Lupin1

I think the dojos that already practice karate mostly for sport will continue that only adopt the Olympic rules while the more traditional dojos will continue that. Karate's got a much larger base than Judo. I think there's more room for differences and choice, so I don't think Olympic rules and regulations will change it too much, although it may change the way the public thinks of karate or what new students expect when they join. We'll have to be more vocal in advertising the differences between what they see in the Olympics and what they'll learn at more traditional dojos. But I'm sure plenty of sport-oriented dojos will still exist to give interested people Olympic-style karate.

How many nights a week do they offer classes? Could you do a few nights of Muay Thai and a few of karate? Or if you've been doing karate for years and are advanced enough, you may be able to do mostly Muay Thai for awhile and train on your own for karate and just stop by your karate club every few weeks to keep it fresh. Neither of those are ideal, of course. You've got some tough decisions, I'd say.

Welcome! I'm sure your enthusiasm will continue to grow! I don't know about others, but for me, my passion for Martial Arts is like a fire-- the more fuel I give it, the bigger it grows and the more fuel it wants. It's always growing. I hope yours will be like that, as well. Looking forward to reading more of your posts!

I tend to show my own brand of respect to the people who've earned it. It's gotten me in trouble a lot because my brand of respect usually involves some variation of "the more I like you, the more I'll give you a hard time", which for people with similar temperaments to me has worked out wonderfully and I've developed a lot of awesome relationships with mentors based on back and forth banter and witticisms. But not everyone understands that and, like I said, it's gotten me in trouble in the past. I tend to resent traditional shows of respect being thrust upon me. It may have to do with growing up in a mostly non-traditional dojo, but calling someone sensei or bowing to them just makes me feel silly. I also usually refuse to defer to anyone's rules or statements just because they're something silly like my boss. Again, that's gotten me in trouble in the past. Basically, I want to give my brand of respect on my terms. Dang independent ENTP.

I third the middleweight gi. Heavyweight is way too hot and heavy for most people for everyday use, and although I like how easy it is to move in my lightweight, I don't like that it's all see through, doesn't hang right, and doesn't have that snap. Middleweight is the best of both worlds.

I disagree. Although it's not technically "martial arts", I think a martial arts themed physical education program is great for that age and that karate schools with properly trained instructors would be great places for that. Kids at that age are growing in leaps in bounds when it comes to motor skills and having a place for them to practice those motor skills is awesome. They can gain more control of their movements, balance, etc, all while learning social skills, following directions and being a part of a group. If it's well-run and pays close attention to physiological development, it'd be just as worthwhile as enrolling your child in gymboree or other programs designed to help young children gain those same skills. There are also a few basic self-defense skills you can teach even to kids that age like dropping to the ground, holding tight to something big like their bicycle and yelling "you're not my mommy/daddy!" if an adult they don't know tries to take them. I like it. Back to the main topic, I could see your son's instructor being more upset than your instructor if there's a history there. Your instructor losing a 3-year-old student is nothing, but an adult student is a more valuable commodity. If the instructors really are that petty, and there are such petty people out there, I could see where you're studying being a bigger hot button than where your son is "studying". But if these are reasonable men, the explanation about the class times should more than satisfy them. If not, maybe find somewhere else, despite the convenience...

I've found surprisingly little about Isshinryu myself-- especially compared to the wealth of information about other styles. There aren't very many books or websites just dedicated to information about the system. Some of the reasons behind the vertical punch are that it's generally faster to throw and faster to turn into multiple strike combinations--which Isshinryu is very big on. It's also a more natural strike for a human and very versatile and adaptable being powerful at many different angles. The stances tend to be more natural, balanced stances with the goal being making it easy to move quickly in any direction. The empty hand kata of Isshinryu are Seisan, Seiunchin, Naihanchi, Wansu, Chinto, Kusanku, Sunsu and Sanchin. An Isshinryu practitioner will generally learn all of those by the time they reach black belt. We also have several weapons kata for bo, sai and tonfa as well as a two person kata for bo and two person for sai, but when those are taught varies greatly. From what I've read online, it seems common to start the weapons kata during brown belt studies, but not really get into them until black belt. But of course, it varies greatly. My instructor also teaches a bunch of non-Isshinryu kata to prepare for and build upon the Isshinryu kata, so I'll have about 15 kata by the time I test for black belt, but we're weird. The norm for shodan seems to be the 8 empty hand kata and maybe two weapons kata.

Maybe if you all toned down the awesomeness, I wouldn't waste half my free time on this website and could train more. Congratulations, everyone!

I'm not sure having the lower ranks do certain things like clean the mats is necessarily a sign of too much ego. At my Judo club it's pretty much the kyu ranks who put and out put away the mats at the beginning/end of practice while the black belts direct us to make sure we're putting them in the right place and not bending them and stuff. I just thought it was because all our black belts are old and we're young... Not that they're weak or anything-- they can still throw/be thrown around just fine, so I doubt picking up and carrying a mat would tax them too much. But it's a good thing for the young guns to do the physical stuff while the old guys supervise. That's something that used to just be expected before people lost all respect and grew entitled. It was like giving up your seat to the old lady on the bus or something. But if there was a 20-year-old black belt standing back and watching the kyu ranks work, I wouldn't be too happy with that. I think you've got to be at least in your late 40s before you earn that privileged. In fact, there's a white belt who looks close to 50 and I wouldn't bat an eyelash if he started directing us instead of picking up those mats. I think it's more of an age thing than a rank thing. Luckily I haven't run into much ego in the dojo. I can't stand people who act like they're better than others, even if they are. I like people who exude confidence and competence, but who don't have to say it or make a show about it. They know they're good, other people know they're good, why play it up? The people who show off and have to subordinate others usually aren't all that confident or competent and the show is a front attempting to hide that. True confidence doesn't need that and someone who's truly confident will try to bring others up with them without feeling threatened.

I was thinking the same thing-- beautiful writing. You should tell us more as you go! There aren't enough good karate novels out there. At least not that I've found.

I've never really used pictures for training, but my instructor has been videotaping us *constantly* (well, not me-- the people who actually know what they're doing...). He puts them all on YouTube but only a few are public. For the rest, he sends me links to them when he thinks they'd be beneficial and then I spend hours studying the videos. I bring my laptop out into the garage with me and play it piece by piece as I try it then go back and watch it again and again to get all the details. The only problem is, it seems like the more you want to know something, the fewer quality, focused videos with good angles exist. For me, who learns best by seeing then doing, a good quality video is a priceless tool. I do like pictures for the memories, though. Last week my instructor's instructor came to visit us and I had them recreate a picture with me we took when I was eight. So I have the one with me, my instructor, and my isntructor's instructor when I was eight and then the same picture now and I put them right next to each other. It's fun to see how everyone and even the wall behind us (same spot on the same wall) changed.

I haven't posted on here yet cuz I like to keep my anonymity, but why not? School-- Boys and Girls Club City-- Derry, NH Instructor-- Victor Smith, 8th Dan I think some of you might know my instructor from other forums.

Awesome! I love my PS3. I didn't go out Thursday night with the rest of my family, but my sister got two TVs, a surround sound, a blu-ray player and about twenty DVDs/blu-rays. I did go to Sports Authority yesterday and get myself the Century Wavemaster I've been wanting for awhile for about 2/3 the regular price. That's all I got, though.

Me, too. I've been trying to eat all the healthy leftovers. I'll be glad when the rest of that pumpkin pie and ice cream is gone. It's calling to me and I'm not sure I can resist it much longer. This is the part I hate about the holidays-- constant temptation in the form of junk food. So hard to keep myself eating right. Edit-- Totally gave in. So not worth it.

I wear my glasses to Karate. Got them knocked off during Kumite once, but other than that I haven't had a problem. Now that I've started Judo, though, I'm starting to see problems. I have to keep running over to the side of the mat to take them off and put them back on between watching demonstrations and trying stuff. It takes forever, but I literally can't see two feet in front of me without them. Even some techniques I have trouble with, like when my instructor got on his hands and knees and was having us try to turn him over and was telling me to grab a certain point over his elbow and even though i was so close to him I was touching him, I couldn't see his elbow. I'm probably gonna to make an appointment soon to get fitted for contacts. I wore them in high school and my eyes did fine with them but I stopped wearing them because my parents told me I'd have to start paying for them myself and a month's supply was about twice as expensive then as it is now. Plus I like my glasses. They slim down my round face and take focus off the fact that I've got tiny eyes and a big nose. But I think contacts would be much better at least for martial arts. I can still wear my glasses the rest of the time.

A lot of good points. I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately and I actually wrote about something similar to this last night (only from the point of view of someone in the kyu ranks, so probably a little different mentality from an advanced dan rank). As we're going through the kyu ranks, we can see each step clearly before us and we sort of get tunnel vision-- we're looking at this tiny bit of growth and trying to work our way through the basics. Then when we stop having those small, short term goals, the whole mentality changes. It's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to brown belt-- it's a much longer process with the three levels and a nice transition to the wide open space I'm picturing right now for black belt training. The big goal of "black belt" isn't really as much of a short jump as, say, green belt to brown belt. There's more time to grow into the rank and explore within it. I'm looking forward to it a lot. I actually drew a picture of one of my concerns a few weeks ago where I was picturing the journey a lot like a pueblo ladder going up a mesa. At first you're just concerned with climbing the ladder-- just a quick jump to the next step-- and you're so concentrated on each step that when you come to the top of the mesa and look around and it's just this huge, wide-open space, you kinda don't know what to do. I mean, there's now a TON of potential ways to go and ways to grow, which is freeing and exhilarating, but it's also a little scary because it's not as nicely laid out for you as the kyu ladder was. I'm not sure if that's what it's like because I'm not there yet, but that's how I'm picturing it now. I'm not sure a "plateau" is always a bad thing. I mean, we can't always be growing. Sometimes we need to rest and sort of settle into the level we're at now. It's a chance to look around and get comfortable. Like I said earlier-- I see a lot of potential when you get to a plateau-- so many ways you can go-- so much wide open area. Yes, you're still on the same level for awhile, but there's so much to explore while you're stuck on that level. Sometimes it's good to stop and explore and make a home at the level you're on before rushing to get to the next level. Being a 4th kyu, of course, my reflections don't have much, if any, martial arts experience behind them and so they're mostly based off of similar experiences I've had in other facets of life. Take 'em how you will.

Guy Fawkes Day and then I think their November 11th holiday is the same as our November 11th holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving all! I'm thankful for all you supporting me and giving me advice and sharing your knowledge with me in my martial arts journey! Thank you!

I don't take many pictures anyway, so it probably wouldn't bug me that much. I'm not a big picture person. That said, when I first restarted martial arts I went through all our old albums to find pictures of me in my gi when I was little. It's fun to see them and post them for my friends to see. Last night my instructor's instructor came and visited us and since I had a picture with me, him and my instructor from when I was 8 I had us re-create that picture last night and posted the two side by side on Facebook. It was fun to see how the people and the dojo changed and stayed the same over those 17 years. But I don't think it would bug me too much if I didn't have those pictures. I'd still have the memories. Now if I were planning on preserving memories for future generations who might want to study our dojo and the way we did things (doubt it), then pictures would be very valuable and old pictures are always fun to look at and analyze and imagine with. But again-- I don't think my life or my training would be any worse off without them.

Actually, come to think of it, he probably even made getting to Shodan for kids a little harder. He added another beginning kata to stretch out the colored belts and slow down progress a little bit. We do several easier non-Isshinryu kata before even getting to Seisan to develop skills first because, honestly, Seisan is pretty hard for a beginner. Our first one is kind of close Heian Shodan and the others develop skills and movements used in Seisan before they even get there. So now they're on their fourth belt before they even start Seisan and it's the fourth kata they learn. So they're getting more development there. And on top of that, they're getting the leadership experience of being a junior black belt, who helps lead classes and works with beginning students. So by adding junior black belt, he actually increased the requirements for Shodan while at the same time kids feel like they're progressing faster because they're going through the colored belts more quickly. Very smart. And it is sad the other instructor feels the need to put our free program down. I can see him not wanting his students thinking "wow-- I can get better training for FREE over there instead of paying all this money here" and so he almost has to discredit us, but it's sad especially when our 2nd and 3rd grade students are getting put down by their peers for it. That's something kids get enough of.

Isn't that a bit like saying "I haven't actually taken a karate class yet - I want to be able to do a good board break and have all my katas down first"? I can sympathise with the money thing, but you become fit by doing, not before doing.Well the thing is, the classes are less about getting you in shape and more about developing proper form for things like climbing and pulling yourself up on top of high beams. If I don't have the muscular strength to practice those skills correctly or the stamina to make it through the entire day of lessons, it seems like a waste of money to me. I mean, there are definitely parts of it I'd be able to use, such as ergonomically correct walking, crouching, crawling, running, etc, but some of the stuff like pole climbing I just wouldn't be able to do and I wear out quickly so any activities done towards the end of the day might be lost on me. If I'm paying hundreds of dollars for a two day workshop, I want to be able to participate in the entire thing and not be out of steam 1/4 of the way through.

This is a great idea. This is what I was talking about-- took me awhile to find it. You'd only do that with adults, I'd think. I spar against the kids all the time and 190 pound 25-year-old me going against a 70 pound 10-year-old is awkward. They're afraid to get close to me, so I usually encourage them and leave myself open and let them get me a few times before I start trying to hit them back (and then I usually just barely touch them, if at all and go slow and tell them when to block). We spend so much time nowerdays telling kids to keep their hands and feet to themselves and discouraging any form of physical contact that it's really hard to break kids of that mentality and let them know it's ok to be aggressive and hit each other and get hit in a safe, controlled environment. I just started Judo at the beginning of the week and that's even worse. I'm having a lot of trouble mentally getting myself to feel ok throwing my entire body on top of another human being and pinning them to the mat-- especially with me being bigger than average.

My instructor actually restructured our entire kids' program to "compete" with the local McDojo (I use compete loosely because we're a free program and they charge $120 a month, so we're not really competing with them for anything but respect). A lot of the kids were complaining that their friends were not only telling them they don't do "real" karate because they go to a free program, but were also giving them a hard time because the McDojo attendees would be black belts while our students at the same level or better might only be a blue belt. We were losing a lot of kids because of it and our students weren't being respected. So he kept the adult program the same but shifted the entire kids' curriculum to move them up the ranks faster and created a "junior black belt" with three degrees basically in the exact same place brown belt used to be (so they still have about 5 years of training before they get there), so a kid going through the three degrees of junior black belt would be doing the same stuff they previously would have done during the three degrees of brown belt and so by the time they got through all three degrees, they'd be at the same point to test for Shodan. The adult program stayed the same, so when I work out with the kids, despite the fact I'm wearing a green belt, I'm more on the level of the junior black belt as opposed to the kid green belts. I find the discrepancy between the kid ranks and adult ranks a bit confusing and I don't like the idea of rank inflation for the purpose of appeasing children and shutting up bragging 12-year-old friends, but I have to say that after watching it for awhile, it works ok. I like the fact that the junior black belt coincides perfectly with the adult brown belt so that by the time they're ready to test for full black belt they haven't sacrificed anything and have the exact same training history. I even like that our one junior black belt is getting much more leadership experience than he would have gotten as a brown belt. It's good for him and the other kids. But in the end I think we're still going to be looked down upon for not being "real" karate despite our students getting higher quality instruction. That's life.

I just wore my gi pants and an old sweater, and I'm kind of glad because we did do a few things that would definitely have stressed the jacket. We did SO much tonight. I'm having trouble keeping it all in my head. We did warmups and break falls, which I was expecting, but then we also did some grips and footwork and a few grip breaks and turning someone over from different positions. It was a lot. And they were expecting us (there was a 12 or 13-year-old kid there who it was his first day, too) to remember it all and get it right right away. It was crazy. But it was fun and I think I'm going to learn a lot. Almost everything we did tonight was ground stuff, which I liked because that's what I really want to learn and I was worried it'd be mostly stand up. I got some interesting mat burn for my first night, too. The tops of my toes are all covered in mat burn and I have this weird tight white patch on the tip of one of my fingers where it dragged while doing bear crawls (which I'm not very good at).

We need a "like" button. This. My instructor is in his mid sixties. Even before he was diagnosed with cancer a year and a half ago and went through treatments that left him barely able to talk and only able to demonstrate very easy moves with very little balance, he was overweight. But he's still an awesome teacher because he understands the mechanics of the techniques and has the mechanical and physiological knowledge to teach effective karate. Sad fact is the majority of people are out of shape (I won't say overweight because weight and fitness don't always correlate as nicely as they'd like us to believe). If someone can teach you to have effective karate for your body type, that's going to be a lot more useful to you than some fitness nut trying to get 40-year-old Joe Schmoe to do a flying double back kick.