Sparkey

Hey Karatek, I ripped my ACL in half after hyperextending my knee doing a side thrust kick. It HURT!!! I ended up opting for surgery and they used the ligament between my patella and my lower leg to form the new ACL. My doctor told me that I shouldn't do anything to injure the surrounding ligaments of my knee before surgery (I waited 4 months to do my surgery until I was done with school and on summer vacation). Then I was NOT ALLOWED to do any Karate until 8 months after the operation. But after that, the doctor told me that I could do whatever I wanted. My knee is a bit clicky now, but it doesn't hurt. I have full range of motion and can pretty much do what I want. I don't have to worry about my knee poping out of joint, now. Good luck with your knee and I hope you recover well.

Along this same line, does anyone have enough experience with fiberglass to know if I can construct my own timbe from it? Would it be able to withstand impact over time if I did layers of fiberglass with some chicken wire as a base? I love making my own weapons and make my own Tonfa, Nunchaku and kama. I'd like to figure out how I can make my own usable and lightweght Timbe.

Be careful about washing your belt with the stripes on it if the stripes are made from putting duct tape on the belt. If the water is too hot, the adhesive could get melty and rub off on things that you don't want adhesive on. My advise is to wash it by hand and not scrub the stripes end too much, just enough to get it clean. Then ring it out well, press out the extra water in a bath towel until no more water is left and it's just damp. Then put it out in the sun and let it dry the rest of the way. Also, when you get your next belt, before wearing it to a work out, wash it really well to get the extra dye out of it. That way you won't get a colored stripe around the waist of your dogi. If you're of the thinking that the belt "holds the knowledge of your training" or whatever (which I'm not...my training is in my head and body...not my belt) if you wash your belt free of extra dye before your first work out with it, you won't have to worry about losing any of your knowledge.

I've gotten around that situation by putting on my best "dumb blonde" look and saying to the parent, "Oh, gosh, I'm sorry, would you like to teach class?" Not in a sarcastic way, but in a very sincere way, as if I would truly turn over the floor to them if they wanted. It usually stops the sideline teachers, and the know it all youngsters. If all else fails, you might try pulling the dad aside after class and telling him the difficulties of the dichotomy of being a parent/student with his boy. Ask him politely to allow his son to be taught by you in Karate class. It's hard to step out of the parenting shoes and into student shoes, but it's a good excersise both for the parent and the child.

Hey Josh, seems you're still looking for a place to train, huh? I don't know about the place in Corvalis, sorry. I do have a friend who is a blackbelt at my dojo (westside martial arts--up in Portland) who has a couple of guys that he trains with at the University in Corvalis during the school year. He's teaching Shorin-ryu, of course, since that's what he learned. He's also a great wrestler. I've learned a lot about ground techniques and holds from him. If you were interested in such a thing, you could send me a private message and I could hook you up with him.

Hey there Armbar, Greetings from Portland! I think I've got a few ideas, too. I work with Autistic kids regularly, I'm a Speech Language Pathologist. Just because he's Autistic doesn't mean that he can't be expected to learn appropriate behavior. He absolutely should be expected to learn appropriate behavior! One of the things that Autistic people have, though, is knowing what appropriate behavior is. And also, what is the consequence of not behaving appropriately. One technique is to make something called a "Social Story". Here are the guidelines on a Social Story: The 10 criteria that define each Social Story™: A Social Story™... 1) meaningfully shares social information with a patient and reassuring quality, and at least 50% of all Social Stories™ applaud achievements; 2) has an introduction that clearly identifies the topic, a body that adds detail, and a conclusion that reinforces and summarizes the information; 3) answers “wh” questions; 4) is written from a first or third person perspective; 5) uses positive language, omitting descriptions or references to negative behaviors in favor of identifying positive responses; 6) always contains descriptive sentences, with an option to include any one or more of the five remaining sentence types (perspective, cooperative, directive, affirmative, and/or control sentences); 7) describes more than directs, following the Social Story™ Formula; has a format that is tailored to the abilities and interests of its intended audience, and is usually literally accurate; 9) includes individually tailored illustrations that enhance the meaning of the text. 10.) has a title that meets all applicable Social Story™ Criteria. So, one way this could go is this: On Thursday's I go to my Karate class. I greet my teacher by bowing and saying "Good afternoon, Sensei". This shows my respect for him. When we line up, I stand up straight and keep my hands at my side. I don't want to distract the class, so I stand still. I look to the person on my right to make sure I'm lined up in a straight line. I listen very carefully to what the sensei has to say. What would be really great for adding to this, is taking digital photographs of the boy doing exactly what it says in the story, bowing to sensei, holding still, lining up straight, and so on. And then making a sort of picture book of Karate class. The idea is that it's a guideline for "How am I supposed to act" rather than, "how am I NOT supposed to act". Of course you could add in a section about absolute No-nos. It could go like this: "In the dojo I must always use polite langauge. This shows respect to my teachers and classmates. Swear words are not OK to use in the dojo. Sometimes I get frustrated and angry and I feel like using swear words. When this happens, it's better to be quiet, or ask for a break. If I use swear words, I will have to ((insert consequence here)). I don't want to ((whatever)) so I will try to either be quiet or ask for a break. YOu know the kid, so you can tailor it to fit whatever his actual responses are. I know what I've written seems pretty basic, but I'm just trying to give an example of the way it would work. After it was written, the parents job would be to review the information in the story before class. I've seen this work well with kids. Clear expectations, clear consequences. If you think I could help out with anything, please let me know! Here's a link to a useful website: http://www.thegraycenter.org/Social_Stories.htm Take care, Laura **edited for spelling...can't spell worth a darn!**

I think it's interesting about mentioning "Skipping" with the belt. My sensei will freqently ask us to take off our belts...and skip them! We have to do ten jumps, then fold it in half, do ten jumps, fold it in half again and do 10 more jumps! Then we've also used our obis as whips, seeing if we can snap a bottle of water off the shelf. It's a good way to practice quick backfists. Then, we've also learned how to do throws and holds using our belts. My feeling is that one shouldn't scrape up their obi to make them look used and worn, but it's also not some holy object. If I can use it to help me further my training, why not?

Thanks so much for your responses! I appreciat all the input. I haven't been in class with her since last week on Thursday, but I think I'm mentally ready to really hop off the guilt train. I agree with those who said that if she was really hurt she should rest her body. It doesn't make sense that she's complaining and then working out 2 hours a day. We'll see how it goes this week!

Alrighty...I need to vent a little and use you all for a sounding board. Here's what happened. I was doing some light sparring in class with another woman. We're about the same rank and she's smaller, faster and lighter than me. I don't really know EXACTLY what happened because it happened so quickly. I think I must have got her with a low hook kick but I landed it JUST RIGHT into her femoral plexus. You know that spot on the outside of your thigh that if you hit it just right, even if it's not hard, it can really hurt and sometimes even collapse your leg? Well I must have hit it dead on. I didn't mean to, and I didn't mean to do it hard. She was coming at me as well, so it was force on force. This happened about 3 weeks ago. She stopped the match and walked it off and rubbed her leg and then after a minute or so, we started up again. I appologized and told her I didn't mean to get her so hard and she said, "that's OK, it's part of what happens when we do what we do". And I thought that was the end of that. But now, she'll do things like rub her leg in the middle of class and look over at me, make a point of rubbing ointment on her bruise in the changing room while I'm in there, EVERYBODY in the dojo knows about her hurt leg and asks her about it and she says, "oh, it's still so sore" and looks over at me. She'll talk about going to acupuncture and how she learned that that spot's meridian is hooked into the kidneys, so now she's talking about how her back hurts as well. Even with her injury she still trains 2 hours a day and comes in for extra kickboxing classes and weapons class. I don't know if she even is meaning to be catty about it or trying to make me feel bad. I could even be totally over sensitive about it and reading WAY more into her actions than is necessary. I feel bad I hurt her, I never like to hurt someone! I train in Karate with the idea of fighting and being able to inflict damage if need be, but I don't want to hurt my dojo mates. Our sparring is light to medium contact, so we always have the potential of getting hurt or hurting others, but we don't TRY to hurt each other. I was guilty of poor control, but I'm also not an expert. I'm learning! But HOW LONG do I have to apologize for this? I tried to talk to my Sensei and he said, "Hey, I'm not getting in the middle of this. It was accidental, I called it as an accident and if you two are having issues, you have to work it out between yourselves". Fine help that was. I've apologized more than once, several times. She always says, "don't worry about it". I'd love to just let it go, but I'm still taking the guilt trip. Any thoughts or experiences that could help me out?

Ohhh! Flavored Rum! I like that idea! Cherry is a good idea, too. I was thinking cranberry, but I'm actually liking the cherry idea. Hhhhmmmmm...Maybe Cherry Coconut Rum And something else...something a little spicy or twisty....I wonder how a little cinnimon liqeur would go, just for a taste, or if it would overpower everything. Or Amaretto?? That would be good, too. Cherry and amaretto is nice. Hmmmm....I might have to try a few different things!

Hey Parker Lineage, I was raised SDA, did the whole Academy, WWC, PUC, Loma linda deal...so I understand the Sabbath issues. My question is, why are tournaments important to you? What do you hope to accomplish at the end of the day? Do you hope to come back with a trophy or ribbon? What will that do for you? Do you hope to prove that your Karate is better than someone elses Karate? What will knowing that do for you? I took flute lessons growing up, for 12 years I took one hour of private flute lesson a week. I was a VERY GOOD flute player. But I truely don't like to perform solo in front of an audience. And especially I hated perforiming for competions. I hated it. All the stress and jitters, for the only purpose of making my teacher look good. She tried to keep a "stable" of young flute players who could go into competitions and put her name on the board. It was all about her. I would do it because my parents would give me greif about spending all this money on flute lessons and I was not willing to share my "talents". I was good enough at the beginning of college to consider if performance was something I wanted to major in. I decided that I wouldn't major in something I hated to do. Although I'm fine playing flute in a group or just for myself in my house, I haven't done a solo for several years. And I'm just fine with that. To tie this all up with Karate, now. When I was lookin for a dojo to train in, I specifically looked for a dojo that only cared about training and teaching good Karate, not about bringing home trophies and championships. My Sensei told me that if I should choose to enter a tournament, I should tell him, and that he would help me to prepare, but it was my own deal and I had to do it for my own reasons. So far, I haven't entered any kind of competition, but I have entertained the thought of entering in the Kata devision just for kicks. Do some soul searching about why you're entering a tournament. The answer doesn't have to be "right" or "wrong" or "for a good reason". Just find the reason. Then, like lucifersdad said, figure out what's the worst that can happen. Will your Sensei not like you and be disappointed in you? If you've tried your best, and he's disappointed, then something is seriously wrong (with your Sensei, not you). If you don't come back with a trophy or whatever, so what? Are you afraid of physical injury? Most likely you'll be fine! Try to answer the question "What are you afraid of?".

The other day in training, we were doing a little boxing drill: Your partner throws a punch. Your response is: Parry right, "bridge" left (a bridge being the left hand sort of flopped over opponants arm, palm side up), Press down right, Punch Left. So, my partner, who was a beginner, was talking through each step: Parry, bridge, press, punch. After a while she tried to do the exersise quietly, but she forgot a step: the press. She said, "I keep doing a Parry, bridge, punch"! Then I commented that Parry Bridge Punch sounds like a mixed drink you'd get at a bar! We decided we had to invent a drink and get our local watering hole to add it to their drink list. The problem is that neither of us know much about Mixology! I thought I ask you all! So: If you had to mix a drink called a "Parry Bridge Punch" what would it have in it?

I have sort of a similar problem. My right foot is "put on wrong". If I point my toes straight ahead and bend my knee, my knee points very sharply inwards. If I want to bend my knee straight ahead, I must turn my toes out at about a 45 degree angle. I wear a custom orthodic in my shoe all the time to compensate for this and reduce back problems, but during Karate I train barefooted. When I first started karate lessons, I made a point of telling my sensei about my physical difference. He told me to do the best I could, which I always do. But because of the way my foot is put on, I can never do a real propper Kibadachi. If my knee is pointing straight, my foot must be turned. If my toes are pointing straight, my knee shoots inward. I can't win. When sensei forgets that my feet don't cooperate with me and "corrects" my stance, I just smile, and say, "Hai, sensei, I'll do the best I can." He remembers and says, "you always do". I just keep doing the best I can.

I'm Sparkey because my Sensei always calls the little kids in the classes, "Sparky" as a sort of nickname. Or he uses it as a name for "anykid" like: "Ok, imagine you're standing in a dark alleyway and a big guy says, "Come 'ere Sparky....What will you do?". Although I'm not a kid, I'm a grownup, I thought that sparky was a sort of funny name. And since I'm not a very good speller, I misspelled it when I first made the name, and I just never changed it. So--it's Sparkey.

Super Tampon and thin pad have always worked for me. Even on the lightest days I wouldn't risk it with just a tampon, though. Leak through on a white gi is just too frightening to risk. I have tried a menstrual cup, but it didn't work for me, but it might work for others...I wish it did work, so you might try it. http://www.keeper.com/ is the brand I tried. If I'm just sitting around it works fine. But the kicking jumping, stuff was just too much for it.