evergrey

Start out now, start out strong! Otherwise you might find yourself having to untrain habits that are considered bad in Kyokushin. OSU!

OSU, Fist of all, you will say OSU a lot. I don't know much about Shotokan, but Kyokushin is a hard style, and can be full contact. It is brutal and tough and very physically demanding. Standards tend to be high, though there is still variation in quality of instruction from school to school, from what I have heard. Push, and endure. Train hard. Practice hard. Fight hard. Lots of contact, lots of aliveness. It's serious stuff, and there is a general philosophy of "you fight how you train," with the caveat of "don't permanently injure your classmates," of course. But, expect bruises. Expect to get nice calluses on the first two knuckles of each hand. And enjoy exploring an awesome style! OSU!

Mine is not getting hit in the head!

The little ones participate in breaking class, but otherwise under 13 go into their own class. There are some teens in the adult class. They are by and large pretty well-behaved and respectful. I get a bit nervous doing kumite with the young shy ones, because I am a beginner and do not have as much control. I do worry about coming on too strong and bullying without meaning to, so I go easier and try to be encouraging. I don't try to coddle either- this is Kyokushin! But there's no point in breaking your classmate's spirit or being so aggressive that they can't really do anything but back up. I can always go full bore on my sensei after class, as he usually invites me to spar. Otherwise, everyone encourages everyone else, and the spirit of mutual support and camaraderie is strong. I don't really mind having the teens in class with me. We're a big family.

Yeeeah I think I'll stick to nice soft white pine for right now! OSU!

OSU Aluminum! That's a new one for me. I've heard of wooden bats, mind...

Thank you all. And yes, I think that is the point- it is a triumph of the spirit!

OSU JJN- yeah, I'm glad I left too! And now I am much more careful- I don't walk around in the city late at night on my own if I can help it. :} It's always just a statistic until it happens to you, though... I hear "statistically speaking, chances are low that you will ever be attacked!" But then, the statistics for women being sexually assaulted at some point in their lives is actually said to be quite high. A number of the things that happened when I was an adult, happened here in the bay area. It kind of changed my stance on a number of matters pertaining to self-defense and permits. My horsemanship mentor always says "the best way to survive being in the middle of a gang war where there's a gang charging towards you from both ends of the alley late at night is to NOT GO DOWN AN ALLEY LATE AT NIGHT." 'Course, that's not so cut and dried when you, say, work night shift and have to walk to your car alone in the parking lot...

Lemme see... Gun pointed at my head, late high school- my friend drove his minivan too close to a random hatchback that was clearly trying to hide something. Fun times! Shot at, early high school- gotta love being the wrong color in high school on the border! I didn't know them either, and thankfully I was far enough away and they were crappy at aiming, or just wanting to scare me. Could have been either one. Beat up, without weapons, multiple times growing up. See, wrong color in the wrong place. I wasn't in a gang, so I didn't deal with the really nasty stuff. Sure had to dodge it a lot though! They had jump-ins in the Jr. High cafeteria. The principal tried to stop it once. He got beat, bad. Other things during early childhood I'm so not going into on here, also strangers. Adulthood- the guy with the gun WAS someone I knew, and you know, I was not all cool and brave. I hid in the guest room closet, gripping my sword, ready to stab anything that opened the door, and then when the neighbor distracted him, I hauled my butt out the kitchen window and took off to San Francisco to hide at a friend's place until the dude cooled down. We... aren't friends any more. Assault without weapons- one person was someone I knew, who I brought home with me because he was too drunk to drive. He was also too drunk to understand the word "no," but thankfully The wall and his head had a discussion, with my hand providing impetus for discourse. After a while, "no" started to sink in. Otherwise, it's mostly been attacks from strangers on the street. To be fair, they probably WOULD have "gone to the ground" if they'd managed, but for a different reason, since these all happened when I was walking to my car alone at night, as a female. One of those, I happened to be carrying an x-acto knife, as I was an art student at the time. It was a couple of frat boys who gave the cliche "hey baby, where's the party?" line and tried to back me into an alley. I pulled out the x-acto knife and offered a free vasectomy. No takers, and I was able to continue on my way. Two men tried to grab me on the way to my car, and both times I managed to run for it, get in, and lock my door before they could get at me. One of them got his foot ran over. The other one clung to the hood for a while, but eventually rolled off. I love my Saturn. One other time, I was at a private party in a warehouse, and only part of the warehouse was being used for the party. The neighbors managed to talk their way in, and one of them grabbed at rather inappropriate portions of my anatomy and tried to drag me back to an unused portion of the warehouse. I don't have an entirely clear memory of what followed, except that everything really DID turn red, I hit his chest and thought "his shirt is very soft," then he was flying through the air, and then I guess I was hitting him and kicking him and screaming until he fell down, at which point I continued to punch him until the door man came and dragged him out of the club. Incidentally, in that last one there were probably 30 or 40 people who didn't see what he originally tried to do, but did see me flip out. The music stopped, and most of them just froze up. You can't necessarily rely on others to take action to help you. A few people who didn't know what was going on tried to pull me off him, but I didn't even register their presence. Adrenaline and PTSD are a pretty potent combo, yo. In conclusion, the best way to win a fight is to not get in the fight, and get out of there if you can.

Thanks!

Thank you! I have a couple of cinder caps in my car, but I'm not sure when I'll try breaking them!

OSU! Happy white belt moment for you all. Today I went over to Sensei's house, and he cut up my two white pine boards for me. I asked him if I could try breaking one, since my first breaking class at the dojo is tomorrow. He agreed to this, but I froze up and had to have him show me first. So, he broke a board, and then set one up for me to break. I stared at it for a little bit, and then decided, to heck with it, the worst that can happen is excruciating pain! That's something I already know well. So not so scary, eh? So, I just let go of my doubt, focused on a point about four inches below the board, relaxed, and struck, driving down with my mass. It broke! I was pretty shocked- I barely felt the impact. Mostly what hit me was the sound of it. But then there were the two pieces of board lying on the ground. Sensei tried to high-five me, and I tacklehugged him, haha. He said, "well, maybe I should mount these pieces on a plaque or something for you, what do you think?" I have 'em in my car. I think I'll hang on to them, as a reminder- We human beings are very good at limiting ourselves. All too often we define our world with walls built out of "I can't." But... what if we can? What if we let go of our fear of failure and just... do? Sure, a healthy sense of self-preservation is a good and important thing. But maybe the next time someone asks me to do something, or I think about doing something that seems insurmountable, and the thought "I can't," pops into my head... maybe I'll just go ahead and try doing it after all... OSU

Thank you, ps1!

Sensei8, I love your attitude on this issue! People in class NOT hitting me in the sternum because it's too close to the breast does not do me any favors. Quite the contrary! I need to get USED to it. And I don't like the unfair advantage it gives me over other students in kumite. Outside of the dojo, however, sensei makes a point of punching me in the chest when we spar and the like. :}

Haha! Of course! Well, what it does is teach me to be aware and ready to shift trajectory if need be. And to strike and re-chamber faster. And to do some arm toughening! OSU!

Aha Sensei8, should you ever visit and invite me to spar (I know better than to ask you, see I am learning to be polite, hah!) I will keep that in mind... Somehow elbows always find that one nerve in my forearm. Aiyee!

I admire your dedication- it's easier to train and keep up practice with someone constantly egging you on! :}

Both can aid in self defense. Kata, with muscle memory and training your body to flow from one move to the next. Kumite, because it is as close to a street fight as you are sanely going to get in the dojo or a tournament, and all the talking about it in the world is not going to give you experience like stepping out on the mat.

Thank you, Joesteph! Though I can only take credit for half the blow, haha, since he was swinging his arm too. I am really really lucky to be able to train as much as I do, and got individual attention. My sensei is tough, but he's a real blessing in my life!

Natural reaction, though it can damage your partner. It's sort of a tough call. On the one hand, you don't want to damage your brothers and sisters in the dojo. On the other, you fight how you train, and if you are in a situation on the street where you are in fear for your life and cannot get away, not holding back things like that can save your life. So, control it when you can. But don't cut it out entirely. My sensei has a NASTY habit of bringing his elbow down. It isn't something he'll ever stop. So I've adapted, learning to watch for it and try to dodge his elbow blocks. And I've started using my elbow to block more as well. Sensei ended up swinging his arm up as I brought my elbow down- the impact was hard enough that he had a bruise on his inner arm, where the elbow hit, and a BIGGER bruise on the other SIDE of his arm. Like the exit point of a bullet. Never seen something like that before. I'm glad I didn't accidentally break his arm. I asked him, "so, now are you going to stop blocking with your elbows so much during sparring, since you've experienced this?" He said "Nope! I do appreciate the effect more now, though. But I'm not going to stop doing it."

Yeah, I mean, sensei hits me at maybe 25% sometimes? And I get the radiating numbness from that. If he hit me at 100%, that would shatter bones. and I've seen Shihan send him flying about 5 feet without much effort...

OSU, There is no choice but to train hard in my dojo, haha! At least I have a dojo to go to now. Sensei and I were just training in horse pastures and stuff before this... I don't suggest learning falls for the first time in a pasture, by the way- the grass doesn't really pad against the gravel much! I highly value the time and effort both Sensei and Shihan are putting in to me. They don't have to, they owe me nothing. But they do train me, and help me, and care! I always try my best to give 110%, in the dojo and out of it. And I will practice, practice, practice. There are no shortcuts to good technique or strength... OSU!

OSU phoenixzion! When I was 12 or so I took Shorin Ryu. The instructor was solid! I just couldn't handle, at that time, being the only girl in class. I agree that kata is important too! I know two at this time (beginner!) and will soon be learning Pinan 2. And probably the other two pre-pinan 1s... There are a couple of different cooks making my stew, training-wise! I do my kata every day. I do kata, I drill, I work out. I spar every chance I get as well, but of course without good technique and understanding of body dynamics, I won't ever get the power I need. Both my sensei and my shihan understand this well, and train accordingly. Of course also in Kyokushin the goal of kumite and tournaments is not to permanently injure your opponents! It can happen though...

OSU, We don't try to injure our sparring partners- we'd all run out of sparring partners pretty quickly! But then in the tournaments, yeah... For me, my biggest fear is harming someone unintentionally. I already know what it feels like to be injured and in pain. I've been in a hospital soaked in blood. It kind of gives you a new perspective on what "pain" really means, hah!

OSU I'll get to that point honoluludesktop- someday. When I am more trained and higher rank. I've been told that full contact training starts at brown belt in my dojo. I have a goal!