Aiko87

I know everyone has a favorite kata, but which katas do you feel are the best to be used in competitions? Or which kata do you use in competition? I usually use unsu or gojushiho sho. I'm interested to see what most people use.

I like my belt "broken in" and a couple inches above my knees for the length. Though thats still long enough for me to hit myself in the face...during one tournament I was doing unsu and my belt flew up when I went into the first cat stance and smacked me in the face .

If you are still having trouble with your gi, you could always sew a small velcro piece unto the gi and the collar near your chest and it should then stay shut. A lady at my dojo always has trouble with her gi top so she finally decided to sew a 2 inch piece of velcro and it worked very well.

I wasn't sure where to put this so I decided to post it in the karate section. I was looking for videos of Atsuko Wakai. My one friend was telling me about Atsuko's amazing kata that she performed and I was wanted to take a look. Thanks.

I use unsu as one of my tournament kata and don't find many problems with using it. It is a difficult kata to learn, because of its many angles. I think that the worst part of using unsu in a tournament is that if you mess up at all on the jump, even if you do a perfect kata otherwise, you'll lose. Then again that goes for any kata with a jump. Well anyway sticking to the subject my favorite katas are heian sandan (since I had so much difficulty learning it in the beginning), empi, gojushiho dai, and unsu. Aiko

My dojo only offers a bulky chest protector thats about an inch thick and covers your entire chest and torso. Needless to say, its tough to spar in. My one instructor told me of an thin, hard plastic chest protector for women. The place she got hers at had closed down years ago. I've been trying to find one but haven't had too much luck. A friend of mind found something similar but the chest protector is held up with a bra instead of just straps. I was wondering if anyone used this kind or know of another similar chest protector. http://www.karatedepot.com/pr-ch-12.html Thanks Aiko