ashworth

Congrats!!

Haven't looked too much into Zen Meditation, but regarding visualization, what is it exactly you are referring to? visualizing an opponent while you perform your techniques? that's very beneficial, helping to ensure your techniques are aimed at the correct areas. But this also reminds me of what I call 'image training' where I focus my mind and imagine myself going through kata... This is good if you can't physically train, (maybe your injured or lack of space) but I find this a really good exercise to develop focus. It is actually quite difficult to go through an entire kata this way. (It could just be me with a brain that is very easily side tracked!) either picture yourself from first or third person, either will work, with students I suggest their first exercise can be to build their surroundings first, whether its your ideal personal dojo, or a peace field somewhere. Maybe just the dojo where you train... Try it yourselves, choose a kata and imagine going through every step, like I said, for me I find it helps develop my focus and remember my Katas, this can often highlight areas I know I need to practise... Interestingly I came across a video years ago, I believe it was talking about Chi Ghost. and they run you through a simple exercise, physically bend down and try and touch your toes. Then assume a comfortable meditative position and focus on your breathing, then while still breathing (obviously) imagine yourself getting up, and picture yourself going through stretches that you normally would, and then picture yourself bending down and touching your toes. Once you have finished, get up in the real world, bend down and trying and touch your toes... you should be able to get further than you did initially

I am exactly the same... I am the dirty fighter in our dojo, distraction techniques. "watch out behind you" etc... One of my favourite ones that works really well on my instructor is stepping on his lead foot, it's not a stamp, just stepping on it pinning in momentarily and distracting him from the punch that comes in, it really throws him off and the punch goes through every time. He thinks it's brilliant! Another tactic that I stole from someone is throwing techniques to limbs, not just legs but arms, keep striking their arms, in some cases it will wind them up, and they will become conditioned to it and less likely to defend your real techniques that come through.

I come from a Shotokan background, but have also seen it from other styles, as mentioned in previous posts the main purpose in my eyes it for leg strengthening. My Instructor use to say that obviously in a real life situation you wouldn't assume this stance, especially with adrenaline running through your body, but if you train to kick from those positions, then you would be able to kick from the shorter fighting stance with less issues, (less likely to injure yourself from pulling muscles etc)...

The club that I train in at the moment use a mixture between the WKF style pads and the MMA one's, mostly its the black belts that use the MMA gloves. I too use a mixture of both depending on what class I'm in, If I'm more likely to come up against other black belts I'll go for MMA ones.

Hey! welcome to the forum fellow UK person!

Welcome to the Forum! Even if they aren't Shureido, they certainly look like decent quality! for 5$ too! I'm very jealous! enjoy them!

Thanks! Slowly getting used to the new forum, and it is growing on me! great work Patrick! the time and dedication that you put into this community continues to amaze me!

Definitely!! I have always been good at knowing my left from my right, and it surprises me when someone doesn't... Makes me laugh every time when my wife has to hold up her index finger with her thumb sticking out to see which one is her left hand!

Finally! been able to change my Avatar! The old one was very outdated! Getting used to the new look! was a shock when I just signed in for the first time in a while!

Congrats on the award for the 3rd time!

Good luck for the up-coming grading!!

Welcome to the Forum!

Congrats!

Huge congrats Noah! I saw your post on social media about this already and wondered if you would post about it on here I keep tabs on videos that you post and agree that all of these awards are well deserved and your late sensei would be very proud!

In my eyes 10th Dan was usually reserved for heads of organisation so for me I would never expect to see two 10th Dan in the same club!

Congrats on your Nidan!!

I also find that your knowledge and understanding of techniques will grow as your students encounter issues that you haven't come across before. Being a karate-ka that started from the age of 5, when it came to start thinking about what I was actually doing the techniques just seems to come naturally, and because of this when I started teaching, students would hit speed bumps where something doesn't quite seem right and I struggled to identify some of these, as for me it just felt natural. I feel like you almost have to learn the mistakes and how to solve them. Overtime you learn all the common mistakes and have tricks up your sleeve to help solve them, then every now and then someone will come along with a new mistake you haven't encountered yet, just to give you something to think about...

All of my martial art certificates are just kept in a plastic wallet folder, keeps them all in one place. Including my dan grade certificates, I don't discriminate, grading certificates from when I was a child are kept in the same folder as Dan grades

Congrats!

Already 11 days in... but happy New Year everyone!!

Hello, we are fast approaching the end of this year, I was looking for some kind of new year goal post, but didn't find one (Apologies if I simply missed it!) I used to be quite enthusiastic about setting goals for the new year, but to be honest, since becoming a family man and then when the covid pandemic hit, my simple goal has just been to survive... Which I am please to report I have been achieving! But now since I have returned to an old dojo about 4/5 months ago this have revived my views towards my training and goals... So my main goal within the new/old club is to keep up the attendance that I have maintained for the past 4/5 months but I would also like to learn the rest of their kata (I currently know 9 out of their 11 kata, but I am half way through learning the 10th one already. Within my own karate I would like to simply maintain practise of the syllabus and kata to ensure I don't forget them. and to also keep up visiting the dojo once a month with select members to keep my karate alive (some black belts from the new/old club have expressed interest in training with me and learning from my style, so wish to make sure I can still deliver for those individuals). Also with my revival of training enthusiasm, I have been focusing more on Kobudo training and have learnt some kata there that and I simply wish to maintain and study further. Aside from the martial art side of things, in my everyday life I have the simple goal of just trying to keep up! we have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. My wife makes the majority of the plans, and it can be very difficult to try and keep up with what we are doing! a lot of the times I just feel like I'm along for the ride! So this year I want to try and focus more there so I know whats going on! What about yourselves? any goals or thoughts on the upcoming year?

Congrats!!

Good to know... I'm having a better week than last week. despite being full of a cold for the whole weekend

Yeah I am like that. To be honest my class has been running at a lose for a little while, never wanted to put pressure on my passion by trying to make an income from it. I'm just happy doing karate and passing it onto others. I'm friendly with an Aikido group in the area and they rent us their dojo for a decent rate. I have also used space at my work to run a session for someone, (but this is a small space and only big enough for 1 on 1 sessions. The space was an empty office at our company, which they allowed me to turn into a gym, have various equipment in there but have recently moved a few things around to provide more floor space, mainly for myself and my own training, but I do have the option to run a private session there if needed.