Kyle-san

Money, money and more money (I'm so broke right now). If that doesn't happen I have a small list of books, cds and DVDs that I'd like.

Yeah, I'm taking Wing Chun to tide me over until I can get back to my Aki-Jujitsu club. There's nothing wrong with cross-training, IMHO, but like Kensai said: either system is complete.

I usually give the general name. For example: When I go to Wing Chung, I say I'm going to Kung Fu. For Aki-Jujitsu, I say Jujitsu. It just keeps things simpler for people.

It doesn't hurt nearly as much as it seems it should.

I'd probably just strike with the ball of my foot, it's not like you need a ton of power when hitting the head anyway.

Maybe if they had a smaller version, but that's not something I'd like to be messing around with while sparring.

Reading up on as many varied topics on Martial arts and other philosophies that I can find. Attempting to get all the techniques I know written out in manuscript/book form in order to remember them more clearly.

I'm not much of a flash kinda guy, I tend to lean towards something that's effective and doesn't have much look to it.

That's far from true, you can't be cut with a soft lens. I remember when I was 12 my Karate sensei wouldn't let me wear contacts or my glasses for the tournaments I was in and I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me before things got really blurry. That wasn't fun.

... That has to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard. If I make a judgement from this story, it looks to me like Muay Thai doesn't teach anything but how to attack. Hitting a guy for looking at you girlfriend... what shit.

That's about $12 a lesson. How can people pay these rates?

Those two statements contradict each other. If you claim your friend has no martial arts skills then he wouldn't have recieved a blackbelt from a respectable school (ie, not a McDojo). As for your question, it should be difficult to get a black belt and is usually hard to learn what you need to know, but it comes with time.

It all depends on the style, I know in the form of Aki-Jujitsu that I took you had to start teaching at brown (either in your own Dojo or at the main one), it was even a requirement to advance to black. Waiting until you're at least a 1st Dan might be the smartest route, though.

I'll pick up either Blackbelt or Martial Art if it looks like there's an interesting article for the month. Otherwise I can do without the "My new combat system will destroy yours" kind of mentality that seems to pop up so very often.

There's nothing I really dread, but depending which instructor happens to be teaching I don't look forward to the warm-up. It ranges from none at all for some instructors to half an hour for others, it wouldn't bother me so much if there was some consistancy.

There's certainly such a thing as a natural fighter, some people have an extreme ammount of talent for martial arts/fighting. In your situation it could be either: a) You were lucky b) They weren't very good c) You knew what you were doing d) A combination of the above

Ahhh... just calrifying.

What about a job? School? Feeding youself?

I know it's probably listed in here somewhere, but I was wondering if anyone had links or knew of any exercises to strengthen the fingers/hand/grip? Anything would be appreciated.

There's this nice combo that I like to use that goes from a jab, step in close with an elbow to the face either as a strike or distraction, then finish up with a backfist down low. Works wonders.

I'm not a big fan of low stances, but they do have their uses in sparring. I've seen them put to very good defensive use, but they aren't something I'm inclined to try out.

And get yourself into a knife fight? Heh, even if you know what you're doing that should be the last thing you want. If you insist on carrying a weapon then try using a kubaton, it's easy to adapt to most martial arts techniques.

Of course books/videos/internet will never replace real training, but if you have some experience and a general idea of how martial arts training goes they can be quite valuable. If someone learned everything from books and was able to handle himself like a black belt, there's no reason he shouldn't be considered one.

Hm, staying in one spot wasn't the best choice, but I'm sure you know that. Personally, when they surrounded me I'd have gone straight for the leader and not waited for them to attack. When it's many on one normal rules really don't count. That or I'd have tried to bait the leader into a one on one from the start.

In Wing Chun I'm learning staff and Butterfly swords.