Archive for February, 2006

NASKA Champion Switching Back to Bo Staff

Thursday, February 23rd, 2006
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NASKA competitor Clint Cora who won the World title in the 40-49 mens black belt forms division in 2005 will be starting the competition season again in Pomona, California at the Compete Nationals event on Feb 25. Having finished with a 3rd place overall position in the weapons division, Cora would like to do better this year in this division. He competed in weapons divisions mostly with a Chinese 3-section staff last year but will be returning to using a bo staff for at least the first part of the 2006 NASKA season.

“I really love the 3-section staff but I think I can compete better with a hard style bo form” says Cora. “My bo form can be performed with more hard style intensity than the 3-section staff which may look better to the mostly hard style judges.”

Cora will also be promoting his line of t-shirts featuring his own martial arts designs through flyers at the NASKA tournaments this year. These designs can be seen at the Martial Arts T-shirts section of the Free Spirit Activewear website.

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Are Fitted Ladies Martial Arts Karate T-Shirts Too Small?

Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
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I had a question from a customer this week about the fitted ladies martial arts karate t-shirts, namely the Karate Queen design. She really likes the design but was wondering if the large size chest measurement was accurate since it seemed that 29 inches all around was rather small. She said that she could use at least 10 more inches on top.

The fact is that these fitted t-shirts by Fit-T are not your regular shaped and sized t-shirts. They are designed to be small body hugging tops which a lot of women like as it gives a sexier look compared to the average regular t-shirt. Unfortunately, not every women would want to fit into such a top so this is where the regular Gildan t-shirts come in with their regular adult sizes. The Karate Queen design is not available in the regular adult sizes but the Martial Arts For Life series certainly is.

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WKA Canada Announces Trials for 2006 Canadian Karate Team

Thursday, February 9th, 2006
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Looks like the WKA (World Karate Association) for Canada has announced the team trials for 2006. There are qualifiers all over Canada which will lead to a national event in Hull in May. Then the top three places for each division will be officially on the Canadian karate team which will be eligible to travel to the world championships this year.

I am undecided at this point whether I want to be a part of the WKA team this year or not since the world karate championships will be in Spain in October. I am already sort of committed to another year with NASKA and if there are minimal date conflicts, then I may do WKA as well.

In the meantime, promotional activities will continue for the Free Spirit Martial Arts Activewear Clothing line.

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Martial Arts For Children – Karate For Kids

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006
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The type of research involved when choosing a martial arts school for adults is also appropriate for children (see the How to Choose a Martial Arts School article). However, there are some additional considerations when it comes to martial arts and kids. As everyone is aware, kids can get bored easily so teaching martial arts to them requires a different approach compared to teaching adults. Many adults can tolerate a relatively serious martial arts environment that some schools have. However, clubs that adopt a serious tone to training will certainly lose a good portion of their junior enrolment. Although martial arts can be one of the best discipline teachers available for children, kids need to have fun too. Kids also need frequent reachable goals in order to stay interested in certain activities. Do the instructors offer enough encouragement and incentives for the children to improve and advance? Otherwise, they will get bored and will soon be begging their parents to stop taking them to classes.

[for the rest of this article, see How To Find The Right Martial Arts School For Your Children]

Don’t forget that there’s nice martial arts karate t-shirts for kids at Free Spirit Activewear.

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Bruce Lee, Martial Arts Kung Fu Master

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
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Before Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, there was Bruce Lee. In a way, it is a real shame that many of today’s generation of action film fans have never been exposed to Bruce Lee because he was perhaps the greatest martial arts action hero of all time. His martial arts on film may not have been as fancy as say Jackie Chan’s or Jet Li’s but his on screen ferocity and charisma are unequalled. Even more important was the impact on martial arts that Bruce Lee had which still endures today even over 30 years since his passing.

Bruce Lee always considered himself a martial artist first and an actor second. As a martial artist, he was way ahead of his time in developing his own style of martial arts he called jeet kune do. His martial arts incorporated the most practical techniques from various combative disciplines as he moved away from the traditional and classical techniques. His martial arts abilities were real and
respected by other prominent martial artists like Jhoon Rhee, Chuck Norris, Ed Parker and Joe Lewis. His name was inducted into the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame twice, once while he was alive and the other after his death. These are honors that no other martial arts action hero has ever come close to. Martial arts schools in North America enjoyed a huge growth in enrollment because of Bruce Lee.

[see the rest of this article at Bruce Lee, the Greatest Martial Arts Action Hero]

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