The Glade 4.0

That was specifically put in because of your responses, TheRiov ...

_________________

I approve of this post, actually.

• How to use MySQL queries
• How to root PS3, Android, iOS and Windows Phone devices
• How to create an Everquest or WoW Interface
• How to Scotty, or how to make something easy look hard (and vice-versa)

Interesting discussion point, I like where that leads.

Me? I'll have to admit up front that a lot of things on my list are more "things I learned as a by-product of getting myself into something I thought would be cool" rather than things on which I directly sought knowledge, but here goes:

• How to properly handle, accurately fire, and properly handle a variety of weapons - M16, Beretta 9mm, Colt .45, M60 (the machine gun), Grease Gun (the .45 automatic)
• How to drive a variety of tracked vehicles - M48A5, M60A3, M1A1, M113, M577
• How to perform therapeutic massage
• How to code in a variety of languages - BASIC/Visual Basic, Pascal/Delphi, COBOL, Visual C++, Javascript, Powershell, DOS Batch
• How to cook a few things - French Toast, Poached Eggs, Tiramisu, Flan, Sausage Gravy

So ... I joined the Army, signed up for massage school, took a few programming classes, and let some of the women in my life each teach me how to make something I didn't already know. The reasons and results all seemed fairly mundane at the time, but have left me with some interesting tidbits along the way.

_________________
Go back to zero, take a pill, and get well ~ Lemmy Kilmister

My "Learn Something Because It Was Cool" list ....

learned to play the violin in grade school...was first chair in the school orchestra for two years, before quitting when going to 7th grade.
learned scuba diving.
learned how to change oil, filters, and spark plugs in my first car (73 Mustang).
learned how to properly cut meats and vegies for stir fry.
(self-taught) learned how to do decorative painting.
(self-taught) learned how to use a scrollsaw.
learned how to knit, crochet, and sew (self-taught, grandmother, mom and school taught).
and I know how to cook!

I can do a lot more mundane things, which I am proud of, since mostly it is self-taught or learned by watching my parents/grandparents/husband/friends.

I'm not special in any way, but I am proud of my accomplishments.

_________________
"Said I never had much use for one, never said I didn't know how to use one!"~ Matthew Quigley

"nothing like a little meow in bed at night" ~ Bruskey

"I gotta float my stick same as you" Hondo Lane

"Fill your hand you son of a *****!"

Pics or it didn't happen

Some flying kicks videos with my brother. Mostly failures on my part.

edit:

Entirely* failures

People only started trolling Lex once he started telling people with actual fighting experience how totally useful a flying kick is in a "real fight". Had he stated that he just wanted to learn how to do them because they were "cool", I'm sure everyone would have been fine. The problem lies in him saying that, "I could totally use this in a fight". Those with any type of fighting experience are trying to dissuade him now because if he does actually try and use this in a fight, with anyone who knows the slightest thing about fighting, he'll get his *** kicked.

And just for the record, I got my black belt in Tae Kwon Do (and mastered the flying kick) because it was cool.

Video!

_________________
Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

Heh. Let's just say that TKD is a young man's martial art, and I am no longer a young man...

so.. 38 would be to old to take it up?

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

No. But if you have bad knees or ankles you will suffer.

Have you ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? You should probably listen to people that have some expertise. Anyway, if you run and try to kick someone, they're probably going to just move out of the way. It's not very practical. For coolness effect, It'd likely be more effective to try and snap out the kick at the high of your jump rather than trying to soar through the sky like Jordan. If you do it quickly you can even land on your feet. I guess you wouldn't be flying then. Hmmmmm. I can think of all kinds of unsafe way to try that I won't mention. Maybe you should wear a helmet first....

_________________
"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Depending on your current fitness, you'd probably be fine.

It's honestly less about my current age (42) than it is that it's been over 20 years since I've practiced it.

I'm... less than flexible, but I still pass my PT test for the reserves every 6 months.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

you wont be throwing any headkicks early on unless you're already a trained dancer or cheerleader or gymnast or something.

You can train flexibility though. Do your stretching both before and after.

The general thought is that you stretch before hand to prevent injury (though I just heard of a study the other day that suggests that per-excersize stretching isn't terribly effective, but most every practitioner swears by it, including me) But Post-Excersize stretching is when you actually gain flexibility (once the muscles are loosened up and blood is pumping)

We always stretched at the beginning of my TKD classes. I think it's partly to warm up the muscles you're using before you start doing stuff with them.

_________________
"...the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

I tried to do flying kicks today and slightly hurt my leg. I didn't do any stretching of course. Stretching is for babies.

(Warning: video is nearly a waste of time to watch.)

Lex, try jumping off your other foot, it will look much cooler. Jumping off your left foot and kicking with your right just makes you look like you're trying to spear someone with your leg. If you jump off the same foot you are kicking with, it will force you to extend your knee in a kicking motion that will actually look like a kick. You could also try jumping with both feet, anything but jumping with your left foot like you're doing. You look like a ballerina leaping through the air, not someone who is kicking something.

Look up Bruce Lee doing side kicks. Most of his are more of a small hop forward as opposed to a jump, but you can work your way up to getting more height (and starting from a run). But in any case, there's no doubt his kicks look badass. Here's a random video of him doing some kicks I found, but you can probably find better footage somewhere.



And yes, I have a similar video of myself (when I was in highschool) trying to do these kicks into a punching bag. No, they weren't the best and I'd be way too embarrassed to post the video online anywhere, but they looked a hell of a lot better than yours.

Okay, so I've been looking up more Bruce Lee videos. Here's a much better video of what I'm getting at:



And here's some cool footage of him practicing:



I think he stays pretty low to the ground because he's going for power here, but you can easily put more energy into the vertical jump if you want a flashier "flying" kick.

The kick being performed in the first half of that video is a skip-side kick or a step sidekick.
Its actually easier to do 'correctly' than a base side kick because the skip/sidestep helps rotate your hips correctly. (its also incredibly powerful) Its also a little hard to see from the video but I think a couple of those are skip-hook kicks instead where the force is delivered not as the leg extends, but rather when calf rotates back at to the buttocks, and you strike with the back of the heel. Less powerful, shorter range, but when delivered with someone of Bruce Lee's power & skill, certainly devastating.

The second video (and the third) is definitely that of a skip-sidekick, not a jump kick. Again, its amazingly powerful because you can drive the kick's force from the ground all the way through your target. Skip sidekick on the other hand, is most defiantly a fighting technique. Its easier to execute quickly, less tiring, more powerful, and you're far less vulnerable as you deliver it-- its also more accurate. I routinely land that one while sparring.

Note that at least in the 3rd video, he's using the 'fast' version of the kick where the chamber (what the 1st position I described) is abbreviated. You sacrifice power, but gain speed. Note that he's still returning to the chambered position at the end of the strike--controlling the leg rather than letting it flop to the ground or force him to step forward, but in the full range of motion kick, delivered for power, you chamber the leg just as he's returned to.


Edit: Another thing to note. Look at the position of his hips and toes on the planted leg. his hips are 90 deg from his target, and his toes are 180 deg.

I would not want Bruce Lee to kick me.

_________________

Holy shitsnacks!

Barring a zombie outbreak, you don't have much to worry about.

_________________
"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

This has nothing to do with flying kicks, but I made a video of myself shooting my bow today. It's something I actually know how to do.