Benefits of Karate for Kids Improve Self Defence Techniques

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Before to join in Karate Classes, first you should know the history of karate and its importance…

Karate is often associated with Japanese martial arts, its true origin dwells in Okinawa combat techniques and Southern Chinese martial arts. It is basically a fusion of both arts and was introduced to Japan only in 1921. During this period, Karate was simply known as “Te”, or hand, as called by the Okinawa’s. Chinese influence is evident in the original symbol for Karate – the “Tang Hand” or ? Chinese Hand?.

Japan began introducing Karate as a subject in schools before the Second World War and soldiers in the army were often trained in the discipline. Competitions and different styles also started emerging as several universities started karate Club programs during this period.

Fundamentals of Karate:

Karate mainly stresses on volatile combat techniques such as punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open hand methods. Grappling, joint manipulations, locks, restraints, throwing, and vital point striking are also parts of this discipline.

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Is Your Little One Ready To Become A Karate Kid?

As karate has become more popular over the years, kids of a younger age are getting started in the martial arts. There has of course been a strong influence from the Ninja Turtles and the Power Rangers but also with the ever expanding commercial karate schools.

Karate for Kids offers a safe, happy and encouraging environment where your children will learn self defence, become “stranger aware” and learn how to deal with other kids at school as well as developing personal discipline and confidence while getting active, having fun and making new friends.

It seems that the age of 5 to 6 years old is the youngest age for kids to be accepted into a martial arts program. We train-up the kids in a way to follow basic directions in order to function in the karate classes. Karate for kids can help your children increase their confidence by giving them the skills and practice needed to get in tune with their minds and bodies. They will begin to not only understand their actions and options, but themselves as a whole.

Karate for Kids Chief Instructor, Sensei Caroline Manly, designs all the classes and ensures they are a good mix of high energy, fitness and fun. She takes karate classes for kids in ancient style of Goju Karate. She teaches self defence techniques, self defence moves, martial arts moves and many more.

She says “I recognize all forms of martial arts have something to offer the student so I have to admit I have poached the best ideas from taekwondo, judo, aikido, kung fu and even boxing!” She is a good role model with plenty of teaching experience.

Karate for Kids classes are dynamic and they improve confidence, strength, self defence, mental awareness and made fun and they suit everyone. And these karate classes for kids are held in the Lindfield Community Hall, West Lindfield. We follow the public school term.

If you are interested to join your kid in Martial arts training (karate Classes). Are you would like to join in karate classes to improve life skills, Here you have Martial arts eBooks and Karate lessons and videos and You can contact me at:

Sensei Caroline Manly fully qualified 3rd dan black belt in Goju Karate with 25 years training experience and 20 years teaching experience. Chief Instructor and owner of Karate for Kids. She follows ancient style of Goju karate and takes karate classes for kids to improve self defence, strength, fitness, mental awareness. So Please take a over look at karate for kids .

Power Martial Arts Kicks In Five Logical Steps

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It makes no sense to let an attacker get close enough to punch. If he’s got a knife or club, or just a fist that is fast, the best strategy is to kick low and hard and keep him out of range. The problem is that many Tae Kwon Do schools do not teach the right way to use the legs.

A couple of things to remember before we get into making your kicks into powerful weapons. Practice kicking high so you have strength and flexibility, but keep your kicks low in a real fight so you don’t get a leg caught. And, the best strategy is to avoid the fight altogether whenever you can.

Practice kicking over a chair. This will train you to raise your knee high. When your knee is high your foot can go straight in and deliver the goods, and not arc up and scrape the body.

Turn your hips so they go into the action of the kick. Always turn, or tilt, your hips so that the weight of the hips is fully utilized. This will also give you a little more reach, and it will help commit the whole weight of the body into any technique.

Always try to kick with the ball of the foot. I know many people like to kick with the instep, but if they miss they end up spinning around out of control. Kicking with the ball of the foot forces the artist to be an artist, and it concentrates more weight into the smaller area of the ball of the foot.

Bring the foot all the way back. Snap that foot back so that an opponent can’t grab it. This also tends to leave more power in the target.

Practice planting your foot on your partner, then pushing him. This usually means you will alter the kick so that you can place the heel on the body of your partner, then push. This trains you to use the exact muscles that are actually used in a kick.

Kicks are your first line of defense, and this makes them extremely important, so don’t just practice your kicks ten or twenty times and forget about them, practice them hundreds of times a day for each kick. Whether you are training in Karate, or Tae Kwon Do, or Kung Fu, or whatever other art, a well placed kick cancan make the difference between winning and dying. So practice, and look at your kicks, study the physics of a kick so that your kicks are effective and end the fight before the opponent even gets close.

Why We Need Music

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Why We Need Music
By Professor Richard K Flowers AA, BS, MS,ISD, AP

“Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.”
William Shakespeare

We as humans are naturally born as musical and rhythmical. Even those who say they cannot hold a tune or sing off-key, have a musical and rhythmical intelligence. We live in a universe where rhythm and beat are intrinsically embedded in our lives. The day has 24 hours, the year 365 days and seasons occur according to where we live. As an infant we listen to our own heartbeat as well as our mother’s. As we are born into the world we experience the rhythm of own on breath and the sounds of music around us. We may sing songs, or dance to them. For many of us, our exposure to music may be limited to singing the alphabet or short children’s songs.Many others have only experienced music in school during a weekly 30-minute class period. Often, this exposure to music is marginal at best and the true appreciation of its power is never experienced. Unfortunately today music and art programs are either being cut or severely under funded in schools because of the budget shortfalls nationwide.

Enjoy the music
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However, it is possible for teachers and parents to use music holistically to teach the entire child. There are many activities that integrate music into learning all subjects using hands on, multiple intelligences and multimedia forms of learning.
Howard Gardner, a tireless researcher in multiple intelligences has identified musical and rhythmic intelligence importance in his studies. I have found through my own research as well as in other comparative research the musical rhythmic intelligence is the most powerful tool in learning.

Recent research is just now beginning to show the profound affects of music on learning and our lives.The College Entrance Examination Board research reports:
Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, according to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board. In 2004, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 40 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Scores for those with coursework in music appreciation were 63 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math portion. (see table below)

In my own classroom, I use every opportunity in using music and rhythm in daily instruction. I have seen how music and rhythm work wonders with my students to learn so many fantastic things. For example in science I devised a song for the kids to remember Moh’s Hardness Scale in geology. The Moh’s hardness scale for minerals has been used since 1822. It simply consists of ten minerals arranged in order from 1 to 10. Diamond is rated as the hardest and is indexed as 10; talc as the softest with index number 1. I keyed the minerals in the scale to a familiar tune and the kids learned the scale promptly. I have done the same with the presidents, states, capitals, colonies, planets, Great Lakes, Visible Spectrum, Central American Countries, groupings of taxonomy and many other facts. Remember, this is done with first graders!

Music and rhythm are also powerful tools for teaching reading. The kids can chant and sing the high frequency word lists such as Dolch and Fry word lists with the Dolch and Fry Phrases. I have devised a piggyback song for this purpose.Another great tool to help children read is the use of phonograms. Phonograms are word families that are used in everyday reading, writing and conversation. By learning the 37 most common phonograms, kids can learn over 500 words and learn to decode more complex words. I enjoy singing phonograms with my kids to tunes that I have created. I have seen fantastic growth in my kids’ reading and all subjects by integrating music and rhythm into the curriculum.

I once had the opportunity to study music with an East Indian musician in Berkeley that played the Bansuri (the classical East Indian bamboo flute). He taught me how to play the tabla, which is the name of an East Indian drum. I learned the East Indian system of music is one of the richest and most complex systems in the world. Their music system is handed down esoterically from guru to disciple using an oral system of mnemonic syllables to play the tabla. When my friend first introduced me to the system I was overwhelmed. However, once I started using the mnemonic techniques of drumming I learned the phrases quickly. I was surprised at how fast I remembered the techniques. The rhythms for Ragas on the tabla are called thekas. For example there is a popular beat rhythm called Tintal. For example here is the theka for Tintal.

X 2 0 3
Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Dhin Dhin Dha Dha Tin Tin Ta Ta Dhin Dhin Dha

By chanting the theka in a rhythm, you quickly learn it with the stroke. Every chant has a stroke on the tabla that it relates to. If you have ever had the privilege of watching an East Indian master tabla player, you will get goose bumps with the experience! The rich, fast, complex rhythms even can run circles around the best western style drum players. Even the advanced jazz percussionist Max Roach has affirmed this.

The reason that I learned this complicated pattern so quickly was with the power of music and rhythm. Whenever music and rhythm are integrated into a lesson, the understanding and retention increases many times. Research shows that music stimulates the neuron development of the brain. Music can actually increase intelligence.

Research shows that most of the best computer and mechanical engineering designers in the high tech fields are practicing musicians. Many who grew up in India were exposed to a rich and complex system of music called Ragas. Ragas have very complex tonal and rhythmic patterns. India graduates a high number of physicists and mathematicians that American business and universities aggressively recruit. Theorists say this high degree of intelligence to the daily or even prenatal listening of Ragas

Other Related Research

* Eric Oddleifson reports that a renowned Japanese master mathematics teacher, whose nearly 2,000,000 students have demonstrated incredible math ability beyond their years, was asked the following question. “What would you say is the most effective way of heightening children’s mental ability at the earliest possible stages?” He answered, “The finest start for infants is to sing songs. This helps to elevate their powers of understanding, and they register astounding speed in learning math and languages.”

* Studies by Diana Deutsch at the University of California/San Diego demonstrate that mental mechanisms that process music is deeply entwined with the brain’s other basic functions, including perception, memory, and even language.
* In another University of California study, preschoolers who received daily group singing lessons and weekly keyboard instruction for eight months performed much better on tests of spatial reasoning (which is the basis for mathematical thinking) than children who had no music lessons. The researchers suspect that when children exercise cortical neurons by listening to classical music, they are also strengthening circuits used for mathematics. (CAT and PET scans show that musical and spatial reasoning function in the same areas of the brain.)

* First-graders who were taught the rhythm and melodies of folk songs 40 minutes a day for seven months showed significantly higher reading scores than a control group.
* ????The research and proof are there. There is no mistake about it! Use music and rhythm whenever possible to help your child learn. Nurture your child’s multiple intelligence and use all the senses to learn and understand. I can assure you, I have seen this in my own experience as an educator!

Hence the quote Benjamin Franklin once said;

“You tell me, and I forget. You teach me, and I remember. You involve me, and I learn.”

Richard K. Flowers, AA, BS, MS:is an award winning educator, author, consultant, web and graphic designer, instructional designer, logo designer, educational consultant, artist and musician from Oregon
Richard is a respected, gifted, recognized consultant that has spent years of research on creative solutions using multiple intelligences and multisensory techniques for learning. Richard’s holistic approach to learning centers on the way we learn.
Richard’s services are available through his firm CDS: Creative Educational Solutions.
His contact is:

His website is at:
WWW.BetterDesign.US

Table of SAT Scores

Course Title Verbal Mean Scores Math Mean Scores
2001 2002 2004 2001 2002 2004
Acting/Play Production 541 539 539 531 530 527
Art History/Appreciation 518 515 516 518 517 516
Dance 512 509 503 510 508 501
Drama: Study or Appreciation 534 531 528 523 522 517
Music:Study or Appreciation 539 537 536 538 537 533
Music Performance 533 530 530 535 535 532
Photography/Film 527 524 523 526 526 522
Studio Art/Design 525 522 524 528 528 527
No Arts Coursework 476 473 473 494 494 492
Honors Courses 565 563 565 564 564 563

Years of Study Verbal Mean Scores Math Mean Scores
2001 2002 2004 2001 2002 2004
More than 4 years 544 538 533 545 541 536
4 or more Years 535 536 539 530 534 535
3 Years 518 513 512 518 516 512
2 Years 506 504 505 513 514 512
1 Year 497 495 497 510 510 510
.5 Year or Less 485 484 483 500 502 498

Sources: The College Board, Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Report for 2001, 2002, and 2004.

Professor Richard K Flowers, AA,BS,MS,ISD,AP is an award winning educator, professor, author, writer, web/graphic/instructional designer, artist and musician from Oregon. He is the founder of WWW.BetterDesign.US. His email contact is .

Hand Conditioning For Extreme Martial Arts Punching Power

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All of us have seen those amazing feats of mind over matter, where a martial artist is breaking a stack of bricks as tall as he is. Most of us assume that he’s made of something different than we, super human perhaps. And while it may be true he has a higher tolerance for pain than many, it isn’t true that these skills are natural or in bred. They can be achieved by anyone willing to put the time in.

So exactly how does a person go from ordinary to indestructible? The key lies in hand conditioning. Hand conditioning is the secret tool used in many martial arts to prepare the body for very high impact and for combat. It conditions the bone and the nerves to withstand great trauma without sustaining injury. But it must be trained gradually and methodically if great gains are to be made.

Hand conditioning has two physiological consequences. The first is a deadening of the nerves. Pounding bone on a hard object repeatedly eventually kills the feeling in that part of the body. So when expert breakers claim to have no pain during a break that is why. They can’t feel anything but pressure. The second change that occurs is actually a strengthening of the bone itself. When bone is cracked your body released calcium to that region which later hardens and becomes new bone. This often results in big thick fat knuckles, the trademark of a conditioned striker.

So for those interested, what is the best way to train for this sort of extreme skill? Hit stuff, plain and simple. Old school Karate practitioners would smash their knuckles with a hammer and then punch a wall until they passed out. This would turn the hand into more of a mangled club, good for little else but smashing. But this is unnecessary. Most hard core breakers take a long term and dedicated approach with a little each day mentality.

If you’re learning to strike with the fore fist, or the first two knuckles, you might start with lightly punching wood a hundred times a day or so. Go until the sting is too much to bear, rest, and repeat. Eventually your hands will harden and the nerves will deaden. You’ll know when its time to move onto brick or steal, a surface that won’t be so forgiving. But keep in mind, in training; you don’t need to be using great force. Keep relaxed and go for repetition.

This training is not recommended for everyone, but if this is your art and you’re dedicated, you can make great gains in just a few months. A few minutes a day will result in a rock hard punch after just a few months. But if anything feels off consult a doctor and use common sense.

Specifics of nude paintings

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The nude paintings originate a separate genre of the fine art the central, formative part of which belongs to the nude human nature. Every artist working in the genre of nude paintings and depicting the nude human body set himself a task to convey his own understanding of the beauty. Talking about nudity we usually mean mostly womans body, so it would be true to say that the principal theme of the original paintings for sale created in this refined genre is femininity as well as sensuality and motherhood. Womans body is preferable for artists not because of their dislike for mens but because the weaker gender has such a tremendous plasticity. To explain the reason of the enigmatic attraction that women have, one poetic figure “the mystery of nature” should be recalled. The art painting portraying a symbol of harmony will beautify any interior.

It is assumed that the nude paintings appeared as a genre in the Renaissance period. The first art paintings imaging the nude body were merely restricted by the patterns of mythological, historical, allegorical and social subject areas. Giorgione, Titian, Correggio and other artist of that time embodied in their art paintings the ideal notions of female beauty and they often added some philosophical or poetic nuances.

For the Baroque style portly and plump shapes were typically used at the nude paintings. The artists incarnated the charm of young blossoming beauty in their works, pointing up the sensual and sanguineous perception of the surrounding world. One of the most prominent artists representing the nude paintings in the Baroque style was Peter Paul Rubens.

In the 18th century the rococo images were presented in the nude paintings genre. Graceful and coquettish lively forms as well as imbued with sensuality womans nature appeared at the art paintings of such artists as Francois Boucher. Later in the 19th century some artists tried to return these classical canons of beauty, but the nude paintings of that time were mostly created as sugary and eclectic original paintings for sale.

Soon after that the genre of nude paintings lost its mythic associations, acquiring its modern character owing to the outstanding creativity of Edouard Manet. The development of the nude paintings continued up to the 20th century, when the artists faced the problem of morality. The discussions according to the existence of boundaries of the erotica in the original paintings for sale created in the genre of the nude paintings entrenched firmly in the European artistic consciousness.

The study of art and aesthetics is still searching for the clear criteria for moral acceptability of the nude paintings by analyzing different samples of various art levels, but since the days of ancient Greece the beauty of the human body remains one of the most powerful inspirational sources for creators of the art paintings. The attrahent fascination of the nude body still occupies the primary place at the original paintings for sale created by modern artists.