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I say that conditioning is VERY important. There is a big misconception out about callousing your hands and feet, giving you problems when you age. Its all a matter of moderation. The biggest mistake that most people make, is the attempt to callous the weapons too quickly... never giving the body enough time to heal itself, making a stronger weapon. When done properly, one can age without any problems later on in life. You receive just as much damage, if not more, by striking full power with an unconditioned weapon. Besides, if your weapon is not strong enough... you wont be able to utilize near your full power. A good example of this, is Mike Tyson's hand shattering when he was involved in a bar fights several years ago. Another example of this, is the Kickboxer whose shin broke on contact (the video is online, I'm sure many of you have seen it). Especially in Thaiboxing/Muay Thai... it can't exist without conditioning of the shins and body.

A good way that I've found to condition your weapons, is striking hard surfaces. I have a few zippable burlap bags that I put various substances in, ala Bruce Lee's Fighting Method books. I have one with sand, one with metal shavings, and one with pebbles/stones inside. I wrap these around my tree in my backyard, and commence the striking. I also have a homemade Makiwara (stands 6ft tall built with supplies from Home Depot)... and a Mok Jong (JKD Dummy) that also helps. For additional shin conditioning, just take a metal hammer, and tap up and down your shin bone. You can also take a broomstick, and aggressively roll it down the shin bone as well. However, kicking various surfaces is the best way to condition. Remember, its all in moderation.

I still roll glass bottles up and down my shins a bit, but I still let them stay sensitive.....the downside to a lack of sensitivity, however, is being injured/bleeding, and not feeling it. I'd rather be in pain, and have my body say, "Look, ********, RUN!", than die of an open wound I can't feel down there. I used to put my forearms to a flat wall piece pretty hard, though, and they're still decent. I agree on the moderation issue, and especially taking care of your body....I still get spooked at knee injuries, considering how common they are.

Is kung fu effective on the street? (What with all the poking of sensitive parts and such) and to be specific I mean Hungaar Kung Fu and kung fu in general

Here is an example of someone who doesn't train their weapons well. Condition your weapons for the tasks you intend to use them for, or this can happen to you.

http://www.megathai.it/italia/menu portale/video ko/video/video 4.avi

New question! I've actually wondered about this for a while; how effective are the crescent kicks? From my experiences, not only does it take a while to get used to, it's a kick that's easily telegraphed and weak. And I would think that your ankle would probably break from the impact. However, I've never seen the ineffectiveness (or effectiveness?) of this kick brought up in a discussion, so I was wondering what everyone thought about them.

I've never got the cresent kick to work particularly well, however I've found it works really well and you can put huge amounts of power in on a punch bag but that doesn't hit back or block. (in TKD) Its supposed to be a close range kick that comes from outside of the field of view so directness isn't such an issue. There doesn't seem to be a risk of breaking your ankle any more than any other kick. Used correctly in can be an effective kick but mainly in non-full contact sparring and certainly not on the street.

Sparred against my first Judo Black Belt tonight (ground work) and tapped him out!

Not bad after 6 months of BJJ and 3 months of judo.

Heh, check me out...............

The safest way in my opinion is to get a good heavy bag and round house it with your shins as hard as possible 10 times on each leg.

Do this once a day (or every other day).