Faunus

Your not paying good enough attention, Sure, the "Karate" syndrome (not being specific and calling any type of fighting Karate) Is present in america, just as it is present everywhere else, but this is not always the case. My Dojo for example, is Shidokan karate, and thats what we practice, there is tradition to it, were not just a "Karate Syndrome" school. (Does that make sense? I can't think of anyother way to word it )

Always make your last move of the Kata the best move, everybody always sees your alst move and your stance, even if they don't watch anything else, they'll see your stance at the end of the kata.

In my DoJo we have alot of little kids, like 7-8-9 year olds, and they don't really do any conditioning, but us Higher belts, there is no lack of it

Shidokan

I never where my Gi outside the DoJo, other than when I'm coming and going. There was one time when I had a tournament but we showed up really early so me and my dad went to the grocery store, I was only wearing my pants and my Shidoakn t-shirt, but people where still lookin at me like . But other than that I never where my Gi outside the DoJo, At my DoJo they practicly give us a t shirt every other week, because they have tons of them layin around so I have like 50. I wear them everywhere, you'll almost never see me without my Shidokan T-shirt.

I just throw it in my bag.

I beg to differ, Kata does help me personally in my fighting, and if your really doing it right you should be sweating afterwards. It can really be a good excerise, at least for me, I do kata in my spare time.

Bored with Kata This idea is foreign to me, even if you learned them all, theres always something you can improve on.

I try and stay very flexible since my sparring style revolves around kicks, kicks and more kicks. (Not a good thing, gotta work on that..) I strech 20 minutes every day, and yes, I can do the splits

I use this kick alot when I fight, I'd say that the biggest factor is flexablity, try streching for 20-30 minutes every day, or kicking a bag 20-30 minutes every day.

I'm a brown belt. I'm 13.

I think it can also depend on the Style, some styles addvance faster than others, but if they really deserve there Black belt, then they deserve to get it.

What I like about Shidokan is how its a great mix of Traditional (Shodokan) And kickboxing and Boxing, I get in my Sparring and my Kata's ( Which help me alot with my fighting techniuqe) And its just a great mix of different aspects of Martial Arts.

Im 13