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Most any martial art will help you get more fit as long as they train hard. I was fortunate to have started in a dojo that trained hard. I was unfortunate in that my original dojo closed and I had to find a new place to train. Along the way I visited a couple of dojo's that were obvious belt factories. After being used to hard training I barely broke a sweat. I knew right away I needed to look elsewhere. I love karate and appreciate the value of a good karate workout but if all I was interested in was fitness I might consider boxing or Muay Thai. A good boxing gym is hard to beat when it comes to strength training and physical fitness.

I'm trying to put myself in your position but it's difficult since I'm a man. If my wife was screaming in my face I would not hit her. I'm 6'5" and 210 lbs. and she's 5'2" and about 130. It would take a lot more than yelling for her to make me feel threatened enough to use karate on her. OTOH, if another man, especially one that was bigger than me, was screaming in my face I'd probably give him a whole lot worse than a palm heel strike. I'm trying to imagine such a scenario and it seems to me I would feel justified in knocking his butt out. Screaming in your face can often be followed by something a lot more violent. I'm not the kind of karate-ka that stands around and waits for the other guy to throw the first punch. I can't really advise you because I wasn't there. You said you were arguing so I'm assuming you were just as angry as he was. He should have known better than to push a martial artist to anger and then threaten her with violence. BTW: If he's the kind of man that gets mad and screams right in your face, you might want to stop blaming yourself and rethink the whole relationship. Are you sure you want to spend the rest of your life with a man like that?

There are just too many variables to answer this question. The answer varies, for example, depending on the jurisdiction. Reasonable force in New York City may not be the same thing as it is in, say, Berea Kentucky or London England. I think, generally speaking, if you keep thrashing the guy after he's no longer a threat, stomping him in the head after he's unconscious and so forth, you'll be in a heap of trouble. The point I always make when this discussion comes up is that if I'm being attacked the legal ramifications are the last thing on my mind. I think once the adrenalin starts pumping rational thought goes out the window and muscle memory kicks in. Hopefully, once the threat is passed you'll have the presence of mind to stop fighting. Hopefully.

Nobody's mentioned the ball of the foot yet. I agree the shin is a lot better weapon than the instep but the ball of the foot can be devastating depending on the target. A mawashi to the ribs or the sternum with the ball of the foot is nasty.

I'm with JZ. At your level you need to concentrate on one art. Besides, I can't see the benefit of training in two karate styles at once. Shotokan and Shorin-ryu are going to be more similar than they are different. The subtle differences between the two will just get you confused. TKD, on the other hand, has a lot of similarities to Shotokan but the terminology is completely different of course. If you really want to cross train, I would suggest training in a grappling art like Jujitsu. That would add an extra dimension to your karate without getting you too confused. But, again, I would not even do that as a yellow belt. You still have a lot to learn in Shotokan before you need to start branching out.

I've studied a lot of small circle Jujitsu and still enjoy training it but recently had my eyes opened to a very interesting point of view. Should be a no-brainer really. Can't believe I never thought of it. My shihan pointed out that if someone grabs me, his hands are busy holding onto me but my hands are free. How's he going to stop me from knocking him out if he's busy pulling my hair?

It's just an expression but it does have a basis in fact. It goes without saying that all females are not equal. Female ball players can throw a ball quite well. The typical girl, however, throws a ball like, well, a girl. There are only a handful of men in this world that can hit a golf ball better than Lorena Ochoa. Ever seen the typical amateur female golfer hit a golf ball? They hit the ball like, well, girls. That's why they get to play from the forward tees. Well trained female martial artists can throw some powerful punches. The typical untrained female hits like a girl. Get the point? The expression is based on typical girls, not trained fighters and other athletes. When you told the boys to stop hitting like girls you didn't mean for them to stop hitting like highly trained female fighters in a dojo. You meant for them to stop hitting like typical little girls on a playground. Too bad we have to be so hyper-sensitive but it's the world we live in.

Yep, backing up is suicide. Your opponent can move forward a lot faster than you can move backward. Once he gets you off balance, you're toast. Circle out and counter, yes, but you have to be quick with your counter and make sure you counter with something that'll get his attention and make him break off his attack. If he's over committed to attacking you he's left himself open somewhere. It just takes a lot of practice to learn how to spot the opening and exploit it. You'll get there. That's why we call it training.

3 times per week, 1 hour per class and a 2 hour open dojo on Saturday morning. So, 4 times for a total of 5 hours.

As others have said, the Jujitsu is there but it's subtle. The school where I trained before I had to move away (dang it) taught a good bit of small circle jujitsu and a fair amount of ground fighting. The sensei was a retired LEO who had taught LE self defense. Most of that stuff was jujitsu based and he added it to his Wado curriculum. It fit together very well, by the way. Last I heard some of the other senseis in USEWF were interested in adding it to their curriculums as well. I don't think it's happened yet but I think it would be really cool if it did. Just another example of how an art tends to evolve over time.

Never say never. For the most part I think double promotions should not be done. However, there are exceptions to everything. I myself was double promoted once. It was a small school and I had been training every night with a student that had been there longer than I had. When we tested there were just the two of us. He was testing for his blue belt (4th kyu) and I was testing for orange (3rd kyu). Before the test the Senseis agreed that I already knew all the material for the blue belt because I had been the other guy's uke for so long. They didn't tell me ahead of time but they agreed that they would put me through the same test as the other guy and if I did well they would move me from yellow to blue. When the test was over and they tied the blue belt around me I was honored and at the same time a little embarrassed. They said it was the only time in the history of that school that they had ever double promoted anyone but it was kind of a special circumstance.

Agreed. All things considered though, I would place fitness above skill. Here's a scenario for you. My younger brother has always been big on fitness. He's a naturally gifted athlete that took up body building as a teenager. He's never been into martial arts but I've no doubt he could handle himself if he had to simply by virtue of his strength and athleticism. All that's changed now however. Several years ago he got into power lifting and bulked up to 6'5" and 300 lbs. He got really strong and could lift an incredible amount of weight. The downside was that he lost his agility. About a year ago he quit training and now he's just big and out of shape. He can't run out of his own shadow without getting winded. While he outweighs me 100 lbs. and he's 9 yrs. younger than me I'm in a lot better shape than he is. Perish the thought of ever having to fight my little brother but if it did happen I wouldn't need very much skill. All I need is just enough skill to stay out of his reach long enough for him to get tired before I move in for the kill.

I chose an instructor. When I first started there were only 2 schools in our town and I went with Wado because I liked the instructor better. Now I'm living in an area where there are no Wado schools and just finished the process of having to find a new place to train. I researched all kinds of different styles trying to find one that was similar to Wado. In the end, I went with the instructor. I didn't know much about Kuk Sul Do but discovered that Grandmaster Yang is serving as interim head instructor at the school near here. I dropped by, met him, watched him run class and next thing I knew I was signing on the dotted line.

I'm assuming you're looking at this from a male perspective. If you were female, you might think differently. I'm male, 6'5" and 200 lbs. so no, I've never had anyone try to fight me by grabbing my wrists. However, a lot of thugs will try to manhandle a woman by grabbing one of her wrists. Maybe he wants her to go with him and he thinks he can grab her wrist and drag her along. I'm sure there are a lot of women who have had their wrists grabbed by men with bad intentions. Since most martial arts schools have both male and female students it seems like a good idea to have wrist grab defenses in the curriculum.

Only one, really. Tore a tendon in my elbow doing knuckle pushups. Very painful, took a long time to heal. I wouldn't recommend it.

Don't be too hard on yourself. You reacted in the heat of the moment. You know what they say about hindsight. Anyway, how do you know a Judo throw would have been any less destructive? Landing hard on the hard floor can do a lot of damage too, you know?

Listen to Jay. He speaks the truth. Especially the part about your diet. I know it's difficult but you need to eat 6 small meals a day and make sure you get most of your calories from protein. Stay away from the junk food and the fast food. It's nothing but empty calories. Stay away from carbs as much as possible, especially after a workout. If availability of good food is a problem you might want to supplement your diet with protein shakes and/or power bars.

I really like the ones where they fly through the air and land on tree branches and stuff like that. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon comes to mind.

Aren't most styles of Karate (especially Kenpo) some sort of blend anyway? Most of my training is in Wado, which has elements of Shotokan and Jujitsu but is actually a pure form of neither one of those arts. Ohtsuka sensei took his Shotokan training, his Jujitsu training, mixed them together, added a number of his own techniques and called it Wado. These days I'm training in a style called Tama-ryu Kenpo/Jujitsu. Tama comes from the name of the school where I train (Taningco Martial Arts Academy). Master Taningco trained in a form of Kenpo under a Chinese master named Donald Fong. He has also trained in Kung Fu, Jujitsu, Muay Thai, Eskrima and who knows what else. He also has taught and designed self defense curriculums for law enforcement and the military and has incorporated a lot of that stuff into his Kenpo curriculum. The point is that Tama Ryu Kenpo might have a lot of similarities to the Kenpo that Master Taningco trained in but it is really a style all its own. For my part, I really don't care. I love it. I've trained in 3 different arts (Wado, Tama ryu Kenpo, Okinawan Karate) and this one is by far the most practical of the 3. Yes, it's an ecclectic mix of all kinds of different styles but it sure is a lot of fun!

I might speak to the sensei in private but I'd want to give the sempai the benefit of the doubt too. One of the things I miss the most about my old dojo (had to move away or I'd still be training there) is my sempai. I learned an awful lot from that guy. He was very deliberate in his teaching because he was nervous about teaching something the wrong way. Anytime he taught me something he made absolutely sure I understood. I appreciated the fact that he was so serious about my training. It was a little tedious at times but one thing's for sure. I never had to unlearn any of the things he taught me. That's very important. It's harder to unlearn something that was mistaught than it is to learn it right the first time.

I was wondering the same thing. Wado's a relatively soft art. The moves are pretty fluid. I can imagine a lot of muscle pain, especially as a beginner, but that doesn't sound like what you're talking about. I can definitely see foot and knee pain from sitting seisa on the hardwood floor. That will take a good bit of getting used to. Real curious. How are you doing, anyway?

My Century heavyweight gi shrinks no matter what I do. OTOH, my Kamikaze heavyweight gi never shrinks, although I wish it would. It was always a little too big and now I've lost some weight so it really doesn't fit me that well. I wash it hot/cold and dry it on high after every class and it still doesn't shrink. Go figure.

Black belt means you have learned all the techniques in the curriculum well enough to pass a test. It's just another milestone on the journey as now you spend the rest of your life trying to perfect said techniques.

She said she was sorry. That makes it all better, doesn't it?

It's happened to me twice (sort of). My original Sensei decided to close his school and made arrangements for a few of us to go train at a different dojo. It was also a different style. We went from Wado to traditional Okinawan karate. He agreed to train with us. After a couple of months I was the only one still training at the new school. My original sensei decided to start teaching a small class at his house and invited me to train there. I had mixed emotions because I really liked the new dojo and was starting to like the style as well. After much soul searching though, I decided to go back to Wado. So, in a sense you could say the same instructor quit twice and I followed him both times.