SaiFightsMS

Welcome to the forum.

Happy Birthday Patrick.

That was interesting.

It was soft. The guy should have been banned for the rest of the season, a shot at the playoffs if not for life.

I think the big four kata of shotokan you are looking for are bassai dai, kanku dai, jion and empi.

Good luck to you.

Hard rock/ metal is now an option.

I rarely practice in a full gi.

Well said.

I was winding up with more tops than pants too. I am glad I am not the only one.

Welcome to the forum.

Amen. And with that I would like to close the thread. However, this topic comes up often enough that a new thread would reappear. So......

Don't buy the cheap rattan canes. They are not worth trying to use.

Sounds like more practice is needed. We used to do a drill practicing changine grips with a partner. One person would hold the bo horizontally in front of them while the other person would try to knock it out of their hand by banging their bo onto the ends of the bo held by the hand changer.

Welcome to the forum.

Welcome to the forum.

Do you have a pre-test? That helps a lot. That way only those who do well enough to pass at pre-test are invited to test. Testing can be done by invitation only.

If she wanted to write a piece of literature for me is fine, I liked it, but then another question arises: is "my journey in the dojo" a real story or it was a piece of literature? My Journey In the Dojo is very real. I wrote this thinking about all the threads about gi's that have appeared here.

I have been a white belt in three different styles. And I tend to write better in first person.

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. Karate has been great so far. I get to the dojo, pull off my socks and shoes and stretch and gab with classmates until it is time for class to start. Most of us are just starting out and wear sweats to class. When it was warmer most of us wore shorts. Now we are approaching our first test and Sensei says that in order to test we have to have a gi. Of course, we all noticed that everyone else in class has a uniform; that we "white belts" are the only ones in colorful attire. We are told we need a traditional white gi. Sensei does not want to see us coming in red, blue, black, striped, flag pattern or any other color of gi - they must be white. He says that we are a traditional style and as such do not use "flashy modern circus outfits". I thought his description of some of the multicolored gi’s I saw in a catalog was pretty accurate. He also said that we should not get the v-necked Tae Kwon Do dobak. So that narrows it down then a bit. I go look at some catalogs. I find, to my amazement, that there is not just one kind of solid white gi. Some are described as having traditional drawstring pants. Then I remember someone coming in to class carrying their pants with an incredibly long drawstring that they could not figure out how to get back in. It seems that the traditional drawstring starts going in the waistband on one side. Then it goes all the way around and goes around the back of the pants a second time and the string then comes out the other side. Sounds kind of complicated to me, a mere beginner. Then it seems there is a choice of traditional cotton material or a poly-cotton blend material. So does everyone iron their gi after every washing? I asked someone at class the next time and they said no they took them out of the washer and hung them up to drop dry. I can tell that others have ironed gi’s on though. So since I hate to iron, I am all ready to order a lightweight perma-pressed student gi. Then I go to class and hear a discussion going on about the merit of the heavier weight gi’s. So I take another look at websites and catalogs and find solid white gi’s in 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 ounce material. This isn’t so easy picking out a gi. So I decide to try and ask some of the upper belts about what kind of a gi they wear at the next class. Someone told me about all the money they thought they were saving on their first gi. The said they got a nice cheap 6 oz student gi in a permanent press material. They liked it fine until they had to replace it in about 6 weeks time. Seems the light weight material was not very durable. Next person I talked to said that when they got their second gi they decided to upgrade to a 14 oz. heavy weight gi. They liked the snap it gave to their punches and kicks. But said they got so hot while they were wearing it. Then someone else entered the conversation and said how much they liked their heavy weight gi. So I learned the heavier the material the more snap it would make; hmm. Next person said they favored a 10 oz. gi of the poly cotton blend. The heavier weight was too hot for them, the lighter weight not durable enough but the 10 oz was just right. More information to think about – what would I like? Then at the end of class Sensei announced that he carried gi’s to sell to those interested. He had 8 oz gi’s of the traditional cotton material. He said the 6 oz ones were not durable enough and the heavier ones were more expensive and usually no one got a heavy gi until they were sure they were into karate for the long haul. So my story ended when I got out my checkbook and took home a nice new white gi. Now if I could only figure out how to tie the belt!

Leap year makes no effect on celebration of lent.

Congratulations

No problem Natural. Sai

Welcome to the forum.

Good luck to you.