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The only injury I've had that was directly related to karate, (by directly I mean, I also play basketball, and I tend to get hurt there, the usual ankle problems and stuff like that, and then I don't do anything about it and I screw it up at karate.), but yea, by only injury from karate was I broke one of those little bones in my wrist, someone did a wrist lock on me, I lost my footing and fell backwards, when the lock was meant to flip me over fowards. If that was even on topic....

I wear a plain white gi. By the time you get to purple, most people will wear a judo gi, because you do more of the judo stuff in the higher classes. And some people wear black, or black pants/white shirt or visa versa. But you can't wear black until you get to a certain rank.

It all depends. When I was a yellow belt (In my style it goes white, orange, yellow...) I wanted to do heian godon in a tournment (which was about 3 weeks away), because I had seen the kata done, and I thought it was awesome. But at my dojo they don't like us learning katas out of order, so I had to learn heian yodan first. So I learned yodan in about a week, and then learned godan by the tournment. I learned it in class a few times and practiced it like 5-10 times a day outside of class and more during class, and I ended up taking first place in the tournment. So yea. The timing is different for everyone. But if they are dedicated to learning it, katas can be learned very fast. (For some people, depending on how fast they learn things.)

At my dojo we are allowed to wear T-shirts during the summer. It's navy blue with the logo on it. And I love the fact that we are allowed too. The dojo isn't air conditioned and there are no open-able(if that's a word) windows. All we can do is leave the door open. So yea. I think the T-shirts are great.

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "fast pase". But I'm assuming it means like "fast moves" and I'm assuming most styles have both slow and fast katas. My styles got both. Like in Tekke-shodan (My spelling is horrible.) Parts of it are slow, and parts are ment to be done very fast. And in sienchin or zianchin (I have no idea how to spell that.) The beginng is very slow but other parts are faster. Sorry if that wasn't what you ment by "fast pace."

The lesson for today is.... don't run on the stairs! If I didn't run, I would have been late for class, and then I would have gotten a detention. And then I would have missed basketball practice, and I wouldn't have been allowed to play in the next game.

I got into Karate for the same reasons you did. It keeps me in shape for basketball, and I like learning it. The only time I've ever had to use it was when I was running down the stairs of my school, (We have horrible stairs when they're wet.) and I fell. I used the falling thing that I learned in class so I didn't break a wrist. But other than that, I hope I never have to use it.

Yes you have to pass thru all the belts. But if you're an adult you don't test for Purple 4D & 4C. You go right to 4B. And same for the brown. Because adults learn faster or something. Yes, its about 15$. You get to black in about 6-ish years. Yea, the differences in the Purple and Browns are minor. But it's harder than the lower ranks because the things you're learning. Even though there are less between belts, they're very different. In the lower ranks, things focus normally on the same things. Like good stances and proper techniques and stuff like that. The higher ranks are how you exicute it. But I guess that's the same for everyone.

Kewl kewl. Well good luck if you decide to go! Have you been to it before?

This might be a little late, considering the last post was about a week ago, but I'm new to the board, and I figured I'd put in my two sense just in case you still wanted it. Like BJJ said, it's kind of weird for me, a green belt, to be giving advice on these katas...But I'll try. In Bassai Dai, the first movement, where you fall into the middle block is one of the most dramatic movements in the kata. And you have to watch and make sure your feet are facing the right directions. The way I learned the jump was lay down a punching bag. Stand on one side, and jump over, and land directly on the other side. That's suppose to be how high the jump is and how long. Because it's not a very long jump. Also the last part, the 2 grab to the groin movements, you need to get the hip rotations in, and emphisise(sp?) the switching of the front stance to a back stance.

Oh yes, I know that well (said with feeling). I'm fairly new to nunchaku training too and I keep klunking myself with my wooden ones. Still, if I keep hitting myself round the head with them, I should soon learn not to do that! Well I've learned not to do it, I just haven't learned how to not do it.

2-3 months for the lower ranks. Longer once you get to purple and brown.

LoL. Yea. It should take, I think, 4-8, or 6-8, years to get to black belt. But yea, it's defidently a good thing.

Yea it is.

I was wondering if anyone here was going to be attending the USAKF Nationals held in Akron, Ohio on August 14th. And if so, what are you going to be competing in? Also, if any one has been to one of the USAKF national tournements before, what did you compete in and what was it like?

My style goes: White Orange 12 kyu Orange - 11 kyu Yellow 10 kyu Yellow - 9 kyu Blue 8 kyu Blue - 7 kyu, Green 6 kyu Green - 5 kyu Purple 4D kyu Purple -- 4C kyu Purple -- - 4B kyu Purple -- -- 4A kyu Purple -- -- - 3D kyu Purple -- -- -- 3C kyu Purple -- -- -- - 3B kyu, Purple -- -- -- -- 3A kyu Brown 2D kyu Brown -- 2C kyu Brown -- - 2B kyu Brown -- -- 2A kyu Brown -- -- - 1D kyu Brown -- -- -- 1C kyu Brown -- -- -- - 1B kyu Brown -- -- -- -- 1A kyu Black Then 8 levels of black belt.

I'm new to nunchuku too. I've never hit my arm like you described. *Knocks on wood.* But I do tend to hit myself in the back of the head. And it's exremely painful. Espically with wooden ones.

Not quiet sure how I would spell this... But here's a try. The only way I could think to spell it "hight". You can't really hear the "t" on the end, but it doesn't sound like the word "high". Yea...I'm sitting in my living room yelling, trying to figure out how to spell it,...my little brother thinks I'm crazy now...

My least favorite kata is Hiean Nidan. Second least favorite is Jion.

Right now I'm working on kata and kumite for the USAKF Nationals. I'm mainly working on getting out after I attack. I always seem to forget that... And I'm working on bassai dai and zianchin. (The spelling of those are way off.) And I'm working on hiean godan, because my sensai is not sure of which kata I'm going to be allowed to do for nationals, he doesn't really want me going in there doing black belt level katas as a green belt...yeah. I drifted off topic there...