aefibird

Hi! Welcome to Karate Forums.

lol, it's probably because there's never more than 10 minutes of sunshine together 'up north'. However, we do have a nice line in young girls who will go out in the most inclement of weather in teeny tops and even tinyer skirts. The lads don't wear much more clothing either. Ah, a night round Barnsley exposes you to such cultured people!

When I was first looking for sponsorship for my karate club I wrote to all the local businesses in the area and pointed out to them how sponsoring our little club would be a good thing for them (publicity, the chance of helping the community and looking good for doing so etc etc). The students of the club also did sponsored bike rides, sponsored swims, etc. We also wrote to local radio stations & newspapers and asked them to feature us. We also did a demo at a summer fair and had people walikg round with rattling buckets into which people could drop donations - most people gave money. I think they thought we'd beat them up if not! Good luck with the fundraising. I know how tough it can be. My dojo is trying to scrape the cash together at the moment to send a team of kids over to California early next year for a big karate comp over there.

Sorry to hear that pvwingchun.

Ask around at the local health food shop (Holland & Baratt or similar) - they might know of a product that is similar or the same as DMSO. They might also be able to sell you some nice tasting flax seed oil!

There's a lot of good karate dojo's in Wales - their kumite teams are outstanding. Click here or here or here for some more info on Martial Arts in Wales. As for a martial art suited to all sizes - most martial arts are suitable for all body types. If you pick a grappling MA, then contests are usually categorised with weight divisions - same with a lot of striking arts. Aww, thanks! Glad to know that somebody reads my posts all the way through!

Lupin, have you been to visit that other school yet, or have you decided on the Budo Bujinkan Taijutsu place? The BBT school sounds great, from your description. I was impressed that they had an open house system, with tea and all! It seems like they're a welcoming dojo and you'd probably be treated well there.

I agree. Even though I most probably won't meet Sensei Peter Gideon in real life it was very interesting to read about his life and work. Thanks for the article SubmissionFighter!

Gread article Doug - thanks for sharing. It's nice to see that in some quarters at least chivalry is alive and well!

In many Aikido schools there are still only white and black belts. Belts are a recent addition to martial arts. There's no shame in being a white belt!

well, I can't speak for the whole of the UK... but there isn't Shorin Ryu shcool that I know of within 100miles of where I live. There probably isn't that many within the north of England at all - other karate styles seem more popular, with the popularity of karate only being exceeded by boxing gyms and TKD schools.

Good luck ZuluKing! Don't give up hope - keep on persevereing. Hold your head high and give it your best attempt whilst taking the test. If you put every amount of effort and energy you have into it then you've already passed your own mental test.

Yeah, dads are great and come in handy for all sorts of things!

In Britain pants means underwear. We call our long legged lower half garments 'trousers'. As for us being shorts people - nope, there's usually only one or two warm days in Britain, so wearing shorts a lot is a definate no-no. At the moment, it's supposed to be summer here and it's windy, cold and looking as though it is going to rain at any moment. Luckily Britain has charms to recommend it other than the weather... Pants is also a slang for something rubbish or bad - 'mint' means the opposite, in that it's something cool or good.

I agree. Teaching is not a grade requirement in either my Karate or Aikido clubs (in the FSK, teaching is only a grade requirement from 2nd Dan onwards), but it is encouraged, as it helps to build character, develop the new teacher's own MA skills and is a contribution to the life and development of the club.

Well, I'm 25 and 5'2" and I HATE BEING SO SHORT!! grrrr It's all very well for you tall people to be happy with your height, but you all can reach things from off the top shelf in the supermarket and go to concerts and stuff and be able to see!

Welcome to Karate Forums Spielwurfel! I'm gonna second Ramymensa's post and agree that if you have no pain or anything like that, then it's probably just the way your muscles are deveolping in response to training. If you're worried about it excessively, then have a chat with your instructor. He/She might be able to advise you.

Another important point to remember is that it wasn't an overnight process to gain weight - it won't be an overnight process to lose weight either. The weight will come off, but if you go on a dramatic crash diet it can be very very bad for your health.

Take it easy and slowly. If you explain to your instructor what's happened then he/she will know and understand. At the first sign of any pain rest a couple of minutes and do some slow stretching, then join back in with the class. I'm sure your instructor will understand. After all, they'd rather have healthy students there paying them class fees, than sick students off who aren't paying them anything at all!

Is it any better BritNoob? Did you go to the doc's?

I'd go and check it out with a doctor, just to make sure. Also, make sure you're doing your stretches correctly. Check with your instructor or a fellow martial artist who knows about stuff like that. If you show them what stretches you do and how often they may be able to advise you better, as they can actually see you in person.

First of all, welcome to Karate Forums! Well, I'd suggest trying to find out what's available in your area before trying to decide which Martial Art you want to do. There's no point setting your heart on a particular style, only to find out that the nearest club to you is 150miles away. However, it may be worthwhile deciding if you'd prefer a primarily 'striking' art (such as karate or kickboxing), or if you feel that grappling (such as Brazilian or Japanese Ju-Jitsu) art would suit you better. Also, what about weapons? Some styles have extensive use of traditional and modern weapons training and some styles do not touch on it at all. it doesn't necessarily mean that one is 'better' than the other, rather it is that all martial arts emphasise different things - all of them have good and bad points. Here's a little about my main styles: Shotokan karate is a Japanese martial art that is primarily concerned with infliciting the maximum amount of damage on an opponent using striking techniques, with almost every part of the body used for defence and attack. Within Shotokan you'd also learn sweeps, throws and some ground defence, although that is generally reserved for medium to high grade coloured belts. Shotokan has had a bit of a 'bad press', as it is probably the most popular style of karate in the world today and therefore it also has a sizeable percentage of 'McDojo's' and incompetent instructors. However, with a good instructor, Shotokan is a very effective and useable style, despite what some people might say about it. It might suit you, as there's a lot to think about in it, especially when studying kata. My other primary style is Aikido (although I can't train at the moment ). This is also a Japanese Art, but it is solely concerned with self defence. I've heard it described as the only purely defensive martial art. In Aikido your aim is to immobilise your opponent through the use of joint locks, sweeps, throws and some strikes, although striking in responce to an offensive attack is usually used in conjunction with another move. The techniques are designed to cause maximum pain to your opponent whilst inflicting mimimum damage - any pain felt by your opponent should dissipate as soon as you release them. it is not intended to provide lasting damage, just enough force to enable you to restrain an opponent. That's why it is a favoured method of many police forces, including the Japanese Riot Police. Aikido requires a lot of thinking and can be very difficult to grasp at first, but I feel that it is an excellent martial art and I'd recommend it to anyone! On a final note (blimey, this post is turning into an essay! ), I'd caution you against only having private lessons. Firstly, schools in my area that I know of that offer private lessons (my own clubs included) will not accept anyone for private lessons until they have been to a minimum number of regular classes (in my karate instructor's case it is 8 classes, in my aikido instructor's case it is 12 classes). Secondly, if you only train with one person then you are limiting yourself to only practising techniques against that one person. When starting out in MA, I feel it's a good idea to practice with many different people of different body sizes and who've had different experience. Thirdly, you said that you'd feel 'stupid' in front of others - well, we've all been there, all been beginners. Even the greatest martial artists in the world have had to start as beginners. If you make a mistake then, chances are your classmates wouldn't have noticed anyway (they should be too busy concentrating on what their doing to watch a new person!) and secondly, everyone makes mistakes when starting out in MA - from your mistakes you learn and grow as a marial artist. Good luck in your search for a club. Which area of the country are you from? We've got quite a few Brits on here - someone may be able to recommend good clubs in your area.

Here's a good Shotokan site.

I think that gym training can be very beneficial for Martial Artists - the key is not to do too much at once. If you start out with a 45min to 1 hour session per week then that should be alright alongside your regular MA training. If you wanna do more then build up gradually from there. The problem would be if you went straight into gym training and started going 5-6 times a week. STart slow with some cardio and light weights and work up from there.

Welcome back to Martial Arts!