DWx

Awesome story Shizentai, very inspiring. Although did you get ever get diagnosed with anything? Interesting topic WireFrame. I don't really know what I fear in the dojo (dojang to me ). I don't think I fear pain now as its something you get used to over time and learn to manage and I don't really think it bothers me that much. Neither does permanent damage, I don't do things which are reckless but I don't take extra precaution to stop stuff from happening either. I guess if anything I fear not living up to the standard people perceive me to be, what standard I should be or what my belt and all that is supposed to represent. What I mean is that in my school I'm one of the old students who've been training since the start, also one of the higher ranking belts so the other students and lower grades think that you're going to be awesome and know all of the answers when really I don't at all. I guess this makes me work really hard all the time because I don't want people to see a bad kick or to think that I shouldn't be where I am and that I'm letting everyone down. If that makes sense..

Welcome mma_magic Whereabouts in the UK you from?

Welcome Daniel

Well said. The family & friendship atmosphere is one of the reasons I initially stuck with MA compared to the other sports I did as a kid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/8502895.stm Pretty cool he's still teaching and training at his age.

We do a non-belt/t-shirt sparring and fitness class once a week where nothing is grade dependant. We occasionally line up just so everyone has enough space on the floor. Without consciously doing it, higher grades tend to gravitate to the front of the room and the lower grades head towards the back even when we can stand where we want. Maybe the lower grades like that security of having someone else to watch and the higher grades just get used to the front? Not technically Japanese system (although we are sorta descendant from it). We have highest grade top right (facing the instructor). Then within the belt groupings, usually we do it irrespective of time in rank but on the person's age. Time in rank is an alternative way of lining up and sometimes people will do it this way. We're not too strict to be honest, as long as belt colour is order its fine. If in doubt anyway, just go to the end of your colour belt. Worst thing that will happen is you'll get promoted up the lines.

Thanks. I may have to have a go at it. It doesn't look like it needs a lot of space either which is good... Just need to decide what weight of ball to get. I guess I mean that.. I basically just want to maintain my core strength, possibly improve it, and just be doing something. My problem right now is that I only get to do TKD once a fortnight, can't afford the gym (student budget), and really only have my room to workout in atm.

Its great for you and your students that you can afford to do that. However I know that testing fees at our school are also partly to cover hall hire, travel costs (if we invite a an external examiner) and of course the cost of the belt itself and certificate as we get presented with both. We can also choose to pay a small amount for our instructor to get us breaking materials if we want instead of using re-breakable boards or sourcing them ourselves. I can appreciate why people charge admin fees, if you have a very large group testing at once it is pretty strenuous trying to go through a stack of forms/certificates for like 100 students. I don't know what sort of admin you may do but for us, it involves doing a report on each candidate post test (or sometimes during) as to what the struggled with, improvements that need to be made, what was well done etc. If you are just stamping yes or no that probably doesn't take as much time. Its pretty much at least a half day's work if not the whole day. And of course paying for the examiner's time. You pay instructor's to teach you so why not the examiners? Personally I've love the times I get to sit on our panel but when you're testing students from 9 - 5 its pretty much your whole day gone.

Hey todome, whats that workout like? any good? I have seen it before and have been thinking about investing in a medicine ball for it. Don't really get that much gym or training time nowadays and want to keep my strength up.

Not so sure about the Karate way of doing these kicks but for my style... Get your knee as high as possible during the chamber. This allows you to drive forward and down to a certain extent and to push the target. With the hips, try to think about them moving through a 90° arc. Its not strictly what you're supposed to do but it will help you coordinate your pelvis with the leg. When kicking with the right leg the hip is pointing 45° to the back. As the leg move forwards and the knee lifts, the right hip comes through to level with the left. And as you extend and push out, the left leg drives and the right hip goes through to 45° to the front. You've got to use the hips and incorporate the upper body mass otherwise you wont be pushing anyone anywhere. Make sure you don't lean back either, keep the weight central or with a slight forward lean. Great way to practice is get a heavy bag and do the kicks against that. You want to get it swinging rather than creating an impact.

Welcome Fearun

Thats a pretty awesome story Jakk. Kudos to the guy for getting out there and dedicating himself to something.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8493092.stm Thought this was pretty interesting. Says people's movements are about 21 milliseconds quicker when they are reacting to something rather than when they've pre-planned it. Kinda supports arguments for not learning loads of pre-planned reactions to attacks.

I think you could argue it either way. You both have a point really although I think I agree more with the other guy. A white belt that has learnt their requirements is still a white belt. I don't think you can apply "advanced" to them just because they've learnt what they're supposed to when they're supposed to know it. Advanced kinda does seem to me to suggest something special even though you might not have meant it this way. It would suggest something above and beyond the norm like (using your kindergarten example) a kid who not only knew how to count but could add and subtract already. Taking still_kicking and Lupin1's experiences from this thread, http://www.karateforums.com/more-about-my-2nd-kyu-vt38001.html , surely they were more advanced than your typically white belt because they'd done it all (and more) before and could remember it.

Presuming you mean sparring, if not, I would second Lupin's advice. Maybe you'd do better sparring against someone who has more control/restraint. If your friend knocked you out by accident then you probably do have reason to be a bit apprehensive sparring them as control seems to be an issue. I would try to spar people who have more experience and better ability (in most cases higher grades) and you can slowly work towards being more comfortable and work on things at your own pace rather than having to worry about the contact. Hopefully they'll be able to work with you on what you did wrong (if anything) and show you what you could do to avoid it again. Start slowly and you'll eventually become much more confident. Its all very well people telling you to just go out there and spar but its not going to help that much if you spend the whole thing worried about getting hit. A lot of people get anxious about sparring because of the contact factor and in most cases they just need to start off slow and build up confidence. Welcome to the forums btw.

Welcome Eric

Congrats

Written in the contract? Like you'll get kicked out or something for cross training? As long as you keep the two trainings separate I think you'd be fine. Judo and Karate aren't going to overlap a whole lot but they'll compliment each other. Just be sure to keep Judo stuff out of your Karate sessions and vice versa. The worst thing is where you get a student telling an instructor "that's wrong, in such and such a class we do it this way". And Blade96 is right, the majority of styles practised today came around as a result of people cross training and then combining.

congrats Ashland I agree with Joe, don't worry about the rate that others are testing at. There could be any number of reasons why this girl is going faster. If you want to get more flexible keep stretching and keep doing strength training. Also practice loads.

Congrats

That cool Mitch. You do the same forms as me. Which one(s) you gonna have to do for your testing?

Welcome Mitch What type of TKD do you study? Good luck for you testing.

I don't know whether I like it or not. Can't really see who its meant to be for either. Its not like there's this huge void between smart phones and laptops that needs filling or at least I haven't been aware of it. Actually from looking at the spec on the site, I'm not sure what it does that my current phone can't (not an iphone btw) other than having a lager screen.

Young and foolish? From what Joesteph highlighted, I think not. Drug charges at 45, its not just some college kid messing around. I'm assuming that since he's well past his teens/twenties he would have a good idea what he was doing. And if he spent 18 months in prison starting in 2006, he would have finished his sentence 3 years ago ish. So thats not that long. The children he was teaching were part of a community development program so presumably these kids may have been susceptible to stuff like drugs and street violence, as a parent would you want your kid to be taught and influenced by such a person. Whether or not he was a changed man, something as recent as that should have been made aware of. Then it would be up t those running the program whether he was suitable or not.

Thats cool Lupin. Actually I've never worn a women's gi, the ones we wear don't come in women's anyway and to be honest the men's cut is usually the more traditional.