ramymensa

It reminds me of some kind of saying: "We are not racists. We all know human race is WHITE." Well honestly I wish I was asian or african. They are REALLY beautiful. And I thank God for those many colours. Otherwise, after seeing white faces we would eventually see ... black ...

You should do shotokan ... You'll do oi tsuki as white belt and till you die and it applies for all the "basics" Sometimes it can get a little boring, but ...

A new gi, a trip to ski, joy and happiness ...

Well KickChick you are also a sandan mother (3 Dan for 3 lovely kids ... they must be lovely ) It's great ... Guess the feeling is special ...

Favourite colour ... beij (hope it's ok written ) and light browns ... Food ... chocolate, pizza, meat ...

My radio show is from 14 to 18, so I'm online then. afterwards I go to karate or in the town ... Plus weekend ... guess it's around 30 hours a week. I check this forum and others (2 which are mine), do some work at my site, check mail ... search for informations for the show ... and so on ... and of course read as much as possible in this forum. i've started learning japanese, so I search for texts written in hiragana.

Hate you Hmm Costello, Rush, The Stones ... I would give 3 years of life to see them I went to soncerts of Yes and Steve Vai and I was on the 7th heaven. Love this music. I wish I could have seen Clapton at work, or Steve Ray Vaughan ... JL Hooker. Unfortunatelly those 2 won't hold a concert anymore ... perhaps in Heaven, cause they belong there

10x ... my fingers bled and I almost fell asleep on the keyboard. Guess you too

I hope I can help a little here, as I practice Shotkan. Forms. or katas are fights with an imaginary opponent, while kumite or sparring is done with a real one. Kata is a sequence of blocks and attack put together in order to face an enemy. Funakoshi, the guy that put Shotokan all together used to teach his students ONLY by means of kata, so I guess he knew what he has doing. The problem with katas is that they seem like a useless dance. Now it comes the bunkai, the applications. You learn why you move this way and not the other and so on ... and after learning this, kata becomes OK, and it has a meaning Practising katas is DIFFICULT. It looks like anybody can do this, but it's really hard. You can perform a kata in a few minutes after learning the sequence of moves, but it take thousands of repetitons in order to have something that looks like a real kata A person who is able to move quick, powerful and correctly in this "dance" would do OK in sparring too. In karate there's a saying: "Low stances for beginners, natural stance for advanced." In kata you have those rigid and even exagerated moves that make Shotokan dreaded by some, but after being able to move very quick in those uncomfortable stances, moving in a normal one would be a breeze And for those who think we are wasting our time with katas ... We are sparring like all the others At least in my dojo ... After doing the forms and kihon we are able to move better, deliver more powerful blows and ... another thing we have imagination, because of katas. They have a lot of techniques and after moving from an impossible stance to another it's easy to figure a good attack. And it's true. A very good kata practitiner would be good at sparring too, the "theory" won't work vice-versa At many dojos katas are left alone for the sake of kumite or kumite is not as important for them thus they practice only kata. In many instructors opinion, it's best to have both of them. A rounded karateka must be good in kata as well as in kumite. Sorry for the long post ...

Guess I really come from another planet ;D shootfighing? vale tudo? Hmm are you sure we are talking English here? Well that's your advantage (or not) for living in USA Here in Tmiisoara there's a guy teaching a style called DELTA? Has anybody heard of this or do we have here a big fraud ?

Awareness. This is the key and having your guard UP. And of course know when to walk away. You all said it very well and now I come to recall an unpleasant encounter I had with a drunk man. I was almost sure it would become a "tournament" so I looked at him very attentive. It's unbelievable, but I wasn't scared. I was watching him as I would watch a punching bag, thinking in a second where should I plant my punch or kick. I looked again. He was cursing and having problems with ballance. Hmm I'm not punching a guy who couldn't understand the seriousness of this situation ... so I turned away and walked. He followed. I was ready to knock him down if he would have come closer. Well I was faster. He was still cursing, when I got very far. And I didn't have to run. Fight this wreck? i've got my honour I'm glad though I didn't have to fight. Not because I'm coward, but because this would "stain" something in me. Whatever the ending ... it would be sad and frustrating ... And remember ... "When 2 tigers fight, one will die and the other would get serious wounded. "And why?

In the Shotokan Federation my club is in you have to stay an year to 2 kyu and 2 in 1 kyu. Guess it's a long time

KarateMom, glad you came back to the martial world It's good you could find the courage and dedication to get back into the ring. Hope your husband would understant one day MA is really important when you love it

Well if I was your instructor, I wouldn't have grade you either and not because I have something against you I guess tenure (this is how you call it?) is quite important and thus you are delayed in order to get your number of training hours. School and MA are quite demanding and it's hard to cope with the stress ... Been there done that, well I'm still doing it .. and I go to work too .... Back to you ... Right now you have to chose .. Priorities are to be chosen wisely. School is THE MOST IMPORTANT, so you must have it in mind first of all. It means you'll go to traning not as often as before, but still going ... and this is important. Your sensei's choise of not letting you grade is understandable and do not feel bad about it. You'll go in march and get your next belt. You are not here to chase belts. I know it's difficult to stand the situation, but you'll be OK. Think that in december you could do OK, but in march you'll do BETTER. In some years, when you'll become BB those 3 months won't mean a thing Cheer up and ... merry X-mass. Good luck with school and take care

As we all had the opportunity of feeling it on ourselves ... coordination is something you gain, not have from the first hour in MA training. I was quite uncoordinated and of course felt like an alien while practising with others who have done karate for at least 1 year What helped me a LOT: I used to THINK about the moves. Try to understand why, how, when and so on. I was lacking speed, but it really helped. After I got comfortable with the combinations and understood why they are this way and not the other way I could add some speed and "kime" and now I look quite pretty. The most important thing: Do not despair. You can't be perfect from the beginning, but afterwards ... Hope this helped

Enjoy while it lasts Guess you'll have to leave fairyland to get "coloured". I wish you all the best

You are right about the learning aspect I guess you should consider wearing a cup, because you shouldn't commit yourself into learning to cope with a pain "there". It's too dangerous ... as for girls, guess we've got other things to protect These two should be mandatory in kumite, when contact is intended. Just a thought

Well you'll get a "limited" respect by doing MA. You'll be great and those from your style would respect you. The others? Hmmm I doubt, because their feelings towards your occupation are mixed: some think you are crazy fo doing this, some would fear you, some would scorn you ... Respect is hard to gain. If you are a good person (and I've got a hunch it's the case ) you'll make it. Be serious, polite, gentle, smart, funny, modest, proficient and so on and they'll respect you. Don't try to achiev this ONLY by doing MA training. It's irrelevant for the others, although it helps you shape yourself ...

Please lets not put into so general terms. If you've seen a bad teacher, it doesn't mean all teachers are bad. In my short life I've never come across with an "unworthy" teacher, although I'm sure there are many out there, in all styles not just in Shotokan. There are many things to be blamed and we must take into consideration a lot of things regarding geaography, politics, society and so on. In America you've got those "famous" McDojos. i've heard about them from you, because in my country there are no such things. Every style has got its "black sheep", but let's not get disapointed. You don't like the dojo or the theacher ... you move ... and find one that suits you better. It's simple ... Hope you'll find this one day Keep up the good work and good luck

Guys ... lets get serious ... We are here like children. My style is better that yours, yours sucks and so on. There is not style that is crap, every style has got its goals, training and gets you through a different path to the same thing ... becoming better. Muay Thay against other styles, Shotokan against wushu and so on ... Let's stop fooling around. You say Muay Thai is better than my style because it's effective. I say I can do what you do, but I doubt you can do what I do and I really don't know what you do in Muay Thai I can say in my country Muay Thay is almost unheard of, while my style is I guess the most popular, I can also say my style was invented in order to give a chance to the unarmed people of Okinawa against those who came into their country, I could flood you with philosophical aspects and with how good and smart I am and so on ... But we are not here to put dirt on others style. I respect you for doing MA, because as we all know, whatever the style, we are all working like crazy to become better. It's the effort that counts. The style should be OK if you like it. You like Muay Thai, I got in love with Shotokan, there are many here who fancy Aikido, Hapkido, TKD, JKD and so on. They are all to be admired for their work. If they train properly, trust me, they be effective

Nice I've never had the "opportunity" of seeing something like this, but I gues some of the signs shown before would be "revealing": candlelight , fewer students, high prices, smaller number of training sessions, sensei's sad eyes and of course the wrecking ball

I use kiai a lot too, but not everytime When told to get into a stance (zenkutsu dachi ... or any other) I get there while executing kiai. When the count goes to 5 (go) or 10 (ju), I kiai. In katas I kiai and in sparring when I want to signal I've marked a "point'. And sometimes when I feel I'm falling from my feet from exhaustion In the rest I just hiss ... Sounds weird, but thus I can really "empty " the air in my stomach

Difficult situation, dear KarateMom... I think as others said before here, you should really TALK to your husband about that. You're an orange belt. You've worked hard to get here. And it's your life. The only things that gets me on my nerves here is that he wouldn't allow you to go to that extra session. ALLOW? My God. As for myself, my ex-boyfriend wanted me to quit karate. And we separated after almost 3 years. Next year we wanted to get merried I'm glad we didn't. This is not real love MA is kind of selfish indeed. But he should support you. A good example is set by KickChick's husband

Superleeds ... if you are not interested in becoming a skilled karateka do OTHER style. Is it that difficult to understand? If you do karate, you learn kata. If you don't want to do katas, there are many other styles in which you are not subjected to this "pain". And katas are not done just to become a skilled karateka, are done in order to have acces to training. You must do push ups or squats as part of your training and in karate you must do katas. Is simple as that. And a question for you superleeds: are you doing karate? If not, I guess the thread is useless. I won't discuss JKD or even TKD because I've never done a training sesion in those styles, thus I guess it's futile discussing them and criticising. Sorry for the post ... I'm angry

The 2 belt system WAS ok, but nowadays I don't think it would make somebody too happy. We want to spend our time in a pleasant way and in am effective way too. We start MA training hoping someday we'll become very good, perhaps BBs. BUT ... till then it's good to know we've progressed. If we were single in the class it would be relatively OK. Uchideshi are few and we train with many others at the same time. The absolute beginners are not like those who came to have blue belt or brown belt, so why put them in the same "cathegory". And knowing you'll be a BB in 4-8 years (depending on the style) it's OK, but we need to know how we are doing in this quest. Belts are kind of check points. Can't live with them, can't live without them