vertigo

Agreed. As far as I see it, if your opponent (for whatever reason) threw a full force punch and landed it (like the example from Ted T.).. odds are a counter is not even going to be possible. I can see where others are coming from, in not getting too defensive. However, not getting hit should be a pretty high priority.

I've always had terrible flexibility... never even able to touch my toes.. but I've never had any trouble in Shotokan. This may or may not relate to your situation (I don't know anything about Shorin-Ryu ). As far as kicks go, I've been taught that if you can front kick to just under your opponents ribs, thats high enough.

my club uses a small variation on this (we cut a few belts out): white (9), orange (8, 7), green (6), purple (5, 4), brown (3, 2, 1)

Orange belt in shotokan... started about 6 months ago.. (wow! time really does fly. i'd love to see a tape of me back then - so I could laugh at myself )

The club I am in here at the U meets 3 days a week.. with an option to attend our Sensei's dojo on saturday morning.. (although I'm not in club this semester, due to my schedule.... i take a course through the U, 2 days a week, option for saturday) Kata towards the end.. that sounds vaguely familiar... we don't really have a set routine during training, but when we work on kata, it is usually towards the end, after we have worked on basics/kumite a while.

Apartment?!?! Consider yourself lucky! Try a dorm room (now there's a 'no room' room for you)... I've kicked my fridge so many times trying to get my side thrust kicks down... I'm waiting for it to kick back one of these days

would it really make a difference if you turned them on or left them off? i mean, c'mon.. if a deer jumps in front of you at the speed of light, whether you can see it or not, are you really going to be able to swerve outa the way?

bingo! my thoughts exactly.. (to a limit, of course ) I haven't had a whole lot of experience with pain in karate (only a few months of training), but when I played high school basketball, I almost judged games by how sore I was the next morning... if I was bruised up and floor burned, in my mind, it felt like I had worked hard and thrown in a lot of effort. now, enjoying pain??? ummm.... probably not but I take a small bit of pride with pain, as it usually means I was working hard.

(this could be wrong too) I thought I heard/read once that it was supposed to signify a day? i.e. White belt - beginning of day/beginning of ma training and as the day/training progresses, it gets darker..

why I can't see much of a difference between when he demonstrates the right and wrong ways to perform a technique... (what can I say, I'm new )

just one... so even though i'm half 8th, i still wear orange belt (as a full 8th would) 9th kyu I agree with you.. I'd almost rather just see pass/fail...

On my test at the end of this semester, I passed with a semi kyu (or half kyu)... so for the next test, will I be testing for my full rank? or the next one? e.g. I am a semi 8th... will I be testing for 8th or 7th

yep, so you just cheat like me, and put a picture of your actual belt color for your avatar

One of my sensei's cell phones goes off a lot during training at the U And he's habitually late, so we can usually tell when he's coming through the hall if we hear ringing...

beat your sensei in dance dance revolution at the club get-together apparantly, some of the club members are quite fluent in this game... neither my sensei nor I had ever tried, so naturally we got pretty much forced into playing against each other... about halfway through someone noted "Hey, you're beating sensei!" at which point sensei looked over in (mockingly) dead seriousness "So, are you coming in to train on Friday?" (as if, "Oh?? You think you can beat me at everything now??) :lol:

reminds me of a class a month ago... our sensei was sick, so our senior student was leading class... he ironically had forgotten his gi at home, so he led the whole class in tshirt and jeans

maybe I should elaborate a little more on my posts... I pretty much meant that doing kata helped me grasp the mental aspects of sparring more? (i dunno, this is kinda tough for me to form into text)... as in, had kata not been a focal point in my training, kumite (as I'm a beginner) would be far more difficult, as I would know techniques, yet never used them in tandem, or in a hypothetical defense/attack situation (kata)... so, at least from where I'm sitting in karate (which is very beginner), kata is absolutely essential.... I could only assume that for beginners in general, kata helps lay a solid foundation for a lot in the future.. (I could be wrong on that, but that's just my initial guess)

I guess as a beginner.. I see kata as "introductory sparring" (or an introduction into the concepts of sparring)... if I wouldn't have worked on any kata at all before trying a little free sparring (which we tried a bit about 2 months or so in), I think I would have had LESS of a clue of what I was doing as I did. (if that made NO SENSE, feel free to point it out )

I guess I never realized how few belt colors we really use at my university club until I read this post! We only have 6! White - 9th Kyu Orange - 8th, 7th Green - 6th Purple - 5th, 4th Brown - 3rd, 2nd, 1st Black We don't have any system for telling the difference on sight between same color/different kyu belts. So if there's an orange belt, and you have no idea what specific kyu he is? Ask

Ah.. I kind of have/had/whatever this same problem when going through my katas. We ran through what would occur during our test (almost exactly) a few times before we actually did, and it always felt weird knowing people were watching you... kinda like a fish in a bowl? Anyways, I only seemed to have trouble when I started moving towards or facing where the rest of the club was sitting. Then it felt weird.. I just tried to focus my eyes through them though, to a point on the wall (a technique I acquired from hs choir performances )... that seemed to work. An unfortunate side effect of this (at least on me) is when I try not to pay attention to my surrounding environment, I really can't think at all (reminds me of playing hs basketball.. I could never hear anything coming from the stands when I was on the court)... I just went through my entire test, and I cannot remember a single time I thought consciously or made an adjustment... and I don't feel I tested as well as I could have, partly due to this... any suggestions on how to focus w/o focusing?? (as contradictory as that is)

well... i passed, kinda Got semi-8th, but no complaints here. Really happy though, re-worked my schedule so I can still train somewhat. My schedule got set up this semester so I can't train with the university club ( ), but I'm going to take an intermediate karate course taught by my same sensei through the university... so now I get credit for training ah! that reminds me... assuming I prepare enough for the next test, would I be testing for full 8th kyu? or 7th kyu?

(I have no idea where its at right now, but i'll just throw this out there ) Spinning back thrust kick, straight into a spearhand strike

wow, for some reason, i just discovered the humor board a few days ago... where do you guys come up with some of this stuff?? I wouldn't necessarily say our dojo (i.e. university club) is really laid back, but I know its definently not dead serious.. (even though I've never been to another dojo , as i only started 3 months ago) this one would probably be asking to get my a** kicked though, as our sensei is a 7th dan... and I have a pretty safe guess my 8th kyu blocks wouldn't last long

Joined my university's karate club about 2.5-3 months ago, and enjoy it a lot. Don't quite know why I started , but really glad I did. Test for 8th Kyu on Monday! Can't wait! (even though a little nervous, of course )

I started about 3 months ago (going to test for 8th kyu on monday) and absolutely love it. Why I started? The blunt truth is... I have NO IDEA! I always had something back home to keep me in shape during the winter, and felt like trying something different this time around, now that I can (attending a big city university vs. small home town) I really hadn't thought about this: I like that quote... I'm used to playing a lot of golf, and I always loved just going out to our small course day after day during the summer and pushing myself to get better. Perhaps thats why I enjoy karate... the drive to get better personally...