-bans-mma (Haven't found any other sources for this though, just other forums reposting the same article) I'm going with the article in that if this is true this seems to be motivated by other reasons rather than MMA being "too brutal" though surely MMA must be big business in Thailand? I'd imagine the gyms over there attract foreigners wanting to train Muay Thai for MMA.

Cool thanks guys Dobbersky, weren't you taking up TKD? How's that going? TBH its not that noticeable from the camera angle (though the judges would have seen it). Basically instead of the first front kick my brain decided that "no, no, we must do a twisting kick here!" As I did it I knew it was wrong and was debating whether or not to make the other one a twisting kick too to disguise the difference Which bit do you mean? The section starting at about 30 secs in? Rewatching it, other stuff I'd mark myself down in Yoo Sin for: - not looking over my shoulder properly on moves 2 and 3 (punches over the shoulder) - stance change at the hooking block - punch combo sucks (16 secs), both feet turn toward the camera fine but going the other way I don't fully change the stance. - end up roughly a stance further forward than where I started so something's not right stance-wise. Probably the bit where I turn right at the front I think (44 secs). I think I'm bringing my right foot in too much when it should really not come in at all. Anyway guys, don't be nice. Pick it apart and tell me what you don't like if you want.

Welcome

I'm sorry you couldn't view the photos--you do have to have a Facebook account to see them since that is where they were hosted. I will try to upload them somewhere else when I get home. I think you've got the settings on private as I couldn't view them and was logged into facebook at the time. Did you take the link from the bottom of the page when viewing the album, where it says:"Want to share your album? You can give friends or relatives this link" rather than taking the one out of the address bar of your browser? That lets people see them even if they don't have facebook or aren't your friend on facebook. If your friend managed to see them, it was probably because they are friends with you so your security settings allow them to see. Sounds like a pretty good event.

We have testing days every 3 months or so for colour belts and our organisation holds blackbelt testing every 6 months. Have to do it like this when you've got a lot of students otherwise you'd be doing testings ever other week. If you're ready, done the minimum hours and are up to standard, you have to wait for the testing day to come round then you can grade. That might end up being a couple of months wait. If testing comes round and you're not quite there, you have to skip that testing day and just wait to see if you're ready for the next one. Most people test for the early colour belts regularly and stick to the 3 month period but at the later belts they tend to choose to skip testing days and take exams every 6-9 months instead. There's no rush to meet the next testing date but having a date in mind 3 months down the line does give you something to focus on.