gojuchad

do not fight, karate was desinged to KILL it is very hard to use it just to beet someone up you should only use it if your life is at stake. Tell your teacher/principal/parents or whatever. Hope everything works out for you.

i am christian and i have trained for many years without complication. You should do it as you would anything else, with your faith in mind, what does god want you to do.

not sure but it was cool though.

I train goju and sometimes our teacher will have us go out in the snow or cold water and do sanchin which is a kata. You are suppose to be so focused you do not feel the cold. We do someother wild stuff but I would like to know what everyone else does.

i choose not to go to tournaments usually because of what you said the bragging and showboating. It is ok to celebrate but it should be saved until you are finished with the match or competition completely. You must show respect first.

those are very good ideas it is good to keep an open mind. My teacher also encourages us to be creative, we will sometimes train in street clothes, outside in the moutians, so also different clothes and surroundings.

sanchin is my favorite and least favorite at the same time, hard to explain.

i think that you can develop false expectations on what karate really is. first off you are not going to learn that fast. My teacher told me "karate is not fun." even if you enjoy it when it comes down to it you have to put yourself threw some really unpleasent things to see improvement. I dont think the average public understand this and when they come to a ma class the do not understand.

yeah sanchin is suppose to be the most important kata in all of goju. It looks simple but if you do it right it will really wear you out. it teaches you how to use your hara which is your lower abdomen, every technique should come from here.

running is allways good, wind sprints are good also, one thing that i do that is a bit extreme is mountain running in which i will start at the bottom of a mountain and run up it. I live in the appalachians so that is pretty in tence. another thing is jump squats in which you squat all the way down and spring up and forward try to do this all the way up a hill and you wil feel it believe me.

thanx musse that is some good stuff

I personally think and have been told by my Kancho that you should have a core and train around it. For example the style you train never quit that style and then maybe go out and check out some grappling, boxing, weapons or whatever interests you but you should allways have a core of basics that are time tested. I hope this helps you.

just a little tip, once you achieve your black belt this is when you START learning karate.

hi Im a bit of a traditionalist and what i have found about knuckle toughning has proven to be effective. In goju we try to toughen many parts of the body including knuckles, fingertips, chins, forearms and so on. I have seen improvements in the power that I can deliver without pain to myself. But it is a personal journey depends on what you want to do. If you have the toughest knuckles in the world and are successfully knocked out or chocked you loose. So do not make it to much of you woukout.

hi whats up my name is Chad and i am from VA im 25 and have been studying martial arts for 12 years now I started with TKD and did it for several years, after that I tried some other arts but nothing seemed to interest me until one day I found a really good goju ryu teacher and have been there ever since.

hey everyone I am 25 and have been traing for about 12 years I have never got a split yet but I am about to go to Japan to train and really want a split before I go or else it could be really painful ha ha. does anyone have any tips that might help I ahve really been hitting it hard for the last few months and am getting closer but I could use all the help i can get. Thanx.

nice to see so many goju people out there!!

I am a Christian and have been training goju-ryu for many years now. The idea of ki is using your bodies energy it is FOCUSING it. Just because you dont understand it dosent mean that its bad. God gave you your body so take it to its full potential. On a side note be careful and stand by your faith, there is some religion such as Buddhism and Shinto mixed in with martial arts but what I do is to find the Christian equivilient to it. I shouldnt say equivilent because its much better. I have a Japanese teacher and he is Shinto, but I made it very clear early on that I am a Christian and he totally respects that. If your teacher does not simply leave immedieatly, there are more important things than karate. God Bless

Just checking, its not that im saying anything about the other arts but you just dont see a lot of Goju-Ryu

I am afraid that many people are out of shape now days. It is good that these people are using martial arts as some type of workout though.