aefibird

I liked the movie - very colourful and artistic and an all-round decent way to spend a couple of hours!

That'd be good...except for some alien MA's you'd probably need to have 6 pairs of arms and legs, or 2 heads or antennae or whatever...

Hmmmm...you know...that I can agree with. Giving a "Honorary Dan rank" to a non-martial artist that isn't going to abuse it, and for the reasons you specified. I would drefinitely want to make sure Honorary was displayed on the certificate somewhere prominently...just in case! Yes, "Honorary" is a prominent word on those Dan grade certificates. I agree with the presenting of them in that capacity (such as post-humously or to a non-martial artist). However, I hate the dan-grade trading that goes on between some martial artists (you gimme an 8th Dan in Crud-Do and I'll give you an 8th dan in Useless-Ryu). There's a guy who writes articles for one of the UK martial arts magazines who claims to have about 12 or 13 different dan grades (most of which are 8th or 9th dan). He's in his early 50's and from the drivel that he writes in his articles he's hardly deserving of one of those grades, never mind 13 of the things...

Good luck in your training ncole, hope you enjoy it at your dojo! As long as you're happy with the place, then why worry?

Here's a few Shotokan sites that you might want to check out. Karate Resource Shotokan Karate Database Richard Amuzu's Shotokan Site The Cyber Dojo Shotokan For Everyone Shotokan Karate

Glad to hear you had fun!

I agree with Jax; Abernathy's book is a very good one. I also like "Grappling For Strikers" too. lol, Angela, I think I'm the exception to this rule. I learned Welsh from a very young age and started French when I wasn't much older. My foreign language skills are still on a par with my brain surgery skills...virtually nonexistant...

Master Jules, could you explain some of the similarities and differences between Urban/USA Goju and traditional Okinawan Goju? I'd be interested to learn more about the 2 styles, as I've has a little exposure to Okinawan Goju and found it to be a great style. Thanks.

lol, don't worry about it Rhino... I feel like a complete moron on a regular basis! lol

One night a couple of years ago my Sensei was trying out some new martial arts shoes. Whilst demonstrating a kick on the heavy bag he slipped and landed on his a$$. I think all of us in the class were too shocked to laugh - none of us had EVER seen Sensei make a mistake before. Funnily enough, he's never worn those particular shoes for training again...

Hi dude! Welcome to the forums!

Hi grasshopper! Welcome to Karate Forums.

I've never had the opportunity to train in a seminar with Guro Inosanto, but I'd love to, if I ever could. The man is a living legend.

Congrats on your KF blackbelt Ken!

I have a Tokaido, but not that particular style. I like it, it's a good gi, although I've heard a lot of bad reports about Tokaido lately. As for the side slits on your gi not closing...how about ordering a half-size larger and seeing if that is better for you? I agree with Pacificshore about Kwon - they sell good quality martial arts gi's that are very generously cut.

Well, if any school that you go to treats you like a moron then you should leave. As for relearning the basics "for the 4th time", it sounds like you need to. I'm not trying to be cruel, but if you've only had limited experience of training in martial arts then basics are where you'll start. In ANY martial art basics are vital for correct training and being able to do the other stuff that you think is 'cool'. Freestyle sparring, fancy kicks and using deadly looking weapons (or whatever you wanna do) will only come when you've nailed the basics. Even if your instructor throws you in at the deep end on your very first lesson he will expect you to work on your basics and better them all the time.

Well, if you've been training in competition fighting for a number of years then you should be able to continue that on your own. The training you do in your 'syllabus' class should cover fitness aspects and you'll probably be able to take some of the training from that over into competition sparring. However, have a good look around at the other clubs in your area before firmly deciding to switch. Before you make the decision to move to another club, then ask your instructor if she would consider running competition classes, but on a less-regular (eg monthly) basis. Or if she would consider giving you and any other competition-minded students private lessons.

Great post Wap!

We practice kicks to all areas of the body and all heights. However, we generally concentrate on kicks to the lower and upper legs and stomach areas, as they're probably the areas a person would go for when in a 'real' fight, although that does depend on the opponent, the situation and the skill of both parties.

Thank you for the links Sunrunner!

Woo hoo! Glad to hear it Angela! The stuff that you already have up on your site is great.

CONGRATULATIONS Ted!! :up: Glad to hear that you passed.

Well, my vote would be for Shotokan... ..but it's not my decision. It's gotta be up to you. Think about it hard and ask yourself which one you could see yourself training in in 5 or 10 years time. Consider also the people: do you have more friends or close friends at one club than at the other? What about the instructors? Which do you prefer? Anyway, even if you give up one of your choices then you may be able to take it up again when you are older. Giving up a martial art isn't the end of the world - when you're able to come back to it then it'll be there for you. On another note, have you considered a compromise? How about continuing training at each school, but less often? Eg, instead of training (for example) 3x per week in Shotokan, how about training twice a week in Shotokan and once a week in Wado? Or going to each club on alternate weeks? It wouldn't be an ideal situation, but at least you'd be able to keep training in both arts. I hope that you make a wise decision - good luck!

Welcome to karate and welcome to Karate Forums! I hope that you continue to enjoy your training - train hard and train regularly and you will see great results. Listen to your Sensei, practice regularly and be determined to suceed. Good luck with your training!

My karate organisation does give out honarary dan grades, but it is made clear that they are just that - honorary and do not reflect any skill or training in the art. To my knowledge, the Chief Instructor has only ever presented 2 honorary dan grades, both 1st Dan. One was to a person who has worked tirelessly on behalf of the organisation in an admin role, and the other was awarded post-humously to a high kyu grade student involved in a tragic accident.