aefibird

Nice to have you back, Grr.

My Kiai sounds a bit like "uuihhuuugh", but it's really hard to spell out a sound. lol, Patrick, how about introducing sound clips to KF so we can all record our Kiai/Kihap?? I went to a competition on Sunday and one of the competitors in the Kata/Forms section did this really loud & long Kiai and frightened a little girl who was sitting by the side of the ring watching. She ran off crying for her mum!

Some styles have less kyu grades than others.

Empi is a great kata, I love it. I'm not sure I would have liked to have tried to learn it when I was a white belt, though. lol, I had enough trouble with Kihon kata (Taikyoku Shodan) in my first couple of weeks of training!

We practice both ways in my dojo - with the side of the foot and with the sole of the foot. Foot edge sidekicking we generally keep for kata and sometimes for solo drill work. When we're kicking in sparring we 99% of the time use the sole, the heel or the side of the heel. I find that practicing with the knife edge is good for stretching and also looks a bit neater for kata. Plus, learning both ways of kicking is just another weapon in the arsenal. Karate has techniques that use many different parts of the body - eg blocking with the wrists is one of many techniques that are there in karate but don't tend to be used much. However, it's nice to have it, just in case!!

lol, funny post. 1 The first and last words that you say every day is "Ouch". erm... yep! 13 You hate meditation because you fall asleep. Eeeek, I nearly do that already and I'm only 24 - I'll be snoring my head off during meditation time in a couple of years.

If it's still hurting you and you're worried about it then go see your doctor and maybe have an x-ray too. There's not much you can do for broken toes/fingers anyway, except rest and supportive strapping (unless its broken deformed & out of shape in which case you'd definately need a doc to look at it).

My sensei had two of them that we use fairly regularly - he made his own and it only cost him about £2.50. If you want one (and they are good for footwork and agility) then save your £££ and make your own - much better value!

renketsu, did you go along to 'Judgement Day'?

lol, he must be related to my instructor! He's a great man and an excellent instructor but totally off his trolley.

So is a Si-Hing someone who is the same level as you?

i thnik thsi is getitng a lttile islly... *grin*

Where I work everyone despairs at my karate bruises (I bruise very easily). A few weeks ago I trapped one of my fingers in a door and ended up having it bandaged up. When I went to work the nest day they took one look and went "oh right, another karate injury". I protested it was from a door, but they wouldn't believe me!!

lol, I'd never believe you'd do anything like that! *wink*

Aye Metallica doth rule too.

Good point Monkey, as ever!

Thanks for the links Dijita!

I take it you mean printed rather than embroidered logos? Try ironing it off with a super-hot steam iron. Cover the plate of the iron with greaseproof paper to stop the logo from mucking up your iron. Warning : I have never specifically tried doing this, but I know that irons can remove screen-printed logos, as I accidently removed part of a logo from a t-shirt that I was ironing one day. That was a definate D'oh! moment.

lol, good. Very interesting too.

Hmm, I wouldn't say shotokan is very stiff - its only as stiff as someone makes it. I do Shotokan and I've fought against other martial arts styles before and I wouldn't have said that Shotokan was particularly any stiffer than any of the other styles. It's just different. Every style has its differences from others; they just take time getting used to them when you switch from one to another.

Every week in my instructors freestyle self defence class. Roughly once a week in karate lesson, but it depends on what we're doing and working on that week. Good luck for the Canadian's, Dijita - are you entering or is it just others from your dojo?

Yes, but most people seem to lump these kata together as similar (which they are, even though there are differences). I was just curious as to which styles do Pinan and which do Heian.

I thought the latter 3 Taikyoku's were not created by Funakoshi (who apparantly created Taikyoku Shodan, Nidan and Sandan) - is this correct? For interested Brits, there's a very good article about the Taikyoku kata in this month's edition of Traditional Karate magazine (if you can't find it in the newsagents, ask W H Smith; they're genius at getting hold of magazines no one else seems to be able to!!)

Does anyone here train in all of the Taikyoku (also called Kihon) kata? Most people tend just to do Taikyoku Shodan - does anyone practice Taikyoku Nidan and Sandan on a regular or even semi-regular basis?

If your style does the Heian/Pinan kata, do you call them by their Okinawan translation (Pinan) or by thr Japanese translation (Heian)? Just curious!!