aefibird

Hi! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Hi there! Welcome to Karate Forums. I hope you enjoyed your first class.

Hi there! Welcome to Karate Forums, and welcome to karate also! I hope that you enjoy your class.

No probs! A tiny little one-horse village called Wath-upon-Dearne. It's in South Yorkshire, between Rotherham and Sheffield. Yes, Wing Chun is very interesting. I've not been training in it very long (about 6 months), but I love it.

Yes, I've heard of nothing but praise for the ShiKon organisation. Dux Ryu, are you going to go for a trial leson or two there? Good luck with it if you do! I hope that it's to your liking. If you do go for a trial at that club and decide that you don't like it, I know of a couple of other karate clubs in the Barrow-in-Furness area. PM if you want further details.

Laurie, I'll do you a swop anyday!!

I'm quite near to Ashby De La Zouch. If I hear of any tournaments in the area then I'll let you know! I'm off to a tourney in Sunderland this weekend, but that's probably a bit short notice for you.... Here's a couple of AMA comps that are coming up next year. They're large events, but if I hear of any smaller ones in the Midlands area then I'll PM you or post an announcement on here. AMA Darwen Open AMA North East Open Both the links are PDF format, so you'll need Acrobat Reader to be able to see them. About not being invited to competitions...I've never heard that a club wouldn't get asked back to a comp just because they 'won everything'. Maybe you should check with your Sensei again before entering any comps - he may have another reason for your club not entering tournaments.

In my area of the UK (the north) boxing, kickboxing and TKD are the main MA's. However, as DM wrote "most of these are aimed towards the childrens market." I only know of 1 BJJ club in the whole of the north of England - it's almost the same for JuJitsu and Judo. There are a few Judo places, but all are sport-orientated. Wrestling is on a par with bobsledding in the UK - it's there but only for a very very very tiny minority. It certainly isn't a sport taught in schools, as is common in the USA.

I'd train secluded if I had no other option, but I wouldn't do so out of choice. I trained on my own when I lived in Tanzania for a while, but that's because I had no one else to train with. Even though the locals probably thought that I was a crazy woman, some of the wanted to learn karate from me and were getting a good grip of it by the end of my stay. So there's karateka in the Tanzanian bush who have all my karate bad habits... I enjoyed training on my own, but I wouldn't wish to do so again for an extended period of time. Having someone else to train with is a good thing - you can work off each others "rough edges" and challenge one another to become better.

Lots and lots and lots of bruises, bumps and sprains. Split lip in my very first Aikido class (and yes, I did go back!). I've also broken several fingers and toes, recieved concussion, cracked 2 ribs, had several bloody noses, had to have 2 stitches in a busted eyebrow, and had 4 stitches in a gashed forehead (although that one was caused by me tripping and falling down the fire escape at the dojo, rather than an actual MA inflicted injury!)

Yes, congratulations to you Man!

No, I still have my wisdom teeth - you don't have to have them removed, but many people do need them (or some of them) taking out. Anyway, if you haven't been to the dentist in a while then you oughta go and he can tell you himself...

Cool! I love snow, but we hardly get any where I live. We had a light flurry last week, but that'll probably be it for the winter.

Good luck with your new training! I hope that you enjoy it.

three latin or neo-latin languages at the same time? That can be really confusing!!!! It sure was!! I also know a little Italian, so that adds to my confusion...

There's a distinct lack of ANY sort of karate on TV in the UK... so even if you only get 30 mins worth at 3am, you're more fortunate that us poor Brits! lol Anyway, I think there should be more martial arts on TV - there's enough martial artists out there for TV companies to make enough money if they showed more events.

Well, when you do get the urge to call yourself that... can I have a 97863960th Dan from you, Oh Great Master?? *bows respectfully to GrrrArg the Great One* :D

Keep going! You'll soon get back into it. I remember feeling like I'd been run over by a steamroller, been through 12 rounds with Mike Tyson and been kicked into orbit by an angry donkey after my very first karate lesson. Now, I can get through sessions much much tougher than that and still be smiling (usually!) at the end of them. Keep on going with the training - you'll soon feel OK with it. The human body is a marvellous creation and is surprisingly resilliant. Soon you'll be asking for more! lol Good luck!

Personally, I think that websites for MA schools are a good thing. I enjoy visiting the links that people put in their signatures on here - I like looking at where you folks train. Even if I may never visit your school I like seeing your school or learning about your organisation. Learning about other martial arts is important to me and one of the ways I do that is through the websites of MA schools. Having a website can be a useful tool, especially if the MA club is a large one. My karate club is quite small, so everyone is usually kept in the 'information loop'. However, my Wing Chun school is large, so the internet site serves as an important place to check out new announcements and details etc etc.

We have red and blue for karate point sparring. I'm with Ramy - I prefer red too! I've entered a couple of kickboxing tournaments too and I usually wear all black gear for those.

Hi Son Goku the monkeyking! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Hi there HongKongPhooey! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Well, I'm not an uncle, but I AM that person that sends cards a week late... I am trying to improve, though, honest!!

I agree. Thanks everyone for all your remedies and tips. I feel better now than I did... hopefully it'll last!

Well, I'm not in the USA, but I want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all those who will be celebrating it!