DWx

Wow too bad about the ankle Geo. Big congrats on still placing!

Welcome Evan

Depends what the purpose of your demonstration is. If you really want to teach, get them to attend a lesson. If you're there to entertain then flash may be appropriate. Few people are going to want to watch line work or whatever if you're there to entertain. They'd much rather see action. I don't agree with excess flash though. Still got to keep it real. Our demos are mainly done by the kids anyway as a demonstration of what they've learnt. Maybe with a little input in from the adults. I'm sorry but I have to disagree. How are you doing your breaking? Fair enough if you're really going for it and psyching yourself up but in that case maybe you're not using the practise of breaking to its full potential. We practise these big draw-back, psych yourself up and smash 50 bricks breaks but also learn to do one board or two board straight off from your guard.

I've also never gotten the whole idea of keeping things secret from students. I know that maybe they learn and remember things better if they've discovered them for themselves but then you wait around for people to discover them instead of moving on.. What I'm saying is if everyone just shares the knowledge you keep building upon your teacher's training and your teacher's teacher's training eventually surpassing them and helping the art to evolve.

Wow Heidi, 5 years! You do an awesome job

the idea of the monkey grabbing a staff to smack him over the head with.

Gen. Choi said that it was from his calligraphy teacher Han Il Dong. Not sure about Hwang Kee.

A friend of mine always used to say they had a 6-pack but it was hidden away inside their beer-keg.

Just started a running program with a housemate. Neither of us are big runners but we're slowly building ourselves up. I think the hardest part is just getting yourself up and out to do it.

Welcome Will

Don't forget rugby!

Congrats quinteros1963

Win a world championship gold in sparring Travel to Korea to train. Be in it long enough and be good enough to get my 7th dan (master rank!)

Welcome etali

Great article Bob!

I don't think you can really draw the line between sportsman and martial artist and allow people to only tick one box. Even if someone is more favoured to one or the other there is a certain degree of cross-over. And as Martialart said, people's reasons and interests in the martial arts will change at different points in their lves. That is totally right. You will never be the best. But you can still strive to be up there with the best. And this is definitely something that your "martial artists" should aim for too. My coach is always saying, "however hard you're training, someone else is training harder".

If its an ad in the phone book though there's not usually enough letters to be wasted on listing everyone's qualifications. Maybe on a leaflet or on the website you'd expect a little elaboration on the styles and training history of the instructors. I don't think people will really think that 10000 years of training will be down to one individual. I see a lot of stuff that says they have a "combined experience of 100 years". Nothing wrong with that.

I agree with you Alctaraz when you said that if the teacher does his job properly the student shouldn't need to question anything because its all explained. But of course its impossible for the teacher to cover everything the student might want to ask so technical questions should be encouraged in my opinion. Whenever I ask a question I tend to remember the answers better than I would have done if I'd just been told that info as part of normal teaching anyway.. The ridiculous questions have no place in class IMO, they just waste time and disrupt everyone's training.

Welcome John

Welcome danelsmith

I have to say I pretty much agree with everyone's answers so far. Martial arts, although combative in nature, don't have to be trained for combat. As with the runner example its not about what you are doing really, there are loads of other sports that also could be considered martial but very few people practice them to be used in war. Take archery for example, or the javelin. No-ones out to take down an enemy or catch their dinner with these. Maybe its the pursuit of perfection or even just as an outlet for natural competitiveness.

Welcome danelsmith

Congrats Jeffrey

But then who's rules do you compete by? Their's? Someone elses? My students would fair poorly under typical TKD rules. Most any TKD student would fair equally as poorly under the rules we spar with. So, if my students do poorly under a rules set they don't train under, does that mean they are poorly trained? Of course you don't just turn up to a totally different style and expect to win. Maybe not directly comparable but say your school is Wado Ryu Karate and you compete against others of the style and not necessarily win but look like you're meant to be there, then that can be a decent indication of how good a person is. Or if you want to compete against TKD, go to an open style tournament and have a go. TBH how does any school prove they are good? Competition is just one way.

Depends what you interpret perfect form as. Doesn't necessarily have to be aesthetically pleasing, I never said that's what it was. Of course it can be as well as a by-product of what you're doing but primarily its just what you'd call a perfect technique. And in any case, why does GM Gary do forms then if he wants to do them the same way he fights? Seems like a waste of time to me, he might as well just practise live on bags or in sparring rather than trying to make "step forward and punch in a front stance" etc. fit to a live situation.