italian_guy

G'day mate Welcome to KF

Hello welcome to KF and to karate.

Hi Luckyboxer, thanks for the post on Coke, I'll make good use of it

Welcome to the forums

I'm 43. I'm the oldest student in my karate class, older than the instructors (2 are 39, other two are younger). In my tai chi class I'm not the oldest. There are several people above 50. One of the things I like in martial art is that really you can find your enjoyment in doing it at every age.

what martial art are actually studing? If it is an art that foresees full contact like kickboxing, kyokushin kai karate or muay thai you will be gradually trained to full contact. If you can stand the training go for it!

I fully agree with it. I started doing martial art with kickboxing, I liked at the beginning but if you do not enter into competitions ( I'm too old for that) you better do something else.. I tried karate (Go-ju ryu) and I like it very much, I also do Tai chi chuan it is a great exercise and a good complement for any other martial art and you can do it at any age (especially if you started it when you were not so old).

In both my schools we are something in between 100 and 150. In kung fu there are 2 classes Nothern shaolin (adult and kids), 1 class Sanda 2 classes Tai chi chuan. In karate we have 3 classes (kids,adult traditional, adult sport oriented).

In Italy we have a sort of facultative regulation. I'll explain.. There is a federation called FILJKAM (for Italian federation of Wrestlig, Judo, Karate and martial arts namely Ju-Jitsu and maybe in the future aikido) it is a federation member of CONI which is a governmet agency regulating sports. This federation is mostly for sport competitions rules but certifies also exams and instructors. If you go on a school/dojo which adhere to FILJKAM you have a standard for exams (black belt exam which are held at state level for I-II-III dan or nationwide in Rome for IV dan onwards ) so you know that in order to get your belt you should perform at a certain level agreed by the master of the organization which are not burocrats but MA masters. Also FILJKAM organizes stages for instructor in order to update their teaching.Nobody force you or your school to adhere to this organization but if you adhere you have a certain standard that to my opinion is not a bad standard (but I maybe wrong since I do not have comparison) at least a karate BB by FILJKAM has a knoledge of the art which is the same throughout Italy. My Karate school is part of the FILJKAM while my kung-fu school is not. I do not think one is much better than the other in comparison but I do not think that a FILJKAM school can be mc-dojoish.

DM I do not understand your point. What do you mean by organized fashion? In my case karate give more importance to general body training and conditioning which is basically longer preparation exercises(pushups, more flexibility exercises, abs exercises, more endurance training etc.) while the training in tai chi chuan school varies with the period of the year but is not as physically heavy like in karate. I do not think that this difference is due to the country of origin but mostly to the nature of the art itself and the average age of the students (about 24-25 in karate, and around 35-40 in TCC).

Did you liked it?

I do Goju-ryu karate (Okinawan, Japanese) and Tai chi chuan. (chinese) in two different schools. They are quite different, TCC in the beginning is mostly forms and some basics, we start application and pushing hands only after 2.5 years of training so I'm doing it mostly as a form of gymnastic now, very useful also for the other martial art because it improves my flexibility and it help me being loose ( I heve the tendecy of tensing too much). There are some little conflicts on how to execute basic techniques but the conflics are still manegeable. In the end they will be an amost purely striking art with soft and hard elements (go-ju ryu) and a mix of grappling and striking soft art (tai chi chuan) so I hope that they mix togheter well. I'm a beginner in both (yellow belt karate, 5th chi TCC).

Not so surprising I think yang style TCC is quite grappling oriented, it has also strikes but it has also lots of grappling, locks pushes and throws.

My beginning in martial art was quite smooth, the kickboxing class just opened we were all beginners exept two or three guys coming from another schools following the instructor from its previous class. So the process of training was gradual but after a few lessons it became hard as it should be... lots of bruises, scars and sore muscles especially in the beginnings, but I withstood the training and this for me was an enormous confidency booster since I was by far the oldest student in the class (41 and a half). When we started sparring my confidence growed further since I discovered I was not bad at all despite my lack of flexibility and speed. Now after about one and a half year I made several experience with different martial arts, I discover the two art that I will practice for long time (I hope) so I think for the forthcoming years I will go on with a lot of enthusiasm.

Welcome to KF

I'm quite happy with my heigth I'm 183 cm (6 ft). I would be happier with a few more cms but it's ok.

That's the way to go 13th of what?

For Goju ryu try this http://www.gojuryu.net/

Welcome and enjoy

Welcome!

... and from central italy too.

Welcome to the forums.

Welcome to the forums!

Welcome to KF

Welcome to KF and welcome back to the MAs. I hope you'll love karate.