Arts SOP

The weapons used when training are generally hand-held weapons made of wood or metal. There is a big range of martial arts weapons such as Tonfa, Sai, Nunchaku, Kama, Swords, Bo Staffs, Knives, Escrima and others.

Buying the best M.A. Weapons can be an extremely confusing procedure. There are a lot of sellers, manufacturers and various types of materials to be used in making these weapons. Every specific martial art has a specific weapon choice. It is essential that you pick up your weapons cautiously as they are recommended by your trainer.

So, if you seeking to purchase awesome M.A. Weapons, you may have two choices, either you can visit a number of local stores to get your desired weapons and pay at whatever rate they demand, or another option is that you can go online and surf the various websites specialized in this market, compare the prices, check the reviews of former buyers and pick up a website and order the list of required weapons. You will discover great selection, superb quality and the price which can be very low as compared to the prices on your local stores. Most importantly, for all this, you do not need to wander shop by shop; you can give an order at the comfort of your home.

To purchase the best M.A. Weapons, you can look through online stores which provides various styles and designs of M.A. Weapons. These weapons are made out of best quality material so they are very reliable and durable. You can find Ninja weapons, blowguns, CAS hand forged, Escrima Sticks, Kamas, Knives, Kung Fu weapons, Nunchaku, sais, swords, throwing knives, throwing stars, Tonfa and many others. So, just place an order and get pleasure from quality material weapons from the comfort of your home.

He was one of the greatest kung-fu masters in the world, a direct descendant of the creator of tai chi, and he was asking me to show him a punch. It was an exciting moment but also nerve-wracking. Trying not to be nervous, I settled into the posture and prepared to show him internal power. Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang stood in front of me, watching carefully.

Trying to remain relaxed, I shifted my weight from my right to my left leg and my right fist shot out, fast, relaxed, and powerful. At the same time, my left elbow thrust backward and my left hand stopped at my ribcage.

Grandmaster Chen was not impressed. He took my right hand in his left, my left hand in his right and told me to relax. Before I knew what was happening, he jerked the right hand out and pushed the left hand backward. I wasn’t quite relaxed enough and almost suffered whiplash in my neck.

Relax, he told me again, and once again he jerked my arms — hard — forcing one to punch and the other to return to my ribcage. For a minute, I was like a rag doll, completely limp as he repeatedly demonstrated how relaxed I was supposed to be when performing fa-jing.

It’s amazing how the internal arts of China — Tai Chi, Hsing-I and Bagua — have been distorted by teachers who take what they have read too literally. The subject of fa-jing (pronounced “fah-zhing”) is one example of how a simple concept is misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Fa-jing means “issuing energy.” Unfortunately, the people who desperately need to believe in the supernatural think that in doing fa-jing, you are shooting chi out of your hands or body. They take it literally.

It’s not magical or mystical. It’s a matter of physics, and in the internal arts, it’s a matter of body mechanics.

Boxers issue energy anytime they deliver a jab, a hook, or an uppercut. If you’re into karate, you issue energy when you break a board with your foot, and if you’re into MMA, energy is issued when you drive a knee into an opponent’s face.

In the internal arts, fa-jing — issuing energy — is more complex, but the end result is the same. You knock someone into next week.

Grandmaster Chen Xiaowang, whose ancestor,Chen Wangting created Tai Chi 11 generations ago, teaches that fa-jing is a matter of proper body structure (posture) and good internal movement. From there, he says you simply “step on the gas.” He likes using automobile metaphors. In other words, if you use good structure and mechanics and then add speed, you will create the unique relaxed power of the internal arts.

I’ve studied other martial arts and have found the body mechanics of the internal arts far more difficult and complex. For high-quality tai chi you must maintain ground strength, peng jin, whole-body movement, silk-reeling (spiraling movement through the body), dan t’ien rotation and opening/closing the kua. You must connect all of these skills through the body as you deliver the strike with speed, power, and relaxation.

It takes years to learn how to do this from an internal perspective, because we all bring bad habits to the internal arts and it takes years to learn the above-mentioned skills and learn to maintain the whole-body connection as you move. It takes years for us to lose the muscular tension that we’ve developed all of our lives.

When Grandmaster Chen worked with me on the punch, I didn’t have it the first few times I did the punch and he corrected me each time. Suddenly I understood, and the next time I punched I connected the relaxed power from my foot, through my body and out my hand, exploding and shifting my weight at the same time.

“Ahh!” he said, his face lighting up. “Good.”

As a martial artist, few things are better than getting a “good” from Chen Xiaowang.

A short time later, he astonished those of us attending his Washington, D.C. workshop by doing a series of fa-jing strikes.C. With each strike, it seemed his uniform was exploding in all directions. That type of power comes from being connected and relaxing — and from a lifetime of practice. When he does fa-jing, you can almost feel the energy even standing halfway across a room. It reminded me of being on the floor right behind the basketball hoop during a University of Iowa game. When the big players were slamming into each other beneath the hoop, you could feel the body heat and almost feel the energy as they collided. I’ll never forget it, and being close to Chen Xiaowang when he does fa-jing is very similar.

There are two myths about tai chi that all martial artists should put aside. One is that tai chi is a slow motion health and meditation exercise. In truth, it’s a powerful martial art that is practiced slowly so students can learn the body mechanics and later can speed up the movements and deliver amazing power without a lot of obvious effort to the untrained observer.

The other myth people should forget is about chi. Fa-jing has nothing to do with shooting energy out of your body. Instead of focusing on chi, which has never been proven exist in independent scientific studies and which is too often the focus of tai chi teachers, you should focus on proper posture and body mechanics. Do this and you’ll be closer to developing the relaxed power of fa-jing.

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Ken Gullette has practiced martial arts for 36 years and is best known for his high-quality instructional DVDs, his online internal arts school and his internal arts blog. He is dedicated to dispelling the myths surrounding tai chi, hsing-i and bagua, showing that the skills required for the internal arts are physical, not metaphysical.

By Bennie McCann

There are those who fervently believe the road to happiness is paved with shiny new cell phones, Sony PlayStations and high-definition plasma TVs. The citizens of Gatlinburg, Tennessee have yet to receive this memo.

In a town where old-fashioned letter writing, chatting with ones neighbors and taking long, meditative walks are the order of the day, Gatlinburg offers another rarity to a materialistic nation. Here you’ll find a community of do-it-yourself arts and crafts artisans. In Gatlinburg, the locals will happily tell you that DIY stands for Dream It Yourself.

These dreams occur among an eight-mile stretch of road within Gatlinburg known endearingly as the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community. It is the largest group of independent artisans in North America. Established in 1937, its here that arts and crafts enthusiasts, advocates and aficionados get to experience, first-hand, the hands-on approach to cultivating fine art. Forget about DirecTV, wireless Internet and downloading MP3s. The eclectic members of this vibrant community have a passion for whittling, painting, sewing, weaving, carving and just about every other form of crafting.

In an area heavily prided for its gorgeous natural landscapes, Gatlinburg takes equal pride in producing antiquities with ease. Whether its candles, baskets, brooms, quilts, pottery, jewelry, dolls, ceramics stained glass, fine photography or silversmiths, the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community is a massive one-stop shop. If you love exploring, discovering and buying you can do so at will without a pesky commission-driven sales clerk watching your every move. Virtually year round, the Community holds informal workshops for children and adults of all ages. The only requirement: a zestful curiosity and interest for creative expression.

After you have visited a wide range of enchanting shops its time for food, drink and relaxation. All can be had within the vast, quaint confines of the Great Smoky Mountains Arts & Crafts Community. A delightful multitude of restaurants, cafes, tearooms, candy shops and soda fountains are within reach of the surrounding businesses.

For those requiring a more academic approach to fine art creation, youre cordially invited to attend The Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts. Arrowmont, a visual arts education center for adults and children, is the Oxford University for aspiring artisans. In addition to weekend seminars, Arrowmont offers one- and two-week workshops for beginners and advanced craftsmen (and women), along with weekly classes for local residents.

You receive a first-class fine/visual art education, on Arrowmonts pristine and historic 14-acre campus. Workshop and class topics are as varied as a vegetable garden in the English countryside. Subjects include ceramics, fiber, metals, jewelry, painting, drawing, photography, warm glass, woodworking, books/paper and mixed media. Workshops are open to those 18 years and older, with class sizes no larger than 12 students. Arrowmonts attraction lies in its old school adage: creativity and hard work are never mutually exclusive.

An equally prestigious feature in Arrowmonts pedigreed portfolio is its esteemed Artist in Residence program. Along with offering 160 rotating workshop artists and instructors of national and international acclaim, the 11 month residency affords visiting artisans a monthly salary shared housing with private bedrooms and meals, a private studio and, at terms end, the opportunity to showcase their work in Arrowmonts acclaimed Artist Outfitters Store.

Visit Gatlinburg now and you’ll find that, when it comes to arts and crafts, ingenuity is both a state of mind and a state of play.

For those people who are training for martial arts, the question which arises in their minds is that what kind of bag is best for martial arts training? However, there isn’t a single bag that completely fits all the requirements of your training.

There are three kinds of bags who can be used for martial arts training:

Heavy Bag
The first kind of bag is the heavy bag. The heavy bag is ideal for your punching power, it mainly toughen ups your whole body. These heavy bags are either made of leather or vinyl, and they need to be hanged either by a hanger or big stand. This is the main problem with these heavy bags is that they are really difficult to hang up as well as it is difficult to find space for them. This makes it tough for the average person have a heavy bag in their apartment or house.

Speed Bag
The second kind of bag is the speed bag. They are best used for improving your reflexes and speed. They are generally hung on a stand or mounted to a wall. It surely does take some patience with practice to use the speed bag properly for getting the speed and the rhythm down, but as soon as you are ready, you can’t get anything better than these speed bags for improving your speed and reflexes.

B.O.B.
The third bag, which is also the last, is the B.O.B. (body opponent bag). These bags are not entirely considered as punching bags because they are shaped like a human form. However, they are the best thing available to you for practicing techniques of attacks on the eye, ear, and throat.

In the end, a combination of these three bags is the ideal complete set for martial arts training. You will be able to get your body tough, will have quick reflexes, and finally you will be able to practice your techniques on a human shape.

Martial Arts for Kids have become a necessity these days. With the increasing number of crimes against the kids it has become the need of the hour to train the kids with some sort of martial art. The training schools for these art forms are easily accessible in cities like Florida, New Jersey and New York City.
These art forms have a great historical significance and have been used since ages. Even spiritual development is focused through these art forms. People from all over the world are now taking a keen interest in these art forms. Big cities need it immediately due to high crime rates as compared to the smaller cities.

History:

It is very important for a person to know the historical background of the art forms before he or she allows the child to learn these arts. There has been evidence that shows the existence of these arts in the first millennium BC. Now in todays world, India and China are the two countries that have these martial arts. Martial Arts for Kids has the equal significance as the martial arts for grownups as these arts are better to be learned at younger ages so that a person practices them a lot.

Appropriate age:

The best thing about these arts is that there is no age limit, as it is never too late to safeguard ones own interests. The schools for Martial Arts for Kids are open for kids belonging to all the age groups. This allows a parent to get his or her parent trained at any age. Even for the grown ups there are various such training centers. The list of all the schools in Florida, New Jersey and New York City can be seen on the internet.

Precaution:

There is also a word of caution for the parents who want their kids to be a part of training centers which provide Martial Arts for Kids. Due to the immense popularity of these art forms there has been a parallel fraud structure being prepared all over the western countries. As people in the west are not very much aware of the art form therefore people take undue advantage of this. In order to be safe from this a person needs to take care of the point that he or she does a complete research work on the training school before the child is admitted to the school. This would ensure that the child goes in the right hands to learn the right thing.

Fee structure:

As far as the fee structure of these schools providing Martial Arts for Kids is concerned, a person can have his or her child learn the martial arts at a very low cost. This ensures that a majority of people opt for these arts so that more number of kids assures safety for themselves. The fee may vary from school to school depending on the type of mentor or facilities provided at the school. In cities like New Jersey, Florida and New York the schools charge an amount that is not at all a drain on the savings of an individual.