aefibird

Which just goes to show that there's at least one good thing that happens in my home town, even if the rest of it is a dive.

I can agree with that. A friend of mine who trains at the same karate dojo as me is a police sergeant. She got a lift back home from training with me once and I had my Aikido weapons (Jo, two Bokkens and a Tanto) on the back seat. She told me that I could get prosecuted just for carrying them around in my car, even if I was on my way to or back from the dojo. Since then, I keep all my weapons (I have other kobudo stuff too) in zipped cases and only take them out of the house if I'm going to training.

Well, I trained this morning - I had it strapped up, so I couldn't punch properly with my left hand. I was mostly teaching today, though, so I'll have to wait until I next fully train, rather than teach, to see how it holds up in class. Ah well, I have 9 more working fingers and a good right hand - I can still punch people with that one!

I can recommend Playwell equipment - everything I've bought from there has been reasonably priced but of good quality too.

lol, glad you got your uniform at last!

Gah, I find one bokken hard enough at times - I'd probably end up knocking myself out if I had two!

Well, today I've eaten McDonalds... but that's because I was dragged there by my nieces (and talked to death the whole time I was there too. I learned more about the latest boy bands today than I ever wanted or needed to know...). Generally, I just try and eat as healthily as possible, with a good balance between carbs, protien and fats. I'll usually have Shredded Wheat or porrage oats for breakfast (or toast occasionally). During my mid-morning break at work I usually have a banana or satsuma. For lunch it depends if I'm at work or not. If I'm at work I'll usually have vegetable or mushroom soup with whole-grain bread with a low-fat yoghurt and some fruit to follow. If I'm not at work I might have a jacket potato with tuna or cottage cheese or baked beans, or I might have some salmon and veg or similar or (my fave) baked beans on toast. When I get in from work I usually have some fruit or dried fruit and maybe another youghurt. Then I usually eat later when I get back from training. I tend to stay away from red meat - I prefer fish and chicken - and usually have that with vegetables and either potatoes or pasta or rice. Fridays are my pig-out evening when I have take-away and beer! My weaknesses are doughnuts, too much coffee and a liking for a glass of wine or two in an evening after training.

Oh yes - I forgot! What u doing up so late anyways? Angels are normaly example setters? I was up so late because I just got back from my nightly watch fighting crime... *ahem*. Actually, Fridays are my take-away and beer nights. Eeek, my halo has just slipped a bit there. Anyway, to get back on topic... Have you been to see any MA schools yet or are you still looking for clubs?

I've never had an Adidas V-neck, but I've heard bad reports about the cheaper end of the Adidas range of MA uniforms. Apparantly, the dearer ones are fine, but the cheaper ones tend to tear and shrink very easily.

I've got a good quality gi (got several of them actually) but whatever I buy it never seems to fit utterly perfectly - even the £110 Tokaido gi. Ah well, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm odd when it comes to gi's!

I thought I'd just share with you all my karate lesson from tonight because it was excellent. Often, people get so bogged down in the minute details of martial arts that they forget that they're supposed to be enjoying themselves - after all, MA is our hobby and what we do for fun. Well, it was like that tonight. On the face of it it wasn't a great lesson (I ended up breaking a finger and tearing my gi) but it was a blast. There were only a few of us there tonight - 4 purple belts, a brown belt and a brown & white belt, as well as me and our Sensei. We did Heian kata application for Heian Yondan and Heian Godan, during which I managed to break a finger on my Sensei's foot (mental note - blocking with your little finger is a bad idea! ) during a mis-timed block on my part. Well, I've not had so much fun in a lesson for ages. The purple belts loved it because Heian Godan is 'their' kata for their grading, and because there were so few students to normal Sensei had the time to go into great detail with us, and every so often he'd stop us and ask all our opinions on a certain piece of bunkai. It was more like a workshop than a proper lesson - everyone got the chance to have their say and everyone's opinion was carefully considered, especially the purple belt students, who'd never really been involved in a lesson like that before. They usually train in the much busier midweek classes. We finished off with some ground grappling. Although Shotokan does have grappling techniques in it, my Sensei doesn't usually go into detail about them until brown belt, so this was another new experience with the purple belts. It really brought home to me that, although Martial Artists are learning a fighting art and learning to defend themselves, it doesn't mean that it should be boring, repetetive or deathly serious the whole time (not that my instructors lessons are ever like that, but I'm sure that you know what I mean). The sheer joy that the purple belts had of doing something that was new and a bit different to normal was catching and we ended up running an hour over the 'official' finishing time of the lesson. Well, I just wanted to share with you that perhaps the more experienced and 'long time' martial artists might have something to learn from the lower grades. Often, if a person has done a technique many times before, then they can become bored or disillusioned with it and stop remembering that they once enjoyed doing that technique or that kata or whatever. We've had quite a few beginners on these forums recently saying how worried they are about their skills and about not being as good as other class members. Many people habe posted responses telling them to relax and not to worry and to enjoy their MA training. Well, tonight's class really reminded me that enjoying MA training is a huge part of being a Martial Artist; perhaps if people started to relax more and worry less about the technical and minute stuff then it would all fall into place naturally anyway. Go and enjoy your martial arts!

I'm convinced that Japanese style karate gi's are sent to try the patience of every martial artist in the world. I've never had one yet that has truly fitted me properly, and most of the people I know have to have some taken off the legs and arms of their gi (manufacturers must think we're all 7 foot tall with arms like Orang-Utans.) One of these days I'm gonna design a properly fitting gi that no martial artist ever has to adjust in a lesson... Then I'll make a fortune from you all! *evil cackle* *is led away to take evening medication*

lol, I love that line! Welcome, Bob, to Karate Forums, great to have you here.

Yeah, but they're still good. The Dropkick Murphy's are great - it was through listening to them that I first started listening to Flogging Molly. DLopez - I already listen to Armageddon and Wishbone Ash, but I've never heard anything by Captain Beyond, so I'll check them out. Thanks!

Unfortunately, people don't always know what they want - especially the bloke in the street who has never done MA before in his life. I was having a similar discussion with my mum & dad a couple of weeks back. My dad used to train in Judo & JuJutsu (until injury prevented him from continuing) and he knows about shyster schools and schools that only offer flash, even if the instructor believes that what they're doing is right and is good MA. My mum (bless her...) couldn't seem to grasp the fact that not all MA schools actually taught MA and that some are (to use SS's phrase)more like 'gymnastics-do'. She kept saying stuff like "but, if it says karate club then they must teach karate, right?" If my mum - who has had quite a bit of exposure to MA, even though she has never trained in one - believes that all MA schools and instructors are the same, then how much more must a regular person in the street think that as well? If I'd never done MA before and I walked into a karate dojo (I'll use karate as an example, 'cos it's my main art) that concentrated on jazzed-up competition kata and flashy techniques for tournaments, but actually believed that what they were doing was 'real' or 'traditional' karate then I as a student would also form this impression. I'd end up thinking that all karate dojo's were the same as that one and all concentrated on flashy techniques.

Now wouldn't that come in handy Not that I'd use the ability to look at/thro things I shouldn't tho (bet u would!) nah, course I wouldn't... I'm an remember??

Which weapon do you prefer to use when performing forms or kata or hyungs?

Roughly how many students are in your martial arts club, altogether?

I know that feeling well. The other day the class was practicing Heian Godan - all except me who had slipped into Bassai Dai and was wondering why everyone else was doing "Bassai Dai" 'wrong'. My instructor is used to me having brain farts in the middle of kata practice now. My worst katas for going wrong in are Kanku Dai and Kanku Sho.

I agree. The Chief Instructor of my karate organisation always looks like he eats nothing but burgers and fries all day long, but that is a very deceptive appearence. I've never met anyone yet who is as quick or as skilful as he is. Fitness and skill isn't always measurable by the size of someone's waist. (although looking like you're in shape generally means that you are).

You'd probably have go to individual schools and speak to them about extended training. Some schools offer an Uchi-deshi (live in dojo disciple) programme or similar, with the extended training but without living in. If there's a particular style that you're interested in training a lot in, then try doing a search on google to see if any schools in your area are running courses, seminars etc.

Hi gadgetboy! Welcome to Karate Forums! Why not pop along to the Intriductions forum and say hi to everyone there Welcome also to Martial Arts. I hope you keep at it and keep on enjoying it.

TangSooGuy, you deserve it! Congrats to you again.

Well, I'll rattle on for hours to anyone who'll listen about how great metal and punk music is. I'm also into 70's rock, such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Rush, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Motorhead, etc etc etc. The bands that I've been listening to the most lately, though, are Rancid, Pennywise, The Ramones, Flogging Molly, Emperor, Amen, early Metallica and Jerry Cantrell. Oh, and I've also listened a lot to the Blues Brothers soundtrack lately too. It's seemingly completely unrelated musically to any of the bands mentioned before, but the songs are great and just beg to be sang-along to at high volume!

It sure is!