blacknebula

Goggle. I lurked around for about a month before I decided it was sufficiently troll free to actually register and start posting.

I totally agree with this. The only gradings I've ever felt completely ready for were my yellow and orange belt ones, because I didn't know enough to know how bad I was! I'm firmly planted in stage 2 at the moment.

I'm back! It was a crazy and cool experience. I trained with many different and awesome Senseis and learned so much. I tried to keep notes but even by the end of the class I would start forgetting or mixing things up. I met a bunch of really amazing people from all over the world. I have not been so tired since my children were infants and am still sore 3 days later. I attended about 25 hours of training in 7 days. I totally hit the wall on the afternoon of the 5th day but I made myself push through and for some reason day 6 was easier. The last day was a tournament and there weren't many adult female brown belts so our division didn't take very long. I make a mistake in my kata (Bassia Dai) at one point so I came in last but oh well - I'm reasonably sure I will never make that mistake again LOL. My sparring still sucks and I lost in about 20 seconds but at least I'm not afraid anymore. Not sure what else to say - if anyone has specific questions please let me know and I will do my best to answer them!

Ditto!

Less than a week now until I go! I am simultaneously excited and terrified.

My Sensei says that tournaments are just a different type of training. My husband competed in his first tournament at 9th kyu... and won gold in kumite. Go for it!

We applaud when Sensei hands out new belts (or verbally acknowledges the passing grade, if the belt colour is not changing) but that is the only time we do so in the dojo. At tournaments people generally clap after each match and at the end of each category.

My dojos are pretty much no contact up until about brown belt, then some light contact is allowed. If that is what you are looking for then you are probably better off investigating kyokushin. The dojo that I mentioned in the NE is more 'serious' just because it has been around longer, and is much larger both in student population and number of classes offered. It is run by a husband and wife team that are both 7th dan, and he teaches seminars at the international level. Several people from that dojo won medals at the world shoto cup in the Phillipines last November. Both dojos are more than happy to offer a free lesson if you want to drop in and try it out.

I train at two different dojos. One is less than 2 km from my house but sadly only has classes on 3 days out of the week, so the rest of the time I drive 25-30 minutes to the other one which is much larger and has classes more often.

I'm in Calgary and train in shotokan karate at two different dojos associated with the ISKF (International Shotokan Karate Federation). NW: http://www.shotokankaratecalgary.com/ NE: http://www.iskfcalgary.ca/ If you have any questions feel free to send my a private message.

Civilization V is my guilty habit.

My Sensei makes us do kata backwards quite regularly. I can do up to Heian Yondan backwards. Tried Godan, but the jump is a bit of a trick. LOL I know what you mean though. Last night Sensei had us doing a combination that included the sweeping block and nukite strike from Heian Nidan, but on the opposite side. I could not figure it out until about the 10th try! It is defintely good for the brain though.

We're pretty much the same as others have mentioned. The actual instruction is in English, and at the lower kyu grades the instructor will typically use English to refer to the techniques, followed immediately by the Japanese terminology. By the time you get to brown belt you are pretty much expected to do a combination that is given in Japanese only, unless it's something obscure that we don't do very often.

We never get new belts immediately after the grading; they are presented at the next regular class following it.

A few months ago I posted asking for some advice on team kata. Our tournament was yesterday, so I though I would follow up with a report. We ended up doing Heian Godan. We did reasonably well, finishing either 4th or 5th (I lost track) out of 11 teams. It was a great experience, and I became really good friends with the two other ladies over the course of practicing three times a week. On an individual level, I was very happy with my performance! I was way less nervous than I was at my first competition, so I was happy to have made some progress in that regard. I talked to two of the judges on my ring afterwards, and they both said that our group was exceptionally tough to judge because we were all very close. The matches that I lost were both to guys who were quite likely half my age and both of whom ended up winning medals at the end. (FYI, adult males and females usually compete separately, but there was only one other intermediate lady, so the head judge asked us if the two of us wanted to go separate or with the guys and we both said with the guys, seeing as it was only one-step kumite and it seemed kind of anti-climatic to win a medal by default).

I keep the most recent one in a frame, next to my belt holder. The older ones I put into page protectors in a binder. I guess this will only work until I get to dan level though, becuase I think the dan ones are larger than the kyu ones. But I'll figure something out when the time comes.

Congrats!

Way to go!

Absolutely! I like my teeth they way they are. I initially tried one I bought from a sports store (the kind that you put into boiling water then bite on) and it was horrible. I was so distracted by it that I couldn't breathe properly or concentrate on what I was doing. So I had a custom one done by my dentist and it is a world of difference. Much more comfortable and I'm sure effective too.

My Sensei actually just gave me one as a birthday present a few weeks ago! It's in my purse, but I haven't gone and watched the online video thingy yet.

My classes are an hour long, however I often do two classes back to back so I get two hours in total. First 10 minutes are warm up and stretches. After that it really just depends on who the instructor is and the topic of the lesson, but typically starting with some basic drills and combinations then moving on to kata, and kumite at the end.

Good luck! My first tournament was a blur - I was so nervous I don't remember much at all. I'm doing it again in a couple of weeks though, and hopefully this time I will be a bit more relaxed. Just do your best and learn from the experience.

It is slowly getting better - I do it correctly sometimes now, if I'm at medium speed. Still make the mistake when I'm doing it full speed. It is actually in several kata - Yondan, Godan and Bassai Dai. The part where you do an elbow strike into the palm of the opposite hand. The inside hand doesn't actually really do anything, so it is difficult to visualize an application. I just have to remember that it is like a kagi-zuki (hook punch).

I've slowly crept up to 4-5 times a week, split between two different dojos. Once I grade for 3rd kyu (hopefully April) I will be able to attend a kumite class on another day and bump that to 5-6. And if either of the dojos had adult classes on Friday I would be there then too! I also run and do weights at the Y.

We have had membership at the local YMCA for over a decade. My then 7 year old daughter was taking swimming lessons, and every time we came out of class we passed a room full of people doing some sort of martial art. She said "I want to try that". I looked into it and it was ages 6 to adult and I thought it was pretty cool that I could learn something at the same time as her, so I enrolled both of us. It happened to be shotokan karate. It was only an introductory class though, so when the four month session was over we moved over the dojo run by the same instructors at a different location and continued on there.