aefibird

Well, most of my print-outs would be University documents (essays and the like) - not quite 30 page stem-cell dissertations, but almost. They need to be fairly high quality (poor quality printing loses students marks at my educational establishment. I also need colour documents on a regular basis for work (I work in a Primary school), and the printing out of occasional photographs. However, it's the economy of ink use that I really want. I'm fed up of paying through the nose for unreliable cartridges that seem to only last two minutes.

Tell me about it. That's why I cancelled my Sky TV subscription a few months back.

Sorry to hear about your site, I hope you get everything working again on it soon.

Speak for yourself Ramymensa... Some of us are... *cough*

mmm, maybe that's the reason my house is so tiny... someone read the plans wrong. My house is like Dr Who's TARDIS in reverse - it's smaller inside than it looks on the out!

I'd recommend yoga or pilates too. Great excercises for stretching and toning. Make sure you get advice from a good yoga or pilates instructor, though, as you could do more harm than good by doing the excercies incorrectly.

I have flat feet, although not as bad as how you describe. I've never found training in Martial Arts to be a problem. I occasionally wear martial arts shoes (like the ones TKD guys wear), because sometimes training in bare feet makes the soles of my feet and my knees hurt. There's plenty of people who have health problems or disabilities train in the martial arts. Many instructors are adaptable and understand that sometimes some people cannot do a particular technique as well as another person, or are unable to perform certain movements with a particular part of their body or whatever. Some styles of Kung Fu wear shoes to train in all the time, as do some Karate and TaeKwonDo clubs. However, I'd pop along to your local martial arts clubs and have a chat with the instructors there. Even if that club or MA school doesn wear shoes, I'm sure they'd be able to accomodate you. I firmly believe that martial arts are for all, regardless of age, ability, sex, experience, whatever.

This only really applies to people who currently only train in one style and have only ever trained in one style. Would you be willing to train in another style as well as your current one? If not, why not? If so, why and which additional style would you pick? To those people who have already added other styles to your initial martial art, why did you choose the additional/extra art that you did choose? Do you think that your secondary choice of martial art goes well with your first art? If not, what are the main problems you have in training in two or more arts?

I'm in the market for a new printer, as my old one is definately on it's 'last legs'. I'm looking for a middle-of-the-range colour one, suitable for the occasional printing out of digital photographs and full-colour documents. It's also got to be pretty economical in terms of ink used, and not cost me an arm and a leg to buy new ink cartrdges! I've got an Epsom at the moment, but I'm open to buying any brand. So... anyone got any suggestions??

Does anyone on here train with any of the more 'uncommon' weapons out there? Y'know, not the usual Bo, Sai, Nunchaku, Kama, etc etc etc. For example, does anyone train with the Jitte or the Naginata?

I read recently in a book by Bill Bryson about a swimming pool that is massively bigger than ever intended. The plans were in feet, but the builders mistook that for metres. I can't remember exactly where it was; I'll have to go dig the book out and look it up. Actually, I'd agree we're in the middle of imperial & metric, which can be confusing at times. It's just another reason why Britain is a little bit odd!

You never know Jiyn, it may happen to you someday. Keep on training hard and Sensei Brennan might invite you to a tourney or three!

Well, I went to the Wing Chun club tonight.... I was impressed from the start. After years of training in a vile room above an even grottier pub for Karate, and also training in a tiny little yucky room in a school for Aikido, the fact that Akhtar's Martial Arts Academy has it's own purpose-built studio was like stepping into heaven. They actually had soft mats on the floor and proper changing rooms and everything! *is amazed* lol, I felt like as if it was I'd lived in a jungle and then suddenly been transported to the Ritz hotel. Anyway, enough of my shallowness in instantly loving a place simply because it didn't have peeling paintwork.... Well, love it I did. It was utterly different to anything I'd trained in before, but fantasic at the same time. At least Karate, Kobudo & Aikido all use the same terminology and have roughly the same sort of class structure. It felt very odd not to bow at people, say "Oss" and call the instructor "Sensei". Still, the differences are good. It's exciting being a newbie again and feeling like you have 20 pairs of arms & legs and you can't co-ordinate any of them. As long as I can get to grips with the vertical fist punching and the fact that the training room was about the same temperature as a furnace, I think I'll be OK. As an aside, what is the Wing Chun equivalent of the word "dojo"? Do Chinese martial arts tend to have a specific name for the place where they train, or is it simply referred to as a studio or a gym? Also, can anyone recommend any good sites for Wing Chun beginners? Something that covers basic terminology and basic techniques, if poss. Thanks.

If there are differences between Wing Chun and Wing Tsun, are there also differences between WC, WT and Ving Tsun? (or is the difference simply one of spelling?) Forgive my ignorance, I'm a Chinese styles 'newbie'! Thanks.

I'll back that up. It is good to see someone who is concerned about their child and the training that they are getting in MA. (So a big to ya KARATEKIDSMOM!) Unfortunately, not everyone is like that - some just see martial arts classes (or scouts or soccer club or whatever) as a babysitting service. I've got some parents like that in the beginners class that I teach for my Sensei. The parents drop their kids off and go out for the evening and don't seem to care how the children are doing or whether they're enjoying it or anything. Often, too, the parents who don't seem bothered are usually the ones who are late picking their kids up from class - they obviously feel that we're just there to mind their children for a few hours while they go and have a good time. It makes me sad to think of how much further these children might progress if their parents were encouraging and seemed bothered in what they were doing. We have one boy who is very good at kata and enjoys entering competitions. However, his mum & dad don't seem to care about what he can do; it often ends up that me or my sensei or one of the other parents at the club pays for him to enter competitions and takes him to them as well. However, that effort & expense is worth it because he loves his karate and always tries very hard. It just makes me wonder how much further this lad could go if he had his parents backing. I'll go and get off my soapbox now...

Lots and lots and lots of BASICS. Don't try anything fancy, especially with kids as they could get hurt. Also, make sure all the children know and understand right from the start that YOU are in charge and bad or rude behaviour will not be tolerated. Sometimes kids can play up if their regular teacher is not there. Good luck with the teaching!

Chibi, did students recieve their purple after getting black or was that a typo? As far as I know, most styles have all their coloured belts before getting black (except for red & white or red & black etc Masters belts)

A big group of us from my karate club ran The Great North Run last year (we plan to do so again), in aid of a local childrens hospice. However, it was also MEGA good publicity for the club. We all wore our gi's to run in (boiling hot, running in a heavyweight gi - not a good idea) and got the local papers & local radio involved. We got quite a few new students because of it.

The lesson for today is.... don't run on the stairs! I agree with this. As my instructor says... the best form of defence is not to be there in the first place. A big part of karate is Zanshin or awareness, and I feel that MA training does give people awareness and the 'nouce' (that's a slang word for knowldge/intelligence BTW!) not to go into places where there might be trouble. True. Positive and confident body language can be as much a part of fight-prevention as being able to sooth a situation by talking.

Sounds similar to a game my friends and I used to play at school. We also used to play "Peanuts", where one person had hold of another persons hand/arm and had to twist it as hard as they could. When the pain got too much the person recieving the twist would shout Peanuts. The person who could last out the longest before yelling Peanuts was the winner of that session. When you look back on them, most kids games are really dumb...

Congratulations to you too KamaGirl!

Hi! Welcome to Karate Forums.

No probs!

Note to self: If fighting luckyboxer, make sure to empty a magazine in him afterwards. better note to self - don't ever pick a fight with luckykboxer.... Coco, I'd stop wearing your uniform to and from martial arts training. Even though you're only going a block, if you're 'standing out' (and you will be) you're asking for trouble.

Actually, us Brits don't have 'that logical metric system' either - good ol' miles, pints and pounds for us!!