dragons_wrath99

You definitely should check with your doctor to see if it could be arthritis. I'm thirteen, and I have some similar problems- knee, hip, and ankle pain- and I've had Xrays taken and several misdiagnoses. The thing was, even after I had been told that 'oh, it's just growing pains' or 'actually, you have a hip pointer', the pain kept coming back, worse each time. My doctor was seriously worried that I might have arthritis, but thankfully for now it has been decided that my feet were the problem. Turns out that I have virtually no arch in my foot and that this caused my feet to roll inwards, putting the rest of my body in wack. Now I have special shoes that support my feet well, and the pain has nearly disappeared. I suggest that you ask your doctor to check your feet. You probably should ask about the arthritis too, but if it's only in your legs it's more likely to be a foot problem. Hope I helped!

Yeah, all this diet stuff is great, but you've seriously got me worried with your sleeping habits. Whatever happened to 'early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise'? Six hours of sleep is not enough to be truly healthy. At least try going to sleep at 11:30. You can develop a bedtime routine (personally I find that a cup of tea and a good book work very well) that tells your body that it is time to wind down and sleep. Seriously, you will feel so much better if you get an adequate amount of sleep.

I'm really sorry if I'm doing this incorrectly... this is my first topic. I was recently diagnosed with a hip pointer- a sort of internal bruise on the hip. Is this a common martial arts injury? I know that many football players get hip pointers. I think that I got mine from falling on my side incorrectly. So... basically, I'm just wondering if many martial artists get hip pointers and if anyone has some useful tips for not getting one when you do a side fall.

If you can't do the actual push-up, it's good to just start out in the proper push-up position and hold it. Have somebody with experience look at you to make sure that your hands are in the right places and that your back is straight. After you're in the correct position, just hold it as long as you can. When you've done this routinely for a while, perhaps a week or so, you'll be able to hold it much longer and will eventually be able to do a push-up. Good luck!

Hey, just want you to know that I'm sorry about your wrist. Once you get better, though, I know an amazing tool that will help your wrist get stronger again- it's called a Dyna-Flex PowerBall. It works really, really well. You can go to http://www.dynaflex-intl.com/ to learn more about it- I'm pretty sure you want the Gyro Exercisers. I hope you get better soon and I hope I helped!

I was always told that if you are a beginner, you don't have the authority to correct others unless you are asked to do so, even if you are older than they are. And what does it really matter, anyways? If they don't want to do it the right way, that's their problem, not yours.

How about bandage vs. Band-Aid? Q-tip vs. swab? Kleenex vs. tissue?

Kinda off subject here, but I'm just wondering what commands are used by different styles to say, "Line up!" Depending on our sensei, we'll use 'kiotske' to say 'line up' and 'mokso' to say 'sit down'. Those terms are both Japanese. Some days we'll say 'lejohng' for 'line up' and 'rujing' for sit down. Those are some dialect of Chinese (at least I'm pretty sure). If anyone else could tell me what they use I'd love to know. Also, I'm sorry if this has already been covered in the links given or anything. I read a couple of them but there were so many I gave up after a while.

Yes, I can do it, but only when I go very slowly and concentrate more on my foot than my hand. Guess it doen't really count then. Oh well.

Whenever we're doing nonstop punches or something like that and there's no set number or time limit, I think/sing a rythmic song. My most recent favorite is "Do you know the muffin man?" I'll be sitting in a horse stance, punching, punching, punching, and inside my head I'll be singing, "Do you know the muffin man, the muffin man, the muffin man...." to the beat of my punches. Yes, I know it's weird. But hey, it works. (Most of the time. A couple of times I think I was actually singing out loud... how humiliating! )

About the belts... you want to make sure that it's not so loose it's halfway down your butt, but you don't want it to be so tight that you can't breathe. Also your belt's 'secureness' can depend somewhat on its age. If you have a brand-new belt, you're gonna have to tie it really hard to keep it from just springing back apart. If you have an old belt, you should be able to tie it without any problems. I learned this really cool thing from one of my senseis when I earned my yellow belt. I was so excited that I tied it on kinda messy and she was like, "Whoa, where's your fortune-cookie knot?" I was like, "Huh?" and she showed me how to tie it. To describe it vaguely, when you've wrapped the belt around you twice and have both ends even, you turn/flip the end on the right so that it makes a sort of L pointig to the left. Then you take the left end and push it underneath and through. I don't think that made any sense but hey, I tried. Hope I helped.

Maybe you should just wear a shirt underneath your gi. IF it's OK with your sensei, that is.

Oh, mirrors... they symbolize so many things to us. Take, for example, the 'Bloody Mary' idea previously mentioned. Now think of a symbol you would use to describe someone beautiful or maybe vain- a mirror, right? Interesting how the same object can symbolize entirely different things to us, huh? A person easily spooked would see mirriors as something evil... a conceited person would see mirrors as best friends... a sci-fi fan would see mirrors as gateways into parallel universes... and maybe a fantasy fan would see mirrors as ways to tell us who is the fairest of them all. LOL. But to get back on track... One 'mind game' I play with myself is to set two mirrors opposite each other. I find it really mind-boggling how if you look into them, they just go on and on forever. Like if you stick your hand in front of the two mirrors, you see a hand... and a hand... and a hand... Okay, I'll stop before anyone starts to think I'm obsessed. Well, you probably already do. He he.

Okay, I know a ton of other people have said it, but it's completely true- go to the different dojos and watch a few classes. If it's a good school and you explain your situation, they'll invite you to join in a few activities. This could help a lot in deciding on a style. After class, you should talk to a sensei or a darker-belted student. They will be able to answer any questions you have and maybe give you some advice. Hope I helped!

Hmmmm... I disagree. I'm not an expert or anything, but it seems to me that the higher up in rank you get, the longer the intervals between belt testings. In my dojo also they hold testing every three months, so for us three months of training is the absolute minimum to go from white belt (our lowest rank) to yellow belt (the next rank up, I'm not positive on the kyus). To test for full black belt it takes an immensly long amount of time... years of training... you could never get black belt three months after obtaining your brown belt! Yikes, what a scary thought! But then again, I suppose it varies from dojo to dojo.