karate_woman

I don't earn any money from martial arts. I found I was at my best when I was actually training 9 hours+ per week, plus helping out with kids classes another 7 hours per week. I'm not putting that much time in at the moment, however...often 3 hours at the dojo and 3 hours at home, and I'm progressing, but that's only because I had a few years off and there is a lot of relearning/fine-tuning/physical fitness levels to reattain - not to mention recovering from having a baby. I have other committments at the moment and would rather have SOME training than none at all. To make any progress at all, you should go at least a couple times per week. As Scandanavian stated, though, to get really good, you need to put more time in. Its just like anything else - you get out what you put into it. Don't sweat it if you can't go more than once or twice a week though - if you enjoy going, any training you can fit in is better than none in my opinion - so what if it takes longer to get each belt?

I like that too, but I was even more impressed when I heard it when training my cotton/spandex pants at home!

Even though your heart seems to be with Muay Thai, the gym you are at just doesn't seem to be cutting it for you. Even though you are sold on Muay Thai, unfortunately there are good gyms and bad gyms and it sounds like now you've got a mediocre gym. You aren't satisfied with your training, so I really don't see the point in staying there. I think you've already made your decision to move on to Shorin Ryu. You've checked out the school and it agrees with you - that's a huge thing right there. Maybe when you are older and can drive yourself to classes- or a decent Muay Thai place opens up in your city again- you might end up going back to it, but if you stick with Shorin Ryu you should get a lot out of it.

Hi, welcome

Hmm. Won't it be hard to test that particular subject without bias? I know there is a physiological response - rather like what you are describing people have when being "attracted to each other", when people are getting aroused, and these are changes in our bodies that can occur with, or without, a partner. Not being a guy, I can't comment from the guy side, but I can relate from a woman's point of view.

in my opinion

Welcome!

Ron Van Clief, inventor of chinese goju, was defeated by Royce Gracie in UFC 4. He was 51 at the time. Here is a link I found about him: http://www.chinesegoju.com/history/shidoshi.asp

It changes with the number of posts

Well the three styles of jujitsu taught in our area all do some sort of grappling. They do stand up grappling and on the ground as well. I think when judo was first invented, jujitsuka didn't do randori, but they've had a lot of time to rethink their ways and adapt.

Last night we were practicing being attacked in a certain way, and were to respond differently each time we were attacked (not preplanned, just doing whatever comes to mind). When I used a move out of a kata, someone said "Hey, no fair! That's out of a kata!" I responded, "That's allowed, we ARE doing karate, aren't we?" Sensei just smiled, and later demonstrated another move someone had used that could be a bunkai application of one of the kata (the move I used was first level application and was easier to spot). I was surprised that bunkai didn't occur to anyone else, or if it did, was deemed "unfair". Perhaps part of the problem is they weren't doing this much in the last couple years; I heard from a few other students that this type of exercise hasn't been done often since I was gone, so I mentioned it last week and lo and behold it is BACK! Good thing, too...prearranged stuff is good, but we need to build instant reactions and an ability to go with the flow, too.

So, back to the original post. How did you handle it, or was this a hypothetical situation? Why were you without a belt but with another person that was wearing theirs? Why did you think it mattered that you didn't have your belt on and they did? Was the situation in a dojo or outside of one?

Excellent article, showing what people can do if they put their mind, body. and soul into something. Thanks for sharing your journey thus far.

Happy Birthday KF

I was just surprised about the potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, any spices, in addition to being vegan; the chemicals/artificial flavours didn't surprise me, but by spices do you mean ALL spices, or just those that you buy in stores (you can grow your own basic, oregano, etc, so why not include them, provided you either grow them yourself or they are organically grown and processed?)

We were just sent a note that for the upcoming shiai we are encouraged to wear our gis to the dojo because of space limitations in the change room Thank goodness I will be driving and not walking!

Yes, though sometimes people need to be encouraged to do so .

I see you posted the same thing, only asking for a TKD superiority spin, in the Korean forum. My suggestion would be to do a bit of research on the styles you're interested in. You might also want to find out what style of kung fu, the school/schools are teaching before you do your research. After you've done your initial research, go to the schools that interest you, talk to the instructors, watch some classes. You'll find good and bad schools representing pretty much all martial arts, so it may come down to the schools themselves, and also what you'd like to get out of your training.

I can't stand facial hair myself.

I don't really have a special diet because of martial arts, though my body doesn't tend to like terribly greasy foods (I get terrible pains in my stomach, and, er...the food doesn't stay around long), so I avoid them if I can. I also don't eat a lot of sweets since I have hypoglycemic tendencies. Those tendencies also mean I have to eat regularly. I don't generally eat if I'm not hungry, either. The only fish I'll eat is Tuna, and seafood made me so terribly ill when I was 12 I avoid all forms of it; it doesn't appeal to me anyway. I'm not a big snacker (nuts, chips, chocolates, ice cream, etc).

Short for me. My first husband cut his hair really short for the army, and my present husband shaves his head.

Nope, but as you age you might be drawn to different styles and activities than a younger person might, depending on your health considerations. No No, but all students - especially those whose health indicates they should be working at a slower pace - should be encouraged to work at their own pace. Our dojo doesn't demand all students work at the same pace; senior students will generally be faster than new students, for example.

What kind of face are you making when you spar?

We have a couple kata with very similar names that are identical up to a certain point, so sometimes I've messed them up part way through during class. I haven't done either of them in tournaments in years.