ramymensa

Was 23 when I started karate and took it seriously. age is not a problem, just join a good dojo and enjoy the ride

He he, that's awesome news. It's never too late to start MA and love it. Congratulations for starting out and best of luck in your journey.

I had my share of wasting time in the dojo and not really feeling like training. So for me the best would be to do my best in that day and try to perform the best I can.

My sensei is a good instructor and also a very honorable man. So it was great to have him with us, since he taught us more than just kicking and punching.

Just Karate Shotokan.

A distant dream that's never gonna become reality. Have started karate years ago, wanting to be an instructor one day and training like mad for 5 years. Then my health started failing me and I had an evening job that made my karate lessons impossible to attend to. It's been 5 more years since I could go back to train, but my life is different and I have a lot on my plate now, as a small business owner. I plan to start a family, so now I just enjoy classes and realize that some dreams are just not meant to be.

I've been fortunate enough to work with a nice sensei and amazing sempais. I had a friend of my sensei, he's higher in rank than him train me for few weeks. He's training our karate team who go to contests and his students are AMAZING. He's a good instructor, but he has the tendency to exaggerate with his technique. When you're punching a 50 kilo woman in the sternum just to make a point, that 50 kilo woman might not actually love it. Especially when you, the 100 kilo sensei don't really pull your punches. Though he's an amazing technician, I never enjoyed working with him, so I stuck with my sensei, who NEVER made us fear him. He controls his techniques, makes a point, not a bruise. I am not there to become the next Bruce Lee, I am just to work out and learn something. And, as a woman of over 30, I am not that much into the 'martial' stuff anymore, I have other stuff on my mind.

I haven't used gloves in the few sessions I had with the bag and I surely don't use them for pushups. Still, I didn't put my hands though a lot of abuse, since I am using them on a daily basis as a web designer. So having my fingers messed up doesn't really go well with having to design stuff. If I was to be more serious with the bag, then some gloves wouldn't hurt.

Only few bruises from light sparring. Fortunately I never got seriously beaten

Fortunately for me the first dojo I went to was the one I trained for years. I trained at another one too, with my sensei's blessing, but didn't really like the other instructor, so I just stopped going there and kept on training at the 'official' club.

I don't judge a school by the site, my club for instance doesn't have its own site, but I made my karate site and promote them there. This doesn't mean we don't have good karate instructors or that we're not a good club. Not all people care about this, especially since it's a local club, so people come there from word of mouth and by seeing us in competitions, not just because they googled the club.

I have a Tokaido Kata Master and am thrilled with it. Maybe it's not the best, but it's surely a decent one.

Welcome to the community.

We have techniques that are illegal in matches, but still learn them. As others said before me, not teaching anything but the tournament "curriculum", would make me question the instruction more than if the students were taught a wider area of techniques.

If the instructor is disrespectful to your original style, this can say a lot about the school. Our instructor has a huge respect for other styles and, even if he'd correct people to have our stances and techniques, would never say "yours doesn't work, try ours", just that in Shotokan we do things this way and maybe give some technical information why this way is also a good one. I wouldn't train there anymore after this. Your original style is not a bad one and no one should mock it. Time to search for another school, I think. Good it was a trial month.

Your English is just fine, don't worry about it. Best of luck with the training and have a nice stay with us. It's a great and friendly community, you'll just love it in here.

Well, congratulations for this and best of luck. You'll surely love training again and now you can focus even better.

You can buy anything, if you want it. I don't think I would do this, even if years ago i was certain I'd never stop till that belt is mine. Well, life happened and I stopped after 5 years, at blue belt. Half the way. Took me another 5 years to re-join the dojo, so I think buying that belt would have just made me more miserable. I would buy a belt after I've earned it. Still, if this does motivate you, buy it. We all handle motivation differently.

I've spent 5 years working on 6 katas only. And I still perform them lousy, if we compare my way to what my instructor does. You don't need 30 katas, you need a good instructor. As others said here, katas are an important aspect in your training, but you need to study the bunkai and not just dance. And, if you want to learn to fight, you need to actually fight.

I have a laptop: 17.3". It's huge, but perfect for my needs, since I am a web designer and needed a larger screen and also the mobility a laptop gives me (we travel a lot).

I don't think students should care about this. I mean it's not their business. They are there to TRAIN, not pass judgement. If the instructor told you to wear your belt, you just wear it and make sure you learn the new stuff. I'd agree that, even if come from Shotokan for instance and we have different techniques than in TKD, after 5 years I should be able to fare better than a total noob in TKD. I agree I might not kick that high (though I kinda kick well), but it would be a matter of weeks, till I adjust my technique to theirs. I won't be their best student, but I surely am not white belt material.

Just wanted to pursue a childhood dream and have some fun. I never expected my MA training to actually come in handy, since I am not a combative person anymore, but it's good for fitness and a lot of fun.

I don't find any of the Karate Kid movies that was good. They're OK since they open people's appetite for MA, other than this, I don't find any other merit to them. It's true that such movies are not on my daily list to watch.

I don't like music during training, unless it's an aerobics or zumba class. Other than these, I want silence

I'd get seriously beaten, that's for sure. I really don't think I have what it takes to win the fight. I'd rather use my training to do some sprinting