SaiFightsMS

I found the 10 oz Pro Force gi's to be the weight that worked best for me.

Learning the basic blocks is only a beginning. Only when the basic blocks come smoothly, quickly and with force can you begin to really put them to work. Consider a simple head block - what happens when you follow that up by bringing your hand down into a backfist across the bridge of the nose. You need the force of the upper block to get the hand out of the way and the speed to bring it back down with force. How about the down block, can you see it used as a stike? Next time you are standing next to someone bring your down block down to the side they are standing on and aim for the cojones. Or maybe notice the resemblance between a side block and a back fist strike to the ribs of someone next to you. Every move you learn has multiple applications. A move is not truly yours until you can begin to discover ways to use it on your own.

You said you were an older begining/intermediate student but not what "older" range you are in. As we get older it takes a longer recovery time between workouts to recover. Taking a rest day midweek might be an excellant idea for you; or even cutting back to three days a week. Cutting back may actually improve the quality of your workouts.

Another thought is that your body needs recovery time between workouts at times. You may be overtraining.

Windows XP here.

Facial injuries to happen in sparring. It is something everyone should thing about when going into full contact sparring or sparring without padding and helmets. Afer an injury like this it would indeed seem to be unwise to spar without a face cage.

Another side of this might be veiewed as a good sensei will not permit students who are not ready to test to actually test for higher level belts.

Out of curiousity I went and took a look at that video and I have to say the form is terrible.

Hangetsu will teach you about timing and power.

I find that often those who are the most anxious to learn new katas are still in kyu grades. As one matures in their martial arts progress you begin to see the value of really mastering what you are doing. In fact you should at some point reach a stage where you feel a need to go back to your earlier work and almost relearn them. You will see things in the earlier katas you had no idea were there and doing the katas will feel different.

The validity of a kata is really something that is a matter to the school it is taught in.

When I was researching Bassai Dai I found 26 different versions. I found even more different versions of Rohai.

Keep up with what you are doing. And find little ways to offer tips to the junior girls coming up behind you. It will make a difference for them. And you will get something from it as well. Sai

Having taught kids that age trying to go to that level imho the kid should be held back from testing and plainly told why. 8 year olds are capable of excellant stances and posture in kata. In fact in family groups at the lower kyu levels it is sometimes the younger students who have stances better than their parents. That said many young students need a level with a wake up call as to how much improvement is needed in their power, focus, stances and techniques before they can advance. It may be a rude awakening for some even after they have been told it is coming.

I did a lot of research on rohai a few years ago then lost it all in an unplanned reformat. I wish I could remember more. I think most forms of Rohai go back to forms attributed to Itosu and Matsumora. There were so many different forms of rohai I found. It seems there were more different forms of rohai than any other kata I did research on.

Rough break. Did you pivot funny or slip?

I was looking at athe original date of the thread. The best solution is to learn to move the weapon and adjust your movents to the size of your body. If you need to hold it further out do so. Just remember if you are doing something like trying to catch a nunchaku under your arm to swing your elbow and upper arm out right before your catch and then promptly tuck your elbow back in - do not leave it sticking out.

I have worked with both sai and tonfa. My advice would be to get a bit of an introduction with both weapons and see which one you like better. Tonfa are challanging and interesting to work with. I was one of those with the - what was the way someone said it? The similarites are both weapons block by being against your forearm and both strike primarily with a straight punch extending beyond your fist or finger. Both flip in and out for extended range strikes. The hard thing for me with tonfa was the way my hands sweat and make the handles wet and unable to rotate properly.

Way to go to your son and contratulations to the both of you.

On a break from Martial arts I am now doing wheelchair sports. This past weekend was my first state wheelchair games. I had a blast. Met some really great people and saw some really great events. I actually went for the field events and slalom and ended up doing a bit more. I came home with a silver medal in weight lifting, four silver medals in air rifle, a silver medal in slalom, a gold medal in javelin and a gold medal in shot with an F3 class state record in that event. Now on to getting ready for nationals next year.

Well, done everyone. It has been an great experience. These days I am doing more wheelchair sports than martial arts. Sai

I used to paint now I spend much of my time on the internet. I read a lot and have about 140 gigs worth of audio books. Latest interest is learning Latin.

Just stopping in to say hi. Things look good chatter going on pretty much as usual. Glad to see the people I remember, (Heidi). Sai

Some styles have seperate ranks for each weapon. And as with the style you learn different forms for different ranks and applications. Some styles have a different ranking system whereby kobudo is one rank and to advance you pick up the next weapon and the skills associated with it.

Congratulations to everyone.