aefibird

Does anyone know of any good/reliable websites that have forthcoming MA competitions in the UK listed on them? Thanks.

I love training in shotokan because of the confidence and toughness it has helped me to develop. It's not just physical 'toughness' (although my punches pack a wallop now!!) but mental toughness and an ability to think things through and see them differently. I also love the fact that martial arts is a community and all martial artists are a part of it. Even if we don't agree with style x or think that style y is the best thing since sliced bread, then we are all brought together by a combined love of our chosen arts. As gheinisch wrote, you're welcomed into a 'family' when you join a (good!) martial arts school. I also think it's great that martial artists from all over the world can get together and chat about MA on forums such as this one!

When I hear of stuff like that happening it makes me so mad! Whatever the maximun jail term is, it should be TRIPLED.

I shouldn't grade until YOU feel truly ready for it. If your instructor is a good sensei he should understand. If not... maybe you should look for another club.

Well, I finally did it; today I passed my black belt test! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, except for one awful moment when I stood up to perform my free-choice kata and I couldn't remember what it was called! I stoop up, bowed and said "erm...erm...erm...*thinking furiously* oh, Empi!". Cue a red face from me and my instructor rolling his eyes at me and trying not to laugh. Thanks everyone for your support and advice.

Ah, I'd still swop you just to see for myself. It's gotta be better than the 'armpit of the universe' where I live ...

It certainly was! I then had to stand up and look dignified and teach the white belts with blood running down the side of my face... I think I scared some of the smaller kids, stood there in a blood covered gi. They were certainly very well behaved that night, anyway!

Well, that makes two 'idiot's then, because I always manage to find a patch of ice and slip down on it every winter. My colleagues at work call me 'Mr Bump' (after the character in the Mr Men books) because I'm so accident prone and my sensei says that it's a good job Shotokan doesn't have weapons as I'd have probably seriously injured myself and half the dojo with them in one lesson because I'm so unlucky... I'm sick of the English weather too. I always like it in winter when sensei says we can wear ordinary clothes and shoes to train in because then at least my feet are warm! Cold floors....it should be a law that dojo's in the UK have to have underfloor heating! lol

Yep, I'd heard that too. It's good news! Aside from martial arts, astronomy is one of my other 'obsessions'...

If it's happening at school then tell a teacher. If it's out on the street - try and stay away from him and/or inform the police of his violent behaviour. Oh, and join a good martial arts school if you're not already in one! You need to give us a bit more info on your situation, though. You haven't really told us a lot and people will find it difficult to help/advise you without knowing more about the what and the why.

The best person to ask about doing kata etc would be your instructor. Ask him/her if you get to do kata in your style of karate, or if it is a style that concentrates more on sparring (for example). The school might call itself a 'karate' based style, but it may be a mix of other styles with the name 'karate' just to give it a simple name. Anyway, if you're enjoying your training then I wouldn't let it worry you too much. If you're getting good instruction and its not a 'belt factory' then that's more important than putting a label on the style.

Even if you can't get to a martial arts lesson on a regular basis then you should try and go when you can. It's much better than trying to learn a martial art from a book or a video. Even if you buy the greatest martial arts video in the world it still can't compete with the benefit of having an experienced teacher show you what to do. If you can only make it to formal training , say, once a fortnight then that's better than trying to learn my yourself at home. You could then always supplement what you learn in class with training with a video or a book. You say you workout ever day - could you put some of that time into taking martial arts lessons?

Does anyone else do this in their dojo? Occasionally, my sensei will ask us to 'leave our gi's at home' and come and train in ordinary clothes and shoes. Then we do a session of street application of shotokan. I always find it interesting and I was wondering if anyone else trains like this. We did a 'street clothes' session last week and my sensei was demonstrating a counter-technique on a brown belt guy. Rob was wearing a pair of really baggy 'skater' jeans at the time and my sensei grabbed hold of his jeans when Rob came in with a kick. Well, you've probably guessed what happened next... Cue hysterical laughter from the rest of the class and a very embarassed Rob trying to pull his jeans back up as quickly as possible!!

I don't know if its the same for other people who do shotokan, but in my dojo we practise kicking with the toes to certain areas of the body.

My most embarassing moment came a few months ago. I was running late for * and just stuffed my gi into my bag before rushing out the door to go to *. When I got to the dojo I discovered my 'gi' was actually 2 gi tops but no trousers (anyone else done that??). Well, we usually keep a couple of spare gi's in the changing rooms, so I borrowed a pair of trousers from the spares and headed into class. They were a bit big, but I was running late so I couldn't do anything about it. I went into * and sensei asked me to lead the warmups. We were doing warmups moving up and down the dojo. One excercise we did was like a 'leap' side to side moving forward down to the other end of the dojo. I set off and was almost at the other end of the dojo when I got the leg of my too-big trousers caught round my foot, tripped and flew head first towards the fire escape! What made it worse was that it was hot, and so the fire-escape door had been propped open to let some air in. I sailed straight through the open doorway and cracked my head open on the steps outside! D'oh! It was doubly embarassing because we had a few new kids start that night and sensei had told their parents that I teach the beginner class. The parents were watching and I could see from their faces that they wern't sure if they wanted me to teach their children after all! I've also hit myself in the face with my belt accidently a few times too. Oh, and gone to kick the heavy bag with mawashi-geri and slipped and landed on my @ss, much to the amusement of my sensei, who'd only praised my mawashi-geri about 2 minutes earlier!

risingdragon, at the beginning of this thread, you said you were gonna join a dojo. Are you still going to at some point, or just keep on training by yourself?

Well, I went last week to a judo club near where I live, but I wasn't impressed with it at all. The instructor didn't seem to want to bother answering any of my questions and just wanted to get me signed up and started that evening. It all seemed a bit McDojo-ish to me. Anyway, a friend of mine has his own aikido club, so I think I'm gonna go along and train with him. The only problem is that his club is about an hours drive away from where I live (and I can't find an aikido club closer), so I wouldn't be able to train very regularly. He's warned me that aikido will be quite different to what I'm used to with shotokan, but I figure that if I know the differences beforehand it will help me prepare for 'the worst' and it shouldn't be such a shock when I start training. One thing that is worrying me slightly is that the instructor is a friend of mine. Should you let a friend become your sensei, or do you think it doesn't matter? Anyway, I'm gonna start training with J's club after Christmas - I'll keep you all posted as to how I'm getting on!

Yeah, which I think is a great pity as it is part of karate. Not in the same way as it is a part of, say, judo or BJJ, but it is still an essential part of training. We practise sweeps, throws and ground fighting quite a bit in my dojo and its something I always enjoy learning.

I hope that someone can help me... Ages ago I found a martial arts site that had a few 'updated' kata on it. They were all humerous kata such as the 'fighting your way to the bar' kata and the 'soccer supporters kata'. However, because I'm a wally, I forgot to bookmark the site and now I can't find it again!! aaargh! I've tried searching on Google, but without much sucess.

I'm from England, but I'll gladly do a swap with any of you not from the UK. I need a holiday, heh heh heh. Offers to swop for a couple of weeks are especially welcome from anyone in Barbados, Bermuda, The Seychelles or anywhere else hot and sunny with great beaches.

Shotokan does have full contact; I have the 'battle scars' to prove it!

I think that head guards should be compulsory for children in competitions. Some kids may complain about it and some adults may say that children don't attack with such force as an adult and therefore a head guard isn't that necessary, but I say that we shouldn't make kids take chances. You only get one body to last you all your lifetime - if you get injured when young it can affect you for the rest of your adult life. In the UK kids have to wear helmets when horseriding or cycling, so why not in sparring contests too? I also think that its a good idea for adults to wear hand pads and a gumshield (and a groin guard for the blokes!) - choosing to wear any more protection should be up to the individual, mainly, as people know what they feel comfortable wearing and (hopefully!) should have the maturity to know what extra sparring gear they may or may not need. Good insurance cover is always a bonus too!!

sorry for the double post - I'm having computer problems at the moment. gah, pc's - who needs 'em???

The best thing for you to do would be to go and have a look at each of the martial arts clubs in your area and see what they're like. You could also try out a few classes in each to see which you prefer. At the end of the day, there isn't a 'best' form of martial art to train in and a good instructor is one of the most important things to look for when choosing a club. Also, do you know anyone else who does martial arts? Maybe you could ask then what their club is like and perhaps go along and watch a session or two. If you do go and watch a lesson at any club, then don't be afraid to ask the instructor questions! You're gonna be paying out YOUR money to train and you want to make sure that you're getting value-for-money and quality instruction.

Keep on practising and spar with people of different ability, if possible. A good higher grade will be able to bring you on and help you but should have the control to be able to attack without beating you to a pulp. If you're really worried about sparring then have a private word with your instructor. He/She should be able to help and advise you, and will probably keep a close eye on you during future sparring sessions if they know you're a bit nervous about it. Good luck and keep training!