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In our dojo yellow=gold.

I have been asked by my Dojo to see if I can find some shareware/free software to help manage tournaments. For example competitors, arranging matches, events, scoring, check in etc. Does anyone know of any such software?

Well just returned from the tournament. There weren't enough novice adult belts competing so they changed the division to age 35 and above. This meant I competed against blue and brown belts. Well I took 3rd, but hardly a fair competition. People that have been studing MA for 3 years or more against me (6 months). I know I can do far better as nerves got the best of me, but hope I don't keep getting grouped with advanced belts.

So far I have not met a 10th dan but the head sensei at my Dojo is an 8th.

Thanks for the input everybody. I do think I can do this Kata very well considering my relative experience in Karate. Two things are going against me. I am 40 and will be competing against 17 year olds and I like to hunch over too much. The latter I have been working hard at getting rid of in my stances etc and the former I am hoping my obsessive training will pay off. But this all comes back to my desire to bow in and follow the etiquette properly. I think if the other yellow belts don't do this and I do it right, it can only help me win.

I will be competing in my first tournament this weekend demonstrating the Fukyugata Shodan Kata. I have trained hard to learn this Kata as well as I can in the last month, practising it often. Now that we are in the last few days before the tournament I am worrying about the etiquette of how to enter the tournament square etc. My Sensai’s went over this procedure but did not have much time to drill it into my head before the last class. They told me to not worry to much about it at the yellow belt or novice level, but that is just not my style. I strive to do things as correct as I can despite the expectations. So I am hoping someone here can spell out the steps leading up to entering the square for my traditional style of Karate Shorin-ryu. The tournament is a small one btw. Here is what I recall: 4 competitors are called up at a time and sit knees crossed on the side line. They will call the person’s name and who is on deck. The person about to compete, goes to the mark on the corner of the tournament square and does a Kioske (sorry I cannot find the spelling for this, bring feet together toes apart and cross arms at collar bone then return them to ready position), Rei feet together, hands on side bow looking up once back up hands go up in fists to collar bone and feet open, hands back down to ready position. Walk out along edge of tournament square to middle, turn and stop at tournament square line and bow again. Enter the square and move fast to position close to middle judge and bow and put hands behind back. Wait for the judge to look up and announce something to the effect of: “With your permission I would like to step back and demonstrate Fukyugata Shodan” The middle judge will motion to go ahead and you bow and move into position. Get into position and close eyes take a deep breath and spring into the Kata. When done pause for 3 seconds, bow (and wait?), move to the tournament square edge not turning back to judges and bow with toes on edge, step out, turn to next competitor that has just been announced, bow to him/her, take one step to the right and walk straight along edge of square leaving room for the next competitor to pass you and return to your spot to sit. If you are the 4th competitor you would not exit the square but stand in the corner waiting your score. Same enter the square procedure when you are to have your score announced if you are one of the first 3 but you go to the corner of the tournament square and wait. Bow. You can thank the judges if you like. Exit using the walk to the edge and bow etc. I am told at the bigger multi discipline tournaments you would announce your name, style of Karate, where you train then your kata etc. I know Kyoshi will go over this stuff again before the tournament, but I want to be proactive and learn it before hand as much as I can at least. I am sure there are mistakes in the steps above, but in traditional Karate I am sure there is a standard method of entering the tournament square etc. Any info people can provide would be great. Al

I agree with the general suggestion of slow down. After my 1st Karate class I was sore for 5 days after but after 2 days it was not so bad and was back in for another lesson. And I was a regular work out in the gym kind of guy! Some of the muscles used in Karate are very different from what you might exercise regularly so there will be a bit of shock when you first get going on your conditioning.

I just talked to my Optometrist about this. He said that putting a contact in slightly increases the likelihood of eye injury but soft contacts have a much lower eye injury risk than glasses. For ultimate protection it is suggested you were protective goggles over top of wearing soft contacts.

Southern Ontario about 1 hour west of Toronto (Guelph) here...

We use the plastic pratice boards on very rare occasions for teaching the importance of the snap in the wrist for punches, shitos etc. I say very rarely as I have only seen them used once in about six months. It is not a big part of the training at my dojo. Lastly, the main reason I take Karate is not for its obvious application in figthing, but for fitness, focus, self confidence to name a few reasons.

What about mouth/teeth protection? I see a wide range. I have very brittle teeth... I don't get cavaties I get chipped teeth, so wondering if there are any recommendations here? Some have a breething hole in them as well, but gee this might just become a slobber hole IMO.

Thanks for the tips people! I stayed at the dojo for a while the other night when kids Kumite was being practiced and noticed a varriety of protection brands. It did not seem like there were any special requirements but we did attend the WKF meet in Cancun mid last month, so likely needs to be WKF approved.

My daughter and I are thinking about taking up sparring and eventually entering tournaments. I will need to get some sparring equipment including: -foot and hand pads -mouth gear -head gear -chest protector -cup I see Martial Arts equipment is sold by various companies including Kamikaze, Adidas, and Century to name a few… Does anyone have any recommendations on which brands are the best etc? Can I get by on just a standard athletic cup or is there a better choice? We are studying Okinawan Shorin-ryu Karate if it matters.

We live in a meat and potato mentality society now a days. I agree with some previous statements made here... eliminating carbs is not what is important in the long run it is having much less of them compared to what we are used too. Not only that eating 20 Oz of chicken no matter how lean it is, will not help with weight loss. I am on a pretty low carb diet right now as well to loose weight along with controlled protein intake. I guess I am getting about 1500 cals a day though. So far I have lost about 10 lbs in fat and am looking to loose about another 15 by summer. To minimize kidney stones I have been told to drink 2L of water or more a day as well. Now at the end of the "diet" I plan of phasing more carbs and calories back into my diet, slowly, so the low calorie/carb rebound will not occur, but at this point I will not be returning to my old bad eating habits of large portions of potatos, pasta, rice etc, but making them more modest portions. My wife is on a more extreme doctor supervised version of my diet. Her goal is to loose a lot more weight and it is a low calorie / low carb approach. Several of her friends have been on it and succeded in loosing it and 1 year later have kept it off. It stayed off because eating habits were changed when on it and the diet does not end and suddenly the flood gates of food roll in. I hope this information is of some help. Al

I plan on starting tournement sparring starting this summer. I just turned 40. Yes I figure I am getting a bit old and could stand to have more experience but am eager to learn Kumite along with katas.

Well it is my friend that is in Shotokan, I am in Shorin Ryu which is high stances and from my 1/2 year in it, speed and power are included. My Dojo adds Goshin Jitsu to it as well so some grappling but the main focus is ending the fight before it gets to the ground. Thanks for your comments. Al

Sorry, the new guy said his stances were high but he had only had one or two classes and might not have been very objective.

I have been studying Shroin-Ryu Karate for just shy of 1/2 a year now. A co-worker of mine has just started taking Shotokan. Is there any similarity between these styles? Do they have similar lineage? I am told they both have high stances, but other than that I am not sure. Thanks Al

True... I will ask Kyoshi when I get a chance. It is hard to get any talk time due to how busy he always is.

PhilM1 I am not sure I am in any position to recommend if you should get into MA or Shorin-ryu again. I love it and wish I could dedicate more time to it. If you got so close to black belt it seems like a waste to not complete it, but then again a black belt is not really the end is it? There is always the degrees of belt after that.

In the dojo I go to adult beginners are together with everyone. The newbies are usually taken aside after warm up and stretch and shown the basics by a high ranking student. It can be very intimidating especially since the class starts with formalities like bowing etc and they don't know this yet. Child classes are divided into three catagories. Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Same strategy but the fitness drill is a little more liberal in the Beginner class than it is in the adult one. I recall feeling very intimidated. My adult class is full of higher ranking belts and a few lower ones. I am a perfectionist in many ways and felt so stupid not knowing the basics of bowing etc and the learning of my first basic blocks was very confusing. I however learned this pretty quickly. The Sensei’s are supportive and tell you not to worry about not getting it right away. That being said, it is funny... my 19 month old baby girl goes to the Dojo with us often and watches her big sister do her training and often me. She now can count to 10 in Japanese and does a pretty good side kick and this is just by watching and listening. I wish I could learn it this fast. LOL

Happy New Years everyone!

At the Dojo I train at we are taught Okinawan Shorin-ryu Karate including Goshin Jitsu as part of the middle belt requirements. I like this because learning counter measures to typical close in attacks I think complements Karate very well, but I am wondering.... Is this a traditional combination or my Dojo's way of including some grappling arts into traditional Karate? Any comments?

I pay $56 a month, plus $75 once a year for training. Stripes now cost me $10 a hit (need to get 3 of them to belt test which typically takes about 4 months) and the lower belt tests are $55 each. All these figures are in Canadian dollars. So a typical year would cost me about $1000 cdn which works out to about $600 US.

Well I am in better shape these days than I have been most of my life. Yes as kid I was slimmer (almost skin and bones) but I now have some muscle on my entire body. Flexibility, well I don't know. I know It could be better right now, but I didn't do much that needed it as a kid from what I can recall. I don't really back off from the others in my class that tend to be younger than I in training, so no differences there. OK maybe my body feels a bit more beat up then some of the younger kids for a few more days after an intense class.