italian_guy

Enter the dragon is my favorite. Then all other movies by Bruce Lee. I like some Jackie chan movies (Sorry I don't know the right title in English of those).

I had a blank page from your link.... anyhow also some chinese martial arts have weapon practice. I suggest you to have a look at northern shaolin kung fu.Or you may even like filipino martial arts like arnis/kali/escrima... it starts teaching you the stick but it progresses teaching you to use any object as a weapon (also flexible objects like bath towels).

I rated my dojo as great... it has the following pros: wide instruction (not only striking but also grappling, ground fighting, seminars with other MAs) friendly instructors, inexpensive and not based on profit (they allow me to take two classes each day without extra charge). wishes for improvement: I would like more study of kata and to be closer from my house. (once it was closer but then they moved).

Train hard and don't be discouraged, just try to be as continous as you can in your training... I'm a bad example of this and I frequently have some stop for usual working trips that take me away from my dojo and so I always have to re-gain a decent fitness status. But the nice thing is that I don't get discouraged and always train with passion... if you have passion you'll go far, this is my experience...

I voted 3 because I'm not sure if it exist or not, I'm not experienced enough to make a more definite statement. At the moment the only thing I care is that ki exercises and their martial application are effective in improving my health and my self defence capability. I think I'll have a better idea of deeper meaning of what I'm practicing after some time (several years maybe). At least this is what I think.

Nice link thank you, I looked for a link like that for months!!!!!

I agree with Grenadier however I have found this DVD quite a useful reference.

WOW. I started at 43 but I did not think It was possible to reach that level starting at a certain age

Congrats

Welcome to KF.

Very good article Rachel. I was not good at all in sports either when I was younger, that's why I did not start MA before. MA practice helped me to have more confidence in my physical performance... still I have to recover from 20 years of inactivity but now I'm more confident in what I'm doing and this self confidence have positive impact on my training. Thanks for sharing your experience with us.

Ok the more you practice the more you learn even from a simple kata like our taikioku jodan and the road to perfection is infinte.... however to get a "reasonable" performance with all the moves with a decent flow (no hesitation), the kiai at the right place, a good enough timing and balance. It took me one months, of course it was not a perfect performance, probably the lenght and the width of the steps was not 100% constant, the position of the center of gravity of my body had some bouncing, the rotation of the hips was not yet perfect... ok it is not easy to describe with words the perfection of a kata... but after one month I was starting to have a feeling that something was turning on... About bunkai and full understanding of the movement that is somehow another issue... I think that is mostly related with the quality of the teaching even more than the execution of the kata itself.

As I said, I do not dislike the belt system with all its meanings. I take belt tests just as many people here and I'm happy when I pass. But IMHO it should not be the main focus of my training otherwise it may create distortions...

one or two hours to learn the movement and have the kata in your mind... then you start practice until your technique is sufficiently good the equilibrium and the timing is ok and this may take a month or so for a simple kata....

Osu!!

This isn't true. Some people will only appreciate a belt if they know how hard they had to work to get it - as a true symbol of everything they have achieved. What kind of kick would I get from my instructor handing me a new belt every week regardless of whether I try or not? You can still train for the belt and not lose focus on what that belt symbolises. I do not dislike the belt system and everything that the belt system means. But if the belt color is your main focus, you will, sooner or later, optimize your training with that focus in mind and what jarrettmeyer said (as a joke as he's clarifing) becomes to be somehow logical. Why go to the dojo where with hard training I get a Black belt in 5 or more years, if I can go to another dojo where I can get the same black belt with less intense training in 2 years?

I disagree. Belts do not hold up pants the elastic band and the string hold up pants, belts keep your gi closed. Anyhow if someone trains for the belt sooner or later he will end up in a belt factory.... that's because he will start to make calculations like the one made by jarretmeyer.... ok maybe he was just joking... but somebody else may not.

Welcome to KF

Sparring drills where you test your moves completely, the ripetition of a drills give you the confidence during actual sparring.

I did only one graduation in karate (and one in TCC), I was nervous but not to the extent to worsen my performance very much... at the end my main instructor told me that, during my exam, I did my best execution of the kata I performed. I guess that next time I'll be less nervous because now I know what an exam looks like... before I didn't.

In my dojo the first katas (white belt level) are the taikiokus (three katas) then, from yellow belt,we start the sequence that MJ described in the previous post.

Congratulations.

I agree with most of the thing been said here. So now you have two different strategies that you can choose from... 1) Just ignore him and if you are sarcastic start joking about his claim for better dojo or better art... 2) Be costructive and pay a visit to their dojo and ask them to pay a visit to yours. But also ask yourself if you are happy with your training... because if you are happy there is no real reason for you to be annoyed but if you are unhappy the fact that what he said about your dojo annoys you is because you are insecure.

Contratulations, how does your belt system works?

His tai chi is quite fast.... chen style isn't it?