karate_woman

Just wondering when 3 months became a "long" absence I just came off a 2 year absence, which included having a baby December 28, 2002. I noticed I lost a lot of strength and have also had to review everything. I'm still in the process of regaining what I lost, though I must say my muscles, kata and basics are coming along nicely after the two months I have been back. I think at this rate I'll be up to snuff and even improving the new katas within another 2-4 months. I'm not sure why you lost the weight, but it sounds like you lost muscle like I did, so my suggestion would be to push yourself, but not to the point of injury or anything. 3 months is not that long and I doubt you've forgotten much - a simple review of any rusty skills should be sufficient to refresh your memory. As for your strength and endurance, if you do the techniques a bit slower at first to accomodate your physical conditioning at least you will be doing them correctly and working on the details, and you'll find your strength improves gradually the whole time. Your Sensei should insist on you taking it easy for a while, but if they aren't aware of the situation, you could just let them know privately. Mine always makes a point of telling people who've just come back to take it easy - in front of the class - then nobody wonders why you are "slacking". One thing is certain: you won't get any stronger just thinking about it, so training is the way to go Good luck!

I have competed in rated tournaments and won a few tropheys, but haven't paid to join the ratings. I'm returning to competition in June, with a tourney in Collingwood. I believe it is rated with Tour Canada but I'm not sure of any other ratings. This will be my first non-shiai competition for me since shodan. The areas I have competed in are kumite, kata, weapons, and self defense. I also compete in grappling at shiais.

I agree that the students should be putting in an effort, BUT, the teacher should be demanding it of them. In my opinion, if the student isn't there to train, fine, don't, but don't waste my time, or the time of the other students - smarten up or go and change. Unfortunately, a lot of club owners feel they can't afford to make that sort of stand. My view is the opposite - if you don't make that stand then you've got mediocre students going around representing your club, and what kind of student are you going to attract? The kind that doesn't stick around for more than a few months, when they realize they might actually have to put an effort in to make progress .

I just noticed the other day my heavy weight karate gi is getting little holes in it where it is folded. They aren't noticeable yet except under close inspection, but obviously I'm going to have to get a new gi. On average, how often do you tend to replace your gi, and do lightweight ones last longer than heavyweight ones (other than for grappling)? I still have my original lightweight gi and it doesn't have any holes in it at all, and was worn much longer than this one (this one I've worn probably 2 years).

I think it should be decriminalized, but I am also not a fan of secondhand smoke; while it shouldn't be a criminal offense to have cannabis, I shouldn't be exposed to second hand pot smoke anymore than I should be exposed to second hand tobacco smoke. If you want to smoke, fine, just leave me out of it please! In my city there will be a smoking ban in public places starting in June, and many other cities and towns in Ontario are doing the same thing, so I guess it won't be a huge issue.

Since you state you only practice TKD loosely, I'd suggest Korean Martial Arts, Korean Martial Arts Centre, Korean Self Defense Arts...something along those lines.

What an excellent response Mr Li gave you

At the moment 3 classes at the dojo, with home workouts 2-3 times per week as well.

Hmm. We don't have contracts, but some reputable clubs do. I've seen a few of 1 year membership type clubs, which I don't have a problem with when it is a club I'm confident will be around for a while, and I'm sure I'll stick with it. A contract in and of itself doesn't bug me, but the one you describe has me a bit suspicious. You're getting a martial arts membership, not trying to get a cheap cell phone plan; the long term (three year) agreement would really worry me, and I believe he would enforce it (why else have it?). The fact of the matter is the guy has probably learned that most martial arts students don't stick around for the long term, but he'd like his bills to be paid anyway. The committment to reach a certain belt within a certain time is odd too...how does he know how well you'll learn based on one class? Sure you know the basics from your other training, but at some point the stuff will be all new and your advancement will slow.

I'd agree with that; for one thing, an 11 year old isn't old enough to be in the dojo by herself, let alone responsible for the whole place. The people I'm referring to are 18, but are still significantly younger than me, and I've noticed they are somewhat immature before class. Sensei has not had them teach independently, but teaching is part of the requirements for black belt in our dojo, so they have to do some supervised teaching. I was just responding to some of the posts that sounded opposed to the idea of being taught by a younger person at all...if Sensei thinks they've got something to show me, I'm going to pay attention!

Using that logic you'd have to shave your ARMS.

There's lots I don't know, but little I can't research

Here's a pic I found of both the kesa gatame and a way to escape. http://bjj.org/techniques/intheguard/kesagatame/

Hmm. I think it is up to the head instructor to determine who should be teaching their classes. If people have a problem with the quality of the instruction -or the maturity of the instructors - they should discuss it with the head instructor. Not wanting to be taught by someone younger than oneself is narrow-minded, especially since many students start later in life these days. I am a black belt and 12 years older than our brown belts, and was not offended in the least when Sensei had them show me some new things that popped up while I was away.

Hi! Welcome - I'm quite new too

I believe that if I didn't study kata and the related bunkai I would miss some of the best moves in my style, many of which are in the katas we learn AFTER shodan. Those particular moves aren't in the basic drills we do, but get practiced when we do bunkai, and the safer ones can be practiced during sparring or grappling as well.

I much prefer sleeping naked myself; if I wore my gi to bed, next thing ya know I'll be beating my poor husband in his sleep.

I learned SanSeiru to get my Shodan, and am working on ShiShoChin. I'm now at the point in ShiShoChin where I can work through it on my own and start to make corrections, but I've not even begun the journey to make it my own. After I got my black we switched associations (for hopefully the last time), and now it is switched to ShiShoChin and then SanSeiru. My favourite kata so far is Seienchin, but I wouldn't call it my specialty.

I don't really have a specialty kata. This is probably because I'm a shodan and still working on my kata for Nidan, in addition to the others I've learned.

I believe in ki, but am not going to try and convince you. That book fireka is writing sounds interesting.

Tomoe Nage, Tomo-Nage, however we want to spell it is a Circular Throw. Check it out at http://www.judoinfo.com/tomonage.htm or http://www.goshindojo.8m.com/multimedia.htm

Enjoy. I look forward to hearing how your first experience goes

Congrats to you and your son. Update your signature btw

Sounds fun!

Good luck with your new style! I'd suggest asking for a dojo manual - you might have to pay a small amount for it (probably under 20), but they usually contain such wonderful tidbits as etiquette, belt tying, a brief history of your art, perhaps some lineage and info about your club, belt requirements and terminology. If they don't have one, they should at least have a handout for new students to read. I don't remember much changing with respect to the language when I switched from Japanese to Okinawan. I remember the stances weren't as low in the Okinawan version of Goju, and the moves became more subtle in the kata (the same in bunkai however). Here is a link to an Isshinryu Karate site. It has a lot of info including etiquette As I don't take the style I can't comment on its accuracy, however