Bastich

Wow, I didnt realise there was so much to understand about a front kick. I have found this thread both interesting and informative. Thank you all.

Thanks for all your replies. I will give it ago and see what happens.

MY Sensei yesterday asked if anyone was interested in entering some competitions for both Kata and Kumite. I really like the idea of kumite but really dont know whether im ready. Im only a green belt and although i enjoy sparring during lessons at 39 i just feel that competition is more of a younger mans game. Should i have a go? Im thinking the experience could be good for my Karate.

Sensei Ronnie Christopher would be my suggestion. Runs his dojo out of Cocks more wood leisure centre in Birmingham. Twice world team champion, Silver medal in world championships and many other awards. More importantly an excellant instructor who is very approachable and ha a very good team around him.

I was involved in some very intense full contact sparring on monday night and didn't realise until we had stopped but i have taken several layers of skin off the underside of both big toes. I now have two rather large flaps of skin hanging on both feet which are obviously very sore. I have taped them up to enable me to go to my lesson tonight but it got me wondering about other injuries people may have got during training that although minor were actually quite painful.

Thanks for the replies. I study shotokan, so it is the "traditional front kick im referring to. Having just acheived my green belt i thought it only right and proper i start working really hard on my kicking technique. I have started a rigourous stretching routine which would be useless without correct technique.

When using a front kick which part of the foot should be the point of contact to perform the move correctly. Is it the ball of the foot or should the whole of the bottom of the foot contact?

Thanks guys. Honestly i was expecting to go for my 7th Kyu but my Sensei obviously thought i was ready. It may be because i am enjoying my Karate so much and am showing this with my enthusiasm.

I have just graded from 10th Kyu to 6th Kyu. I have been training for 6 months prior to grading and i was a 7th Kyu before stopping due to injury.

Just a quick note to say that i did my first grading since returning to Karate 6 months ago. I have been a white belt for the last six months having previously been yellow. Well, i was surprised last night when my Sensei put me in for my Green belt grading which i am very pleased to say i passed. I was very surprised that i was put forward for my green as i was hoping at best to return to yellow. This has really encouraged me to try even harder especially now i am a higher grade than my young children.

Thanks all for the replies. I will definately concentrate more on my technique. I think you may be in right in that when i start to tire i may become sloppy. I have also started doing push ups on my fists rather than flat handed, this is more because of pain and lack of strength in my wrist which prevents me from doing them flat handed. I have also just ordered a set of the perfect push up exercise aides. Has anyone used these and do they really work?

Last night we did a lot of work on punching techniques using a heavy bag. I was fine for a few minutes but found that my punches started to weaken due to my wrist bending on contact. Could somene please suggest some exercises that would help strengthen my wrists to prevent this., or would evenmore bag work be the answer. Thank you.

Last night during our lesson we did some sparring. Our Sensei gave us the option to decide between ourselves as a pair what level of contact we wanted. He also provided head gear and gloves. Everyone chose to go with full contact and to be honest i think i learnt more for doing it. He has know offered to provide mouth gaurds for anyone who wants to continue to take part in the full contact sparring. Mines on order.

The secret to any form of Kumite in my opinion is to not be afraid of being hit. Once you overcome the worry of being hit or losing you naturally become more aggressive.

As there seem to be a fair number of instructors on this forum I thought i would ask for your opinion on mats for training. Last night while practising my niehan shodan kata my to got caught in the join between two mats as i was moving. I now appear to have broken as i have a black throbbing mass at the end of my foot. I know wht my sensei has the mats down, we have a lot of younger students who can be over enthusiastic practicing takedown techniques. My old sensei never used mats and i found this much better for movement. So back to my question, Do you use Mats or not?