Dijita

I feel that many people put too much emphasis on belt progression. Personally, I am never in a rush to get the next belt, but I do try and focus on getting better all the time, with each class. I strive to at least learn one new thing in class, whether it's a totally new technique or just getting better at a technique that I've already been taught. When I get that new belt however, it's a great feeling that I know I put many many hours of training and focus into achieving. If I were you, I wouldn't be in a rush to get the next belt so quickly. However as long as you feel like you've earned it then it's not a big deal.

Good luck!! Hope you have fun. Where's the tournement by the way?

Delta1, that's good advice to hear from you. Honestly I had no clue that you were getting "old".. you're attitude is that of someone young and full of energy. I'm still young at 23. I remember as I was growing up being told by my teachers, my parents that I should take care of myself otherwise it will effect me when I am older. They said this because I was always into physicly demanding sports, especially sports like downhill mountain biking... and I always had to be forced to see the doctor when I broke a bone or got any other type of injury. At 23 I already feel the effects of my ignorance when I was younger. For example I broke my wrist years ago (I never went to the doctor for 3 weeks), and now especially when it is colder my wrist can get really sore and sometimes swell. Same with my shoulder seperation, though I did go to the doctor and was never recommended physio, still gives me a lot of strain and pain 2 years later. It is definately good advice to take care of yourself when you are younger. It sucks that you have to slow down... but try not to get down about it. There are so many other aspects of the arts that you can develop even further.

It might be bad advice I suppose. I tend to always try to get back in the game as soon as I can when I hurt myself. I guess I just see it as, if I take it easy in class and not make contact with my foot, the toe will be fine. For example when we do Kihon (Basic techniques) you're not striking anything and if you buddy tape the toe, the toe isn't going to move around. When we spar or do anything that is contact, I let my partner know that my toe is bad, and I don't use that leg to kick with.

We did this cool exercise yesterday in class that might help you. I really enjoyed doing it, as I'm not very good at blocking yet because it's just not an innate reaction. Anyways, this is what we did: With a partner you figure out who will defend and who will attack. So lets say you are the defender... you have your partner attack you with various kicking and punching combos, and you practice blocking them PROPERLY. You do this for 2 minutes and then you switch. The whole idea is that the attacker should be focusing on proper footwork, technique and looking for the openings. The defender should be focusing on blocking properly, staying light on their feet and maintaning a good fighting stance at all times and making sure they are always protecting their head. I hope this helps, if you dedicate yourself to training and doing exercises like this and other similar ones.. you'll find that you will get better and better, and you won't back off for no reason. Good luck, and have fun training!

Cool. Just to clarify, I'm not asking which is better than the other. I was just curious to the differences. I *think* Kyokushin uses more circular movement than Shotokan does, which is another big difference.

It sucks, but doctors can't realy do anything for a broken toe. I broke the toe beside my big toe about a month ago at a tournement. My whole toe went black right away. The discoloring is gone now, but it's still super swollen. My advice, buy lots of medical tape, and tape that pinky toe to the toe beside it ALL the time. Ice it a lot. I wouldn't stop going to class because of it, unless it's REAL bad. It'll take some time to heal, but if you tape it up it should be fine, just take it easier.

Best deal I got for a book was a book written by Bobby Lowe. I can't remember the title, but I found it at a used book store for like $2.00. It had a lot of the Kihon techniques plus some self defense. It came in handy because I sometimes have a hard time remembering the lingo in Kyokushin.

When I went to see Kill Bill Vol 2, I saw that they had a preview for the movie Hero. I guess Tarrantino is bringing this movie to North America. Has anyone seen the original? I hear that it is very good. My friend has had it on DVD for a long time but I never got around to seeing it. I will have to borrow it someday. I think it's by the same person who did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It looked fantastic though.

Wow! Thanks guys! That's great support. My next tournement is in Vancouver on May 8th for the Canadian's. Yikes! It's a big tourny... I hope I perform ok.

What exactly does being grounded mean?

I train in Kyokushin, but out of curiosity, since I know a lot of people on these boards practice in Shotokan (sorry if I misspelt it), I wanted to know how different are the two styles? If there isn't a HUGE difference then what are the more major differences? Thanks! I just want to understand the other styles better.

At our club I learned the Takiyoka Sono Ichi (sorry for spelling error). We also went over Pinan Sono Ichi but it wasn't required to know for 10th kyu testing. We had to know Takiyoko Sono Iche and Sono San and a Takiyoki kicking kata (that I forget the name of).

I always thought that Gauku just means striking with your opposite. That is, in Zankutsu dache stance if your left foot is forward your right hand should be out. Maybe I am totally missing what you are asking.

40 cent, I have a bid for The Mas Oyama Bible (I think that is what it is called) if/when I win it, I'll review it for you and let you know if it's worth it. Are you looking for videos that have tournement coverage? Or are you looking for a video with Kyokushin Kata's and techniques to help you learn?

I don't really understand how to meditate.

There are also tournements where no protective gear is worn, correct? This is high level of course, like an open tournement.

White Warlock, you pose some good questions. I never really sat down and thought if I am perhaps scared. I spent some time thinking about this after reading your post, and I'm preety sure that the fear doesn't come from the fear of being hurt or even the fear of losing. But I do know that I fear that I will perform poorly. Perhaps I put too much pressure on myself especially since I just recently graduated to 10th Kyu and I have only done two tournements. For me though, we spend so much time practicing things in class so I go to these tournements with a certain expectation of myself.. and I know that I fear that I won't perform to my expectations... so yes I get nervous and I seize up. I have no problem losing, but if I lose, I want to know that even though I lost, I did what I wanted to do. However I always try my best, maybe that's all I can hope for and the rest will come in time. I really really loved your suggestions though, I thought they were great... and I will try working on them. I think they can be applied to everyday life, because I know that somedays I really need to slow down my brain. So thank you.

This has to do a bit about tournement fighting, but I decided to post in this forum because I think it has more to do with the internal arts. Naturally, I am a very energetic and hyper person. I'm aggressive, and in class I always give 100% and I'm known to have a lot of power behind my techniques. My biggest problem comes from internally or within. I have a very hard time calming myself down when I need too. I'm always a "go" "go "go" kind of person. It's causing me problems because when I'm not calm I tend to react before I think. That is I often times mess up my technique or my kata. The worst thing that results from this is in tournement fighting. Before my match, I'm always moving around a lot, jumping, getting the blood flowing. However the problem is, I am anything but calm. My mind is racing, I'm preety nervous, and when I step onto that matt and fight... I go full boar without thinking about what I'm doing. Everything we learn in class I don't apply like the combos we've learned. I fight aggressive but I don't fight smart. I need help. I don't know how to slow my brain down a bit, and clear my mind of everything but the task at hand. I want to fight a smart fight. I want to be able to think about everything I need to do and step onto the matt and do it. What does everyone else recommend as ways to calm myself down, espeically before my tournement. Many thanks to anyone who responds.

How come people assume that a traditional style doesn't teach you to be a good fighter? Kyokushin is a traditional style, and many people support the idea that the Kyokushinka's are great fighters. Not that it's a big deal for me. I do it mostly because it's fun and I love the mental and physical challenge, and I'm liking tournements.

I don't know how your grading system works, as when we do tests we don't get "A's" B's" or whatever. Our sempai types out what our strengths are and very specificly what we need to work on. For example one poing that he wrote down on my sheet is that I need to keep my palm facing my ear when we do an upper elbow strike. I find actual letter grade kind of odd. The reason I say this is because martial arts is a life long commitment, where you constantly learn. In my opinion it would be impossible for one to get A's or B's because that would mean that the student is doing everything almost to perfection which I would find very hard to believe. Perhaps when asking your sensei about your grades, re-word your questions. Instead of asking him why you got poor grades, ask him if there is anything specific that you can work on to improve. As much as you seem focused on sensei playing favortism, I would try and avoid this. Even if he is, I think one of the most important things in martial arts is to not compare yourself to others. It should be a personal thing, and your main focus should be to do the best that you can do. It's a hard thing though, and everyone does it.... everyone compares themselves to other students wishing they could be as good as them or thinking that they are better than that other student. Everyone advances at their own pace, just make sure you try your best and ask questions if you are unsure. However if your sensei is so closed off that he won't hear ANY of your questions, then you have a bigger problem that you need to address. Anyways, I hope everything works out for you, and you figure stuff out. Congratulations on your new belt!

When I was younger I used to do Kuk Sool Won. I got out of it because I started becoming very competitive in downhill mountain bike racing. Now I am in Kyokushin Karate. Both are very good styles, but I enjoy Kyokushin a lot more.

thats pretty good for such a short time - how much have you been doing per day when u started and how did you develope? Thank you. Umm... I think when I started, I started because Sempai made us in class. We used to go through Kihan (not sure if I spelt that correctly, but what I mean is the basic techniques), and then he would shout out 10 pushups, 10 sit ups, 10 squats. So we had to do them. Then we would do more kihan and he would say the same thing, but this time 20.... and again 30. I do pushups about 3 times a week. I used to compete in downhill mountain biking so I always had a strong upper body. However a year ago I had a severe shoulder seperation which made it hard to do pushups. Being forced to do pushups seems to have strengthen my shoulder which is great because it doesn't hurt as much anymore, and as a result can increase the amount that I can do.

Sorry for my ignorance but I do not know who Andy Sherry is and the punch that you talk about. I would love to learn though, so if you have a good website or other resources to check out, please let me know. As far as that magic person... I can't really pinpoint one person. It is probably because I am so new to martial arts. Maybe this sounds cheesy, but I am very inspired by anyone who I meet who goes beyond to aquire their goals. The person that really pushes themselves in class every day. The person who above all else is curteous to everyone about them. I also have A LOT of respect for my sempai. He goes out of his way to make us a better martial artist. He brings everyone together and really makes our dojo a very tight community. He pushes us very hard and inspires us. He pushes us even harder if he senses any lost hope in us, and it has helped us go beyond what we all thought we were capable of. I am also inspired by Mas Oyama (I know there is probably some bias there as I practice Kyokushin). I am inspired by his dedication and focus that he put forth in his life to become a master of the martial way. He developed both his mind and his body in ways that defied what people thought was possible for a human to do. I am sure that through out my journey I will continue to meet many people who will inspire me in the martial arts.

40 cent, it sounds like you are in a tough situation. I too am a Kyokushin student. Our dojo however is associated with IKO. Definately your first action should be to talk to your instructer, just be honest and open about how you feel and see how he responds. If the response is poor than you need to figure out what you really want out of martial arts. It sounds like you would be much happier at the other dojo though. How long have you been at your current dojo? Perhaps they do fight training but haven't done it recently? In my opinion a good dojo is one that balances everything. Katas, fight training, technique and self defense. Before Christmas we were doing a lot of kata, and techniques and still got in some fight training and bag work. Lately we have been doing A LOT of fight training because it's tournement season for us. I think a dojo that focuses on fighting ALL the time, isn't a good thing either... so perhaps find out some more info on the other dojo and see if they do other things like kata and techniques. Good luck, hope everthing works out for you.