imoñ

i train in Shotokan as well as Judo and Jujutsu, shotokan will work on the street if applied correctly, it teaches fast strong moves and a strong stance is useful while grapeling, the thing with shotokan is alot of the moves are not what they appear (or are taught) to be. every move has more than one application, for example: "age uke" (rising block) is taught to block a punch to the head in a way that dosent seem very natural, this is because that isnt the best way to use that technique- "age uke" is far more effective if its used to strike hard under sombodys chin, and will probably break most of their teeth. basically with shotokan dont take everything at what it first appears to be. most of the techniques have a better use than what is usually taught. personally i prefer it to the other arts i train in, its a very good art the only problem i have with it is that theres no ground work or close quater senarios, thats why i cross train with 2 grappeling arts to "fill in the gaps" in my overall training

ive been taught simply to never take your eyes off your opponent when you bow. i can see why practically, as its best to see what their doing.

i started off at a club where the #1 priority was money, it was pathetic i was over charged and forced to grade (which costs money) and they tried to bully us to go on pricey courses on the other side of the country. anyway i moved clubs and the one im at now is much better, my sensei's are enthusiastic and highley skilled and i have no doubt the training im getting is good. they have "real jobs" as they put it lol and make no money off teaching us. the fee that were charged pays for hireing out the gym to train in.

we lern some bunkai but thankfully dont put too much stess on it. to be honest i really dont like it and much prefer more realistic aplications to the katas, bunkai only works one set way and is unrealistic but thats just my opinion.

enjoy the moment lol, she obvously isnt dedicated and will leave soon enough, then youll miss her no matter how much u wanted her to go trust me people who mess about become "victims" and "targets" as they get higher up and cant take it so they quit...

getting a black belt should be a bout skill not age, most young people will lack the skill to get one so theres no problem but if they have the skill to get it, respect it because they deserve it

i train in shotokan, judo and jujitsu, i think its a good idea because all of them seem to complement each other and fill in the gaps in each others fighting style, (e.g shotokan dosent go down to the ground but judo and JJ do) in my opinion its a good mix

i hadent herd of this kata either, but ive done some quick reaserch and found some infomation on it, it looks like the style is Shitokai from the website that i found, most of the katas are the same as the Shotokan katas. I assume the Kata is similar to Kihon Kata because khion dosent appear on the list of kata names. heres the link that i found http://www.usakarateclubs.com/kata_list.htm

well if sombodys throwing a haymaker at you there isnt any time to waste with a destraction, dont bother doing anything fancy like throwing or ducking, hit them in the face before they finish the slow haymaker then use the knees, elbows and throat strikes to finish them off, simple, unclean but effective

yea its about technique really, it mite be worth building up your legs although you should have a pretty strong stance from training in shotokan

to answer your question aikido is more deffencive than aggresive (or offencive as u put it lol), my sensei used to train in aikido, he said that if they (high level aikidoka) got hold of him then he would have been finished...but if he didnt attack they would never be able to get hold of him. basically its exelent for defence but poor for attacking.

my advice is show him you cant be picked on, hit him hard and do your techniques hard, just the other day while we were practicing sweeps at my other club and the guy i was with was lifting his leg up which was preventing me from sweeping, i just said to him if he does it again ill hit him, he ignored me and cointinued to lift his leg so i hit him hard in the solar plexus, from that point on he stoped lifting his leg so the problem was solved. i know its not the niceist way to sort things out but its effective and never let anybody ruin your training.

true, im training hard to try improve my flexibilty but its taking time..before i started training i couldnt even touch my toes lol, now i can do that easily but to start TKD when i was in that condition would have been silly as there is no way i wouldve been able to kick properly, i still have trouble but im working on it. Karate is really more suited to me

The haymaker is probably the easyist punch to block since it is very slow and obvious to spot,an application to the very first move of the kata "Heian Needan" is a defence to a haymaker, a simoultanious block and strike to the head. sometimes the haymaker dosent even need to be blocked, if your fast enough you can hit them in the face before theyve come close to hiting you with it, the haymaker is really a very poor technique but is extremely common on the streets so its good to practice defences against it.

ive studyed both Judo and Shotokan Karate for 5 years now, Judo is fine as a sport but is virtually useless on the street or against striking arts, because Judo has too many rules and on the street there are no rules. Judo is also ineffective agaisnt a striking art because i could hit sombody in the face much faster than i could grab sombody. Ju Jitsu is probably a more effective style for street use.