aefibird

If it is freestyle nunchaku technique you're after then Century make a good series of dvds for XMA type weapons training. The nunchaku one is called Rock Solid Chucks. Other than that, yeah, You Tube is a good place to start looking.

Good luck with training, I'm sure you will be able to achieve your goal of blackbelt - anything is possible if you are dedicated and put your mind to it! As for training at another club, if you see the other instructor just explain to him that you feel embarrased training there because of the children that are there. I'm sure that he won't mind, and if he does then it shows that it wasn't the right club for you anyway. If the club you are starting at is affiliated with his club, then you will perhaps be able to link up with the other club anyway so you maybe will have chance to train with that instructor on occasions. Hope that you enjoy training and that you get that blackbelt!

For Karate I usually like to use Jion or Kanku Dai, for TKD I like Taeguek Sah Jang and Taeguek Yuk Jang. For weapons, these days I usually use a Jo form that the head of my TKD association specially created. I've also been known to perform with Sai forms too.

I like comics, I used to collect (still do occasionally) Star Trek, Star Wars and X Men comics. I also have some Doctor Who comics as well. I like the old classics, like Superman too. I've never really read any Manga but I'm sure I'd love it if I got into it. Anyone got any Manga recommendations for a newbie?

Same here. When 7 finally appears, it will be either the 3rd or 4th time I'll have been queueing at a store at midnight for Harry Potter! Totally worth it, though.

Congratulations on passing, but even bigger congratulations for being able to "take" failure and learn from it - and not giving up! A big well done to you.

In my Karate organisation it is the chief instructor who does the gradings. He's Rokudan but the highest I've ever known him grade someone else is to Sandan. However, ours is a relatively "young" organisation (about 20 years old), so people with the required training time for grading beyond Sandan aren't there yet, unless they trained before the organisation was formed (of which there aren't many people in the org like that). I'm not sure what he will do if he ever needs to grade anyone to Godan or Rokudan; perhaps he will invite a guest instructor in to test them. My own Sensei is Godan but recieved his grade with a different organisation the one we are with now. He's not interested in progressing further, so the chief instructor of our organisation has never had to encounter the problem of what to do if my instructor wanted to grade to Rokudan (the CI's current grade).

Good luck with it!

Are you sure that TKD is right for you? It sounds to me like you are more comfortable with your hands and don't want to use your feet at all, in which case TKD is the wrong art for you IMO. You would probably be better suited to boxing or perhaps sticking to karate but trying another style. If you don't want to kick then you're going to be missing out on an awful lot in TKD. Although TKD incorporates hand techniques (and some clubs use sweeps and ground work) a big focus of TKD training IS kicking.

Well, it depends on what you want to get out of it. As a guide, I'd say a good minimum for training should be twice a week, more as you get higher up the ranks. How often you train depends on a lot of things - how quickly you want to advance, how much money you have, if you are training in more than one martial art at once, how far awy from you your dojo/dojang is, how often you practice on your own at home, how much free time you have outside of work/school. There's a lot of things that can affect a person's training time. At my karate school there's a guy who comes to training about once every 3 weeks. He works away a lot and can't come more than that. However, he trains a lot at home and so isn't much further behind someone who comes twice a week but doesn't ever practice outside the dojo. He's comitted to Karate and wants to learn but just can't fit in any more classes at the moment due to his job. Generally, though, I'd say you need to be training more than once a week to get the best out of your martial arts training, especially if you are a beginner or a lower grade. By the time the next lesson comes around you may have forgotten a lot of what you learned last week - training 2 or 3 times a week will help knowledge to sink in more and help you retain it and get better faster.

If the person is a visitor then they wear the grade they have earned up to that point, regardless of style. Therefore, they slot into the line with their current grade belt on (eg purple, black, blue, etc). If someone from another club wishes to join my Karate club then they are allowed to keep their current grade if they have trained before in Karate (any style). However, if the person has trained before in other martial arts (not karate) then we ask them to start at white belt or as a low kyu grade, even if they are a 5th Dan or whatever in their present art. Realistically, what happens is if a person has trained in other MAs then they get bumped up the grades quicker than if they had had no prior training.

Using a bar on the wall (like in ballet) is a good way to help practice kicks. If you don't have one (why not? Every good home should have one... ) then two chairs and a broom handle tied to them is a good substitute. Chambering the kick above the bar and slowly extending the kick down the length of the bar is a good way of keeping control when kicking. This can work for any kick you like, it just depends on where you stand to start kicking. Practising slowly but accurately will also help you to get height for your kick. Try holding onto a wall or a partner when kicking as well as this can make a surprising amount of difference. Then gradually reduce the amount of support you use until you can reach than extra height without holding onto anything. Make sure that your foot on the supporting leg is turned, it should have your supporting heel pointing towards the target. It helps open up your hips and prevents damage. Also, don't forget to stretch, stretch, stretch every day (or at least 3 times a week). Make sure that you are warmed up before you stretch, though, even if it is just with a few minutes jogging on the spot. Good luck with getting your kicks higher. When I first started martial arts I was totally inflexible - like a broom - but over time I gradually got better and better. My highest kicking point rose from groint, to stomach, to chest, to neck until the magic day when I could kick to my own head height. Now I can kick above my own head height (I'm 5'2 but can kick my TKD instructor in the head and he is about 6'), something I NEVER though possible!

We do something similar with the Heian kata but usually with two attackers. My instructor is also in the process of working out a set Kata Kumite using the Tekki kata series as the base.

Not for fast punching/ kicking as it can lead to damaged joints. Better to wear them for slow kata practice (instead of lots of kicking reps for example) or wearing whilst skipping or other cardio.

Most of my stuff is a mixture of different companies - Blitz, Century, Macho, Dae Do, Mooto, Top Ten, Meijin, Masuta. I've found Dae Do to be about the best for foam/vinyl gear, but they're all pretty similar. Blitz is good for leather gloves.

Hi, welcome to the forums!

Hello there and welcome!

Hi and welcome!

Just a trick of the light...

Aw, that's great!! Congratulations to both of you, I hope you have a very long, very happy life together. At least you'll never be short of a training partner.

DS is great, I love playing on mine. I'm addicted to the Narnia game at the moment but I like all the Mario ones too. One really great game for the DS is Trauma Centre: Under The Knife where you get to be a surgeon and perform operations using the stylus. Dr Kawishima's Brain Training is also a cool little game. I've got an original DS but there's not really a lot to choose between that and the DS Lite. The good thing with DS is that it will play any GBA game.

I love pizza, I will have almost any topping on it. I don't like pepperoni much but I will eat it. lol My favourite pizza would be one with extra cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, jalapenos, pineapple, sweetcorn and red onion.

I wanted to get a PSP but I went for the Nintendo DS instead as it is cheaper. Plus, I really only want it for playing games, I probably wouldn't have used the other stuff on a PSP, so it's a bit pointless me paying out more for features I won't really use. It's a pity that there isn't a bigger choice of games for the DS, the game selection for PSP is a lot better.

Mine is http://www.myspace.com/aefibird but I don't use it much.

I say you still can't beat Snap...