AngelaG

I assume you mean every month italian_guy? At my dojo there is also the opportunity to grade every month. However we do not concentrate on the grading basics all the time (in the adults lessons, the kids do tend to get a bit more of it), unless there is a monster grading session coming up. We are encouraged to practice this stuff in our own time. It just means that you don't have to wait around in a belt you have out grown skill-wise. If anything it is because we don't care about the exams that it is not made into a massive deal a couple of times a year.

I have tried Glucosamine in the past, and it did seem to help a bit. The problem is that it is not that cheap and I already spend a lot each month on my prescribed medication, so I always take it for a couple of months and then get tired of the extra expense and the fact that it means taking extra pills. I am currently working on cutting as much salt out of my diet as possible, and I have a copper magnetic bracelet. When I have a bit more money (ha!) I would also like to try reiki and/or accupuncture.

Just training up to 6 times a week, and instructing another 4, whilst having arthritis is extreme enough with me. I don't really agree with conditioning. I guess having been really ill with the arthritis in the past has given me a healthy respect for the body and it's functions, and I don't want to risk messing up what already works well the way it is.

Makes me laugh too. Sensible people, you and me, know that these self-elevators obviously have a little something wrong in their psyche and must have very low self-esteem. Why else would they crave other people's worship and "respect" under false pretences? The sad thing is that any knowledgeable MA knows the ridiculousness of the situation and just finds them absurd in the extreme. Yes, there should be something out there to stop them creaming money from the unsuspecting public, but if we start have official regulations in the MA we risk not being able to teach it as we see fit... we also risk it becoming totally sport oriented. It's a bit of a catch 22 situation. All we can do is ensure that we don't go the same way and that we educate the beginners in MA in the best way we know how... forums like this go a long way in helping!

Maybe they are also testing your dedication? If it's too easy and advancements are too quick most people will stay, raise the pressure a bit and watch people start to fall by the wayside. If a black belt was easy everyone would have one!

Does it matter to you? If so why? Are you happy in your training? If so what does rank (yours or others) matter? TBH nowadays I see someone like that, and I think "What a pillock!" and then I go and get on with my own training.

Hiya. I've been having real trouble with my lower back, spreading round deep into my thigh. Strangely enough it no longer hurts when I do the splits (for the first time ever I got down into full splits last night!!) but it does hurt when I kick high or just when I am walking sometimes. Unfortunately I don't (won't!) take enough time off to let it fully heal so I guess I am aggravating an injury and therefore can't really complain. Last week I stopped training on Tuesday and didn't go back until Sunday which is a long time for me. Occasionally the pain in my back/groin really twinges and then my leg will often release, so I am also wondering whether there is some nerve problem there! . Sigh... if I ignore the problem hopefully it will go away!

It depends what Martial Art you mean but in Shotokan I don't think so. You need to be able to move relatively fast so you can strike fast enough that you can't be easily seen, and so you can avoid attacks. And you need a certain amount of strength to have an effective strike. But do you need to be a honed body builder, or a trained athlete? IMO no. Some of the greatest karateka still alive are pretty old, and yet no one would dare to suggest that they were not great karateka or that they should stop teaching. I personally don't think that competitions have much place in real karate (just my opinion, no need to flame), so I would say that fitness may give you another edge but it is not vital. As I don't have much experience in other MAs I can't venture much of an opinion but I would think in arts such as kickboxing and Muay Thai that fitness is a lot more important. I've found my fitness as grown as a by-product of my karate, not as a set quest for me to improve it.

Blitz and Giko do a fairly heavy gi for about a fraction of the price of the big names. If not just go for a site's own brand. As long as you get a heavy weight with reinforced stitching it should last for all your stringent requirements. And I would much prefer to have paid £40 for a gi that gets ripped in training than over £100... I don't think I could wear something as expensive as that out of my house without a bodyguard!!

If you are breaking it is important to punch through the object. If you just strike the surface you will end up hurting yourself, aim to punch about a foot the other side of it. The trick is to be brave and not pull out of the technique or you will hit the surface. This is true of all the techniques (although I have no idea of what a fork is other than an eating utensil).

I know a couple of very good nidans who I would prefer to have teaching me over some much higher grades I have seen. I have also met a very knowledgeable shodan who is very good at what she does, and also has the skill of being a good teacher. Teaching/Coaching ability are not linked to Martial Art ability. I know some awesome karateka who just are not articulate enough to be skillful teachers.

I used to care but I guess I am happy enough at my club that it no longer seems to matter. The only belts that matter to me are the one's given to me by my sensei. They are a symbolism of all my hard work, and a person I respect's faith in me. The only time the self-elevated masters should be a problem is if they take new customers, screw them out of money, teach them a load of * and then leave all these disillusioned people out there who think MA is a load of cr*p and therefore will miss out on all it has to offer. But if people are stupid enough to go for the spangliest advert, the brightest uniforms and the longest names then maybe they deserve what they get.

I always find my usual washing tablets and washing in a 40 degrees job gets blood off fine. Change your powder!!

Isn't it something like World Taekwondo Federation?

What happens if your work building catches on fire and the escape is jammed and the only way to survive is to punch through it??? Then you will wish you had big calloused knuckles Well since I work on the ground floor and my office has two blooming great windows which open up fully I would be a bit stupid trying to punch my way through a door. Of course I may regret the decision if ever I get buried alive in a coffin and find I can't punch my way out of there!

I pay £25 a month, and for that I get to train as much as I want, 7 days a week, with more than one lesson on some days. In addition we also have black belt lessons once we get above green belt, which are all included in the price. These include pressure point training, weapons training, sparring, extra kata drills etc. I worked out once with the amount of training I do it's about £1.25 an hour. But then I get paid for being an assistant instructor anyway... which is more than I get charged (if you see what I mean)

Well, that's a new one to me... all these years I thought that "BAR" was a place one went to for alcoholic drinks... SHHHHH... no BAR is Body Alarm Reaction. That way when you tell your Sensei you are going to study the BAR all weekend he is well impressed with your dedication to your martial art. When you crawl in half dead on Monday he just thinks you've been over training. Cool hey?

I live on a huge hill so I will try and steam up and down there at least once a week. I also do my kata slow and with massive dynamic tension... every single muscle in my body tense!

I guess it depends why you are doing it and how far you are willing to go. I have to go to my job the next day and it does not befit my role to have huge calloused knuckles (but even if I didn't have that job I still wouldn't do it).

Blood chokes is performed correctly are really good (or bad depending on what side you are on). If you are not getting the right results you are not applying pressure to the right place, or you are leaving gaps, or you are not using boi-mechanically sound principles.

Not necessarily true. I broke my left arm badly on both bones and I could still wiggle my wrist and fingers to my heart's content... although moving my wrist was somewhat painful!

TCM - Traditional Chinese Medicine MWM - Modern Western Medicine PP - Pressure points XMA - Xtreme Martial Arts BAR - Body Alarm Reaction FWIW - For what it's worth YMMV - Your mileage may vary IIRC - If I recall correctly JMHO - Just my humble opinion IMNSHO - In my not so humble opinion PMSL - Urinate myself laughing BTW - By the way AFAIK - As far as I know

Does thinking about how you are not thinking about MAs count?

Young children have a fairly short attention span and can be prone to drifting off if not kept properly stimulated. You can do this by altering the tone of your voice, cracking jokes and changing activities. One of the things If you make their warm-ups fun they do not even realise that they are warming up/doing exercise, and they put in a lot more effort than if you just had them jogging around the class. Some suggestions for things I do are: - Get the children running around the edge of the mats. To test their reaction speed shout out commands such as left hand, right hand, duck, jump, change direction etc. Then point out that they are slowing down and that therefore you are going to start running too, and if you touch them they get 10 push ups/sit ups/sprint thrusts etc. To them this is just like a game of ‘it’ at school, but you are going to get much better effort out of them. - Another thing I will do is line up the children on the edge of the mat, I will get them to run across the mat and touch the other side 5 times. I will stay in the middle and try to catch them as they try to run across the mat, if I touch them they get allocated press-ups, sit-ups, sprint thrusts (like the game British Bulldog with a difference). The trick here is to spot who you have already tagged so that they all get equal shares and one child is not ‘victimised’. - Finally if you have a fairly small class line them up opposite each other on the mats. Explain to them that when you say go they have to run around the mats and touch the back of the person opposite them. This means they will be effectively racing against each other, and unless on is really slow and one really fast this can go on for quite a while. A good full warm up should last for 17 minutes this includes warming and stretching. Try and get a good all round stretch when doing the warm up, from the toes to the (perhaps most importantly) neck. Make sure the children aren’t bouncing into the stretches as well. Look into which stretches may be potentially harmful to still developing bodies. Exercises such as knuckle push ups can cause problems in the formation of the bones in the hand if performed by children. Some exercises are ok in moderation, but not over extended periods of time.

LOL!!