DWx

Not necessarily. Your time and resources would be split and instead of concentrating purely on the advanced concepts of one style you would have to spend time learning the basics of another. Jack of all trades but master of none? That is not to say though that you should not explore different ways and methods of doing things but you shouldn't necessarily have to cram yourself full of styles to become a great martial artist, its possible to do it with one.

I totally agree with this but with regards to your earlier post, IMO if you have been training for decades investing in too many styles may be detrimental.

Welcome!

Welcome!

Sometimes I don't think this is the best thing to do. Each style will teach you a different way of moving and you can end up confusing your body. Yes you should invest time covering all aspects of fighting (striking, groundwork etc.) but to invest in multiple styles of the same genre may be detrimental.

Wow. 16.5 is awesome. At that your supposed to average about 9 mph! Trust me, your students will hate you.

We usually have gold. Used to have an orangy one but I much prefer the bright gold I have now, it shows up better. Most people I see here have gold. Silver looks good, wouldn't mind that instead, don't think its that common though. Red's ok too.

For my last testing had to do straight sparring against every other person testing. Then had to do 3-onto-1 sparring a couple of times. I understand now that we have to arrange a choreographed (realistic) fight to demonstrate applications and such.

Yeah I managed to freeze frame it and the embroidery is identical apart from the words have been changed. I don't think so. There are quite a few videos of him "training". http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=choikwangdo There is also this 7 year old who is blackbelt...

An vile invention which serves only to make individuals like myself feel incredibly unfit. Basically you have a 20m length to do shuttle runs back and forth whilst a tape bleeps at you. When it bleeps you are supposed to have reached across the other side of the room and are just turning back and the beeps get quicker and quicker as you pass more levels. I think its also called a "multi-stage fitness test". If you want to listen you can get it from here: http://www.defence.gov.au/army/hq8bde/jobs/fitness.htm There is also situp, push up etc. versions.

Reading a lot of Stephen King lately. Still have to read the last Harry Potter which is lying around somewhere... Also have to read The Handmaid's Tale and King Lear for school. Takes the enjoyment out of them though when you have to disect each and every line to find deep and profound hidden messages.

Generally once you've been training for a couple of months we are expected to do our own warm ups before class. Then we come in and do what I call a 2nd stage warm up where we work to a higher intensity. In a sparring type class we run around the gym and do an exercise pyramid like Rateh described with crunches, push ups, squat thrusts, burpees etc. together with stuff like punching continuously for 30 secs or 30 roundhouses, stuff like that. In a forms lesson we warm up ourselves then do around 6 or 7 forms / drill work. Our instructor is really fitness focused and I have been in sessions where we do the bleep test for a warm up.

Dunno about you lot but on the back of the doboks look remarkably like the ITF trees with the words changed. And that 2year old blackbelt is ridiculous. Fair enough if the kid wants to train but what does that say about the standard of blackbelts if a 2 year old who can barely walk has one.

We break down the earlier belts for the kids, but the test fees added together work out to be the same for the whole belt so you still pay the same. I think with small children its better to do the testing a little bit at a time but more regularly.

Saw TMNT the other day and they've like done a spin off series called TMNT: Fast Forward or something stupid. The turtles somehow got zapped into the future and now use their ninja skills against aliens and robots. Totally ruined an awesome cartoon.

Just read Gen Choi's last words, he calls TKD people "Taekwon-Doists" . http://www.raynerslanetkd.com/ARTICLES_GeneralChoisFinalWords.html

Ever had steak tartar? My Dad ordered it once and told me it was just rare meat.. didn't realise how rare until they brought it out.

Just a general question to everyone. Do you think that students (and parents) themselves see a blackbelt instructor as being more qualified than a colourd belt instructor that just hasn't tested for whatever reason? If they had exactly the same level of proficiency and teaching ability yet one had gone and done the exam.

Congrats to her.

Me just being me would wonder whether the guy had provision for washing clothes at home. Walking around in something with months old sweat soaked into it doesn't appeal to me. The thing that gets me about the whole not washing your belt thing because its tradition or washing away your knowledge is why do you wash you gi then? or why bother cleaning your sparring gear? You wear them just as much and surely if your belt reflects how much effort you put in by being sweat stained and stinking then everyone should not bother washing your gi and sparring kit. Personally I think it shows more respect if you take time to clean and make yourself presentable to your instructor and class. You'd get frowned upon if you turned up to a football session in dirty, muddy unwashed clothes so why do it to a MA session.

They still show Avatar over here. I think they are bringing out (maybe already brought out) a game for it. 100s of videos for it: http://youtube.com/results?orig_query=avatar+the+last+airbender&search_query=avatar+the+last+airbender+book+3+episode+14 Also had Jackie Chan Adventures shown in the UK: http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_query=jackie+chan+adventures&search_type=

I don't wash mine as such but keep it clean by wiping it down. I sweat a lot, especially in a sparring class and the belt just soaks it up. Doesn't smell but I'm really hygiene concious. Quite a lot of belts you can't wash because they are an outer material with inner padding. When you wash them the inner bit tends to shrink.

I have heard people use the term Taekwon-doka but thats because they are borrowing from Judo to create some sort of word. I don't think I've ever come across a proper term for a Korean stylist.

V nice post Johnlogic121. I agree with you that watching two skilled kickers fight is beautiful to watch. I know they choreograph it but some of the fights I've seen the North Korean ITF TKD team do at demos are excellent and really nice to watch. Kicking has its place in a fight, just as other striking and grapple do, but it it takes a skilled kicker to kick and stay kicker when facing off against a decent grappler or closer range striker.

welcome