CheekyMusician

I think you should drop the rank. You'll feel under less pressure then, and it'll mean that other people wont feel it is unfair that they're lower ranked than you when they know more. Its only one rank after all, but if you feel that you don't know the stuff for the rank you're on then you'd probably be best just to drop the rank.

I don't fold my gi. I wear it to go outside to the car after class and just take it off when I get home. I used to carefully take it off, and take it downstairs and place it in the washing machine after class, but now I just dump it on the floor and take it down to the washing machine the next time I'm going downstairs (usually the next morning). I guess I'll never be a karate traditionalist.

I've not been injured yet. I've had some bruises and aches, of course, but never an actual injury, not even a bloody nose yet. I've only been involved for 9 months though and sometimes I keep getting yelled at to 'watch my toes' when I'm performing kicks, so I guess if I get injured in the near future it'll most likely be a broken toe. I love karate and wouldn't want to give it up, but I do occassionally worry about injuries. I've been involved in music all my life and the thought of breaking a finger and badly damaging it kills me. If I was to break a finger and it was to heal ok then I wouldn't be too bothered, but its just if I was to break it badly and it was to heal awkwardly and impair my ability to play music, then I would crack up.

I'm the only one. I managed to drag my dad along to a few karate class and he watched every Aikido class I went to (a grandtotal of 3, I think), but he isn't a martial arts man I'm afraid. My mum and sister wouldn't touch the stuff. I like it when they take an interest in it though. I was so chuffed today 'cause we were doing kata in class (Heian Yondan). I totally can't do most of this kata, but I was trying and I looked up and saw my mum was there to pick me up (this was about 15 minutes to the end of class). Anyway, I'd kept kata-ing away and looked up to watch my dad walk into the hall. I like knowing their watching and I just hope that they'll become hooked too, but it got even better when I looked up to see my big sister and her boyfriend had came in too. It really made me try harder so I could impress them. I found that when I'd went to Aikido too, I'd worked harder because my dad was there watching and I wanted to impress him, and my karate came on quite a bit when my dad used to hold focus pads for me and let me practice my kicks on them. I try harder because I want to get praise off my family more than I want it off my instructors. If only they'd come along to classes, I'm pretty sure my karate would come on leaps and bounds.

I wear it to go from the car park into train and from where we train back out to the car park. There is changing rooms that I could use. I used them once though and just got my self worked up. I kept panicking that I was going to walk into the hall and everyone would have started, so I prefer just to throw it on before I leave the house. After all, its not like I'm walking all the way there in it or anything, its just a few metres from the car inside and back again at the end of class. I don't usually cover it with a jumper or anything and sometimes I feel stupid, like I'm "announcing" that I do karate to show off or something, but I just don't want to have to have the extra bulk of a jumper to carry around with me. There's no official policy at my club against wearing it outside of training. My sensei never wears his on the way to karate, he gets changed at the place, and the other instructor sometimes wears his under a jacket; sometimes gets changed in the changing rooms, and everyone else just does whatever they prefer.

Well I let my belt touch the floor when I'm taking it off. Its a long belt, I'm a short person and it'd be damn near impossible to avoid it touching the floor. It does touch the floor plenty of times during class when I'm wearing it eg. when we do sit ups etc. so I don't mind it briefly touching the floor when I'm putting it on or taking it off. I wear my belt and gi outside the dojo, but only to walk from the car park inside and back to the car park again after class. Its not like I'm walking down the street with it on or anything. My class doesn't perform seated bows, we only perform standing ones. I went to aikido for a short time and we performed seated bows there, but I never even considered where the ends of my belt were.

Do something! It might seem a frightening prospect, but its the kind of thing that you'll regret when you're a bit older. You'll always put yourself down for not standing up for the poor kid. Its best not to get into a physical confrontation with the bullies if at all avoidable. After all you're largely outnumbered and physical violence should always be avoided if at all possible. Try to approach a teacher and get them to do something. Don't be afraid to give the names of the bullies. Or you could try and befriend the kid getting bullied, try and find out why he's being bullied and try to resolve it. Or you could try speaking to the ringleader of the bullies, but only if you're very diplomatic or else the situation could easily spiral out of control.

Good luck then. I'll still chat with you on MSN no doubt.

Woot! *applauds karate women* I think in self defence for women that the surprise element is always useful. If a man attacked another man for some reason they would probably be anticipating that the man would fight back, yet they'd be expecting the woman to submit or to struggle weakly. The simplest techniques are always the best in self defence situations too. There's some things that seem almost rediculous when you first hear them, but when you think about them they make sense. eg. the other day someone said that if someone grabs you in a bear hug and you've got a free hand, stick a finger up their nose and they'll have such a shock that they'll let go! Funny, but true.

My karate instructors go for the worn out belt look. One of them suits is. You can still see that the belt is black, yet worn, but the other one has a belt that's almost totally white and he just looks like a mucky white belt. I must admit, I'm of the romantic type that thinks the symbolism of the belt returning to white is a cool idea, but if I ever get to black belt, I'll probably throw out my belt if it is wearing. I'll probably keep it for quite a while worn (basically 'cause I'm one of these folk who hate change and don't like to throw out old things with lots of memories attached to them), but I wont let it go completely white before I invest in a new one.

I wash my belt when it needs it. I've never washed the belt I have right now, but I washed my white belt once as it had turned brown in places and looked downright disgusting. It shrunk because I just chucked it in the washing machine and tumble dryer like the right idiot I am, but it was still wearable. I don't take any notice of the whole "serious karatekas never wash their belts" rule. I mean its not particularly hygenic to leave it saturated in sweat. As far as I know the Sensei at my school doesn't wash his belt, which is probably why I try to avoid standing too close to him.

1. How long have you been involved in the martial arts? a. Less than 5 years 2. What martial art(s) do you practice in?(specify style as well as art) Karate. Woot! I went to an Aikido class for about a month, but although I liked the art, didn't really feel that the class and the teacher were up to much. Right now I'm toying with the idea of starting TaeKwon Do in addition to my karate, but they're so similar and I'm still new to karate but I'm too impatient to wait any longer to take up a new art! lol 3. What is your current rank in your art(s)? I'm only a 9th Kyu right now. *sob* Still, should be grading for 8th Kyu soon. Still pretty pathetic, I know, but we all have to start somewhere. 4. What is your favorite martial art, and why? I think all the arts hold their own appeal. I've only scratched the surface of karate and love it for its kicks and direct movements. I'm turning into quite the little kata fiend too these days. Aikido is wonderful because it looks so simple, yet is so complex. Its great watching the power in a single Aikido technique (even better when its performed on you and you feel the power for yourself!) I've always been intrigued by Kung Fu too. Proper Martial Tai Chi is another art that interests me for its complexity. They all hold their own appeal, as I said.

He sounds a lot like my instructor. He'll pretend to be really angry at you for doing something wrong, but then he'll start smiling or laughing and explain it again. It used to scare me at first, but now I'm used to him I know that that's just the way he goes about teaching.

So lets hear about you instructors past and present. Why do you/did you like them/dislike them? What were their methods of teaching? I've not been involved in the martial arts long, but here's the instructors I've came across in that time. Karate I've got 2 instructors here. One is fairly strict and disciplined. He pushes us all quite hard, but doesn't really play the disciplinarian as much as I thought he would when I first joined. He's got quite a good sense of humour though, too, so he treads the fine line between teaching with discipline and letting us enjoy what we do quite well. He's a bit of a hero in my eyes right now. He's a big, scary looking intimidating guy, but is actually really nice once you talk to him...it just takes a few months for you to realise you can talk to him! When I first started I thought he was a right dragon! I thought he might kill me if I walked within a miles radius of him, but now I think he's awesome! My other instructor is really nice and patient, but sometimes I feel he's a little easily distracted. He's got a good sense of humour and is definately a good teacher, just sometimes can talk when he should be teaching. Most of the time he's fine though and keeps us all working well. He's especially good with the beginners. He takes them aside and shows them the basics with the patience of a saint. Heavens knows, when I first started he must have wanted to kill me! Imagine two self conscious teenage girls starting at the same time and giggling everytime one (or both) of them got something even slightly wrong. I was such an idiot when I first started. He kept trying to get my friend and I to do Kihon kata on our own without him walking us through it too in my first few weeks and we just kept looking at him blankly and making stuff up. We were totally clueless....I'd have killed us if I'd been him!! Aikido I only went to Aikido for about a month or so due to the teacher there. He was an absolute ass. I'd watched his class a few times and had got the impression that he was arrogant and egotistical from what I'd seen, but when I went along to talk to him he seemed like a right gem of a guy. He was really friendly and spent a lot of time talking about the art and about martial arts in general. The first week that I went along to participate I was impressed with him then too. He was extremely encouraging. He kept telling me that I was doing well and kept following me around checking I wasn't stuck, making sure I had a partner to practice with and sometimes taking over from my partner if I wasn't getting the hang of something and he felt he could explain it better to me. The next week he turned evil though! One of the other students had warned me that the guy was extremely moody and would be Mr. Nice Guy one week and Satan the next, but I hadn't really believed him until the second week of training. All he seemed to do was shout and scream and make demands and I didn't like him very much. He didn't point out my mistakes. He just expected me to know what I was doing wrong and if I didn't get things 100% perfect he'd scream at me. Now it was only my second week and of course I was nowhere near getting things even 50% correct all the time. I was trying my hardest, but he didn't seem to acknowledge my effort. After that I only went back to classes a few more times but then stopped. I really enjoyed the aikido, but the thought of going and facing him every week made me feel sick. His class reflected that though. It was a small class and although they went through the motions of respect (he made them bow to him constantly...it actually became quite silly the amount of bowing that we were doing), they all disliked him and talked about him in bad terms the minute he left the room. TaeKwon Do I was at a TaeKwon Do "lesson" the other day. It wasn't a formal lesson at the dojo, it was just something in school to raise money for charity. The guy they got to take the lesson was amazing though. He was a 4th dan and was hilarious! He kept cracking jokes, but didn't let us get lazy either. He kept us all working hard and walked around encouraging everyone. It was only an hour long lesson though and since it was outside the dojo I don't know if he'd act the same in an ordinary class. The only thing I didn't like was that I felt he moved too fast, teaching more and more complex techniques that we weren't ready for, but I can understand that he did this so that the people in the hall wouldn't get bored walking up and down performing the same technique all the time (after all, the people training weren't martial artists...they were just there trying to raise money for charity and have fun) and also, he'd have wanted a chance to display more complex techniques so that he might attract more people to his dojo. He was great though and if I wasn't already in karate he'd certainly have attracted me to come train in TaeKwon Do with him and his club. [/u]

When I started karate I felt the same as you. I was clueless to what was good instruction and what wasn't. I went to Aikido for a short time and I thought I'd be clueless there too in judging the instruction, but to my surprise, it was quite easy. Some things to look out for are: -whether everyone is doing the technique the same way or not (allowing for the lower ranks to be looking a bit different to everyone as they're just beginners). If everyone is just doing their own thing it probably doesn't say much for the club or its instructors. -watch for whether people who need help are getting help. There's no point joining a club that expect you to wander around absolutely cluelessly. -watch if people are being injured excessively. Obviously injuries are expected in the martial arts, but if people are being injured seriously and constantly then you might be best looking somewhere else. -ensure that the instructor's methods of teaching appeal to you. If you're quiet and shy you probably don't want to be yelled at by a drill seargent of an instructor. If you know you've got a habit of being lazy and laid-back, then you probably don't want a gentle and encouraging instructor that will let you away with laziness. -watch for how people react to one another within a club. You're there to train first and foremost, so you don't want to go to a club where all they seem to do is chat. On the other hand, though, you don't want to be stuck in a club where no one talks to anyone and the atmosphere is awkward and strained. -ASK QUESTIONS!! Its awkward and embarrassing, I know, but its something I wish I'd done. Grill everyone and anyone who is willing to talk to you. Ask about the instructors credentials, the attitudes of instructors, belt tests, payment options, whether you will be given the chance to participate in competitions (if you're interested in that) or whether participation in competitions is mandatory etc. I asked questions of one person when I started aikido and he told me the instructor was usually a complete drill seargent who was hard on the pupils and extrememly unfriendly. I didn't believe him because the instructor was doing his best to be nice to me, but it turned out the student was right. The very next week I seen the bad side to the instructor. Good luck!

I've not been in my club for too long (only about 9 months or something) but I've not seen too many injuries. For some reason our club seems to always be injuring fingers though. In the last few months we've had a woman almost break a finger, a girl broke her finger and so did a boy and the other night our Sensei cut his finger open but I'm not sure how it happened. I'm sure I heard him say that someone bit it, but I think I must have not been hearing things right. Apart from those I'm not aware of too many injuries. One guy in the club keeps breaking his ribs, though.

There's a few females at my clubs, and we're never intentionally left out or anything because of our gender, but they do tend to put us all together when we do pad work. I guess this makes sense in a way as we probably wouldn't be able to hold the pads for some of the bigger guys while they're hitting them as hard as they can, but its still annoys me that we're separated from the guys. In sparring sometimes you get the impression that the guys don't really want to partner up with a girl, but if there's no one else there to partner with then they'll go with you. Its not as obvious with some of the more confident women. I think its more obvious with me because I'm shy, look younger than I am and I'm low ranked.

Religion is very personal and very subjective. Many people seem to view organised religion as a bad thing. They view it as brainwashing, or hypocritical etc.etc. I'm religious and have been brought up as a Christian, and the way I see it, religion is like many things in life. Its kind of like martial arts in a way. There's many different styles of martial arts out there that do things in their own way, believe different things. If you're brought up in one then you'll probably stick with that all your life, although there is a chance you could fall away from martial arts completely, or there's a chance that you'll be attracted to another art. At first you'll take everything you're told about that art to heart. You'll try and emulate your teachers and do things the way they do it. You wont question much. You'll just accept. Once you become more comfortable within your art you'll start to question it, discard what doesn't seem to make sense, start to grow and learn more about it. Religion is similar and everyone is different. In my opinion, though, religion is simply a set of beliefs in a higher being or higher spirituality.

Karate was always something I'd wanted to do. Well, technically, it was martial arts in general that I'd always wanted to do, but karate was what I ended up in. I don't know why I train exactly. Its kind of elusive. At first I just wanted to try it out and see how I enjoyed it. To be honest I didn't really like it at first, but I'd dragged my friend along and she enjoyed it so I thought I'd stick it out until she settled in more and was happy to go on her own. As it turned out, she lasted about 6 weeks then didn't come back, and I just couldn't make myself quit. Now I go because I enjoy the constant learning, the fact that I'll be able to defend myself slightly better now (if I ever have to) than I would have been able to do without any karate. Most of all though I train because its fun and it gives me a buzz.

Well at my club we spar almost constantly and we don't know what we'll be doing any given night until we arrive at the class so no one can dodge kata, sparring or anything else. I hated sparring at first. I don't mind it too much now, but I'd rather do kata, pad work or practice techniques in mid air, but I realise that sparring is a useful tool to improve my karate. I'm female and at first I was scared to hit other people in the class. I was scared I'd hurt them (especially the kids). I preferred sparring with the guys because they tended to be more critical and so I could learn more and plus I didn't have to worry about hurting them to the extent I worried about it when I was sparring with other women or kids. As you can imagine, though, most guys don't want to spar with females and avoid it if possible. Plus some of them have a habit of getting a little too rough. I mean, I don't mind getting hit. I'm in karate so that's all part of the learning process to me, but when a 6'3 guy who is built like a brick wall aims all his might into punching you full on in the face, well lets just say that its a wee bitty difficult to remain standing. Mind you, I'd rather that than him trying to be overly gentle....that's even more annoying than getting knocked out! I often feel that I don't like sparring because: 1. I might do someone a serious injury as I've not got too much control yet. 2. People might prefer to spar with someone higher ranked/different gender etc. from me and I might be being a burden to them. 3. Call me a wimp, but I do get a little scared that I'll get a tooth knocked out or a finger broken. Funilly enough, the thought of getting a leg broken or something doesn't bother me, but after years of orthodontic work that my parents insisted on I really dread losing a tooth and breaking fingers is a big worry to me as I'm a musician.

I must admit that I have the same problem. My speed sucks! My club spars constantly and that's when I find it hardest to speed up. I can still be a little slow kicking the pads and practicing in thin air too sometimes, but I tend to announce my moves when I'm sparring. I think its really hard to kick fast yet relatively gently. I can kick fast and hard, or slowly and gently, but not fast and gentle!! For a while I just went at it and kicked as fast as I could no matter how hard I was kicking but then people started to complain that I was hurting them and I don't want that when I'm training every week. I mean if I keep going at that rate I'll soon find it hard to find a sparring partner! I practice with the pads and kicking punch bags etc. a lot, but nothing seems to come of it. My kicks and punches get technically better and get more power behind them, but they don't seem to get any faster.

You'd maybe just be best buying a punchbag that you can hang up. There relatively cheap. If you buy a free standing one then they cost a bomb, but ones to hang aren't too bad price wise. I got mine for £30 and bag chains for it were £10, but I didn't need chains as the room I put it in had a low ceiling and the chains made the bag hang way too low for me to kick and punch.

*applauds* Well said, well said indeed!

I think it is the self-discipline in karate that makes it such a useful tool for perfection of character. I've done a lot of activities in my life (eg. music, Girl Guides etc.etc) and even though I've stuck in with these activites and not given up at the first hurdle, they haven't provided me with much in the way of character. The two activites that have, however, are karate and a marching competition band I'm in. Both of which promote self discipline and have quite a high degree of "strictness" involved in them. Like everyone has already said, I believe karate provides people with confidence, increased concentration and teaches them the importance of dedication.

Well a broken finger is my idea of living Hell. I really don't know how I'd cope since I play piano, guitar, flute and clarinet a lot (I also play trumpet but assuming it was a finger in my left hand I could probably still play that OK) and of course, there's my karate. I broke my toe a few years ago, though, although that was before I started karate. Broken toes and fingers tend to heal pretty quickly, but I would reckon you'd be best to steer clear of sparring for a while. You could still train, but just train in kata and your basic techniques. I'd think there's just too high a risk factor of you doing more damage to your finger during sparring, but in the end its your decision. There's a girl at my class with a broken finger and she sometimes spars with one hand (the one with the broken finger) behind her back.