karate_woman

I think that is a bit extreme. For a counterpoint from someone who actually lived in Japan for a couple of years, and speaks Japanese, I refer you to http://24fightingchickens.com/shotokan/101/25_terms.html A quote from the bottom of the above page: "Almost no one takes karate lessons to learn Japanese. This whole topic is probably off-topic for most readers, who think, "I just want to punch and kick, not learn a foreign language and run around arguing about what the words mean." Good for you. You probably want to take up karate to have fun, and using Japanese is not fun. So, avoid it if you can. If you can't avoid having to use it because of your teacher, just do what you have to do to fit in, if you can stand it. If you are interested, take up the language for real. If you aren't, just avoid preaching to others about Japanese terms and concepts and you will make the world a better place."

A hard/soft style like Goju Ryu would go extremely well with JuJitsu. Just my two cents

) That is funny. I haven't had someone actually strike me as a "test", but sometimes they like to pretend to hit me and say stuff like "oh, could have had you there, you didn't block". I invariably respond with "I didn't perceive a threat, and it looks like I was right".

Dans in and of themselves don't make you better, no. They do give you a good starting point, and once I reach 4th Dan I'll have been graded on all the kata in my style. I'm just at shodan now by the way, and probably won't grade for Nidan until next year so I'm a long way (8 years minimum) away from that point. After that it is supposed to be more based on what I give back to karate (plus time at each rank), skills as an instructor, books written, etc.

The same thing goes for amateur kickboxing in Ontario; you can fight as a pro but not as an amateur in Ontario - how silly is that? Twin Dragon's website has something on the situation if you are interested. That was a factor in whether or not I would start kickboxing, I'm afraid - I have no interest in travelling to the US and other provinces to get a few amateur fights in when in karate I can compete here.

I'll try not to take that personally

Mine just means karate.

He said he was a yondan...which is 4th degree black belt.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30500-12322711,00.html All the stars had to undergo intensive martial arts training for the movie's fight scenes, and producer Joel Silver told how actress Carrie-Anne Moss broke her leg in the first week of filming. Keanu admitted he has not continued with his Kung Fu training. So I guess the answer is yes..and no!

Here is a quote from an interview with Erin Toughill. She is a MMA that stands 5'10 and is a pretty solid 165lbs. With her size and build she can physically match a lot of men, but she doesn't think men and women should compete against each other in MMA. Her first answer almost contradicts her second one in a way, but she is consistent in that she doesn't think men and women should compete against each other - the second answer is clearer than the first as to her reasoning. Do you really compete with men? I don't believe in FIGHTING men. Why? There is no point. It is a losing situation either way. I TRAIN w/ men though and they definitely don't go easy on me. They treat me the same as everyone else on the team. Maybe at first they say "Oh this is a girl. What can she do?" But when they roll w/ me or do boxing w/ me they realize VERY QUICKLY that I have the ability to tap them out or knock them out. I am not a woman who hits like a girl - I am a woman who hits like a man. I have great boxing skills and have outboxed a lot of men I have trained w/ Maybe it is because I listen more and dedicate more time to training. I don't know... But I enjoy training w/ the boys. It makes me stronger. What do you think about mixed combative competitions in other combative sports? Is it possible at all that women can be on an equal footing with men in boxing and wrestling? As a whole - No way. But there are some women who can be better athletes than men. But men (as a whole) are stronger, faster, and more technical then women. If there is one girl out there who thinks different - she must not be training w/ good fighters. If I go against a man who is my weight and skill level – I will probably lose. It's just nature that's all... For the rest of the interview check out http://www.fscclub.com/interviews/toughill-e.shtml

Or not...

Perhaps jmy77 meant the guy didn't refer to a style of karate?

We don't normally

I agree with your asssessment on the physical aspects. Sparring is sparring, and whether a smaller opponent will beat a larger (similarly skilled) opponent often depends on the level of contact involved. Even amongst males, the size and weight differences can't be ignored - especially once contact reaches a certain point - which is why there are weight classes. I'm glad you also mentioned that martial arts isn't only about fighting, too, since the orignal poster didn't specify what aspect of martial arts the girls were beating the boys at (or vice-versa), and I've often seen girls/women beat boys/men in martial arts competitions.

Not being familiar with your style it is hard to comment specifically, but one thing that has basically already been stated in other ways is that when you are doing the moves in the kata in an exaggerated way, you aren't going to do them in real life that way; sometimes the exaggeration is to simply build muscle.

guess your a woman beater then Huh? I'm a chick. I can't help but beat other women, especially in competitions.

I used a simple palm heel strike on a guy that wouldn't stop trying to put his arms around me. I'd tried to stop him by diverting his hands with simple open handed kakie style blocks, which he took as a sort of game. I got tired of the situation, and with him still trying to put his arms around me, I decided to strike. Given the situation, I felt a strike to the side would be appropriate, as I felt he'd stop once he got the point; I was right - one strike and he walked away rubbing his side

First point: black belt in 3 years. In my school (which is not Shotokan) you CAN get your black belt in a MINIMUM of 3 years, though most don't. There is a lot to learn after shodan, however, and it will take another 10 years before yondan, when the student will have been graded on all of the kata in the style. Second point: 8 year old black belt. If the child started at 5 years of age, it is theoreticallypossible for them to reach junior black belt, given a minimum of 3 years training. If an 8 year old is physically capable of passing the school's black belt test it would make me wonder about what it takes to be a black belt in that particular club, however; we don't have any 8 year old black belts.

Welcome

Yes. Why? I have seen girls beat boys, and women beat men.

You haven't given any information thus far that would indicate a McDojang. The quality of the instruction, and whether or not you're advancing because you have the required skills or simply to give the instructor grading fees would be a better indication. Your training fees don't seem high, but I believe that even if the fees were over $100 per month it wouldn't indicate McDojo if you were getting good quality instruction - sometimes it costs A LOT for the instructor to rent the building space, for one thing.

I agree; most can't do it - including me at the moment - at least not without my family or my job paying the price. As others mentioned it is easier to do it if you break up the 5-6 hours into a couple of sessions - morning and evening (eg. 2 hours in the morning, 3 at night). It seems more achievable when broken down. As I've stated before, though, I would rather train even once a week than not at all.

Strategy: avoidance, awareness, prevention. Once fight is inevitable, try to avoid being hit, use persuaders (screams, foot/shin stomp, elbows, claw-like strike to eyes/nose, groin, etc) before techniques, try to ensure attacker can't chase me because they either can't see me (thus the eye/nose strike), or can't physically chase me (knee broken), constantly adapting to the attack, not expecting any so-called obvious responses from them; don't stop until I am able to get away safely.

I wouldn't recommend using ankle weights for kicking, either. Your knee joints can't take the added stress of kicking quickly with weights on your ankles. They could probably handle slow swinging (leg raises) or slow carefull kicks, but not fast ones. Slow kicks work the muscles more anyway.

Bo