Taikudo-ka

Now Zak, didn't anyone fight out of Sanchin stance?

The best thing I did was to go to class early and got through the kata slowly with a sempei. At worst try to learn one or two new moves each time. Eventually you'll have the whole kata down pat.

Yeah, I'm a fan of mokosu as well. It doesn't shout "hey look at me, I'm meditating", like sitting there in the lotus position. Plus its a bit more universal - I've even seen a picture of an ancient hill Rasta demonstrating meditation, and you might as well say he was sitting in a classical "mokosu" position.

Well the working day theoretically finishes at around 5:00pm, and most classes start around 6-7pm, and go to maybe 8 or 9, so there is plenty of time (in theory) to attend MA training. Of course, in reality, work sometimes interferes, and adults sometimes come late to class through no fault of their own. Sometimes maybe they can't train as much as they want, but hey, if you can't spare a few nights a week for an hour or so, it's probably a sign you are working too hard (and damaging your health thru stress and lack of exercise). Of course there's also weekend training, and martial arts is one of few physical activities or sports where families can all participate together. (Unlike football, baseball, cricket, etc, where things are rigidly grouped according to age and gender). Ironically, I've been working weekends so that I have days free during the week to train. Weeknights I have to work a night shift...

Breath, take it slow, and focus on the kata you are performing. Focus your vision on a point in front of you, where your "imaginary opponent" is, not on the surroundings. If you wear glasses, maybe you could remove them to simulate the "blindfold effect"... If you get distracted, refocus, breath, and continue.

Use the free time to train your mind as well. Learn to play music or rebuild an engine or write poetry or something. My sensei believes one should train seven days a week, but I must say that here I still believe it's good to take a break and do something completely different every so often.

My understanding was that Shi-To was an attempt to create a "unified karate" combining features of most of the original styles. Hence the vast amount of kata - they took just about every kata from every style that was going around Okinawa. My question is - are you actually required to learn all those kata? Or does there come a point in a Shi-to ryu practitioner's life when they get to select the kata they want to learn from this massive library? I must say, one aspect that attracted me to Goju was the fact that we only have about a dozen or so kata. I feel that for me personally, that's enough to last me a lifetime. As Sherlock Holmes once remarked, there's only so much data that can be stored in the mind at any one time.

Yes. You will fork out vast sums of American dollars to be taught Wu Shu by a guy from the nearby village who changes into orange robes just before the lesson... Well... what did you expect? Kwai Chang Kane? I've looked into this, and heard quite a few reports. There are still hordes of western people staying there to learn MA, so they must get something out of it.

Aahhh, the mythical "street fighter". Trained at the best street-fighter-ryu dojo this side of Konami... Wouldn't another word for "street fighter" be "untrained, drunken lout"? Who else fights in public on a regular basis?

I think you guys should do Taido. The most acrobatic martial art. (Or so it has been billed)

Iain Abernathy's book is great, though a bit beyond beginners. It has some meat in it though, unlike many other "martial arts" books out there. He has a new one called "Bunkai Jutsu" which extends the content of the first book. Although I haven't read it, I assume it would be better to get this over the first book. Any good Goju-Ryu books out there?

I still have all my internal organs - even tonsils. I'd prefer to keep it that way. Have you been 'regular'? Kickchick, if this happened to me I'd probably just avoid solids for a day and drink heaps of water and juice. Do you think this could cause a similar rupture? (I've never taken a chemical laxative.)

So someone else is doing better than you... big deal! Forget about it... Also, when we sometimes seem to get worse at something, it is often a sign that we've actually (finally) become aware of faults in our technique and areas for improvement. Once you're aware of what you're doing wrong, you can work to improve it. Just focus on your own improvement, and you might eventually start beating this guy again.

Hey Bon, after thinking this over I decided that karate might not provide everything you're after here. Perhaps something with a higher female:male ratio, something where they'd be begging for male participation... - Ball room dancing - Yoga - Cardio kickboxing and other purely "fitness/lose weight" type activities. - Avon parties

Hey G, on the other hand uniforms will NEVER be removed from Australian schools, for similar but opposite reasons to those you give for America... It was once voted upon school by school, and just about everyone voted to keep uniforms. (Not I). BTW a uniform did not stop people from judging each other on what they wore, as everyone found ways to "extend" and get around the uniform code, eg different shoes, types of pants, etc. It DEFINITELY did not stop bullying and discrimination, as that was a daily occurance for most students. Overall, public education is an exercise in child-minding, 13 years of tedium in which they fit about 2-3 years worth of education. I literally taught myself rocket science in year 9, in spare time during classes/breaks, etc. Forgotten it now though...

!!?!?!?! Hehe Good luck Bon. Of course if you don't find what you want with Karate, perhaps TKD would do the trick even better?

Tricky The RZA Old Dirty B**tard. Jack Kerouac Nelly = pop Eminem = an example of talent that cynically sold out for $$$

- "Afghanistan is not getting the support they need. The Northern Alliance are not good guys. The government controls only Kabul. The opium fields that were rooted out under the taliban are bigger than ever. The promised support foodways is not being delivered" Did you really expect anything different? "Democracy" is the furthest thing from the US mind. If they wanted "democracy" in the middle-east, they could start with some of their "allies" like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait... Oh, wait, those are the "good" dictatorships...

C'mon, everyone knows AOL invented the Internet. It has nothing to do with a 1960's American military experiment...

I'm a genius!!! But then I counted the "F"s, as asked. If you "read" and count the "eff" sounds, which most people would do, you miss the "of" because it is pronounced as "ov"... "Off" is pronouned with a soft "eff", but then there'd be two letters and a whole new way to confuse people...

Inadequate diet and long term malnutrition can stunt your growth. Eating right with sufficient calories plus plenty of exercise does seem to produce taller people. I think childhood food consumption can have a marked effect on your final adult build. This can easily be seen with poor migrants from third-world conditions who's children grow much taller and heavier when exposed to 1lb steaks, chips, dairy products, etc. Of course the combination of rich foods and constant TV/video games has also produced an obese generation. Physical activity is the key that will make you grow up instead of out. The old adage about smoking stunting your growth is also true. It's best if you avoid tobacco completely, but if you must at least wait until you're fully grown. I see way too many very young girls lighting up on the street nowdays.

- "I think speed deals more damage than power." Actually, "power" is a function of speed. In physics, power equals mass (weight) times velocity (speed). (As stated above). Increasing speed increases power. As to whether karate is "hard" or "soft", well, Goju-Ryu, by definition, is both. That's why it's called "Goju" - literally hard/soft. This balance of opposites is crucial to oriental philosophy. It's what the whole yin/yang thing symbolizes.

Yo ZR, the following are all good substitutes for cubic inches: - Lightweight body - Forced induction (turbo/super charger) - Decent camshaft - Lightweight block (aluminium w/ sleeves, etc) - High RPM capability (balanced crank, shotpeened/racing con-rods, heavy duty bearings, light flywheel, etc, etc) - Lightweight body (important enough to mention twice) A high RPM engine on a light chassis will totally kill a big, heavy, low RPM, gas guzzling American V8, hands down, no questions asked. It will also handle infinitely better, while using much less fuel. It ain't called Detroit heavy iron for nothing... The Lotus Elise... now THAT is an example of fine engineering. Balance, proportion - two words Detroit has never understood...

"For in much wisdom is much grief. He that increases knowledge increases sorrow" - King Solomon, in a rather Zen mood, in the Book of Ecclesiastes 1:18 (My favorite piece of scripture) "...God is one..." - Jesus, on being asked what is most important commandment. Mark, 12:29. "The Name is not the Thing named" - Lao Tzu, The Tao Te Ching. "You look like an anorexic junkie. Your cynicism makes you a burden to be with." - My last girlfriend, many years ago...

Hmmm... with the global nature of these forums, finding a good time for everyone might be difficult. To tell the truth, I prefer the non-realtime nature of chat forums and email to 'live chat' and ICQ type things. But then I'm just old school... ah, how quickly one changes from cutting edge to rusty old dullard in this modern world. Maybe at 1-2am, if I'm up and online - that's about 3:00pm GMT.