spongebob

No doubt, he is very talented! Don't know about leaving a weapon wrapped around the neck for very long tho

Very tall, high center of gravity

I have a floating chip in my elbow from cracking it with the nunchaku. Hurts like whenever I lean on anything! this happened 2 months ago. Once you've been injured, you can't continue to practice with fear, or you'll hesitate and injure yourself again. It does give you respect for your weapon though.

I've heard that the bricks are put in a freezer overnight to make them more brittle. Or soaked in water and then put in a freezer. Makes me wonder how much of it is just science, like the bed of nails, or walking over hot coals, or dipping your sweaty hand very quickly into hot lead? How much of it is karate? I don't mean to be ignorant, I have never tried to break a board or a brick. Not sure what it actually proves, as they don't hit back. Please explain why people want to break bricks or boards. Is it a ploy to make you believe that you are soooo strong that you can break a board (like mentioned above, you need good wood ie: something that will break easily, good technique, and competent holders)

Soak in a hot tub with epsom salts right after your workout. Your body will still feel sore the next day, but not half as bad.

Here are a few tips to help those who would like to learn the spliz. These are techniques that have worked for me, but you might want to taylor them to your own body type. First of all take it easy. You will not learn them in a matter of a few weeks. It takes time for your body to adjust. It is good to set goals, but give yourself some realistic time depending on how flexible you are in the first place. For some people it might be a year for one type of split. For others it might take them 6 months. Depends on how close to the ground you are. I would suggest working on the front splitz first. They seem to be easier for most people. After you learn those, you will find your flexibility for the middle (Russian) whatever will come easier. Plus knowing that you can do the front ones will give you confidence and eagerness to finish the last one. (Just my opinion) For the front splitz, the best exercises that I have found are the ballerina type, where you place your foot on a ledge, (counter top, bar, stairs, whatever you can find that is about hip level or slightly higher) If you can't place your foot on a ledge, then go for something lower like a chair. Practise bending down slowly, where the object of the exercise is to ultimately place your forehead on your knee. Do not have high expectations at first. Your first attempt will feel stiff (even for people who know how to do the splitz, your first attempt will be like telling your muscles "remember this?") With your second attempt, you should be able to bring your forehead a little lower. Your third attempt lower yet. Do about 6 or 7 of these. Now I know that everybody recommends that you do not bounce when doing streches. However, I find that doing small bounces are very helpfull to getting your flexiblily a little more loose. I'm only talking about 1 or 2 inch bounces. If you push yourself too much, you will injure yourself, most likely. If you bounce yourself by more than a few inches, then you could rip your muscles, or even fracture your lower lumbar area. So small bounces are the key. NO pain NO gain. This is true to a certain extent. However, Someone once told me that a good stretch has to last three minutes, and that's the way balerinas do it. I once stretched for a full three minutes, and could hardly walk for the next 2 days. I do not believe that we have to punish ourselves that much. I believe in many stretches that last less than one minute, maybe even a half a minute, but very often during the day. In other words, practice the forehead to the knee atleast three times a day and maybe a few other stretches. My personal belief is that frequent stretches throughout the day is better than a 3 minute grueling stretch that will injure yourself. I'm not saying that you will never feel soreness the next day, but that frequency is the key. Probably the fequencey of streches will add up to 3 minutes anyway. The higher the frequency, the better! Now this might be hard for working people. It's something that many people would like to do in privacy. --Well you'll just have to come up with your own solutions. If there's a will there's a way. If you really want to learn to do the splitz, you have to keep your thoughts positive. This is sooooooo important. So many times you'll be attempting to them, and you might think to yourself, " There's no way I can get down any further with breaking my hip" or "This is only for young people" The word can't and the mental thought "can't"- should not exist. If it does, well, you're right then, you will never be able to do them. Now, with the ballerina stretch, I call it, you can sometimes place a whole leg on the counter instead of a foot, -you might find this more relaxing. The key to getting more flexible is relaxing. If you are tense, the harder it is. Some people suggest taking a warm bath before stretching. Some people suggest tiring out the muscles a little by holding a kiba dachi for a while, or a forward lunge, then easing into the splitz. With your foot on the counter try to shift your leg sideways, like the side splitz, so that the inside of your knee is now on the counter. Practice streching this way. Then shift again, so the your kneecap (or the front of your leg) is now on the counter, and stretch your back towards the leg. In other words, do this stretch with many different angles. Once you are able to get your forehead to your knee, then technically you should be able to do the splitz, or get very close. One mistake that I see many beginners doing is that the back leg is bent. DO Not bend your back knee at all. This will change the angle of the split that you are trying to do. Try to go down with both knees straight. The back foot should be sideways, with your back thigh sideways as well. You will never be able to do the front splitz with your thigh completely under you, touching the ground. Other exercises: You probably have been doing them all along. The ones where you sit on the floor, legs spread apart, and bend to touch your forehead to your knee, or in the middle. The butterfly (I call it) is a good stretch too, where you hold your feet together and press your knees down. I like to bounce just a little with these exercises. To the wall!!!!! This is great if you feel your hip is going out of place when you do the middle splitz. Simply find a wall and spread your legs, and try to get as close to the wall as possible. Another good one is to lye down on the floor, with your butt right up against the wall and let your legs spread apart naturally and let gravity do the work. Close but no cigar? Keep practicing, you'll get it soon!!!! Some things you can try are placing magazines or books under you, then removing them one at a time as you get closer to the ground. Some people like slippery floors or socks to help them. I used the couch and the coffee table as hand holds to help me down. OK, so now you finally know how to do the front spitz, Congratulations!! Your front kicks should be amazing. Kicking is great and will help you with dynamic stretching. This too will help you become flexible as well as the static stretches I mentioned above. Once you are able to do the front splitz comfortalbly, then try moving your upper body more to the side, like doing the side split but with your legs still in the front split position. This will help your true side split tremendously. Do this with both front splitz. When learing the front split, usually there is a leg that you favour more than the other. You may find this leg more flexible. For me it was the left leg forward. If you are southpaw, or goofy foot, you may feel more comfortable with the right leg forward. Really you should learn both, as I mentioned, you would like to kick high with both legs. Keep a record, mentally or whatever. Note in inches how far you are from the ground. Most important keep positive. Money is a good motivator. I told my kids, I would give them $20.00 when they could get right to the ground doing the splitz. Guess what---? It worked! I was out $40.00 in a matter of weeks. Once you are able to do the splitz very comfortably, you can practice the "oversplitz" This is what we used to do in gymnastics when we wanted to do a handstand and have our legs split perfectly in the air. Take a book or two and place it under your front foot. The books or pillow should raise your front foot a few inches. Now try getting to the ground. Good luck with your quest to learn the splitz. Remember they are not impossible. Many people with many different body types, ages, weight are able to do them, and you can too! All it takes, like so many things, is practice. With a positive attitude and frequent stretching, you'll be able to get down there in no time!!

This ones for the ladies.... I would say that I'm not overweight, infact much thinner than most ladies, however, the fat that I do have is not spread evenly. The fat on my body seems to distribute itself in ugly dimply pockets resembling orange peel. And yet I'm kinda thin. I think I'd rather be fat and smooth than skinny and dimply. Forget the creams, I know they don't work. I think there's some genetics going on here because my mother and sister have the same problem. What about diet? Is there any kind of diet changes that could help?

Feeling better! I've had a little Easter break and have been taking it easy with the knees. I've been taking the supplements and feel like the tin man whos been greased. OK time for another google search - MSM???

Just did a google search, and there does seem to be alot of scientific research and proof for both those supplements.

Thank you everyone. I am going to try it, and I'll report back in a week or two and let you know if I think it has made a difference. Not sure which product tho. There's glucosamine cream which is very expensive, about $25 for a tiny jar, and glucosamine and chondroitin together, and sold seperately. Placebo or not, anything to alieve a little joint/muscle pain would be good. Hobz I am interested in seeing some scientific facts. I saw an ad in a popular martial arts magazine, but then again, I've seen breast enlargements ads in the same mag. lololol (like that will help your karate)lolol Thanks for your opinions.

I was wondering if anybody here has tried this supplement and if it has worked for them? It is supposed to help joint pain and ligament damage. Maybe kickchick would know. I have pain in my knees when doing a horse stance. I'm not sure if the pain is from lifting the weight of my body, or if I have overextended my knees when doing kicks. Lately I have been trying to get lower and lower into a horse stance, and now there's even more pain. I have pain in the elbow which I know came from an over extended punch, so I know I have to work on better technique. The use of an elactic tension wrap helps a little bit and a long hot bath in epsom salts helps very sore muscles. So has anyone experienced sore knees like this, and has anyone had any luck with creams or supplements? Thanks

Here's the picture, http://www.vrmotions.com/digiworx/ultrasound.html Anyway, weren't Ying and Yang Siamese twins?

I wish I could upload a photograph of my ultrasound picture that was taken when I was 7 weeks pregnant. I found out that I was having twins! To me the ying and yang symbol reminds me of my twins. Thanks

I guess I should have mentioned that my kids have really taken to karate. They are very serious kids who listen to the instructor and try their hardest. I'm so astonished by how hard they try, even at home they practise their katas and splitz in the living room without me asking them to. Now I'm not saying they're great or super talented, but they are interested in learning new things and I just wanted to encourage it. I think by the time they turn 16, (if they keep up with it), they'll be awesome. They know if they misuse karate in any way it will be taken away from them. I have to agree with LeaF, just training anybody off the street who has questionable intentions is not a good idea , and children should reach a maturity level. I suppose it would be hard for an instructor to let some kids learn the bo and not others.

My kids were eager to learn weapons (9yrs orange belts). They were playing in the backyard with garden sticks, so I decided to go down to the local martial arts supply store and buy them some crackle bos and a video. I figured if they are this enthusiastic they might as well learn proper technique. The next day we went to a weapons class at the karate club and I was stunned when I was told that it was against the rules for anyone under a blue stripe belt to learn weapons. They refused to teach weapons until the blue stripe level because they felt that more coordination was needed and more basics had to be taught first. I thought this was totally ridiculous!! I told my kids that they can learn anything they want to in life whether it's karate or computers or math etc., as long as they have the desire or will power to learn and as long as they practice hard. We are now going to a different karate club that will teach weapons to anyone who is willing to learn regardless of age or belt rank. They now know a kata and are doing great. I'd like to hear from other parents who have children in karate, their experiences, how to keep kids interested and their views on children learning weapons. I don't see anything wrong with it because they learn to respect the weapon and understand that it can seriously injure people. But some parents can't understand why I encourage it.