karate_woman

Start whenever you feel you are ready to. Age is a funny thing. You're 15 and worried about being mistreated by students who started younger if you wait another year. If that happens you're in the wrong school, in my opinion; martial artists are supposed to be courteous and respectful. The only thing I've noticed about really young children (pre-teen) and the martial arts is that their attention span is lower so it generally takes a bit longer for them to progress than adults do. On the other spectrum I have seen people start karate in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and continue training to black belt. You can bet your boots they were never disrespected for being white belts at whatever age they were, nor did they disrespect their much younger (20's) instructors.

Welcome

Welcome!

Welcome! I'm new too

I've never noticed any racism.

I don't think it matters too much whether more MA are in politics; as some of you pointed out, there are all sorts of different people involved in martial arts, just like any activity.

I did a search for Muay Thai schools in Toronto and came across this website: Muay Thai Hopefully that gets you started, anyway.

Karate isn't shown on tv in the olympics because karate is not an olympic sport! I think it should be though. Karate will be an Olympic Sport next Olympics. (Yay!) I look forward to watching karate in the next Olympics. Previously, I've watched and enjoyed both Judo and Boxing. I would have been interested in catching a TKD match too, though, which I understand are spectacular to watch.

Since you asked for an honest opinion, you'll get one. What it sounds like is you were showing off your martial arts at a party. This is not a good idea and I wouldn't recommend it, regardless of how pleased you are with the outcome in this case. Yes, your techniques work - as you already felt they did - but you should show more respect for them; you could seriously injure someone practicing a martial art under the circumstances you described! In the future it might be a good idea to refrain from debates and demonstrations of this nature. I'm not sure you proved your point as well as you think you did; how skilled were your opponents - how drunk? When bragging beforehand about how great your martial arts skills were did you even once consider this? I'm glad things worked out this time for you.

Well, I enjoy karate a lot. If someone asks me what I like to do for fun in an ordinary conversation it often comes up - it is hard not to talk about something that has taken up most of your spare time for so long! Another reason it comes up is the bruises I end up with on my arms and shins. I refuse to go around wearing long sleeved shirts and hiding myself, since I don't think they are anything to be ashamed of (hey! I worked hard for those bruises! ), so I sometimes get questioned on them.

When I switched from Judo to Karate, it was no issue; go back to white belt - there was little overlap, if any. When I returned to karate after my first absence of any length (about 3 years)and found that in the intervening period we'd switched from Japanese to Okinawan Goju Ryu, it was up to Sensei, and he encouraged me to keep my rank (Green Belt/3rd Kyu) even though the style had changed a bit and it had been about 3 years or so since I'd trained. I trained hard and was asked to grade for Blue Belt 6 months after I returned, which was excellent, since we have to stay a minimum of 6 months at Green before we're allowed to grade. On the other hand, if I'd gone down to white belt, I would have been restricted to the time limitations we have for each belt - in which case it would have taken me a minimum of 1 year to regain my green belt rank, plus the six months to go to blue. That in and of itself is no big deal, but in addition, I would have been limited in class to working on the kata/skills being worked on at the earlier belts, instead of continuing to work on all of the kata/techniques I'd worked on to that point, and adding the new techniques I needed for Blue Belt. Something else you might want to consider is the OPPOSITE of what you're concerned about; you're concerned you're not up to snuff in the new school, but you are also not giving yourself credit for the fact your skills aren't at the white belt level either. This would come into play especially if you were competing. Here's an example: I remember going to a Goju tournament once and seeing a white belt competitor clean up in the white belt kata divison. She wouldn't compete in kumite though; I later learned she was a black belt in Shotokan and asked to start at white belt to go through the ranks. It kind of left a sour taste in my mouth, and I wasn't even competing against her; she really had an advantage over her competitors, regardless of being new to Goju. While it is nice that she was willing to start fresh, she had an unfair advantage over all of the true beginners at that tournament. My advice would be if your Sensei (or whatever you call your instructors in Korean) is comfortable with you wearing that belt in their classes, just work on what you need to know and eventually it will all work out.

Well, it is Sunday evening and so far no training, but lots of pondering I did go for walk and do some yard work today. We were away from Thursday night to this afternoon, though.

Welcome

We have 5 total, plus Sensei. Since I have returned (Feb 28th), I have only been to one class with more than 2 black belts (plus Sensei), and that is counting me.

I look at the bottom of the screen periodically to see if anyone is there but haven't seen anyone yet.

Yay!

Canada is involved in the war on Terror in Afganistan, we have troops there, the most recent one were sent to freemore US soldiers of their duties there so they could go to Iraq. We also have ships patrolling the Gulf to protect against Al Quaida. Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/iraq/canada/canada_role.html Edited twice: once to add the quote, once to add the link.

I would use the force I felt necessary based on the situation.

Why would I want to fight a boxer without kicking? I'd lose half my moves and as several of you pointed out...I would want to keep the boxer OUT of punching range...kicks are nice for that. Use what you know

I think Aikido is OK as a primary martial art, though I must advise I have not taken Aikido except in a seminar (me and my seminars ). The fact that you practiced at all in "real time" shows me that your dojo was at least attempting to address a spontaneous - as opposed to a rehearsed - attack, though. Defending against the unknown is important in self defense, in my opinion I'll let the Aikido experts defend their style's effectiveness, which is kind of a subjective term anyway; I suspect it has lots of good information for the right teacher/student to bring out. I think people should be able to take whatever martial art they want, even if they don't want to learn to defend themselves . The Aikido practitioners I've met weren't concerned about "fighting" per se, though, and that's fine too.

welcome:) Detroit Red Wings!? Go Leafs Go! )

I take it off, fold it and put it in my bag. I don't concern myself about it touching the floor, though; it touches the floor all the time. In seiza, I have done both - it has sometimes depended on how long it is, as before black belt I was presented with belts of varying lengths.

I just fold it.

I voted never, though I wore it once in an isolated incident whee I just nipped out for a sec. I also wear it to practice in demos and tournaments, but that is for use in training in my book. I don't believe we have a policy on it, I just think that coming from and going to a dojo in your gi is too child-like. I see lots of kids do it at the dojo. It reminds me of going to my brother's hockey games and seeing all the kids all dressed up in their uniforms, skates and all, before even getting out of the car. That reminds me of a story about an adult male who decided he wanted to start playing hockey (he'd never played as a kid). His buddies picked him up and lo and behold he was in full hockey equipment! LOL He never lived that one down. ) Sorry, off topic, but you get the idea

I put 100% dojo, but I have periodically trained with weightover the years. I just can't be motivated to go to the gym like I am at the dojo.