Kyle-san

Oh, I love SC even more than this one, but don't have access to it at the moment. The arcade by me, however has SC2 right in the doorway. And I'd kill to play GTA3 again.

Currently, it's Soul Calibur 2, but that's just what I happen to be playing the most of.

Congratulations! It sounded like quite the difficult test.

Currently, I'm only training in Wing Chun. I'm also in Aki-Jujitsu, but had to put that off due to moving for University.

I've had to use it a few times. In each instance it was very quick and my art came through, but they were all non-weapon confrontations where the other guy really wasn't out to get me. Just a few drunks that wanted to pick a fight, oh, and one guy I tried to help out, but he turned and started attacking me.

So, for the sake of curiosity, does anyone on the board have tattoos? If so what of and why did you get it/them? Oh, and where? Planning on getting any more? For those that don't have any, what are your thoughts on them? Have you considered getting one? If so why/what/where? I've got three tattoos so far and am looking at getting several more. I have a Yin-Yang on my right shoulder that was fairly badly done, the artist that did it was fired a month or so later. I had it done when I was 14 and use it as a reminder to keep myself in balance. I'll be getting this one covered up quite soon (December) with a picture drawn by a friend of mine. It's a shoulders/head shot of a girl, half her face is darkened and she's crying. I'm planning to have this symbolise the hard times in my life and how I've rebounded from them. On my left shoulder I have a small kanji for "honour", I got this one done when I turned 18 because it's something I feel I should strive for in everything I do. I'm looking at adding to it by getting the Canadian maple leaf done around in (a way to honour myself and my home). I'd also like to have a few more kanji put on that arm, other virtues that I should strive for/feel are important. My back has a medium sized dragon (maybe 14 inches in length and 4-6 in width). I had this one done over the summer, it is meant to represent loyalty, wisdom, strength and protection. Protection for both myself and those I feel are important to me. I'm looking at getting an armband with a Yin-Yang inside (on?) it in order to replace the one I'm getting covered up. I suppose my main motivation for getting tattoos is to express myself and it certainly has an aesthetic component to it. So, please feel free to share your opinions.

Um, Wing Chun seems to be one of the most popular. I'd have to go with Tai Chi, though. If you count it as a style of Kung Fu, that is.

Hey, hey, hey. Nothing wrong with tattoos. Generally speaking, a martial artist who doesn't allow themselves to become too overconfident and keeps their head on straight during a fight should be able to win against a street fighter. However, you don't know what a person can do, what a person can take (in terms of punishment) and who they have backing them up. There are no guarantees here.

Sadly, I remember seeing all these things on the news, the most prominent being the coverage of Desert Storm.

Ah, that's the kind of thing I'm talking about. There are many examples of martial artists conducting great feats, but we have no modern way of testing this out. All we can do is speculate on who would actually have been the best. Although, for modern times (say, the last 50 years) Bruce Lee stands out in my mind as the best.

Sorry, my reply was poorly worded. By application I mean when people focus on what he focused on instead of what works for them. just because a certain set of techniques worked well for Bruce Lee, doesn't mean they'll work well with everyone else.

In that situation I would feel the need to get the person some medical attention, however I don't know if he has any friends/supporters in the area. The first thing I would do would be to get out of there as quick as I could, then call the police/ambulence/etc from a safer location. Sorry, if I have to use enough force that an ambulence is required I'm not going to have much sympathy. My neck over his, eh? Of course, I'd let the police know where they can reach me and my version of the situation, no doubts there.

I think that the JKD community has taken the wrong direction with Lee's teachings (my opinion from what little I've read/discussed). From what I understand, his original intent with JKD was to create a style that had the best aspects of many traditional martial arts, but could be applied to anyone based on their preferences. By moulding all training exactly after what he did that would completely defeat the purpose of an individualized style. I feel looking at his intent rather than his application is the important thing. He was certainly a pioneer, and maybe he was the best martial artist to appear in modern times, but that doesn't make him the best of all time. Sorry, that's rather jumbled.

In all honesty I'd go with the two that I'm focusing on now; the style of Aki-jujitsu my sensei is teach (which, as I understand it, isn't like the traditional Aikijujutsu) and Wing Chun. Maybe I'd go for a different style of Kung Fu, but from practicing the two of these I feel complete. Additionally, by having some (limited) experience in both Shotokan Karate and ITF Taekwon Do I feel that I can recognize the differences in stances and techniques better. Bruce Lee had it right when he started analyzing different styles and fitting the best of them all together.

Wing Chun has a very quick payoff, from what I've seen anyway.

I've got three classes a week, each an hour and a half long.

Ouch. I typed that up way too quickly. Thanks for pointing it out.

Wow, I didn't realise how much people were paying for their training. I'm only going at $35 CDN a month out here, and I consider that too much! I suppose I shouldn't complain now, eh?

I just fit in MA whenever I can. I'm going to University, working part time and taking Wing Chun three days a week for an hour and a half each. Even if I can't make a class I try and practice when I wake up or have a few free minutes here and there. Every little bit helps!

It's helped me control my anger and focus on almost anything. It's been a big influence on me for the last 8 years and will continue to be one for the rest of my life.

*Shrug* I'm using all the information that I have. From what I've seen (like the site that was posted earlier) the style I took was very close to Aikijutsu. Perhaps someone just made some modifications along the way and introduced the animal styles into it.

Moobrak, Oh, I'm just a little white belt. I know my sensei quite well (he is a friend of the family and has been so for 6 or 7 years) and am consistantly amazed by the higher level moves he's showing. I won't be able to have much more contact with his school (I'm a good 12 hour drive away), but intend to go back during Christmas breaks and summers. If I can get myself to a solid Green then I'll be more than satisfied. Does your school break down into the different animal styles (Tiger, Crane, Snake, Mantis, Monkey) as well?

Oh, I agree that if it's a 40 hour a week experience than charging to make money isn't a bad thing. However, I don't know of any clubs (with the exception of a few that do nothing but train for trounaments) that do that. I'm a bit biased because of the philosophy of my sensei, but I find it a better experience to be learning out of a local community center or high school and only worrying about how much the rent will be.

I don't have too much of a problem paying a reasonable fee to test (say, $25 or 35). However, I've found some students look at like "I've payed my money, now I get my belt." which is often the case in certain schools. Of course, I've just had a few bad experiences.

Here's a small question. Isn't it enough to charge just the right ammount to pay for rent and new equipment for the dojo? Of course, this is assuming that another job is held during the day. Just curious as this was my previous instructor's philosophy. He was concerned about loosing focus on the art and just worrying about making a few extra dollars. The dojo had just opened and I was one of the few people helping things get started and running smoothly.