Canadian77

Oh and also, I believe I was a bit unclear at the start about styles. I meant I wasn't sure which karate style, rather than so much a mix of martial arts. I do think it is just karate, although I didn't know for sure if weapons were used by most karate dojos.

Nunchaku are an advanced weapon for my school that is learned right before Shodan. The children class never touches anything other than a bo. So I also cringe at that. I'm in agreement with you guy's. Kids of any grade should only be allowed to use the Bo and Bokken : that's my opinion and we did it at the Dojo I come from. Fair enough to all of the above. Haven't heard our dojo's official policy on that but it sounds like it is probably similar. I have only seen the upper level kids with a bo, and then sais and tonfas with people who are older - later teens at least.

Thank you for all the replies, they are interesting to read and make good points. To clarify, the weapons are not introduced early. I have seen them, but not used them yet. I'm not sure exactly what belt they start at, but I know they are introduced slowly. And the nun-chuks I have only ever seen once, in a demonstration by a 3rd degree black belt at our Christmas celebration. The bo seems to be the first one, and it is definitely higher up in the belts. But I am excited at the prospect of getting to try them out one day, although I am quite happy to wait until I am ready, and waiting years if fine by me. Overall I am really enjoying it, and I hope it will be a long term part of my life.

I am a woman in my late thirties, and have always wanted to take karate, but it just hasn't worked out until now. I was a highland dancer for years, so I used to be fairly fit, but since having my kids I haven't done anything formal, so I've lost a lot of my fitness. I began karate because we wanted to put our son into something, and he had a keen interest in karate, so we gave it a try. He is 4 and absolutely loves it. I found the atmosphere so positive and encouraging, and they do have adult novice classes, so I decided to give it a try. They are close by and timing worked well for me. It seems to be a fantastic dojo, but I'm a newbie so I don't have a lot to go on. I understand that there are different styles out there, but I really don't know which style we would be considered. I think it's actually a mix. I love the wide variety of what we do in the lessons. So far I've done lots of great warm ups that get my heart pumping (which are never exactly the same but tend to include push ups, sit ups and stretches fairly often), lots of focusing on technique in various punches, kicks and blocks, lots of kata work (I feel a bit silly saying this but am proud that I have mastered the basics of Heian Shodan and am working on improving my technique in it now), plenty of various types of pad drills using different types of pads, lots of self-defense routines and pieces, and more that I'm sure I'm not thinking of. I am only a white belt, but the higher belts also do sparring fairly often (we have tried some basic movements for that but not formal sparring just yet), and get to work with some of the different weapons. I've seen tonfa, sais, bo staff and nun-chucks done so far (spelling may be all wrong there). I have learned something new at every single lesson, and attend 2-4 times a week (usually 3) since the end of November. The Director always teaches most of the class, and other often do the warm up and will assist throughout the class. Does this sound like a well-run dojo from that little bit of info? Do you have any idea on the style? Probably not enough info. I've lurked a bit on this forum and found some interesting conversations here, and I look forward to chatting with you. Some of the topics are over my head right now, so I look forward to becoming more familiar with this world.