Dijita

That was inspirational. Thanks!

This is awesome. One of our Canadians who went to fight at the Kyokushin All American Open did fantastic. http://kyokushin.ca/events/newyork2004.html Cool story

I still like Kyokushin the best

Kyokushin It's not on your list.

I say you need to move around more perhaps. Learn to start implementing some side steps and avoid the kicks all together. Side Step - Attack - Repeat It's hard to give advice not knowing how you fight. Do you know how to do leg checks? That is blocking the kicks to the legs in the first place?

It's natural to be intimidated or a little bit afraid of sparring. You could just let her know that the good schools would never put you in a position that you will be hurt easily. A lot of schools will take the time to ease the practitioner into sparring. Most schools make you wear all the safety gear to minimize the chances of being hurt. It's something a lot of people are afraid of but once they get into it they realize it's not as bad as they had imagined and a lot of people really start to enjoy it as Delta1 has said.

Yeah, thanks for clarifing the difference between full and heavy contact, because I'm sure everyone thought we were just killing each other. Anyways, I liked your statement about a true martial artists exploring other alternatives. I agree with you fully, and it's the reason that I don't really take martial arts for the reasons of self defense.

Draven, you and I have very similar movie tastes.

Well, I won't speak on behalf of the other martial arts, but I will tell you about the style that I do. I do what's called Kyokushin Karate. We practice full contact, and our tournements are full contact as well with little to no protection gear. In class we practice a lot of our basic techniques such as the different strikes, blocks, and kicks. We do a lot of sparring, and a lot of pad work. We also do a lot of kata's, which is where you practice through certain movements in a formal pattern. On top of all that, we do some partner self defense techniques more related to joint lock manipulation and such, but it's not focused on as much as the other part. I'm sure that even within Kyokushin, there will be a lot of differences in the training. The biggest thing though about it, that makes it so great for self defense is the fact that we train in realistic contact. Probably one disadvantage is that although we learn how to strike to the face, we don't practice striking to the face in sparring or in tournements. If you want less of the traditional aspect, you may want to look into Muay Thai or boxing.

This is such a hard question to ask, because you are going to get opinions from all over the map. It's to be expected as each individual is going to show a respect and bais to their own style. I think you need to ask yourself some more questions before you can begin your search. Some possible questions: 1) Do you want to learn more striking techniques? Kicking, punching? Or do you want to learn to take the fight to the ground? 2) Do you want to do a style that is purely focused on the fighting and less on the traditional aspects such as doing forms or katas? 3) Are you prepared to do a style that practices realistic contact? Or do you want to learn the techniques without the contact in your training? These are just some questions. You should know, that no style will ever prepare you 100% for the street. Defending yourself on the street means fighting someone who is unpredictable, fast, and possibly has a weapon. Taking up martial arts will only increase your odds of defending yourself off from an attacker. Just to add, I personally see a greater advantage in the styles that use full contact in the classroom, as it prepares your body a little bit more to the realistic feeling of hitting as well as being hit. However, again, it's a personal opinion and not necessarily accurate as there's different strokes for different folks.

Hehe, yeah a tricky question. In my honest opinion I'd probably have to say that I'm probably a 3 or 4. I just started in December, so it would be foolish for me to give myself more than that. I've learned a lot though, and it's been a great experience so far. I'd rate my effort at an 8. I give it 110%, but I need to start dedicating more time at home to advance myself.

SE7EN City of God Finding Nemo The Iron Giant The Last Samurai Pulp Fiction Croupier Some of my favorites in a whole slew of them.

Kyokushin is another hard contact art... though not sure if it's for you because it also has traditional elements of karate like kata. You might be better off with something like MT.

$50 CDN a month. One 1.5 hour of class, and one 2 hours of class per week. For people who do tournements there is a fight class that is $5 per session, and is 1.5 hour and occurs once a week.

Hand wraps in a lot of tournements are not allowed. Using hand wraps during training, in my opinion, will actually weaken your wrists. Your wrists will become dependent on them, and you will not learn how to punch properally without them. As stated, do lot's of knuckle pushups. It's important that you are doing them ONLY on your first two knuckles (beside your thumb), as these are the knuckles that are supposed to strike in a punch. Go through your basic strikes again, but go through them a bit more slowly making sure that you are punching correctly.

I have to agree with Delta1. Though I don't think there is reason to belittle any of the more non-contact styles. I think every style has a lot to offer, and everyone has their personal reasons for participating in that style, and not only that but I think a lot of people don't know a lot about other styles to begin with and base their opinions on assumptions. I think the biggest and most important thing is that you should never ever underestimate your opponent. Whether it's in a tournement or some drunk guy on the street trying to beat you up. Truth is, I participate in Kyokushin, and I enjoy the hard contact that we train in, and enjoy the contact tournements a lot more than the point sparring I've done in the past. Now I personally do not take martial arts for the reason to better defend myself... however I do believe that their is a substantial advantage to the practitioner who trains in realistic contact. One of the biggest reasons I love doing contact tournements, is that you get to apply what you have learned to see where you measure up and how well you've improved. It's been said before, and I fully agree, that in a real life fight... everything changes... and I think everyone would be in for quiet a suprise. Training in any martial arts will not guarantee the win in a fight but it does increase your odds.

I train in Kyokushin Karate.

Yes, no where in this thread did I see anyone put down Karate, or imply that it is useless. I agree... I don't think the original poster should try to change his training, but perhaps just add to it the suggestions that were given if he/she doesn't already do so. Disiplined technique is extremely important as you say and I fully agree with that. No one implied that Shotakan or traditional Karate-Ka practitioners don't train hard. I believe they train their butts off. I agree though, that it does happen in other threads often where people disregard the traditional karate-ka as ineffective, but it hasen't happened in this thread. I'm just curious... and maybe this is off topic... but what are your opinions of Kyokushin? Do you consider it a traditional art?

I like that advice.

OSU! That was well said!

I noticed that you are from Japan? If that's the case, I'm preety sure that people in Japan take martial arts a lot more seriously than North America where it's more of a sport to most people. I envy your training. I would love to endure all of that to make me stronger. The only thing I worry is the use of swords and cutting cucumbers on peoples necks. It just seems beyond risky. I have a strong belief that when we train in our dojo, it is fairly hard. We sometimes have the softer classes when we do kata. However we always warm up with plenty of pushups, situps, and squats. We make hard contact... we often do drills that involved a partner punching us in the stomach as hard as possible randomly while we keep our eyes closed. I try to do some hard training at home as well. I'm trying real hard to condition my shins. I roll them with wood, hit them with my hand over and over for 15-20 minutes. I want to get out this summer and start conditioning my hands as well by building a makiwari on a tree or something. I'm a believer in hard training.... though it should be introduced in steps to the beginner to avoid injury.

Welcome to the forums! You should like it here, almost everyone here is willing to help in some way or another. Ah yes the akwardness... the feeling that you look like a fool that doesn't know anything. I guarantee it will pass, and I guarantee everyone has felt it, so all those higher level belts know exactly how you feel. It will pass, and you will slowly start learning the movements... then you will probably feel the akwardness time and time again as you start to learn completely new things. It's a great feeling when you realize that you are getting better and better. Remember though, that this is the beginning of a very looong journey if you intend to stick with it. I'm a strong believer that it is a life commitment. Even when you someday become a black belt it is again another beginning and there are still countless years ahead of you. So take it one stride at a time and enjoy it.

I'm not sure if I know what the fold over drawstring gi is like. I'm preety sure my gi is considered a v-neck. It doesn't have a tie string. Somtimes if my belt isn't done up tight enough my gi opens up. Our gi's are 3/4 length sleeves. My pants are a drawstring which I prefer over the elasticized waist.

I'm confused as to why you have taken this personally. I never, ever implyed anything directly to a specific art. I only stated what I thought compared to the point sparring I have done in the past. Perhaps using the phrase "train differently" is inaccurate, however posting some training ideas shouldn't be considered *. Maybe you do, do the things that are suggested... then great but if the original poster doesn't... then maybe it's something to consider. I, as well as Knockdown, were only offering suggestions on ways to train. It was not meant to put down any style or any other style of training for that matter. I never assumed anything of the style you train. They were just suggestions and nothing further.

Yeah, Hockey is awesome!!! It's HUGE in Canada. I can't even describe how crazy it was in Calgary these last two months! It's just been like a mardi-gras meets Stampede, every single night. It's kind of funny because when I'm reading the newspapers they sometimes mention some American who comes up to visit and they are just flabergasted at how crazy this city is about hockey. Almost every car in this city sports a Calgary Flames flag... everyone's clad in red, some people have been painting their houses, cars, fences, dogs in a Calgary Flames theme. Every game day, a km of 17th Ave was shut down, and people drug out TVs and couches into the streets, the bars piled up and this entire city watched the games together... and once the game was over... the street was flooded with 40 thousand fans. Even the saddle dome piled up to full capacity when the Flames were on the ROAD! I love this sport, I love our team, and I love our city.