Elky

Hello and welcome. As a shotokan person, I guess I do practice Japanese karate.

Well done! That's a heck of an achievement!

Ha ha, yeah, my intructor would give me such a funny look if I asked him what I was allowed to do in my free time. He'd be like this ->

It sounds like this might be a system that is unique to your association, so it's hard to say what the standards are like unless you're also a member of the same school.

Yeah, keep trying! That's the only useful advice at this stage.

Mawashi geri, ushiro geri, yoko geri, maegeri with the same leg without returning leg to the floor.

Eighteen consecutive ippon nukite forward, then turn and another 18 back

Yeah, ouch! My two worst injuries were exactly that! I broke my little finger by hitting someone on the sternum, but it caught at a funny angle and my finger took the whole impact. Broke my little toe going for a foot sweep and clashed feet with the other guy.

I'm not sure headgear helps all that much. Since you never take a blow to the brainstem directly - it's the shaking of the brain that does much of the damage. Headgear doesn't protect you from having your brain shook about inside your skull.

Shrewsbury, England

I was about 6 when I first did karate for about a year but, as children do, I got bored and moved on. I remebered how much I'd enjoyed it though and, when the opportunity arose again when I was 18, I took it up again.

Keep one of them in between you and the others and keep pressuring that one. Make sure you're constantly updating your position to prevent them encircling you so you've always got only one close to you and the others further away. Try and take them to the floor quickly. The first one to come towards you, try and throw or sweep him to keep him incpacitiated for a while. Throw one of them towards the others. Best I can think of at the moment.

JKA style goes white orange red yellow green purple purple/white brown brown/white brown/white/white black doesn't it?

I'm not 100% certain, but I think that would be around $26-$27? Me being a yellow belt (7th kyu), I can train 3x a week for 1.5 hours. Once I get to the orange belt (6th kyu) I can train 5x a week for 1.5 hours. Tom 21 euros is about 28 US dollars at the moment.

I pay £40 for 10 weeks training twice a week, but I've been at a university club up until now.

That's mainly funny because my girlfriend did exactly the same rant years ago. I'll say this for Pachelbel though - plenty of bands have put his chord progression to good use Leftover Crack's "Crack City Rockers" The Farm's "All Together Now" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da6-DQ3Qt8k Both great songs, both nicked from Canon!

Forrest Whittaker (actor) - Muay Thai

Wash your belt. I've done it several times over the years but despite this have got better at karate the more I trained. This experimental evidence shows you can wash your belt and still retain MA skills.

Crazy people!

What the Sam Hill are you talking about?!?!?

This looks like a stun to the brachial plexus to me. There isn't much secret about this, really. No, but it's effective, unlike chi-balls!

This is what I call a pressure point KO

Sean Connery - Kyokushin karate (might be an honorary grade though, I've heard conflicting reports) Elvis Presley - Started with shotokan karate then did American Kenpo with Ed Parker Hugh Laurie - Boxing Wesley Snipes - Karate and capoeira Micky Rourke - Boxing James Coburn - Jeet Kune Do

My sensei sais the same Tom Mr Funakoshi (senior) said "Low stances are for beginners, natural posture is for the advanced" - the long stances are something you grow out of once they've done the job of working on your leg strength.

I never took music lessons at school so I'm trying to make up for it now. I can play quite a few members of the guitar family and the harmonica. I'd love to be able to play the piano but I've got a frozen up finger from a karate injury that means I can't play scales in the same way as most people.