andym

All the best sensei8

All round conditioning is very important. There have been times when the only reason I have won fights, is I was in far better condition than the other guys !

Well done.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Hello and welcome to the forum. Good with your re-launch.

Well done ninjanurse, the culmination of a lot of effort and dedication.

I'm 54 and have been training for 40 years. Elbows and hips now giving a lot of trouble. Luckily my back and knees are OK. I hate holidays or going on course for work. If I don't train for a week, I start to stiffen up and get all sorts of aches and pains. That said, looking outside the martial arts, at those who did it with me and dropped out, or say lads I played rugby with, who all stopped around the age of 35. If , as most did, they stop all training (!) within 5 years all those injuries we'd picked up came back to haunt them. So, a question, is the constant training suppressing the effect of injuries ? Now look out beyond those who train, to those who don't train. I work with loads of people far younger than myself, who continually complain about their aches and pains, how things aren't working properly inside them ! A better example my wife's knees and hips are causing her so much pain she may need surgery. The reasons for this, nothing - she has done nothing, no training or activity of any kind. It's just age. So, we all age. We will all get aches and pains. May be they even interfere with what you can now do. The difference is how you can look back. If it's just age and you've done nothing, you look at the aches and pains and see nothing but the aches and pains and the age - and what they now stop you doing ! Me, I can look back at my aches and pains and say. 'Boy was it fun getting 'em !'

If you want sparring tips from Bruce Lee himself. Read volumes 2,3 and 4 of 'Bruce Lee's fighting Method'. Because in my opinion, that is what they cover. Techniques and methods of and for sparring.

Hello to another Goju'er, welcome to the forum.

First , hello Seon Mu Do and welcome to the forum. Next, I can only agree and recommend the very good advice by Harkon72 and guird about learning and teachers etc. Lastly a bit of extra advice. If you are going to be moving around regularly or are in the position of having to train alone a lot , with only occasional trips to a club. I advise picking a common, wide spread and well known style of martial art. Not something no one has ever heard of. Pick something like Wing Chun or Tai-Chi Kung Fu, or Shotokan or Goju Ryu Karate etc. Arts that are available world wide, so you've a chance of finding a club where ever you are. Plus, there is a great deal of on-line resources to help as well, with these arts. Hope this helps and good luck.

Are the grades registered with a governing body ? Is it on Malta or in Europe ? If it just a Maltese body, then yes the grades may be valid - if they still recognise the instructor. The point here isn't about, are your son's grades valid : but is the instructor a valid instructor ? Both the instructor and your son seem to have the skill. The problem is everything is undermined (invalidated ?) by how the instructor seems to be behaving in his relationships with governing bodies. Your son is an unwitting victim of this behavior.

Well done bitestone for persevering. I wonder if my Sensei thinks i am a disgrace in his dojo.

Those are very good sentiments mal103, and I agree. There is also the other fly in the ointment. There are some excellent students, who work hard and get their black belts , and stop ! That's it, they have achieved the black belt and that's it, they don't have to train ever again - so sad to my mind.

That's unbelievable behavior, especially as he should know better.

If you can't get hold of any 'softer' type rope. Been there. I used a hammer to 'tenderize' the surface,. After i'd fitted it.

Well done.

Happy Birthday.

NO !

I believe the instructor Thomas Bennett, said that it is an original Peter Urban Kata.

I think that's about right Spartacus. Certainly the same as my old Sensei used.

Excellent Michela, welcome to the forum.

Hello ShaolinShorin and welcome to the forum. In answer to your question - between 16 and 18 is just the right for for a first dan. Remember, it's the first step, the end of the apprenticeship of the kyu grades. You'll here many of going on about kids and black belt etc. But this is in relation to say 9 and 13 year olds and the lack of a distinction between junior grades and full senior grades. So well done and carry on.

Chinese roots ? : Difficult to say, what is done now and how it is performed, is very different from how it was done back on Hawaii. The documentary evidence points to Choki Motobu being a major influence.