Hoju

For your situation M-K, I offer my story as a example. I went to my doctor because I wasn't feeling too great & while I was there, I happened to mention in passing that my left leg had been hurting every once and a while. He was like, it's probably nothing, but checked it out anyway, and did an X-ray. Turned out I had shin splits. Had I continued on my normal workout routine of running and jumping a lot, I would have had a stress fracture within a few weeks. My dr gave me some muscle relaxors & I varied my workout routine, so it should be all good now. But the point is that the little pains are just the body's way of knowing that a big one is coming if you don't fix something. So I would suggest getting to a dr or sports trainer to look at it and make sure there isn't something even bigger coming

Concur. I would think as soon as it it happened, the sever pain & tears would also clue in an instructor that something was up.

You can't "sign away your rights" but you can sign away liability. Basically, most (if not all) sporting clubs/schools from karate to dance to gyms, have you sign forms that say that you will not hold the school responsible if the injuries were not part of the school's negligence, even if they occur on the property. In other words, if i come in and slip on the floor b/c it was wet, then I can sue. If I come in and slip on the floor b/c my shoe is bad, then I can't sue. To hold legal liability in the United States, you need to prove 4 things. 1-There needs to be a duty owed: The school promises to provide you with oversight & instruction. You have protection which they tell you to put on. 2-There needs to be a breech of this duty, with no adverse reasons. 3-That breech needs to be proven as the proximate, or direct cause, of the contented injury or wrong. 4-That injury or wrong must be proven & have resulted in actual damages. They are very hard things to prove straight across the board. She basically needs to prove that the school did something wrong and that was the direct reason for her injuries. And there are so many contentions the school could raise (including that she knew that sparring has potential contact). Granted, this is US law, I don't know UK laws pertaining to this.

Lol. Yeah, that was easy. Generally, purple & stiff is NEVER a good sign. See a doc.

In some arts, high level seniors aren't allowed to compete by the National or Federation guidelines. Part of it is probably, like was said, they have no real need to prove themselves. I think another part is that even high ranking seniors have people who are better than them, and to lose in front of yourt students would change the teacher-student relationship. As for age seniors, you're never too old to train and compete.

Average at my school (Tang Soo Do) is a little over 5 years, but many can do it in about four. I think the shortest in my school was 3.5.

One of thse things that I've found is to ask people you know. After I started training, I was surprised to find out how many people I knew (friends/relatives/coworkers) who train in various MAs that I wasn't even aware of. I've been to watch & participate in some of their classes (many of MA schools are more than happy to give you a free lesson, especially if you know students from their school) and they have come to some of mine.

Hmmm...as a tall person with long arms & legs, I don't know if I should be giving away my weaknesses... Pretty much the thing that you need to do, like was said, is get in close. This takes out the advantage of distance. Once you're in, all that's really available to the other person are hand techniques, so keep your hands up. Then stay in close, and move quickly & agressively. If its sparring (or even a real life situation), keep moving the larger persno back to the edge of the mat/alley way/whatever, so they can't retreat & make the distance advantage their's again.

Actually, you'd be surprised. Good instructors can tell in classes who is giving 100% vs who is giving 50%. And they can see from the way you handle yourself who is determined to keep trying vs those who don't get something and pretty much give up or don't care.

Hmmm...A 5 year old Black Belt. "Hey Barney...I'm tired of your new song. KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII-YAP!" (kicks Barney's head off)

I'm going to have to go with what the Survey Says on this one as well. Look around for a school in your area. I'm sure (& hope) there is at least one. Weaponry isn't something that you can just jump into unfortunately. You need to be comfortable with your own balance, agility, speed & physical ability prior to being able to use a weapons. And strength is a large necessity for weapons training. Just try taking a broom (as a light example), gripping it like it was a sword & holding your arms out at approximately chest height. The longer you pratice, the longer you can keep your arms up without the burn. But, the first step to MA is enthusiasm. And you definitely have it! Good luck with whatever path you choose.

The low carb Atkin's diet is good if you are 1-not active & 2-follow it very strictly. As for what you lose, I believe its both fat & water weight that's lost. But check out the Atkin's book - It should explain everything clearly enough for you to figure out if you want to & are able to use it or not.

It seems that what I was going to say has been said. It depends on the child. At my studio, there are some as young as 5 & 6 who are amazing already, and there are others 15 & 16 who should not be training at all. If your son is ready, let him start & just keep a watch to make sure he's doing fine. And if it looks like he's having problems, reconsider accordingly. But if he's really good, don't be upset when you have a 10 year old black belt asking why he can't stay up past 9pm.

You know - thats so funny...Normally, I don't notice dates/times of posts, but for some reason I noticed it in this one. I was like hmmm....since not training, eh?

I don't necessarily think it would be a problem as long as you do the dynamic training as part of other training, so that it doesn't become part of your natural movement, and thereby flow into your sparring & other movements.