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Thank you mirkoinbrazil for your post. It is good to hear from someone in similar situation who is making it work. I have a heavy bag at home and I am currently looking in to places where I can make my own mini dojo. Probably I will find someone who wish to train with me. I am not absolute beginner and I will start by returning to the basics and going on from there.

Thank you all for the responses. I am well aware that I cannot progress much only by myself. I will look for training partner and will try to extend my training with going to seminars and training sessions where I can but still the majority of my training will be alone. This is why I was asking for advises. I think that a different point of view is always helpful.

I am not sure if it is more combat or health orientated I will look into it. You have showed me interesting perspective.

There are (Tai Chi, Boxing/kickboxing, Taekwondo, probably MMA, too) but they don't seem to be "my thing". I don't know how to describe it otherwise.

Luckily I am not easily discouraged Obviously I let the wrong impression about my idea about training. I do not intend to train all by myself all the time. I do mean to go to seminars as much as possible but where I live especially Wado is not popular at all and mainly karate is trained as sport and only for competition. I figured that it is better slow progress than no progress at all. As I see things my options are: train alone, train for competitions or don't train at all. I chose the first one completely understanding the limitations. I am not complete beginner. But still I was wandering if someone else had been in same/similar situation and what other people would do if they hypothetically need to train alone.

This is really amazing! My dream house has training space in it Is this your only training place or you just use it for additional training? Do you train alone? My main concern is how do you progress in your knowledge and mainly in certain techniques when you don't have training partner. I know that now there is enough information on the internet you just need good filtering to know what is worth and what is not and there are good seminars and options for training with different masters but still how do you perfect your blocks, punches, locks, throws etc. when the main part of your training is alone? PS: Just wanted to thank you all for your advises and opinions. Please excuse me for any typing mistakes or misplaced words as English is not my native language.

Due to my full time job I cannot apply this method. But I was thinking about something similar. Maybe going frequently to different seminars and visiting my old dojo maybe onece a month. I just need to find someone to train with me at the weekends. This is my main concern. I have already started gathering information about making my own makiwara and about any specifics on using it. Practicing kata is one thing that I definitely do not underestimate but I also think that sometimes you just need to try the techniques with a partner. There are clubs around but they are all focused on the sports karate. I used to train in such club and although I deeply respect them this is not my thing anymore. I want to focus more about traditional karate and especially on Wado Ryu and Shito Ryu styles that I have trained and am somewhat familiar with.

Thank you, I will look into it! I don't care about grades anyways so I won't matter how the grading is done. If anyone has other suggestions or study at home advice it will be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I am looking for advice on how to start training again after several years pause and doing it by myself. One reason is that in my current town there are no karate dojos, the other reason is that all of the karate dojos I know of are orientated on sports karate and although I respect them all ( I trained in one for years before moving to another town) I feel like it was ... far from true traditional karate which I actually want to study. Please don't get me wrong I loved training there and my sempai but I feel like I didn't learn anything about real self defense and karate techniques. I stopped training because life took a crazy turn but I missed karate (and still do) every single day and now I think it is about time to start training again. So can you give me practical advice on how someone starts training by him/herself and how to keep motivation especially at the beginning before the habit kicks in? Thanks!

Thank you again for the great post, tallgeese. I have already started doing some of the things you said and reading the recommended books. I find the books really interesting and the drills very helpful.

First of all let me thank you for the detailed post and for taking the time to write it! I already have been doing some of the things you said for finding the right skill set that works for me. This is why I don't limit myself to only one style of MA and I constantly research for different techniques and look into other arts, too. The downside of the situation is that I live in a small country where martial arts are not well developed and most of the dojos emphasize on the sport side of it. But with a willing partner you can always try out drills that are not taught in the dojo. I also work a lot on conditional training because I know that stress and adrenaline drain you out very quickly. I also try to find good readings about the vulnerable points in the human body so I can incorporate them in my drills. I have read some materials on the topic but if someone could recommend good books I would appreciate it. Recently I read GSP'a book "The Way of the Fight" and there he talks about fear and how if you learn to use it it could turn into your friend. Very interesting view point. May be this could be useful for me. By nature I am very calm, non aggressive person and I don't know if this could work for or against me in a self defense situation. Some people say that the thing that "gets them moving" in such situation is the anger of "how dare you try to hurt me". And I am not sure if I have this kind of anger in me. This is why I want to work more on developing the right mind set. I will definitely look in to the recommended readings. Thanks once again!

For some time now I have been reading in this forum but I am a new member so I apologize if I am going over on already discussed topic. Self defense is a topic that has interested me in a long time. I know that on the street things are very different and very ugly and could even turn deadly. I do realize that the first seconds of the attack are critical especially if you are not a big person (like me - 5'3" and about 115 pounds) and don't want to end up in bear hug or situation where someone double your size is on top of you since getting out of it will be nearly impossible. So what I want to ask you about is how do you think a person could best prepare for street attack so he/she won't freeze? I mean mental preparation. A lot of self defense seminars and trainings include environment awareness, useful techniques but it will all mean nothing if the second you are attacked your brain freezes.