gojuchad

Is this stuff even martial arts or is it gymnastics or chearleading. whats with all of the backflips if you try that in a fight youre dead!!!! How can such a impractical move be graded seriously, these tournaments really leave me with a bad taste in my mouth and I fear what message they are sending to the general public. Everyone is just trying to be more flashy than each other which is practically no self defence value at all in my opinion FLASH IS TRASH.

wow it sounds really cool thank you very much for your advice.

i have allways heard flash is trash, which is to say that anything to fancy will not work and for the most part i feel this holds up. In these tournaments it seems that we have gotten away from real ma's and it is now gymnastics and cheerleading. Maybe im just a stick in the mud but I would rather see one or two sharply executed techniques rather than a million flashy techniques.

yeah it really is to bad that people cannont be content with improvement in their ability and let the rank happen. By the way what does IMHO mean.

cool, happy birthday shannon and congradulations on the tournament. I dont have kids yet but when i do I definetly want them to be involved in the martial arts. I heard a good quote once that said something like this, every good parent should make sure that their child knows how to swim and knows karate (sub any martial art). And I agree. Anyway happy birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hi de ho

also i forgot to mention promotions, I think that it should be when you are ready not just every two months or whatever. I know if you are trying to run the dojo as a business this is hard to do and retain your customers but they should at least be quallified for their rank.

i think that grading and instruction should be on a personal level, different people learn different ways. I am from a very traditional school so of course I lean toward the old ways. When goju first started Miyagi would teach his students only one kata thats right you would only learn one kata. So there is enough in just one kata to keep you busy learning for years.

sometimes we will play a version of dodge ball with the kids. They must reamain in a fighting stance (neiko dachi/cat stance) and only move from side to side. Use very big soft balls so that no one gets hurt of course. Try it the kids will love it and they will work up a sweat while doing it.

little dragon explain your style your profile says pure violence ?? what or how do you train???

I also have flat feet but from your post it seems that you have a much worse case than me. I know that some kung-fu schools train w/ shoes on, I think that if you explained your situation that the teacher of any school would let you train with some kind of shoe. Good Luck, dot let this one thing stop you from training.

??????? I don t understand

does anyone know anything about this style im about to check out a school and would like to get a little knowlege about it first any ideas. Thanx.

I have never had the opportunity to train in it but have met somepeople who have and their technique is really good. The concentrate on the free fighting aspect and are great at sparring. If i could I would love to experiment with it.

I havent met any the highest rank that I know is my head teacher who lives in Japan he is an 8th. As far as I know the 9th and 10th ranks seem to be political or seniority.

my prayers are with you, unfortunately I have never me soke but im sure from what you have told me that he is a good man. Gods will be done!!

i think the great thing about karate and other martial arts for that matter is that it is a personal journey, you should not compare your progress to anyone but yourself. If you are improving then you are doing it right. So no age does not matter young or old i think that the ma's has a lot to offer.

if you are talking about for sparring then you have to take into consideration the point system, obviously more points for a round kick to the head, but a front kick in my opinion is the safest and if done properly most reliable kick. you must also remember that you may have to do another technique to get an opening, they call this setting someone up. Fake hi and go low or vice versa, its very hard to land a single technique.

well the first thing you should do is to just get a better stretch. You should put yourself on a stretching routine, for example do it at least three times a day. Some things that help are those stretching machines if you have access to one of those, however they can be quite expensive (maybe a Christmas idea) or another tip that works well for me is to strap some hot water bottles to your inner thigh when you stretch this gets the muscle warmed and it is eaiser to stretch. Any type of running kata or something you could do to also warm up the muscles, I believe that if you do this for a while you will see some major improvements. Good luck and never give up if someone else can do someting then you can to.

dont worry to much about your belt color, my advice is to go to class everytime they have it, train on your own every chance you get. This is when you will see real improvement, look for it within your ability not the color of your belt.

personally i would stick to your old style. you said that you are fourteen and cant move up till sixteen, thats only two years. Thats not a long time to wait between dan promotions. Besides my teachers have allways told me that black belt is where you START to learn karate. Hope this helps good luck.

in some schools the instructors will work with you if you have previously trained another style but it is most important to not worry about your belt color. I know that is hard to do but it really dosent matter. When i was first coming threw the belt colors I wanted a black belt SO bad. But when i got it it wasnt as cool as I thought it would be and it was back to the same old basics and kata so your rank is really secoundary, sure it is nice to be recognized for the hard work that you have done and that is good but try to not get to worried about the color. Have a nice day.

I have not taken Shotokan but I hear that its really cool, I have been training in goju for the last several years and I really like it and couldnt imagine doing anything else (full time that is, I do like to experiment with other ma's). I guess you should check them both out and see what you like, good luck.

thats pretty neat but I wish they had my style in the selection so that I could see if they gave me that one. My style as you can see by my name is Goju-ryu. The first choice they gave me was Jeet Kun Do (may have spelled that wrong; sorry Bruce) and I really would like to train that.

hello lyds, I am from a real traditional karate school I have allways been a martial art dork (ha ha) so I ate up all of the old traditional ways. But i do think that there is something to be learned by them. First rule is humility and respect, the two go hand in hand. You have to be willing to admit that your wrong. Now I could go into all the traditional ways of training but I think that the Way that they teach is of most importance, it shapes the students as good people outside the dojo.