aefibird

The Way of the Mouse... it'll be the next big Martial Arts fad. You heard it here first!

Hi Andrew! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Good luck for your first tourney! I hope that you enjoy it.

CONGRATULATIONS Dean!

I'm looking for a medium or heavyweight gi (I'd prefer heavyweight) that has elasticated and tied waist on the pants (trousers). I know that Kwon make a gi with elastic & tie waist, but what about other companies? Thanks. EDIT: Any company that people mention has to be one that has a supplier in the UK or will ship to England. Thanks!

Dunno if the Adidas Judo/JJ gi's are the same, but I've heard a lot of bad reports about Adidas karate gi's, especially the cheaper ones.

TKD is the most common McDojo style in my are of the country, closely followed by Kickboxing, "Kickboxing Karate" and various Kung Fu styles. There's even a club in my area that teaches "Kickboxing Kung Fu" and claims that their goal is for everyone to reach blackbelt. That particular school once graded a student from beginner status up to black belt in about 6 months. Unfortunately, the McDojo's are becoming more and more common and the respectable martial arts clubs are being driven 'underground'.

Obviously not.

Hi Amber! Welcome to Karate Forums.

I hope that you enjoy learning form Yamashita Sensei and that you all have a great day! Good luck to your brother for his blackbelt test.

We had a "karate kid moment" a couple of months ago at my dojo when we all helped to redecorate and renovate the dojo. We had plenty of comments flying about on that day about "brush up, brush down" and the like. The next project that Sensei is getting us all to help with is to put a new floor down, so "sand the floor" jokes will be in fashion on that day I bet... One'unusual' way that we train is to practice horse stance with a kid sitting on your shoulders. The little kids think its great fun to sit on the other persons shoulders and the adults and teenagers have competitions amonst them to try and beat each others times of how long they can last out. We also have 'races' from one end of the dojo to the other with a kid sitting on an adults back. Continuing on the 'piggyback theme' we also have 'piggyback' sparring, with an adult or older teen holding onto one of the kids. They then 'spar' against another person, also holding onto a child. The two children have to try and hit each other, whilst the person holding them moves around trying to let them hit the other kid but at the same time not being hit. Its a bit of good fun that we sometimes finish the lesson off with - all the children love it! We also do blindfold kata training, as well as the more common 'mirror' and 'reverse' kata training.

I'll have one, please, Monkeygirl. Thanks! aefibird@howard115.freeserve.co.uk

Yesterday (Sat) I had a martial arts tournament, today I'm doing 'not a lot', although I may go to see a film later.

Hi Rick! Welcome to KF.

Hi there! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Hi Phil! Welcome to KF.

Hi there! Welcome to Karate Forums.

Hi Wesley and hi Tom! Welcome to both of you to KF.

...and the hills get bigger and steeper the more you train... lol

I have never been an Uchideshi, nor do I know anyone who has been one. However, I'd like to get the chance to be a "live-in" student someday, even if was only for a week or so. The story about your master jumping out on you with a Shinai - that's great! It reminds me a little of me and a friend of mine, who also does karate. Everytime I go round to her house or she comes to mine we always seem to end up doing some training together, even if it's an impromptu battle with a couple of nitonbo!

Why not try out a week where you train in both arts and see how you go? If you think that you'd get confused, or wouldn't have enough time or energy to devote to training in both, then just stick to Goju. However, if you like the trial sessions of training in TKD you might as well take up the 'free' classes whilst they're available to you. Just remember to try and keep them seperate in your head - don't be thinking "if I was in my Goju class we'd be doing X" whilst you're in the middle of TKD and vice versa. Approach your TKD training with an open mind and a resolve to do well and I'm sure that you'll enjoy it and get a lot out of it.

My karate organisation doesn't allow patches, except for a school or federation logo patch on the left side chest. However, most of the students don't wear a patch anyway. I have a gi that I have a patch on that I keep for going to tournaments or seminars in.

I train every dayat home, but I train at my MA clubs on Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur and Fri, along with every other Saturday.

Congratulations to your teacher on passing! I bet that was a great experience, to take part in and to watch.

I think that martial arts in the movies has both a positive and a negative effect on people's perceptions of MA. For example, a guy at my Wing Chun class brought along a friend of his a few weeks ago. His friend liked WC and came for some classes. However, he wasn't there this week, so I asked where he was (thinking that maybe he was ill or working) and was told that he'd quit - he hadn't become 'instantly good' after a few weeks training and so he didn't want to train any more. Apparantly, he wanted to "be like Bruce Lee", but didn't seem to realise that B.L. spent years of his life devoted to training, not just a few weeks. On the other hand, however, I think the portrayal of MA in the movies can have a good effect - I'm sure that many people in MA started because they watched Bruce Lee of Jackie Chan or Karate Kid or whatever and wanted to be like that. IMO, the more people who are exposed to martial arts, the better. Martial arts isn't some secret society "if I tell you I'm gonna have to kill you" type of thing - it should be acessable to all who want to train, and if a few movies helps people to get a better understanding of what martial arts are all about, then that's a good thing.