ramymensa

I pay NOTHING I train 4 times a week. Sensei is a teacher at the university, thus 2 times a week any student can do karate from the physical education curriculum. I did this for a semester and afterwards I asked him to let me train with the club, the other 2 days of the week. For this I would have had to pay 250000 lei a month (7 dollars), BUT I made a site in which I promote my sensei and he said he doesn't want money from me. Now he even wants to pay for my site

Hmm my friends wouldn't do this Well ... the question is very good. I gues I'll walk away and wait until the person come to his/her senses. As someone said, maybe i wouldn't think of responding to attack if I wasn't involved in MA, thus I'd try to act "normally". If the person would follow me to bully me, then I would let him/her have it Guess a punch in the solar plexus would do the job. If not, I've got my legs.

Really KickChick, are you sure you don't have a kid in Romania? She calls herself ramymensa I wanted to say the same thing. i don't want to be a "clone " of another legend. If I'll become a legend myself, Ok, if not ... who cares. I'm OK in my own shoes.

Well, rising ... good job. Hope you'll enjoy it. DON'T leave your style, just become proficient in another and you'll find out many other things and you'll be aware of many aspects that might have been unnoticed. Congratulations for you're intention and hope you'll be happy. That's all that matters

Hate warmups done by some guy or girl who has got no idea of that. You could get a strained muscle right away hate streching ... I'll have to work more, but i might enjoy it someday.

RIGHT. When I started karate i couldn't do MANY things. Was out of shape, although one couldn't see that because I'm thin and have got a perfect abdomen Well the truth was I couldn't run too much, I was sedentary and miserable, of course. When starting this training I was confronted with that I CAN'T DO THIS ... THAT and so on. Karate taught me to TRY. It's the first step. try hard try many times and you'll make it. That I try to use in real life too. It works

I've discussed this problem with a friend of mine, a karate instructor in Munich and he told me it could be a reason in this request of signing a contract. He told me perhaps the instructors want to know how much they can rely on their student. Although this makes perfect sense I still feel it's weird

My sensei is a godan, after 27 years. I guess it's not that pleasant to wait that long to teach In our Shotokan federation if you are ashodan, you may teach. It means you've been training VERY hard for 6-7 years. I think it qualifies someone

I remembered now ... the kids in our club must show Sensei their marks. I don't know what would he do if they had bad marks, because they are all studious It's funny in a way, but he is quite serious. He told us his students must have good marks, otherwise he'll be ashamed Works for the kids

That's why I never told them when it was my birthday

Fancy stuff ... love it, but I take care of the effective techniques first. The others are just to prove myself I can do artistic moves Effectivness is our priority. Shotokan is quite boring in this apect, but I guess I cope with the situation. And when it comes to defend your person on the street it's important to do it well and powerful, not artistic

We have some students who wear glasses and I really think they are in a real danger. But contact lenses, soft ones, to be dangerous ... hmm never heard of it I think it's better to wear these instead of normal glasses. Some would say you shouldn't train if you have eyesight problmes, bu I guess it wouldn't be fair and I wouldn't stop just because of this. Try to contact those who provided you with the lenses, as someone already observed here, or try to search some materials concerning this "topic". And bring you sensei a page full of materials Or ask you doctor and try to get those 2 together.

Back to our bunny. She is STILL in love with poor sensei and imagine her face when she saw him wearing only pants. The guy took off his karateki shirt in order to dress "casually" and she was there. So were 3 of us discussing something with him. She remained speachless. She just melts ... he he

Shodan. At least ... If you start as ahodan instructor you may teach, but you are not allowed to grade higher ranks: from 5 kyu up. This is the rule in our Feeration of Shotokan.

You proved a real CHAMP. These agressive kids are a real problem and it's best to know this and to stop them ... and preach all the time they shouldn't use their knowledge on others ... that they'll be kicked out of school ... If you are lucky you'll succeed ... If not ...

Should I wear a patch on my karategi? NO NO NO. i train in Shotokan and I like the traditional "view": nothing on your gi. Plain white and a coloured belt Should a karate school be sponsored? Yes. Why not. Many people throw money on things, why not donate some for a good karate school. If a firm offers money, their banner could be posted somewhere. At the entrance or in the waiting room, if any. NOT in the real dojo ...

Looks like you live the dream of many other students and you don't like it You are chosen because there's something that attracts your sensei and it's OK. Maybe you are better than you thought Maybe as somebody already mentioned here you are Ok also from the p.o.v. of height, weight ... You should be proud and try to benefit as much as possible from this experience. I'm also chosen for many demonstrations and it's OK. I can learn from the Master And the others look at me as if I was the incarnation of an angel

Well another story. Here I am at the new self defence class. My instructor (also my instructor in karate) asks me to come help her demonstrate an exercise. After warming up we do some exercises in order to increase the speed. Our "game" is called "cocks". We are moving like frogs, and the arms are rised in order to "atack" the oponent. Everything went OK until my instructor realised she couldn't beat me, so it's better to try to make me fall. And she did it. I went on, trying to defeat her ... she put down her hands, although it wasn't quite fair and my beautiful person embraced her beautiful person We fell on the "ground" and all the others laughed. After the big embrace, the demonstration ... and what a demonstration ... was over and I went to my place ...

SHOTOKAN SHOTOKAN SHOTOKAN Worked great for me Well, becoming serious again ... GO see all the schools you might find interesting. Watch a class and try to observe the following: how they work, if you like what they are doing there, if you thing it suits your needs, who conducts the training session, how, how do they relate to each ither, are there any "black sheep" in there, are the students OK, Are they agressive towards each other, is the instructor using a decent language, is he/she interested in the training, does he/she encourage agressivness ... After that you'll be able to make up your mind. Avoid the schools where there's much agressiveness, where you are being bullied, where the instructor isn't interested in his/her work, where the language used is like from a ghetto and so on. You must enjoy you stay in a MA school, you must feel safe, must be treated with respect and there you shouldn't fear for your life. The style you'll chose is not that important. If you feel Ok in the school, you'll be happy. Good luck

Hmm Paying another tax for retesting? In our dojo, if you fail, you are allowed to retest in 2-3 months WITHOUT paying again. Sensei told us he thinks it's fair to give a second chance. Thus he won't be interested in failing us just to doublu his money

Haven't seen it when i was writing the post, but now, that you've poited it out ... Great Hope I'll never get to the real knitting As for your start in MA. All my RESPECT, KickChick. It's great when you go on such a way open-hearted and with all your enthusiasm. It's quite inspiring.

These days I'm supposed to go to Budapest in a short trip. I was thinking I might buy myself a good karategi. The problem is I really don't know the location of a shop selling these things. I'm thiniking og a kamikaze karategi or something as good. So the question would be WHERE in Budapest I can buy this. Pls help Thank you in advance.

As I've already posted here ... in our school you must be at least 18 years old to become a shodan. I think it's a good thing, although I must admitt there are many kids aged 13 or 14 who deserve to become shodans. Well ... that's the rule and we must obey it Being a black belt has got many "connotations" and perhaps that's why this rule appeared.

Effectiveness of karate ... hmmm Take a good practitioner and fight with him/her ... then we'll talk about it At first glance karatekas don't seem able to fight, because of theit training program which is rigid and "step-by-step". you don't learn to fight from the first time you enter the dojo. You spend months just kicking and punching the air, taking care of the 40% of the weight on a leg, the angle your hand must stay, the way to "shuffle" your feet ... boring aspects that make training seem senseless. But after many months of enduring this you sparr and move quick, you are able to apply powerful kicks and punches, able to chose your stance rapidly and effective. Is karate effective or not? Well who cares? If you train in this, maybe you've discovered something Whatever the style you train ... do it with dedication, try to improve, to give all you can ... and you'll be effective

Well you've heard something ... but not the whole story Karate emphasizes fighting, but this is concealed in katas We do a lot of sparring and conditioning and my strained muscles prove this The problem is another. The new practitioners will always have the feeling they are not doing too much. The first months in karate (Shotkan especially) are BORING But afterwards it all becomes interesting. There are many people who think karate is not as good as other styles. For them there are other styles My advice would be to find the the style that best suits you and then practice it. This whole problem of effectiveness of a certain style against others is juat cheap talk No style is perfect