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Maryanne Mullahy, in the over 67kg class. She's only been training for 3 years or something crazy like that.

Good luck! What do you have to do in your grading?

A girl at our school competed at the ADCC, lost her only match but seemed to enjoy the experience quite a bit. As far as seeing them, I've seen a clip on Youtube of Kyra Gracie against a Japanese woman whose name escapes me. It's a pretty serious tournament, a lot of the UFC guys like Jeff Monson, Elvis Sinosic - pretty much any of the grappling specialists - have competed in it.

3 punches actually, jab, cross, left hook

I have one of those "boil and bite" mouthguards but I don't use it. It simply wouldn't mould properly and makes me gag, too. Your dentist should be able to make you a mouthguard, and it will be more suitable if you tell them what it's for.

Have you noticed the trend lately towards "boxercise" being used as part of fitness programs? It's basically punching focus mitts for long enough to derive fitness benefit. I think it's not a bad idea, but whenever I see it on TV, two things annoy the heck out of me (often enough to get up and do some shadow boxing myself ): Hands are always down. I know it's only exercise, but I can't help yelling at them to get their hands up! The partner with the focus mitts always holds them wayyyyy wide. Are they training to fight the 3-headed knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Ever noticed anything like that?

You know, it's funny, one of the fast food chains around here, Noodlebox, has a Black Belt Box. It's quite tasty. Maybe they should give away a belt with it I'm very wary of anyone who says "You could have your black belt in 'x' years!" How about "You could have your black belt if and when you're good enough"? This is not elementary school, you do not get promoted on a schedule - actually, maybe academic schools should promote the way good martial arts schools do!

Hey guys, Have a look here and tell me what you think. Advice, pointers, (funny) heckling, whatever

What are legal target areas?

RIP. A poet-warrior with insight truly before his time.

G'day, I'm not a TKDer nor am I interested in taking TKD at this point in time, I'm just asking out of curiosity, are there any dojangs that say "To heck with the ATA/ITF/WTF/whoever, we're going to spar without headgear, hogus, allow face punches and low kicks"?

Royce wasn't in the UFC at the time though.

http://www.atamaaustralia.com.au/detail.htm?ProductID=SWWFA4

Just got this and tried it out tonight, it's much thicker and hence I sweat more in it, but it feels as durable as a space suit, unlike the cheapie one I got when starting, which is starting to tear and fall apart. It better be durable, for the cash I paid! So, whaddaya think? http://www.evilmeat.net/images/atama_single_weave_aus_flag_gi_white_a4_size_001.jpg http://www.evilmeat.net/images/atama_single_weave_aus_flag_gi_white_a4_size_002.jpg

Well, funny this topic should come up, because on Monday in shootfighting I got what might be construed as push-ups as punishment for failure to execute a technique. During our warm-up, we had a couple of groups fashion a skipping rope from two belts tied together, the people at the ends of the rope turned it; the rest of us hand to come in, take four jumps, then get out. You touch the rope, you drop and do 10 pushups. Well, I'm hopeless at skipping. Always was. I must've done about 50-60 pushups like this (in addition to the "regularly scheduled" pushups we did in the warmup, and that I did in the warmup for the BJJ class an hour before). The thing was, this was the warmup anyway, so it wasn't quite the same as getting pushups for failing to execute a real technique. Just as important was that everybody had the right (positive) attitude about it so it didn't really feel like punishment. The instructor and I joked about it when we were getting changed after class that if we kept doing that warmup drill I wouldn't need the agility to skip rope as I'd be strong enough to deliver a one-punch knockout When we passed each other on the mat tonight he grinned and asked how my shoulders were. I think that's the right way to dish out extra pushups.

Interesting. I've only heard two guys around here mention Krav Maga, and not that many on the Internet either, relative to the other styles. Real wrestling is fairly small here too, but I know it's huge in the US and Japan.

We've been doing some no-gi stuff recently which is very interesting. Sometimes for 10 minutes, sometimes for most of the class. I pretty much agree with ps1 that for BJJ at least, and any jacketed grappling style (Sambo, Judo, etc) both gi and no-gi training is important; they both compliment each other and there are plenty of times in real life when your attacker might be wearing something with strong lapels. Also, most of the stuff you use gi grips for like fancy lapel chokes, standing guard passes, etc. are things that you are extremely unlikely to need on the street, or, they have fairly instinctive no-gi alternatives, like controlling the guy's head to stop him posturing up in your guard. I wonder about styles with no grappling though, do they, technically speaking, require a gi/dobok/etc?

Wow, some good fighters there

Hmm...Savate, Judo, and BJJ sounds interesting.

Would you say that this is true worldwide or just in the US? Around here, there are probably more young kids doing Karate than TKD (as far as I can tell). I have certainly heard that TKD is massive with US kids though, and considered putting it top or second.

I think DisgruntledGirl is on the right track. While I don't think instructors need to let standards slide, and say that a technique is being performed correctly when it clearly is not, I do think that it needs to be realised that even techniques taught at beginner level will continually improve and so a teacher should not expect a black belt standard front kick from a white belt even though that technique is taught at white belt (in most styles, I'm assuming). Another thing to be considered is that associating strength exercises with punishment is likely to create an aversion to those exercises which does the student no help at all, psychologically or physically, in the long term. In the short term, punishment does not help a student to improve their technique. It is only (arguably) useful for capable students who are slacking off or misbehaving, not for students who cannot yet perform the technique. The BB of C says that such a school sounds "traditional", and I would agree in that it would be suited to a very different socio-economic situation to ours. Decades and centuries ago, a student would be more or less compelled to receive martial arts instruction (at no extra cost to themselves) and so their only options would be to perfect the technique or get punished. Such an arrangement would likely produce very skilled martial artists, but I would wonder about their psychological stability and self-motivation. Would they keep their training up long term, or cast it aside, having grown to loathe it? Now, the arrangements are far different: The student voluntarily pays for training (or has it paid for them) and so has another option; to quit. And unfortunately, the sort of person who would need martial arts training the most - the unfit, the un-confident, the un-coordinated, the timid, the small and feeble - would be likely to quit or not even bother with training at such a school, today. I think that martial arts schools today have a duty to start training students from where they are when they start training (one of our head instructor's most common sayings). There is no point punishing a student for failing to kick head-high when they physically cannot. That is an objective, yes, and you help to improve the student to the point where they are capable. Sorry if I rambled a bit there, but I think you get what I mean..

This would be my rough estimate based on number of participants (I'm assuming that's what you mean by attendance?), each style could pretty much move up or down a few ranks: Boxing Karate Tae Kwon Do Wrestling Judo Kung Fu Kickboxing/Muay Thai Fencing Aikido Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Obviously this would be different if Kung Fu were separated into Wing Chun, Shaolin, etc. and the same for various forms of Kickboxing. But anyway, that's my estimate.

I had a think about this before my classes on Monday and it seemed to go better. This is what I came up with: * Training with a partner is a partnership (duh ). If I do well but my partner still submits me or dominates position-wise, in a sense, there's not too much wrong with that, as I'm helping them improve. * Don't be too uptight to smile when I or my partner does something well. * Enjoy the hard work, even if feels like I'm running with a yokozuna tied to my back, because that's going to deliver benefits. * My instructors would rather help me a few seconds extra than have me quit in frustration (not that I was ever seriously considering that)

Thank u boshido, ur words are kind and have much heart behind them. Dear Boyo, this kinds of training isn't bad but, what are your goals. to aimlessly strike the air, is as others have stated... a waste of time. If you are truly devoting this much time, you should be awsome. if your not awsome, you needa new instructor. and you need a goal. Are you trying to compete. The o nly time in my life i trained this hard was for competition. If you're not an international competitor, then this is too much and will destroy your young body. You body needs time to repair and recuperate. I can't stress enough how dangerous this can be to your joints and limbs. I would only sacrifice my body if there was great reward. sure nothing hurts now while your young, but wait till your an old man like me. Do you wanna walk..... or limp. Agreed...even the hardest of hardcore Muay Thai pros and aspiring pros training in Thailand, who basically do nothing else in their lives, take a day off training each week. And while they do go for more hours a day, many of them are finished not far into their twenties and then are forced to either instruct or try and do something else with their lives. If you are the age that your username suggests, you should be using some of that time to study because, besides the demands on your body, if a career in martial arts doesn't pan out, you need options.

Yes.