seikokaistudent

I started practicing karate in order to fight well, I discovered the other side of karate after practicing for about a year, once I discovered there was more to karate than fighting my experience got much more wholesome. 2) people are scared of me now

Train full contact for sure. Full contact is generally for younger people who have time before their knees get blown out, and who recover/heal quicker. If you are young and have a sensei you really like who does not practice full contact (like me). Find an MMA gym to go to or spar full contact with your friends outside of class.

I you want to have nice things and make a lot of money, be a part time in the basement of the community club on Tuesdays kind of instructor. By being a full time instructor you are committing yourself to your martial art, and devoting your life to the martial art. You become a pilgrim of the art and must not charge exorbitant prices to pass it on to the next generation of fighters. By taking that step, be prepared o give up material goods. Or marry a lawyer.

Im still in high school so I don't really have to worry about getting stabbed or shot, so when I have good reason I fight. I would rather give up my wallet than be stabbed if I were being mugged, then again my Uncle was mugged, and when the robber bent down to pick up his wallet he kicked him in the face and got away with his wallet. You should probably avoid violent confrontation in most cases.

First of all, congrats on starting karate, it may not be as flashy as some martial arts, but it is one of the most solid martial arts imho. Also the etiquette you will just pick up over time, as well as the names and meanings of the moves (with luck you will learn how to count to ten in Japanese in a couple of weeks...lol). You will definitely get in touch with the arts and more internal parts of karate when you start doing katas. Mawashi Geri is round house kick, and Maegeri is front kick if that helps at all.

I agree somewhat. I think kids should be 10+ before starting a martial art, but some people are fine with paying for young kid to be enrolled in martial arts because they get to dump their kid off for an hour and go have a coffee with a friend or something.

Good luck man! You should probably buy a camelbak or something so that you can drink on the fly. I am interested to see how you do.

Agreed. Also, as a note, it's easy to forget that Martial Arts used to be necessary. As in, if you didn't know how to defend yourself you were easy prey. I think that a part of the stringent standards set are by people who needed their students to be at that level to live. We do have lower standards to a degree and this isn't a terrible thing.I feel that the lower standards lead to people having ranks that they do not deserve, and often offers them a false sense of security. Also is it truly an accomplishment when it is so easy to become a Black belt? All that being said, I don't even believe in the belt system, and I think that ranks should be based on fighting ability instead

Go for kyokushin if you want to participate in full contact sparring and a little bit rougher style of karate.

Belts shouldn't be given freely out at any level, mate with slightly more relaxed testing standards for children. People should not get to upset when and if they fail a belt test, because really belts don't really translate into skill. Belts should never be given away however.

3rd Kyu (green belt) Shito Ryu karate 6 years White belt in bjj since September

Start off easy and pace yourself, try all the gyms and dojos in your area, start exercising outside of dojo practice and gradually start to push yourself as your fitness improves. As for the gi thing I am sure they make a gi that will fit you. Good luck with karate

Thanks I will check it out

Hey guys I realize this subject has been posted about multiple times, but I found a resource that might be useful. First of all I think parkour and martial arts go hand in hand, they complement each other like pancakes and syrup, many martial artists train as traceurs and vice versa. Not only is it great for fitness and cardio, it is also pretty dang awesome. I know the factor that had held me back from parkour is the price, I am already paying for multiple martial arts and I do not want to pay for parkour as well. Then I found http://trainingforparkour.org/ an awesome website which breaks it down and allows you to grasp the basics parkour without paying for lessons. The YouTube channel is very comprehensive, an the six lesson playlists pretty much break it down as simple as it gets, each lesson contains a technique some exercises and a final high intensity exercise. Once you know the basics it is up to you to apply them, and this website definitely taught me the basics and lead to me getting immersed in parkour. I vault over everything, and am starting to climb some lower walls/fences. So I just thought I would share it with you guys.

Could someone please provide links to videos or diagrams demonstrating proper basic attacks and blocks of animal style kung fu, could be any style (snake, crane, tiger, etc.) I am making a movie with some friends, and would like the movements to look as authentic a possible.

I am male, young and in pretty good condition, I hit hard unless asked (or instructed) not to and expect the same from others. In a real life situation I would probably subdue or avoid a fight with a woman. Not because I think women are weak, just out of pure gentlemanliness

I kind of do that, I typically spend a year to two years before testing. In the time I have taken to attain green belt(6 years)I could probably already be first or second Dan black belt. My classmates have zoomed ahead of me but I can still beat moist of them in a sparring match. About 3 months ago a black belt from a TKD McDojo got into a fight with me outside of our respective dojos (he sorta jumped/formally challenged me), he was a black belt with 3 years of experience, because of my experience and better physical fitness I was easily able to put him on his buttocks. In short the belt does not matter it is the time, effort, am real life fighting experience that determines someone's "rank". Any school that has a problem with someone not progressing past a certain point, probably only cares about the money.

Fight on your own, join a MMA gym, challenge dojos or find a friend/relative who fights

Hmm do you have an I device w/ a touch screen? You could try typing them into translate with an international keyboard, otherwise I would try to find a Thai guy in your community and shove your shorts at him.

Bit of a necro but I will post anyways I actually happened to have a very similar experience with TKD, I went to a location (dojo?) that is in my area because I like kicking and wanted to give tae kwon do a try. I was open about my background and expressed genuine interest in the class, the first day was very good however the second day was terrible. We were sparring on the second day and I got put with a black belt, the instructor kept stressing that TKD was "full contact" unlike other martial arts, he also said it was free sparring. The sparring was okay until he dropped his guard after kicking and I hit him in the side with a decent roundhouse, he dropped to the ground holding his side and complaining about how I hit him too hard and he was not ready. The instructor came over and told me to do push-ups and sit-ups until I learned to fight honorably. Everyone in the class started glaring at me and saying things about how I used dirty tricks and stuff like that. I got angry, told the director in not so nice language what kind of operation he was running, and left and never went back.

So I have been training at my current dojo for a number of years, and have literally breathed karate for a very long time. Just recently I tried an 8 week Muay Thai course, and I totally loved it and would like to more, but the only gym in my area offers courses at the same time as my karate courses. I have trained at my dojo for a very long time, but I really want to try Muay Thai. What should I do?

I build bikes, tinker on cars, ski, and play basketball.

Thanks for all the input! After reading your posts, I believe I will find a middleweight gi (hadn't even thought of that) and hold off on the heavy for a while.

Hi KF users, so I just passed my green belt test, and it is starting to look like I need a new gi. I am very traditional and would like to get a heavyweight gi (been using sport ones up until now). Should I get one now, or should I wait until brown/black belt? Also as a side note, how long did it take you guys to reach your black belts?

For point sparring (which I must do once a week) I wear shin/instep guards, hand pads, a cup and a mouthguard. For the Jiyu kumite we wear hand pads and a mouth guard, cups are optional.