DWx

You could just try some different combos or techniques. Adapt like Bushidoman said. I train at club level with a member of the national team and can score against him even though I'm nowhere near his level. The only reason why I win is because I can predict 9/10 what he is going to do. Maybe everyone else is just learning how to beat you because they know what you will do?

We use the numberals system and have it on one side (supposed to wear it on the left) with our name. Is there a reason why most belts. ones that I've seen anyway, are embroidered in gold? It does look nice but I was wondering whether there is an actual reason for it...

congrats With the dan (or equivalent) system, how are everyone's ranks indicated on the belt? The most common ways I've seen are either roman numerals or a stripe per dan. Anyone come across anything different?

At our club, you start by doing 1-for-1 where you take it in turns to use a technique. After a while you then can do semi-free where you take turns doing combos. I don't think we allow full free-sparring until about the 3rd or 4th belt. But that's up to the instructor to decide when a student is capable. Sometimes as a teaching point, higher grades free spar beginners but they are expected to take it down a level and allow the beginner to get a few shots in tp build up confidence.

I don't know how much work went into teaching it kendo, but it'd be great if it could be programmed to do other weapons and maybe even empty hand styles...

Well since there's been a lot of topics recently on blackbelt holders, I was wondering what everyone's belts look like. At our school they are 2" across with the person's name on one side and Tae Kwon Do embroided in gold on the other on it (both in korean and english). So what does everyone else have? And do the coloured belts differ greatly from the blackbelt?

Ah ok, seems I'm a coupla years out of date.

I personally was impressed with the robot as it could revolutionise MA training especially if it had a basic AI (though not too much, we don't want the matrix to really happen )

What do people think of this?

Kicks look pretty good to me especially if you've only been doing it 6 months. You telegraph most of your moves though. With your punches you sorta jump forward and then go forward again to hit... and with your kicks, if you wanna step then kick they gotta be faster otherwise your opponent will see it a mile off. Practice will sort that out . Looking good.

I don't think I sprint. I have a habit of keeping pace with whoever's next to me though so I can sometimes end up with the class super-robot setting my speed or with someone who's slower. I've been trying out different speeds and breathing this week trying to find a comfortable pace. I find if I run slower (a lot slower) I'm fine with breathing but I'm nowhere near warmed-up enough at the end. Also going that slow makes it impossible to do some of the running exrcises we do (there's this one where you have a partner and they keep jogging round and you've got to race everyone else to be the first person to lap your partner twice). Just gotta keep trying to find my pace I suppose.

Yeah, I like that one. He seems really focused too...

Yes the form does look very beneficial to me. I was just questioning whether that guy was doing it correctly or not because other vids of sanchin don't sound like he does. There's breathing in the other ones to empty the lungs (I'm guessing here so again please correct me if I'm wrong) but this guy just sounds like the hulk! His other vids don't inspire much confidence from me in his training methods as he also breathes like that when doing pushups... however this is just my opinion and I'm actually completely ignorant when it comes to goju ryu Can someone please direct me to a good vid of sanchin so I can see how its meant to be done

After not really knowing what sanchin was, I did a youtube search and it came up with this: Someone please tell me this is not how its supposed to be done! (after looking at other vids and the comments I think its not) because I see very little benefit after seeing that example. In all the others I watched, there was a point to the breathing not just making lots and lots of noise like this guy was Correct me if I'm wrong though.

Just as everyone else said, repetition and practice is vital but it will actually hinder you if you practice wrong. I remember my instructor telling me once about a master he had met in Korea. This master had trained a 8th gup over and over again with just side kicks and roundhouse kicks for about a year. The result was that this child he had been training had the best side and roundhouse kicks most people had ever seen and won nearly all the time in breaking competitions even when up against blackbelts and people much older and bigger than him. The kid couldn't do much else though as he'd never been taught anything other than those 2 kicks..

thank-you

Oh sorry, 'cross atlantic misunderstandings. In the UK college is the same as high school? I'm doing 6th form a-levels if that helps... So basically, no security (unless you count the crazy chaplin and weird caretaker).

I would never want to seriously harm anyone either. But there's always the "what if" situation. The reason why I've been thinking about all this is because I'm a teenage girl and recently there's been a lot of sex attacks around where I go to college. One night a week I have to stay behind for an extra lesson and when I come out of the building its usually dark around this time of year. There's usually none or very few people around so I kinda feel vunerable . I hope nothing ever happens to me, but, if I felt threatened enough I wouldn't, (and probably couldn't) hold back. Even if it meant serious injury for the other person I would still do what I've been trained to do and defend myself at all costs using whatever it takes.

Just something I've been thinking about: If in a self defense situation where it was necessary to knock the other person out or seriously injure them, what do you afterwards? Do you just leave them and run as fast as you can out of there? Or do you stay and call an ambulance etc. and help stop any bleeding? If there was no-one else around (like in a dark alley or something) and my attacker was alone, I'd feel pretty bad about leaving them there but I don't think I'd want to stay. Do you also go straight to a police station or do you go home to safety and ring up? Even then what do you say to the police? Any answers would be greatly appreciated

This might sound stupid but I've been wondering if it was my technique?!? I've never really paid any attention to how I run. I also concentrate on my breathing pace when doing other exercises and have been trying to when running. Maybe I need to adjust my breathing as well

It turns out that someone else must have said something before I could because my sensei talked to him. Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

Ok, I don't know what I'm doing wrong but everytime we include running as part of our warm-up at training, it makes me very dizzy and out of breath. I wouldn't consider myself greatly unfit as I'm fine doing very long sparring sessions or kicking drills with hundereds of pressups, situps star jumps etc. thrown in too... I even do long dist swimming and its not a problem. But a 5min jog around the gym and I'm gasping for breath and nearing a total blackout even if I don't feel fatigued. (let me rest for a bit and I'm back out there ) So my question is, what am I doing wrong, and why is running even important for MAs anyway? Surely it would be better to just incoporate kicks into an aerobic workout?

No problem As long as you can stop yourself, you'll be fine . Are you training any other kicks? I recommend varying it, not only to keep it interesting but to work your other muscle groups. Plus the tops of your feet can recover too.

I'm not sure what you mean by musical. The sine wave wasn't employed to keep to any musical beat at all but to reciprocate natural movement whilst still generating power. I'm sure you don't walk trying to keep your head level? Although staying level allows the mass (and power) to travel in a straight line, making the technique quicker and stronger (in the sense that movement isn't lost), sine wave allows mass to travel downwards at the moment of impact (like bushido_man said). Think of it as a large wave (the water type ), that too moves in a sine wave curve. First it builds its height and then it drops whilst still moving in lateral direction. The force behind a wave can be really strong, e.g a tidal wave. Now tell me there's no power there. And plus, countless times I've seen people break bricks and stuff where they've dropped their mass even if they've been told its wrong. So why do they do it? I'd say that video was an exaggerated version of sine wave though with emphasis on bending the knee.

I've never had a problem and I've been doing bag work at least once a week (usually more if I can) for a coupla years now. However, I only use the top of my foot on the bag when practising sparring techniques, if I'm gonna do anything full power I make sure I'm using the ball of my foot. The bruising doesn't sound too good, I'd lighten up if I were you or start wearing some protective gear. Also if you've only started doing bag work lay off the heavy stuff for a bit. To go quickly from little or no impact training to a lot doesn't build up conditioning well, you're more likely to seriously injure yourself. I'd also do less reps and work another kick instead if its only the top of the foot that's hurting that way you still get the work out. Hope your feet get better