jaymac

I know for one that over the many years that I have trained under my instructor, I have learned to not judge his decisions. Ever.

Sensei Mark, I AGREE! I just can't believe this is anything close to traditional. I really hope these individuals do it just for the fun of competing and train realitically in a traditional dojo someplace where flips and gymastics are not taught as self defense.

You just started? You should only be doing what you can and not anymore. You will advance at your own pace. The head instructor should have told you this. Why would he expect someone new to keep up with the rest of the class. This is why many students quit MA before they ever get started, because they feel they cannot do it or keep up.

I am with everyone on this by saying you did the right thing, but I do not think that you needed to hit him harder the "drop him." What you did was adequate and it stopped the fight. Good for you.

I have a group effort warm up for you Freddy. Have several groups of 4 or 5 students. Give each group a heavy medicine ball. You can have races: Go around the circle with the ball 10 times and then as a group do 10 pushups... It is fun for everybody, develops muscles, warms up the body, and is just something different to vary away from the same routine.

Alot of great points made by everybody here. I believe that anyone who takes a Martial Art whether it is considered sport or not is giving them an advantage to defend themselves in any situation. How that person trains and reacts to events will depend on their outcome in a given situation. Now for my opinion on competition sparring: Some people train to fight in rings against an opponent usually sized to fit them. Matches last for a certain amount of time and are then stopped so a fighter can rest. The strikes by each fighter are usually powerful and effective. The match is called when sufficient points are achieved, there is a knock out, or someone throws in a towel. That is one way of viewing sport fighting. Then their is the other type. The ones you see at every city local tournament where a tap on the head to your opponent stops the match and a point is awarded for that unworthy, poor technique type hit. At the end, someone wins a trophy and claims Kumite champion for the day. Now I know alot of people are probably going to be upset by this, but you know what I am talking about. Their are Sport Karate schools all over the country teaching 10 year olds how to score tournament points and not how to throw a proper punch. So this is my opinion on two totally different type of sport martial art type fighting. I put my money on the first scenerio fighter winning in a street fight. Menjo, sorry to hear about your injuries, but I want to clarify something for you. A fracture and a break are exactly the same thing. You fractured four ribs, but maybe one was a complete fracture. Watch out for these injuries, they can penetrate the lung if reinjured before totally healing.

One of the ways I have found to warm up my body before stretching at work is to run stairs while on a break, but remember to take deodorant

I for one and glad and impressed by you, but saddened that once respectable ( I think) black belts at your dojo would come back purposefully try to belittle fellow students. I hope they will not be permitted to return to your dojo in the future.

I have thought long and hard about this, my special talent is--------------> I can locate a spider in anyroom, no matter how big or how small. If it is there, my hair stands right up on end and then I spot it and run You know, I could probably win a who can run the longest race? Have someone follow me with a spider, and I am off and will not stop at all.

That was funny !

I would have liked to drive a manual also. I tried learning once, but I just scared my mom to death and she never tried showing me again. It didn't help that my little sister was crying in the back "let me out!"

My Sabres lost GO OILERS!

You know, kids are so tough. He probably was more scared that he fell and saw blood and the whole emergency room/doctor thing is crazy scary when you are 2. He probably didn't even really feel very much pain. Sometimes ( I work in an ER) I think kids respond more to how the parents are acting. If mom/dad is crying, junior gets scared. Parent who are calm, usually will see that the child is pretty calm too.

I think I missed the BBQ, but CONGRATULATIONS on your achievement! I guess I will go have a hotdog now in your honor!

Wow! Can't wait to hear how things go! Good luck!

My Nidan test was very tough. I was sore for probably one full week afterwords. I will not be testing for Sandan for quite awhile, but I think I had better start preparing now

Good luck Sohan. Let us know how it went. I bet the kids are going to have a blast!

That stinks KarateK. Are you still having alot of pain?

My instructor also is a shichidan and he has a red and white blocked obi, but he usually wears his black belt with 7 red stripes on it.

I knew you would pass!!!! Way to go!

jion, I do not think we are at the same school. The last time I was in Germany was -----------> well I was never in Germany but I would love to go sometime. I like what you have written in regards to itosu and funakoshi. I am greatly saddened to think that there are Shotokan schools over here in the states that have dropped the teachings of these great Martial Artists and developed a sport style of karate but continue to call themselves shotokan.

It is definetly frowned upon by other instructors to have people "just show up." The proper etiquette is to get in contact with them and ask. If you really can not get in touch before moving, take a typed letter from your instructor with his blessing and requests for you to continue training. Talk one on one with this sensei when he is not conducting classes. I think you will find that this will work for you.

My instructor does work bunkai with me when I am learning a kata, but he has also told me that their can be many bunkai to each kata. He encourages us to come up with our own. I like this way of training becaue in some kata, I feel my interpretation of a movement may be different than my instructors and works better for me.

This is a good question. I don' t really know if I have ever noticed a difference. Maybe it was just the individual you trained with. I do want to make a comment about realistic fighting though. I do not believe you have to be involved in a full contact sparring match everynight in order to prepare yourself for a real situation. Your constant training will allow you to adequately defend yourself in a situation. (Unfortunately) we have had people in our school who needed to defend themselves against would be muggers and they did so quite wonderfully, in fact one indivdual was able to keep his attacker held to the pavement until police arrived (of course, he was in enough pain that he didn't fight to get up very hard.) We do not practice full on contact.

lol wheeze. If I can keep getting up after a whole night of take downs, then I am just greatful