CheekyMusician

No, I'd heard about it, but I don't think you're all getting what I mean. I wasn't striking "through" the pad with power, I was striking "through" it with momentum and no power. Like, my dad was holding the pad and I was aiming to make the pad get pushed backwards, and I was pushing it backwards, but not by means of power, but by just swinging my arm and my body and "pushing" the pad backwards, but there was hardly any power in the punch.

When we spar at our club we usually just spar as hard or as soft as we like, taking into consideration who we're sparring with. Eg. there's one woman who hates being hit, so when I spar with her I just use light contact, or no contact at all (just pulling my punches before they hit her), with most of the men I spar semi-contact, and if I'm sparring with one of the instructors I just hit them as hard as I can (although they usually take it quite easily on me. ) My club's pretty big, so I usually get a range of fighters to spar with, the think that worries me about my dad, though, is for a start he's not a trained fighter (apart from his limited experience in boxing when he was a kid) so his style of fighting is completely random, and he is totally incapable of throwing a light punch. He always hits you at full power, which is a bit scary! But yeah, sparring with him teaches me good self defence techniques. I mean I was making contact with the pad and knocking it backwards, but not with the power of the punch. I was knocking it backwards because I was swinging everything into it, so it was really just the momentum of my body that was causing the pad to be knocked backwards, not the power of my punch. My dad pointed out that this was a bit of a waste of energy and time. He told me just to focus all my power on the pad at the moment of impact and try to get my hand back to its original position at my guard as quickly as possible after making contact. At first this made my punches weak and pathetic, but then I got the hang of it and my punches were stronger than before, and it did make sense. I wasn't wasting so much energy anymore. Yeah, I've got a heavy bag, but I prefer pad work 'cause then you get the human imput. Someone who can tell you when there's even the slightest change in power or execution of a technique. I just bought an air shield today, so I can practice side thrust kicks and stuff, and I'm waiting on my dad to come home so I can try it out. Ah, my dad must've so much fun being kicked about the living room.

Yeah, I gave the topic a bit of a stupid name, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. *shrugs* Its almost 1 O'clock in the morning here and I realise I'm talking a load of nonsense.

Wow. I got a real eye-opener the other day, just thought I'd share it with you all. I've been training in karate for a year, and although I know I'm not an excellent fighter, I reckoned I'd be able to hold my own if I ever needed to defend myself. The other night I was outside practicing kata in the garden (there's no room in the house) and my dad came out to watch me. My dad had about 6 months boxing training back when he was about 15. He's now almost 50, quite unfit and overweight. He's still got a punch that could knock you into next week though, but I suppose a lot of men have a powerful punch. Anyway, he told me to defend myself against him in a sort of sparring match, and I just couldn't keep up at all. I was far too scared of getting hit (as I know my dad wouldn't pull his punches, not because he wants to hurt me, but just because he doesn't really have the precision to pull them). I was quite shocked to realise how out of my depth I was, especially considering I didn't consider my dad a particularly difficult opponent. Then he went through some scenarios with me (most of them based on his own experiences when he was younger). At first I thought it was funny. After all, what could my dad know about fighting, but let's just say it was a humbling experience. He told me to pretend I was at a concert and he was a stranger standing beside me in the crowd. Then he came up to me and started getting in my face, screaming at me etc. (pretending that he was the stranger in the crowd and had got mad about something) and he told me to try and react how I would ordinarilly. I'm a pacifist sort of person, so reacted how I think I would've by trying to get him to calm down, and then my dad (acting as the stranger) walked away. I turned round and he swivelled round and pretended to smack me. This was my dad's lesson on expecting the unexpected. He said things like this had actually happened to him countless times before. Then he started asking me what I would do in other situations and advising me on whether my answers were right or wrong. Then he started discussing my fighting strategies. He advised me on how to use my height to my advantage (I'm quite small), and then we got out some focus pads and worked on my kicks and punches. Again, my dad gave me valuable hints on my punches. I was hitting "through" the pad. You know, giving it the whole swing of my arm and knocking the pad backwards, instead of focusing my punch on the pad. I hadn't even realised this until he pointed it out, and realised what a waste of energy my previous punches were (not to mention a waste of time, when I could quickly deliver the punch and then bring my hand back to my guard). Then we worked on my mawashi geris and I accidentilly missed the pad and hit my dad's arm with a full power kick. This taught me 2 things: firstly, that I really need to work on my aim, and secondly that my kicks are not as powerful as I thought they were. Even though I'd kicked a weak point on my dad (his wrist), he only stopped momenterilly because it hurt. It didn't even leave a bruise. I mean, I obviously don't want to hurt my dad, but I'd thought my kicks were a heck of a lot stronger than that. Anyway, taught me not to be a "know it all" teenager. Guess we can find assistance and chance for improvement in the strangest of places.

Thanx for your advice! As far as the teacher's reputation well I haven't seen him. All that we have talked was by phone and the demonstration class is this sunday. He also told my friend he was a direct student from Remy Presas. I'll see what's the real deal this sunday! Ok. Good luck!

Well, in most martial arts classes I've been in or watched, they do a similar thing to that dojo. Everyone warms up and does basics, and then basically everyone does the same thing for the rest of the night. This is both a good and a bad thing, of course, but its impossible for a teacher to go round getting students to work on different techniques individually. At my karate class I have to join in with the rest of the class no matter how hard or easy. Sometimes I feel lost, sometimes I'm almost bored and sometimes its just right, but there's always someone willing to help if I'm stuck, and even advanced students can always do more work on their basics, so I don't think that would be a major problem. The thing about a different teacher every day sounds a bit worrying, though. My karate club has two teachers, and although they don't always "follow on" from each others lessons, one of them is there almost every training session and the other one is there every second week, so they get to know the students in the class and know their strong and weak points. If there was a new teacher every training session I think it'd be hard for them to get to know the students well enough to help them, and the class would probably become disorganised considering all the changing around of teachers. The way you were talking, it sounded like the teachers all taught techniques in different ways too. This is definately not good. If the teachers just have different methods of teaching, then fair enough, but they should all be teaching the same way of practicing a technique as each other.

Well both arts are fairly different from each other, so you probably wouldn't confuse them, but if I were you I'd stick to one for at least a short while. An almost personal class in any martial art is a great opportunity, but only if the teacher is respectable and reputable. Make sure that he's not a chancer before you and your friend put your martial arts training in his hands.

Gee, you should be glad you can do 48! I have terrible problems with push-ups for some reason. I can do about 20 "girly" push-ups (you know, the ones you do on your knees), but I'm lucky if I can get past 5 normal push-ups without collapsing. No matter how hard I try, or how often I do push-ups, I never get any improvement on this.

I'm in love with karate and music, and I love my family, friends and pet dog, but nope, I'm not in love with anyone.

They're pads that you practice punches and kick on. http://www.kamikazeusa.com/images/focus.gif

It is effective, but it takes years to master even the basic techniques. Its not like karate, Muay Thai etc. where even after 6 months to a year of training the practitioner's fighting skill will be markedly improved. It would take years to even be able to get proficient enough in the basic Aikido techniques to even use them in self-defence, IMO. Certainly, it is a very graceful and interesting art, steeped in philosophy and tradition.

Well my karate class is pretty regular (they train almost every day of the week), it just happens that the training sessions either overlap with other things I do (that I would like to give up so I could train more at karate, but can't), or take place in another town that I couldn't really get to. All advice is good advice. I worry that its too soon in my Shotokan training, too, but I do want to spend more time in the week training in the martial arts, and I can't train in karate any more days. One minute I find myself thinking that I should wait a little longer, and the next I find myself trying to convince myself that I should just jump right in there. I keep thinking back to when I was a kid and had started learning music. I started learning piano at 6 and I enjoyed it, but wanted to learn guitar. Finally, after studying piano for a year my mum reluctantly let me start guitar, and I'm so glad she did. It turned out that guitar was what I really had a bit more of a natural talent for, and was something I enjoyed so much more. I feel that if I'd left it for a few more years and just stuck at the piano, I'd probably regret it now as I wouldn't be so experienced at my guitar. Starting guitar just opened new doors to me, musically, and I'm hoping that Tai Chi would do the same thing for me in my martial arts. I don't know, though. I suppose I'll visit the class, speak to the instructor, watch a class or two and then decide for certain what I'm going to do.

I'm planning on studying both arts at the same time. I'm not yet sure what style of Tai Chi it is, I've still to visit the school and ask a few questions. Thanks for the advice you guys

I've been taking Shotokan karate for a year and I want to take up another martial art, and have already given a few a go. I've tried Aikido, kickboxing and TaeKwon Do. I enjoyed the Aikido, but felt the class wasn't very well run, and I'd wanted to add a grappling art to compliment my karate, but did a bit of research and there is only one dodgy sounding judo school in the area, and no other grappling places. I found a Tai Chi school and I'm in the process of making enquiries there, but do you think Tai Chi and Shotokan are compatible, especially considering the length of time I've spend in Shotokan is quite short? Any advice is appreciated.

There are lots of different ways to meditate, but here are two that I know of. 1. Sit comfortably and concentrate on your breathing. Try to clear your mind completely. When a thought comes into your head just dismiss it as 'just a thought' and don't concentrate on it. Concentrate on your exhalations, and see your inhalations as just a disruption to your exhalations. 2. Once again you're concentrating on your breathing. This time imagine the path it takes inside your body. Imagine, as you breath in, the air traveling into your mouth, down your throat and into your stomach. Imagine it spiraling round and round into smaller and smaller circles in your stomach, and the imagine the opposite for an exhalation (the spiral unwinding, the air traveling upwards from your stomach, to your throat and out through your mouth.) Hope that helped.

I don't recognise the name of that kata either, but I agree with G95champ. Kata takes time to learn. When I learned my first kata (Kihon kata AKA Taikyoku Shodan) I had severe difficulties. I laugh now when I think about it, but at the time I was always forgetting what came next, and most of all, where to put my feet. There's no substitute for practice, and its not an easy thing to do, especially when you feel you're getting nowhere. Just stick at it, though, and it'll soon start slipping into place.

Oh my word! I'm planning on taking up Tai Chi. What causes this stuff to happen?

Just after some little quirky things I saw on their site, and possibly an air shield. I've ordered through Blitz before, but I felt that they take a while to send out your order, and it is a lot easier to just order off the 'net, which is why the Playwell site attracted me in the first place (you can't order online through Blitz). Gah!

I was just wondering if anyone had ordered anything off the playwell.co.uk website before. I'm planning on ordering some stuff off it, but I don't really like giving out my account details over the 'net. I have bought things over secure websites before and everything's been OK, but I'm just looking for a bit of reassurance. So for anyone who has ordered off it before: how did you find it? How long did it take to get your stuff, and was your bank account still unharmed after ordering off their website? Any help will be appreciated.

Ah! I love you!! I'm going to have hours of fun browsing them and picking one to use on these other forums I go on.

Heck, no! You're never too old. I was 17 when I started. If you start too young, you might take the whole experience for granted, or quit because you didn't really understand what it was all about, but mid teens is a great time to start. You're still in your prime, still got plenty of time to improve, but are old enough to understand what you're learning and the philosophy behind it all.

Well my club has elements of the McDojo about it, but to be honest I don't have much choice. There isn't many martial arts clubs around here anyway, and I'm quite short on time, so I have to go to a club that I can fit into my schedule I've trained at other martial arts clubs (and watched other martial arts clubs), and all in all I wouldn't say my club is bad as such. I've got two excellent teachers, large classes with friendly people, a safe environment to train in (although its not so safe that we have to pull all our punches or anything and therefore not get any decent preparation for a self defence situation), its fairly priced and very close to my home so its easy for me to travel there. Its downfalls, however, are that there is quite a lot of kids in the classes, that we rarely practice kata, and that people very rarely fail belt tests. I mean, they wouldn't let you pass if you performed attrociously, but they don't expect a very high standard from the people testing either.

I mainly listen to classical, baroque and romantic era orchestral music. Yip, call me sad if you want.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about skipping belts. On one hand, I don't think it should happen. After all, if you're planning on taking up a martial art then it should be something you should want to do for life. It shouldn't bother you how long you stay at one belt if you're planning on staying with it for as long as your body will let you. So in that respect, I think a bit of patience doesn't go amiss. Yeah, Ok, this guy might find the first few belt tests easy, but its hardly going to do him any harm sitting them and getting that extra experience. Still, admittedly some people do progress faster than others, and they might feel they're being held back. If I was forced to give my opinion, though, I'd probably have to say that I don't think this guy should skip a belt. After all, in something like martial arts, its up to the individual to push themselves to the best of their ability, and get the most out of lessons, and he'll still be able to do this regardless of which belt he's at. He should maybe become less concerned with coloured strips of material, and more concerned with the actual training. *re-reads post* Ok, that last sentence sounded a bit too harsh. lol.

The club I go to just gets you to pay every time you turn up to train, which works quite well 'cause if you have to miss a session or two you're not losing out on any money. I think its £2.50 for a kid and £3 for an adult per session.