Bluetulipx

Previously green belt in WTF TKD in America (lost grade when moving to England and starting ITF - to yellow tag) Now Green belt in ITF TKD Orange belt in Aikido Yellow belt in Kickboxing and it's great. The higher the belt level the higher the expectation and I am very happy with what I have now because I am still learning a great deal for each of the levels. Some of my instructors think I am ready for the next grades, but I'm enjoying the pace that I'm at

I found SenseiMike's post very interesting. Understanding ki for me was an intriguing path. I read books on science related issues and found 'something' although at the time I did not know what it was. I was travelling around the U.S. as a Technical Consultant installing software and realized that I was fascinated by what I had found. Shortly afterwards, I moved jobs and stopped travelling for work and was able to study Tae Kwon Do. I enjoyed it (and still do) but previously it never related to ki (for me anyway). I will try to incomporate it now though. I then moved to England and I found Aikido. It gave me what I was missing. I understood the concept of ki straightaway and made the connection to it then I started becoming interested in Zen because of this. I found that a basic understanding of astrophysics (how big is the universe) combined with particle physics (how small is the universe) started me thinking. What if the universe was made up of invisible grains of sand - and that was it - nothing else. Each invisible grain of sand would vibrate at different levels and be full of positive or negative energy. In turn, the vibrations (related to humans anyway) would reflect moods. (The higher the vibration, the more excited the person might become, etc.) I then imagined that I was going to pick a specific part of my body and vibrate the energy there - arm, leg, whatever (this was to me the weirdest thing at the time). I am now hearing that this is all normal in certain religions. So basically I guess that's how I found ki. Finding ki has completely changed my outlook on life and my reactions to people as well.

As well as being beneficial in many other ways, the part that I find most interesting is the imaginary opponent or opponents. I ask myself, where is my opponent that I am attacking or defending against? What is he doing? We are told that the imaginary opponent is supposed to be the same height as us, so I've tried to create one with a bit of character (and of course cute). I did think about imagining myself as the opponent, but that just seemed rather weird! In ITF, even for chonji, I imagine my opponent moving to each place and then preparing to attack or defend and then moving to the next block/attack. It makes me realize whether or not I fully understand what each technique is.

I am not sure if it was called wavemaster, but I had one very similar although it was long (not sure what sizes the wavemaster is available in). I lived just outside of Washington D.C. at the time and was taking WTF TKD. Some of the best memories I have are of me in my ground floor apartment with my floor to ceiling windows training with the punch bag. The weather outside was 90 to 95 degrees. It was wonderful. When I took my gradings we had to break boards. One of my breaks was a skip side kick and I remember going home and trying it out lots of times on my wavemaster. I then went and took the grading and when I had to break the board, I did it first time. It was great. I am now living in England and I really miss my wavemaster. I am thinking about getting a new one. I would like to get one with the targets numbered on it, if it is not too expensive. I will now be practicing both kicks and punches on it. For me it was one of the best training tools I had at home. However, it really depends on the person.

I do not have a significant other, but I have found the same type of issues with family and friends. Indeed, I lost some friends because of my change of interests. To change from going down the pub for a drink to exercising frequently is one of the most drastic changes that people can make (in my opinion anyway). If some of your quality time with your girlfriend was down the pub and you no longer have that then it is understandable that the 'other' person is going to resent it (whoever they maybe). Perhaps things will even out once your girlfriend starts her 20 hours of study. I try to limit the amount that I talk about the martial arts to non-MA people and spend more time chatting to people at the clubs that I attend. However, I am lucky being single because I can spend my time doing anything I want!

Congratulations. Well done.

Such is the way of the world in martial arts or outside of it. No matter who you are, no matter what you do, some people will like you, some won't. Some will respect you and some won't. There are different types of personalities but you normally get an idea of who they are, some genuine, some determined to put you down, some determined to make themselves look good, etc. I would be surprised if anyone could say that they were liked and respected by everyone (instructors/teachers are a separate issue). As the other posts have stated, the most important thing is to train for yourself. You get what you put into it. When I'm not having a good time, I remind myself that I am not training for other people (although it is nice to train with them), I am training for my own personal reasons.

I think this is a very important question and I feel the same way that you do. I have realized that I want to do the martial arts for many years and I would like a black belt at some point but have no desire to rush through the gradings especially if I don't feel ready. I do three martial arts, aikido, tae kwon do and kick boxing and I tried to figure out how to ask this diplomatically as well. In the end I decided to ask my instructors straight out. I explained that because I have three martial arts that I don't want to be doing gradings every month (although it did start this way). I would like to be a black belt at some point but because I am doing this for myself, not for others, I do not want to rush it. The way I addressed it though was to address it as a personal issue. I said that an important issue for me is not to feel that I must do the next grading when I am not ready. I did not mention other people, that is up to them. Because I very carefully made it clear that this was an important issue to my instructors, they ask me if I would like to take the next belt as they say they think I am ready. I am then able to say 'yes' or 'no'. For people in the class who have not made the same request, I do not think that they have been provided the same choices. Anyway, that's just my experience, but I find that if you state at the beginning that this is an important personal goal of yours then hopefully they will listen to it.

I do Tae Kwon Do and Aikido and I find they work very well together, mainly because they are so different. Also, Tae Kwon Do is Korean and Aikido is Japanese so I learn different languages and they don't get mixed up. Aikido works very well on the self defence part of Tae Kwon Do as well. However, if karate is Japanese you may find that it a little difficult to separate out the terminology but that really depends on the person.

In the real world, I don't think fighting is the answer. I think the best way to view this is to see if there is some way for you to walk away without any fighting happening at all. If you do fight the other person, there could be a friend that's just around the corner, or they could find you again and bring their buddies back with them so that it won't be one on one it will be three, four or five on one. The reason I say this is because up until last year, I was quite happily doing the martial arts and in fact I do three of them and I was thinking, it will be nice when I get to black belt because I will feel capable of defending myself effectively. I am a woman in my mid thirties. Well, for some strange reason, I've had a few run ins with unsavoury characters. I will mention three of them but unfortunately there have been more. First was the guy that moved into the flat above me. Let's just say that at 4 am on a Friday night/Saturday morning, a guy showed up and tried to kick the front door in. The people upstairs let him in and he ran up the stairs and started attacking one of them. I only had a very thin wooden door to my flat and he could have very easily kicked it in. I was lucky though because I was not the target and I moved out the next day. Second I was walking home and suddenly 3 teenage boys appeared with a phone (I think these are known as happy slapping instances). I again was very lucky, because they had decided that they wanted to hug me. However, I told them no very sternly and stormed off down the street. I went to my neighbours because I was shaken up and then as I was talking to him, the teenage boys then attacked another boy and hit him. Third, occurred today, two boys, maybe 10 years old, were walking along and one of them was carrying a stick. The one with the stick said 'hey' very rudely and I looked at him. He then said 'hey' and I continued to look at him. As I didn't stop looking at him, but didn't say anything then he walked passed me. Only after he had walked a bit of a distance did he then shout 'hey, give me your ****** bag', but I just kept walking and then they were gone. I am not that high in the martial arts, but I know of big meaty guys that I wouldn't mess with (who have very nice personalities but you wouldn't know that if you hadn't met them before) and they have been beaten up because they were blindsided by attackers. I think if there is a way to avoid violence then that is the best solution because you just don't know what could happen next.

I usually train formally 4 or 5 times a week. Aikido 2 nights, Tae Kwon Do 1 lesson, Kick Boxing 1 or 2 lessons depending on how much time I have. I also do stretches and some practicing at home. I also do the studying part at home as well, with books and DVDs, etc. to help make sure that I have the correct forms. However, with the formal Aikido lessons, these last 2 hours but we have a coffee break in the middle. I guess I am lucky with this class at the moment, because we all seem to get along very well and it's more like a socializing event a lot of the time, even when I get thrown to the floor! I am lower in the ranks though so maybe it's not quite as gruelling for me as it is for other people.

One important aspect of Aikido is that it is done on a mat - not a hard floor. Therefore, it is not as painful as knocking someone down and banging their head on a concrete floor. As part of the warm ups, students do a variety of exercises including breakfalls (throwing yourself across the mat). I started Aikido a couple of years ago when I came back to England. At first the idea of throwing myself across the mat seemed like a most absurb idea. Why, I asked myself, would anyone pay for this torture? However, I am slowly getting used to the concept and now I am able to throw myself on one side without causing much damage! I am going to start throwing myself on the other side soon. What I like most of all about my club and my instructor is that I have stated that I want to do things at my own pace. This to me is very important. I am also in my thirties so age does sometimes have its advantages. Anyway, for me, most of the time Aikido is a lot of fun. Sometimes people do things that cause a bit of pain, but as most of the people in my club are very nice then I find it hard to get upset when I know that someone accidentally caused me pain. Aikido is about being gentle and using the opponents energy on them. Of course I am only an orange belt and have much to learn but I see many advantages of learning this. To me, it is the opposite to Tae Kwon Do (that I also study) -- absorb and deflect, rather than attack. It is also interesting to watch people as they do techniques on me. As a woman who does Tae Kwon Do as well, then if people try a technique on me forcefully then it will not work (unless they break my arm, as they would out on the street). Aikido on me is very effective when done gently. This actually makes it very clear to me how effective it really is. I think sometimes for someone who has not attended Aikido before then it looks far more aggressive than the true nature of it is. Then again, I think most martial arts are seen differently from someone who has not actually done them. Oh, and of course, there is a lot of testosterone that is involved that may add to the displays. Of course, black belts and higher, may have a very different opinion, as they have a lot more experience than me.

I study 3 martial arts at present: Tae Kwon Do, Aikido and Kick Boxing. Tae Kwon Do on Sundays, Aikido on Mondays and Fridays and Kick Boxing on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I have studied Tae Kwon Do in two different countries and have studied both WTF and ITF forms (although I am not high ranking in either one - green belt). When I moved to the area that I live in now, I could not find a WTF school and therefore started back at the beginning in the ITF form. I am happy with this but unfortunately I only visit on Sundays. I have Aikido on Mondays and Fridays and find that it is very different to Tae Kwon Do and fits nicely with 'a change is as good as a rest'. I also do Kick Boxing on Wednesdays and Thursdays (women only) to drill in the basics of kicking and punching to help with my Tae Kwon Do. As far as socializing this is great because there are 3 different clubs with 3 different sets of people.