Shotokan-kez

My sensei has been on holiday for two weeks so we have had the assistant instructor who's a 2nd dan. I have a grading on friday going for 1st kyu. Officially you are meant to wait 6 months between 2nd kyu and 1st kyu but sensei has said that if he feels someone is good enough they can grade within the 3 months with the other kyu grades. While sensei was away i put my name down for the grading and then tonight i discussed it with him and he said that the assistant instructor said i was doing wel, he would look at me but he doesnt see why not. Then the bombshell came. During the lesson he told me that my moves were not strong or powerful enough. He said my form and technique were good but not enough power. I am allowed to grade though but he said that i had to show more power and strength on friday night. There are two kids the same grade as me and he doesnt want them to grade because they are not good enough yet. Now this puts heaps of pressure on me, i need to shine but i already thought i was. I always put 100% into my classes and i honestly thought i had it spot on! Yes form is good and so is technique but without power what good is that? I'm gutted now. Just goes to show it doesnt matter how good you think you are....sensei always knows best! Kez

Is this lads name Boyd? Ooooohhhhhh i just thought of one....Martial Law. I have never watched it properly. Anyone know if this is any good?

Totally agree Scotty, i may pre-order it too. I don't think i could ever get bored of watching it.

I only speak English, and the occasional French word

Is that all Brandon!!! I have never had any experience with weapon training....but ouch! I'm kinda glad i dont

This is awful. One of our dojo rules is to have clean hands and feet, short and clean finger nails and toe nails and a clean gi. I think this is unacceptable and i'm sure if your feeling this way others will be too and it isn't nice to be in that situation. If i was you i would speak to the sensei, he doesn't need to mention names if he approaches this person and like i say i'm sure your not alone on this. Maybe this person just needs a gentle push on personal hygiene. What is his personality like? Just wondering because if he has an aggresive personality someone would have to be very tactile and careful when approaching him with this. Good luck

alseys advice is good. It's very difficult to learn from a DVD when you have no prior experience. I do however always refere to them once i have learned something and need to brush up on it.

When i was training years ago before at my current dojo. The first two students to arrive at the dojo had to sweep it first in a certain fashion. It didnt bother me at all doing this, i suppose it shows a little respect for the dojo.

I think its wrong having a probationary black belt. Getting black belt is such an honour and an achievement, i think getting a probation black belt takes all this away.

I liked it. Completely different from what we do but it was great..very fast!

Yep the acting is shocking, and cheesy and cheap. I think the story line could have been better too, that David Sloan was the brother of Kurt and Eric and they were both killed. In the first one i thought it was silly that Kurt and Eric were brothers because they have no similarities what so ever.

In our club stance such as horse and cat stance are really used in kata, it gives strength and power and is great for balance. For fighting i dont expect that someone would automatically go into cat stance but a freestyle fighting stance that is comfortable to them.

Wow that looks fab. I agree with what everyone else says that there isnt much MA in there but i would learn that without a doubt because it looks to cool and lots of fun.

Cheers i may look up on the net see if i can find his dojo

Ok i just had a thought.....there is die hard, die harder, die harder with a vengence and now a die hard 4, which order are these in?

Yeah that was like me, i had to wait six months. It wasnt any more than that though

We dont have camps, wish we did though, sounds like a lot of fun.

Jacky Chan i think he's just awesome!

I was browsing ebay for a good martial arts DVD and i came across this title.......KARATE, THE KAWASOE WAY. I had never heard of him so i bought it anyway because it said from beginer to black belt. Anyway i found this guy to be awesome. He is very thorough and perfect in all his moves and techniques (well i think he is i'm not an instructor). I don't know much about him really. Do any of you guys have this DVD and what are your thoughts on it? I thought it was good by the way it goes from warm ups right up to black belt rank. Also does anone have any information on him and what do you think of him? Kez xx

Thats awesome, i'm gonna try that. It could be my new party trick and make me dead popular and get me lots of gf's

Thats possible hun. I like the tetris and chess they have added in the new Mk

I have always practised shotokan karate but i have always wanted to try TKD or thai boxing. I'm going for 1st kyu soon but i still don't feel ready to take on another MA. I have decided when i reach shodan i may look into TKD. I simply didnt want to get mixed up, i take my MA very seriously and wanted to concentrate on what i was doing. Many people though can cope quite well with different MA's, of course for me it was the financial side as well. Good luck with all your training! Kez xx

When they ripping it out hun?

oh yeah so you did! Soowwwwyyyyyyy

We only make light contact during sparring because sensei says control is important. We score from strikes to the stomach, back, head. Arms and below the belt don't score, neither does the back of the head.