Menjo

If the question was directed towards me then this is my answer Ummmm, I find the beginners show up for the beginner classes, its just when they reach the normal class when they start to not show up. I understand why though, when I first started I felt so completly out of place not knowing anything from Katas to blocks.

Good posts above, in my school. Future black belts have many years because the time between each level is made so by the time the practitioner is the black belt, he/she would have already had to make some serious commitments. Our school does not garuntee belts of any sort though.

Yep, thats an agreeable statement. However for me(for support), my experiance was getting into a scuffle with three unexperianced "fighters". I used what I said in my post to give an advantage, it had worked for me once. Although I may have just been lucky.

LOL, nice ending

I wish I had posted my other answer it this way... .

I'm currently 1st kyu. wow your miles ahead of me, hopefully I will reach that level soon. how many times have you done Bassai? I just started kearning it and I find it to be a really different nice kata, but also very difficult. Ummm wow....how many times?.... I'd say ALOT, I dont count but it would be ALOT of times. I do Bassai 10 times a night minimum, slowly working out small stuff now. Then another 5 minimum, going full force. Yea Bassai I find requires a strong amount of stance work to look even half decent.

Welcome, and have a great time!

I see what you mean.

I'm currently 1st kyu.

Ahhh my most recent victory, side thrust kick. I also had difficulty in completling this technque. What helped me was agrravating tedious practice with my sensei showing me how to practice it without develpoing bad habits. One tip would be to start off aiming your kick low to the ground and dont try to go for the face or anything. Ask your sensei, and then practice and practice.

Well one thing I dont agree with Killer is that certain questions maybe unfair to answer or unfair to ask. My view: Better to have someone ask a question and have it cleared up, rather than nobody ask a question and have everyone not learn. Others who do not post these types of questions may not learn these ideals. Everyone starts somewhere. This is well known and just was probably not covered, so the weight of these posts is still strong.

Thanks for listening... My fav kata: hmmmmmmm, thats really tough. I'd have to go with Bassai Dai for tedious practice. Jion for cool looks , and Heian Godan for concentration. No real ultimate fav though, I guess I need more practice.

I must agree with Killer's post(not in the way of agaisnt your post..if its taken that way...), except I'd like to add my own say. -PLENTY of topics like this, they arnt difficult to locate... I dont see shotokan as a tournament martial art because our club isnt... Yes, I have been a few real life situations where shotokan was so completly EFFECTIVE, I really started to question my whole philosphy on life. I then trained everyday. Shotokan is effective with the right tools and guidance. Now to add some depth... Shotokan is seen as a tournament/sport martial art often because of the Chain of Size idea...Shotokan I beleive is the most popular style of Karate. Every sytem has mcdojos, the more real clubs and people, the more mcdojos. People only see the mcdojos and doubt its effectiveness. Now many exellent dojos concentrate on sparring, I visit one every once in awhile, however mcdojos like to also "infect" (if you will) the philosphy of sparring more than others(I think).

I see it as a method to get the opponents hands and posture off centre, or preferably hitting a weak/vunerable target. No matter the MA philosphy, I think anyones view on a technique can be learned from(I know you mentioned this in a way..."so in my book"), evolution often spawns from this. One question(out of discussion curiosity), would you use a round house if you knew it wasn't going to be completly successful in regards of hitting on target(stomach, chest, head, legs..ect)...?

I'm glad MA has given you a solid foundation for dealing with daily issues that tend to get us really down, some alot heavier than others. The good news is that from what I've been taught is your martial art is really being put to use in your daily life. Good luck.

Question for any practitioners probably of shotokan schooling or general background in it. -I've heard that Heian Nidan was once actualy taught first to Shotokan practitoners(not sure exactly when) way, way back. Now I'm almost sure in most dojos it is Heian Shodan, I find this confusing, maybe they switched names...any help?

Perhaps it’s required of them to have one in their dojo, in any case really its irrelevant as to why and such... KK, Ummmm, I might try using google to find a trustworthy online site that would sell a gi. That way, if you really want what you're asking you can possibly send an email to the owner and get a costum one(expensive though). So conclusively I would suggest a online source.

I take it like this: From what I hear and read, JKD practictioners seem to be constantly thinking of the fact that its so much different than any other martial art. That being said, I think they do have classes and tecniques, however it is overshadowed by the philosphy(when talking with other MA). Just to note, I dont think its actually very different from an other martial art at all... I'm also pretty sure it means to be clear minded in a fight and let your body react and instead of reacting a certain way to a certain attack, you use your instinct... I think this would be a much more reliable referance ... http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=22108

Exactly.

Its not useless to post, thats why your allowed to post. When you say have you ever been into a fight, do you mean to ask people if they have ever been into a real life combat situation? Well thank you very much. Yeah I meant have you been in a real life combat situation? Well then yes I have unfortunatly, a few times.

I always feel like I'm never doing enough, thats a good thing in some cases. In order to cope with never having perfect technique I thought, well I'll just try as hard as possible and I've been doing that for years now. Eventually youll discover how much you've accomplished. The way I've learned is just through perserverance and hard work, do the techniques over and over again, constantly. Do little things at home like punches, I used to only do about 50. Now I end up doing about as many as I can plus 100 more(by then there probably not punches). Do as many as you can properly and build from there, It'll show in the dojo. In answer to your question, yes I feel 80 percent of the time like its not good enough(you have to be proud a little), but thats what drives me. My advice is try to find out what drives you in life, then possibly try to apply it to Karate. As for the knee problem, I wouldn't be of much assistance due mainly to the fact I've never had problems with my knees.

Its not useless to post, thats why your allowed to post. When you say have you ever been into a fight, do you mean to ask people if they have ever been into a real life combat situation?

Nah your fine in regards to body types, most martial arts accept a wide variety of physical differences so your compeltly safe there. As for being shy and quiet, my sister recently started taking a type of Korean Sword fighting( I dont know that real name), and she has become alot more confident in speech and presentation of herself.

Pre-happy birthday. My birthday will be in less than a month also.

Yea, however I wouldn't say because something is difficult(fighting multiple opponents) doesnt mean the subject should be competly discarded and deemed once there is more than one attacker you will lose. I've learned that you can manipulate the situation to your advantage as if your very fast,strong or exellent technique, skilled than you can position yourself and your opponents to only haveing to take on 1-2 attackers at the certain point. I hear aikido practices this. Anyway a unskilled group of attakers may back off if you take out one or two quickly, in thier minds you faught all of them at once...