aes

are you alternating heat and ice on it?

No I have not, but thanks for the suggestion. I will try that.

Well I found out by xrays that no ribs are broken, but I keep getting spasms in the sore areas on the ribs and it makes sleeping pretty difficult. Oh well a bit more rest and I will be back at it.

It has now been 5 days since the injury and it still hurts like sin. If I engage my back muscles in a certain way it almost takes my breath away or if I try to turn in bed. Needless to say I cannot sleep on the injured side either.

Most of the time it barely hurts but in certain movements, wow.

About a year ago I broke my rib on the left side where it joins the cartilage. It is still sore from time to time and I worry about it getting hit hard in sparring (even though it should be fine).

Well the other night I was sparring at a new dojo and missed the block of a pretty good traditional round house (with ball of foot) to my right lower ribs. This totally knocked the wind out of me and I collapsed briefly to the floor. I managed to get up and continue sparring shortly after but it was a bit sore.

By the end of the night had become very sore when I use the muscles in that area of my body or twist or take a deep breath. It is now 3 days and it is still very sore. I am pretty sure this time I have a bruised rib. The location of the pain is not close to any cartilage and there has been no sign of a break. There is also no bruising (but I don't bruise very easily). My wife says it is a bit swollen though.

Ya ya I know, I should have a doctor check it out but I am not the run to the doctor type of guy, especially for something that there isn't any real cure for. I plan to take ibuprofen and maybe ice it a bit to speed healing.

Does anyone have any tips? Does this sound like a bruised rib to you?

After some consideration I decided to continue on with my old style of Karate, Shorin-ryu and sign up with Roberts Karate.

Although there are some small differences in the kata list, in general the moves etc are the same, so the switch should be pretty painless (pun intended).

I am so looking forward to getting fully back into training.

Always ask yourself first why do you want to change styles? If you spend enough years in Karate you will find similarities in each style to yours, so do you want to leave Karate all together? I have studied Wado Kai Karate for 23 years and having earned a 3rd Dan have no need to change ever! I just keep a open mind and incorporate aspects from each style in terms of self defense and kumite.

True, however the different style dojo is a short walk from my house and we currently only have one car in our household. The other dojo is not that far but certainly further than a walk.

I would feel most comfortable with sticking with the same style and I know the dojo is respected. The close one has a few things I find hard to accept. First they make you go up in front of the class after each class to show what you have learned so far. I feel this is needless pressure and should be saved for stripe/belt tests. I don't like some other small parts of the dojo and the way they do things. But it would be interesting to learn some kung fu / jujitsu along with karate. Also telling myself to stop doing the programmed into my brain by repetition moves that I have learned in shorin ryu karate I think will be difficult.

I still have not made my mind up. I might be forced to go with the close dojo purely because I will be able to get there and make it to classes while the other might be impossible.

One thing is for sure, I sure am having a hard time keeping weight off since I took this time off karate.

Something I don't like about one of the new dojos I am looking at, is they make a "two" sound on each move. I think this is silly and would make me laugh. I am all for breathing sounds becoming part of a Kata and Kiahs but saying "two" on each move???

always walk in with a white belt mentality when going into a new dojo or style i say

Good point. I personally understand that if I change styles that they might have totally different ways of doing stuff and thinking. I don't want to fall into the trap of thinking "that is not the way I learned it".

you will have less problems going to a Goju ryu system compare to a shorinryu based japanese style like shotokan. you won't see any simillar kata and you won't have to adjust your kata a lot, from one okinawan school to another there will be changes in katas but not a whole lot, as i know, the north american shorin ryu organization some how connected to seibukan , what is your style of shorin ryu?

My training so far has been a slightly modified Okinawian Shorin Ryu. When I say slightly modified it was a combination of Masubiashi Ryu and Kobiashi Ryu influences and adding Goshin-Jitsu self defense.

The Katas I have learned to date were:

Kihon Uke Waza

Kihon Dashi

Kihon Gerry

Kihon Ippon

Kihon Nihon

Kihon Sanbon

Fukyu Dai Ichi

Fukyu Dai Ni

Fukyu Dai San

Fukyugata Shodan

Fukyugata Nidan

Pinan Shodan

Pinan Nidan

Nihanshi Shodan

Nihanshi Nidan

Nihanshi Sandan

Patsai Sho

And about 12 types of goshin-jitsu self defense moves

My old dojo had belts with more than one level. IE the levels went as follows:

yellow

yellow/black

orange

orange/black

purple

purple/black

green

green/black

blue

blue/black

brown

brown/white

brown/black

black

My concern is how hard would it be to adapt to goju ryu and if the dojo is a good one.

I recently decided to switch dojos. Partly due to cost and partly due to location (because I moved).

I have been studying Shorin Ryu Karate for 3 years now and have reached the Green/Black belt level. I am considering two different MA schools close to me now.

One would be a different Shorin Ryu dojo with more of a traditional connection to the North American Karate groups. The other is more of a mixed martial arts school that can teach me Goju Ryu, Kung Fu and Ju Jitsu. This dojo is only a few blocks away from me.

I like the location of the latter dojo but have some concerns:

- how hard would it be for me to make the transition from Shorin Ryu to Goju Ryu?

- do you think going to mixed martial arts training would confuse an old dog like myself (43 years old)?

- I am not convinced of the quality of training at this dojo, but I met the Head Instructor and a few of the others and they seem nice

The two schools are Rick Roberts Karate (Shorin Ryu) or Guelph School of Martial Arts (Mixed Martial Arts).

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks

Has anyone seen a free video clip online of this Kata? I found a few using google but they don't look like the one I am learning.

Testing gets more demanding as your rank goes up and really there is not substitute for practice.

They like to tire us to the point of almost collapse then make us do our kata. Argument being if you really know the moves you will still be able to do them at the point of exhaustion, but if you don't you fall apart.

Anybody watch this last week's episode?

 

Diego Sanchez dominated Josh Rafferty on the ground, taking the mount in seconds and proceeding to pound the living crap out of him until taking a win with a rear naked choke hold.

 

Man, Diego is seriously going to win the contract for his weight division. No contest.

Yes I saw it. I find these grappling matches pretty boring but he did lay a pretty good beating on Josh.

I think Josh made a huge mistake taking on Diego.

The grapplers so far have done pretty well in this series. But as I mentioned I don't think this makes for as exciting of a show.

The Tonfa is a great choice. Are you doing Hama Higa No Tuifa? I wish you luck at your tournaments.

Thank you. I see this kata listed with it as Tuifa or Tonfa, I am not sure if there is any difference.

Tomorrow is my first tourney sparring match of the year. Wish me luck.

 

Good luck. Let us know how it turned out.

Thanks, well my rib did not affect my fighting but it was a small division this time. Unfortunately I lost my first match. I started to not block to the head as much because the judging never seemed to give points for these, but this got me this time. I managed to score once but he got me with backfists to the face area. I don't feel too bad though he is a brown belt.

In the second round I won netting me a 3rd.

After further discussion with Kyoshi we have changed our minds and are going to be doing Tonfa. I think the Kata is called Hiena Hiega No Tonfa. Dang these things look easy to spin but takes some practice to make it look easy.

We decided against the nunchuku because traditional katas seemed a bit short and simple for the level we are at now. Tonfa tends to do well in our tourneys.

A kata called shiho hai in Shorin Ryu goes from kiba to kiba in a square pattern. Yes this is the hard part of this kata. I find it hard to hold a kibadashi in any kata let alone with transitions in it.

Yes the old saying about getting back onto the horse does seem to apply to injuries but on the other hand you don't want to reinjure it.

I felt that I had let it heal long enough but I do also know that on occasion a pretty hard blow lands on my healing area.

It is really hard to fight effectively when you are not moving naturally and protecting one spot too much.

Tomorrow is my first tourney sparring match of the year. Wish me luck.

Congrats!!! Thanks for letting us know how you did. I always enjoy seeing how people who compete in tournaments do.

I thought long and hard about even posting this. I thought it would come off as bragging.

Sorry to hear about your foot.

Well I stopped fighting with my broken rib back and wow, it is a lot easier to fight again now that I am not limited in trying to guard my bad side.

Nothing landed that made it hurt.

aes...for indoor winter practise I have been using a 4 foot 1 3/4 inch wooden dowel I bought at home depot....I can go thru my kata with proper hand placement and I don't smash up the house (usually!!!) Hope this help

Thanks for the tip. What I am usually trying to perfect is spinning the weapon fast and strikes which might be hard with a shorter dowel.

Is there a link to the one that your daughter uses?

I do not see the exact model online but it is like this one

http://www.amas.net/item.cfm?RecordId=1482

The protection underneath is like this one

http://www.amas.net/item.cfm?RecordId=148

but it fits into the sports bra.

Do you all actually like those head cages and things like that? It seems like it could be pretty dangerous to the other guy. You might mess up your hand pretty bad if it gets stuck on the other person's head cage.

The cage I had was more like a football set of bars than a cage so might not be the same as what you are asking. even with a face cage you are not allowed hard hitting to the face area, so this is not really and issue.

Mine is like the one at this link

http://www.storeofmartialarts.com/db/store/hgg.html?id=vYHNum62

As I mentioned I removed the face guard now.

I purchased headgear with large black face bars on it and have since removed them because of the huge low blind spot it created.

My head gear still has padding across the chin and really surrounds my head well but does not protect my nose.

The protection on my jaw has taken the jolt of some pretty direct shots pretty well.

I started a thread about this some time ago when I was considering what to get. The gear I wound up with is what a lot of students now use at our dojo but I really do not like the bars.

On the other hand due to how much I sweat I am not sure a plastic face shield would not be a fog up problem.