Zanejin

At first, when I began learning Karate, I was itching to fight someone in real life, outside of class. But then after fighting a Taikwondoe-ka who was more experienced than me, I came to realize that Karate was not meant to be used to show off. Slowly, I became more disciplined through the learning of Karate, and am constantly trying to improve and better myself. So Karate has affected me by a lot, and positively too .

Well basically, to me at least, practice at home mostly consists of trying to improve your current skills that you learned in class. Practice at home is also to improve your endurance and basic physical form. My training routine at home consists of stretches, jump-roping, pushups, sit-ups, squats, and kicks. I also try to memorize the moves that I did not perform so well in class, and practice them at home. It's always important to train until you are at the limit, and then try to do more, until you really feel like you can't withstand anymore. Then you'll make rapid improvement. Of course, taking a break once in a while is natural. And be sure to eat some bread and drink some milk after training to give your body some protein to use.

I personally practice Shinkyokushin Karate. It's sort of a "new" type of Kyokushin Karate. Like Kyokushin, it's mainly combat oriented; almost 90% of what we learn is to be used for combat in real life situations. The traditional stuff is mostly removed. I haven't practiced any other form of Karate, so I can't compare with others.

Yep, Neko Ashi Dachi is one of the main stances in Shinkyokushinkai Karate . We use it a lot in kata and it sometimes becomes useful in kumite practices.

Our Shinkyokushinkai dojo's kiai is "SEI!!!" It doesn't sound so powerful, but it seems to help breathing when forcefully punching or kicking.

Here's my way of increasing the amount of pushups I can do; it's largely related to the strength of your back and arm and shoulder muscles. First, do as many pushups as you can, and don't give into the sourness of your arms just because you think you can't bear it. Your will is very important in order to improve. Next, stretch your arms a little, swing them around, and just basically, relax. After two minutes or so, fetch a glass of milk and a slice of bread, then eat the bread and then drink the milk. Eating the bread first is very important, because the Gastric Juice in your stomach can easily destroy the nutrients/proteins in the milk if it's empty. The bread is solid, so its nutrients usually stay in your stomach unharmed. Just continue this process over the week when your arms aren't feeling to weak or uncomfortable, and you should start improving. I hope that helped .

It's natural to lose focus. The concentration levels of all people differ. I usually am unfocused in the beginning of class, but after our Sensei practices Kumite for a while, I start to find concentrating an easier thing. You could also think about what your initial goal is for practicing martial arts; that usually gets me focused as well.

It's really difficult to do this type of spin kick. Firstly, you'll need good balance to prevent yourself from tipping over during the spinning. Second, you'll need excellent aim to make sure that both kicks' accuracy are not affected by the spinning and can hit the opponent with full force.

It's just a sign that you're body isn't flexible enough. You should practice that stance as much as possible, resisting the pain until you cannot do so anymore. You should get better at performing the stance within a few weeks.

That's good then. It means that I can still train with this method .

I'm flatfooted as well, and it used to affect my running, but after constant practice, my feet got used to it, and now I'm second in track and field at school. In karate class, on the other hand, I find a difficulty doing a perfect Neko Dachi (Cat Stance). I'm sure that being flatfooted does not affect one's balance or alignment, it may even help!

I'm not sure about this training technique, but I think that if your arm muscles are used to releasing all their energy at a very close range, they will lose their ability to attack with full energy at longer ranges.

Man, 500 is crazy! I can only do 60 at most! AnonymousOne, you must be really experienced at this exercise!

I normally just do 30 pushups a day, and 40 when I feel that I have the strength. But hey, I'm only 13. I'm trying to best myself, and that's what'll make me improve.

I like doing situps at a moderate speed, not too slowly, not too quickly. If I do them too quickly, my tailbone starts hurting because it's making friction with the ground, but if I do them too slowly, it'll take too much time for me to feel tired .