Shizentai

For many young people, the body is quick to excel... but the mind still needs time and experience to develop. For this reason, there are time "requirements" in my dojo, but they are able to be lifted if the student demonstrates extraordinary maturity and is dedicated in training. Students with previous experience are also often allowed to test for multiple ranks at a time, but it is left up to the discretion of the examiner.

You know what really bothers me though? How do I know when it's time to clean up when I'm not soaked through with sweat from training? I'm used to planning my showers based on my karate schedule, so when that changes I'm at a loss to decide what time of day I should shower. I have to go outside and do yard work or something to make a bath seem like less of a waste of water. It bothers me.

MAN! Lucky! I do graphic design work for my dojo and assistant teach from time to time. I do this and more free of charge because my goal is not to make money, but to help the dojo. Even so, I often wonder if I am expected to pay for classes or not. Every time I consider inquiring about stopping the $90 a month I pay for training, I just imagine my elderly sensei and can't do it. This month I am beyond broke though, so it's tempting.

Well, I am a champion sleeper, always have been. I can sleep anywhere anytime, but after a tough night's training, I hit the pillow like ten tons of lead. As a matter of fact, I woke up this morning on my couch still holding my gi in my hand, right where I landed when I walked in from training.

Are you over 24? 26 The late 80s were good times... terrible fashion, but good times.

As for shotokan kata, I like anything ending in "sho": kanku-sho, gojushiho-sho, bassai-sho. I know it should be the other way around, being that the dai versions have greater application and larger movement, but I love the idea of one kata building on another by becoming smaller. As I practice the more compact techniques I have a feeling like I am exponentially increasing the potential energy in each motion. I feel like I am a watch spring wound, reliable, precise, yet ready to spring out as soon as the opportunity presents itself.

Wow, I guess that makes me older than him too

I like knuckle pushups. What I hate is standing still in super low stances for twenty minutes at a time. This kind of punishment to me is the most unbearable.

I have a problem with this one. While they may not be the safest places, an adult has a right to be there. And they have a right to not be attacked. If you behave like a reasonable person, you should be able to avoid trouble, and walk away or redirect anyone who gives you problems. Fights also happen a lot at sporting events and schools. A person can't just lock themselves in their home. A person should take the risk into account before going, and remain sober enough to be aware of their surroundings, but that if a far cry from saying that it's not self defense if you need to defend yourself. Agreed. To tell you the truth, I employed subtle self defense techniques, oh, probably about once out of every 4 times I went into a bars/clubs in college. I think every girl should learn wrist releases before reaching dating age. =_= Oh dating ... glad that's over!

I've actually messed around with those before, but I think the brand we got was a little on the easy side. Maybe it would have been appropriate for kids or something. I'm sure they make them tougher than that, but I never got around to ordering more.

There is a bit more to it than that, like CO2 produced by machines burning fuel to chop the tree, haul the lumber, remove bark, then trim and sand it, shipping again etc. but I don't think I should go into the rest of this topic here. I can see the train I derailed falling right over a cliff and burning at the bottom of a canyon soon. Mostly what I was getting at is that sudden acts of destruction don't appeal to me nearly as much as working tirelessly for hours to create something usable. Maybe it's really just a personal thing.

They absolutely do hit back! =normal force! Anyway, I hate breaking wood, not because I think the exercise is fruitless, but rather because of moral feelings. I like to make things like shelves out of salvaged wood, and we only have so many trees left to clean the air we breathe. When I am about to break a board I always pause for a moment and can't help but think to myself "What a glorious waste of such a precious resource! This tree had to die just so I could prove my toughness." Every now and again I don't mind, but to do so regularly would almost seem to negate the furious amounts of recycling and tree planting I do on a regular basis.

I am a fairly small person, and I actually find that Sensei8's method works well for me also. It took me a long time to work out how exactly to get my jamming kick in with just the right timing and posture though. I had to eliminate a good deal of excess motion and relax more to increase speed. Also, I had to get used to the feeling of my kick hitting a target that would not go back as I struck it. It's a totally different feeling than kicking something mobile like a bag. If in a blitz situation you kick the same way as when your opponent is stationary or backing up, you may or may not go flying backwards. To prevent this from happening I went out into a park and found a big rock to kick for about 30 min a day. Even if a jamming kick doesn't earn a point by itself, it will surely make an opponent think twice about running at you full speed. Also, if you can keep your center of gravity where you want it, a jam-kick can be a good set-up for another swiftly-following strike.

I am in favor of (lawfully) defending justice as well as embracing forgiveness. Basically, I am not interested in "getting even" so much as I am interested in making sure that whomever has harmed me will never do the same thing to me or anyone else ever again. For instance, some years ago a former supervisor of mine spilled a highly concentrated dangerous chemical on me while I was recording data in a notebook. I was rushed to the hospital shortly after and was bandaged up with skin peeling off again and again for three weeks. Since that day, I have been suffering with a fairly messed-up immune system. Every eight to twelve weeks I form a new allergy to something. Now I have to be careful of what clothes I wear, what foods I eat, I have to carry an epi-pin everywhere, and inhaler too. I usually have some sort of allergic reaction going on at any given point in time, and am always taking medicine to stifle it. At first it kind of was hell. At first all I could think about was getting revenge, and how unfair it was. Bun once I got the cost of all of my medical needs taken care of by my workplace and it was time to consider lawsuits for pain and suffering... I just couldn't do it. My boss has a young daughter who is a terrific kid, and a really nice spouce, both of which would be put in a really bad quality of life should I decide to do what by all means was withing the legal extent of the law. Furthermore, my boss came to me so many times saying sorry about the accident. I could tell that it was genuine. So I did nothing. After all, there is nothing that can fix this. There is nothing that can go back in time and change what happened. Why should that little girl have to suffer because of my pain? I did quit. I also came back to check that new safety procedures had been put in place to prevent that sort of situation from happening again. Many people may call me a fool, but I would really like to suggest that when you feel a desire for revenge, you not forget about assessing how your actions will affect ALL others involved, including yourself in the long run. I think that it is good to stand up for one's safety and others as well. However, As terrible as we may be to one another at times, we are all human. Often enacting revenge leaves you with more unwanted enemies than it does leave you with a feeling of satisfaction.

That is so sad to hear. He was so young... just about my mother's age. May he rest in peace.

I have not myself, but I have heard many stories from my sensei and senpai who have trained with him frequently over the years. Kanazawa sensei and my sensei were roommates throughout JKA instructor training in the 50s, graduated, and fought together often in the early days of the All-Japan Karate Championships. So even though they ended up in different organizations, their students for a long time mingled together. It used to be that once or twice a year a big group of my dojo mates would go to see him at exhibitions or at his dojo, but at that time I was too young and inexperienced to go with them. Now I really wish that I had found a way. My sensei has often told us stories about his way of approaching karate, even as a young man. He seems like a very philosophical and spiritual instructor.

Master Pain, I swear I have met you before. Terrific answers!

Below are a list of questions I hope will perhaps evoke interesting responses from the people of this forum. Please post your own answers to the following: 1 Have you ever trained with a different style of martial arts? 2 Have you ever trained in another country? 3 Have you ever trained outdoors? 4 Have you ever trained so hard you couldn't stand? 5 Have you ever had dreams about training? 6 Have you ever been knocked unconscious during training? 7 Have you ever intentionally lost a fight? 8 Have you ever run from a fight? 9 Have you ever cried during training? 10 Have you ever saved your own life with martial arts? 11 Have you ever saved another person's? My answers: 1. Yes, Ashihara karate and very briefly Bujinkan taijutsu and Shito ryu 2. Yes, Japan 3. Yes, on grass mostly, but also we practice falling on concrete every now and again 4. Yes, although I try to shoot for just before that point so that I can get home at night. haha! 5. Yes, almost every night lately 6. No, although I have been KO'd by some inanimate objects in my house 7. Yes 8. Yes 9. Yes 10. Yes 11. No

Lol! This is the one situation in life where I can say that I am truly thankful for looking like a total wimp. It's just easier not dealing with all of that silliness, not to mention going into any sort of street situation with the element of surprise on your side. Now if I could just figure a way to get out of this dangerous situation...

I could see that problem arising, especially for a man. When I was much younger and was still learning how to behave outside of the dojo I got into a situation where people would want to "challenge" me to fights frequently, but most of the guys were very wimpy. I guess it makes sense, you've got to be pretty low in the pecking order to gain street cred by fighting a small girl wearing glasses. I've had nerds come at me with knives before, but I probably wouldn't know about tough guys wanting to keep up their reputations.

How about when they're given you harder than you're giving out? Had it happen a couple of times in kumite and body conditioning. Never more than once with the same person though. This is so familiar. Last month a female classmate of mine hurt her own forearm by blocking my punch WAY too hard, then proceeded to ask me to not resist her block so much ... ... ... You know, I've spent most of my life getting called a wimp. So when I started training karate I made a promise to myself that regardless of how little or much progress I showed in it, I would never ask someone to "ease up." At least then I could sleep at night knowing I tried my best to rise to the challenge. Am I the only one who feels this way?

I often wear my gi outside of the dojo, but usually just to commute to or from training, especially when training is outdoors as it was for half of the year in my college club. Ladies removing their shirts in the open unfortunately attracts a lot of attention on a large university campus. >_< I don't usually go to the store in my gi unless I need some emergency mouth-guards for competitors at a tournament or something. Even then I would most likely wear a jacket that covered everything but my pants. I don't think bending the 'rules' for a good reason bothers me too much though. My sensei once said "If you truly love something, it is impossible to be embarrassed by it." To be honest, I feel more at ease wearing my gi than I do wearing pretty much anything else I own.

Well, I put "semi-contact" since that's what we're supposed to do in competition, but usually the way my senpai train with me every night is more like full contact.

Being that I started both pottery and martial arts around the same time in my life (age 15), it really warms my heart to see other people drawing upon similarities between the two art forms for insight as well. When I went to Japan for my longest study abroad I trained in both arts, and found myself pouring over texts examining their deeper meaning. It truly is an amazing thing to see the paralells! Here are some of my favorite quotes from a Mr. Kawaii Kanjiro, one of the most famous potters in recent Japanese history: and of course, my favorites: The last one is hard to translate because we don't have equivalent words in English, so I included the Japanese as well. I hope that's alright with everyone. At any rate, I feel that many of these ideas apply to training martial arts, some more obviously than others.

I particularly feel this way about the words "weak," "strong" and "spirit." In myself these terms are simple enough to understand: when I am sick I feel weak; after a year of striking a boulder my front kick feels strong; when even watching youtube martial arts videos makes my heart flutter I feel spirit... But sometimes I wonder what exact factors we are observing when we perceive these qualities in others. If I perform a kata or engage in kumite in front of the dojo, one of my senpai will almost always tell me "That was too weak" or "perform more strongly" or "your spirit wasn't there." Well, as nice as it is to have critique, telling someone to simply "fight more strongly" is a pretty broad suggestion. This leaves me to wonder when I try hard (as I usually do), "Which one or more of my techniques or stances or movements was the cue that led my senpai to see weakness in me?"