DWx

I agree with Kusotare, you will be somewhat limiting yourself if you are only looking for a Japanese teacher. Being Japanese doesn't automatically mean they will be any good or a good fit for you. If you don't mind me saying so, saying: "I don't mind the karate style or the location." is a little odd. The UK is still quite a big place with many 100s of Karate teachers. I think maybe you might need some idea of where is feasible for you to train. No good us suggesting a teacher in the outer hebrides if you are living in on the south coats.

Good luck Brian! What will the testing entail?

Happy Holidays to everyone. Whatever you're all doing to celebrate - enjoy!

Congratulations Alex! Here's to the next five

Congratulations Adam

I'm a little late but welcome Roninkai

Welcome guird

Likewise, my answer is it depends on the context. Ball of the foot is more commonly used for us in technical work and it would be what we break with. But for sparring (sport) it is more effective to use the instep due to the extra reach. For self defense, it depends on a variety of factors. A shin is probably most effective and easiest to use and depending on the shoes you are wearing, the ball of the foot might not be entirely possible and a instep kick would be a better choice.

Congratulations to everyone

The it looks as though the TKD fighter is sparring still as if he is playing for points. Perhaps he should have trained to kick and follow through with those roundhouses to the head rather than placing for points? You can't really conclude much from these style vs style fights as for every fight where Muay Thai might win, there are just as many where TKD win.

Certainly is a touching story. Thanks for posting it

Most camcorders should be fine for basic YouTube videos Bob. You shouldn't need to shell out big time for one. For tech stuff I always look at most popular products on places like Amazon and read all the reviews. Maybe this might help you: http://reviews.cnet.com/camcorder-buying-guide/ Decide what features you need and your budget then go from there. IMHO you can't go wrong with the big name brands, Canon, Nikon, Sony...

My sentiments exactly. Honorary belts / degrees don't equate to proficiency in the subject. I will say however that from personal experience competing in Russia, it does seem that Putin and his government are very supportive of the martial arts.

I assumed this to be about rank in the same style. It's really a question of what your instructor thinks and whether they'd agree with it. Personally I would say it's probably OK in the same style/association if the person promoting you is senior to your own instructor. I most likely wouldn't accept promotion off of someone lower than them. But I have a great deal of respect for my instructor and would always consult him first. In our style, testing for 1st dan and above (sometimes even advanced colour belts too) is conducted by a panel led by someone other than your instructor. In fact for 4th dan and above testing your instructor submits a request to the organisation and you then get told when and under whom you should test. Now if it's promotion in a different style or association, they I would say its your choice whether to accept or not but I would only wear the belt when training in or representing that style.

Presuming you conduct gradings separate from a class environment, should they be open to spectators? Friends and family? Just other martial artists? Or anyone?

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/14/vladimir_putin_taekwondo_master_partner/ President Putin recently received an honorary 9th dan from the WTF.

WTF and related styles wear the chest protectors, the rest tend to stick with dipped foam gear or nothing. Often just a touch (in adult divisions) would also not score. WTF competitions require a "trembling shock" blow i.e. enough power to stop the opponent and in ITF semi- and full- contact a reasonable amount of force must also be delivered. I often use this kick in competition and have cracked ribs with it a couple of times. I'd also say it is probably the kick that most often results in a KO when it connects with someone's head.

That is not necessarily true as my style of TKD teaches that contact can be made with the flat of the foot to the head for a slapping effect (much in the same way as an open palm attack) but also that contact with the ball of the foot is also permissible. Of course the heel will do significantly more damage but in a case where you want 2 or 3 inches of extra reach, perhaps in a tournament scenario, then the flat or the ball is better. AdamKralic, it was a good kick. But to improve (as everyone has room for some) I would echo bushido_man96's advice. Zach needs a better recovery. Personally I wouldn't say he has to kick through the target but certainly retrieving the leg under control a resetting to a prepared state is crucial. It's just as important as executing the kick itself. Good fighters not only kick well they ready to go again afterwards. Kwonkicker's videos are excellent but I would also highly recommend GingerNinjaTrickster's also:

I wouldn't say never have a plan. There's a reason why boxers and other fighters will study the hell out of their opponents and watch as much footage as possible. You need a loose game plan to have an idea of where to start. It worked for you initially. The key is that it shouldn't be rigid and that you should be adaptable just as your opponent adapts to what you are doing. A good fighter is also usually a clever fighter who is constantly absorbing information over yr course of the fight and adjusting their game accordingly.

Great post! There's something really barbaric about dentistry..

Bouncing is partly down to personal choice and partly down to what your style teaches and what you are comfortable with. IMHO neither is wrong if utilized correctly. Bouncing on the balls of your feet gives you better mobility and allows you to move in to attack and out of the way quickly but not bouncing gives you a strong base and lets you transfer the power and absorb blows better. Personally, my style teaches me to bounce for mobility but at the point of connecting with a blow or taking a shot, to lock the stance and root. This methodology is even reciprocated in our forms that we practice. All the top ITF TKD fighters fight like this.

Great advice Brian, I couldn't agree more. He definitely had the side kick down but he seems to be somewhat reliant upon it. The spars are one dimensional; both players move back and forth on the straight and use only the linear front leg side kick. What I'd personally like to see him working on is some rotation. As he spars left leg lead (most kickers are right leg lead) I would have him work on the back leg roundhouse and onto the open side with the hands. The kickers he is against in those videos aren't holding that side kick chamber position, the leg is coming back down to the floor. A really basic but good strategy would be for him to wait it out, guard and shift back out of range. As their leg goes to the floor and his opponent shifts the weight onto the lead, switch the rear roundhouse into the open side. The rotation of the hips for that kick then lends itself very well to bringing in the lead hand as his right (kicking) leg goes down. Or if they're still travelling forward into the space he'd been in, use the hips to now pick up the left leg to roundhouse and effectively let them run into his leg. Slightly more advanced is to push off centre and in. As they advance with the side, he can either go left to the closed side or right to the open. Closed is a better defensive position but there are less targets. Slight movement to his left, punch with the left lead and keep the right arm to protect the flank and his head. If he shifts right, he can fly back in with hands or use the hip position to drag through a rear roundhouse or rear leg front kick. I hope you understood my descriptions YouTube is a great resource for things like this. Watch fights from you favourite fighters and search through the 1000s of kickboxing, TKD and sport Karate training videos. If you work with him I'm sure he'll be a great fighter.

Well if you're comfortable maybe you could post some videos? Even a win can be a learning experience as you can deconstruct what he did right and what he could do better. No one has a perfect bout and there are always things you can do to improve. Sounds like it's a good thing he's got getting to train with the national team.

They may have built off that study, but from reading DWx's post, it sounds like they maybe tried a little too hard... Yeah I have a little bit of an issue with their method. In particular I think they didn't exactly have a very wide number of participants. In fact they were struggling to get people to complete the self defense course. Those that were deemed vulnerable from experiment 1 didn't even have the inclination to finish up the self defense course. Also telling someone to walk across the room and pretend they are walking across the park isn't very good I don't think. To me this is very suggestive and the person walking may sub-conciously change their behaviour because the tester has effectively told them that they need to pretend they are vulnerable. There's also no control as to how effective the self defence courses were as we all know there is very little quality control there. The courses people conducted before the study could have been rubbish or excellent but we don't know. Similarly we don't know the quality of the course used in experiment 2. All we know is that it was how to defend against verbal and physical attack and not how to avoid attack in the first place. It's a good basis for future work but I don't think we can read too much into the results.

Congrats So what's in the calendar now? Good time to start training for the next event!