focus102

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have a better idea of the concept. Now I just have to apply it! Tommarker, those links are really good, thanks.

No, I don't mean coming home before 11 pm! I am currently training in Shotokan Karate and I have been told that I am not "grounded". While I understand the effects of being grounded, I cannot seem to pinpoint exactly what has to be done. My instructor told me that for about the first two years of training she noticed that students have their energies in the upper portion of their bodies and after training sufficiently their energies are in the lower portion of their bodies and they are more grounded. That is a nice esoteric story but what exactly do I have to DO to practice being grounded? Are there specific muscles to tense, specific abdominal breathing or is this just something that cannot be defined? I would love to hear peoples definitions of this and your experiences of when you became "grounded".

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. I am going to try some of those tips.

Hi all, I'm not sure where to post this so I'm putting it in the general section. Here's the problem: I am currently training in Shotokan Karate and we train barefoot. I need to wear orthotics to correct an improper foot alignment so I am wearing shoes. I bought Pine Tree Martial Arts shoes but they have absolutely NO friction on the floor that we use (we rent space from a dance studio). The friction is perfect with bare feet but with the shoes I am just sliding all over the place and can't properly do any of my movements because I am tensing my inner thighs all the time just to keep from sliding into a split. Does anyone know of any shoe that has a good friction? Or is there a product I can put on the bottom of the shoe to create friction? Thanks.

Were you affected by Blackout '03? I had to walk nine miles to get home because the subways weren't working. It took me about five hours because of the crowds and traffic. I finally got home to a dark and very hot apartment that soon became even hotter from the candles we lit to avoid tripping over furniture and bumping into walls. Most of the food in my refrigerator went bad and I lost about a weeks worth of (expensive) lab experiments at work. Isn't it nuts how we are so dependant on electricity?! How were you affected?

Hi New Yorkers! I am in the heart of Brooklyn. I've been living here for 3 years now but I'm originally from Canada. NYC is nice to visit but tough to live in.

I don't think gi's were designed to distract you! I double knot the strings on my top because if I don't it comes undone during class.

Omigod! I didn't think it could be so serious. Thought it was just a muscle or something like that. I will see a doctor right away. Thanks guys.

Spare time? What's that?! Being a student and working full time doesn't leave much time for anything.

Canned food or bottled water can act as weights too. Also, if you can juggle, try juggling grapefruits for ten minutes. It's great upper body conditioning.

Hi all, Maybe someone can help me. For the past couple of weeks I've been experiencing chest pains when I breath. These only occur after an MA class and last for a couple of hours and then I am fine. The pain increases the deeper I breath. I can't figure out what it is that is triggering this besides for the workout. We do breathing exercises towards the end of the class and these also cause pain if I breath too deeply. What could this be?

Oh yeah! Best workouts ever!

I am currently finishing up a contract at a place that will sell a black belt to anyone with deep enough pockets. There is a different instructor every night so they don't really know where you are up to or what you need to practice. Belt testings are every 2-3 months and cost $60. Everyone passes regardless of their actual skill. The prices of classes are pretty high too. The material taught is a huge mixture of stuff from all kinds of styles that they put under one name. I am now looking around at other schools and there are many in NY. I have found some that are OK but not perfect, a majority of them are McDojo's though. I only found one or two that I am seriously considering training in. What makes these different is that they are not trying to sell their system. There is this one school that told me to look around at other schools before deciding to train at theirs. And even then, they have to interview me and decide to accept me as a student! And they were completely open about their whole system without anything to hide and making sure I know what I'm getting into. That's a place I know I will get a quality instruction at.

I have an acoustic guitar. It's a Norman B20 handmade Canadian guitar with a real nice sound. I don't play it very much for lack of time but occasionally I take it to the park and just strum away or jam with my friend who plays drums.

"Forget" your pants. Bow constantly throughout the class. Kiai during meditation. Incorporate a latin dance move into your kata. Ask a ton of questions on a technique you learned last year and look thoroughly confused at the explanation. Switch your regular belt for a colourfull leather belt. Show up to class 15 minutes before the end of class for 2 weeks. Eat lots of beans and fart loudly throughout the class. Pretend to fall asleep when the instructor talks. ... I have never actually done any of the above but I have commited similar (and worse) pranks in grade school. I was quite a troublemaker and I still am except now it is (fortunately) only in my imagination.

I recently had to take a couple of months off due to an injury so I feel your frustration. You can spend some time just reading up about the arts or about your art. There's a ton of information out there that you can pick up. I spent my time surfing MA sites and reading MA books and magazines and I find that my training now makes much more sense and has more meaning than it did when I didn't really know the background. Also, set up a specific schedule or plan of what you want to do. I find it's easier to practice when you are following a schedule as opposed to just training when you are in the mood. There's more discipline that way and less laziness.

My heating buzzes sometimes.

Rices Ramon rel Maxima of Multivitamin! I am cracking up!

I work in a molecular biology lab doing neurobehavioral genetics research. I absolutely love what I do. It's always been my dream to do science and I couldn't be happier. At one point I was doing some other kind of work and now looking back I realize how unhappy I was. In my opinion it's really important to like what you do since you are spending most of your day doing it. However, if you are ok with your job then it's kind of risky to go and switch jobs because you may not like another job any better. You've also got a family and martial arts to enjoy so your job is not your whole life. On the other hand, you say you dream of opening a martial arts school. Why does this have to remain a dream? If you work at it you can eventually save up the money or do whatever you need to do. In my experience if you want something badly enough and you persevere enough you will succeed in the end. I went from a complete failure with no money and a big dream to working hard for a long time and fullfilling that dream. My only regret is that I don't have enough time to devote to martial arts because I am so busy in the lab. Oh, and millions won't necessarily make you happy.

I started MA for the fun and for self defence. Now I am in it for the health benefits and the self discipline too.

You can't discredit all of wushu simply because modern wushu practitioners are mainly acrobatic. Traditional wushu practitioners definitely spar and have all the self defense abilities of other styles (if not more). Nevertheless their main focus is not combat; they regard their art as a way of life.

I'm from Montreal, Canada (my home and native land). But I've been living in New York for 3 years now.

I find that I am not hungry after working out. In fact, even if I was hungry before, I no longer feel like eating after a good work out. I usually go to sleep without eating after a workout (and then eat like a horse in the morning!) I am now wondering if that is ok.

Same here! The cool thing about wiggling your ears is that no amount of practice can give you that ability, you just have to have it. As for the backflips... it took me 5 months to be able to touch my toes. I'm schedueling my first backflip for 2025!

I am interested in learning to write the characters. However, I think a certain degree of knowledge about what the characters mean is usefull due to the fact that Chinese characters are more pictorial based than phonetics based. But my primary goal is not to learn the language.