Gloi

I'm from Lancashire, England and a Shotokan Green belt like you Shoto Tiger

I go to two differnt Shotokan dojos. At one all the blocks seem to be taught in a linear manner but at the other they put a lot of emphasis on moving to the side and using different blocks with different footwork. They also do more work on evading and also using the blocks as an attack technique.

We are vegetarian, which is one of the reasons we try to get our own free range eggs rather than eat battery ones. If we were vegan it might solve the problem, but I like milk and eggs

I consider the teaching of religion to children tantamount to child abuse, especially religions that threaten eternal damnation or the equivalent to anyone who doesn't follow the teachings. I don't care what gods anyone believes in providing they do not try and indoctrinate young people before they are old enough to form their own opinions.

In our area it's not like the foxes have any lack of natural food. The area is overrun with rabbits, I look out of the window now and the field is full of rabbits. It's like they just think 'I'm sick of eating rabbits let's go out and have pet ducks for tea tonight, and while I'm there I'll just have a bit of fun biting all the others heads off' Last summer we had a hen which brought up a brood of chickens. When they were about 3 months old they started sleeping in the apple tree at night. I wasn't happy about this because I thought they should be put to bed safe in the hen house. So every night when they went to sleep in the tree I'd carry them into the hen house and lock them in. Then one moning when I came to let them out in the morning a fox had chewed through the hen hut in the night and got in and killed them all. I was so upset because if I thought I'd been helping them but if I'd left them in the tree some of them might have got away. [ This Message was edited by: Gloi on 2002-04-13 12:59 ]

Personally I hate foxes and I really don't care how they are killed so long as they are. There is no hunt in the area and though the local lads try and shoot them there is a lot of wet scrubland where they live and people can't easily get in. They are a nightmare around here and no matter how hard we try and keep our ducks and chickens safe they manage to get in and kill them. We had our last lot of hens killed two weeks ago and have only 3 left alive out of 20 with bodies and feathers left all over the place. And this wa in the daytime because we always lock them away at night. We are encouraged to have healthy free range eggs but trying to keep the birds alive is so hard.

Ahem.... I was by myself in the toilets at work and thinking about things we had been told to practice for the class. I did a few roundhouse kicks and then, OOPS! managed to put my foot through the loop of the roller towel on the wall. I ended up on the floor pulling the whole thing down on top of me. One of my colleagues heard the crash and came dashing in. I managed to explain why I was on the floor by saying I'd slipped and grabbed the towel and it had come down. I actually got some undeserved sympathy and fortunately nobody asked me how come the towel was wrapped round my foot.

For instance: Sheep Defense #1: Against a charging sheep attack. Sidestepping by placing the right food behind the left, you dodge the sheep's charging attack, swinging your right arm up and around to bring a hammer-fist to the back of the sheep's head. Follow with a left front kick to the jaw, and then a right reverse leg sweep to both of the left legs, if possible. Cover out, grab scissors, and shear. You've met our sheep then have you? It sounds like it. We only have a dozen but in winter when they're hungry and they see you coming with a bucket they attack as a mob. Walking across the field holding the bucket over my head trying to get to the food trough, with them jumping up at you is an experience, and once one of them got its foot fast down the front of my jumper which should have been filmed for TV. Fending them off without injuring them is the problem so I'd never kick them. If you hit them on the head with your fist they have very bony heads almost everywhere and it hurts, and hit them anywhere else and you sink in the wool. I've found the best thing is an open handed slap to the side of the face, seems to keep them at bay for long enough to get past them.

Clumsy me - never! I broke my toe twice last winter at karate. Not by fighting or kicking the bag or anything I could happily admit to. No, the first time I bashed it into the leg of the bench in the changing room before class and the second time, even more embarrassingly I caught the same toe in the hem of my trousers as I was getting changed and broke it again - duh

Well actually I quite fancy a mounted martial art. I don't know how though as I don't know anywhere that teaches that sort of thing. I certainly think we'd get some funny looks if we were galloping round the field with bokken in hand, probably end up taking someone's eye out too! That game they play on horses in Afghanistan with the dead goat looks great fun though, I thought.

None of my martial arts teaches have anything on my riding school teacher from when I was a teenager. This is many years ago and I still quake to think of her. Kiai nothing she had a voice which could reduce both horses and riders to quivering wrecks. She would stick you on the horse, take away your stirrups, tell you to put your hands on your head and then chase you down a line of jumps with a lunge whip. I can still hear her now advancing towards me, whip in hand saying 'Don't pretend you're hurt, get back on that horse NOW!!!!!!' :kaioken:.... and she had pinpoint accuracy with that whip whether it was the horse or the rider who got hit with it....and I still went back every week until I got my own horse and was safe from her.... except in my dreams........ [ This Message was edited by: Gloi on 2002-02-14 13:49 ]

A corny joke just for today.... A little lad asks him mum 'Mam, why is our Patrick called Patrick?' 'That's because he was born on St Patrick's day son' 'Why's our George called George' That's because he was born on St George's day son' 'Why's our Andrew called Andrew?' 'He was born on St Andrew's day, now go away and stop asking so many questions, Pancake.'

People here have been glad to see him as we're pretty short in numbers and he's a nice chap. We've also got a 7th kyu who's just come back after being in Japan teaching English for 2 years. Nobody in our club is resentful of anybody else's grade as far as I've seen, we're a pretty relaxed bunch.

We've recently got a second kyu at our club who's just started training again after 15 years. He's in his forties. He's a bit rusty but seems to be managing to keep up with the other brown belts reasonably well. He'll jsut stay at his grade until he's back up to speed enough to go for his 1st kyu, he was hoping about 6 months or so. He did have his old grading book though from when he used to train. [ This Message was edited by: Gloi on 2002-02-12 07:25 ]

This should be your sensei's problem not yours and if he doesn't take care he won't have a problem with teachers bwcause he won't have the students to teach. You need to stand your ground and say you'll take the childrens class when needed , but otherwise you are coming to the dojo to be taught, not to teach. It is only human nature that adults will be resentful of being taught by a teenager, except in exceptional circumstances and your sensei should not be putting you in that postion which in the end will only erode your self confidence. Stand up for yourself, not against the class you are being asked to teach, but against your sensei for putting you in an untenable position.

ad - when I was about 11 I learnt to do front and back flips on a trampoline. Dead easy there because you have so much more time to do it in - and you don't get hurt when you mess it up. If there's a club near you it might be worth having a few goes and then you'll have the hang of the mechanics for when you do it from the floor. I wouldn't like to try it now though I'm not so agile these days.

At the moment I think that I probably practice karate 95% as physical activity and 5% as an art. However I do a lot of reading and at the moment I enjoy studying the history and techniques of the art as theory, perhaps for me that is the 'art' at the moment. As I gain experience I hope that one day I'll be able to say I practice karate more as an art than just a physical activity.

As Jiggy says everything derives from something else and ever word comes from somewhere...Which is why we have to decide on a dictionary to use to decide whether something is valid so we save our sparring for the dojo

"Some glucosamine products are made from the shells of shellfish, so if youre allergic beware! " I'm glad you mentioned that. I've been thinking of taking some glucosamine Chondroitin & msn and I'm extremely allergic to shellfish so I'll take care what I buy.

I get Shotokan karate magazine and it has some really good articles and informative stuff in it. Their website is http://www.zee.com/skm/index.shtml

Well after training we're all thirsty so we just have to go to the pub next door We don't all just drink beer though those pictures are a one off (even though they do sell agood pint of Guiness!). We are all very well behaved and have soft drinks to rehydrate after working out, and if you believe that well....... :lol:

I'll bet they wouldn't let you have qi either and that has potential for a good high score. Darn these words being foreign! You need to play multilingual Scrabble :pony:

Hi, Glad you could see the pics, I've put a few more in the folder now. I'm Alison the yellow belt doing the kata and also the person on the ponies in the other folder. [ This Message was edited by: Gloi on 2002-01-25 01:39 ]

sai, it says your album's empty , have you enabled sharing? Mine's here on yahoo, does this one work? http://photos.yahoo.com/alisonfiddler

It's probably the best route to go A-levels then university. However I started taking A-levels and wasn't happy at college so I got a job and did day release getting ONC then HNC, which was harder work as I had next to no free time , but at least I was earning money. My friend left school at 16 and went and trained as a riding school teacher, did that for 5 years, realised it was a mugs job, went to university as a mature student, got a first last year and is now doing a post grad course. She's glad she worked as it has made her appreciate the chance of the education more than if she had just gone straight from school because everyone else did. If your friend goes to work as a waitress she will probably realise after a while what a drag of a job it is and that it would be better to train for something better. You are all still young though and provided you have parents or someone who will support you through college it is not too late, and to take exams a year or two later than your peers is no loss. It may be that your friend needs a chance to experience life out in the real world to appreciate what getting qualifications can do for her. While she is working she may take time to decide what it is she really wants to do with her life and make a better chice than just drifting into something with no real enthusiasm.