aefibird

Keep on looking, I'm sure you'll find a good kickboxing or MT club. Maybe you could look at websites of kickboxing/MT associations to see if there are any clubs listed in your area? Just because a club belongs to an organisation doesn't automatically make them a good club, but it may be a way of finding out about clubs in your area, perhaps ones you didn't know existed. Good luck with your search!

As he's the head of the organisation I belong to, I have to recommend this book by Aidan Trimble Karate Kata Applications. In fact, get all of Aidan's books! I also like the Best Karate series by Nakayama and Karate-Do Kyohan and Karate-Do Nyumon by Funakoshi are also great books, as is the book of the life story of Funakoshi (Karate-Do: My Way Of Life). Beyond The Black Belt by G. Purdue is a though-provoking read, as is Five Years, One Kata. Sorry, I can't remember the author of that one and I've lent it to my sensei, so I can't go and check!

To move up a kyu grade in the organisation I'm with, you have to demonstrate kihon (basics), kumite and kata. There are set tasks that you have to do for each belt, getting progressively 'harder' as you move up through the coloured belts. You also have to demonstrate speed, power, awareness etc through your techniques. For 1st dan black belt you have to demonstrate basics, from basic and from freestyle stances. Plus, you have to do combinations of techniques, some combinations you know in advance, others you don't. You also have to spar jyu-ippon kumite with two or three opponents (it's usually 3) and spar freestyle for 3 minutes with 2 opponents and spar freestyle for 5 minutes with a higher dan grade (usually a 3rd dan or above). You have to perform one set kata (Bassai-Dai), one kata chosen by yourself (I did Empi!) and up to 5 other kata from a set list. The examiners can also ask you to perform any Heian kata. You also have to give explanation for each kata you perform, if required.

Happy Holidays to all! May only good things come your way. Alright, who is dedicated enough to train on Christmas Day??

I must tell my instructor that... All these years he's been teaching karate and he's never said anything at all about the New Age movement. Maybe that's the reason my club is so small - lack of new age stuff! lol I'm not meaning to ridicule your post at all but I just want to point out that not all MA clubs promote something else as well as self defence. My instructor never discusses religion or anything like that during class, only karate.

I sympathise! I was once demonstrating ushiro-mawashi geri to a lower-grade friend from karate whilst wearing a pair of tight jeans. Bad idea - torn jeans and strained muscle in leg. D'oh! Not one of my finer moments!!

Great article. It's true that a lot of people see the black belt as the 'end'. When I got my black belt one of the very first things that a non-martial artist friend said to me was "well, you don't need to go to karate class anymore". After I finished laughing at the thought I'd quit karate training, I gently explained that getting a black belt isn't the 'end of the road'. Like someone else wrote, if I just wanted a black belt I could go buy one from a sports shop and save myself all that time training.

I'd hate to try to learn either from a book without having dojo experience as well, but I'd say that striking would be (slightly) easier to learn from a book than grappling, because at least with striking you can practise punching and kicking on your own. I think trying to practise grappling on your own would be very very difficult!

I always find it hard to find out where competitions are in the UK. Sometimes there isn't a lot of info in Martial Arts magazines. Have you tried Traditional Karate magazine? Also, try the AMA. There always seems to be a lot of AMA competitions going on. There's one coming up in Lancaster in Jan and I know of at least one other in Sunderland. I think also it's partly to do with the time of year - because its Christmas & New Year there isn't as many comps happening or much info about.

Finn, I've not heard of the kata Sifa, is it similar to a kata from another style, or is it one that is only practiced in GKR?

One of the explanations that my instructor uses for Taikyouku Shodan (I can't spell it - we call it Kihon kata in my association!) is that it isn't a 'block then punch then turn to face another opponent' but that it is a series of moves that can be taken out and applied as separate techniques. For example, the turns in T. Shodan could be explained as a possible throw or sweep. Also my instructor feels that another explanation for T. Shodan is as a training kata to help beginners to get used to basic blocking and punching. He also says that the block-punch combination is the start of a series of other moves, not shown in the kata. The block could also be interpreted as a strike or the start of a grabbing technique. He's got other explanations for the movements in T. Shodan, but I'll have to ask him the others, I can't quite remember them at the moment. That was a very bad explanation; sometimes its really hard to put stuff that you know well into words.

Congratulations aes! I'll post a pic or two when I get round to getting the film developed (my digital camera refused to work at a crucial moment, so I had to nip to the shop and get one of those single-use cameras!!)

Why no contact for white & beginner yellow belts? If there's gonna be contact in later belts, you might as well start somewhere. I think that some level of contact (I'll not say what, people have their own opinions)is necessary when training, even if it can never be truly 'realistic', like in a street fight. At least with contact fighting you're more prepared for if you get into a street fight, because you know what it feels like to be hit. Dojo fighting can't ever be 100% like a street fight (maybe be 99.9% like one though!) but you just gotta hope that the training and practicing willl pay off and you'll have the advantage.

Great story. I empathise with being 'Trombone 3'. I was, at one time or another, 'Clarinet 3', 'Flute 3', and 'reserve-reserve piccolo'. That was when I was ^much^ younger and thought it amusing to create as much noise as I could with metal instruments and annoy my family. Heh heh. I did progress to being Flute 1 and Clarianet 1, though not at the same time. My mum & dad are musical, so if they wern't nagging me to practise my flute, it was clarianet nagging, piccolo nagging, piano nagging, saxophone nagging... I 'rebelled' from blowing instruments when I got older and discovered you could make faaaar much more noise with a bass guitar and an good amplifier...

I have to admit to a liking for haggis, even though the thought of it is a bit gross. I also like "black pudding" , which is dried pigs blood in skin. The grossest thing I've ever eaten was a 'stew' that I had when I was in Ghana. It had chicken in it, but it wasn't prime breast meat I tell ya!! I also ate snake on a visit to Tanzania; it's quite nice actually.

It was a good test, Aidan Trimble is an excellent sensei. As he's the head of my association I've trained with him quite a few times now and he always amazes me with how good his teaching and his knowledge of karate are.

Great posts, Chris! Your trip sounds fantastic! Please tell us more about your visit to Korea.

Well, it's cold outside (again) and raining too (yet again!), so it got me wishing summer was here. That got me thinking about which was my favourite season, so because I'm bored I thought I'd start a poll. My favourite season is probably summer, but I love it in winter when it snows (instead of rains). The trouble with England is that it hardly ever snows, just rains a lot. Sigh.

I got 6... romantic. Hmm, not really sure that it's me (or that I wanna share a birth number with Goldie Hawn! ). I was born early, maybe I ought to rerun the test for my 'official' birthdate, maybe that'll be more like me! # 6 - THE ROMANTIC 6 's are idealistic and need to feel useful to be happy. A strong family connection is important to them. Their actions influence their decisions. They have a strong urge to take care of others and to help. They are very loyal and make great teachers. They like art or music. They make loyal friends who take the friendship seriously. 6's should learn to differentiate between what they can change and what they cannot. Famous 6's: Albert Einstein, Jane Seymour, John Denver, Meryl Streep, Christopher Columbus, Goldie Hawn.

About 8 months or so ago we had a big bloke join my dojo. He was into bodybuilding bigtime and loved showing off his huge muscles (actually, he just loved showing off - he's a bit of a j£rk.) Well, we were doing some freestyle sparring one day and sensei paired him up with this man who's a couple of belts higher than him but who is small and quite skinny. Muscle guy just laughed and obviously thought he could paste Martin (small guy) into the ground. But because Martin trains a lot and is small and light he made 'mincemeat' of muscle-man's defence and attack. Muscle guy didn't like it one bit! It just goes to show that it's not all about having enormous muscles. I hate it when people start bad-mouthing other arts, especially if they have had no training or knowledge of them. Like WolverineGuy said, EVERY art has something to offer and having different arts is quite a good thing because we're all different and what suits some people wouldn't suit others and vice versa.

Oh yeah, I know I'll get a 'hammering' from my sensei when I go to training this week. He makes sure that you know you've 'stepped up a gear' when you get your black belt and really makes it a tough training session for new black belts for the first few weeks after grading. One girl (aged 16) at my dojo who graded for black in March this year almost quit on the spot after going to training the day after grading and passing. She couldn't believe how much pressure sensei was putting on now she'd got shodan. Thankfully she didn't quit and is now ultra-determined to go for 2nd dan in the next 2 or 3 years.

Thanks! It was the head of my organisation, Sensei Aidan Trimble, who took the grading with a couple of other black belts assisting him.

Not sure I like mine either... Spunky Misunderstood Genius

http://www.3rdrailonline.com/home.html Hope this is what your looking for. I know of loads of bands, but I've never heard of 3rd Rail before; heard of 3rd Day Rising and Third Day and Third Eye Blind but not 3rd Rail!! lol

*cough* You've obviously never been to South Yorkshire, England... Anyway, the universe can have two armpits - South Yorkshire can be the left one, Saskatchewan the right one!! LOL It's raining right now. *sigh* The last I heard was that the sun is scheduled to come out in England on the 13th July 2023,for a maximum of one hour, but that's subject to change according to government regulations...