kataman

First I'am not dismissing the heian or pinan or which ever forme you use to began you style I'am just saying that was the way in the begining.More than that when we start something new we are just like baby we need to start to walk before we can run so no shame at all to start with a so call kid kata.

this is what happen when you rely on technique instead of strengh,so everybody is saying that the best art for woman are the one with a lot of technique instead of striking and kicking.

You have to remember that stances were particular to each style shotokan style was use mostly by farmer thah why the back stance was so use,see on the farm there plany of holes in the ground the were using there front leg to find the hole so they did not hurt them self while fighting,as for goju-ryu they were the poeple living on boat so that why the neko-ashi-dashi stance was so commun that the best stance to when your on the boat and it rock,and so on for the other style,in today karate we kind of have the best of all those style no matter which style you are practicing.

My grading it like your angel but in this part of the wold (Canada)you need to be 3RD degre black belt to be to be abble to give other poeple a belt up to 2ND degre after that you need to be at last one degre hire then the one you give,

I'am a big fan my self of tournement I went to 6 last year,but we don't have nothing compere to you style around here ,here it pin point fighting or full contack,some style use only light protector to the hand nothing on the feets they are calle traditional fighter,whatever let me know how it went, and remember go for it kiddo.......

Karate or most of martial arts are defencive arts so it normal to see a bloc fallowed by an attack,why do we start on the left side,first you have to remember that the first 5 katas of shotokan (the 5 heian) were teatched to the kids by sensei funakoshi and for the adults they would strat with bassai day,bassai sho,if you look at those kata they don't start on the left side they start up front.

if you learnd vital point then you one inch punch will come handy.

The way I see it,as a sensei you need to take care of the new commer to make sure they start on the right foot but at the same time you need to take care of you hire belts cause the are the one who's going to take care of you fallowers when you are gone.so I belive in split class for hire belts.

kempocos: I must say that I agree with you totally and I belive that the only people that would disagree are the one that sees karate as a sport instead of martial art.They see only what going on in tournement and forget the real meening of martial art which is a way of surviving on the street.

in the begining karate and weapons we teatch togeter cause at some point in history the Japanesses weren't allowed to carry weapons exept for the samourais so the ordinary people had to come with a way to defend them self so were bornd the weapons of karate instrument used on the farm ,the bo is a stick but it was use to carry water normaly the bo would have hook at the end so it can hold the buckets the jo came out of a legend it a part of bo technique and sword technique.we also use kali in our style which is dedicate to karate weapons only.the rest of the weapons were already mentioned.the asian when they brought the martial art to Europe thought we were smart enough to do both so we end up with only the karate part. today weapons are slowly but surely finding there way back to us.

remember that martial art is realy good for the social live , so sometime some people will go futher then just sociolize that life got to live it.

Kung fu master : I know the felling of being mist judge, in a tornement at the end of last year in kata out of 10 competitors I was the only one that came out with 8.0 as score the other score were 7.9 and 7.8to gave me the total of 23.7 me and my wife we always marked down my score and the other too just to make sure everything is ok,so at the end of the last kata my wife told me I was in first place and the closes one had 23.4,so we line up for the medals ceremonie the judge called my name as fourth place winner,I knew something was wrong so I ask the judge to see the score sheet he let me had a look at it so I took my score back to my wife and asked her to compare with our score sheet after my first fight I went back to the score table cause I was convience that I had win so I ask the girl at the table to do a recount and she told me that the score sheet was gone and did not know where it was.at the end the 3 first place in the tournement were 3 students of the central judge

sasori-te in the begining I was just like you,I founded weir to had to pay for ranking plus in some school you have to pay for stripes so if you have 3 stripes to change to the next belt at the end the art is prety expencive.but in one school when it was the time for grading the sensei took us in a room all alone and we would spend the hole hour with him,so I kind a put it more like a private lesson guest it a way to look at it.but like I already said some school are selling there black belt and it a fact but at the end we train for the street and we have to stay focus on that.

I started martial art in 1984 after a fight that I won, the guy told me that he would come back to fight me again,I never tought he would, but he did and I got scared so I decided to start martial art,then it become a way of living.

what is a bubble kick?

let take about you favorite technique in tournement

If she look good in a gi imagine in civilian wear HA HA HA,you have to keep in mine that martial art is very good for the social live,but you have to remember why you started the art, good luck my friend.

Well take the advantage of beeing new to run to a black belt to train with,you sensei will be happy to see one is student that working so hard to move up GOOD LUCK.

I practice shotokan karate and I think is one of the best style of karate,but if I had a hapkido school near by I would probably do both cause I think the hapkido is one of the well rounded martial art meaing you will find ground as well as stiking works all you need to be a good martial artist and to survive on the street .

So SORYNN you think just like me,hapkido beeing the corean version of aikido that what I belived is the best matial art for a woman,not that the rest is not good but this one will teatch you technique over strength and it a concept that a woman will understand better.

in a tounement or with a friend it called cheating that what are ego will make us do,but on the street it called self defence and that what I train for.

Like the rest I don't know that kata I am from shotokan style,but for my experience what'S really important when you learnd a kata is that you have to break the kata in part, usually you'll have a bloc fallowed by a conter attack,that one part you have finished with one opponent and you move to the next,later on you will be abble to had rythme .

I like to use my front leg in fighting especially after a hand combination.

I know that can create a major debate but for point of view and it all in the honor of women I belived that aikido or TKD should suite more with there flexibility and less strenght as man we often try to rely on are strenght instead of the technique.

what would you say is the best martial art for a woman?