Fish

Sadly, life's like that some times.

I guess he must have practised a lot, whatever belt he was.

I also wear glasses. I always try to remember to put contacts in for sparring. If I forget, then I have to spar without glasses on, and then I get hit!

We call them Pinan (Wado Ryu). For some reason, we start with Pinan Nidan. (I think because its the shortest, and easiest for beginners to pick up).

Aefibird is right. In our style, 7th Kyu is the first adult grade after white belt (8th kyu is only taken by infants). Also, 7th Kyu is not that taxing - all we have to do is demonstrate 5 basic techniques, 2 combinations, 3 blocks with gyakuzuki, and count to ten. On that basis my progress is normal.

I haven't got to learning the sidekick yet, but in Wado Ryu we have sokuto fumikomi - a stamping kick to the knee with the edge of the foot not the sole. I don't know why the edge of the foot - I'd imagined because its a narrow, knife like surface, and it's hard. Also, if you use the sole of the foot against the knee, the pressure of impact can spread the bones in your foot, whereas if you use the edge, the bones are buttressed against each other. I've no idea if this is right though.

I've also been doing Karate for just over 6 months, and gained my 7th kyu in March. I've had to spar from the beginning, against people of equal level and people of higher levels (including my Sensei). Of course, its scary at first, but I just try to go for it - the only way to overcome fear. Of course, if you get hit, it hurts, but you get used to it, and try to learn to block or get out of the way. But the big problem is, being so new, I don't have the techniques or combinations to do it well. I tend to agree that it would be better to start free sparring later on, when some techniques have been learnt sufficiently well to execute quickly and smoothly without conscious pre-thinking. The other problem I have is I regularly have to spar against the biggest guy in our class - I'm 6 ft tall, but he's about 6 ft 2" and weighs about 50 lb more than I do. I spend a lot of the time on the floor!!

I agree entirely. A good house must be built on a strong foundation. I'm just a beginner - but I believe it's important to keep practising the basics until they are right, and then to go on practising them to keep them right. Even the most advanced musicians practice the C major scale - for the same sort of reasons.

I keep notes of especially tips Sensei gives me about how to perform particular techniques correctly. Otherwise I'd just forget them! I'm also a musician, and one thing I've learnt from that is that if you practise mistakes, you learn them. So I try to practise everything correctly. There's so much to learn, I'd never remember it without some kind of note.

Since starting karate last Nov, I've started doing some knuckle and some fingertip pushups every day. Knuckles are ok - I find fingertips a killer! I could only do 5 at first, now I can just about do 10. Does anyone else have that problem?

I'm a complete beginner. Sensei had us practising punches and blocks in pairs last session. I got to work out with him. All I can say is receiving his uche uke on the pressure points in my wrist as I tried in vain to punch him was pretty discouraging!

One thing I've noticed in the dojo I attend is that most people, even the higher grades, have quite good "explosive" fitness - i.e. strength/ speed, but lack stamina. Long distance running, cycling and swimming are good for this (I'm also a budding triathlete - wishful thinking!) Running is the most likely to lead to injuries to your joints, ligaments etc, and also shortens your muscles. (One reason I started karate was to try to reverse this and increase my flexibility). If you have the chance, try cycling to work each day - a good way to increase overall fitness using time you'd have to spend travelling anyway. If you do run, cross country is quite good as the surface is softer and being uneven is quite good for balance and a certain amount of flexibility. I agree with the previous post - swimming is a good, low impact way of getting all round conditioning, but going up and down a pool is not the most interesting way of doing it!

Thanks for the article, I found it really helpful. I've wanted to study Karate since I was a teenager, but felt hindered by my Christian faith. I finally took it up last year (aged 34). I now don't see any problem with it: it's great exercise and it teaches you respect, humility and self-discipline, all of which are totally compatible with Christianity. It's nice to know there are so many other Christians who share the same conviction.