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And stretch daily. It should be versatile, so don't forget to stretch as many way as possible. And safely!!

If it was just a black belt without the mention of 9 years, then it could be just the quality of the training. But 9 years?? No way. And you can recognize a true black belt from the attitude too, not just the techniques itself. I'm no instructor ether, but I don't think I'd ask him to leave.. maybe, because it doesn't matter too much. Of course it can be somewhat insulting, and disturbing .. But really, so what? He'll probably leave pretty soon himself anyway. Okay he hasn't trained for 9 years, let him train here until he gets bored and move to something else. I'd ask them about it for sure..

20 years to master? More like 20 years to start being taken seriously What is your position on self defence techniques, and how much would you like them to be practiced in your style? And you're not that short, so I don't think it matters here . Have you thought about MMA?

I personally think this kind of shows are out of real value. And give a lot of wrong assumptions to people who haven't themselves trained the specific style. I find it often ridiculous how the two people (on all these shows having the same purpose) are too astonished about everything.. and then at the end it just gives the image they know all about it. It completely misses the actual training, that all those people go through all their lives. Nobody starts to understand any style by watching from TV how someone who has dedicated his whole life for training, break something or do something that looks cool. But of course these are made to get money (works too), and I admit are entertaining to watch.

I think knowledge is part of wisdom. Like Einstein has said, "information is not knowledge". But when you truly understand something comprehensively, it becomes knowledge. To really understand something requires wisdom. Knowledge is something one can have on some specific things, but not everything. Then again, wisdom, is something that shows in the person, in everything he does. To have those abilities does not require you to have a black belt, since it is simply material, which some get sooner some later. And it does not proof knowledge, wisdom, or anything at all. It is mostly about the individual. There is no certain point when you reach something that is not concrete. I have to mention here the psychological findings about the fact that some people (Which in fact is pretty high number, can't remember how much, but it isn't on any way extraordinary) will never start to think on many-sided/creative ways. Some people simply ether don't have the biological capability or have not in their childhood had a proper environment to achieve such level on thinking and creativity. This has a lot to do with what is often considered knowledge and wisdom.

I dont think it is the technique that I am missing. I always focus on the execution of the move. I can lift my knee high enough but I cant complete the kick. I dont know if this means that I am lacking flexibility or muscular strength. I am working on my flexibility and you're right it has only been two months. I am fairly tall a little over 6ft1 so I dont need that much more flexibility to execute a mawashigeri jodan on someone with an average height. One way to test how high you should be able to kick a proper mawashigeri (by the means of flexibility), is to put your other leg on your training partner's shoulder, then first stand on that position (your training partner should at this point keep your leg as low as needed) have your waist turned straight towards the other guy. If you can keep a good posture here, turn your hips to side on a yoko geri position. If you can still maintain a good balanced position, you should be able to kick on "this height" a proper mawashigeri. If you do this always lifting your leg a little higher you'll find how high you can kick mawashigeri. But note that this is about a very well executed technique.. Many people can kick some sort of "mawashigeri" towards the opponents head, but if you mainly throw your leg there, it will be no real use. And if you have no idea what I was just trying to explain, I'm sorry, and feel free to ask

You've been practicing couple of moths, nobody expects you to do it perfectly, right? Maegeri jodan is is a very easy kick, with some flexibility. Then again yoko geri and mawashigeri jodan are very difficult, they take flexibility, muscle strength, control and knowledge of the right way of executing the technique. Mawashigeri is done differently in different styles, so advices on the exact technique should probably be gotten from your instructor. What is it exactly that you are missing? Is it that you don't know how exactly it's done, or that you don't know what's wrong with it? That you can't kick high enough? No control?

Tradition is fading away inevitably anyway. That is why people who like traditional are trying so desperately to keep it up. It does not need more work to take up new ideas than what is already being done, unlike keeping up the traditional.

Exactly! I think the word karateka is used way too often just WRONG!

It's not like they do that stuff in every dojo of any style.

Did you wash in hot water? 1-3 times in hot water should do the most of it, in 100% cotton. If not, it doesn't shrink.. maybe the cotton has already been shrank?

I have. Maybe not quite as hard. But I do believe that the worst is the uncomfortable feeling, not so much the pain, at least for me. Anyway, it's very sensitive area, and one never expects a strike there, so it's easy to panic a little, even though usually there's no need to.

How do you block a gyaku zuki with mikazuki geri?

Didn't go away, but helped just a bit. The techniques where my back cracked were something I didn't do a lot anyway, so I was never worried about any long term consequences (Don't know if there is any), and just kept on doing them. If it had been on something that I do/have to do a lot, I wouldn't have dared to so them a lot and well.. ..But when I did the techniques kind of sloppy, didn't feel anything.

My back used to do that too when doing soto or uchi keage. I tried to change the position of my back and body on all the ways I could figure out.. Well it didn't change much then, but I still think it's worth a try. But on me it seemed like it went off by itself in time. ...or my technique just got better.