DarkMonkey

People tend to shy away from the main reasons they attend or at least the main reason they first attended (other reasons migh crop up -- Like the social aspects -- later) for some reason. We all know that 95% of people joined because they wished to become better fighters. They either wanted to be able to defend themselves, be a more strong and confident person or just capitalise on their strength. Oh well. The reason I train is because I need to know I'll have a chance in a fight, I really need that, and I don't have it yet.

I'm sure there is some reason why they tend to be white; "The Japanese might take offence if you disrespect their national colour: White" or some such crap but lets not be silly, there is very little reason why the Gi's should be white. I do see how it would be best to keep one club to one color, sort of, it might keep the 'team colors' up or something but if you think about it Black is just a better color: Dirt doesn't show on it and it's just much cooler. That said I've only ever seen white Gi's and I'm a bit sad. I HATE that any stains are INSTANTLY visable on a white GI and how that instantly equates to "You dont' care about your Karate you can't be bothered to wash and iron your Gi twice weekly" ... Black would just simplify it. I suppose White might be used because it keeps you cooler but I feel the sweat stains put me off... So there. To conclude my unorganised mumblings: Any color should be okay really.

Chan's movies tend to be more entertaining than Bruce Lee's. He's my favoured actor, I love the way he uses everything in the fight scenes. I remember an amazingly choreographed scene in one of his movies with this guy who his 'loved chair' around with him. I remember a quote "He is nothing without his chair" or something. It was hilarios but also amazingly worked out. Somebody feel free to give me the name of the film, I'm sure you are all more up on that stuff than me My video tape ended before I got the end of it too so I never saw it all. Bruce Lee is more fun to watch for pure martial arts excellence but I'd still put Chan as my favourite. I'm not sure why people are choosing Van Damme though, I mean he's really not in the same league as other people mentioned here.

It's good. Especially if you want to do say 'XX minutes' of a paticular warm up. You can setup your own individual training tape with your own favourite music on and have it stop after three minutes or whatever, pause for a while and then start again when you feel you are relaxed again. Much better than looking at your watch all the time. I also think music gets you going easier. It's like it's easier to train as part of your lesson than at home on your own, it's easier to do it with music than all silent. My views.

Hum. It would be interesting to hear what you experts think about the innitial fight prospects. Who would win an why? Rather than just the ideas, I'd be quite interested to know what you think I'd like to observe a fight between Andy Sherry and Frank Brennan. Possibly wouldn't happen but it'd be interesting to see how they compare, hoewver much nicer Cherry is to Brennan the lower dan just seems to be the pinacle of excellence. When you get to that level your dan grading is just for dedication rather than skill. Apparently Frank will only go up to seventh dan when Sherry retires. Humdiddle.

No offence but I don't really find kickboxing.com very good if you want tons of info on a subject. Usually just end up clicking on the external links. Still the best Shotokan website I've found is easily http://www.24fightingchickens.com I really love that site.

You're a star Thanks lots and lots.

I'm interested in learning some stretches or workouts that could specficially aid in the more athletic and gymanastic-style flexibility. I'd like to work towards doing smooth forward flips, the splits, backflips etc. This has little to do with Martial arts, I know, but it is something I have often wanted to do. So what do I need to work on to become more flexible? Thoughts appreciated.

Things that seemed a bit off: 45 Minutes seems too short. Our training is twice that long although it's held just twice a week in my town (the instructor holds it two times a week in a town about 50 miles away too). I'm not a fan of humiliating somebody unless they are showing ridiculous arrogence. to put a yellow belt in with a brown belt who doesn't know how to properly spar (Unless your style enjoys real pain in sparring as opposed to controled hits) is dangerous. At my club when we spar or do any kind of kumite we often have white or yellow belts sparring with brown belts. If one was to hurt you I'd expect an apology and admitance of fault. Not "Oh I can't help it, I just like using my ten years of martial arts training on Yellow belts for fun!!!!". Your teacher should be able to control himself and set an example. If even he can't control these dangerous techniques when you are just sparring what kind of message does that send out to newer members who have yet to learn to control their moves, nor do they probably know the full power those moves posess. I'm sure he's a fine teacher but it sounds a bit odd really. I'm not a fan of violent sparring, if I accidently get hurt that's okay but I wouldn't like it to happen from a senior grade and certainly not repeatedly. It also sounds like your lessons might be slightly repetitive, I'd expect some form of kumite or light sparring to be held as part of the lesson rather than charging you large fees before you can even try. My cents.

I think I disagree. When sparing against a more aggressive opponent it's easy to get a feel for what it might be like in a real street fight. At the same time you get excellent practice in blocking reguardless of whether the actual consequences of not blocking would have been injuries or just recieving a "tag". I enjoy it.

I was at a training today in Everton with Sensei Cherry and Sensei Frank Brennan. I wouldn't know how to spell his second name but he is the scariest guy I have ever seen in my life. The point is this: There were about 100 people training and at least 20 black belts under 16 many of them 10 or 11 years old. Of course they were fast and I can't say any of them were crap but I highly doubt that they would actually be able to handle themselves in a real fight, simply because of lateral thinking in conjunction with what you have been taught. That said there was a brown/white strip kid, he looked about seven and he was so fast, he looked like he might have that real natural tallent. So fast I couldn't see his fists they were a blur. It was most impressive.

Erm, I'm also under the KUGB so the same as chris. The system is okay. I always think yellow should come before Red though. Anyway's... 8th Kyu

From my extensive research and data analysis I have concluded that 48.2.7% of the population of the world DO in fact LIKE Martial arts with the remaining percentage HATING it.

My last (and first) test wasn't paticularly hard. We had a 1 1/2 hour training session with andy cherry and then the actual grading just consisted of a basic spout of pre-planned kumite, Khion Kata and some basic kicks, punches and blocks. The higher grades had much longer and draining tests, howver. Three fingers broken... That's a bit too tough I think. By the way: I posted this a minute ago and used an : o smiley... it destroyed the post. I edited it and it was still there so I had to delete it and repost... it was fairly odd.

Yeah. They do learn one day. After quite considerable training then people start to get into the techniques properly and learn to control them. You can't just put anyone into random sparring if they don't properly know the implications of their techniques. I know I feel uncomfortable using some moves in kurmite.

Certainly. But at the same time, new students are limited to the Kurmite they can do as they don't have sufficient control in their attacks to properly spar with people.

Just a general word to any new Karateka. Joining Karate and knowing some basic techniques will mean very little on the streets. It will take some real time and effort before you can transfer basic knowledge into an actual understanding of how to hurt and win in a fight.

I'd also add that topics like Martial arts are probably easier as stand alone forums than other topics due to the lack of good sites on the topic. The majority of Karate sites, for instance, are just a few words and directions to get to the dojo or "shops" where you can buy videos and the like. It is unusual to find decent forums at such sites so if you want karateforums this is one of the most logical places. Plus, as patrick says, this place is bundled well, phpbb is good, the graphics are nice, the core members intelligent and the domain nice and easy. If you were starting stand alone forums on a subject like 'Nintendo' you would have a much harder time as there are so many good forums with great sites backing them up you'd struggle to find people with a real reason to go with your paticular forums. My thoughts.

Yes. Also the thread content didn't mention street fighting either... Blah. I have come to realise that Innitial karate training doesn't mean anything at all when you are faced with six determined attackers. I don't know at what point of learning do you reach a stage where you can really win easily in a one on one with most people but I imagine you will have to put in around a year of HARD training before you are really going to be confident in your ability to beat even somebody your own size with more testosterone flowing around than you. If you are learning Martial arts so you'll have greater success on the street, should the need arrise (which I'm sure is the reason most people start) You'll probably need to train hard and really listen to your instructors, at the same time think about the implications of using a paticular technique and back it all up with more practice and sparring. Even then you're going to have a hard time facing some crazy fight-adicted steroid freak who happens to meet you on the corner. Knowing when to run is a useful skill... maybe I will learn it one day.

And I thought these entire forums were about fighting. Crazy me!

Walking away from most real fights simply isn't possible. Running as fast as you freaking can... away - is a more effective tactic.

6) Be sure to turn up

Don't bother. Unless you have a solid site to back up the forums there seems little point. I know Karateforums goes against the norm in that respect but it has kickboxing.com backing it up and it's also part of the "iFroggy network". Forums are cool but you need a plan to keep them active, you should have some original content to attract the sorts of people you wish to participate in the forums, and preferably a good design and domain combo too. As for jobs... I'm not sure exactly what the question you're asking is... but bodyguarding seems to be the most popular job that requires lots of fighting skill.

I always assumed getting grabbed by an unskilled person of superior weight and strengh was the worst thing to do. Exploit your speed and technique, don't give him an opportunity to get you in some kind of lock because, whatever your skill, a bigger guy is going to be very very hard to escape from unless you are really skilled indeed.

Well... I can't say I exactly know the names of many sensei' but Andy Sherry recently came down to our club to do our grading (my first) and he is seriously awesome to watch. Such control of every move, every technique really really does use all of his body to perfection. When you see him in his suit holding a briefcase you wouldn't think this older fellow was capable of the kind of power he exudes. It's quite great really. Also noteworthy: everything he said had a purpose, every time he said something I noted it, it was all useful. I think he's the highest ranked native Britain in shotokan. But I could be wrong. I'm sure Chris can correct me.