Fish

I agree its good to spar with higher grades than yourself. Until recently, I had to spar with people my rank, and similarly inexperienced. I got hurt frequently by clumsy strikes. Recently, someone joined my class from another club. Although he's joined as a white belt, he was 4th kyu at previous club, so he's more experienced than me. He's also really considerate, because he tells me what I'm doing wrong, or right, and what to work on. So, when you're sparring someone more experienced, ask them for some feedback so you know what to work on.

I started exactly one year ago and absolutely love it.

I'm 6th kyu (Orange in our school). We start at 8th (for juniors), or 7th for adults. I've been practising for exactly 1 year. My last test was in September and it was tough (the chief instructor tested us all). I don't want to test again for a while! Impressions of Wado Ryu? I don't know really as its the only style I've ever studied and the only style I really know about. To me, it's karate, something I've always wanted to do. And I enjoy it for that. I have heard from a Shotokan Black Belt that Wado Ryu is faster, not as hard as Shotokan, easier on the knees and that Wado Ryu stylists tend to be good at sparring.

Yes, I study Wado Ryu, with the UKA (United Karate Association) based around Woodford, Buckhurst Hill, Debden area.

Doesn't training on the first two knuckles also strengthen the wrist?

You're right about it being cold running in the morning - windy too, and dark (until the clocks go back again). But it sets me up nicely for breakfast. Instead of 3 main meals a day, try eating 5 smaller ones, which evens out your calorie intake over the course of the day.

Do you use your meditation time as a time for "visualisation" - which I have heard can be a powerful method for ingraining techniques - or is that something different?

Britnoob, I can recommend a couple of good books by Anita Bean - Strength Training, and Sports Nutrition - these give a lot of advice both on bulking and on cutting.

Does anybody know any good exercises for developing balance? Mine doesn't seem to be very good yet. When I perform mawashigeri or sokuto I want to fall over!

I'm in training for the London Marathon at the moment (in between bouts of bronchitis). That involves running 5 or 6 days a week, albeit usually at low to moderate intensity, with one long run a week. On top of that, Karate, and swimming once a week. It isn't harmful, but you have to eat well, get plenty of sleep, stretch plenty and listen to your body and take an extra easy day or day off if you need it. As far as I understand (but this is from running/ triatholon books, not karate ones), you need to do at least 3 cardio sessions of about 30 minutes a week to have a significant benefit. The three you have suggested sound good, and are perfectly safe. In fact cycling and swimming are good choices, because your body weight is supported so much less risk of injury.

I hope you end up loving it as much as I do (I started almost a year ago and haven't looked back)

How can you guys eat that much breakfast? I'm a muesli man. Everyday, with some fruit (half a peach, or dried mango) OJ and, of course (being a Brit) TEA! That pretty much sets me up for the day.

"Cardio" is ambiguous - there are different workouts that benefit your cardiovascular system in different ways. You can do low intensity endurance work outs where you keep your heart rate moderate over a long period, or you can do lactic threshold work, where you get your heart rate up to the threshold between aerobic/ anaerobic work and keep it there for 20 to 30 minutes, or you can do high intensity interval work, where you work at 85% of your maximum heart rate for short bursts, with rest in between. If you're doing low intensity work, you can do it every day (once you're conditioned to it) without ill effects. But once you do high intensity work, you have to give your body time to recover afterwards. Usually, you should allow between a week and two weeks between high intensity workouts, depending on your fitness. The key is to get a heart rate monitor and a good book about how to use it.

It's good that you want to do something about it. Like the others said, there's lots of good literature out there. And some of it is reasonably obvious - like, cut down on junk food, Macyouknowwhos, sweets, coke etc. Eat plenty of fruit, fresh vegetables, water, drink plenty of water. And you have to eat less calories than you burn (one good way is to walk everywhere you can0. But you also need to get the right balance between complex carbohydrates (starchy foods) and proteins, a little bit of fat. And to get that right, you need to read up on it. I eat something like as follows: Breakfast: Muesli with fresh fruit Mid Morning: Piece of fruit Lunch: Sandwich or salad or baked potato with low fat filling Mid afternoon: Cereal bar Dinner: Rice or pasta with lean meat bolognese/ chilli Bear in mind that you don't just want a diet for weight loss. If you're exercising, you need to know about sports nutrition. Get a good book on it. Try it out for a month and let us know how you get on. All the best.

Then there's hope for me!

I guess you were a late starter, like me? (I'm 35 and have just taken my 6th kyu). How did you find it? Has it been hard keeping up with the younger guys?

At the moment I'm trying to do reps at home slowly enough to be able to concentrate on executing them as I have been taught in the dojo. Lots of perfect practice makes perfect, and slowing it down seems to help. But I agree about the danger of picking up bad habits. The other thing is to be really patient!!!!!

If you're interested in fitness, take up running, cycling, swimming, indoor rowing or skipping, all of which give you a good Cardiovascular workout. As everyone has said, karate is just too complex (even in its basics) to learn solo from books and videos - you need a good instructoir to point out the correct way to perform techniques, and then you need to put in hours (and days, weeks, months and years) of practice to perfect those techniques. Even with a good instructor, you can learn the techniques incorrectly if you don't pay attention to detail, and practice them accurately. I would say it would probably be impossible to learn from a video or book. If your aim is to learn techniques for self defence, then you are going to have to practice with somebody else, otherwise you will never experience what your techniques are like when you apply them to a real human being, and you will never train your reflexes to cope in a real life situation (where someone else is coming at you, punching, kicking or stabbing). In fact, it might even be dangerous to delude yourself into thinking you had learnt something that you could actually use in a real life self defence situation! If you really want to learn karate, find a good dojo.

But be careful using aspirin if you have stomach problems - it can cause bleeding of the stomach wall and can irritate ulcers and cause indigestion.

By a cheap set of weights and ust them to do a wide range of exercises. Don't pressups work your shoulders (amongst other muscles) - my shoulders usually hurt after I've done pressups. A swiss ball is supposed to be good for abdominals (which are done lying on top of the ball), but I haven't tried it myself. Running is good for overall Cardio conditioning, but you have to stretch plenty to avoid losing flexibility. Also, cycling and swimming are good for this.

I'd also recommend Solo Training by Christenson. Also his other book, The Way Alone, which is more concise. But these books will give you ideas about how to construct a workout. They won't tell you the correct movements for kata or kihon. Probably, you need to train with an instructor or class regularly if you can, and then practise at home.

Why would you want to learn without going to classes?

I've read Funakoshi's book. He advocated one strike philosophy: i.e. ensure that, with each strike you should aim to finish the fight with that one strike. Yet the only time he records using karate against an aggressor (and he did finish the fight), he says he felt ashamed of himself!

I like to do crunches in three ways: 1. Lie on back, with feet off the floor, legs bent so knees are above chest. Hands behind head. Lift head down to upper chest off floor 10 to 12 inches by curling up with abdominal muscles - don't pull on head. This works upper abdominals. 2. Lie flat on back, with knees bent but feet on floor. Use abdominals to lift feet off the floor, bringing knees up to almost touch chest. Lower the feet back to the floor SLOWLY. This works lower abdominals. 3. Lie on floor as for position 2. Lift head off floor and use abdominals to twist to the side. This works the obliques. These work for me. I've heard that using a Swiss ball (that large ball thingie referred to in an earlier post) is very good, but I've yet to try it.

I find it helps to try to see patterns. It's a bit like learning a piece of music or lines of a play - you deal with phrases rather than individual notes/ words. I think of kata in the same way.