DWx

I've just paid for a dan testing... and it was very painful for my bank account. £100 plus 175 euros international registration fee. I'm coming to train with you...

Actually, in our style, we are taught that the optimum position for the base foot is more 135-165 degrees (depending on the kick). If you are limited by flexibility then you can go more towards the 180 position but ideally you'd only go as far as 135-165...

For rank advancement, which do you think is a better indicator of a persons skill: assessing the students performance in class over a period of time or having them attend a testing? Testing on the day means its an all or nothing performance.... but performing under stress is surely a vital skill for an maist? You could also have an off day where nothing will go right so is it fair to judge someone solely on what they do on the day rather than what they are consistently doing in training sessions? On ther other hand some people excel under stress so a testing on one day may be whats needed to really showcase their skill.

Welcome back

I think it depends whether your President and board members are concerned with the buisness side of things and/or the style side of things. In some case it may be more appropriate to have a Soke or similar leadership figure to overlook the style and the board members can be concentrating on the buisness and organisation instead.

I can sympathise with this... I usually end up ranting to the other students and giving them a lesson on mechanics when they try to quote the "theory of power" to me. Most just lap up what they're told without actually having any thought going in to it at all.

Welcome RenegadeRSA

That is a must! For a start I don't know how people can put on something they've already sweated in... and its not nice for the other person if you stink of BO and have to do any sort of partner work with them.Just wash mine warm and then leave to hang dry.

So I had my pre-grading on Sunday. Our pre-gradings are basically all day seminars where we cover all the material needed and we get told exactly what the examiners are looking for in each aspect of the grading. Out of the people testing there were no major problems so we finished quite early and got to mess about doing self defense stuff. Because its an association grading there were people there who I don't train with normally so I got to learn some new locks and throws/takedowns... Grading date's been set for October 4th.

I struggle with that

Congratulations

I suppose so but I guess its main reason was just to demonstrate that listening to a conversation and being able to concentrate on whats happening in front of you is hard. Maybe they should have done it similar to the hazard perception test we get on our theory tests over here. You get shown a video from the driver's perspective and have to pick up on any potential hazards like people crossing the road or a car pulling out.

We have 4 categories of responses: - standard release (just release and move) - attack release (hit the person first then release the grasp) - release attack (release from the grasp or stop them from grabbing you in the first place and then hit them, can include takedowns) - break release (manipulate the other person so that you can put them into a lock or are in a position to break a joint, can include takedowns) As part of proceudure everytime you are free we make students move out of the way and form a guard as if they were sparring so that if the attacker came again they are in a position to defend. These categories of reponses aren't mutally exclusive either and some responses can fit into more than one or are a combination of them.

The thing with TKD forms is that they were designed purposefully for a form based curriculem whereas most katas were not designed to be part of a set or standard syllabus. As I understand it, the Chang Hon forms are more a way of introducing concepts at each level rather than actually introducing the techniques themselves. So forgetting the actual techniques, you'd have to learn the full set in any case even if you changed all the moves themselves to a handful of attacking and defensive techniques because otherwise you wouldn't be learning much. What I mean is that at each level you are introduced to different types of stepping, body posture, transitions and what we'd call body motions. Introducing new techniques themselves doesn't really matter all that much but introducing the concepts in manageable chunks is what I think is important and the Chang Hon patterns are designed to do this. The other thing with the Chang Hon forms is that there isn't really any bunkai to be discovered. They were just designed in a really obvious way where X move is to block X type of attack and Y attack is for this number of targets so that the soldiers learning them could pick up the skills quickly. (To be honest the concept of bunkai is pretty alien to me...) The application part comes in with the step sparring as strictly speaking there shouldn't really be any set sequences to learn. You can just apply the techniques you know in your own way to demonstrate that you know the purpose and method of each one. I suppose that is bunkai in a way? but you certainly don't have to delve too deep in order to find them. You wont find any hidden applications unless you start deviating from how the forms were originally devised. I could imagine spending years perfecting the movements but I can't really see you learning anything new by just solely practising one of the forms from this set for a number of years. The way I see it is that forms/katas are your catalogue or manual of transitions, body positioning, breath control and then to a lesser extent kicks, punches and blocks. You study them as a reference for the fight and practise them to ingrain muscle memory. They are also a form of exercise just as press-ups, sit-ups and burpees are. How many you learn and need to practice will be determined by which ones you choose to learn and how much you can extract from them. So yes if you keep finding new things in your kata then by all means keep studying it. However most styles give you a certain set of forms to learn for a reason, usually to give you what your teachers and masters consider the full package. Also with forms I think there can be a bit of a saturation point where you just can't get anything more from it for the time being and need to learn a new form and new ways of doing things before going back to the one you were originally studying.

I posted this on another thread but it illustrates JusticeZero's point quite well: http://www.dft.gov.uk/drivingchallenge/

How do you differentiate between thrusting techniques and striking techniques? If you had to explain to a student why a thrusting attack is a thrust and why a strike is a strike, what general definitions would you give? My instructor asked us this in class and I don't think anyone could come up with a definitive answer that a beginner student could use to classify a technique. There was a lot of reasons and counter-examples of why we call certain techniques one or the other but nobody really came up with a solid definition. Of course this is all dependant on if or how your style diffentiates between the two but I'd be interested in other people's take on things.

Good luck to her. Hope she really enjoys it

Welcome beagstkd

When I'm at uni I have to do a 2hr return journey every weekend to get home for squad training. Speed doesn't bother me much its the having to stand up for 2hrs because even though I've reserved a seat, the train is so packed I can't get down the aisle and have nowhere to dump my suitcase.

Going down the gym+dojo route would also mean you have the potential of introducing your gym users to MA and getting your MA students using your gym. More revenue for both parts.

If you quit Shotokan in favour of something else what you've learnt and experienced wouldn't be a total waste. You're still going to be able to apply some of the methods and ideas to other styles and the physical benefits of training your body will help whatever you decide to do. If you really would prefer to do something else don't force yourself to stick with it.

But will the number of female fighters grow if the fights aren't shown? I think by showing the fights it'll say to potential female fighters that its ok to get in a cage and hit each other full contact. As it is now I think MMA is still seen to be a guys thing so for more females to start doing it I think someone needs to show them that its ok to fight like that. And of course there are some females out there who will see other women getting paid to fight and will want to go professional now that the money is being invested in them. Out of interest, what do you think are the reasons why people don't want to watch women's MA? or the reasons the event organisers think people won't want to watch women?

I would guess at a either a size 4 or a size 5 but make sure you double check either by trying it on or if buying online taking a look at a sizing chart. In most cases they base the sizes on height and you want to go for the one that is just bigger than your own height to allow for shrinkage etc. Sizes can differ between brands so its definitely worthwhile checking; I take a 5 dobok in most brands but my Sasung TKD dobok is a size 7!

Why is it that women's MA doesn't get nearly the same amount of coverage as the guys do? There's no women's UFC and women rarely feature on other cards. Shows like The Ultimate Fighter, The Contender etc. don't have a female equivalent and women's boxing/kickboxing/muay thai is rarely shown on TV. Even though I don't watch it I could name half a dozen male MMA fighters but wouldn't be able to name any females. Same with boxing and kick boxing. Is it because people don't want to watch women fighting? Lack of top quality female fighters wanting to go professional? Thoughts?

I never understood American football... rugby is soooo much simpler.