cici118

Here in my town it's the only karate club. Then there is a jiujitsu club and that's it.

The problem is that he works too much and that's one of the reasons he is always late. He always has appointments with people till the hour to start the lesson but since people not always arrives on time and some problems take longer to resolve he always arrives late(he practises an alternative medicine). I usually train by myself at home speacialy when I'm on holidays or not during tests season. I'm pretty sure that we are not filliated to an organization, when we started practising in the rented gym room he was always saying that he would filliate to one and that he was going to ask his sensei(when he started to say that he wasn't trainning anymore). Very dark situation I know. First he works a lot but I think that if he really liked karate and took it seriously he would find the time to go practise right? And let's not forget that in his job, apart from the karate classes, he is his own boss. He is a nidan by RFEK but he was going to do the exam for sandan a long time ago but then he stopped trainning.

I'm one of the first students of my sensei, he is young(29) and when he came to my town to work in a gym the gym opened a karate class for kids(less than 10) and one for adults. With time the adults one extinguished because there weren't enough people because of the timetable but the kids continued. I've been practised karate for almost 6 years and I'm a brown belt(17 years old). In the beginning my sensei was very strict both in training and behaviour. We need to have our belts well tied with both ends with the same length and if someone played during class he would make them sit in a corner watching the class. I always finished class very tired and with my gi wet, it was amazing! 2 years ago he decided to work in another field and now we train in a gym room that he rents. His training quality is decreasing in a drastic way. Now he have more than 15 students in the class and I'm the eldest. Most of the kids are like 5,6 or 7 but the are older ones but not much. Now, when I leave the class I feel like I've done nothing. Most of the time the sensei is telling the kids to shut up or to concentrate but the kids don't care and he doesn't punish them. He usually arrives 15 minutes late(once 20) and our classes are 1h(he is his own boss so no one calls his attention). we usually do the warm-up, 2 kihon techniques and a bit of combat and that's it! Although the kids do nothing before the class ends sensei says that they worked well so we play a game! I'm feeling like I'm in a macDojo! The kids don't know the katas, the are two green/blue belts that don't know how to do the 5 Heian but he already taught them tekki shodan for the last grading and now they will be learning bassai dai! What is that? I need help to decide what to do. There aren't any more karate clubs in my town but on september I'm going to university so I'm moving to a bigger town. My mom says that I should quit because I'm not learning anything but I don't know because I want to continue but not like this! I'm afraid that if I quit now and wait till september to join another club they won't recognize my belt because I'm not training with a sensei. If I quit I would go to a gym or try jiujitsu but I won't stop karate. Another thing, in the beginning my sensei usually went to another town to train but now he doesn't. I've been wearing the brown belt for two years and he never speaks with me about the shodan exam(when it is, where it is or even what is needed). I think I will never do the shodan exam with him. Can you help me please? And sorry for the long post

Hi guys, I'm 17 years old and I practise Shotokan for almost 5 years now. I'm a brown belt waiting to do the shodan exam but I don't know when because my Sensei never speaks about it(he is always very busy and I'm the first student he got so he doesn't have experience in taking students to shodan exams).Forever brown belt!!!! At this moment I know all the Heian kata + Bassai dai + Kanku dai + Jion + Enpi + Tekki shodan and since I don't have more katas to learn that are asked for shodan my Sensei told me today that he is going to teach me Nijushiho. Well, my mentality can be placed in the traditional karate philosophy(not my sensei's) so I have lots of respect for katas like Sochin and Nijushiho, I remember that I saw it the first time in the movie Kuro obi with Naka Sensei. I'm very afraid of this. What do you say? Do you think it's a rush decision? Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance.

Sorry for the lateness but I wanted to upload pictures of my regular gi because i did it in one of the gis I use at home to train. Now the problem is that I don't know how to put the images here since they are not on a website but stored in my computer [/img]

Thank you everyone! I ended up doing it and it looks pretty good.

But it didn't leave ink spots in your gi, did it?

I'm studying japanese and I can write my name in Katakana so I was thinking that it would be cool having my name written in all my gi. If this idea goes forward I'm going to write it with those pens with special ink for clothes. I want to write it in black and i'm concerned that with several washes the ink would live black spots in the gi. What do you think? If I do it will I put my gi in danger? Thanks in advance

Is there someone that buys them in japan and then resell them on the internet? That way they would be cheaper than buying in tokaido's or shureido's online shop.

When I see photos or videos of karate classes in japan everyone is wearing tokaido or hirota even little kids. How is that possible? Is everyone rich or something?

I get them on my feet. The only things that I hit with them are the training pads and the floor(it's a blue material that is used in school gyms)

It is a blood blister. Actually I don´t really know how I get them but the fact is that I do.

Hello everyone! So I'm getting into real karate know and I have lots of injuries. At this moment I have a bruise in my hand pinky finger and everytime I go to karate class I come home with a new blood bubble. So I want to know what do you recommend to have at hand for this type of karate injuries(band-aids, judo tape?)

Have you ever payed attention to Rika Usami belts during competitions? I wonder how does she tie it(I don't think it is the "normal" way). Does somebody have a clue?

Hi everyone! In August I want to improve my karate by training every day. I'm a brown belt. So, I want to ask for your help to build a training plan that aboards everything.(notice that I'm going to train alone) Thanks in advance