aes

I see both sides to this arguement. Yes point fighting is pretty different than full contact, but then again full contact is different then street fighting. IE in a street fight we might gouge out eyes, break your arm, shatter a knee, break your ear drums. Certainly removing these tactics from a full contact fight makes it different? However, just touching someone in a point sparring match can score a point and it is not a fair measurement of real battle. In the tournaments I have been to you need a pretty good hit to the body to have it score though. As for full contact no equipment, well call me crazy but I have a day job that needs my arms not broken etc, so I would not do full contact if this was required.

I agree, I am shorter than many I fight at 5'8" and have shorter legs and less reach than many. The advice I have had and it seems to work is to move around a lot. Try to block and counter by moving in fast and hitting them with combinations. Keep them defensive when on the attack then move back out of range. A mistake I was making is assuming my reach was the same as theirs and letting them plan an attack by hanging back. Now I put bursts of moves on them and it seems to work.

Our dojo has 14 levels (not including white) on the way to Black and no one considers it a McDojo. White Gold Gold/Black Orange Orange/Black Purple Purble/Black Green Green/Black Blue Blue/Black Brown Brown/white Brown/Black Black Training is hard and a lot of attention to detail. People do fail. The reason for so many belt levels was explained to me to give people a feeling of progressing. We are generally required to know 3 katas for each level. There are extra requirements as well (like counting in Japanese etc).

Our head Sensei is called Kyoshi (8th Dan). Our second top instructor is called Sihan (4th Dan). All others are referred to as Sensei. I address the top Sensei's by their titles in and out of the dojo as a sign of respect. Kyoshi has a Doctorate in Martial Arts from Japan so I guess I could call him Dr too

Congrats! I love the site, thanks for making it!

Here is what I do to keep my Gi nice and white. Never wash it with anything other than my Gi so nothing with anything other than white is mixed with it. Even very light greys will make a Gi look dirty with time. Always wash it in cold water (helps with shrinking and does not put as much wear on it). I use Zout (sp) to spot treat the stains that build up on it like around the neck line and underarms. Blood stains I take out with rubbing some milk into it and letting it sit for a short while before washing. Again never with hot water especially on blood as it sets the stain. My patches look nice and new still and my Gi is still very fresh looking.

I would agree about the push for imediate results. Few make it through the 6 or so years to get to black belt in our school. I think the statistic I heard was one in 1500 students. The dojo I go to tends to do very well at tournaments IMO because of the traditional yet slow building on skills. I personally cannot imagine getting to a black belt in under 5 years with the attention to small details that we are expected to know. I think to stay with it in a real dojo it takes a special type of person. Sometimes it is a kind of addiction. It certainly is not for everyone but I would rather be doing this than pumping iron and running on a tread mill in gym like I used to.

Congrats Steinhauers. I am going to a tourny in Ohio in the end of July.

In my region I would say MA are more popular than they have ever been. Dojos are all over the place and it is pretty hard to find a family that has not taken some MA. Most who take it seem to consider the fighting aspect secondary to fitness or helping with focus.

Hi Ktonix, good to see another fellow Canadian here.

Thanks people. I started Kumite training just under a year ago. I entered a Tourney with pretty much no training around the same time and got defeated very easily. Sure it was different people, but this time around it was a different story. Most of my sparring training has been done with much younger competitors. They have much faster reflexes than I do, however when I enter tournaments I wind up in the over 35 catagory. Is it possible that being used to faster moves has helped me get faster? Well the next tourney that I know of is in Ohio in the end of July. That should give me time to learn a new Advanced Kata. The Ohio one is supposed to be much bigger than the one I was just in as well.

The tournament was in Elora Ontario, a pretty small town but a good sized tourney. Here are the results. Gold in Kumite Silver in Kata Silver in Weapons Both my daughter and I had a great time.

Well after taking about 3/4 of a year off of Tournaments, tomorrow I will be entering my first competition this year in Kata, Weapons and Kumite and boy am I nervous. I have a goal of winning the overall Canadian WFMA over 35 catagory this year and have trained pretty hard for this competition. In the long run I know my weapons and hand katas need to be more complex. My hand kata is Fukyugata Nidan but Pinan Godan will hopefully be ready for the next tourney. Well better get some sleep, up at 7am to get ready.

Well your style of Shorin-ryu is a lot different than ours it seems. We spend a fair amount of time on conditioning and Kata. Weapons are more common later on unless you join the Weapons Club. We learn a bit of self defense (Goshin Jitsu) as well. I like my style because it is more traditional. I like the history of what we learn. I am not knowledgable enough to comment on how it is compared to others though sorry.

I started Kumite about a year ago. Simular to you only 6 months of Karate training under my belt (pun intended). I also became to defensive when attacked. Now I am doing much better. I think this is from the extra Karate training and just plain experience in Kumite. You will get it, just give it time.

Hey welcome to KF. I love this place and I hope you do too.

My style is Shorin-ryu, not sure if our progression is the norm though. WFMA White Gold Gold - black Orange Orange - black Purple Purple - black Green Green - black Blue Blue - black Brown Brown - white Brown - black Black

Not really, but to help with that I now get a full body wax. Less work.

I am not sure if this is a Canadian or American thing but I had heard that if you are in fear for your life when attacked this may give you just cause for using more a more brutal counter attack. IE if the attacker is much bigger than you or say a gang is attacking you, this would put you in greater danger and therefore you are justified in doing what you need to prevent this. Much the same as if the attacker pulls a knife or gun. That being said once the situation has been improved by you eliminating the threat (knocking them down, breaking their arm etc) this does not give you the right to continue the beating. However if you are attacked by say four people you need to eliminate a couple of them from the fight very early on in order to come out on top. One Ninjitsu practitioner stated he breaks the first guys arm to even the odds. Certainly to me it is hard to decide when you are in grave danger or not.

Congrats on the tournement! As for judges not seeing the block or the strike, this seems to be a common complaint.

Trust me in the dojo I train at it is very physically challenging and gets the body in shape as long as you do your katas with intent (speed, power, snap).

God he was lucky it did not hit him in the head or eye!

I think the issue here for me is I am not 20 years old and it was done without adequate warm up of the muscles in this part of my body. We did the usual running, some pushups and crunches for about 10 minutes then jumped into these and because we have to do them fast, I was over swinging the 5 lb weight. I don't blame anyone really for the injury but it was a pain I would rather not feel again.

Welcome aboard

Well as it turns out my GP doctor thinks I snapped a few muscle fibres in my trapezium near the base of my skull. No big deal but will take time to totally heal. I can continue with my training but should avoid exercises that work this muscle for the time being and take Ibuprofen 3 times a day for the next 10 days or so.