aefibird

Welcome back Vertigo, good to have you back.

Welcome back!

I do both Karate and TKD and started again as a white belt in TKD, even though I was already a dan grade in Karate. I felt that starting as a BB in TKD would be a bit fraudulant, especially seen as I'd nevery earned any grade in that art. The instructor offered to let me keep my current grade or start at 1st kup (one just before black) but I knew that for myself I had to go through all the grading system. Because I've trained before in MA it has taken me a year to go from 10th kup (white belt) to 3rd kup (blue belt, red tag). Although I already have "done" those grades in Karate I don't feel that it was a waste of a year - I feel I've learned a lot more by going in as a white belt and learning like a true beginner than starting at black belt and always trying to play "catch up". I shall soon be grading for 2nd kyu, so (because of my previous experience) it hasn't taken me long to get up the grades anyway. (Not that it is all about grading, but I'm sure you know what I mean.)

I have chronic asthma and have taken my inhalers into every test I've done, including both Karate dan tests. As long as your instructor or the examiner or whoever knows about your condition then I can't see it should be a problem to use an inhaler. I also take my inhalers to competitions - it's always the first think my TKD coach asks me if I've go every place we go to! lol As long as I take my inhalers befoe sparring then I'm usually OK. If I feel wheezy or "under the weather" then I don't compete. Better to forfit a few pounds entry fee than end up in hospital because I've had a severe attack. As a fellow asthmatic I'm actually a bit surprised that your doctor has restricted you from doing any physical activity. I've been told all my life to keep doing sports and the like as it helps my lungs. As long as I take it at my own pace and not run around like an idiot or try and spar for longer than I can manage then I'm OK. Sport (and MA in particular) has helped my asthma. Since starting karate a number of years ago I have actually had less severe attacks than I did before I started MA and I've only had to have one spell in hospital, something which I used to be in and out of fairly regularly as a child. Good luck with your training, I hope that you can find a way to take your black belt test. You deserve to after your hard work.

Ah, but is it blue????

I'm sure I've been to worse places... I just can't think of them right now!! lol

South Yorkshire, UK The good stuff: *A great mix of big city, large-and-small towns and rural villages *Beautiful countryside, especially in the West of the county where it borders the Pennines. *Plenty of parks and wildlife reserves, including the largest inland bird reserve in the north of England. *Magna Science & Technology Centre. *Bawtry Hall, Brodsworth Hall, Cusworth Hall and a million-and-one other huge stately homes. Lots of glorious architectural beauties to gawp at. *The finest example of a Norman Keep castle in Europe (Conisbrough Castle). *2 top quality Universities (Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam). *The greatest ice hockey team in the world (Sheffield Steelers). *Plenty of great bars, restaurants and pubs. *Generally good public transport links, with trams buses and trains running regularly. *May Day Festival in Wath, the highlight of which is the parish priest throwing bread rolls from the church tower at mid-day (it's a strange local custom, been going on since the 1600's!) The bad stuff: We also have cripplingly high levels of unemployment and drug and alcohol abuse.Since the close of the main source of industry, the coal mines, this area has suffered greatly and is only now starting to recover. There's a shortage of affordable housing, as well as of school places. Child poverty is at an all-time high and as many as 1/4 of children in some schools are in foster care or on the social services "at risk" register. We have one of the highest rates of heart disease and lung cancer in the country, as well as one of the poorest diets and the highest rate of smokers. Life expectancy is lower than in many other parts of England.

Ireland is a beautiful place. I have family living there (in Swords, near Dublin). I might even be going out there to live for a while from next year.

lol, now that WOULDA been funny. No, I'm not one of the 3. They are all from various parts of Doncaster, I live in the armpit of the universe (a place called Wath).

Thanks for this one. I'm a Doctor Who fan Same here. It's a great site with a good forum, although there's a lot of total obsessives on there (even worse than me! lol ).

Sure is! On one of the other MA forums I visit there's 5 of us from the same county (South Yorkshire), 3 of which live in the same town. No, we're not all from the same dojo!

I've only opened a bottle once with my teeth. My uncle used to do it all the time until be broke his tooth, the bottle slipped and he gashed all the inside of his mouth. He uses a regular opener now! I can also open a beer bottle with a 50p piece. The straight edges on it help to flip the top.

I'm from South Yorkshire, UK (although I may be moving to Dublin, Ireland next year).

I compete on a regular basis. For TKD-only competitions I go with my instructor and he organises a team of people to go. Same with Karate-only competitions For "Open" competitions (Semi-contact type) I either find out about them through my Karate Club or (more commonly) search on the internet for comps that are coming up. There's a few of us from Karate that go to competitions like that, as well as the big major events that we all go to as a dojo. I usually do a search on google or competitions or look in martial arts magazines. People have sometimes PMed me on forums too to let me know of events that are happening.

Good luck with it, I hope it works out well for you!

lol, that's great!! Love the PC naming...I shall have to call mine "TARDIS" as it is prone to crashing, doesn't always do what I ask it and responds best to a well-aimed thump. However, my PC isn't half as loveable as a Type 40... Glad to see I'm not the only DW obsessive on here.

We (at TKD) bow with eyes lowered, looking towards the floor (although not directly down). I've always been taught that is is disrespectful to look someone in the eye when you bow to them as it shows you don't trust them, and if you don't trust someone then why would you bow? At my karate club we don't tend to bow as deeply as we do at my TKD school, plus some people keep their eyes on their opponents. I don't but there is no right or wrong.

That's true. I stopped going to my Wing Chun classes about this time last year - I had a few weeks off for holiday and also because I helped a friend move house. Then those weeks turned into months and I found it harder and harder to go back to training there. "what will Sifu think? He'll be upset that I haven't been for so long" was one of the things I thought - which only meant that I stayed away longer. I eventually went back after a chance meeting with one of the other students at the cinema. he encouraged me to return and I was made very welcome, people seemed pleased that I was back, rather than just making me feel guilty or under pressure because I hasn't been for months. It was my stupid self and the idiotic thoughts that I had which kept me away; no one else was making me stay away and if I hadn't listened to myself and had just gone straight back to training after my holiday then I wouldn't have missed out on about 8-9 months of classes. (as it is, I've had to stop going to that school anyway, for several reasons, but if I'd been going all the time then I wouldn't have missed out on so much training. Silly old me.)

Very good point. A lot of people tend to get tense when in kiba-datchi for any length of time - the pain hits them and they tighten up and 'forget' to breathe. Concentrating on your breathing - deeply and slowly - will help you as you are focusing on your breath and keeping that same 'in...out...' rhythm, rather than thinking "oww, oww, oww, my legs hurt, please can I stop NOW!?!?!"

Size isn't necessarily an indicator of quality. I train in a small karate school and a large (considering I live in a semi-rural area) TKD school. Just because my TKD school is large (almost 150 members compared to about 30 members at karate) doesn't mean that it is a McDojo. The SBN at TKD does a lot of marketing - he wants people to train at his school because it is his job. The karate club is marketed mainly on word-of-mouth and therefore doesn't have as many members (plus the karate dojo is about 3x smaller than the TKD dojang). However, I wouldn't say that either of my schools is a McDojo - I feel that I am getting quality instruction and am being charged a fair, realistic price. If you feel that you are getting good teaching and are not being ripped off then chances are your school isn not a "McDojo". I don't like the term anyway - what is one persons McDojo is anothers legitimate school. People often forget that teaching full time is the only job that many instructors have. Obviously, they want to ensure people come to their club so that they can afford to feed their families. Many students doesn't automatically equal bad school. People are happy to pay high prices to join a gym or have tennis lessons or pay to see a sports match but often feel that an instructor which charges for lessons is a "rip off" and a McDojo". People will happily pay £70, £80, £90 or more a month to be a member of a gym or a health club but moan at paying half that price for karate lessons, even if the instructor is Funakoshi himself!!

I hate wearing a chest protector, I find them hot and uncomfortable. This is the type I have at the moment, but I've worn others and hated them all!

In my club we have 3 main drop-out points - a couple of months in, at around 2nd & 1st kyu and just after blackbelt. I think a lot of people tend to drop out just before taking their blackbelt is because they get disillusioned with it. They've been training for ages but still not reached that "goal" of BB. Plus, if there is a minimum waiting time between the last kyu grade and taking 1st Dan then that only adds to it. At 1st kyu you're top of the coloured grade pack but still not progressing (yet). You see other students climbing up the ranks after you but you don't seem to be going anywhere and you still have months to wait before you're eligable for testing.

We do chanbara and other weapons work at my TKD club. We used to use the Century equipment but it was horrible, absolutely awful. Poor quality and didn't last long. SBN has imported some ActionFlex stuff and we now use that. It is dearer but a lot better than the rubbish that Century produce. Seems to be built to last.

If you're gonna have a go at board breaking then use wood, rather than re-breakables. re-breakable boards are good the first time you use them but each time they are broken it wears out the join. Also, make sure that the wod you choose is dry and as free from blemishes as you can get it. Break with the grain, rather than away from it and start easily and work up - start with one board and work up to two, three, four. You can get metal board holders that you mount onto the wall, this means that you don't need someone to hold them for you every time. Finally, don't break with gloves on, especially the ones that have a metal grip bar in them (like the ones show above). If you really want to use board breaking as part of your training routine, then ask at a local TKD centre. The instructor may be willing to give you some private lessons to show you the basics. Better to get a lesson or two than try it at home and end up injuring yourself.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience, I hope you get your money back.