DarkMonkey

Whatever happens Angus will have a life left over already that contains the material for a hit film. If he keeps this up and manages not to get himself killed we could have a true epic by the time he's 30: Angus: The Way of the Crouching Fire System Maybe it's just me... Take care mate.

And I think all that "Black belt is only the begining" -- "Karate is forever" stuff is very much a trick to keep you in it. Of course being a black belt does not mean much, but after you've been in a certain martial arts for say six or seven years the improvements you make over the time you put in decreases dramatically (I don't know this from my own experience but I have heard from others and it seems very logical). When you reach a point such as this it is not always clever to just blindly follow the "Train forever" philosophies. It might be time to stop training formally and just do your own routenes and do something else with your time (something that will improve your body in larger chunks proportional to the time you put in), perhaps a different martial art if you have not cross trained before. My take.

Not paticularly. Only things that are really relivent to modern scenario's. Mainly I prefer to spend my time reading practical things if I read anything at all. On an unrelated note. 1000th post for the shotokan forum. Hooray!

Either that's a double joke or I worry for your sanity.

You can have love without marriage.

I don't like the idea at all. As somebody said, either you are good enough for the next belt or you're not. There is no being 'too good' for the previous belt, if you are not good enough for the next one then you are simply a 'good' yellow belt or a 'good' orange belt or whatever. My shotokan club (in the UK) gives out tempoary grades (or at least Andy Cherry does when he comes down and grades us) and it seems to me that 'EVERYBODY' grades successfully, at least at the early colours (up to purple at least) even small children who obviously are not very motivated or interested in karate at all. Yet to keep them keen and the monies coming in the style seems to have incorporated a 'tempoary' rank that is to say 'You are not good enough to grade but because we know you are only interested in silly belts we will give it to you anyway but attach the word 'tempoary' as to not insult the people who actually work for their gradings. ... My view.

Bah, you should have calmly explained the irony in what the Sensei was saying and then walked out, now they'll not understand at all Hrumph. I wanted an exciting climax too. BOOOO.

Ahahah. Angus is a god. I could start going into the 'don't get into trouble' type philosophising, but I won't because, quite frankly, Angus makes this board fantastic, haha. Almost every week we have some new crazy situation he's got himself into, it makes for great reading That is not to say I, uh, condone any of this. [cough]

Well I was feeling pretty sick, sore throat and a headache, I was pretty worried I woudn't feel up to grading but I skipped the pre-grading lesson and just took the actual grading and I made it through, even though I almost messed up the kata twice dispite knowing exactly how to do it and having practiced many, many times. A conbination of nerves and a slow head (due to the illness...). Can't have been bad though the rest of my performance I was pleased with and I graded with no bad comments from Mr. Cherry. Most people get a '[Name] XXKyu - Work on your stances, more speed' etc. etc. But I just got a '7th Kyu' and that was it, so I presume I impressed sufficiently that he found no easily noticable flaws. Ho hum. A good day all round (appart from me feeling like ****) my friend double graded like I did before him and my other hard up pal who did not have the funds to grade last time also double graded, which was nice

Thanks for all your comments, keep them coming, for my benefit and for others, and because it's quite interesting. I do not think I'm that bad, actually I think I'm quite good, I do concur that he bothers pointing these things out because I'm fairly promising, there is another adult red belt and he is so apaling but he hardly bothers telling him to correct pretty much everything because he doesn't take it in. I'm still finding faults constantly, which is good, and I really appreciate recieving the critisisms, but sometimes I just get annoyed at myself for doing it like that for so long, sometimes I get annoyed that our sensei took so long to point it out. Like I am grading the day after tomorow and only at the last lesson did he point out that I was stepping back into backstance rather than forward into backstance in Heian Nidan. It's annoying because when you go home you like to pratice but you don't want to practice your bad habits so it's nice to be corrected quickly on things, but with a list like mine, it can esape peoples notice. The club is growing quite fast too, there are loads of new white belts which require constant checking, so I guess there isn't time to watch everybody. Anyhow, keep talking.

I'm a Chiken. But Dragon I suppose. even then I have trouble really hurting somebody if they have me cornered. Well, at least I imagine I would have.

It can be used in different ways of course but the one we've been doing a lot is right leg forwards slide in with right hand Uraken turn left leg Ushiro-Geri

23? pah. You are in your prime years. It is rediculous to suggest your progress might be hampered by your age, if you have coordination problems I highly doubt it is that. Our sensei is utterly fantastic but he started Karate when he was like in his 30's so that is just bullshit. Keep practicing your best and coordination should follow. if it doesn't you could practice your aiming and balance by just going at your makiwara or anything you like. Just keep going for it. bull>

Backfist (Araken (can't spell)) followed by a high Oshira-Geri (can't spell) is very effective and extremely hard to counter or stop.

Well... All other sports have sponsorship so why, rationally should Martial Arts be different? I don't see why everyone is so caught up in the 'traditions'. Like it's offensive to wear a training shirt with Coca-Cola on it... why? Who is it offending? The Japanese guys who decided they wanted to create something that would make you a killing machine? I hope they are not crying at the blatent disrespect of it all. Just a thought.

Thanks people I really appreciate the encouragement. Feel free to keep the discussion going. As I won't be attending my club next week and it is only two weeks to grading I thought I would ask my Sensei what exactly I was doing wrong and should work on while I was away, he said he only really thought my backstance was a bit short, especially when moving backwards and that my Keiagi (again: spelling badly) was a bit pointed on my left leg, and that were his only real problems after doing the test grading (going through the moves part, we didn't do the Kata or Kumite but we had done so before hand (Kata) and a very complex and new kumite excercise which was excellent, so I'm quite pleased I'm not doing too bad. Anyways, Hum-trumble.

Was coca-cola actually on his suit? I hardly think it's offensive to anyone to wear a branded shirt in a karate dojo if you have just changed out of your suit or something.... I'm not much of a traditionalist, I don't really care for all the japaneese etiquette, I'll obey it if its enforced but I wouldn't preach much of it, like Chris says, what is important to me is that the instructor is a great instructor and my fellow karatakers are fun to train with...

Hrum. This thread is probably more for the people slightly newer to Martial arts (karate in my case) but I'm sure you all have aspects of your style that you are not completely assured in. Every time I train I find myself being told something is wrong, today it was paticularly bad, in front of the whole class I did my front kick (Mi-gerri - But I can't spell it) two low, apparently, three times, on the forth he let me carry on with the Kata. Fairly embarassing but I really like to have these things pointed out to me, just not so near to grading, I just dont' feel adequate, it's even worse when I go back to Khion Kata which I did so well to get my double grading (in my own opinion ) and find myself mucking it up and getting it confused with Heian Nidan and doing back stances for front punches and 45 degree low blocks. Gah. I read somewhere that often people feel like they are getting worse, when really they are getting better, it seems to be the case, I'm not sure I am getting better but you would expect to improve after going twice a week and trying your best (I do train in my own time a fair bit too). But sometimes I look at my back leg and it just isn't straight and I wonder how I got into that rut. Anyway, the topic, I'll list my current main flaws or ruts I have got into without noticing which are irritating me and need to be overcome, hopefully some of you lot can post some of yours or relate to my story in some way. Bare in mind I am realitively new ot the whole game. ------------- My stance, often my back leg is not straight at all. Stance is often too narrow, especially when moving backwards. My Turn (I can't do the japaneese spellings - Mote I guess, but it's not spelt like that really) usually ends up looking crappy and my leg doesn't come around enough to put me in a proper stance, it's always too narrow. My back stance is too short. My high block (gah - Agi-uki ???) is too high. I'm forgetting to keep my elbows in properly when punching. I don't turn my hips enough with the blocks and stance changes, often. I often find myself closing my eyes when I punch, or blinking too much, not enough focus, when I do focus properly I feel a lot more powerful and assured, this trait probably goes back to me being very paranoid and not very self-confident. I imagine. Mi-gerry (front-kick) is too low. I'm not bringing my knee up high enough, found that out today, stupid ruts. I mean I can easily do it well, or fairly well, if I try but I just get into these damn ruts (same with most of these problems) and they persist, sometimes they dont' get noticed quickly enough and are hard to get out of. That's a fair list I think. Don't get the impression I'm some slack idiot who doesn't try, I do what I do pretty well for my level but some things I feel are just getting worse and it pisses me off. So much to correct and only two weeks until grading. I mean I know people almost always grade successfully at the early stages (Not that I agree with that at all but it seems to be the way) if they remember their moves and show a fair bit of determination but I said when I got my red belt that I would really try to be a worthy yellow belt rather than one who got it because the system doesn't want me to quit Post your thoughts.

I think KYU goes like this. (shotokan karate) White belt: 10th KYU Orange Belt: 9th KYU Red BElt: 8th KYU And so on until 1st KYU which is the one before black. So... I am but a feeble Red Belt, have been attending no more than six months but am enjoying it still. I practice shotokan karate and I do it for self-defence, fitness, social aspects (in that order)

Nothing wrong with sponsorship. Nothing wrong with trying to get the word out about your dojo either, more people = more motiviation for instructors to keep on doing the classes (I mean sometimes I wonder when I, and four others, turn up at class - he has to drive 30 Miles to get there), more people to interact and socialise with. More people to learn from, and more people getting involved. If sponsorship helps in that goal then great. I've never come accross a "McDojo" but I assume we are talking about the places with club secretarys who take off three months money in training fees in advance, hands out black belts to four year olds who have been doing it a year and cares far less about teaching people to defend themselves as it does reguarding how much money they can make for their financial quarter

Full locked, focused punches? Or fairly unpowerful but fast? I know you're supposed to do both together but when I start trying to go very fast I find it hard to get a decent lock and focus.

Profound. Here, then, are my reasons ranked in order of importance. 1) Self Defence 2) Fitness 3) Friends 4) Image (Being a Karate Mastah is kewlies lol omg asl!!!!!) 5) Discipline (mainly seeing how far you can push yourself) Other reasons are not important enough to warrent mentioning

What is a hidious, ugly, grotesquely overweight lady were to attack you Angus? Then would you fight back? I'm not sure why you're not supposed to hit women but I abide by it and would feel extremely bad about myself if I ever did. Sometimes you are forced into restraint however, it's how able you are to do that without actually hurting them I suppose.

This thread (right below yours.........) has already been started. http://www.ifroggy.com/karateforums/forums/viewtopic.php?topic=881&forum=2&12

in *my experience* (which admitedly encompasses a lot more males than females) Males tend to be more determined and agressive, more likely to push themselves. This is 'on average' I know it is not true of 'ALL' females so don't attack me for sexism or something. In general though Men tend to have greater strength (Biology and all that) and women the greater flexibility.