Blade96

This one's cute.

oh yeah, I'm totally chuffed, especially since people, including my own parents didnt think I'd do anything like this because I was born with a balance problem. One of my senseis btw told my parents (while rubbing my back affectionately) that I'm one of their favorite students. my other sensei I huggged him and he hugged me back tight and then when i went to walk over to my parents right after the competition was over he kept one arm around me. (they appreciate me really, I really love my senseis!) the one who rubbed my back btw calls me 'his girl' Hehe. He's so sweet. Thank you, Patrick and White Owl, so much.

Oss, thank you =] Yes, its heian nidan thats next. well first its my grading, I make yellow belt, then start heian nidan =] Then when i make yellow belt, I can sparr in the next tournament.

well its shotokan karate. Ya gotta take more than a cut sometimes in this shotokan 'empty hand way (of life)', aka karate-do. thanks btw again. =] I wanted to compete, and I was going to compete. cut or no cut.

~ Oss ~ , Thank you =] haha, yeah. btw I competed injured. while i was walkin around waiting to compete Wanda noticed that I was bleeding and there was a pool of blood the total size of four American quarters on the floor . Seems I stepped on one the metal steps and it sliced off part of my toe. Not much just enough to make it bleed quite a bit. They were right surprised; I was walkin around like nothing happened, I didnt even know i'd been cut until they poiinted it out to me. They fixed me up, my sensei said to me Ya think you got enough blood to do kata? Oh ya. got enough for that. Then, I said to him, I can pass out. lol. I'm fine btw. Just stinging a bit thats all. it only needed a bandaid. btw the other white belt said to me, 'wait til we get paired up in class in sparring btw I'll get ya then' Ignoring the fact that in class on friday I nearly took out a black belt during sparring and he had to twist to get out of the way of my kick to the groin area. Meanwhile the other white belt, who i beat in competition, got smacked in the face by the brown belt he was sparring with. but oh yeah. It was fun to beat the guy =] btw i posted my account of the tournament on another forum and just copypasted it to this one cause i didnt feel like writing it all up again. Just letting you know

I think people wanted to hear how it went. well i might just give some kind of little synopsis as to what happens juring it for maybe it might help other rookies who'd love to know what one is like. just as i wanted to know. Heck, am I tired. My legs are shot! (Note to self: dont go ice skating the same day you have shotokan.) anyway.... The competition was held in like this great big gym where they have the bleachers along one wall where people can sit, and like a scoreboard and clock and stuff because its also used for volleyball and basketball and stuff. In the middle of it was this great big blue mat thats orange around the edges and thats where people sparr and do kata and whatnot. You have some judges in front of you, and in addition, one sits at each corner. Thats so they get all angles of you while yuu sparr and do Kata and stuff. The scores are ranked up to 18 point something for white belts in individual kata, and for higher ones its 20 point something. When its your turn, you bow into the ring, walk to a strip of tape placed on the floor, stop, bow again, and say your kata. The tape is there. Thats so you know where your starting your kata from so you end up in exactly the same place when you finish. When you finish, you stay in yoi position while the judges mark you. They mark like figure skating competitions...one will give you a 6.0, another 5.9, another 6.1, and so on. The highest score and the lowest one is both dropped from the final score. Then they add them up and they'll say like '17.1' as the final score. (This is for kata competition.) when they announce the scores, you get into the position from when you can bow (forgot the japanese name for it haha), walk backwards, when you reach the edge of mat bow again, then return to your place. My brown belt friend Wanda was funny. She couldn't remember her bassai dai. and I said, How in the sugar do ye go to a competition and forget your kata? she said i think in japan that would call for a caning. Funakoshi would turn over in his grave lol. so she did heian godan instead. anyway she got a silver medal for her kata and a silver medal for her sparring. you could do pretty much any kata you wanted, though if you was a higher belt like brown and you did a low belt kata like heian shodan you'd probably get marks like 2.0. lol. they frown on high belts trying to get away with doing lower belt katas. oh btw, JUniors went first. That's kids. and the kata competitions were always first, then kumite. and they always went by belt color. lower belts always went first, and black belts (well our association frowns upon kids being given black belts, for good reasons, thats pretty much a mcdojo tactic) As Alcatraz said to me, There were a couple who looked tired, after kata presumably because they didnt breathe. There were some who rushed their katas, and some who just didnt seem very with it, not really into it. One of the black belts who teaches me at my dojo was a judging the kids and he graded really hard, he always gave them the lowest scores. in sparring, one little green belt took a smack in the face and was crying and had to be helped off because he got hurt. another one, a female little orange belt, had her leg hurt. When my 2 brown belt friends from my dojo sparred, the one who got the gold medal got hit in the face and her lip bled. But she won anyway. and the other took a silver. they both did good. Not so many people were at the competition - maybe 50, maybe 100. anyway, how did I do? well there were two of us white belts - me, and a male white belt from my dojo who registered. I went first. barked out 'heian shodan' the judge repeated it, then i went to yoi and started. I did it right, no mistakes, never forgot one move. I had judges in front of me, and one at each corner, so there were two at an angle from me in front, and two at my back, one at each side. I did nice loud Kiai's. 2 of them. when I was done, the judges gave their scores, i got 18.2. Then the male white belt did his (my kiai's were louder than his) and he got ranked 18.0. So i beat him. since males and females are in separate categories, we were both given gold medals. But even if we did directly compete, I would have gotten the gold regardless because I beat him anyway. So thats what happened and thats how I did. I ranked verrrrrry high in my first competition! I'm really happy about it, too. I also wanna thank everyone of you who gave me advice! It was put to good use =] Yer all pocketfulls of fly in my book. __________________

ya. nice loud kiai's. I suspect everyone will be screaming their heads off tomorrow. competition day.

This is beautiful and I learned the rhythmn of my own Kata while doing it. Last time I did it in front my sensei, and he said my rhythmn and flow was excellent.

Thanks btw did Kata last night in front of my sensei while he pretended to be a judge....he said i could possibly win a medal with my heian shodan...also loved my nice loud kiai's. =] That's nice news =] btw not nervous anymore...just excited. I also trained almost 2 hours today. i cant wait for saturday to get here

i showed part of heian shodan to my father and he said after i explained what a gedan barai was and after i did the first one and he said What if your opponent goes to hit you in the head instead of aiming low when i said you always do this first move with heian shodan. I didnt know how to answer him even though i said its only pretend opponent but you act like he's real. I will let you know how I do. I figure its my first competition im going to and im little white belt so i figure if i finish in the top ten or so of little kata white belt competition i did pretty good medal or no medal hehe and oh yeah, nice loud kiai's......You won't wanna hear my Kiai...I'm gonna rock the roof haha....and I do 2 of them in heian shodan. btw i find if i turn my head it helps with balance too when turning. as for 'pocketfuls of fly' I made that one up =]

Wait a Minute. Aint Kanazawa that guy who's 10th dan? watched him already on youtube He's like, pocketfuls of fly! I think he's who i seen. Thanks for the advice everyone! The hip action while doing the shutos (my favorite block I think, no, wait a minute, I can't decide between that and gedan barai, maybe age uke, aw heck, I love all of them) makes a lot of sense to me, as I know well already you generate power shotokan through hips and legs. Makes total sense. and looking at your opponent in that direction just before you turn....I do that now already. btw thank you, sensei8! I like this post too! btw we get medals for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. not a trophy. I'm not doing it for that though. I'm doing it to get used to performing, in front of lots of people, because its what I have to do to test for the belts. and as someone else said, for humility and humbleness. I'll do my best though. If i wind up with a medal - as you said that'll really smell of pocketfuls of fly. =]

This. maybe I should have named my kata. sorry about that. =] and joesteph, thanks for your all good wishes. =]

Wasn't sure where to put my question thread so if this isn't the right place maybe a mod could move it for me? Thanks So I filled out the registration form and emailed it in, a couple hours later today I received email back from the secretary of our Shotokan association saying he is entering my name in the adult white belt Kata competition. So I put this here to ask , since is a question, does anyone have any advice for me, maybe many of you have competed before, maybe not shotokan but other MA and might share anything or everything they know about tournaments? what was your experiences like with it? How did you find it? were you nervous? I'd greatly appreciate it all! a week from today. Oh god. I'm slightly nervous as I've never done this before, performed in front of a lot of people, but mostly I am excited as I've always wanted to do this!

yeah thats me. i was born with an underdeveloped cerebellum (which means that my balance and coordination isnt as perfect as others) and all my life I had family members say 'the only reason you'll get anywhere is your brain and not your body'. well I'm doing shotokan and I also learned to ice skate (neither of which they agreed with) and Im doing well and now they're having a lovely big feast of crow and saying how right i am to do it. anyway shotokan? what surprised me about it? that with regards to learning stances kicks and punches and katas and movements and so on balance is less of a factor than people, er, that family who said i couldnt do it - talking to me made it out to be (because you don't stand on one leg very long when doing a kick at normal speed for example) what else that surprised me was how fast i knew I had found my MA when i went and glanced at a class for just a minute (september 5th, 2009 approximately) and given how little i knew about ma at the time I was surprised how quickly I recognized the MA I wanted to find after seeing an actor I like, Wesley Snipes, (my forum name is the famous character he plays haha) who is 5th dan shotokan, do it in the movies. Seriously! I went to watch a class, looked, and just after 2 mins of watching, "thats it" I joined around september 10th, and fell completely totally in love with shotokan and been doin' it ever since. what else? The fact you spend your time hunkered down in a crouch (not standing but your legs are bent a lot) and how much exercize it gives your legs. I didnt know about that til I started shotokan. and how much my calf muscles have grown after less than 3 months of it. Mine are already bigger than my older brothers or my fathers, and I'm only a small girl! btw my mom thinks she's more fit than me and better at exercizing, so I challenged her few days ago, Crouch down like this (and I broke down and gedan barai'd) Now I said, Do it for an hour. I bet you won't be able to take it. Yet that is what I do, twice a week for an hour each time i train (and since i do something in my training every day, well.....) other thing is the philosophical side of it , the 'do' part. It really is a way of life. and what also surprised me is that its founder Funakoshi, is also a philosopher and when I learned about him, I also love what he stood for. Of course that made me love Shotokan even more. Its also very artistic and spiritual and there is beauty and grace in the movements. Im from an artsy family and I learned to love the arts as a child. (its also my degree I just finished at university.) btw whoever said they love shutos - Me too. and in my kata, heian shodan, I get to do 4 of them! Lucky me.

I learned my first bit of Kumite/sparrin' a month or so ago. (like when someone throws an oi zuki at yer middle and you counter with either uchi uke or soto uke) I enjoy it, too. For me I see it as using what you learned. It shows you exactly what the blocks are for. If you show someone a jodan age uke a little white belt who didnt know what its for and how to use it. sparring shows you. same with Katas, our BB is currently teaching us how to apply our kata Heian Shodan to taking on 4 people at once (and tbh I almost got him in the neck while doing Shuto- uke, oops, I also punched him a little too hard in the chest with my oi zuki, my fault, I love it so much I can get carried away, oops) I love sparring, too. one of my friends likes to sing the word 'sparsparsparspar, sparsparsparspar.....'

congrats! Now yer ready for the real stuff. as one of my BB who teaches me (I'm a white belt) said to me once, 'BB is only the beginning'

You told your age?!? *chuckle* haha....Cute, Sensei.... I can tell already you have a nice sense of humor. I've read many of your posts. The one where you suggests where the term 'corporal punishment' came from made me laugh. Btw I have no problem telling my name and age. I'm 31, and my name's Jacklyn.

No i had not the money to go to Russia. Unfortunately. and yeah, Richard, I feel relieved...glad its over. =]

I learned how to do pushups in the kenpo school. Before, I could not get off the ground. Now I can manage about 7. we do them in shotokan as well, just not as often and they arent required to advance in belts. I'm not against learning how to do them, I'm not sure what the physical requirements are in your school, Ichi, like for little white belts but the kenpo one is strict too. I think i already wrote what little white belts have to be able to do. I just dont really agree with having to be able to do a lot of them to get a belt....especially for little white belts. One thing I did take from that school though, and shotokan too, is the benefit of having strong arms....I still do a little pushups couple times a week....so I've kept it on.

Simpsons, Fresh Prince of Bel air, The Outer Limits, Hockey Night in Canada, and my mother's trying to get me into one British show she loves to watch, Torchwood.

I was considering sports writer. you know, for newspapers. I write well and I've been an NHL hockey fan since I was 13 years old (1991)

time for a happy thread and a happy dance. lalalala....... btw my degree is Bachelor of Arts; I double majored in history and Russian language + Literature. Just finished my very last course. I'm happy and just wanted to share my good news. My convocation ceremony is May 2010.

Haha thats cute. =] I dont wish for class to be over though. I wish it was longer! Thats how much i love shotokan........ I said a funny thing yesterday.....or rather kind of dumb, not funny. I was doing heian shodan and when I got to the part where I make 3 oi zuki's and kiai on the third one, my BB called me cause he wanted to fix something in my technique. I wasn't thinking and I blurted out, 'something wrong?' Duh. of course there was. and black belt, bless him, I love him to death, he had this look on his face, haha, you couldn't blame him - replied ' there's always something new to learn every training night' I realized immediately what I said and thank god I'm black haired with a dark complexion because it means I dont blush easily. I said immediately, what kind of a question is that?

interesting theory and I think I'd agree slightly. Newfoundlanders are known for their sense of humor (especially in my mother's family, og, you'd have to see them, they'd crack u right up lol) and though my sensei is originally from britain he's got the same sense of humor. I've got it too. and well sensei's been here for many decades now. I think I can agree with you on a level. maybe the fact that most of us, well our ancestors did anyway, come from britain is a factor. who knows.

sometimes I'll wind up watching the higher belts doing their katas (and btw I love katas, so pretty and artistic and spirtual, especially the fancier ones) but all the black belt teaching us has to do is get my attention with some small tiny method that attracts nobody's attention but mine and I get back to the task at hand. I'm a good girl =]