robothat

I'm telling my story here, and I'd like to know your opinion on if I made the right move, what your general reaction is, any experience you have that's similar... I quit practicing Seidokan Karate in January of this year (2011.) I had a 2nd Degree Brown Belt, and I'm 18, almost 19 now. I quit because I was very discouraged at the way I wasn't making any progress anymore. I have fallen arches on my feet, always have. It's meant as a kid I could never run as fast as everyone else, in swimming I can't dive right, and even now I'm not a good a runner as I would be without the stupid weak foot muscles. Doing Karate barefoot from 6th grade to senior year of high school (when I quit) I'm sure did help my arch support, by building up the muscle there. I was doing very well in Kata, weapons, sparring, in terms of that I was improving steadily and proud of my ability. Objectively, I earned all my promotions to that point definitely. Then I foolishly got shoe inserts, and things went downhill from there. My feet rapidly weakened from daily shoe-wear. This extremely hurt my kicks; I couldn't balance properly, especially on sidekicks. I was faced with the choice of kicking comfortably, and having no power, or kicking hard like I used to and stumbling uncontrollably. My stances suffered as well, like they had when I first started training. I couldn't kick confidentially or well high or hard anymore, it was all very humiliating and depressing. I tried wearing shoes during training and it didn't help either. I stopped going to the Dojo and I quit. I've sworn now, finally, to never put myself through this kind of suffering again by ever taking up another martial art. I'm simply not built for them...

Thanks for the answers guys; interesting, and I've researched Kung Fu on my own more... I'm still considering it, for one of the quarters this year.

I used to hold a second degree brown belt in Seidokan Karate (well I guess I still kinda technically do...idk) but I quit back in January. I quit because I was so frustrated with how I could never kick right due to my flat feet; I'd foolishly started wearing inserts in my shoes in the second half of 2010 and they rapidly weakened my foot muscles and my kicks declined just as rapidly. Nothing improved it and I gave up; it was amazingly discouraging not being able to kick the bag-holder back with a side kick like I used to be able to, and the way I started stumbling with even basic kicks. Now I'm starting college and I know my college offers Kung Fu as a "gym" class. Do you think it would be a good idea for me to start it, seeing as how I have 5+ years prior experience in martial arts? Or will it just be the same with my kicks and I'll give up with Kung Fu if I did with Karate? I know Kung Fu has more circular, fluid movements typical apparently of Chinese styles as compared to the "choppier" moves of Karate. I've seen Kung Fu demos at my old dojo and martial arts tournaments and their kata (is it the same word?) are beautiful; such cool hand techniques we don't have in Karate! Anyway, what do you think about Kung Fu, in a college class environment, considering my prior experience with Karate and that I have stupidly flat feet? Thank you!

Does anyone here with flat feet do calve exercises to try to correct their fallen arch? I've started doing that again after having not done it for months....I don't really see how it work but thought it couldn't hurt. I'd rather just get the corrective surgery asap, which I plan to. How much do you think leg strength training such as lunges and squats can help balance for someone with flat feet? What about practicing the kicks themselves; what sort of process do you go through in a session? Typically I hold onto a chair or wall and kick in slow motion and hold it out as long as I can. If I do that without holding onto something I automatically wobble and sometimes stumble, and I do often with even fast kicks too it's so annoying.

Yeah...I feel like I'd regret it so much if I quit now...but at the same time training feels so pointless, when I don't know to what extent my badness at kicks comes from the flat feet, and to what extent it's leg strength and flexibility. It's very frustrating for me. Kuma, or any other flat feet people: Did you, or did you used to, find that when you stand on one foot, for example during a side kick, that you keep unintentionally lifting up onto the outside of your foot to keep your balance? (Outside meaning the side with the pinkie toe...like your inside foot is lifting up, so you're just on the outside edge.) I always do this unvoluntarily to keep my balance; like my standing foot goes into a position like I described where it looks like a normal (non flat) foot, as that would give better balance, and is a more natural position, but not for me and I'd rather my foot just stay flat on the ground so I'd be firmly planted and not WOBBLE. I don't know if leg strength can fix that; I have such a sense of inevitable failure about this I hate it. I wanna cut my feet off and replace them with robot feet, as soon as such feet are better than the current ones now and suitable for martial arts.

Thank you for the advice everyone. I've been trying to practice kids and flexibility for several weeks, but have now decided to quit martial arts. My feet are gonna screw me over every time, I'm not improving in either strength or flexibility, and to be honest I'm too old to really improve at all anymore considering where I'm starting from now.

Thank you. Yeah I'm not that flexible...I mean, by standards of athletes of most sports, and definitely the general population, I'm quite good in that, but in terms of martial artists I'm bad. I think it's probably strength more than flexibility though, though flexibility is some extent I'm sure. On front snap kicks I can get to about the level of my lower-face/chin. Side kicks, about hip level, maybe slightly higher. Roundhouses like barely my shoulder. But again, I'm bad on all those, especially side kick, so I think it's probably leg strength mostly...do you have any suggestions on exercises for leg strength and flexibility? Also, is it safe to do static floor stretches before having warmed up the muscles with jumping jacks, leg lifts etc?

So, I'm a second degree brown in Seidokan Karate. I'm honestly quite awful though for the level at which I should be.... I have very flat feet, and they screw me over every time I'm trying to do kicks like at all; anything other than front kicks. So I train in shoes, with arch support a lot, to try to help. Especially on side kicks this happens; after I've extended the kick, I get all wobbly on my standing foot and every single time have to like stumble and adjust my stance when I bring my kicking leg back. It affects my power and speed too; I'm awful and innacurate and can't kick high and it's just BAD. But mostly on balance anyway; I always wobble on my standing foot, and it's very annoying and uncomfortable, and it does it even with the shoes. It feels like I'm going over onto the inside of my foot, or the ball of my foot, to keep my balance. To what extent do any of you think this is from flat feet, and to what extent it is correctable through practice? I just can't stand strong and stable on my foot when I kick I hate it and I'm like so close to just quitting karate because of it. Thank you!