Martial Arts Belts – How Does The System Work
With most types of martial arts, the color of the belt that you have will signify your rank within your style of martial arts. The belts that are used with martial arts signify your rank within that style, although they have no universal means or ranking within the martial arts world. More or less, they tell others how much you know about your specific martial art.
The use of belt colors in martial arts is an old practice, dating back hundreds of years. Belts and their use in martial arts all started by a man known as Jigoro Kano, who created the style known as Kodokan Judo. Kano started out by using only white and black belts to signify rank within his style of martial arts. His reason for using belts, was to specify which students could compete in different activities. For example, those with white belts couldnt compete in the same activities as those with black belts.
Shortly after Kano introduced his idea of using belts, other belt colors were introduced to the world of martial arts. Over the years, it became a great way of telling what experience a student had in his style – just by the look of his belt. Other styles began to use this system as well over the years, including Karate, Taekwondo, and several others.
The only problem with using belts to signify ranking, is the fact that one school may have different requirements from another school. Even though they both may teach the same style of martial arts, their ranking system and requirements to get a certain ranking may be totally different. This can cause confusion in ranks, especially if a black belt from one school isnt as versed in the style as a black belt from another school. Even though most schools stick to the same criteria, there are schools that choose to incorporate their own unique style as well.
Although most martial arts styles use belts to signify rank, there are some martial arts out there such as Shootfighting that dont use belts at all. The styles that choose not to use belts dont go by rankings either, as they are more or less for self defense purposes. Pitfighting is another style that doesnt use belts either. These styles are great to learn for protecting yourself – although they differ from the traditional sense of martial arts.
All things aside, belts are an innovation to martial arts. They give students something to aim for, and a reason to keep practicing. Most students that study martial arts aim for getting the black belt, which is the most prestige belt in martial arts. A black belt takes years of practice to obtain, as the student will move through many lower ranked belts before getting the opportunity to try and earn the black belt.
Martial Arts Power Is The Result Of Creating The Dense Muscle
Many people think that Real Gung Fu Power is the result of big muscles. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. To fully understand the power we are talking about here we must change our fundamental notion of what a muscle is and does.
The purpose of a muscle is to to retract, and thus to make a limb or body part move in a certain direction, or become tense for some purpose. Thus, when somebody works his biceps so he can have a big gun, he is reducing his punching power. Punching power comes from working the muscles on the other side of the arm, the triceps, which cause the arm to go out, which is where you’ll find a punch.
The point is to figure out which muscle results in what action, and then to isolate and work those specific muscles. Want punches? Then do a slow punch and look at your arm and body.
Figure out which muscles result in the extension of the arm, which muscles support the impact of the arm, and so on. This will enable you to develop specific exercises which will cause you power in the punching muscles…which will give you harder punches.
If you want to really gain some punching power, try doing ‘punch ups.’ These are push ups where you don’t go all the way to the ground, you only go down six inches, then up. This isolates and builds the exact muscles which come in to play in a knock out punch.
Yes, you should develop other muscles and muscle groups, explore other variations of push ups, but concentrate a bit of your work out on punch ups and you will shortly be amazed at your growing ability to knock somebody out. You should explore this idea for places on the body where you might get hit. By this I mean some sort of wrestler’s bridge so you’ll have a thick and stable neck, or some sort of crunches for when you get hit in the stomach, and so on.
Now, the other thing you should be concentrating on is endurance. By this I mean you shouldn’t be growing a large, bulky muscle, for that weighs more, runs out of juice sooner, and is more awkward to move around. Instead, you should be growing dense muscles, muscles that are leaner and not fatter.
To do this you should cut the size of the weight you are working with (or just go to body calisthenics, which is my choice) and focus on how long you can do the exercise. Try for hundreds of repetitions of deep squats that take 3-4 seconds to complete (build the number slowly to avoid injury), or build up the number of pulls ups you can do into the hundreds. I’ll write more on this idea later, but for now, this should give you a good notion on how to change your work out so that you have maximum body endurance, the potential for lightening quick moves, and all the other things that go along with creating true Gung Fu Power.
[Top]Rules Of Shaolin Kempo Karate & Martial Arts Part 1
Rules of Kempo Karate & Martial Arts
Here are some principles that can get you some better leverage out of any art, not just Kempo Karate.
Establish Your Base
Any combative artist needs to be rooted on the ground. Its only from the rooting into the ground that your blocks, strikes and kicks will have any real power to them. It might help to think of pushing a car or sawing wood to get what I mean. If your not planted correctly you will have no effect.
Distance
This the distance your attacking limb moves before impact. This will very with each individual. Bruce Lee for example generated some pretty impressive power from his now famous 1-inch-punch. You can have the most powerful punch or kick in the world, BUT if you deliver it too close OR too far away it will have little effect. Bag work helps master this.
Your Block should be a Cocked Position
This is about making better economy of motion. The block you use should be the cocked position, or prelude to the strike. You should also have enough Distance to generate the power you need as well. An inward block followed by a back fist or cross chop is an example of this.
[Top]The Art of the French Revolution
The art of pre-revolutionary France was decidedly frivolous in its subject matter and deliciously detailed in style. Paintings were commissioned by the wealthy for their grant chateaus and palaces in delicate pastel colors. This period of art was called “rococo,” from the French decorative term rocaille, and was highly ornamental. Common subjects of rococo art include young lovers, pastoral scenes, outdoor games, and then-fashionable portraits. Cherubs are omnipresent in rococo art, and more often than not are accompanied by scrolls, inexplicable clouds of flower petals, and swathes of fabric. One highly recognizable piece of Rococo art is a painting called The Swing by Jean Honor-Fragonard. It depicts a woman in a voluminous pink dress enjoying a ride on a swing, while two men look on cheerfully. The subtle sexual undertones of the painting – it’s implied that the woman isn’t wearing undergarments – made the painting a scandalous success when it debuted.
Rococo decorative art was exceptionally elaborate and very expensively made. Rococo pieces are the pride of decorative arts collections in museums worldwide. The palace of Versailles was decorated in the Rococo style. Versailles is ornately detailed, and can best be described as a palace of luxury overload. Floors are made of intricately tiled panels of marble. Mirrors are several feet tall, and many feature intricate cherub sculptures at the corners. Busts of Roman emperors are prominent as the classical period was very fashionable in the eighteenth century. Even sofas, upholstered in finest floral silk are trimmed by gilded wooden sculptures of leaves. Asymmetry was popular in Rococo designs, which meant that the leaves on one side of the sofa were unlikely to mirror exactly the leaves on the other side.
A shift in the political climate meant a shift in aesthetic preference. After the political upheaval of the French Revolution, the lower classes wanted nothing to do with the oppressively wealthy upper classes and their prissy art preference. The levity of Rococo art was abandoned in favor of emotional, intense imagery with a revolutionary energy about it. This period of art was known as Baroque art, from a French word describing irregularly shaped pearls. An easily recognizable piece of Baroque art is the cover of the recent Coldplay album, whatsthepaintingsname. In this painting, a rather disheveled woman is depicted leading fervent troops to battle. Enemy corpses are being trampled upon as the proud woman raises the French flag. This painting contains all the hallmarks of Baroque painting – excitement on a grand emotional level, with violent undertones.
While there certainly was nothing wrong with the art of the Rococo era, the lower classes understandably found fault with the unequal distribution of wealth in French society. Marie Antoinette famously had little regard for the welfare of her subjects. Rococo art represented to the French revolutionaries all that was wrong with French society at the time. It was no wonder then that the Revolutionaries set about hacking to pieces Rococo portraits of nobility as they stormed the estates of Paris.
[Top]Kung fu martial arts, Kung fu master info – Enlai Zhou
This article is about the kung fu martial arts and you can find some useful information in it if you are a fan of the kung fu martial arts.
Enlai Zhou is the first prime minister of P.R.China. Every Chinese people knows that he is a handsome gentleman and is very nice to other people. But I found a big surprise about this famous prime minister of China. Enlai Zhou was the minister of the Central Military Commission and the leader of Central Special Department (like the CIA of U.S.). He was acting as a military officer, not a civil officer for a long time. After the establishment of P.R.China (in 1949), he became the first prime minster. Lots of people knows that he only sleeps for 3 or 4 hours a day, but still in a very good physical condition every day. Actually, what makes him so special is the Chinese kung fu martial arts.
Enlai Zhou is like a kung fu master in the Chinese Communist Party. His kung fu martial arts supervisor is the famous Zuanxia Han. Mr Han is the Number 1 kung fu master in the notable Chinese kung fu movie – Wulinzhi (means “history of the Chinese kung fu martial arts” in Chinese language). He is as famous as Yuanjia Huo (Jet Li’s movie Fearless is about him) in the history of China. When Enlai Zhou was studying in the Nankai University, Tianjin, China( 1913 – 1917 ), he was interesting in both the Communism theories and the kung fu martial arts. Zuanxia Han was running a kung fu martial arts center in Tianjin during this period of time and Enlai Zhou learned this first kung fu martial arts course here. What Zuanxia Han is good at is the famous “Xingyi Bagua” kung fu, he defeated a lot of kung fu martial arts fighters using this “Xingyi Bagua” kung fu. He even killed a big Russian fighter in the boxing ring and this event made him very famous in China.
In the famous Whampoa Military Academy, Enlai Zhou was the minister of the General Political Department. He invited Zuanxia Han to be the chief kung fu martial arts supervisor of this military academy. When they met again there, Mr Han continued to teach Enlai Zhou the kung fu martial arts. In this school, Enlai Zhou learned a lot about the “Xingyi Bagua” kung fu martial arts from Zuanxia Han. Mr Han learned a lot from Enlai Zhou too. “Enlai Zhou is ambitious and aspiring youth. I teach him the knowledge of the kung fu martial arts and he teaches me how to be a honest and upstanding man.” Mr Han said.
One thing I found very interesting is that Enlai Zhou established the Central Special Department (like the CIA of U.S.). In this mysterious department of the Chinese Communist Party, he was acting as the supervisor for all the secret-service agents. His good knowledge of the kung fu martial arts helped him a lot in this special position. ( the tasks of the Central Special Department are: ensure the security of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, collect secret information, kill the traitors, rescue the prisoners from the enemy, establish the secret radio stations )
Enlai Zhou is both the kung fu martial arts teacher and the kung fu master in this special department. He rescued the prisoners for several times and executed traitors like: Jiaxing He, Bingshi Dai, Xing Bai. He even helped the Chinese Communist Party to kill the Kuomintang’s secret-service agents – Bing Wang and Shaowu Ma. Because of these, Enlai Zhou was called “Wu Hao” ( means “kung fu martial arts” and “high aspirations” in Chinese language ) during this period of time. All his special actions are named “Sword of Wu Hao”. He is such a good kung fu master and even the leader of the Kuomintang’s secret-service agents said this: “If we caught Enlai Zhou, the whole Chinese Communist Party will collapse.”
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