MissG

that is a good point (not guitar player myself, more of a pianist but the point applies, my fingers have mind of their own!) have not started learning any kata yet (that's for next year after the holidays), but even just the line drills after a few weeks, i'm doing better. to start off with, it was do the move when it was called out, then follow other students, then do it with eyes closed so i couldn't see the others...now i just do it, nice and smooth even if i can't get my feet to point straight yet!

hehe, i'll remember that!

the only 'real-life' fights i've been in were years ago before i had any sort of training. In sparring class however, the instructors keep telling me to attack as I have a habit of hesitating, just standing there waiting for the other guy to hit me first, which also means that i've not yet won a fight at sparring but i've got a while to go yet!

i tend to lower my guard a little when my opponent is in kick range too. Thanks!! i have enough trouble remembering where to put my feet (have great stance to start, but when my foot goes back down after a kick, it turns out to the side little by little each time ) in class sometimes let alone describing it in words in a forum populated by so many people way way way above me in skill!

thanks it's true though, I look like a wasp! And i'm the only yellow belt in our class with the black gi (everyone wears the 'regular' white gi's, the black ones represent those of us taking extra classes for leadership and life skills) so the others in white gi's keep teasing me about it. Just wait till I get my orange! haha We don't test for our power stripes, it's more of a continual assessment by the instructor throughout the classes, and we get given them when we've nailed said skill. And we don't need all the stripes to get the next belt, i didn't get any between white and red, went straight to red belt. Only got my yellow and red stripes before i got my yellow belt last week... Same with the lower belt grades, until about orange/black stripe the gradings are fairly informal as well...grading week we just go through all the skills for the next grade - the instructor reads out the list of skills one by one, and we do them. if it's satisfactory the week after testing week we get given our next belt Feel free to pop down south to Gloucestershire if you like and pick up a blue belt technically our style is Shotokai, but as i've said in another thread, some of our stances are based more in street-fighting/boxing. I say that the academy should ditch the black stripes, and replace them with purple

ok, new to martial arts (so it's all english names for the stances etc i'm afraid!), and even newer to the forums but thought i'd have a go and throw in my ideas as well.... when we spar in class, we start off in 'fighting stance', like front stance, but with the feet and legs turned slightly in, instead of facing straight forward, both knees bent. our hands are up, guarding the face. Generally, my hands (in closed fists) are about forearms length in front of my face at chin level, usually with my left hand slightly in front of my right. The Chief Instructor has said this is more of a street-fighting stance rather than karate, but it works for us in that situation... so, how'd i do? nervous about discussing this, dunno if i'm making fool of myself

ok, little adjustment to previous post, adding in the kyu and a bit about our 'power stripes' 10th Kyu - White Belt 9th Kyu - Red Belt 8th Kyu - Yellow Belt 7th Kyu - Orange Belt 6th Kyu - Orange, Black Stripe Belt 5th Kyu - Green Belt 4th Kyu - Green, Black Stripe Belt 3rd Kyu - Blue Belt 2nd Kyu - Blue, Black Stripe Belt 1st Kyu - Brown Belt Apprentice - Brown, Black Stripe Belt And then on to the Black Belt. The power stripe system is the method used in our Academy to review the students progress through the syllabus on a continual basis. The stripes can be awarded at any time throughout the training between gradings - Black stripe - indicates we know/understand the stances for the grade Yellow stripe - know/understand the attacks for the grade Blue stripe - know/understand the defences for the grade Red stripe - know/understand the line drills and the katas for the grade Am curious to know, does anyone else work a similar system to our 'power stripes'? And I'd love a purple belt, tis my favourite colour! At the moment, i just got my yellow belt last week at our quarterly graduation ceremony, and wearing a black gi, i look like a wasp

sorry, my mistake. Shotokai, not shotokan. doh

This is why I found these forums, searching for the different belts in each club to compare ours to others...so here is how we do things... White Belt Red Belt Yellow Belt Orange Belt Orange, Black stripe Belt Green Belt Green Black Belt Blue Belt Blue, Black stripe Belt Brown Belt Brown Black Belt and then on to Black Belts 'we' (i say we, as in the Academy, I'm only a student!) also operate a 'power stripe' system on each belt colour. Once we 'understand' the principles of each section, we get a little stripe of tape on the end of our belt. I forget right now what each colour represents, but they are yellow, red, blue, and green. Does anyone else do that, or just the 'straight' belts?

Hi y'all I only just joined the boards as well, and i've been studying for just over 3months here in the UK. The instructor approached me at the gas station and started chatting to me about whether I took any sort of martial arts (I was in uniform [am police officer] which started off the conversation), when I said no but am thinking about it, I joined up. Didnt have a choice in the style (shotokan, btw!) but i'm really enjoying it. Still finding my way so not thinking about changing styles yet