cathal

Indeed, thank you for the information. Learn any new drills, exercises, etc?

We have a typical class where we will touch on Kihon, Kata, Bunkai and sparring drills. Once every other week we will focus an entire class on one of these aspects, e.g. kata.

Try the Grande-Riviere North West Dojo. I'm sorry I can't find an address, URL, etc.

My condolences as well.

Sorry to hear about your injury, my foot still pains me a little bit.

It is also helpful for learning timing, as the instructor can do it by-the-count, and you can get a feel for the proper execution.

Fantastic. You should have your own TV show.

Welcome, it's always great to have more Judo ppl on this forum.

Definitely a good site, but you could definitely setup something like that yourself...may save some money

I'm sure things have happened in the past where a grading ended up being more representative of political, monetary, or other considerations. But for the most part when it comes to grading a panel consisting of at least one Master is usually present. This throws a wrench into many political senseis and most gradings are performance-based. When it comes to mid-level and high-level Dan gradings I'd say that it can vary depending upon the organization. When it comes to women though, that's another story altogether. It is a cause for regret that they aren't given as much respect & recognition as they should. Yes, less women keep with it (in my personal experience) do senior Dan grades. But those that do are phenomenally good...but sometimes the organization they are with sees fit to not promote them. It's a function of the culture and I'm afraid that it will be like for a little while longer at least.

I actually had the same problem when I was at your level. It was only after I had reached my next belt did I realize that the reason for going through it one move at a time was very important. If I can give you any advice it is to be patient. Keep visualizing different ppl attacking & defending while you do your kata too. Supplement your kata training with bunkai training and you'll find it gets much more interesting.

This is good advice.

That guy is always helpful.

Be relaxed, hold your chin up. Water, ice, water ice.: When you strike, tighten all the muscles and immediately afterward relax again. Relax your shoulders and make sure your chin doesn't drop.

OK so first impression: holy cow. The room is full of black belts and they are intimidating. Some are quite literally jumping off the walls. The rest are sparring, and doing some perfect katas. I pick a small corner and start practicing my own kata. But even though they aren't on my team they help me refine some of my techniques. I'm amazed at both the willingness to help and their level of knowledge. I levelled out quite a bit, shed my nervousness and got into it. It truly is a community. Regrettably I was eliminated in both my kata & kumite but I have come back home with a tonne of information, sparring exercises & drills, one-on-one advice from senior black belts and one of our Masters, and I feel like I have truly achieved something truly great. We train in Shotokan with a principle called "Mind like the Moon" which means we train & spar without feeling, emotion, nervousness, anxiety, etc. While sparring this weekend I was completely blank...no emotion, no fear, nothing. Just sparring. Now...how to articulate this to my peers back home.

Thanks for your input, I'll look into the book & experiment a bit more.

OK I've had some time to review it now. I'd like to mention that it was WAY too short for him to express his opinions clearly. All we get is a short few sentences and that's that. You'd need to review the entire thing.

Sweeet

I agree wholeheartedly that with time comes insight into the techniques. I also agree that more and more practice is going to help you determine what is going to work and what will not. This kata, moreso than the others I already know, seems to show me to similarities with the Jiu-Jitsu I took when I was younger.

I don't believe Juliette will help Jack. I think it is an act, and that allowing her to feed him was in fact a mistake. Good escape attempt though.

I found "Ron Johnson Martial Arts": 2003 State Street Santa Barbara, CA 93103 But I'm not from around there, and don't know how reputable they are.

Keep it up you'll be amazed.

I'm sure there are many kata which one can interpret takedowns, submissions etc. This week we were working with Heian Yondan ( http://www.ucc.ie/karate/Heian%20Yondan.jpg ) and I was tasked with working on bunkai with some fo the beginners. So we went through our typical bunkai routine of first having the student think about the technique and then work out possible attacks, defences, etc. One of the students applied takedowns, locks, and submissions in almost every movement. I had advised him that it is fine to go with a particular theme of course but to keep thinking about different applications to see how creative you can be. In reviewing that student's interpretation of this kata I find a lot of the techniues can be seen as a lock, a takedown, and submission. So are there any other kata out there you've seen with a lot of these techniques? Also, in reviewing this kata's diagram (above) what types of takedowns do you think you could apply?

I think it really depends on how you are being held to the ground. Do you have any specific descriptions for us to work with?

I understood your translations, but heck, I didn't know what some of those symbols were called to begin with! Now, what does it all mean?? It's a song we used to sing in elementary school...our school was privileged to have a good lab and we programming in Pascal by grade 6.