aefibird

oooh yeah!

I've never come across any racism in karate (certainly not at my club, we're very multicultural), although I have come across sexism at a few seminars and such that I've been to. Needless to say, there's one organisation (who will remain nameless on this forum!) who'se events I will NEVER be attending again after one of the instructors told me that he didn't think women ought to be promoted above purple belt. What he was meaning was women didn't ought to be promoted above men and he couldn't take the fact that there were many women at that course who were far superior than he ever would be... I've not come across racism or sexism in Aikido. I'm the only female student in my club at the moment and the guys in my club are brilliant with me, although they did get very embarassed last week when we were doing front flips and I landed on the mat at the feet of my instructor with my undone gi top revealing everything!!

I think that children should be AT LEAST 11 before being allowed to be taught martial arts. My Aikido instructor won't take anyone under the age 18 because he says that children haven't got the physical and mental capacity to deal with the complexities of martial arts, especially something like Aikido. Plus, joint locks and throws on growing children could do serious damage if applied wrongly. He used to take people from the age of 14 and above, but he got fed up of teenagers turning up to a few lessons, finding out that it wasn't like in the movies and then quitting on him, so he extended the minimum age to 18 to increase the chance of getting srious students. Regarding children and black belts - well, nowhere is it 'formally written' that getting a black belt means you should be able to hold your own in a street fight, but the gaining of a blackbelt means you should have good understanding and application of each technique. A lot of children don't have the mental capacity to see beyond 'just punching someone'. I agree that 1st, 2nd dan means that you've really just started in MA, but I don't agree with the awarding of black belts to children. Comparing 7 year old Johnny blackbelt with a 10 year old blackbelt 16 stone rugby player is ridiculous and devalues the process and reasoning behind awarding belts IMO. There's nothing wrong with recognising the acheivements of children but to hand out blackbelts to them can often give them a false sense of security. Plus, a lot of children see the black belt as the 'be all and end all' of martial arts and don't realise that training and learning a martial art is a lifetime process and not something that can be acheived in a couple of years (or even 6 months as I recently heard of. A 16 year old was awarded a 1st degree blackbelt in kickboxing 6 months after starting training. She had never previously studied martial arts before that date).

Are you from the US or the UK? If you're from the UK I recommend Blitz heavyweight karate gi. I wear it for both karate and aikido and it's fine for both.

Congratulations on finding a good dojo. Welcome to KF too!

I'd keep Shotokan (because I couldn't imagine my life without it!), throw in Muay Thai, Aikido, Escrima, BJJ and a little Tai Chi Chuan. Mix it in well with modern gun training and lots of running practice so I can get outta there quick if my style doesn't work!!

Thank you very much for your help guys! I think it is WAKO rules that the competition is using.

I'm still not gonna get my hopes up about it, though.

lol, I just had a sudden funny thought. I wonder if there's a similar discussion going on in the WaterSkierForums? No disrespect to anyone who waterski's (it's a sport I've always wanted to try but never got round to) but I wonder if they're having the same discussion about how entering the Olympics would be bad for the future of waterskiing... Sorry. Just my quirky sense of humour being wierd again. Yeah, I agree that it is quite inevitable that karate will be joining the Olympics, I just wish it wasn't gonna happen. What worries me about it all is the future of kata. What if competitors are only allowed to perform kata from a set list? Who's gonna pick the kata that they can do? What about lesser-known styles of karate? I can see that a new form of karate will be created - Olympic Karate - and then non-martial artists will be under the misguided impression that this watered down version of 'karate' is what our beloved martial art is all about. It will come to it that "Olympic Karate" is 'in' and everything else will be left to struggle along by the wayside.

I've got 4 tattoos so far - a tribal band on my upper left arm, the kanji for "karate" on my upper right arm, a horse between my neck and my collarbone on the left side (but you can't see it when I've got a top on) and the shotokan tiger symbol under the karate kanji tattoo. I'm getting another one done at the weekend, the Welsh Dragon (my home country!). It's my first tattoo in colour - all my others are black. I've heard that red (which will be the colour of my dragon) is the worst tattoo colour for fading, can anyone confirm or deny this??

It was indeed a good try.

I'd like to meet up, especially if there's beer involved!! I'm about 2 and a half hours from London by train. I'd be willing to travel down for a get-together, but I'd have to have a bit of notice beforehand. Summer would be a great time to meet; we can all sit outside a pub with a few beers after training enjoying the fine English summer weather (erm, that means it'll be freezin' cold and piddling it down with rain, then!!).

Yes, mine is red oak. It's a nice hefty solid thing - with was good until I accidently let it slip out of my hand the other day when practicing and it dropped end-first ont my bare feet!! D'oh, I'm so clumsy.

Great idea Budderfly! Good luck with it. I suggest that you offer a wide range of items (sale or return from the supplier of course!!) to cater for lots of different martial arts, rather than the usual 'gi and punchbag' type store (of which there are quite a few shops and online stores of this sort in the UK). The idea about sever different brands is also good too.

Hi, I don't usually post here but I'd like some help, please, if possible! Thanks. A kickboxing instructor in the area I live in is hosting an open sparring competition for all local martial arts clubs. However, the rules are Kickboxing competition rules. I'm not sure what organisations rules, but it's the major set of rules that are used for all kickboxing competitions, apparantly. Can someone tell me, is there a website where I can get a copy of the rules from? I've asked the competition organiser if he'll send me a copy and he said yes, but he hasn't done so yet and I asked him a few weeks ago. Also, what protective gear do Kickboxers normally wear? In karate comps that I enter its usually just hand mitts and a gum shield, with groin guards for the men. Sorry if I sound stupid, but my knowledge of kickboxing is extemely limited (could be written on the back of a postage stamp in fact). Thanks again.

Same here! I felt particularly lucky when I was a 3rd kyu. I had only graded to brown belt the week before and I was persuaded to enter an Open Forms competition. Obviously, it was the first time I'd entered the '3rd kyu and over' section of a competition, so I was excited but also nervous because I knew I'd be up against black belts. I never expected to win, firstly because it was a big comp and secondly because I'd never been in a category with dan grades before. On the day of the comp it was foul weather (middle of winter!) and quite a few people didn't show for the comp. In my category (ladies, Japanese forms, 3rd kyu and above) there were only 10 or 11 of us - about 16/17 people didn't show for that category. I was the only kyu grade in my category. I did Bassai Dai in the first round and Jion in the second round (bog standard brown belt kata, I didn't know any black belt kata well enough to perform them!). I thought I'd done well and was pleased with how I'd performed them and was glad of the experience. I was sure that the lady stood next to me in the final line-up was going to win. She performed a magnificent Unsu and an equally impressive Kanku Sho. However, she came second and I won! I'm not sure whether the judge just felt sorry for me being the only brown belt or if he just got me mixed up with someone else. lol! Anyway, I felt so lucky to win. Sorry for the long rambling post, I've had too much beer and its far too late.

In only my second ever karate competition I ended up sparring against another woman from my club. It was her first competition. When we found out we'd drawn each other we stopped being nervous and just had a good laugh. We'd been used to sparring against one another before so we really went for it - and both had to pull out injured!! We ended up going for a kick at exactly the same time, me off my front leg and her off her back leg. Our ankles me with a lovely cracking sound... I wasn't sure whether sensei wanted to laugh or strangle us both.

hey ay, tell me about it. I've talked to guys in the past and they've got really stressed about me being a martial artist. It's maybe because I'm short & small and they don't really think I'm capable of kicking them in the head. I was once chatting to a male friend of my cousin and he asked what I liked doing, so I told him "Martial Arts". He didn't believe me and eventually asked me to do some moves on him to prove I knew martial arts. I did. It ended up with him thrown onto the floor, my foot hovering above his groin and my fist in his face. Well... he did ask!! lol

Well, good luck with your decision to just train with the KUGB. If you were getting 'beaten up' on a regular basis as part of demonstrations within the ESA, then I think you've made a wise decision to leave. Injuries to ukes that happen on a regular basis just aren't acceptable IMO.

If you like the idea of sport karate, then it's a great campaign. Personally, I think it would be a bad thing - as Shotochem pointed out there's gonna be even more McDojo's than there are now. Plus, it's going away from what karate is. I can just see all the kata being watered down to fit in with "Olympic Standards". *shudder*

How long did you do it for, Neo? What style was it in?

Karate4Christ, do you use the Jo staff in your class just as an actual weapon or do you practice kata (forms) with it as well? Just curious... BTW, I recommend Playwell.co.uk for buying Jo staffs! I ordered mine one day at about 3:00pm and it was there in the post the next morning. It cost about £6.

Hi XeDa, welcome to KF! Keep going with your training and don't be discouraged that you can't do flips (I'm sure there's plenty of people on this forum that can't do them either...). Keep practicing and working hard and I'm sure you'll suceed in your training. How long have you been training for?

Kyu grade testing fees in my Shotokan organisation are £15. This is because the kyu and dan grade tests are held in regional locations. The money is to pay for the cost of hiring the venue and for the cost of belts and also for an hour and half training beforehand. The 'extra' cash thats left over after everything has been paid for goes back into the clubs who attended the testing. My club instructor saves all the money up and we have a meeting every so often and decide between us what we want to do with the extra cash. Sometimes we buy something for the dojo and sometimes we all go out for a meal together. Kyu grade testing fees in my Aikido club are £6 - the cost of the lesson beforehand and the remainder for a certificate for passing and admin. Its cheaper than my shotokan club because we grade in our own dojo, rather than having a central grading and hiring a big venue.

*sigh* I fully understand. Considering my instructer only ever seems to be watching when I get something wrong it's a wonder I made it past white belt... Actually, he does see the 'good stuff' too, it just feels like he's always watching when I mess up but never when I have one of my very rare moments of brilliance...