Gloi

I know the instructor is harsh, unsympathetic and very hard on everyone in class but he really knows his stuff. The two instructors there do play a bit of the good cop / bad cop thing sometimes. I think it's better to suffer a bit and know that I what I am being taught is correct than to go somewhere and have a jolly time and end up with cr*p form. The senior students in the club are so good it must work out in the end. Most weeks it's okay as it's not just me getting it in the neck it was just that it I got a bit of stress overload on monday being the object of his attention and criticism just before the grading.

A while ago when we were training we were doing a bunch of blocking and punching drills going faster and faster. Somehow when we were going flat out I managed to hit myself in the eye getting a real shiner The worst thing about it was when I went to work the next day everyone kept going 'Gosh , who gave you that black eye' and I had to admit it was me.

Well I passed . There were 6 of us taking the grade myself and 5 juniors (11-16yo). I got the full grade along with 2 of the juniors and the other were given a half grade. Sensai didn't comment on any of my basics or kata, he must have said all he had to say on monday. I did semi free sparring with the oldest of the juniors - a tall 16yo lad, then as I am over 18 I had to do free sparring which the juniors don't do till shodan. I had to fight a very formidable 2nd dan woman (there were no brown belt adults there) and she quite naturally wiped the floor with me. Sensei said that I needed to improve my sparring skills before taking my next grade. However when we were all out in the pub afterwards he said I'd not done too bad, just needed to work on tactics. Cheers to everyone for the support. I can stop worrying now till next time.

Bajutsu. I just wish I knew somewhere I could go.

I've always had problems with posture. I've been picked up on it before and though I try to sort it out I'm sure I'll be picked up on it again, if I try and go too fast I tend to tip forward and when I'm training with the black belts I end up going faster than I can cope with in good form. At least at the grading I'll not be with them so I won't be rushing to keep up. I'm sure that if it wasn't this then I'd be being berated for something else instead and at least it wasn't 'shoulders' and 'tension' this time. I don't think that I've got 'great potential' but I do train the best I can and think I should be okay all being well. At least we grade with the person who we normally train with so he knows how we normally perform, not like when it's someone who never sees us from one grading to the next. I'll just have to try not to get too stressed about it all. Anyway I'll let you know how it goes.

When I first started karate I started training with one of sensei's third dan students (Mark) who had a class near my home and it was only when sensei came to do a grading that I ever saw him and then he was the *really* scary guy. I found Mark scary enough then as he was always pretty strict though now I know him better I know he's a nice bloke. Mark encouraged me to go to the club where he trained which is sensei's own club which is about 15 miles from my house and I've been going there now about 2 years. It's always strict there but normally the criticism is spead pretty evenly across the class so it is bearable. It's just when a grading is coming up that the people about to take it get homed in on. When some of the black belts were due to grade a while ago they really got grilled beforehand. For the past few months I've been going to a TKD class just down the road from where I live on a night where I've no karate, mainly for some extra cardio workout. I found the atmosphere in that class totally different in that it's so relaxed , nobody gets told off (apart from kids who are totally playing up) and if you are tired etc you just sit out for a bit. It's alright for some good exercise, certainly get a good sweat on there, but the form seems dire and although I must admit I quite like not having to worry about anything it doesn't seem like a martial arts class without the strict discipline. More like doing aerobics. I think that there needs to be a compromise somewhere. On occasions I travel quite a long way to train with somebody else in karate who I adore. He has the knowledge and experience of my normal karate sensei but has a much less scary disposition. If it was not so far away I would train there more often but as it is I don't have the option. (I am going to their summer camp next month though

In my heart I know I'm ready for the grading and that I wouldn't be allowed to do it if I wasn't ready. Last time I graded he was the same to me just before the grading. However, when it came to the grading he'd just given given some juniors taking the same grade earache about not training hard enough and having to buck up their ideas before being allowed to grade again and I was waiting for the same. When it came to me he just gave me my licence back and grunted 'fine' which if you knew him is high praise indeed!!!!! Sensei is very gruff, scary and a hard taskmaster but he is also one of the best and most experienced teachers in the area and all his black belts are excellent. When I started though I was terrified of him and though I know now that he does actually have his students best interests at heart he can still make me feel about an inch high when he wants to.

I take my 2nd kyu test tomorrow and when I was training last night (the last session before the grading) sensei was totally ripping me to shreds about every single thing. We train in a class where it is split into 2 by grade with sensei taking the higher grades and his assistant taking the lower belts and I was in the upper half of the class where all the rest were dan grades. I have problems with my posture when moving in back stance and with my stances not being as low as he likes ( as well as the 100s of other things he was finding last night) and because of this he was concentrating on us all doing things with low stances and very bent front knees. I find it hard and pretty painful to get into the positions he wants and I could feel the rest of the class thinking 'if you weren't so rubbish we wouldn't be being made to do these awful exercises'. I then had my kata shredded till I felt totally humiliated and as I have free sparring in my grading for the first time I then got the chance to be run rings around by all the black belts. Fortunately they didn't quite kill me for the torture they had had earlier. I know that he is always like this before a grading but it still doesn't make me feel any better, by the end of the class I was just feeling like 'I want to go home and never come back' Ah well, I just needed a rant, wish me luck tomorrow night!

What I was really thinking about is what has happened to change the the reaction to getting bashed. I get bangs which once would have caused bruises and now they leave lumps but rarely any visible marks. This is on my forearms and shins, I still bruise normally on the rest of my body, I recently had a very purple foot from kicking an elbow. It must be something similar to when people do 'shin conditioning' etc but what changes are taking place, there's part of me that is thinking - 'this can't be good for me'. If I run my hand down my shin now some bits are tender and some parts seem to have barely any feeling in them. btw we don't fight particularly hard , I just happen to be the only female in a class of adult men who naturally are a lot bigger and stronger than me and sometimes don't realise just how hard they block.

The instructor's position is that if he takes the kids for a class each week him and his wife get free membership of what is a quite expensive health club. It is really a babysitting service, and some weeks the class has a large percentage of games rather than actual karate. I'd say about half the kids actually want to do karate and the rest are being kept occupied while the parents use the gym. The two little lads actually say they want to do karate, though I think that's just because they like hitting things. Some of the the older kids have been coming for years and there are a couple of them who have passed a few grades and are quite keen. What I'm looking for is some things to try with them to keep them occupied while the others train, preferably karate related - but that can be a very loose relation.

Every sunday my instructor holds a kids karate class at a health club I'm a member of. Myself and another adult brown belt from his other club usually join in. Most of the kids are okay and reasonably well behaved although some aren't interested in karate, they just get left in the class while the parents go in the gym. About 6 months ago two 6 year old boys started coming to the class, one is not too bad when he comes by himself but the other has real behaviour problems, is completely hyperactive and can't concentrate or stand still for a minute. When both are in together they are a nightmare and the instuctor asks me to take them so they aren't disrupting the rest of the class so much. I don't really want to do this but I treat it as a challange and it certainly is!!! I am meant to be trying to teach them what they need to know for their first grading, and I try but not too successfully. Sometimes I just get a foam pad and get them to take turns punching and kicking it which they enjoy. Unfortunately things usually go a bit like "Stand up, stand still, go back to your place, hit the pad not your friend, yes,you can have a drink in you do it sensibly, don't squirt the water, if you're going to do that you can go and sit at the side till you calm down, put your pants back on.......... and that's on a good day - Arghh!!! The other day I was trying to teach them 5 step sparring and I said, "punch to the tummy where the belt is" and he said "ha ha ha that's near the pee pee punch his pee pee" and they spent the next 5 minutes rolling around on the floor going "ha ha punch his pee pee" despite my best efforts to get them to behave. I know it's not just me because their swimming teacher was moaning about them to me the other day, and unfortunately because of the way the club runs my instructor isn't in a position to say they can't join in the class. I could refuse to help out but that would only mean the others lost out. Anybody got any ideas for things to keep them occupied for the hour that won't disrupt the rest of the class bearing in mind they aren't capable of listening to and obeying the most simple of instructions. Alison

Have a look at this webpage http://www.rumwoodnurseries.co.uk/bonsai/index.htm

I've got this book, which is available on Amazon, which shows bunkai for Nahanchi/Tekki 1, 2 & 3. I found it an excellent book with some interseting stuff in it. Bunkai: Secrets of Karate Kata: The Tekki Series by Elmar T Schmeisser

Mine goes straight in the wash after class too so I don't bother folding it nicely. Once it's been washed and ironed though I fold it up to go in the bag for next time. I can understand the routines for the hakama though where it isn't going straight into the washing machine. I've been getting a rather embarrassing pink gi this week. I coloured my hair and when I sweat a lot the colour keeps sweating out in pink drips... I didn't colour my hair pink but it still drips pink LOL.

When I had a white belt I always washed it with my gi when it looked grubby and it never came to any harm (I wore it at aikido for a while where we spent a lot of time rolling around on not too clean mats). I've always washed my coloured belts when I've first got them to stop the colour coming out on my gi, but after that only washed them occasionally if they looked too mucky or the times I've managed to get blood all over them . I suppose that if/when I get a shiny black belt it will be different because the ones our dojo get presented with don't really look washable without spoiling. In reply to theswarm I never wear my belt outside the dojo and only if I'm in a real big rush to get home do I ever wear my gi outside the dojo (and then only the pants, I'll put my normal top back on). In seiza the belt ends can go whereever they feel like and I've never really worry about the belt touching the floor when I take it off , though I normally just roll it up and put it back in my gym bag.

I go to a gym that has a (mainly) kids karate class on a sunday afternoon. I train with the sensai in his other classes and go in hope of joining in as I am usually at the gym at that time anyway. What usually happens though is I am given a bunch of 4-6 year old white belts to keep under control while sensai takes the rest of the class (I am a brown belt). These kids aren't really interested in karate and the real reason they are there is for some free babysitting while their parents use the gym equipment. I think that they shouldn't let kids in till at least they are able to tell left from right and obey instructions, and actually know what they are there to learn not just because their parents want an hour off looking after them. Alison

I've recently got my 3rd kyu in shotokan.

Oh great "Spastic Slug" I knew I should train harder.

When I first started karate I used to get the most dramatically coloured bruises on my arms and shins from blocking. Now, three years later, I get some hard bangs which only seem to leave a bit of a brown mark. I also seem to have permanently lumpy shins. My question is what is actually happening here and does it cause any long term problems.

Well , too little of it will kill you. Too much of it will kill you. It causes many deaths every year. Even so , I've got some here now.

There's plenty of things I don't like - squat thrusts, push ups on the knuckles but NOTHING is as bad as when sensei says the dreaded words "Will you take those little kids through their first kata".

I probably use the elliptical trainer most out of all the stuff in the gym. I like it becauseyou are using your arme as well as your legs on it and I can set the resistance up so I feel I can work out hard on it without running out of breath. I do find though that if I stay on it for more than about 30 minutes at a time I start getting pins and needles in my feet from the constant pressure, so need to break from it for a while.

I've just read Harry Cook's book about the history of Shotokan and it's really impressive with loads of interesting stuff. Here's a link about it - http://www.dragon-tsunami.org/Shotokan/Pages/Shobooks.htm

This weekend a group of us from the dojo went for a night out in town. In class sensei always stresses to us the importance of zanchin and how we are to remain alert at all times...... However this didn't stop him from walking into a lamppost because he was leering after a skimpily clad teenager in a bar we were passing . "You never saw that" he said "Saw what?" we said I don't think anyone will let him forget it though [ This Message was edited by: Gloi on 2002-05-27 06:29 ]

Hm now let's try it..... what do I do when I want to cross the legs over - do I make the horse go sideways. It always cracks me up when they call it a horse riding stance - to be in that position it would have to be one fat horse Elephant riding stance perhaps.