KarateGeorge

Well, from what you've described of your incident of having been attacked in other posts, I would think it would be natural to have anxiety during training and either freeze up or over react. I've not been in your situation, so I can only speak from "head knowledge" and not personal experience, but I would think its something that the only way to get past it is to keep training to defend yourself. As you build confidence in yourself, the moments of fear, timidity, or over reaction should start to go away. I'd say just keep sticking wth it. Like Joesteph said, take the techniques slowly, and think carefully through your responses.

I have two main goals for this coming year in martial arts: Start learning a new art, most likely Aikido, but I'm still doing research on local schools to decide where I want to train. Test for my Ni Dan rank in Shuri-te Karate....I'm currently on target to meet my time requirements by this summer, so if everything else is in order and my Sensei says I'm ready, I'll hopefully be testing later this coming year.

Agreed. Sparring gear has two main purposes. First, it's designed to protect you from injury. Second, items like gloves and foot covers are designed to protect your partner from being injured by you. As DWx said, there's nothing wrong with looking for a good price, but don't sacrifice on quality to get the "cheap" gear. Doing so only increases the likelihood of either you getting hurt or you hurting your training partners. My sparring gear is about 6 years old now and though they show signs of wear, it's all still fully usable. If you take good care of it, decent gear will last you a long time.

I've heard good things about the Captain of Crush grippers for quite some time now. I've been wanting a tougher gripper than the ones I have now, so I decided to order a #1 gripper to try out. I wasn't sure whether I should start with the trainer or the #1, but since I've already done strength training on my forearms for quite some time now, I decided to start with the #1. If its too tough, then I can just go back and order the Trainer. I was going to do the same thing actually, I weight train but my forearms are terrible. When I deadlift im sure I can lift more but my grip always gives out. Im probably going to get the trainer, number 1 and 2. Its cheaper on shipping if I buy more. Towel Pull ups are also very effective. My #1 just shipped today, so I should hopefully have it by week's end. I'll let you know what I think of them! Well, I've had my #1 for a couple weeks now. I definitely like it. I think it was the right starting point for me over the Trainer. Because of the way they're made, the grips felt a little rough on the hands at first, but once I got used to it, it wasn't bad at all. As far as the effectiveness, I've actually found them challenging. I think they'll be helpful in building forearm strength.

Well, teachers are people, so it's natural that they're going to find that they like certain students over others for various reasons, such as personalities, attitudes about training and towards other students, natural abilities at their art, or whatever. However, that being said, liking certain students more than others doesn't mean they should be providing favoritism with those students. Just because a teacher finds that they may like certain students over others, they should not treat them any differently. "Special treatment" should have no place in the dojo or related activities, such as tournaments, etc. If you're concerned that they're playing favorites, or doing anything otherwise inappropriate, I would discuss it either with them, your fellow students, or your parents and make sure the issue is dealt with appropriately.

12/26: 1 hour of katas 3 mile run 12/27: 3 mile run 20 minutes strength training (arms/chest) 12/28: 2 mile run

Yeah, if your main concern at the moment is trimming up, I'd focus mostly on cardio and a healthy diet. You'll want to mix some strength training in, as a pound of muscle burns more muscle than a pound of fat, so gaining muscle will help burn more calories throughout the day. Ultimately it comes down to simple math. To lose weight you need to burn more calories than you're bringing in. So eating a healthy diet, and exercise will go a long ways. For weight loss, when doing cardio, ideally you'll want to get your heart rate up for a good 30-40 minutes a day, about 4 or 5 days a week. You can break that up into a couple of sessions, and you may need to work your way up to it, but that should be your goal. As you start to lose weight and improve your cardio fitness, you may even find that to get the "same" workout, you need to increase the intensity of the workout. Once you reach your ideal weight you can scale back some, as maintenance requires a little less work than actually getting there, but if you really put your mind to it, you'll be quite surprised how quickly you'll start to see results.

Yeah, self-training books and videos can be a good supplement to training with an instructor, but I wouldn't consider them a replacement for an instructor. That goes for any style.

Welcome to the forums! Best of luck in finding a school. Let us know how the search goes!

First off, for the ankle, you may consider putting an ankle brace on it when exercising if you don't already have one. It may give it the extra support it needs to help prevent injury or pain. I would then do some strength exercises, such as calf extensions, to help build strength back up in your ankles again. As far as cardio goes, there are several types of cardio exercises that you can do that should hopefully not aggrevate the ankle too much. Mainly just look for something lower impact. Depending on how much the ankle bothers you, an exercise bike or elliptical may perfect for your needs. If that causes too much strain, you may try doing some swimming or using a rowing machine, or even just doing some punching drills on a heavy bag can be quite the workout if you have access to one. There are definitely cardio exercises out there that should hopefully not aggrevate the ankles too much. Best of luck!

I'm leery of this movie, though I admit it's largely in part due to having grown up watching the original. It's possible I'd like it in it's own right if given half a chance, but my expectations are tainted....it's not Karate Kid if it's not got Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio.

Well said!

That Family Guy episode was on TV last night. I love that episode.

For me, it's: A Christmas Story National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Congrats!

Yeah, that definitely sounds shady to me as well. A martial arts school is a business, so I would certainly expect there to be costs involved with training. However, in my opinion, it's something that should be understood up front. If a school isn't being up front about their fees, then I would just go somewhere else. There are plenty of other schools out there where you can know what to expect for your costs to train.

It doesn't hurt to be prepared.

Hello! Welcome to the forums. Glad to hear you've found the opportunity to return to martial arts.

Well, Judo is more of a modern art, so it doesn't surpise me. Its roots would trace back to Ju Jitsu.

The bad part is everytime I cancel my subscription, I tell myself, "I'm done." So I uninstall the game, with the intentions of not playing it anymore. Then after a few months it will start calling my name again. One of these times I figure it will be true and I'll actually be done with the game, or at least just learn my lesson and keep it installed on my computer!

I have chronic "World of Warcraft"-itis. I play for 4 or 5 months, cancel my subscription and uninstall the game, and then about 4 or 5 months later, I end up reactivating it again, and I just reactivated it..... So, for the time being, I'm looking forward to the new WoW expansion coming out.

Agreed. I'm not saying the likelihood of being carjacked is high, but it is not an improbable scenario. People do get carjacked often enough to warrant taking note of it. The U.S. population is roughly 300,000,000. So at a rate of 2 per 10,000 people, that's roughly 60,000 carjackings in the U.S. each year. In the U.S. in 2007 all violent crimes combined occurred at a rate of 47 per 10,000 people. I'm not disagreeing with you that it's uncommon. But it's not unrealistic to expect that it could happen. Because it's got a low likelihood of happening, should a large portion of time be devoted to training for it? The answer for most people is no, there's not much need to train extensively in situations of this nature. But should the possibility be completely ignored? No, these types of attacks can and do happen and if one is going to learn how to defend themselves, they should at least have a rudimentary understanding of how to respond to such a situation. Even if they don't train heavily in that scenario, combined with normal defense training by adding even just a little thought behind how you would respond if you found yourself in that situation goes a long way in preparing yourself. Can I reduce my chances of being a victim by staying out of the wrong neighborhood? I'm fortunate enough to live in a nice neighborhood, so for me the answer is most likely, though crime can and does happen in nice neighborhoods too. But not everybody has the fortune of being able to avoid the more dangerous neighborhoods.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, carjackings occur roughly in the range of 2 per 10,000 people, with 93% of them occurring in urban or sub-urban areas and a weapon being used in 74% of them. So, yes, the likelihood of being carjacked is slim. Is it impossible? No. Can a proper awareness of my surroundings limit the chances of it happening? Yes. Do the person remain seated through the whole attack? Doubtful. Though the chances of being attacked while seated are unlikely, they're not unheard of. Training for being mugged while skydiving is an absurdity. However, being carjacked or mugged while on a bus or park bench happens frequently enough to be considered a realistic situation. Common? No. Realistic? Yes. Therefore, it's something I'd be better off being prepared for. An awareness level is part of that training. The best trained person is also well aware of what's going on around them and in many cases is able to avoid a confrontation by just not putting themselves in the situation that would open them up for the situation. Being able to avoid a confrontation is the best way to defend oneself. However, if that's worked 100% of the time, then why train for self-defense in the first place? Since it's not 100% foolproof, I'd rather be the person who knows how to prevent getting in those situations in the first place, but also the one who knows how to defend against it should the situation still happen to occur.

Certainly not! In fact, at my karate school, we had a gentleman who was 65 years old who decided to take up karate after watching his granddaughter in class. If it seems like something you'd enjoy, get in there and start learning!

I like to think of it this way. People buy various kinds of insurance with the hopes that they don't have to use it. People train for various emergencies, such as tornado drills, fire drills, etc. with the hopes that they never have to be in a real one. In fact, the likelihood of someone having to escape a burning office building are pretty slim. They still devote time to preparing for it. No, they don't spend a large portion of their time training for it, but they have a plan and know what to do should the slim chance that it could occur actually happen. Do I expect to get carjacked in my lifetime? I live in a good neighborhood, so the likelihood is fairly low. As a result, should I spend a significant amount of time training for it? Not really. Should I pretend like carjackings never happen and not prepare myself at all to know how to respond in the event that one should actually happen to me? No. One should be at least somewhat prepared for the various ways of being attacked. To take the stance of "it could never happen to me" is a mistake too often made by many people throughout life, and not just when it comes to the situation of carjackings. I don't want to be overconfident...you don't know what could happen to you. I'd rather be ready for the the unexpected.