aefibird

I "ditto" all the advice about talking to your sensei. He's the best person to approach before you do anything else. If he IS unapproachable, then I think you'd do well to find another dojo. A sensei is in charge, but it doesn't mean he has to be rude and refuse to talk to students about issues.

lol I have no choice BUT to do 'Street Fu' - my bank balance certainly won't allow for anything other than 'Poor People's Shotokan' at the moment.

This thread just reminds me of the old joke: How many karateka does it take to change a lightbulb? Answer= 1000. One to change the bulb and 999 to stand around saying "Well, that's not how we do it in MY dojo.." Karate is constantly evolving, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. I think that it would be very sad if it DIDN'T keep on changing, that way it won't become a static, archaic system. Modern life moves at a fast pace and sometimes martial arts systems have to keep that pace or even be ahead of it. I agree that not all changes are to everyones liking, but, heck, there's enough clubs and styles out there for everyone to find a way that suits them (hopefully without all the bickering that "my style is better than your style"!) That's one the things I love about martial arts - there's something for everyone.

Yes, respect is essential in order for your sensei to be able to teach you anything. If you think the guy is an ar$e and you don't respect him then you're not gonna learn anything from him. However, respect has to be two way and it has to be earned. My sensei was a body builder when he was younger and he is still a very big, powerful man and I'm fully aware that he could break every bone in my body with very little effort, should he choose to do so. However, he always uses control when demonstrating on any of his students. He respects us as students and as people who are willing to learn and in return we respect him for his knowledge, experience and teaching skills. Just beacuse he is a 5th Dan with over 30 years Martial Arts experience and over 20 years experience as a instructor with his own club doesn't automatically give him the right to be able to treat us like doormats and walk all over us when he's demonstrating, just to get some sort of power/ego trip. Anyone who beats their students up on a regular basis just to show the effectiveness of a technique doesn't deserve the title and respect that goes with being a Sensei IMO.

You'd have to have lot of savings to be able to pay out for this course. A$130 a week for 2 years, plus $500 to register adds up to a lot of money, especially if you're not gonna be working for that time. Good luck with it if you do decide to go for it.

In my dojo we expect Sensei to make contact when he is demonstrating techniques, but not to the point of injury. An experienced sensei should be able to demonstrate a technique effectively without hurting their students by using apropriate control. Accidents do happen, but if injuries are occurring on a regular basis I'd say it was time to say enough is enough and find another dojo.

Bah, even though it wouldn't work in real life I'd still like to be able to do the flashy stuff anyway. Sigh. Ah well, one of these days I'm gonna invent my own style designed for people like me who have flexibility of a house brick.

Congratulations to Beka, Budderfly and Ramymensa! Well done on passing your belt tests! Girls rock...

Yeah, I think martial arts is becoming more and more popular, especially in the celebrity world, it will probably become "fashionable" for celebs to practice it eventually and they'll start it up, obviously giving up when the novelty goes, damn celebs. I agree that it is becoming 'fashionable' for celebs to do martial arts, at least in the UK. There was a big report in a UK martial arts magazine a couple of months ago about a British TV star (or, rather, wannabe) who only got a mention in the magazine simply because she went to a couple of kickboxing lessons occasionally. I don't class that as being a martial artist, I just see it as following a fashion trend. I think too, that with the poplularity of recent films such as Kill Bill, The Last Samurai and The Matrix, martial arts will become the latest bandwagon. Hopefully, it won't get to the stage that it was at in the '70's & '80's where everyone wanted to be Bruce Lee or the Karate Kid, had a couple of lessons at some cruddy club and then thought that they WERE Bruce Lee or the Karate Kid. I've no problem with the increasing popularity of martial arts, only a problem with those people who train for a couple of months or so and quit and then go around claiming that they're 'trained martial artists'. grrr, McDojo's have a lot to answer for...

Keeping a notebook/journal is a great idea. I started one after I'd been doing karate for about a year and I was amazed by how much it helped my progress. People might think that they'd remember what their instructor says, but often they don't remember everything. A notebook is helpful in keeping track your progress too. Actually, I haven't written much in mine for the last month or so...I'll have to dig it out again and get writing!

Actually, that was a point that a sensei said to me only this afternoon. I've been on an open karate course today and the instructor (a top AMA karateka in England) got us to split up into small groups and concentrate on the artistic side of our martial art. Karate is an art form and he wanted us (it was only dan grades) to express that with our own group-created kata. As well as being artistic, the conbination of movements in it had to be logical and useable and not just chucked together for show. I've never created my own kata before and it was really interesting, although darned difficult too!! As an aside, my group named our kata "Wotizzit", because at one point the instructor wandered round to look at what we were all doing and came past my group and said to us "What is it you're doing, 'cos it certainly doesn't look like karate..." He chose to come and walk past my group when we were all doubled up with laughter because of what one of the other group memebers had just said. Why is it that instructors are garuanteed to be watching you whenever you're doing something wrong, but they're always looking the other way whenever you get something right???

Gereally, within the dojo we don't tend to strictly stick to rules (apart from no contact to the groin or eyes) unless we're specifically training for a big competition in which case we wear mitts, gumshield & groin guard and follow WKF rules.

Yup! It's a cool little technique (and it 'tans' if your partner yanks it on too hard).

I'm not sure if I was looking in the wrong place on that website, but I couldn't find any info about the Uchi-Deshi programme at that dojo, except a little info to say that the club actually had one. Without knowing a bit more about what the programme would be (eg how long, what sort of things you would be expected to do, is it a traditional Uchi Deshi program or is it more like simply becoming a live-in instructor etc etc) I can't really say what I think. Why do you want to become an Uchi Deshi and how long could you commit to it for?

I've also seen the final move demonstrated as a wrist lock too (as well as a drunk karateka telling me it was a groin strike....but he would've believed the moon was made of green cheese at that precise point in time - one too many post-training pints!!). That's one of the things I love about kata - there's always something new to learn and consider, no matter how long you've been studying karate. Plus, every move is meaningfull, its not just a fancy dance. In my club we learn Bassai Dai from brown belt (3rd kyu) onwards.

I 'know of' lots of different styles (and hear of more by the day from the various people on this forum!) but I formally practice Shotokan, but train a little in Goju-Ryu with a Nidan friend, who also does Shotokan. Although my style is classed as Shotokan, my instructor has studied many styles and tends to incoroporate aspects of these other styles in training. He also teaches the higher grades kata from other styles occasionally, which I think is really interesting.

Maybe you could try having a chat with your instructor - ask him what things you need to work on & practice at home. Maybe he'll then be more forethcoming than "thats good", which is alright for self esteem but not much good for telling you what you need to work on (and everyone has stuff that they need to work on, epecially me!! ).

I think that its a good thing that shotokan is returning to its historical roots. Too many people have looked down upon shotokan as okinawan karates poorer, stupider cousin; something to bee seen as a bit of a martial arts curiosity but not a 'traditional' system to be taken seriously. Whilst I dont think that Gichin Funakoshi was the greatest karateka to have ever lived, I'm glad that a lot of shotokan dojos are returning to tradition oyo and bunkai of karate and doing away with the crappy 'tippy tappy karate' (as ESA-Shotokan puts it!) To be honest, I think that some of the older traditional karateka must be spinning in their graves when they see the way that some karate dojos (not just Shotokan ones!) have gone. I agree that sometimes changes are good and can be helpuf to the development of a martial art or a sport or a whatever. However, some of these changes for the so-called better have actualy helped to perpetuate the myth that Shotokan is just watered down Okinawan karate for kids. Now, I know that I have only had limited experience compared to some of you on this forum, but even with my (relative) inexperience I think that a return to the old ways can only be a good thing for the development of Shotokan and karate in general. Sorry for the long post... just my £0.02!!

Maybe kids in martial arts classes are short because they're just naturally short, nothing to do with training. Parents of larger children probably dont feel the need to send their kids to martial arts because they feel that (because of their size) they can probably handle themselves anyway. I can't see how doing martial arts could stunt growth in anyway. Cause injuries, yes, but restrict growth?? Hmm...

Try and keep your head down and get on with it as best you can. I know that grabbing the hockey stick from that *&"^$&*% and beating him round the head with it would be a satisfying thing to do, but you're gonna get into sooooo much trouble if you get into fights with him - especially if the staff find out you do MA. (Some teachers can be funny about MA and see martial artists as some sort of violent nut jobs who like kicking other peoples heads in.) Try complaining again to the PE coach. If that doesn't work complain to a senior staff member and tell your parents too. I shouldn't think they'll like the fact that someone is trying to brain you with a hockey puck every PE lesson. Just try and remember, though, that you'll soon be out of high school and never have to see puck-boy or the rhinos in the hallway again. I know that it sucks now, but will it really be something that affects the rest of your life. I know I sound like a preaching old giffer (well, I am!!) but work hard and try and ride it out until the end of the school year. Good luck with it.

I'm mostly a striker with grappling mixed in. I'd like to learn more grappling (maybe BJJ one day!) as I think it's important to learn striking AND grappling. A streetfight won't just be one or the other.

I've just been reading the "Help, have I been ripped off?" thread and it got me thinking. How do people pay for their lessons? It seems that most people on this forum who are from the US pay monthly or have a yearly contract, but many MA clubs in the UK have a 'pay per lesson' thing going on. What do you do?

We do knuckle and fingertip push ups, as well as regular ones, but finger & knuckle PU's can be done if we're doing normal ones for if you want to make your workouts harder. Only adults do finger tip and knuckle PU's. Juniors just do flat hand press ups and dont have to do as many.

Generally I tend to kick to the front square on with hip thrust forwards, toes on opposite foot forward or slightly at an angle. Hey equaninimus, if you meant Shotokan by the 'duller cousin' then come and pay a visit to my dojo. Maybe the Shotokan that you did was dull, but we're not all like that!!

Sheesh, join the club. I've never been so battered since I started to learn breakfalling for Aikido.