major_motoko

Just ask your sensei or a high grade student. They will be more than happy to show you how to tie your belt, as everyone was a beginner once! I remember it took me ages to get it exactly right. Plus there is more than one way to tie the belt, so just ask how people in your club do it, so you do it the same way Try looking at this previous thread where the question has already been asked: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=8515 Goodluck! motoko

A few years back I was training in Iaido. I started with a Bokken (Red Oak) for a few months, until I got the feel of the weight and learnt basic cuts and thrusts. As someone said, a Bokken on it's own is still a formidible weapon. After a few months my Sensei gave me the name and address of a Japanese man in London who would sell me a genuine Iaito. This is a blunt katana used for kata practice. It has the same weight and feel of a live blade, but if you make a mistake you won't cut off your training partners (or your own) limbs The interesting thing is, he sold these from his office, and you had to give the name of the Iaido sensei and proved you trained or he would not sell it to you. I have no idea if the man still sells them, as he said to me that he might soon have to stop for fear of getting in trouble with the police, as he also sold the live blades (shinken) for practice. My sensei had a scary story about some guy who turned up with a katana bought from Battle Orders. Now Battle Orders is a shop near the South Coast of England that sells replica weapons for display. Fairly cheap stuff. This guy was practicing cuts in a room full of students. The peg holding the blade in the handle broke, the blade went flying out and embedded itself in the wall right next to another student! The moral of the story.. make sure your blade is combat safe, or safe for training! Get it from a proper martial arts retailer, not some catelogue of cheesy samurai swords for people to put on their walls! osu! motoko

Funilly enough I never used to be into sparring! But it has grown on me and now I really enjoy it I think what I like about sparring with men (apart from the fact that I'm more likely to be attacked by a man in real life) is that I can go nearly full out on them and not worry about hurting them too much (or at least as you say GrrArg, they don't admit it hurts ). The only other female in my club is the aformentioned 13 year old brown belt who giggles nervously when I spar with her weirdo girl motoko

There was a woman in my shotokan club a long time ago. She was soo quiet you could barely make out what she was saying when she talked to you, and she couldn't look people directly in the face. I guess she was ultra shy. But, boy when she sparred she was good! We used to spar all the time as we were the only two females in the high grade class, so we were often partnered up. She nailed me many times with her front kick which was very fast and very powerfull. Funilly enough she ended up going out with a boy in our club, who was also ultra quiet and shy, so I guess they made a nice couple I'd say she was the strangest person I've ever met in karate People probably think I'm weird tho.. a girl who actually likes sparring with men and training with a big katana motoko

Wado katas, in the order my club teaches them: Pinans 1-5 Kushanku Naihanchi (called Tekki in shotokan) Seishan (called Hangetsu in Shotokan) Passai (called Bassai-dai in Shotokan) Chinto After shodan: Wanshu Niseishi Jion Jitte Rohai And I think we may do some others after that, possibly Superinpei but being that I'm not a BB yet, I don't know them Osu motoko

I've trained in both Shotokan and Wado-Ryu and in both I have been taught to turn on the ball of the foot, never the heel. It works for me, so I'm sticking with it. I'm sure turning on the heel works for some people, but not me, it feels too unbalanced.. just MHO

Like saying "PIN Number", that's actually saying Personal Identification Number Number But that's a bit off topic.. so to bring it back.. what are peoples' favorite bo kata? Can anyone recommend a good kata for a beginner? I have only learnt one called Shushi no Bo so far. motoko

Just hand mitts, head gear for all juniors or whoever wants them.. semi-contact to all areas except head, although higher grades can aim for head but light contact. Sometimes the higher grades will go full-contact

Hey Focus.. I don't know how old you are, but when I was going through adolesence (growing very fast ) I got chest pains a lot. It was very similar to how you describe, deap breaths were often painful. It turns out it was just cramp in my lungs, painfull but pretty harmless. As i got older they started to go away. I still get them very occasionally. The way I deal with it is to stop whatever I'm doing, relax my body and just try to breath normally. After about 5-10 mins the pain fades. I still think you probably should go and see a doctor, just to make sure, but I wouldn't panic. My dad has had many collapsed lungs in his life due to a genetic lung problem, and believe me they are sooo painfull you would definetly know if you were about to have one, you wouldn't be able to move from the pain. Hope it all works out for you. motoko

Yeah, I slip into shotokan version of kata all the time Old habits die hard! But luckily BOTH my Sensei and Sempai are also ex-Shotokan and understand completely!! They just say "No, we don't do that empi in Wado pinan godan remember?" One of the funniest things I ever did was at a demo. Our club was doing a kata demo at the local church fete. Me and Sempai stood up to do Pinan Yodan. Now, we'd been spending a couple of weeks intensively working on Kushanku, so when it came to the similar parts of the kata, we both did the wrong thing - Kushanku instead of the pinan! We paused for a moment waiting for the other one to do the right thing, and eventually carried on correctly.. Sensei was laughing at us so bad later that day! And the worst thing.. it was all recorded on camcorder motoko

My favorite line is from Under Seige 2 "What am I doing? Oh.. I'm making a bomb!"

I agree with you, no matter what you think of Steven Seagal, you can't deny that his films have some of the most realistic moves, especially the earlier films like Nico. Pretty brutal in some places. And another movie... don't yell at me .. The Karate Kid! When Daniel gets kicked by the baddy in the tournament.. at least he does go down and rolls around in pain. That's pretty realistic

Yes I remember an interview with him in a UK martial arts magazine, in which he said his true love will always be karate! And he was considered quite a good fighter before he decided to enter the movie business. He used to train for hours everyday in the attic of his parents house. Timecop is good, and so is hard target.

I haven't personally ordered from Playwell, but I know people who have and they haven't had any problems. As long as the website uses a secure server you should be fine. If they don't then don't touch it with a 6ft Bo Else, if you can make it into London, there are a few nice little MA shops you can buy from, and try out what you're buying before hand, which I think is nicer On the subject of Blitz, my Sensei used to order off them and in the end got so frustrated with things never turning up, or the wrong things be delivered, being over charged, he now goes elsewhere Good luck, motoko

Olympic karate? First I've heard. I thought only TKD and Judo were in Olympics as yet Do you mean sport karate as opposed to Traditional Karate?

Shotokan teaches very low kiba-dachi. I have had problems with the cartilage in my knees and this caused me so many problems when training in shotokan. Wado-ryu kiba-dachi is higher and thankfully I can just about do it as long as I don't have to stand for too long. The kness must be bent and feet parallel, but thankfully the knees do not have to be over the toes as I was taught in Shotokan. As for the reasons behind kiba-dachi being better done very low, I'm not sure. Perhaps it is more solid, a better base etc? Is a higher kiba-dachi really any less effective? Love to hear some opinions motoko

Wado Guy! Hey I never said it was a common occurance That's why I'm always so excited when I get one! motoko

I am offended, but sort of understand as it can be used as an insult (as I found out the other day minding my own business in London's SoHo sqaure ) I thought you'd tried to put lesb ian - Wow that's banned too? Come on now KF Senseis.. that's not cool!!! The only gay run martial arts groups I know of in UK are mixed men and women or women only anyway, not men only. The only other option I can think of is a personal trainer. This is an expensive option, but there are many martial arts teachers who will do private teaching. That might be an option for you. motoko

Welcome mate! Is your username Slaine from the fantastic comic series in 2000AD? motoko

Hey check these pictures out! Putin takes a beatin' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/911383.stm That girl looks good.

I do target archery with a recurve bow. Not to sound preachy or anything to you guys, but I don't believe in hunting animals for sport. That's just me. You guys probably think vegetarians are weirdos right? But you know it does "float my boat" to hit the inside gold It's great to hear the "THWACK" as the arrow hits the target! And compound bows - woo, they are something else!! motoko

well it's kind of both.. I mean I originally saw it in a movie, but the Taiaha itself is a traditional weapon art. Ho hum, looks like no ones really interested anyway.

Perhaps I should have put this in the Weapons section?

You know I really can't remember the outcome of that.. I'll look into it and see if I can find some archived news stories about the incedent.

hiya Guitar_lover.. fellow Brit! I think it's an England thing.. very few dojos here seem to teach weapons, whereas in US it seems like everywhere does! I am learning Bo and Sai off my own back, with the help of my Sempai, but my Wado club does not study weapons AT ALL I went to a specific Iaido club to learn the samurai sword. My instructor was ex European Iaido champion which was amazing and very humbling experiance! Some of those guys trained with live blades (I have a blunt Iaito much safer ) Yes most of the Okinawan weapons were previously farming implements. Kama, sickles to cut crops. nunchuku - rice flailers. Tonfa - handles of rice grinding stones. Sai - This is a disputed one, anything from rice seed planters to Budhist symbols. Certainly a good weapon against other weapons such as Bo and Sword. I guess the Bo and Jo are pretty universal, many cultures have used sticks for fighting. Then there is also the Eku (oar) and many others. Check out this site for info: http://www.karate.org.yu/okinawa_kobudo.htm And if you are interested in doing some weapons in the UK, check out this site for Kendo, Iaido and Jodo. British Kendo Association http://www.kendo.org.uk/ motoko