pmeckiff

I'm pretty good at getting drunk Apart from that, nought.....

Metallica, pre-1991 that is..

Surely what you learn in martial arts has nothing to do with whether you smoke or drink. Martial arts should be open to everyone. I know plenty of excellent Karate Ka who smoke and/or drink, including a couple of my senseis who are the best senseis I've ever been taught by (I've trained at 4 different scholls).

At the moment i'm mainly listening to Mastodon, Sepultura, In Flames, 36 Crazyfists (first album), and Metallica (pre 1991).

Wtf? Are you mad or someit?

Dude, you should become an author with writing like that!

You have a chance of getting the crap beat out of you, and you're worried about how you're going to look? To be honest, i'd avoid a fight if I can.. And i'm no punk!

I was in a similar situaton. I had a 4 year break from Shotokan between two different schools. I turned up in a white belt and the sensei said that I should wear my brown belt. I think it's puely a matter of how you feel. If you're confident you can do sufficiently well with your old belt, wear it. It also shows a certain amount of commitment and willingness to do well... IMO. If you are not good enough to bring back your old belt, your sensei shold tell you straight up.

I have mixed views on Capoeira. I tseems to be more of a style of danse thatn a MA. Do they actually have Kumite competiions etc.? Or is it more of a demonstration of how smooth and cool looking one can be after having practiced it?

I think that you'll find that all the big MA organisations have their own world tournaments. There is no way that you could chuck all the different types of MA and organisations in the same place at the same time and see who's he best.

My favorit band of all tmne is Metallica, primarily the 80's stuff. At the moment i'm listening to Betzefer, Throwdown, Bloodsimple, and i've just bought As I Lay Dying and Unearth..

Agreed.

For the IJKA it's: White White Yellow Green Purple Purple Brown Brown Brown Black

Enpi and Nijushiho...

Correct me if i'm way out here, but it seems to me that pretty much anybody who i decent at karate can create a new "school" of Karate, and subsequently become it's Grand Master. When i cam to Uni here, I joined the KArate club after a 3 year break (I trained for 5 years before that in 2 different dojos in France, under several, in my opinion, good karate senseis). Upon joining, i was quite miffed to hear that we have Sadashigo Kato Shihan (8th Dan IJKA and the chief european instructorfor the IJKA) living just up the road. Indeed he comes twice a year to do the grading, and all the senseis that teach us on a regular basis are taught by him. After allmy years in Karate, I have never seen such a high standard of teaching. Anyway, back on topic. After reading the posts here onKF, and doing a bit of googleing, there seem to be so many different organisasions, and "Grand Masters". Shihan Kato is an 8th dan, but this figure is dwarfed by some of the other ranks i've seen in other associations. My question is thus: Is there any one Shihan, in any organisation that is regarded as The Master of Karate, or do they all think that they are better than one another, and therefore give themselves higher grades? (I know my English writing is poor,let me know if it makes no sense to anyone)...