Gloi

We've been practicing a sidekick/back kick combination in class so when I was down the gym I decided to practice it on the very heavy bag they have there. I'd done it a few times then two guys came in and they were stood watching me. I decided to give it my best shot and side kicked it as hard as I could. The bag swung off into the air and as I turned and did the back kick came back down at speed into my foot. Instead of me kicking the bag away from me the bag launched me through the air. I hit one of the guys that had been watching with a flying headbutt to the stomach.

A couple of weeks ago in the dojo two of the seniors were sparring. During the bout somehow one of them managed to kick the other one's contact lens out of his eye. I bet he couldn't do that again in a hurry!!!

Yes!! It's gone down a lot now at last, it covers a smaller area and my ankle isn't as puffy. I could really have done with getting ultrasound on it I suppose, but it would have meant taking time out from work and I didn't really have the time to do that unless I REALLY had to.

I talked to some of the guys and they said it's just a haematoma and it needed massaging hard enough to break down the bruising. After he threatened to do I decided I'd just have to grit my teeth and have a go at it myself. I tried with my knuckels but couldn't make an impression. However Someone had got me one of those foot massager rollers for xmas and using that as hard as I could flattened the thing a bit. I can't pretend it didn't hurt but after doing that a couple of times a day it actually seems to be breaking it down and it's starting to go.

In our Shotokan association we do hangetsu as a first dan kata. I did Seisan on a course with some Goju people last summer though. After hearing that they were basically the same kata I was surprised just how different they were. Some of the sequences were the same but I found it quite difficult to learn the kata in the short time we had , even though I know Hangetsu. You could tell the two kata came from the same origin , but even so there were a lot of differences.

My best memory is passing my shodan. Firstly waiting and then finding out that I'd passed and my instructor and the seniors all congratulating me. But the very best bit was some junior brown belts that had been on the course and had been watching the sparring in the grading coming up and saying 'You were AWESOME!' Nobody ever says that to me normally, it was just because I'd roundhouse kicked my opponent to the head several times just for the hell of it because it's so rare to be fighting someone who isn't 6" taller than me. I'm still really pleased about it all, though I've certainly been brought back to earth in class since then.

I like that tennis ball thing. My favorite part of it though is when you give it to someone who has never used it before and they try it out, give the ball a real hard punch, and it comes back and smacks them stright on the nose.

I did the kata first and part way through it was like I suddenly woke up and went 'Wah! what am I doing here in front of all these people' and I just froze for a few seconds, I completely forgot where I was up to and had to work it out from the position of my hands and feet. I was quite nervous before the kumite but I actually enjoyed it once I got going. I got to the semi finals and got a third place medal.

About 2 months ago I was doing a lot of sparring getting ready for my grading. I ended up with lumps and bruises all the way up my shins. One of these was from kicking an elbow with a big lump I'd alredy go from clashing shins with someone a few days before. My leg was quite swelled up down into my ankle. Anyway most of this has now gone away apart from one lump. This is in the flesh on the front of my shin and isn't connected to the bone as I can move it about a little bit. It's quite hard and when I press it with my finger it leaves a dent in the flesh which takes a while to fill out again. There's no feeling in a spot about an inch across. All the visible bruise has vanished and it doesn't hurt any more. Whenever I've asked anyone what to do about it they've just said 'massage the area' but the lump is so hard I can hardly make an inpression on it and it doesn't seem to do much. Any ideas on what this type of thing is called and how to get it to go back to normal?

Cheers Aefibird I come from Lancashire

Our sensei was doing a grading and he warned all the watching parents to turn their phones off during the grading. In the middle of the grading a phone went off and he glared and growled "Whoever that is switch the phone off or go outside". Then he realised it was his own phone

I was at a grading recently and the green belts were in the room being graded when one of them , a boy of about 7 ,was violently and suddenly sick all over the floor. The adult woman green belt next to him went to help him out of the room and he was sick again all down her pants and over her feet . Yuk. The grading had to stop while it all was cleaned up. On the way to the toilet he was sick again in the corridor. We had to mop it all up before we could carry on. Then when it was cleaned up the place stank of sick so one kid found an air freshener. They sprayed it all over the place rather liberally and sprayed it in my face as they ran past me which gave me an asthma attack. Then to top it all a couple of kids completely forgot their forms and started bawling their eyes out. Then I had to grade and I was still trying to recover from being sprayed with air freshener so I coughed and wheezed all through my grading and I'm sure the examiner thought I was about to die on him. All in all an eventful day - I still passed though

I started TKD when I had just got my brown belt in karate. I started because there were classes being held on days when I had no karate class and I thought it would help with my fitness and with my kicking, which at the time was a bit slow and laboured. I think it has worked and my kicking has become a lot more relaxed. I now have my karate black belt and all being well will be taking my TKD black belt next summer. The biggest difference between my two classes is that of attitude. The karate class is a very traditional type class and the teacher is quite strict. His way of thinking is that he teaches a martial art and if people can't cope then there are plenty of other palces they can train. As a result there are many very tough and very good high grades there but a lot of beginners can't handle the hard training and go somewhere else. As a 1st dan I am still normally only 3 places above the bottom of the line. The TKD teacher is a lot younger and very athletic, he does great kicks and is very impressive to look at(doing his kicks I mean . However although there are a couple of young men in the class who do sparring competitions and are quite good the class is also full of people with absolutely no sort of 'martial spirit'. They are so afraid of getting so much as a little bruise on their arm it's a joke, I wonder why they don't just go to aerobics. I'm not particularly tough, I'm a dumpy, asthmatic middle aged woman for goodness sake, but a lot of the people in the class seem to think I'm some sort of psycho just because I'm used to getting hit and it doesn't bother me much. I know that it takes a while for beginners to get used to things but I really think the teacher should try and build up the spirit in the seniors a bit more. We have a black tag that complains constantly ever time we spar and I have NEVER hit or kicked her. I did a few kicks round her head and chest with karate style 'sundome' distancing and she had a huffy fit and sat at the side and refused to fight. The class does give me a lot of chances to practice stuff without stress and I often practice things there and take them back to try in the more dangerous sparring environment of the karate dojo. All in all though I quite enjoy both classes and it seems to work quite well for me at the moment. In the long run though it is the karate that I want to take the furthest. I will be happy to just take my first dan in TKD and stay at that level.

What makes a bad instructor?? These are some things I've come across while I've been training that I would put in that category. 1.)Lack of care of student's safety, encouraging dangerous practices and not noticing/caring when senior students (or the instructor themselves) are frightening or injuring the beginnners & women. 2.)...and then you jump over the sword.... Teaching the ridiculous bunkai that they were told when they started 20 years ago. 3.)Trying to get into the pants of every new female beginner. 4.)Spending all the class time teaching one or two favourite students and ignoring the rest of the class...or just ignoring the whole class and talking about cars with his friends....and taking calls on his mobile during class......I could go on!!!!! Fortunately in the intervening years I have found some excellent instructors. Unfortunately as a beginner there is nothing to compare against so it is easy to think things are normal. I am actually quite glad I was told I was jumping over a sword back when I was a yellow belt as it seemed such a stupid thing it sent me investigating further and from this I met one of the best instructors and nicest people I could ever wish for.

Not something not to say to the instructor, but a classic line from the instructor yesterday:- "A bit of pain never hurt anybody" I'm very tempted to use that as my sig...