Where / How do you practice your art?

[c2kenpo]

A thread someone made here about clothing made me think after I read it and was thinking about my day today.
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Where do you train and yes what do you wear?

Now I did look and I think this topic was brought up once before inside of another thread but I dont think it was ever brought out so my apolgies if this is a duplicate thread.

The example would be this morning before I left for work., I took my dog outside to let her run around and to relieve herself before I left. While I waited I ran through Long 3 and Short 2 while dressed in good dress shoes , dress shirt and pants and tie, all the while in my back yard grass.

Now Short 2 didn't seem to pose any problem for me in terms of motion however I did find that my forward bows on Long 3 didn't seem to be a "solid" as I would like or as they feel on a mat or good hardwood floor barefoot. I also felt that my stances were a bit wider then normal to compensate for some misbalance. Now I do train quite a bit in "non-peak" conditions, examples would be different footing, environment, clothing (restrictive / loose) for my own personal benefit and because I just get the urge to do somthing to focus my mind and body.
(Yes I have been caught in Wal-Mart even) :uhyeah:

I pose to the forum do you train this way and where /how??

Have fun!~

David Gunzburg

 

[TigerWoman]

I tried doing form a couple of times in my back yard but I felt like I was in a fish bowl with 6 houses bordering. Since I have a key to the school, I go there when I feel like extra practice.

When my mind is too active and its hard to fall asleep, I used to start doing forms in my head. I would start at White belt and progress usually to 4th or 5th and fall asleep or start with 5th belt the next night etc. That worked okay for the ten in Taeguek but then after 1st Dan, I had to learn the traditional, Chunji etc. Those were more complex. After a while, when I got to the high ones, it got counterproductive to sleep. I would get to a move I was unsure of and I had to get up and find a book. Then I was up for sure another hour. Some might consider me obsessive but hey, I got through my tests with no problems in memory! And for while it was better than taking a sleep aid.

 

[Ceicei]

When my mind is too active and its hard to fall asleep, I used to start doing forms in my head. I would start at White belt and progress usually to 4th or 5th and fall asleep or start with 5th belt the next night etc. That worked okay for the ten in Taeguek but then after 1st Dan, I had to learn the traditional, Chunji etc. Those were more complex. After a while, when I got to the high ones, it got counterproductive to sleep. I would get to a move I was unsure of and I had to get up and find a book. Then I was up for sure another hour. Some might consider me obsessive but hey, I got through my tests with no problems in memory! And for while it was better than taking a sleep aid.

Funny... I would do the same thing with my Kenpo techs when I try to sleep. That increases the closer to test day... But I don't always get up to check the manual, unless it is absolutely critical (ie. the night before the test).

Now, if it is just an ordinary night, I look at the techs in "third person" studying myself to see if I'm doing how I think I should, then I do the tech again in "first person" to get the feel of it. I sometimes will visualize my instructor next to me doing the same tech and "watch" both of us. I've caught my errors that way. I play it in slow motion and at varying speeds. I also play it mentally "out of the dojo, in common places" as if I had been attacked (and I find sometimes the tech doesn't always work because of how the attacker makes his move). This forces me to consider quickly other possibilities of what to do in these situations.

By then, I'm usually already asleep after a half hour of this.

Back to the topic, when I'm not trying to sleep, I've actually practiced at parks, in my backyard, while waiting for my children's classes to end, or during breaks at my work. My co-worker in the next cubicle is into martial arts too (Goju-Ryu), so my team doesn't bat an eye when they see either him or me (or sometimes both of us) practicing at work. However, on days when I wear a dress, I am least likely to practice during work breaks.

- Ceicei

 

[Touch Of Death]

I practice just about anywhere. I know its sounds embarassing but I always go by the old addage,"If you knew how little people thought of you, you wouldn't worry about what they thought of you."
Sean :asian:

 

[Gentle Fist]

I have practiced just about everywhere but in the car I guess.

During the winter months I stay inside about 90% of the time. Spring and Summer most of my training happens in a grass/lawn area or in the parking lot of the dojo. If you get use to falling on asphault you can pretty much fall anywhere I guess. I feel bad for students who stay in the dojo year round, they need to return to their roots and fight under the sun!

 

[Touch Of Death]

I have practiced just about everywhere but in the car I guess.

During the winter months I stay inside about 90% of the time. Spring and Summer most of my training happens in a grass/lawn area or in the parking lot of the dojo. If you get use to falling on asphault you can pretty much fall anywhere I guess. I feel bad for students who stay in the dojo year round, they need to return to their roots and fight under the sun!

Let me get this straight, you never use a red light to do a little finger set action? What a waste. "I love traffic lights, I love traffic lights, but only when they're green..."
Sean

 

[Tony]

I practice just about anywhere too! I sometimes practice my balance in the shower! I try to practice my forms at home and at work especially any thing new we learn! I was waiting for a train and I started to practice a form and some techniques!

 

[c2kenpo]

Let me get this straight, you never use a red light to do a little finger set action? What a waste. "I love traffic lights, I love traffic lights, but only when they're green..."
Sean

Sean,
I do finger set all the time. Works great trying to whip the hanging Fuzzy Dice!!

The problems I have is striking set in the car...keep hitting the damn Steering Weel tilt.... :uhyeah:

Dave

 

[Gentle Fist]

I guess a kicking set in the car would be out of the question as well...People do crazy things in cars when you think about it.. Men shaving, girls putting on make-up, senior citizens playing bingo, EPAK guys doing finger sets on fuzzy dice...:idunno:

Back on topic...

Where is a place you wish you could practice/train, but haven't had the chance to yet?

I would have to say way up on a mountian over looking a vast terrain..Like in the movies...:ultracool

 

[Ceicei]

Ummm... fistlaw, you brought up an interesting topic: Where is a place you wish you could practice/train, but haven't had the chance to yet?

Now considering I often don't have anyone to actually practice with at home (who is *not* a kid), what I would like is:

A specialized holodeck room attached to my home. This is the kind that also can change time. I step into it and select, say, ten minutes of "real time". The holodeck translates that into two hours of practice time in there (as in time warp technology). Once I get into there, the holodeck is voice activated and I have already put into it certain configurations. The holodeck is a learning machine, which means whatever new data I give it, It is capable of utilizing it to be compatible with the existing programs.

I've downloaded different type of fighters into its memory, some based on real people, and some are just composites of different types into a custom fighter. It is capable of making these images into 3D and give it the density (mass) so that it feels almost like a real person. In selecting a fighter, I can request a specific attack/action or perhaps have it go in random mode. I can ask it to go in slo-mo or up to full speed. The holograph has "give to its mass" so that it can act in response to my defense/attacks (ie. doubling over when I do an uppercut, or collapsing when kicking the knee in the right place). Depending on the selected fighter, it may respond back with it's own counterstrikes. I can have it set up for one, two, or multiple attackers.

I can pause the program at any time, and ask for a 3D replay to view the "fight process" to see how I handled it and to find my errors. I may then request the fighter(s) to repeat the attack so I could modify my responses the next time and see if my strategies work better.

I can have the holodeck play a perfect demo of certain forms, let me do the same form, then show me both the perfect demo and of mine side by side to compare. I may have the form/set done, but with a cooperative partner against me to get the feel, placement, and intensity of how forms should be done.

I can have the holodeck set up to focus on certain parts to train, such as my kicking, punching, whatever.

Whatever workout I get in the two hours holodeck time, remains with me physically when I exit in ten minutes, so my body actually received a two hour workout. When I go to the actual dojo, my performance will really reflect that I had put in the practice time to learn the material.

Anyway, it's a fantasy and has no chance of being made into reality. Oh well.

- Ceicei

 

[c2kenpo]

CeiCei,

You have come up with the ultimate Martial Arts training tool!!!
Get your patent quickly so you too can sell your very own (almost for real trained) Black Belt At Home Package!!!!
It be yours for only 365 small payments of $365,000 each. (And of course each package comes with your very own BOB. At no extra charge!! :uhyeah:


Love the idea and wouldn't it be great.

As for me where woudl I like to train that I haven't had the opportunity.
That is a list that could go on for miles. But I am going to simply say Hawaii.
I can think of no better place the the birthpalce of Mr. Parker Sr. himself.
Besides the surfin' can't be all that bad. :boing2:

David Gunzburg

 

[MichiganTKD]

Where have I trained?

Just about anywhere I have a free moment (shopping with the wife, waiting for anything). Runs the gamut from using walls for punching practice (lightly!), using various objects for kicking targets, deciding if I could jump over a rack of clothes, to forms practice while taking the cat out. I also run through forms and kicking drills at work while coworkers are smoking. I work midnites, so this is not difficult.

Where would I like to practice?

I would have loved to practice inside the Kukkiwon before it moved. However, doing Tae Kwon Do in the Keumgang Mountains of Korea comes to mind as well.