Elizabeth

Two thoughts: 1) Can you re-register at your home GP for the purpose of being seen over the hols? Were you registered there before you went to uni? 2) I thought that they couldn't deny someone treatment for not being registered. When I first arrived in the UK I got really ill and was able to go see the local GP even though I wasn't registered there and they weren't even taking new patients at the time. I was a student too. Edited to add a third thought - when I injured my hand at Kings Cross I didn't go to the GP, I went right to A&E and got it xrayed. Why not do that?

If it were me I'd go to see the GP. Four weeks without improvement seems pretty significant.

Hello, I may need to get a heart rate monitor - the reason is to make sure I stay out of the anaerobic range when I am at karate class. (I'd rather not get into the medical reason of why right now.) I've never used one and until a few minutes ago didn't even know they required a chest strap! I think I thought they read your pulse off your wrist. I'm posting to find out if anyone has any recommendations for particular models. It doesn't have to be fancy, but something that would be fairly comfortable (where exactly do the chest straps go on a woman?) and would give me the option of having an alarm sound if my heart rate goes above my aerobic range would be great. Budget is adjustable but ideally it'd be under $100. And preferably the wrist part would be not too bulky so it wouldn't interfere with partner work in my karate class. Thanks!

Oh, if you've got a computer girl definitely take it to her, then. You should also ask her whether it's time for you to upgrade to a new computer, and to recommend an external hard drive to get.

You can find out whether your files are lost or not pretty quickly. Locate one on the hard drive, but don't open it. Instead, email it to one of your friends and see if they can open it. If they can, your files are still there and it's just a software problem that needs sorting out. What is the file extension on your documents? (.doc, .wrd, .docx etc)

Hi John, Yeah, that was one of the problems I encountered when trying to choose something - most sites that carried them had a very limited return policy and next to no information about size, so it felt like a shot in the dark. However, I've received my Turtle Shells gear which seems to fit, and I'll try it out at my classes this week and see if - in particular - it helps me be a bit less cautious about practicing choke escapes with a 16-year old male - one of the escapes seems to trap the attacker's hand against my chest! Having some sort of protection in place will probably make things easier for both of us.

I don't think I would train at a dojo where I feared the instructors. For me, fear is not a helpful part of a learning environment. We call our head sensei "Sensei Albert" and he's the most cheerful person I've ever met. Many of the people are our dojo are children or teenagers and he is always somewhere encouraging someone or explaining a correction or giving some advice about form or attitude, and helping the students learn how to apply the mental training they receive in the dojo to their lives outside.

Thanks for the input, guys. I've ordered some Turtle Shells and hopefully they will do the job!

I am quite happy to accept advice from anyone, lol - sorry if my initial post suggested otherwise! Thanks for the links! I'll check them out. Edited to add - ah, yes, I saw those mentioned (with praise) in one of the old threads, but didn't see any US sellers of them.

Are there any female martial artists here who can recommend a chest protection product that I can use during sparring and bunkai? Thanks! I've checked old threads for suggestions but they are VERY old and I don't know if something better might be out there. So far I'm leaning toward this but I'm not sure about sizing or quality and this site has a limited return policy. Edited to add...I've just found "Turtle Shells" - anyone have experience with those? http://www.turtle-shells.com/

Try the program at http://hundredpushups.com/ - I've been doing it and seeing results.

There are test "recitals" every three months at my school. To participate in the recital costs $35 and that will include the cost of the new belt. You get to keep your old one. We just had my first recital, and not everyone currently studying participated. For the two weeks or so before the test the senseis were giving us "mock tests", running us through everything that we'd be expected to perform. He told several of us that we had essentially already tested and would do fine on the official day. I know of one green belt who did not feel ready to test (I think he had recently returned from a break in studying) so he did not participate in the recital. The black and brown belts have a different test day than the rest of us; their procedures may be different.

Yup, that's the one! I'm still fine-tuning the new stances and movements but I've got the whole thing memorized at least. Three of us (two yellow and a white) demonstrated it for the upper belts at the end of yesterday's class, and we only mildly screwed it up, lol.

Thanks guys We're in between terms at the moment so while we are still meeting for classes, we're just doing "fun stuff" - sparring and a we-won't-be-tested-on-it kata called Shinpa-ton, which is a pretty cool one. There's a video of it on Facebook from the Vancouver Shudokan academy.

I just wanted to say that it was very cool to be browsing the karate forums and discover an Irish word. Tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge agus is maith liom beith ag léamh as Gaeilge. Never came across Bataireacht in my language studies, though. I wonder if it's got any connection with the use of sticks in mock fighting movements during English Morris dancing.

LOL, thanks! Yeah, my dojo doesn't have a rainbow belt.

Grading was last week and I passed, with mostly B's on my score card. The grader said my kicks were especially good, which surprised me as sensei's been reminding me to get better bounce. I guess I must have been concentrating on them. My school calls this rank gold belt and I'm used to calling it yellow from my last school so some mental shifting is in order. I'm wondering about the belt avatar on this site - does it change color based on number of posts, or is it supposed to reflect one's actual rank?

I spoke to my sensei last night before class and he was glad that I told him about the deafening kiais and excessive force. He integrated some lessons about both of these things into our class, and also managed to directly address the force issue with my partner without making it look like it was ONLY him that he was talking to. I was really impressed and hopefully the lessons will stick. We have one more practice tomorrow and then testing on Friday.

He's OK with the punches and kicks, though at white belt level we are still not making contact in most cases so it may be interesting when we ARE supposed to make contact with the kicks. (Actually he's more concerned with me front-kicking HIM incorrectly, which keeps him in check there, lol.) It's mostly bellowing kiais in my ear (which I can bear) and if he thinks I'm leaning too much in the wrist escape self defense techniques he'll pull my arms forward (or in one case behind me), which then means I can't do the technique as well. But his doing that is what MAKES me lean, and I can't demonstrate the technique properly if he's pinioned my arms. I can still get out doing other things, which I have demonstrated to him, but doing other things won't pass the grading. We've got two more classes before the grading, and normally I'd ask the white-belt sensei to keep an eye on him, but two new white belts just joined us so he's off with them and the other sensei is prepping everyone for the tests. Maybe I'll try to have a word with that sensei before class tomorrow to make him aware of my concerns.

Congrats Perhaps! My first grading is on Friday, there's only me and one other white belt (plus all the coloured belts). I'm a little worried because the other white belt is my partner for the bunkai and self-defense techniques and he likes to show off his power, even though sensei has told him he's not supposed to try to pull me over when demonstrating the defense techniques...

I think a couple of friends of mine went to SUNY Brockport; if you have any specific questions about the university I can pass them along and give them your email address or something. They didn't do Karate though. I don't know anything about U of Rochester except that they liked to set off our fire alarms at RIT

Hello! Do you mean Rochester New York? Check RIT's phsyical education classes. If the instructor for karate is still listed with the name Kim Murray then that is Isshin Ryu style. I trained under Sensai Kim for six months while a student there and he is a very good teacher - but I don't know if he is still teaching now. Edited to add: Looks like he is still on the schedule! https://register.rit.edu/courseSchedule/20102/11/13/ Also he's got a website showing his training locations: http://www.mmac.us/locations.html

Would be nice if there were ANY resources for my style! Thanks for the links, Slayer, I'll check them out! Point on variations noted.

Is there a website that shows all the different stances and their names? I keep hearing shukodachi, zenkutsudachi and other ones that I don't know if I'm even hearing right in class, but I'm not sure what exactly they are. Is there a reference page somewhere that might be useful?

I'd suggest aikido. There's a difference between not causing stress and being sedentary. I took aikido for a while in college and found it enjoyable and not stressful.