Shizentai

honestly, if I could I'd wear a gi 24 7 365. It's so comfortable! heh heh, I don't though. I only wear it in class just like most of you guys. I've seen people in our club who got kidnapped and brought to a restaurant after training and had to wear a gi top because they didn't have a shirt with them, but it's not like they wore a belt with it. usually they act all awkward too. It's funny. If they wore it around intentionally that would be weird though. I think I mostly get upset when people do one of 2 things with their gi: 1. wear it as a costume for Halloween or something 2. come to class wearing just pants, no shirt and their belt over their pants. Mostly this bothers me because we have a fairly traditional dojo, and it's very distracting for one random student to be half naked. I hate sparing with them and throwing them because it's so much easier to accidentally give them brush burns or cuts from friction. This is not to mention that it tends to be either the hairy sweaty guys or the scrawny pasty ones that want to prance around topless ...bleh.

This is a very interesting topic. I believe there are certain situations where a fight cannot be avoided. However, I also believe that these situations are not constant or the same for everyone. As we improve as martial artists, the likelihood of finding ourselves in a position where we must fight decreases. The more we grow as martial artists the more control we should have over volatile situations, and thus the more we should be able to choose peace over violence. Being a small young female black belt often means that people don't feel threatened by me whatsoever. True, this may lead to my being harassed more often than the average tall muscly guy, but usually I would consider my non-intimidating stature to be one of my karate's most important protectors. You see, I grew up in one of the highest crime cities in America. Even though I usually didn't ride my bike through the most dangerous parts of town, people have still attempted to mug me 5 times in my life. None of those times did they succeed, and none of those times did I so much as throw a single punch. True, the first two times it was because I ran my assailant over with my bicycle, but the last three of those times, I looked the person straight in the eyes and had a conversation with them. Once a man approached me and my friends with a knife in his pocket and asked me for money. I smiled as I pulled my spare wallet out of my purse and poured out 43 cents. Then I told him: "I hope you don't need to take the bus or something, because it's not quite enough for that. I guess I'm pretty broke myself. I don't have a car either so I know how frustrating it is to have to walk all the way home late at night like this. I'm ____ by the way, what's your name?" The guy ended up taking an empty hand out of his pocket before hugging me and the other people I was with. He then turned away the money and left. Honestly, I never expected anything like that to happen. It was pretty weird. Who would have thought that something I said could have had that positive of an effect on someone. It made me indescribably happy that I hadn't chosen an alternative reaction and gotten into a knife fight. I know this story is not like all scenarios out there, but if it's worth a human life (mine or another person's), I choose the peaceful way whenever I can. That's all any of us can do I think.

I don't feel any pounding either. I would notice too, because I'm almost always the most shrimpy full-grown karateka in any dojo (~105lbs). Since I've been training the past 9 years, I actually notice my joint health improved a lot. I don't sprain my ankles nearly as often and my left knee never gives out on me like it used to.

every day... some sundays I get lazy though

>edit< oops, sorry, I didn't realize you had 2 topics called the same thing. See the other topic.

kcconnor, believe me, I know where you're coming from. First off, I think you may be a little confused: 1. If the Yaguchi sensei I think you're talking about is the Yaguchi sensei I know of, then yes, he was born in Japan, but he's been teaching in the US for several decades. 2. What the 6dan may have been talking about is the recent (2007) split between the ISKF and JKA. The way it used to be was that ISKF or the International Shotokan Karate Federation was under the Japan Karate Association (JKA), and worked as an overseas division taught by many of the JKA's first graduates of (and co-founders of) the instructor training program. Those ISKF regional directors, who came over in the 50-60's were: Okazaki, Yaguchi, Mikami, Takashina, and Koyama. In 2007 Okazaki and Yaguchi felt as though remaining under JKA while overseas was not in their dojo's best interest. However, Mikami, Takashina and Koyama all chose to remain under the JKA and thus split from the ISKF. To make a short story short... yes, politics are annoying. I bet the reason he reacted so strongly to questions was because these happenings are very recent and there is much speculation on the motivations of both sides, especially by individuals other than the 5 sensei themselves. That 6th degree probably just wanted to stay neutral on the matter. I can respect that. Personally, I believe all of the sensei to be great men. So I hope I've sufficiently conveyed this in a non-biased manner. 3. Well, everything you described was something that went on in the USA... so if you're going to look at it like that, Americans ruined karate, not the Japanese. Though I don't believe that to be correct either. Things just happen. In the words of Nakayama, let's just shut-up and train.

My favorite belt is a plain silk one with nothing but my organization's label on one end. I also have one that has my name and dojo's name embroidered on it, but I prefer my plain one because of who owned it before me. It's at that point where it just barely starts turning white on the edges.

long list: heian shodan heian nidan heian sandan heian yondan tekki shodan bassai dai kanku dai jion empi tekki nidan kanku sho bassai sho short list: 1. kanku sho 2. empi 3. heian sandan 4. bassai dai 5. tekki nidan It's kinda funny, I didn't realize I knew this many kata until I actually wrote them down. Time flies when you're learning kata I guess.