aefibird

We don't tend to wear protective equipment when sparring, even when doing freestyle, although we very occasionally wear hand mitts. As one of the black belts at my club says "we're doing karate not ballet, you've got to expect to get hit sometimes." There are prohibited zones when we spar, though, such as the groin and the knees. Contact to the face is allowed, although it isn't supposed to be heavy! It's light contact only for under 15's - us adults can pretty much batter the heck out of one another, within reason!! lol

There's plenty of 'advanced' techniques in shotokan. In my dojo we do a lot of kata application and there's plent of advanced stuff in there. We also do thngs like throws, sweeps and locks, things that people don't immediately think of when thinking of shotokan.

http://images.quizilla.com/T/truly-dippy/1061401756_topdreams2.jpg Morpheus http://quizilla.com/users/truly-dippy/quizzes/%3F%3F%20Which%20Of%20The%20Greek%20Gods%20Are%20You%20%3F%3F/ brought to you by: http://quizilla.com I got Morpheus!

Wise words TangSooGuy!

I think that you should read this: http://www.24fightingchickens.com/mu/lifetime/index.html Rob, again, hits the nail with that text. Read it, swallow the recoil it will cause in you, and read it again. I already read it...BEFORE I got my tattoo! I know that, realistically, I'll not be able to continue training for all my life, but karate is an important part of my life and my tattoo sybolises that. That's all, really. I'll shut up now, 'cos I don't wanna get into an argument

It seems that you made a good choice! I wonder, did the karate club fold because the sensei was so rude to all prospective future students? If so, then it is a good think it has closed.

I didn't get my shotokan karate tattoo to flash about to all and sundry, I got it as a permanent reminder that karate is a life-long pursuit. To me, karate is something that should be studied for many years, not something to be picked up and dropped at will. The only person who sees my tattoo is myself, so its unlikely that a passing Japanese person will think I'm odd for having 'hall of waving pines karate' tattooed on my arm (the passing Japanese person would probably think I'm odd anyway, but that's beside the point... ) I wasn't jumping on any sort of band wagon either when I got a tattoo using Japanese characters - my name isn't David Beckham! I got the tattoo done in Japanese because shotokan is originally a Japanese martial art. I agree that a lot of people wouldn't get tattoos, especially not one of something considered to be a 'hobby', so that is one of the reasons I keep mine covered at all times, out of respect for those who don't like tattoos and don't wish to be shown them.

Thanks guys!

I liked all 3 Matrix films, but I thought the first movie was the best (although the fight scenes in Reloaded were awesome!)

The A Team rocked. Mr T was 'da man'! I also used to like Knightrider too, but then again I've always been a bit of a saddo. I love old comedies too - Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, but especially Monty Python. Much better than some of the pants progams that you get on TV nowadays.

It sounds that will be a good position for you to play in. Good luck with it! I also want to add that I can't wait until the Rugby world cup final at the weekend! COME ON ENGLAND! *jumps up and down getting excited* Ahem... I'll shut up now...

Ah, glad that it wasn't just me that scene annoyed... I couldnt't believe it when I watched it - a great fight then he just left??? No way! I felt a bit cheated out of a good butt-kicking finale...

I've used that site before. It's good and very helpful when learning a new language.

lol, good one!

It's not a requirement as far as I know to have your martial art tattooed on you, but I've got it anyway!! I have the Japanese symbols for Shotokan Karate tattoed on my upper am. I have several tattoos, but they all have had to be in places I can cover over easily because I work with children and it is one of the requirements of my job that all tattoos must be covered (even though the area I live in is so rough that the kids I work with will have all seen far worse things than a teacher with tattoos...).

Classes at my dojo are one and a half hours, but we very rarely finish on time, we always seem to run over! It would be much simpler if my sensei just said the classes were 'officially' 2 hours long, because that's what they practically are. We have Shotokan classes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and occasional Saturdays and my sensei holds his freestyle self-defence class on a Thursday.

Well, Gichin Funakoshi took years to master the Tekki kata, so if you have an average of 4-5 years in-depth study for each kata then a person would have to live for many years to be able to properly study more than about 30 kata, so I think that's a good number to have. I agree. I think that Western society wants everything at once and it isn't really like that with karate. True understanding takes time and lots of patience!!

I went out to visit a friend in Ghana a couple of years back. I was supposed to be going for a fortnight and ended up staying for 5 months! I could hardly speak any Twi (one of the languages of Ghana) when I got there- everything was confusing, but because I was hearing the language every day it helped me to improve. It is a bit like being thrown in at the deep end of a swimming pool, though, if you go to somewhere where you can't speak the language, you either sink or swim! I've also used a pc language program. It's good, actually - it tells me when I suck and sound like a dumb tourist. I'm learning swahili at the moment, nice language and no really complicated tenses, which always manage to confuse the heck out of me! Hey, I can barely speak coherant English at times, never mind anything else.

There may be no smith but theres lots of Smiths (200 of 'em, all with red eyes) Gun in one hand, sword in the other, go in there and kick a$$!! Perhaps we all could do with taking the blue pill.

I know I found that too. The rest of the games are great, though.

Seems like an awful lot of marketing and propaganda * to me. LOL, it would certainly make a good topic of conversation!!

Regarding stretching, one stretch that I found useful when I first started karate was to sit facing the sofa with my legs spread out as far as they'd go to either side of me. I'd push my towards the sofa until it touched it and then keep pushing forwards to the sofa, still with my legs stretched out either side. It's kind of like the effect you get when you use a leg stretcher, but cheaper. I also used to stretch by standing with one leg out in front of me rested on my garden wall. It's just the right sort of height to stretch with! Don't push the stretching too much at first, especially if you're very inflexible. Just a couple of minutes a day of LIGHT streching should be fine, especially as you're training as well. Try this website: http://www.24fightingchickens.com/index.html and this one: http://www24.brinkster.com/thecyberdojo/index.html

I'm taking my 1st dan in just over three weeks (a thought that fills me with both excitement and terror) and I was wondering if anyone could offer any handy hints from when they took their first dan grade. I've done MANY MANY hours of training and preperation for it but I was hoping if someone could share some tips on how to help it go well. Also if anyone can recommend anything for my nerves then please do so! I get terribly nervous before karate gradings (but not competitions, for some reason). Thanks!!

I think most people say that they 'know' a kata when they woulkd be able to perform it straight through to someone. Obviously, knowing the movements and actually 'knowing' a kata are two separate things. Like you said, new oyo will present themselves at any time. Plus, the more a person thinks about kata then they realise more about kata, but they also realise that they don't know everything and theres still stuff to learn and discover! Like the song says... "all I know is that I don't know" As for the sticking with my style if it dropped most of its kata, yes, I would stay with it. Some styles only have a 'small' number of kata to start with, compared to other forms. That leads onto another question - if you could DROP one kata from your styles 'list' of kata, which one would it be and why? For me, I'd ditch Heian Godan - I never liked it when learning it and went through hours of agony trying to get it right. I know there are more technically difficult kata, but for me that one is the hardest to do - I even find Gojushiho-Sho easier!! Go figure...

I think you can always refine your kata. I also think its a good thing to spend a lot of time on them, but I think that just training in one kata for 5 years is a bit much, and also a bit detrimental to your other kata that you've learned too, as they're bound to get worse through lack of practise. You can learn many things from different kata, so its a good idea to try and improve your knowledge of them all. Although, having said that, I'd like to spend a lot of time on Enpi and really work on that. I could see myself doing 5 years of Enpi, but with other kata thrown in from time to time as well to stop me getting bored!!