gheinisch

Welcome! Great to have you here. Look forward to your posts!

Welcome! Glad to have you here. Here's a cool site with lots of info. Karate - The Japenese Way http://karatethejapaneseway.com/index.html Greg

Welcome. Started late at 20? I started at 34, now that's late. But I've been having a blast every since I started (3 1/2 yrs. ago). You're never to late. At least that's what I keep telling myself! Welcome once again! Greg

Welcome Andy, look forward to reading your posts. Have a great day and a better tomorrow! G

Welcome! Glad your here. Lots of great info here.

Welcome!

The "Book of Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi is a great book on strategy. It consists of the "ground book", "water book", "fire book", "wind book", and the "book of the void". It was written in 1645 by Master Musashi, it's pretty deep but some good reading. The best thing is you can read it online if you want. Here's the link: http://www.hut.fi/~renko/gorinnosho.html Hope you enjoy! Greg

Sorry, Here in the states the "gift of gab" means the ability to talk your way out or into certain situations. Talk is always better than a fight unless you have no other option. Hope that clears it up for you. Have a great day! Greg

Great to have you here, Welcome!

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to the forum Pete. There is a lot of great people as well as Martial Artist here to help you with any questions you may have. I know I've learned a lot in the short time I've been here. It sounds like you have the gift of gab down pat. Remember "If your hand goes forth withhold your temper, if your temper goes forth withhold your hand". Welcome once again! Greg

Thought this was pretty cute! http://www.humorsphere.com/p.php?t=1&i=90

Welcome to the forums!

Never known anyone to break a bone in class, but a fellow student of mine messed his shoulder up (pulled muscles) while practicing side kicks. Go figure! Hope you're a quick healer!! G

Welcome everyone!

We started with the three Taikyoku then Anaku, Wunsu,Naihanchi Sho,Sanchin,Empi Sho, Tsue Sho no Bo (Bo kata) etc.

Welcome

Welcome Big Orange. Ask away, you'll find a lot of knowledge here. G

Glad you're here, Good luck in your quest! G

I guess I did leave that one wide open. I should know better than that, being Martial Artist and all. Never leave an opening to expose yourself. I'll do better! Thanks again! G

Wow! That was great Kickchick. Thanks for sharing that with me. In my style we do quite a few katas and I still have a long way to go. My Hanshi is very good about explaining the kata and each move and its purpose. I'm grateful for that, I think some who don't like kata don't fully understand its meaning (i could be wrong ). I hope it's OK for me to share your post with my fellow students and Hanshi. I think Hanshi will really like it and read it to our class. Thanks again for the post. You got anymore good stuff? G

I and submissionfighter where only trying to help americankarategal to answer a question that she asked "my sensai doesn't teach any history of the art". The "Art" leaves it wide open for when and where. She wanted to teach afterschoolers some history about the "Art". Sure American karate has a short history but it is still based on a lot of traditional styles and techniques. No harm in reseaching the history from the roots. I apologize if I spoke out of turn for you submissionfighter. G

Hello Americankarategal, Not sure exactly what kind of history you are looking for, Gichin Funakoshi is often refered to as the "Father of Karate". If you want to go back further (Bodhidharma) her are a couple links with some good history. http://www.geocities.com/suiken000/dojo.htm http://www.tmac-sd.com/funakoshi.htm Hope this helps a little! See Ya in the forums, G

Katas are the essence of Karate, without them Karate would be the mere learning of various fighting and self-defense techniques, expressing nothing and allowing for no aesthetic development. Katas are the distilled concentrated wisdom, understanding, and experience of hundreds of great karate peak awareness. When one begins to understand them one glimpses a new world of untold internal riches. The primary meaning of the kata is for the performer himself. If he is unable to immerse himself in the kata and so release his emotions, or life force, a master will say of the performer that he is still "in the dance", that is, unable to emote or express his feelings at will. This poignant karate saying has an even more profound when the sensei refers to a student "coming out of the dance". This is the highest compliment one can recieve. The eventual perfection of the katas lead not only to mastery of the basic forms and techniques, but also to physical and spiritual sensitivity and to complete control of all parts of the body. A good Karateka first develops his katas to perfection and later perfects his Jul-Kumite (sparring) ability. The above is a small portion from my Hon-Shin-Do handbook. I believe katas train your body to act without thinking which is important in a real conflict senario. It only takes a split second of hesitation and you'll be picking yourself up off the ground (if your lucky). One must act without thinking. That's my opinion.

My Hanshi sets no time limits for when we have to test for the next rank. He will tell us when he thinks the next promotion may be but set no date in stone. Our insturctor charges nothing for the lessons so he feels no obligation to promote. He will promote when he feels we are ready and only then. It is up to us how fast we want to go. He tells us that Martial Arts is more then a couple nights a week. It is a way of life that you must practice on a daily basis. I and several others thought we would be yello belts forever. I and the other students like the way he does this because we feel that we have really earned our rank. We don't pay for testing or our belts. He gets those for us, he says you earned the rank so he doesn't allow us to pay for it. We all love this man a great deal, he gives so much and asks for nothing.