jaymac

At 50 years old, I would be so proud of myself for doing such an awesome thing like MA. I would be sporting those bruises with a smile and when anyone asked, I would tell them, I have been training in MA

Your wrong.

Again, I say good for you and congratulations. If you can not give Karate 100% of your devotion, than give it to where you want to achieve your goals.

No Tylenol is not an NSAID (non steroidal anti inflammatory). It is also not as good of a pain reliever as an NSAID (motrin, advil, aleve). Are the bruises so bad that you are really concerned? You may want to see a doctor if it has gotten out of hand. There could be other things going on.

Capoiera does look like fun. What upper body strength you must get with this style. Competition though? Are there any tournaments for this. I have been to many and thinking back, I have never seen anyone doing Capoiera.

You are a very glass half full kind of person HongKongFooey

Thought of another way to promote your school. Get involved with local charities like March of Dimes and stuff. It is great for a school to care about local things and assist with raising money for great causes. When people see a group of young martial artist taking part in a positive neighborhood effort, it reflects on their personal image of martial arts. The students love representing their dojo this way also and love supporting local charities. It has been a positive experience for us and groups now have come to ask if we would like to sponsor a kick a thon to help raise money for so and so. What a great way to be a positive impact in a community and give back to others.

Has anyone tried this and is it effective? I have very sore knees. I was told that it is not arthritis but overuse of the joint. Many people recommend this supplement, but I have been hesitant to try it because I do not know what type of side effects it may create, or if it interracts with other meds. I really only take OTC analgesics for headaches.

I do like to have music when I am training. I tend to keep fast paced music going. If I have slow paced music, I find that i tend to slow down. I especially notice this when I go for a bike ride. The faster the music, the faster I pedal. Ok, I am not like a road runner in the dojo or anything, but music keeps me moving.

What style are you training for. Let me tell you, the most effective pieces of equipment I own are a work out bag and full size mirrors. No descriptive needed for why I have a work out bag, but the mirrors help me with making sure I am doing techniques correctly, especially with kata (which is my favorite type of training).

So did you compete? How did you do?

Ok, I saw you. Nice site by the way.

Wow, way to compete tkdan! Congrats!

That is awesome that you get to do this. Make the most of it, but don't get trashed and miss training man. I think it is great how you are keeping everyone posted on your experience. Thanks.

Wow I guess you got your answer. Good luck in training and never let your age stop you from doing anything. Don't look backwards in life and say "I wish......" Just go and do it! Kind of sounds like a Nike commercial.

Thanks Brandon, I am always trying to find a mag. with more traditional aspects of MA. I have been greatly dissappointed with Black Belt magazine. Too much emphasis on MMA. Unfortunately, I have not seen the magazine in this area that you have mentioned.

We do not test during regular class hours. We have too many students- some who will test and many who will not. It would interfere with those students who are paying a tuition to attend class and then sit and watch others test. We have to open the school on a non traditional day to do rank testing. Again, like I said, we are not charging people 50.00 to test for a yellow belt. It is a small fee to cover the dojo expenses for that day.

You know there are times when I am working kata with a student and they just arent' executing the technique quite right. Several times I have said " ok, now this is what you are doing here or what you are defending against." Almost everytime, the student replies with "oh, i get it now" It is just an insight to kata. Everyone will have different bunkai to a certain kata move and that is ok. It is just learning more about a kata than just performing a series of prearranged movements. It doesn't make one school better or worse than the other if they do or don't teach bun kai. It just depends on the individual learning the kata. Personally, I like the bun kai. When you do a kata over and over and over, you can see what you are defending against. I want the person that I am teaching to love to do kata. Sometimes bunkai helps.

It is not going to be easy, but you can do it. I switched from Kung Fu to Shotokan and it was a difficult transition for quite awhile. There are definitely differences. Good luck. You will enjoy your training.

A couple more tips. Many times after training, people are sore and tend to take ibuprofen. This pain medication is also a blood thinner. It will increase your chances of bruising. Also, extra strenght exedrin contains aspirin - also causing increased chances of bruising. I have trained for years. I bruise all the time, not because I do not train properly, because I have a freaking headache all the time and take those medications. Anyways, keep training. Have fun, and bruise a little. It is more fun to say I got that bruise training in MA, than it is to say, "i fell"

I have also sparred individuals who will for some reason take a lower fighting stance ( maybe because they love kata or something). They totally telegraph a movement be standing up out of the stance before they strike.

I think for the most part, people training in whatever style is going to get out of it what they give to it. Boxing is a wonderful sport. I enjoy watching matches on t.v. I love traditional martial arts. I would love to be able to watch a program teaching about martial arts. Every know and then you see one on Discovery or TLC or something and it is always informative and interesting. However, these programs are far and few. Now with MMA on Spike t.v. it takes martial arts to a different level of brutality than boxing. So again, not a great name for MA, even though I enjoy watching that also. Then you turn on some of these sport channels to see The Disney world MA competition where people are doing gymastic and acrobatic martial arts moves that would not be effective in any type of realistic fight. All in all, boxing is true to what it is. I think that in itself attracts people to the sport.

My thoughts exactly Lordtariel. It is good that you realized that you wanted something different and were mature enough to leave on good terms. You may find that you want to return someday and if you leave on a positive note, your instructor will be more willing to take you back. Good luck in your training.

You know Sohan, I think most people are the same way. It wasn't until I was testing for my purple belt that I realized that I needed to focus more on becoming better in my techniques than achieving my next rank. I am a Nidan now and do not care when I will test again. I just want to be really good at what I am doing now.

We once handed out flyers (small ones) during trick or treating. We opened the school and gave candy and fliers. Demonstrations seem to be one of the best ways though. You get a large group to watch and have someone hand out fliers to the spectators.