theJCism

The head instructor of my school went along to watch his friends train when he was in his early 20s back in 1972, obviously he kept going long after they left.

If you are small-ish, i'd strongly recommend giving Wado a shot. It emphasises footwork and evasion as opposed to head on force. But definitely have a look at them all.

but of course, the best answer would come from your Sensei. After all, rules greatly differ organisation to organisation. Or contact the tournaments organiser.

In regular training, Ippon Kumite can be a form of pre-arranged or semi-free sparring. In competitions, Ippon Kumite can be a form of sparring where the first clean, precise technique that lands on the other competitor can win the match. Techniques that are below perfect but still warrant appreciation are awarded Waza-Ari, or Half Point. As far as I know, it's an older form of competition. Not many competition circuits in Australia still practise it.

First of all, Hello! This is my first post on these forums. I practise Wado Ryu Karate in Victoria, Australia. I'm a Nidan with almost 10 years experience. So, by comparison, I'm still fairly new to the Martial Arts. I'm becoming concerned by the number of young children joining the dojo where I train. Some as young as 5. Now I take my training very seriously, and don't believe that it should be used as a cheap form of child care or baby sitting. The majority of children that join up are there purely to muck around and maybe learn some Karate along the way. The parents insist they want their child to learn discipline and self defence, yet protest as soon as they are given push ups for acting out of line. I do realise that they are children and not adults lol But maybe the dojo isn't the place for after school sports? Perhaps sign them up for footy? Your thoughts? Osu.