World Of Swords

Okay, you've been studying the School of the Grand and Exploding Dragon. Or, maybe you've decided to start your own school, and you are going to call it the Nine Circling Wombats in Winter. The point that is being made here is that...what's in a name.

A classical school might have a recognized name, like Shotokan, but that just means the garage of Gichen. Or maybe a generic name, like Karate Do Dojo, which says it is teaching karate in a school, but nothing else. But there is a deeper underbelly to this whole scene.

Uechi Ryu is considered hard core classic martial art, but what is this thing called Pan Gai Noon? Pan Gai Noon is a system based on the three original forms taught in a Chinese Kung Fu system. The extra five forms in Uechi Ryu were taught, according to Mattson in his amazing book, for entertainment purposes.

That's right, students needed to be entertained so that they didn't wander away from the, uh, commercial enterprise. This seems like a concept rather shabby in nature, but, apparently, it is a necessary one. And, in truth, while one could fault the school for such curricular changes, and should, one also has to fault the students.

Or, to get back to Shotokan, while it is considered the ultimate legitimate karate school, Gichen Funakoshi apparently passed his authority in matters karate to a school called Shotokai. Apparently he passed his seal and other paraphernalia to shotokai, and Shotokan is (choke) an imposter. Well, one could argue which is legitimate, but both have a right to practice martial arts, and the truth will be found in the individual, not in the school.

But, to continue this profound discourse, kenpo is...not karate. Parker was versed in karate, see his first book, but his teachings ended up being based on Jimmy Woo Kung fu. He called it kenpo karate because nobody knew what kenpo, or kung fu, was.

Commercialism, and other influences, effect the naming of a system or school. Aikido went through quite a variety of different names before being called Aikido. Karate, before being transformed into the high kicking Tae Kwon Do art in Korea, had eight different kwans, or schools.

I suppose the final thought on this is that naming a school can be fun or sordid, and it can mean anything. The truth of the art, though, is whether the system is a solid manifestation of the art, whether the instruct can actually get the student to understand, and whether the student actually has the ability to learn. This is a question beyond names and labels and such, true to the heart of the matter, and what the student must consider when exploring the morass of grand and glorious martial arts names.

Al Case has researched martial arts for 4O+ years. You can Call Him Names at Monster Martial Arts.

Barring the use of real and actual weapons, the kick is your longest range weapon. Being the longest range weapon, it is the first zone of defense you have should you meet an attacker. And, should there be actual weapons involved in the fray, having a good and advanced kicking ability may be the advantage you need to survive the encounter.

There are many kicks and categories of kicks. Unfortunately, all too many kicks are designed for show. This article will stay away from kicks where one turns his back, or otherwise reveals weakness.

To work, a kick must be fast, so you should practice hundreds and hundreds of kicks every single work out. This means that you must practice using your kicks until they are smooth, polished, second nature. The old saying comes to mind--the legs must be as agile as the arms, the arms must be as powerful as the legs.

Most people do not get their knees high enough, so you should practice kicking over an object like a chair. The knee must raise up high enough so that the foot can be projected on a straight line.You don't want your foot scraping on the skin of the body, you want it penetrating like a nail driven by a hammer.

Most people do not have enough hip power in their kicks, so you should hold a broom across your hips and make sure the broom tips show that you are turning the hips enough (or not overturning then). The hips are the big and mighty sledgehammer, they are the force that drives the kick and makes it work. Thus, you must tilt your hips slightly, or turn them, to drive that foot forward with weight and authority.

It is very important to add weight to your kick, so practice shoving heavy objects. Find something that weighs as much as a human body, and practice kicking it and actually making it slide across the floor. The further it slides, the more weight is in your kick.

Most important of all, you need to work with other people. It is okay to analyze your kick by how it moves a bag, but but there are limits to effectiveness when it comes to kicking inanimate objects. You need to have a work out partner and practice 'planting and pushing' and seeing how a human body really reacts when you kick it.

In closing, kicks are important, but only if you have the desire and will to forge them. You must pass beyond fatigue in your efforts to have perfect kicks. Most important, you must implement what I have told you here, and have total faith yourself.

Kicks are one of the best and most powerful weapons you can develop. Not only are kicks cardio intensive, giving an instant sweat during a work out, but they are one of the most powerful weapons you can have in a fight. After all, most people don't know how to use their legs, and if you do, instant advantage.

Of course, kicks take a little extra hard work if they are going to be great. But if you take your time and do learn the types of kicks in a certain pattern...you can have power busting kicks of the first magnitude. That said, let's go over the proper order of kicks.

The first kick is merely standing and doing the kick. You don't have to have a stance, you can even put your hand on the wall, and do them at a moderate and easy on the body speed. The idea here is to look at your body examine how it has to move to generate efficient and effective kicks.

The second kick is going to be done from stationary stances. Take a kick like a simple front snap kick, low level to begin, higher as you get better, and learn how to apply it from the rear leg while standing in a front stance. Go through all the stances you know, one by one, kicking with the foot you are not standing on.

The third kick is to use your weight leg for the kicking. This means you kick with the leg you are standing on. Again, go through your stances, but this time figure out how to hop so that the leg you do not have weight on replaces the leg you are standing on, and the leg you are standing on does the kick.

The fourth kick is to explore the direction you are kicking in. This is going to require some quick contortions of the body. Simply do the third kick, described in the last paragraph, but this time kick first north, then set up and do the kick to the west, then the east, then the south.

Now, there are a few things you should remember as you go through these four stages. Don't be one of these people who do ten kicks per kick and then quit. Do a hundred kicks, three hundred, even five hundred kicks per kick.

The idea is to develop your legs so that they are as light and easy to use as your hands. So concentrate on learning how to relax while you do your kicks. Soon your kicks will be second nature, light and easy, marvelous little things of quick flick, and yet able to instantly end any fight.