DWx

This is an interesting requirement. I guess it shows the Sensei some insight into how much you understand and how you interpret your style. Have you been given any guidance as to what the kata should contain? I'd imagine you'd need a spectrum of things covering the basic through to your current grade to demonstrate your understanding?

If you could have an hours private tuition with any martial artist, past or present, who would it be? And why?

Welcome Tony

This is it really. Facebook groups and the like cater to a different audience really. They are much more transient and rely on easily consumed (and shared) content. The type of discussion is rarely indepth or sustained over a longer time scale. Web communities like forums like KF on the other hand are slower paced with the amount of new content but I would say the quality of discussion and of individual posts are much higher as is the sense of community. Not to say one is better than the other. Just that they provide different things. With regards to Reddit, I think that is another thing again. In my experience it can offer both of the above. The heavily moderated subreddits like /r/askscience or /r/askhistorians tend to have a significantly higher quality of posts where the discussion is more in depth, whereas the lightly moderated more popular subreddits rely on easily consumed content (memes and one-liners). The upvote / downvote system also has a big influence as popular opinions that appeal to the Hive mind quickly gather upvotes adding more weight to that poster's contribution and everything else gets buried. I'm sure Patrick will chime in with his views, being the expert on this subject.

I'll preface this post by saying that extreme or fast weight cutting should only be attempted under the supervision and guidance of trained medical professionals and that none of the advice in this thread constitutes medical advice... With that said, anyone who has competed in sports with weight classes such as combat sports or bodybuilding or events where it is advantageous to be light (e.g equestrian events) will be familiar with the challenges faced with losing weight. A long steady weight loss is much better for the athlete and for overall health however often it can be necessary to also dehydrate prior to weigh in. Though I've not had to do it myself, as a competitor and now coach, I have overseen and assisted teammates to lose weight to make the weigh ins. Some of the methods we use include: - sauna / sauna suit - hot baths - Caffeine - diuretics (extreme caution needed with this one) - water loading (hydration to suppress vasopressin, then dehydration 24 hrs before) After weigh in and dehydration, it's important to rehydrate and refuel correctly. I always have Dioralyte or a similar antidiarrhea drinks on hand. Barring that an isotonic sports drink to sip, not gulp, can help to replace lost salts. Liquid or easily digestible carbs are recommended over proteins, fats and fibre and nowadays its easy to get hold of glucose tablets or gels either specifically for sports use or for diabetics. So had anyone else done this before? What methods did you use?

Sure but the same is true for Western Europe but the Europeans don't come close.

Welcome Josh

Welcome MatsuShinshii

Congrats InstructorJack

Congrats Focused Mind

Congrats CTTKDKing! What did the test entail?

Happy Birthday John, hope you had a great day

I don't know if anyone watched any of the Olympic archery this year, but the South Koreans, as per usual, were wholly dominant in the event. In fact South Korea have won 23 golds out of the possible 40 golds since the modern archery competion was introduced to the Olympics in 1972. Many of the world's top archers and coaches are South Korean, and all but 2 Olympic records are held by South Koreans. I've been reading a bit about this and came across this article details some of their training methods: http://www.reuters.com/article/oly-arch-kor-coaching-day-idUSL3E8I107020120727 What struck me about it is this bit: Apparently the kids who first start learning will learn to shoot without even to touching a bow and will practice exercises to gain the correct mechanics first. According to some of the articles I read even the adult professionals will take time to practice without a bow and spend time visualising what they are doing without even shooting. The even have Dan rankings associated with skill level: http://www.atarn.org/korean/IA_kr_1.htm Just thought it was interesting their approach to the sport and how it seems to have paid off for them. Makes you think what other sports would benefit from this approach or whether it would work in the West.

Great Let us know how it goes I can't speak for other classes and I only studied for a short time (2 years) but our class was structured as follows: - Basics and Qigong exercises as a warm up - Detailed look at individual postures or maybe some push hands exercises (pair work) - Practice of the 24 form - Free practice All in our classes were around 2 hours long.

Welcome Struggling_Mudansha

I prefer your interpretation with Bassai Sho. I don't know much about the kata but it seems to me to fit well with the Chinese style flow. Very well done. As for Taekwondo variation, I recognise individual movements but I couldn't say there was a form that is close really. Maybe bits of Sam Il?

Actually you may be right with that comment Bob. Google searches for TKD increased considerably when the competition started but it doesn't seem to have much effect on searches for other martial arts. In fact searches peak for Taekwondo every four years when the Olympics is on: https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=all&q=Taekwondo The same is true for Judo. https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=all&q=Judo Boxing is a slightly different story but given that it is much more well known already and professional fights receive a significant amount of promotion, it's not all that surprising https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=all&q=Boxing I think wrestling also benefits already from widespread popularity across America already so the interest doesn't fluctuate so much https://www.google.co.uk/trends/explore?date=all&q=Wrestling

So we've had the Judo, Wrestling, and now Boxing and Taekwondo are underway, the Olympics will no doubt generate new interest in these martial arts. As instructors and school owners, do you have any plans to try to captilize on the interest and sign up new students? If so, how?

Ours is a full time school. We close between Christmas Eve and New Year's then also usually for a couple of weeks in the summer when my instructor and his family go on holiday. A group of us will still get together to train though.

Thanks for sharing the videos Lex. Whilst there are a lot of similarities in technique, yours and the Shotokan version are executed very differently. Some TKD schools do learn Bassai though I think they tend to prefer the name Passai instead. I'm not sure about the WTF forms but there are a lot of elements similar to the Chang Hon form Yoo Sin. A couple of examples :

I'm curious as to your last statement. What qualification would you need for boxercise? Our cardio classes are not all that different from what we might do over the course of normal training, only the intensity and quantity is higher. We do sit ups, press ups, sprints etc in normal training. Only in the exercise class there is a lot more of this and the public can attend. Body conditioning is just as much a part of Karate as kihon, kata and kumite.

Honestly the best thing to do is to just go to the school, meet the instructor and then either observe, or better participate in a class.

Welcome Phil

We've got one but I don't personally teach it. It can be a great intro into the main classes.

This. Don't engage. Collect any proof (any communications they might have sent you). Then go straight to the authorities.