Karate_Girl_07

I don't mean to insult either of you, but I think you may be missing the point of bowing to the Shinzen or to Sosai's picture. When you bow to the Shinzen, you are not being asked to become Shinto or Buddhist. You are not being asked to worship these things, just to pay your respects to the origins of the art and to the founder. You may have your own ways of showing respect and you may believe that you don't have to bow to show respect, but in the culture of the founder and of the Shinzen, bowing is the way of showing respect. You may ask why you should have show respect in "their" manner, but by learning their customs and showing them respect using their customs just shows them that you respect them that much more.

Thanks for your help guys. I took my written test last week and only got one quesiton wrong. I was supposed to re-take the test (my sensei considers a pass for this test a 100%) but since I only got one wrong, Sensei just asked me the question in person and I didn't have to retake it! I'm so happy. Now I only have to worry about the physical grading XD.

Yeah, my Sensei, like that of Shito-Ryu Girl's, says that if you're not sweating hard after doing a kata, you're not doing it properly, lol. I think kata are a great workout, I love them. You feel like you've actually done work when you go through them, lol. Osu.

Lol, that's hilarious, I know what you mean. Men and women fight quite often in my dojo. I fight guys all the time, it doesn't hurt that there are only two regular girls in my class, lol.

Sumimasen, my mistake.

We don't fix this head to anything. I only use them in class and we partner up and use them. Our partner will hold it while we strike.

Lol, no, I won't. I knew that we bowed to show respect before now but I just didn't know why we bowed to the Shindin or the shinzen in particular. My Sensei said something once about paying respect to the Buddhist origins of the art I think, but I can't remember it all too clearly.

Thanks, I'm probably going to need it, lol.

We had a guy put a huge hole in the wall with his head once. One of my Senpais made a hole in the back wall with his elbow while he was fighting another Senpai. They both signed it, lol. But we've fixed the hole now.

Thanks for the help guys.

dojo classes: 1.5 hrs x about 8 times a week Training at home: half an hour here and there.

There are some dojo's in Kyokushin that I've encountered that reminded me of the cobra kai, but I've also encountered a lot of kyokushin dojo's that are not. I know that my Sensei firmly agrees with Mr. Miyagi's view of things, as much as one can agree with a fictional character anyway. To generalize that kyokushin karate-ka are like the cobra kai isn't exactly a fair thing to do. It varies with the student, the teacher, the dojo and the style. You get cobrai kai everywhere just like you also get "Karate Kids" everywhere and in every style.

I started doing Kyokushin karate about 2 1/2 years ago. When I was much younger, I had tried a Tae Kwon Do class and had loved it. I had always found the martial arts interesting. When I found out that there was a karate dojo opening up just a few blocks down, I became one of the first people to sign up. I didn't have a grasp on the spiritual side of the martial arts before I joined nor did I know anything about Kyokushin's background when I started. I think I've learned a lot since then but now that I've learned that, I realize that I still have so much to learn, lol.

My favourite karate movie is the first Karate Kid. The fighting isn't spectacular but the philosophical side of it is great. I think it shows what karate is supposed to be about.

We have a special class twice a week for 4 and 5 year olds, it's much shorter than the normal classes though. One they turn 6 they can go to the kids class then when they turn 12 or so they go to the teen class and the teens can also do the adult classes if they like.