Blade96

Ouch. I dislike Mae Geri and Mawashi Geri for the same reasons. Yoko Geri and Ushiro Geri on the other hand - lovely kicks! I love all the kicks my sensei didnt teach us Mikazuki Geri or Mawashi Geri yet though. Guess those ones must be higher belt kicks. not for white belts - or yellow belts I guess. (i only got a couple more weeks as a white belt - they want to have a grading before the end of Feb for us.) I really dont know. hey i can learn those kicks So fear is about having an ego? So if I always had no fear (feeling awkward when i first started back in september because of trying new stuff isnt really fear, i wasnt AFRAID of anything, i just felt a clumsy because the moves were new to me then. so it dont count) does that mean I have just the right amount of humility then ?

risk and monopoly, haha, I kick butt at it. when i play risk i dont get any lower than second place, and ditto with monopoly. My dad taught me to play risk and - I won very first game i played. =] monopoly i played and got second in my first game i think Scrabble - I kinda suck at though.

Since this is about fear in the dojo, maybe I would like to ask, to wonder, Am I the only one who posted here who is without fear? Even from day one, I never feared any of our black belts. or anybody else. On the contrary. I LOVED black belts and loved when I was paired with one instead of a lower rank. In fact, the very first people I made friends with there (other then our senseis) were Brown Belts. I still love black belts. I have a great friendship with my NiDan for example (who said just last night he was intrigued by the fact I caught onto kata heian nidan so well and so FAST! I said to him btw yes i know the movements, but I think of it in terms of a house. You can have the framework of the house already built. But it still needs to be filled up with furniture. and that means I still must work all the time to get it so exactly PERFECT.) In fact that is one reason my sensei gave for picking me, he said, as one of his fave students. That I was just so comfortable in the dojo and showed no fear of anything. and I also posted in a topic about kiai last year on this forum that it only took me about 2 months to learn kiai (what I like to call the Spirit Cry because it comes from deep within not from your throat and I see it as a reflection of a person's growing spiritual growth and strength, physically, emotionally, and so on.) I suppose they see me as an unusual white belt because it was pointed out to me that a llot of white belts are a bit unsure of everything (they're just white belts) Whereas I came in knowing exactly what I wanted and what i was looking for. I have posted here before that I went seeking shotokan (the art, not a teacher, despite the fact one should go by teacher, not the art) And that intrigued my senseis I think. So in a topic about fear in the dojo, I'd also like to ask why some of us have little to no fear. Its simple to know why that MA CAUSES fear, easy to figure out, but why do some of us seem 'born without fear' as I put it, and we are not afraid when we first start a MA? and show such little of it, fear?

I suppose habits are hard to break lol, Bob-sensei, if our sensei ever told us to Shugo (assemble) in however way we wished, instead of by belt level, I'd still go to the back., as its so ingrained into us now that we do it as if we are like automaton instead of people hehe its so automatic for us. thats why we do it. Just from the perspective of a student, as it seems to perplex you a little when you did this experiment. So even if you say it, it'll still be most likely automatic that your students still think this way even when you tell them its ok for such and such a night of training. and take it as a compliment when even the kids do it, as it shows their discipline and maturity. its even more surprising because - well you know what kids can be like sometimes!

When the saints oh when the saints go marching in...... lol sorry. just had to sing =] I heard. Its good for new orleans, werent they the ones who were katrina victims a couple years ago? So yeah, their first vince lombardi trophy. Its good for LA to have something to celebrate. and a first makes it all the sweeter. Congrats to them.

Na dont play hockey, I just skate. and yeah when people think of Canadians and canada they think of skating and hockey. Though i did use what i was taught in figure skating lessons to teach my nidan a couple things while doing kiba dachi. Like when crossing over your legs (crossovers while standing still) while sideways doing kiba dachi to keep your weight as much in the center as you possibly can cause if you lean to far forward or 2 far back you'll wind up going on a diagonal course instead of straight across. and with ice skating its the same. You're doing a kiba dachi even though I did know that back in 2008 when i wasnt even in shotokan! Hey, I guess I can teach a nidan something, even though I'm a 9th kyu =] My nidan was impressed btw and said 'well thats the key then. we need to do more ice skating' LOL. Skating and shotokan have quite a bit in common, another one is when you're moving forward to sparr say in zenkutsu dachi you have to keep knees bent and stay low and stay at same height not bob up and down. Reason is that it help you keep balance and the opponent has a harder time telling how fast you're coming at them. In skating its the same. when moving forward, you got to keep your knees bent and stay at the same height all the time otherwise you'll lose balance (despite the fact that many figure skaters skate with their knees absolutely straight, Dont ask me how in the name of all thats holy in this world and the next how they manage to skate like that, but they do it)

i just went for a week without shotokan because of snowstorm so it was canceled and i already have withdrawal symptoms good thing I have it tonight. =] so i can have my fix back lol

Oh. I also ice skate. I skate almost every weekend.

It does - Thank you, Bob-sensei. Yeah, I find it hard to get my hips to move and at the right moment. oh and we have only one true senpai when he's not here we refer to the next senior BB as sempai (and we use sempai and not senpai because it is pronounced that way. Of course Chitsu knows this well.)

well being an ice skater and a shotokanka, I can vouch for the fact that skating - even taking skating lessons - it is much more individual thing than MA. For one thing you dont train together in lessons, you are split according to your level. (of course this happens in ma too, where a instructor might take a few rookie white belts aside to show them stuff.) But while some might form a bond with each other, there is not that 'family'atmosphere in skating. I had great coaches, who liked me a lot and cared about me, and maybe one or 2 people training with me who at least showed some signs of giving a darn, but except for one or 2 people, I had no friends there. Also in skating, you learn on your own. Not like MA, where you have a partner punch you for example so you can learn to block. Skating you must do on your own. You dont really get to know anyone or very few. whereas in MA we train together all the time.

all of this here i suppose. But for me it was Shotokan itself that got me addicted. everything else is a bonus, of course its all part of Shotokan. all of it, really. I was hooked from the very first day i watched my first class, before I had even done my first lesson, i knew I had found what i was searching for. Even before I knew I could compete. i cant really explain it myself though. why do people become addicted to really, anything? Probably that 'rush' in other words, a 'high'

Same. I love all this! I find too it makes me feel - safer and more secure somehow. I personally dont care who stands left or right of me either (i mean who's a rookie white belt and who's a white belt thats almost yellow like me) I'm not like oh you gotta stand in this spot cause i been here longer or some such crud even though i'm almost yellow and they arent. It just doesnt matter to me. But higher belts - they stand in front and right of me, where they belong.

I'm a hockey fanatic. My team - Detroit Red Wings. I also like history. and politics. and ice skating. and i collect cards of mostly rookies in the NHL. Also like to read. and like movies. also like to hang out with friends and things. I like doing pretty much anything with friends. Also languages. I studied Russian for 4 years. btw I have facebook too.

This made me remember something If you told me this story a couple of years back before I started doing Karate, I would've been all like "Dude, you completely got that from some kung-fuey movie!" But now that I've actually been through it, I can second that feeling you got! I'm afraid that some kid in the future will say I got my story from some kung fu movie too haha LOLLOLLOL! funny =] Yep, pretty cool feeling when it happens to you. and nm what some kid says us MA's are sort of a different litter of kittens and its just like non ma's will never understand why getting thrown about the dojo is actually so great....so they wouldnt understand our feelings about this and that we get these feelings on our own, not from a kung fuey movie =]

I'd say listen to what this Shotokanka here says. Myself, I got lucky. I went looking for a style (shotokan which I love) and not a teacher. I got lucky with our association and dojo and senseis and BB's and everyone there of all belt levels who I love and they are equally as fond of me and adore me. I always say I never went looking for it, it came looking for me. like it was Fate. But I dont think just anyone can do what I did. You may find a style you like, but you might not like the senseis or his/her BB's. It happened that, in university, there were courses on terrorism and the cold war that I would have loved to take (as a History major which is what I did) But because I didnt like the professor (she insulted me by saying 'i thought you were intelligent' when i questioned her putting me on the spot in front of everyone because i quietly asked a classmate what the time was) I missed out on topics I would have really loved. And no other teacher taught those courses. Point being, even if you find something you will enjoy, a bad teacher can absolutely ruin it for you. So always pick by teacher. I've done courses with teachers where I didnt particularly enjoyed the material, but did well cause the teacher was just enjoyable! Always choose by teacher, not material.

As Bob- sensei wrote, "Oh, my word!" I'm just a 9th Kyu Shotokan and even I know these things! Bassai Dai (and tekki shodan) are ABSOLUTE requirements for anyone in our association and dojo wishing to get to BB.

And hopefully very soon you won't have that problem anymore, anyway. At least not until you're a yellow belt who's almost a whatever comes next (orange?). ya. orange.

You didnt lose me, I understand what you are saying. Its so true. I think to avoid this kind of thing anymore I will say I'm white belt and almost yellow from now on.

All black belts are senpai. you're lucky he hasn't quietly bopped you one for insubordination. he wouldnt neither quietly or loudly =] whoever is the senior for that class, is acting as SENPAI (I know you're right, Chitsu, I knew that but thanks for correction anyway Its just its spelled as sempai on our association's website. and the meaning of sempai there is given as 'senior') when our actual senpai isnt there, the next highest will be. At one of our classes the only BB's that was there was our Shodan and a NiDan. Since our NiDan was highest rank at the time, he was Senpai for that time. Thats how it works at our dojo. and i listened to the ShoDan and he referred to the NiDan as Senpai.

i know. But i dont know what else to call him. i could say my black belt, or my shodan, because he is 1st degree black belt. Our sensei assigned him to teach me this kick. Also had a nidan helping me with it too. So that's how I refer to them - by their degree of BB. Except for our Sempai, who i just call Sempai.

I'll try that. Maybe I'll have to actually kick my shodan to get that thrust forward I dont have. I did it all right against a wall when i tried it later.

well my shodan said i dont move forward enough. my hips dont move forwards and my pelvis dont move. and he said he thinks im afraid of hitting him i dont want to actually kick and hurt the poor fellow its just in the dojo and not competition but thats what he said. and ya, rear leg.

I can do other kicks all right but I'm not doing this one pretty good. My shodan says its cause i'm not moving my hips forwards the right way. I'm wondering though, when i do one, do I also push with the back leg and move hips forward or is it just power generated from the hips and back leg dont have much to do with it?

A young man once travelled across Japan to attend the school of a famous karate instructor. When he arrived at the school, he met the sensei. "what do you wish" he asked. The young man replied, "I wish to be your student and be the finest karateka in the land. How long must I study?" "Ten years" was the answer. "long time" the man said. "what if I studied twice as hard as the rest?" "twenty years" said the sensei. "What!" said the man. "well what if I practice day and night with all my effort?" "Thirty years" the sensei replied. "How i it that if I say i will work harder, you say it will take longer?" asked the bewildered young man. "because," answered the Sensei, " the answer is clear. When one eye is fixed upon your destination, there is only one eye left with which to find the Way."

Its easy to call the dancer crazy when you're not hearing the music.