Muki

Paying for the exams all over again doesn't sound right to me. There are other, more efficient ways to discipline a disobedient student anyway... I couldn't agree more. We have a general rule in our club. When someone is not behaving properly or is missing classes for too long, he or she gets sent to the beginners group and has to start over. No need to pass the exams all over again tough. It seems to be working cause there is not a single person in my group who doesn't wan't to be there and train hard. No goofing around and stuff...

Red colour has always been the colour of success, good luck, power, strength... In Roman mythology it has been associated with Mars, the god of war. Obviously there's something about it..

I couldn't agree more. I was once stupid enough to deliberately ignore my doctors advice and started training too soon. Because of that I developed chronic condition, ended up in surgery 2 years later and thanx to my uttermost stupidity I lost another year of training just to heal properly. What could have been a short 1 months rest became a 3 year hiatus... I never repeated the same mistake again. Ever!

Aaah, lovely!

Somehow I prefer white, don't know why really. But I'd definitely buy a pink set of shin guards if I found them! In competitons we have to wear blue/red mitts so I don't have much choice there.

Go see your doc, explain the situation, ask for some advice and then try to follow it (I know it's a hard thing to do, especially in a situation like yours, but usually it's the smart thing to do...) Hope you'll be okay. Keeping my fingers crossed for you.

A lot of people in my club are pressured into teaching or helping at the club in some other way as a condition for promotion to a higher belt. Some of them are helping out for more than 3 hrs per day, 2 or 3 times a week (+having a full time job and young kids at home)... I was forced to set priorites for myself a year ago, cause my work/studies, social life and training were in each others way... I stopped teaching classes and the decision turned out to be a real eyeopener about the folks at the club. Some of my "friends" took it personally and didn't understand that my job and boyfriend were more important than reaching the requirements for the black belt. They reacted as if I was quitting on them, but I was just standing up for myself and for what I think is important in my life. I never cared about the belt colour. As long as I'm doing my best I'm fine. But sometimes the remarks I hear about my decision make me sad and angry - so it's really nice to see someone else who's set his priorities straight. Thanks for venting out Throwdown!

I save the important stuff in a .doc file and update it when I get home. I don't keep an exact training log but just put down the important stuff that was said/done in classes.

Wow. I have one that hit the floor on a daily basis, plus it survived a number of throws to the other side of the room. I still had to get up and turn in off tough. Now I use my mobile phone to wake me up. Haven't tried to throw it yet, but it's a very tempting thing to do at 6 in the morning.

My favourite snooze button is the one I'm not able to push until I'm fully awakened.

I agree it helps a lot. I play the piano and I used to dance, so generally I don't have problems with rhythm. It's just different with an opponent, that doesn't cooperate like a dancing partner would... Thanks for all suggestions guys.

Okay, I do that occasionally at home. But it's a bit harder in a real sparring situation. I guess lots of practice is the answer to all "how-to's" of the martial arts questions...

Does anyone have suggestions, exercises or tips (anything) on how to improve rhythm? In our classes we do a lot of count drills to get comfortable with connecting a certain series of punches and blocks, the counting forcing us to maintain a certain rhythm - but thats about it... I'm just courious if anyone has some other idea on how to improve, except repeating the same movements over and over again. Thanks!

I'm the Spider-Man Spider-Man 85% Supergirl 80% The Flash 80% Robin 77% Wonder Woman 75% Superman 60% Catwoman 60% Hulk 55% Green Lantern 55% Iron Man 40% Batman 35%

I always need an alarm clock (or two) on workdays. It takes me at least 20 minutes to actually wake up and be able to get out of bed without bumping into anything or acting like a zombie... It's just the opposite when I'm on vacation tough. Then I can get up in a snap before 7 a.m.