KushankuShoe

Thank you for your replies. Funnily enough I can take a hit quite well really, my last instructor and club members tended to be quite rough so I ended up conditioned to being hit. That said, I still continued with this fear of hitting someone too hard (even though I was going home covered in bruises every week!!). I'm hoping it comes with experience, I'm trying to train as much as possible, it just worries me when my instructor mentions my next grade and 'not enough aggression' in the same sentence because I just can't see it changing. It hasn't so far and I've been involved in MA for years.

For me it was something that was always 'in' me but I didn't quite understand at the time. There was nothing in particular that made me want to take up martial arts, I was bad at sport, never really into fitness or health and didn't like to socialise so was not a member of any clubs even as a child. For some reason, martial arts was always my 'thing'. I started off with jujitsu because it was the closest MA club to my home. I graded to yellow belt but didn't quite gel with it. I next tried Judo and lasted one lesson. When I was 15 I went along to a karate class and have never looked back. I had found what I had been searching for

After taking a 3 year gap from karate I have followed my dream and rejoined another club. My sensei kindly allowed me to continue from 4th kyu which is where I left off originally after an assessment to ensure I could handle it. Now, I feel ok about it all, kata is all coming back to me, basic techniques are still in me (albiet a tad dusty) but my problem is partner work. I do not have, and never have had any aggression in me. My old instructor used to pull me up on it every time and now I'm struggling with it again. In all honesty - I'm frightened of getting hit so keep a distance and flinch a lot and I'm frightened of hurting my partner, so my moves just look ridiculous. Any tips of advice on how to get rid of these barrier? is it just practice? I'm female and in my early 30s if that helps.