How effective is......

[Paladin2000]

Originally posted by Beaumanoir: (In jest) This guy said he would beat me up. Simple enough. But theres two things to it. He is four years below me in school, but he's a blackbelt in karate. Now I dont think he'd last 10 seconds, but he says differently. Just out of curiousity... How effective is karate?

Quite effective against untrained personnel. Lucky for you it is just a jest. I had some training in Karate and I had to say that it takes a lot of training in Kata and sparring to gain the black belt. One of my former instructors even had us doing push-ups on our knuckles... imagine how hard those knuckles get after doing countless push-ups.

But then again, each Karate school has it's own training method and I suspect some schools are more relaxed than the others. But still, it is by no means easy to obtain the black belt either.

[Sigmar]

HAHAHA karate in a street fight pfff

Belongs only in the videogames dude, from personal experience whether you skilled in karate or not is irrlevant, its how hard you're throwing the kicks and punches, not how elegantly or masterfully.

One of my friends has the ego the size of mount Rushmore because he's a black belt in Karate, the only differance I've noticed is that he makes awkward body movements (like in this game in school where you've got to hit a tennis ball against a wall with your hand, its called Scoop, anyway whereas everyone else performs an arc motion to hit the ball like a racket to ball this guy palm thrusts the ball, needless to say he looks quite...stupid

[Bardan the Slayer]

My impressions though seeing many (and being involved in the occasional) fight is that Karate is a rather useless method of training for a fight. It will have benefits in that it gets you used to the act of fighting (through sparring), and the general fitness regime, but in a fight, all that leaping about is fairly useless.

In a fight, you want to have 3 things - controlled agression, the ability to throw short, powerful punches, and the ability to wrestle effectively. If you can do those, you'r pretty safe from the average guy on the street.

People who do best in street fights : people who have trained to box, people who study judo (or any grappling martial art), people who are extremely strong.

Despite what some martial arts instructors may tell you about skill being worth more than strength, it generally is not.

Black belts in Karate mean very little in a street fight. If you are decent at rough and tumble, are of a comparable size/strength to him (and you should be), and you can control your agression and not lose your head, then you've got a good shot at whupping him as long as you don't try anything too fancy.

Training in the Dojo is one thing, but putting it on the line in a real situation is another, and you would not believe how many people have said the famous words "I have a black belt in Karate!" about 20 seconds before getting their heads kicked in by the local hard case.

[Bungleau]

I graduated from University with a degree in French, as did Melissa (name changed), one of my classmate throughout my four years. We have the same degree from the same school and the same professor at the same time.

I speak French fairly well, with a minimal accent (more Parisian than anything else). I can teach, and have done so.

Melissa, on a good day, can read a menu without too much difficulty. But teach? Please. And can you say "stereotypical American"?

Same degree, same environment, different student. Different results.

Now, move that to a black belt. Was getting the belt just passing a test, or did it involve actually taking the teaching to heart and mastering and adopting the concepts?

If the student really adopts everything and gets into it, he would seriously kick your tail. If the moves that he's learned are trained into his body, then you'll be in a world of hurt.

If, however, his belt comes from a school where they test everyone because they need a cash infusion, and everyone who tests miraculously passes, then the odds are that he does not have those moves really memorized. I consider this a "bought belt".

*pictures black belt saying, "Okay, a reverse punch. Let's see, how do I block that again?" *

There are also schools that teach martial arts with an eye toward combat, where the students focus more on "practical" use than they do on simple katas.

Add to the mix the fact that a true martial artist learns their craft to avoid conflict, and not to seek it out (certain characters in the Karate Kid movies included), and the apparent fact that he's using his status as a weapon indicates to me he's probably got a bought belt.

Look at another side: Who wins?

You're picking on someone four years younger than you, so if you lose, you got beat up by a freshman (or whatever). If you win, you're beating up on a little kid. All the other issues will be conveniently left out of people's discussions.

So who wins? Well, no matter the result, you lose. I'd stay out of it unless there's a really substantial personal reason involved. He says, "I can beat you up!" -- yep, you can. Hasta later. "You're a chicken -- yellow-bellied coward!" Smile and say "so?" Let it flow off you, and he's likely to get frustrated enough to either do something stupid, or to make a fool out of himself. Either way, you win.

Good luck.

*B*
Minister, etc. (ret.)

[Epona]

Originally posted by johnny: I have a black Glock.

Blimey, I seriously misread that. I need to get my eyes tested. Or get my mind out of the gutter.

[Night Stalker]

Originally posted by Epona: quote: Originally posted by johnny: I have a black Glock.

Blimey, I seriously misread that. I need to get my eyes tested. Or get my mind out of the gutter. [/QUOTE]Bad Epona! [img]graemlins/whackya.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/whackya.gif[/img]

[quietman1920]

LOL!!! That might make him run too, depending on the intent.

[Beaumanoir]

Oh the amount of Jokes I could crack now....... Shame, they'd all get me banned [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Bahamut]

if i were in your situation, i'd say this thread was even more entertaining than that punk kid...