Hawkeye

Hi and welcome. Lots of good stuff to read here and I look forward to seeing your posts.

Hi and welcome to KF. I started martial arts in my thirties. Trust me it is NOT to late to start. The trick is to just start.

Congratulations! Good luck on the competition team.

Hey, Disarm. If you were any more uncoordinated than I was during my first couple of months of classes, then I hope you are taping them as you could make money selling them on EBay. It gets better. Your physical conditioning will improve. Your concentration will improve. Your confidence will grow as you become familiar with the moves. I started Karate in my early thirties so I can sympathize with the "not getting any younger" thing. Pretty soon, you will be practising moves everywhere and loving it. Good luck !

Good luck! Post after your test and let us know how nice the new belt looks.

I subscribe to BB Magazine and I haven't been disappointed with it yet. There are a lot of ads but I guess that just comes with the territory - no ad revenue, no magazine. It covers quite a bit of ground style-wise, so you don't get a tremendous amount of depth in the articles, but you do get introduced to things that might trigger the urge to look up more information elsewhere,... like in a online forum.

As my Sensei says, invariably you will meet the funniest person you will ever meet or catch a major cold soon after you break a rib. A fellow I train with had a rib broken at a tournament. He took about a month off, then came back slowly, not wanting to reinjure himself and be laid up even longer. That strategy worked well for him. Here's to hoping you have a quick recovery.

Hey KK1975. Good luck with that surgery. I hope all goes well. As for mental exercises, try visualizing every move of every kata you have learned. Start at the beginning and picture yourself doing every move ideally and in sequence. Perhaps write out your kata as well, including foot position, what your hands are doing, where your head is turned, etc. Also, rent every cool martial arts movie you can lay your hands on just for fun.

Hi, Meguro - lol !! Hi, Shogeri. Do you do or take anything to help reduce the inflammation? I've been on fairly hefty daily doses of anti-inflammatories but they have only shown negligible results.

It sounds like you know your stuff. Just keep training, work on that cardio and don't forget that you are doing this for fun. When the big day arrives, give it your best shot. If you leave it all out there on the mat, you will feel good about yourself and chances are very good that you will pass your test. Good luck!

Hi, Meguro. I would imagine that age and weight probably factored into the equation as I'm in my thirties and am 6' 1", 223 pounds, but the doctor didn't specify a particular cause beyond "overuse".

Forget about the "SPECIAL DIET"! (Unless you have a medical condition that calls for one.) Eat well, stay hydrated, get your rest and stay active. Try different activities and see which ones are the most fun. If you are doing activities that are fun, you are more likely to stick with them. Doing these things go a long way in keeping your body (and mind) in good shape.

I have been diagnosed with bursitis in my knee. Ouch! I'm into my fifth week of limited use and though it is slowly getting better, I still can't use my knee the way I used to. Grrrr! There. Complain-fest over. For all you athletes out there, don't completely ignore joint pain. Rest and ice those painful joints when you notice them to control inflammation and don't skimp on the warm up and stretching before your activities. Hopefully you can minimize debilitating injuries. Good luck in your training.

Hi! Welcome to the forum.

Hi, Jane Doe. Welcome to the forum.

If you have access to a pool (or lake, etc.), swimming is great exercise that doesn't put much pressure on joints. This ensures you don't lose conditioning while giving your knees a bit of a break from the pounding. I've also read that doing exercises that strengthen the muscles around your knees is not a bad idea - but check with your doctor or physical therapist first. Prolonged pain anywhere is your body's way of telling you something.

My right hip used to audibly pop when I did things like leg raises. I went to a chiropodist/podiatrist on another matter and he noticed that one of my legs was slightly longer than the other. The years of additional pressure on the 'short' side had been doing bad things to my hip socket. After getting a pair of custom fitted orthotics (inserts) made that evened out my gait, the popping gradually disappeared. That was over a year ago and my hip hasn't given me any trouble since.

I was better at forms (kata) earlier on but that was because I was able to practice them more. Since I've been able to spar more, I would say that I'm about equal in ability now.

Water for everyday living - Gatorade in the desert.

I agree with Vertigo - the "intensity" of the attack would dictate what kind of response I would use. If it wasn't life-threatening, I'd do my best to block her attacks and also try to find out why this person is attacking me!

That's great. And it keeps getting better.

Make sure you don't get so worked up before your match that you forget to do the things that will help you perform well. Stay hydrated, breathe deep and stretch whenever you can - even between points. Sometimes, if you develop some pre-match rituals, they help distract you from your fear and help you stay loose.

Way to go! This goes to show how your training shines through even though your nerves are trying to get in the way.

Make sure that you have some extra batteries for the Gameboy(s). It would be pretty distracting to hear their cries of anguish when the darn things quit in the middle of their "best game ever" when you are in the middle of your match or kata. Oh, and label their stuff. Things get put down in the weirdest places.

I try to interpret the pain I am feeling. I have found that the pain I feel when I am trying for a new stretching max or the like is different than the pain of an injury. Injury pain makes me stop to evaluate. (Doesn't mean I'm smart enough to adequately rest the injury, though!) Exertion 'pain' makes me want to train harder so that the "pain boundary" takes longer to get to.