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We divide the kicks thus: 1. Step-across side kick (body plane does not change, opponent sees only your body's side, you don't pivot) 2. Step-behind side kick (same but rear foot passes behind versus in front) 3. Step-thru side kick (pivot on front foot, body plane turns 180, opponent sees...

I didn't mean 80-grit either. I meant that very fine sandpaper which Canemasters' themselves recommend and also sell. I know someone with a Canemasters cane who has used it periodically for two years and you can note the loss of surface in the ever-shallowing depth of the laser engraving. When...

How about a link to this Rural King cane vendor? I think I'd like to pick up some spares for students to use in a class. Personally I have two Canemaster's canes, a regular 3-grip practice cane and a Sunday go to beating model (sans minor blemishes from banging against other canes and...

If I were judging a board-breaking contest I'd look first and foremost for technique since, as everyone knows, MA is all about technique as opposed to power. If one's technique is lacking, then more power is required. The more power I see someone all-too-obviously putting into a break the more...

My guess would be you should ease into MA very slowly. The footwork for MA, as you surely recall, involves quite a lot of torque on the legs and knees even when pivoting on the ball of the foot. And you can never be sure just how much traction you're going to have. Too much would be bad, yes...

A student of anything is one who studies. Just showing up only half counts. They must also study. That means thinking about and practicing the art on their own time between classes. One class per week would suffice for those who actually study. For those who just show up, not even five days a...

I took ninjutsu up for a very brief period, just long enough to be assigned various study materials that purported to be authentic spiritual teachings which inspired the original ninjas. Everything I was given to study, the Hayes book in particular, was complete and utter bunk. I can call it...

Two core values: 1. Common Sense 2. Common Courtesy All mysticism aside, if you can maintain both of these in the face of adversity, then you have without any slightest doubt conquered the self. If pride of place (or honor, call it what you like, whatever) makes you abandon either of them then...

Fully half of the time. Nothing else makes sense at all.

20-Mule Team Borax does the job for me...even if a not-so-favorite ex-president used to plug for it on TV.

Martial -adjective, inclined or disposed to war; warlike. Ninja –noun, a member of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents, highly trained in martial arts and stealth (ninjutsu), who were hired for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination. Interpreted any...

It is more important by far who your individual instructor is and who his or her immediate superior is within any given organization than to which federation, if any, they belong. How is the class run? What are the values claimed both in and out of class (and are they in fact reflected through...

You can turn this into a good thing of a different kind. I've never been much for any of those really flash arial techniques myself, especially now at almost 52 and with knees no longer what they were. That they are most cool to watch I'll be the first to admit. But anyplace they can be applied...

The main thing about any MA school is whether you feel that you could fit in there. You'll have to watch several classes, see how the instructor(s) relate to their students, how they represent their art. If its a business, what exactly, are they selling. Any that promote a myth too fervently (or...

I had planned to sit this one out. But after reading some of the comments posted above, I think I'll chime in. First ask yourself, how good an actor are you? Can you totally ignore a security camera as if you did not know it was there? Many a public establishment nowadays have security...

First advice to every beginner... Are you tensing up first, gathering strength for a monsterous push of the fist? Stop that. Loosen up. Clenching muscles means you have to unclench to move. It slows you down. Be loose and fast. Strike with no pre-clench. Even if you chamber a strike before...

Consider carrying the cane as a weapon. It is highly effective but does not lend an air of challenge. Also very good against dogs. If ever confronted by a pit bull I'd prefer the cane to anything short of a gun. That is, if it is a right and proper hickory cane, not a drug-store cheapie. This...

Buddhists aren't, per se. It's cultural. The Han (Mandarin) race views Tibetan Buddhism as a foreign cultural contaminant to traditional Chinese values. Tibetan Buddhism was once very popular in China itself, primarly because of it being preferred over Chinese Buddhism by the Mongols. That and...

I can't say I'd much care for any modern physics gurus laying claim to that attitude. TMI and Chernobyl anyone?

Here is a link to our set from WMTKD. They will be really close, if not dead on, from how we did them as far back as the 70's. http://wmtkd.us/kalamazoo/#GUS-4 Those diagrams are from our local city's school. Other sister schools from the same org have their own documenation, with pictures and...

In our regional TKD org GM Monte Beghtol has a motto, "If it worked on me yesterday it's TKD today." So while our general cirricula originate from old time CDK with some influence from TSD, the central theme is genuine effectiveness. A fair number of our BB's have cross-training in other arts...

Unless forced to it I choose not to unnecessarily complicate my day, week or month. Picture yourself an hour hence re-answering the same questions again and again to memory-deficient police. Picture yourself a day hence explaining to your boss how it is you missed a day's work. Picture...

On Saturdays after TKD it's my night to cook. I usually buy pizza. On Sundays after Jujutsu I eat whatever it is my wife has kindly put out on the table. To manage my weight I moderate (or skip) breakfast or else just have salad for lunch.

And besides, since it is an established fact that heat rises....

I never much consider whether a given form has self-defense application or not. Rather they exist to keep my repertoir wide and open so that I do not narrow it down to only those things I like best. That said, no form I know of has one of the things I do like best. Not one of those thirty...

These are general MA questions, I think. So I too will answer... Suggest that no matter how it ends both your evenings will end badly if they are spent making statements to the police. Also, no matter who wins, the worst thing that will happen to either of you will be the lawyer's fees which...

I much prefer to use English for just about everything except the proper names of form sets. That is how I myself think of them. And why not? What after all did those who transported arts from country to country do in the Orient itself? The very first thing they themselves did was develop...

I am supposing that 360º might better describe the move from the point of view of turning of the head and the final direction of travel ending up the same. So indeed, a full 360º from that point of view. But I tend to consider moves more from a footwork perspective. Looked at in terms of...

In short, kata (forms, poomsae, hyung) require you to practice a wider variety of elements and combinations. Left to your own you'll only do the things you are already good at. Kata reveal your weaknesses, among them, weakness of memory. Forgetting them shows you haven't been practicing them...

I can't imagine that you'll find any reliable stastical data on this question...at least not that anyone currently out of jail will be willing to admit to. I assume you are wanting to know for the sake of humanitarian avoidance, yes? For that all you need is a copy of Grey's Anatomy and very...