Catfish

I did some rugby training after having trained in karate for a number of years. My team-mates were always amused at my kiai when I hit the tackle bag - just couldn't shake the habit! And my tackles were not so focused if I didn't kiai.

Interesting question! I have never failed an exam, but we have a pre-grading session and I have failed that once. At my 1st Dan grading I think six people out of 40-odd failed but attempted again six months later and went through with flying colours. In kyu grades, it's very rare to fail below brown belt but anyone doing any sempai stuff has to really nail it and be at a very high standard. For 3rd kyu and above there is a less formal pre-assessment than for dan grades but it still happens, which I think is very good as it means the standard is maintained and the gradings themselves are overall a celebration of skill.

Interesting question! I have never failed an exam, but we have a pre-grading session and I have failed that once. At my 1st Dan grading I think six people out of 40-odd failed but attempted again six months later and went through with flying colours. In kyu grades, it's very rare to fail below brown belt but anyone doing any sempai stuff has to really nail it and be at a very high standard. For 3rd kyu and above there is a less formal pre-assessment than for dan grades but it still happens, which I think is very good as it means the standard is maintained and the gradings themselves are overall a celebration of skill.

I started at 29 - coming up 15 years of karate now and still learning new things. When I took my provisional black belt (shodan-ho) grading there was a lady going for 1st Dan who was 73. Never too old.

Core is the key for me - after a car crash back injury I was advised by a highly respected senior instructor in our club to find a pilates class, and he was 100% spot on. Once the core strength and balance is there, any workout you do will be more effective. Also agree avoid the bikes!!

Hyakuhachiho? Looks very Goju! I see there is some debate about its origins. Interesting kata.

Sometimes it depends on the venue, but it's becoming more and more common to have mats - particularly on say a concrete floor with zero give in it, which is the norm in larger multi- use venues. My personal opinion is mats are OK for kumite, but thick mats are very difficult to get used to for balance in kata, and unless the mats provided are interlocking then they have a tendency to slip and leave gaps which slows the tournament down as they are pushed back together between competitors. As another poster said, insurance / health and safety may be at the bottom of this.

Hang on, let me count.... 15 total Taigyoku shodan / nidan Saifa Bassai Dai Seunchin Enpi These take you up to 1st Kyu. Then.. Sanseru Sepai Hangetsu Kururunfa Kanku Dai Kenku Sho Shisochin Seisan Sochin It feels like a good balance between the disparate influences on the style, and while I absolutely love kata I like the fact that I am continually working on all of them to my next grade level (not the last 4 yet) and there are not too many to "discard" any. You have to be grade-level competent in all for the gradings, I assume that's the case in most styles though.

Hi, I'm a newbie on this forum too. Glad you got through the door of a dojo, I came through the same method. I'm a GKR student and I know it has its critics - many of them - and having seen the club at every level (the business side too, years ago) I know there is good and bad there, but I enjoy the karate and it suits my lifestyle. However it is not true that you 'have' to teach to progress. In the class I currently train in, last night there were 5 black belts in line with me who have never taught (and four others at the front who do, obviously). This was not the 'senior class' but a public class in a region that has been going for just over a decade. I gave up teaching in 2004 due to an unrelated injury and had a long time out, then came back and eventually gained my 1st Dan as a paying student without any pressure to go back to the front, as it were. Hope that helps!