DWx

I hate it when people find out you do MA and all they can do is real bad imitations of the crane coupled with Bruce Lee-esque noises. Drives me crazy!

Congrats!

I haven't really had any extensive training in any weapons but I don't think I'd want to take in anything meant to be used as a projectile like shruiken, once you've ran out you'd be stuck, whether it was a tournament or a street situation. Barring projectile weapons, I'd agree with AikiGuy on not using chain-linked weapons like the nunchuku or even the 3 sectional staff. The links just make them unpredictable when striking something solid.

Looking through my club's website thing and found out my instructor did his I and II degree with AIMAA under Hee Il Cho.. not spoken to him about them but um yeah he was under them for a while.

I tested just under a year ago. We had to do all our forms from white belt upwards (12) and were formally marked on our 3 most recent and another coloured belt one chosen on the day. Then had to do sparring. For that we got split into groups, us 3 females together and the men split according to size. Unfortunately there was an odd number so I had to spar in the adult males' group as well as with the females! Did one-on-one sparring with all the people in your group, meant I was up twice as much as everyone else. Then did two/three-on-one sparring (depending on what grade you were testing for). After that did a few set sparring bits and a sort of street style grabs and releases. Then did breaking. 2nd degrees had to do 2 breaks and one "special break". I did side kick, roundhouse, and a power break front elbow, (one of the young lads did a backflip break!). We all passed so after that was the ceremony bit. Also had to do a written test and hand in a mini-thesis the week before.

The only problem that I have with this concept is that females are more likely to be attacked by bigger, stronger males. By holding back too much with them in training, you do them a disservice. I am not saying that they should be mauled, either. However, they need to experience what it is like to deal with greater strength and speed at times. I second that. All the time I've trained in MAs I have sparred adult men, even when I was a lot younger. Being able to hold my own against a 6ft 200lb man has done wonders for my training, not just with regards to self defense. For a start I have to be cleverer about how I spar as speed and strength won't help me. I also have a lot more confidence on the street already knowing what it feels like to fight a grown man and how to cope with it compared to someone my size.

I think that if you have the mentality that you will won't ever attain your blackbelt, then you won't. It appears you lack confidence in yourself or abilities and I think that is probably the only thing stopping you from gaining the degree, no matter how much you think your body isn't up to scratch. Let me just say that I am unfit, I know this. I'm overweight for my age and have a defect where my shins and ankles are not formed at the correct angles leading to me being naturally duckfooted. So what? I don't let all this bother me. I just try to use what I've got and work to improve it. When I joined the cardio, fitness & sparring class at my dojang, I was always last to finish, couldn't do half the exercises and was out of breath and sweating after the warm up. If you don't push yourself to improve then you will never improve. Its all very well saying that fit people can't understand why its so hard but have you done anything to take yourself out of the unfit category? And if its much harder for you to do something you should take greater pride in being able to achieve that something. Some people can drop into the splits naturally, its no big deal to them, but if i takes several years intensive work for you to achieve that then you have something great to be proud of.

I think the English Martial Art of Bartitsu used the cane. Its not a very well known style though and died out ages ago.

Definately no to steroids. She is not a body builder and should learn to work with the tools she has rather than cheat (IMO anyway). Plus steroids will play havoc on her young body and is illegal in most tournaments. I also don't believe there is a traditional image of a martial artist out there. Martial Artists come in all shapes and sizes. Private tuition should help but if she is not doing enough strengthening in normal class time, you will have to ensure that the private classes will actually be focusing on it. The benefit of both of you training is that you could train on your own at home. It might be worth you buying a hand held focus pad for both of you to practise with. I recommend something like this where the pad slaps together to make a sound. That way you both get an auditory response and instantly know how much power you are generating. Unfortunately I'm going to have to disagree with the idea that she takes a break after gaining her blackbelt. Too many people think that blackbelt is the end of the journey, it is in fact the beginning. There really is no end in sight. Sure she can cut back on her training after attaining her blackbelt but to stop altogether seems kinda pointless in my opinion. Why earn the blackbelt at all? Why not just stop now? Sure she could tell everyone that she earnt her blackbelt in TKD but she would never aquire any of the knowledge that comes with receiving the grade. I myself started when I was 10 and my younger sister when she was 8, plenty of kids start out young. If you feel she really is missing out because she is not doing what "normal" kids do (if there is such a thing), you just have to find the balance between Martial Arts and other activities. I have to ask how much training she is doing if she is sleep deprived? As for motivation and enthusiasm, I'm afraid that is something she has to find for herself. Inevitabley most people plateau in their training, either from staying at their current rank for a long period of time or because they feel like they aren't improving. In the end you just have to ask yourself why you are doing it and try to find ways of being motivated about it. As her mother you will have to decide whether to force her into training. If it really no longer interests her then I'm afraid there is nothing you can do but to call it quits. If you forced her to train in this instance she will probably just loathe going and will not improve. If however she doesn't want to go and it seems to you as it may be a passing phase, make her go. Speaking again from my own experience, my sister wanted to give it up around 5th kup. My mum said to her to keep at it until the time came to grade again, if she wanted to continue she could grade, if she wanted to stop then stop. In the end the child is now obsessed and goes out of her way to learn everything she can. I'm sorry, but becoming a blackbelt is not an easy thing. Of course they are going to focus on what you can't do, be thankful that they are. Would you prefer it if they just handed it out to everyone because they could do a side kick and had trained for the minimum time? And also, I have to point out that you are not your daughter. Just because she failed, it does not mean that you will. I myself was overweight when I started (I'm still far from perfect) and never thought that I would ever get my blackbelt. You need to be totally positive about what you can do and try to improve on the things you can't do. That is part of being a blackbelt, recognising your faults and having the maturity in your training to take time to improve them. Good Luck for your brown belt test later this month and I hope you do take it through to blackbelt

I've heard that one before, apparently though its not true (click) and there is evidence for its use in Roman and Greek times.

Welcome to the forums!

Not sure I understand... do you have to do X of them in per sparring match? I personally hate to use them when sparring. For one, my size means I can't disguise it well and two, I just don't find it effective in scoring/hitting. nah, ATA has what are called sparring combinations which are quick umm, i guess what would be considered, example combos of what you might do in sparring. Ah I get it now

Welcome to the forums

Thanks bushido_man, tried these today and they are much easier on the knees. Have to find the motivation now to keep doing them.

Sounds like you got the short straw. Bias inevitable leads to unfair decision but you just have to accept that it was a poor decision and try to take something away from the experience Don't let this put you off competing, sometimes you have evil referees that seem to single you out, other times the whole thing is great and you end up winning. Just to cheer you up: Bob's dad took him to his first tournament. Noticing that the organizers seemed a little shorthanded, he approached the officials table. "Good morning," he said to the director. "You seem to be a little shorthanded. Is there anything I can do to help?" "Do you know anything about sparring?," asked the director. "Sorry," Bob's dad said, "I don't know anything about sparring." "Great!" said the director. "We need another referee."

I think that might be down to personal choice for him, in all his videos he likes to sort of show off each move, even if you look at his Po-Eun its much slower than most people do it. Makes it a good learning tool though, you can actually see the moves My twin upset is more like you described but I do do my twin head from higher up, although not with the big circular action. It just depends on the school I guess. I've always found these two in particular impressive: http://youtube.com/watch?v=QshNcVz4ugI The sheer control he has over his legs is amazing!

My best wishes go to both of you.

Speaking from my own experience, I have only tested for higher ranks under a panel of at least 5+ examiners. I'd say that the greater number of examiners is better as then an individuals own bias doesn't greatly affect the results and as Bushido_man said, the examiners can discuss the scores and stuff like that. Did you ask for her score sheet or some written form of feedback? I've had to ask for my test papers each time I've wanted to take a look but the Master was happy to oblige. If you had instructors on the panel, they should be able to tell you why your daughter didn't pass. As for lack of power, they probably would have taken into account her mass but would be looking for her to make up for it with speed and technique. Although it is harder for lighter people to do it, they can generate as much power as a larger person as long as they work at their technique. In my experience, examiners are expecting power relative to the person's build to be shown. It may be different in your school but for us, everyone is required to show some form of power from greenbelt upwards. Young children demonstrate on pads, older children on thin boards and older teens and adults on appropriate breaking material. It would probably be a good idea for her to work on this anyway as its something everyone can improve on, regardless of how good they are. Ninjanurse may be right in that they are looking for dedication and perseverance. Make sure she doesn't let one failed test put her off for life! Good luck to both of you and welcome to the forum.

Hurt my knee few weeks back and went to see the Doc about it yesterday. Apparently the fluid and my symptoms make her think that I have partially torn into a tendon. Anyway I'm findind it hard to keep stretching without putting a great deal of pressure on my knee. Ideally I'd like to remain as flexible as possible so does anyone have alternatives to the common stretches such as the splits etc. ? I have to work really hard to retain my flexibility under normal circumstances and I don't want to be going back to training with limited range of movement as it'll take ages to get back and will is just really fustrating. So anyone got any ideas for alternative stretches?

A lot differently? What other differences (apart from the use of sine wave) are there? Suska is very good with his legs especially, I think somewhere there is a video of him teaching how to do multiple kicks? May help you. Keep working hard it though, I'm sure it'll come after a while.

http://youtube.com/results?search_query=kenpo+short+form+1 YouTube is a really good resource, any of these fit the bill?

Not sure I understand... do you have to do X of them in per sparring match? I personally hate to use them when sparring. For one, my size means I can't disguise it well and two, I just don't find it effective in scoring/hitting.

Not learnt Yoo Sin myself but I spent a few months in class listening to other people being taught it. Keeping the knee high after the crescent kick seems to be the key to doing the side kick. It was really stressed that you should worry about keeping the knee up as you come around and during the crescent kick. With regards to extending the leg, you should be only extending as far as your hand is out... so if you have short arms, your kick will be close and vice-versa. As I said earlier though, I haven't been taught this yet myself, just had to sit through a few months of it being taught in class. A good person to watch is Jaroslaw Suska (V dan). He is really clean with his technique and watching his videos helped me a lot to learn my current forms: http://youtube.com/watch?v=B9UWtQ7IcCw

http://sportkaratestore.com/sap-m-1.html These? Never heard of them before and can't find any indepth description on what their made out of. If your son saw a fair amount of people using them at the Worlds I'd say they would probably be ok. They don't appear to have a shoe like Ringstar, only the sparring boot thing. If you want to go for this type of gear I am a big fan of Top Ten gear: http://www.bytomic.com/detail.asp?c_urn=11&show=pgno3&urn=377&pg=3 But thats only my personal (somewhat limited) experience.

I am not sure a chop would work as well as say a back hand strike in that case. When you strike with the back of the hand, you cover more surface area, and tends to make the knockout more effective than the edge of the hand would. Wouldn't it be more effective to cover less surface area? That way the same amount of force is concentrated on a smaller target, say for instance, the jugular? You'd have to be precise but it would cause greater damage to your target. I would still go for a back hand strike over a chop personally. Just feels stronger. Yes, the smaller surface area does displace the power more effectively, but in order to affect a knockout in that way, you want to do the strike to that area with a larger surface, like the back of the hand, to make the knockout happen. I have heard it called a brachial stun before. If you strike the are with the knifehand, it doesn't mean the strike won't be effective; it will just have a different result. Well yes, with a brachial stun it would be more effective to use a larger attacking tool as you want to hit a large amount of nerves to cause a brain overload. From what I've heard, brachial stuns are often done with the forearm because of this. Assuming your talking about a strike to the throat in a MMA bout (as that's what the discussion on the chop was previously), strikes to the throat are illegal im MMA. In that case the knifehand is pretty redundant in MMA then, maybe it would work across the bridge of the nose? if you were to one side that is.