DWx

I agree with tonydee, from a mechanics point of view, once the fist has impacted and the energy transferred, the recoil doesn't do anything. Of course its probably beneficial to recoil in preparation to punch again and, like Tony said, gets the snappier punch.

I think there's a time and place for everything. Being aware of these pressure points may be beneficial and it doesn't do any harm to know of them "just in case". You never know when you may be in such close quarters or whatever that these points become a viable option. Better to know about them and have them in your arsenal than not.

How would you define what 10% is let alone be expected to judge it in the SD moment? I think you'd have a job proving that somebody used only 10% more than the attackers force (unless they went to extremes of course) and even so I think in most cases you'd be able to justify using more because you genuinely feared for your life or whatever. Now thats just stupid. With something like construction you'd want to be as accurate as possible.

You could break them up even further if you wanted. You have to do exams for high school & degree so each yearly or termly exam equates to a grading?

Scream my head off and hope somebody comes to rescue me! I don't imagine that he would run particularly fast either so after screaming (or whilst) run as fast as possible in the other direction. I guess the only really viable area to strike the guy would be his head because you can't bulk up muscle there, everywhere else on the guy is just solid.

Not necessarily just for massive training courses or competitions. For example, our club is quite a large one and we have just under 50 active blackbelts. So if I turn up to a session I don't usually attend there may be blackbelt students I don't know or don't see regularly enough to instantly know their grade. Especially if I teach that particular session it helps to have a visual indication of grade straight away. I see stripes on the blackbelt in the same way that I see different coloured belts; stripes denote which dan grade you're at just as the different colours/stripes denote which kyu/gup grade you're at. Of course this issue probably doesn't arise in smaller schools so then I guess its up to personal choice how you want your belt to look.

I would go see a doctor. Where abouts is you back pain, upper or lower? I get pain in my upper back and my friend who's a physio reckons its a combination of poor posture and not stretching out my back/shoulders properly after training.

One of the reasons I'm not signing up to the Kenpo school again (my ten week session was up yesterday) is because in order to get a yellow belt there little white belts have to do 50 pushups (and i don't know how many situps) And I don't know how many higher belts have to do. Now as a Karateka I know its important to be fit, (you'd be no good to yourself or anyone else in a kumite if you burned out quickly) but I don't get the point of having to do situps and pushups to get your first belt. Maybe one of you here can explain because I sure don't get it........? We have a similar requirement but its only like 10 of each at that level. For us its supposed to be that the student understands that physical conditioning is part of the training and that they need a good core and to get them to do the exercises by themself at home because "its part of the curriculem". TBH I think 50 is a little excessive especially at the first belt level.

That's your own perogative, although just out of interest was there any particular reason for declining? I really don't see the big deal. It was just a gift to Obama, a piece a paper and a belt. They may as well have just given him a commemorative mug instead.

I agree with Joesteph and George, its an honorary belt. Does it really matter all that much? The most he's going to do is stick it on his wall, its not like he's going to start up Obama's TKD school or whatever and start teaching. Honorary doctorates get given out all the time, hey even Kermit the Frog has one. On a side note, the ITF used to give out quite a number of honorary degrees to various presidents and prime ministers, particularly during the early days. Its just a politics.

Happy 1/2 Birthday ! And ditto the thanks to Patrick for creating such a cool site.

That sucks Brian. What's the highest grade/most experience person in the club now? Maybe they could try to teach some stuff and then have your old sensei in a sort of consultancy role for the time being until you sort something out.

Congrats!

There's never a "time of the year". Drink hot chocolate all year round

Last line listed was the most bothersome to me. So, becaue the government has decided to deamonize an object, blaming it for crime(which is saddly typical), they now have expanded the search powers of the police? This isn't just not carrying something in public, this is allowing the police more lee way in coming into your home to look for things. Even if they never left your house. They wouldn't be allowed to just search your house. They'd have to have reasonable proof that you might have it and intend to use it to commit crime. If its a crime to possess it you shouldn't have it in your house anyway if you don't want the possibility of being found out then prosecuted for it. If you want to own one then you have to have that risk there Its possesion too, not just carry, if I'm reading this right. What would be wrong with an iado practitioner carrying a live blade to practice in a locked case, or having them stored at a dojo? I should probably have said possess instead of carry. If its similar to UK laws then you'd probably be allowed to have it in a locked bag and carry to and from training. Without knowing about the legislation in full I would guess that there are measures in place to cater for people who might have a legitimate reason for owning one, antique collectors, maists, historical re-enactment guys etc.

Yeah TKD does promote the kicking although it does vary slightly from style-to-style and between competitions. What I've noticed about the ones I attend is that the lighter weight categories will tend to use lots of legs, less hands but at the other extreme, (my weight category) we're all about the hands, the legs are pretty much used to lead into the hands or to keep distance once we have enough points from our handy work

It really is just time management. I'm doing my degree at the moment and still find time to do stuff. Like everybody else said, cut the other leisure time and you'll have loads of time to practice. Or combine stuff. Whilst watching tv or reading a book, stretch or practice a stance or something. When travelling to and from college, be going over your kata in you head. This is great advice. Makes you learn better if your doing lots of short sessions rather than one long one.

The bit about before 1954 is probably so they don't have to go round and confiscate a load of weapons people keep for the antique value. I would guess that the main problems are from replicas that people buy and intend to use as a weapon. Actually over here our laws state that you only have to wear seatbelts if they are available. But all new cars built since whatever year the law was made must have seatbelts fitted. So technically if they car is older than whatever year it was, its exempt from the seatbelt law. England and Wales has had a similar ban since mid-2008. I don't think its really over-reaction that much. Our laws over here don't really allow you to carry anything. There are loads of things you can't own in England under the Offensive Weapons Order.

You telling me none of you have eaten cake mix before? Or let your kids eat it? Loads of food has raw egg in it; egg-nog, some mousses, cheesecake.. I think people can become too over zealous with keeping themselves away from bacteria nowadays. You have to be exposed to some otherwise you lose all your immunity. Just use the eggs fresh and most likely you won't have a problem. In any case, aren't most chickens nowadays vaccinated against salmonella? Anyway back to the original topic, I had heard that raw eggs proteins aren't as easily digested and it looks like your second link confirms that RichardZ. Really don't know why people want to consume them raw.

Sorry NewLevel, I wouldn't know. Its just for my org this has now been introduced. I'm sure there are some Karate point tournaments that'll let you use those techniques and some that won't. Best to check out the rules per tournament. Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. I've found that a lead hand backfist followed by rear hand ridgehand is a pretty good combo. Easy to following it up with the punches. Nice thing about the backfist is it can obscure the vision so its great for covering up things like axe kicks, pushing kicks.

Well for things like seminars etc. seeing the stripes on the belts does speed up the whole lining up in grade order and whoever's leading the session can easily know what level of material to cover. Its not strictly necessary but it does help sometimes. That's how it should be. But unfortunately you do get people who see the number of stripes/colour and think that because they have a "better" belt they don't have to respect you as much. Or because you have more stripes they are super respectful. Nice story Rateh. Actually at the same tournament my mum ended up on the door registering everyone. She's never done TKD before and doesn't really know about any of the customs. Made me laugh when people are bowing as they receive their tickets and handing over money two-handed and thanking her for stuff.

Stripes are pretty functional especially when a group of people who don't usually train together get together for seminars or gradings. I don't thinks its particularly egotistical, if you consider stripes to be, then really the whole concept of belts is altogether egotistical because they denote rank too. Stripes are just another part of the ranking system Although in a way there are times when I wish we didn't have them. At our last organisation tournament I turned up plain clothes and there were a few individuals who didn't know/recognise me and were pretty rude. As soon as I got changed into umpire dress they start being uber respectful because I must have been x grade to be wearing the stuff. Same happens at seminars. They see that you have a certain number of stripes or that you're associated with someone who has lots of stripes and they start being really sycophantic. If no-one had any stripes they would have to treat everyone the same. (Although really I think the problem is more to do with attitude than stripes, but the stripes don't help).

Welcome RichardZ

Welcome Hosoku. Wish you the best of luck quitting smoking.

Welcome Bryan