Kyonovice

For those living in the UK (might be available elsewhere, I don't know). There is a show on Sky Channel 468 (Frontrunner) at 1pm today International Black Belt Open Championships. From what I gather it's something set up by Martial Arts Illustrated, know that it is on today and I think 22nd and 24th (might be wrong). I've set up to record as I will probably be out, but might be worth a watch

On top of the diet experiment, I have just ordered myself a new bike on our cycle to work scheme...I will shed the belly and turn my weight into muscle!

First comes technique, then comes power... And work out what height is a good height for you to kick, harder to deliver a high powered kick to the head so sometimes better to aim lower. Seriously, stretching legs, hip flexors etc etc that is what I would do, and work on that technique! For a mawashi-geri, ensure you are swivelling the standing foot, generates more power, as you are a newbie (going by your name), speak to your instructor (it's what they are there for), side thrust and side snap kicks are generally taught stepping sideways in front of the standing leg, this closes your hips up, try stepping behind, much better, more powerful Just my opinion and ideas.

Just weighed in with new scales: weight 11st 6 % Body Fat 24% % Body Water 55% % Bone Density 7.1% BMI 25.3 (But BMI is a load of rubbish)

Wow! And people moan about nd want to do away with out NHS over here in Blighty

Well ive just ordered some new scales all singing all dancing body fat and water content...

weighed in this morning and I am down to 74.1kg so going well so far....my aim is to get to a point where I am down to about 70kg (11 stone), and ideally lose the slight bear belly I had acquired so that I am mainly lean muscle

Quick update...just weighed myself and after 3 days i have dropped to 74.3kg (or 11st 7lb)...and ive nkt craved dairy or alcohol

Thanks, I shall see how it goes, I am so adamant that I want to try this, just for the month to see how it goes, 1st weigh in is 75.6kg and I dread to think how much % body fat (I reckon at least 20 %)

Nah, I did my own research, though I would try a more oriental diet (well sort of - cutting out dairy and adding more veg, not eating man made starchy foods such as pasta etc)

So, here in the UK it's "Sober for October" so I am going to try a little experiment with my diet and weight management.... My only vice now it alcohol (wine and gin - mmmmm gin). So I am going to weigh myself tonight and log my weight, I am then going to go this month without alcohol (and while I am at it, I am going to seriously reduce the amount of dairy I take on - gone is white coffe, "normal" tea and in come black coffee in the morning and green tea, I don't eat much yoghurt or cheese anyway). I will then log my weight at the end of the month and see what a difference this has made.

Thanks for the reply. My Sensei is Hungarian (really cool guy) although i have trained with Japanese sensei before (Enoeda and Ohta)

So the other night I was training with my young son at our Shotokan Dojo, my son has literally just started out at aged 6 (so proud). Sensei was getting us practising kicks, we went through several of the basics, mae geri, mawashi geri and yoko geri. My son, being such a newbie (and quite small) was struggling to get his kicks up to chudan height and was getting annoyed with himself when Sensei took him to one side and said something like: "Don't worry about height of kick, if you can only kick the leg then kick the leg, man can't walk without leg" This got me thinking about how true that quote is and how my training has changed as I've inevitably got older. When I was a young whipper snapper of a brown belt (early teens), I was more than happy throwing a mawashi geri to an opponents head, being only 5ft 4 inches in height, this shocked opponents taller than me, that I was that flexible that I could kick them tot he head with power, it was one of my show pieces (I used to watch Van Damme movies and try to replicate his style of kicking - I know!) Anyway, now in my 40's and having a fair amount of practical self defence experience behind me, I just can't bring myself to kick jodan height anymore, my hips don't want to without complaining and, well in all honesty I can't see a need for it, flashy kicks look great in the movies, but in a real life self defence situation, they are next to useless (unless you can kick to the head at incredibly close range that is - think it was Terry O'Neil who was the master of this). Having taken some months of Kyokushin training and learnt their lower kicks with the shin (much like Muay Thai), I now use that as my go to technique if I have to kick someone, it puts a person on the floor in a flash and due to it being low, can be delivered from incredibly close range and is hard to see coming as the the body hardly moves. This is so much better for me as my body doesn't complain about it either, my kicking leg is quicker to the ground and I am able to follow up with something else (put the person in cuffs, use a control technique etc). So yes, Sensei is entirely correct, man can't walk without legs, man can't walk man can't fight.

I have had numerous instructors over the years and pretty much all of them in my later life have told me I need to relax, strong in shoulders but relax more...must be something in what they are saying, I just wish I could relax more in my training!

Growing up studying Karate from aged 9, I always wanted to compete and win...now aged 41, I purely want to train to help make me a better person, to be able to walk with confidence at night (I do this a LOT) and to be the person I want to be....Powerful (internally) and peaceful, that is all.