Certified ATA instructor

**A.D.D** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 7:57am

Originally Posted by DSL

Ps. The 'weight' under my nick cracks me up. I haven't been a featherweight since I was 13 :) Good thing too, those damned lightweights are quick ;p

Yes... big muscles make you slow!

**DSL** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 9:35am

Lol, for me I think it's age and the old rubber band effect, damned things aren't nearly as limber as they used to be. Sloooooow stretching of that left hamstring, since I like it all attached and stuff hehe.

**A.D.D** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 9:42am

Originally Posted by DSL

Lol, for me I think it's age and the old rubber band effect, damned things aren't nearly as limber as they used to be. Sloooooow stretching of that left hamstring, since I like it all attached and stuff hehe.

Ah, your comment about lightweights being fast just reminded me of what I heard an ATA instructor once tell a 13 year old black belt. Which was that he used to think that lifting weights was good for martial arts but then he learned something about speed is more important... I don't remember the exact wording.

It is just amusing to think of that. I bet it has something to do with the point spar.

**DSL** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 10:14am

Heh, it could at that.
Speed tag is just slightly different from K-1 or UFC :)

Even in K-1 though, if the fighter is faster and still as well conditioned as the bulkier fighter, he's apt to pick him apart. I did see one bout where the guy outweighed the other by over 60 pounds, I guess heavyweight is heavyweight heh. The little guy was McDonald, and yeah he anhillated the other guy in about a minute heh.

**daGorilla** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 12:06pm

Originally Posted by DSL

I guess my peeve is that some people find it very easy to slam a faceless entity such as Shadowcat's ATA. There is not one person up there called ATA, it's a huge organization of people. To generalize and categorize every member based off a single member you've met is pure folly.

I've met crappy and excellent martial artists in every organization I've come across in the last 20 years, that's how life works. Do I say that WTF or ITF etc suck? Heck no, I may not like the low block punch combination beaten into me, but that doesn't make thier organization bad.

As far as Korean vs American TKD, man oh man, talk about things changing. In the 70's no one would honor Korean certificates, well almost no one. I think WTF did. Now all of a sudden the Korean practicioners are that much better? The style is almost completely different from most American schools, almost exclusively focused on sport TKD. I don't claim either one is better, I just practice the style that suits me.

This is very true -- and I'm as guilty as anyone of poking fun at ATA TKD.

However, I do it mostly for sport and/or laughs. It's like poking fun at MAC users ("Apple sucks!") or making fun of Microsoft ("Windows crashed...again..."). It's just too damn easy. But it can still be entertaining.

-daGorilla :)

**DSL** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 12:49pm

Lol, I hear you daGorilla.

**gonchez** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 2:24pm

Does anyone know when this article is going to be available to read?

**Shu2jack** · Posted On: 7/26/2005 7:14pm

Someone asked me a question way back in the thread, but I went on a mini-vaction and couldn't respond. Aodhand answered the question, "why doesn't the ATA have open competitions", for me. Just wanted to apologize and let who ever asked me the question know that I wasn't punking out.

I too am interested in the article, but I would have to question it's validity because of the different requirements and methods of training in different ATA schools. I hope the article has locations and names to go with it.