hawkfish

I normally like the old boring sausage or pepperoni pizza but sometimes will have a green olive pizza. There used to be a place that had roast beef pizza near my house. It was pretty good.

Keep it up! My cough went away about a week or two after I quit.

I feel that visualization is very important. I go through my kata's in my head over and over again. I see each move and make sure that I am doing them correctly.

Below is a link on bodybuilding.com with a picture and video of the leg press. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/exercises.php?MainMuscle=Quadriceps&Equip=Machine&Isolation=Compound It's the second exercise on the page.

Did you do anything to hurt it? It could be a heal spur but without seeing a good foot doctor, it it too hard to tell. Below is some info on heal spurs: http://www.foot.com/info/cond_heel_spurs.jsp

Like all the others said, practice is the key. I sometimes slow down my moves at the start of my workout, to get the feel of doing them the right way, and then after that, I speed up to where I am moving at full speed and full power.

At the website below, there is a bunch of step by step kata info. http://www.i-clps.com/karate/kata.html

I have found, even though I like to think I am in pretty good shape too, that strengthening my leg muscles has helped my stances a great deal. Even though I have been lifting weights for 28 years, the way the muscles are used in stances is totally different from how they are used in when lifting. Even though I would assume you are strong from working construction, the muscles used on your job are probably much different than those used when doing stances. One of the things that has helped me is holding the stance for a period of time. As an example, my horsestance needed a lot of work so I would hold the stance, in a position even lower than normal, for say 60 seconds and then each time I would do it, I would try to increase the time even if it was only 5 seconds more. They key thing is to make sure that you do the stance the level you want to be at or preferably lower. This will not only make the muscle stronger in that position but also help make the muscles remember what position they should be in for that particular stance. The other thing is, you said you can do the side splits but how is your front split? My flexibility is awful but slowly coming along but I had spent most of my time working on side splits and neglecting other areas such as the front of my hips. Keeping my back straight in stances seems to require more flexibility in the front of the hip area and since I starting paying attention to that area again, I can keep my back straighter than before.

I agree with the others, start karate then worry about your flexibility if you have to. I have read a lot of good info on the site below and also from his book and video. http://www.stadion.com/ Also, like Sohan said, I have found that daily stretching makes a huge difference.

That guy makes those pushups look really easy! Sohan, that's just too funny.

I am not sure about Wado ryu since I take Shotokan but the current kata that I am working on, Heian Yondan has a knee strike to the head.

I would think that drinking and stretching would be a recipe for disaster. From my own experience, after a few drinks, my motor skills degrade very quickly. I would be concerned about getting into a stretch and not being able to control the speed at which I am executing the stretch and the amount of tension on the muscles, ligaments and tendons. For any little benefit you might gain, the consequences of one little mistake could slow your progress at great deal. I would guess that if you spend just a little extra time on your stretching routine, even just a few extra minutes a day, you would gain the same amount or more flexibility than taking the chance of drinking while under the influence.

Keep up the good work! I quit smoking cigarettes 21 months ago and I feel that it has helped my karate training a great deal. I don't get winded, I no longer get that stitch in my side any more and my clothes don't have that awful smell any more. I smoked for close to 20 years and I finally wanted to quit. One of my goals that helped was I was testing for my first belt rank at the time and I told everyone that I would quit smoking if I got my rank which I did.

I was talking to my Sensei about this a short time ago and his opinion was to do a kata that is no more than one rank higher or lower than your current rank.

I listen to a lot of music when I workout but I some of the ones that stand out for me are, The Game by Motorhead, Let's Get is Started by Black Eyed Pea's, I Want to Break Free by Queen and a bunch of others.

My problem food or I guess it is a drink is the Starbucks Mocha blended frappuccino with whipped cream. The venti (really big 24 ounce one) is 530 calories. I have been trying to get the light version since it only has about 380 calories. Still a lot but not as bad as 530.

It's never to late! I started taking Karate when I was 38.

One thing my Sensei had suggested to help the kids keep a tight fist was to have them bring two pennies to class. If they kept the tight fist, the pennies would not fall on the floor during punching drills. The only way to keep the kids from putting their shoulders in to the punches is to keep correcting them. We do many drills and the repetition along with constant oversight and corrections when needed from the Sensei's keep all of us in line.

Shotokan Karate.

I had taken Aikido many years ago, got hurt and quit. My son started Shotokan 2 & 1/2 years ago and both my wife and I started, soon to be, one year ago on the 22nd of this month.

I'm a yellow belt (8th KYU) in Shotokan Karate.

After close to a year of taking karate, I got to spar one of my BB Sensei's today for the first time. He is 22 years younger than me and has terrific control but there were a few times when he connected. A couple of solid hits to my abs and a really hard roundhouse to my left forearm were among the harder hits that he gave me. I have sparred my wife many times and many higher belt students in my class but I must say, today was the hardest ever. It was a great experience though and I would do it again in a heart beat.

No, you still have to stretch. The thing he says is that you can do high kicks and splits without warmup. It really is a great book and my flexibility has improved a good amount in a short time since I started following his instructions.

From a fighting stance, I try to raise my left hand straight up in the air to get my opponent to follow my hand and then come in with a reverse punch.

Good Job!!!