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In last night's warm up we were doing squats where you hold a weight out in front of you and squat swinging the weight down between your legs then swing it back up and stand. At about 60 of these, I suddenly got the most excruciating pain in the back of my head ever. My wife had to drive me to emergency and after a couple hours of waiting, the doctor checked me out. It appears that I have strained hte muscles in the back of my head. They gave me a strong anti-inflammatory and it finally let up. I have had some bad migraines in my life but this was the most gut wrenching pain I have ever had. Has anyone had a similar problem?

Congratulations!

This brings up a question I have been wondering about. Is a good front thrust kick to the solar plex (sp) a usefull stratagy in a fight such as this?

Well spin kick dude was not at sparring tonight, but a new tactic was used that I wasn't sure how to counter. Stepping on my lead foot. This kept stopping me from countering with a kick and throwing me off balance. I think lunging into him, or using my stronger than average legs to do a bit of a leg sweep might have been effective but it is too late now. I will have to try this next week

Good luck!

Our classes varry but generally follow this plan for an 1 hour and 1/4 class: 10-15 mins of warmup (running, pushups, leg raises etc) 10 mins of stretch. remainder of class we practice forms. Sometimes a particular skill is highlighted and we will work on this for a while too. Like heavy bag work or balance. Class finishes off occasionally with a short lecture on Karate fundementals etc.

Thanks for the tips. I am not supposed to attack the back of my opponenets, but I can see how getting in and throwing off their balance along with a good close in attack would work. I have sparring tonight and the guy that likes to do spin kicks is going to be there, so will see if I can react and counter with these tips. Thanks

Our dojo has many gi colours. People that have gone to the WFMA championships currently wear red gis but our standard starts off with being all white. This is the one we would normally wear for competions and belt tests as well. As we progress we get rank gis. Where our pants are black with stripes on the side and the top changes colour as you approach black belt. (first it is blue then red)

I have been beaten in informal sparing practice by women of higher rank. It doesn't hurt my ego even if they were of my rank other than not wanting to be beaten by anyone in general. I have found many women have better flexiblity than myself and can be very formitable competitors.

I tried to come up with a good nick, but settled on my initials.

Not sure if this applies but I have heard that Calcium deficiency can cause muscle cramping in general as well.

I am a Software Developer - write device drivers for Windows machines and our serial board products.

We are taught 3 katas per belt level and we have belts that go yellow, yellow/black, orange, orange/black etc I am mid way through earning my Purple Belt now and will have learned about 14 katas. Some of these are not so much Katas but techniques put in the form of a Kata. Like Kihon Gerry, which demonstrates 4 different kicks with each leg.

Well I did throw two spin hook kicks at him. They did work but not nearly as well executed as his. I know he used a bunch of moves on me. Partly to show off, partly to expose me to all kinds of stuff as a learning experience. He also used the move the hand off to the side as a distraction then punch with the other one, but I don't fall for these. I actually don't look at the hands and feet at all but at their eyes/face. I think spin kicks are effective if you can do them really fast and as a change up.

I think you call it a spinning hook kick. He might have done a wheel kick as well but it is all a blurr.

Thanks for all the advice people. He was using it as an offensive move and he is fast and very initimidating. As well he should be, this guy just returned from the WFMA championships with a Gold for sparring (non black belt).

I was sparring yesterday night and one of my oponents uses a lot of spin kicks. I could see them coming but was like a deer in the headlights when one was launched. What is a good defense for them? I was trying to think of a good counter move but I can't sneak a legal kick that I can think of. I think someone once said move in close, but moving back seems to make more sense to me.

Rarely do they make us hold it for longer than 30 seconds but sometimes they get on a proper stance kick and make us hold it for a long time and keep going back to this in more classes. I think it is good for quad strength, but am not an expert on this stuff.

Thank you for your input. Your experience is likely very applicable due to being part of the same style of Karate Shorin-Ryu. The spinning hook kick I would like to use should not be blind but could be if a mistake is made. I just would like to have an extra twist I could through in once and a while. Currently really the only kicks I would be able to use would be: - front kick - side kick - round house kick - crescent kick - hook kick Axe kicks are stricktly forbidden as well as leg sweeps, strikes to joints, back often the face (sometimes light contact allowed). I have mentioned in other threads here that I have limited kick height, so just thinking about other ones I could use until my stretching gets my kick up higher. Thanks again.

I am told in our style of Kumite competitions that blind kicks are not allowed. On the surface this seems pretty clear what you can and can't do. If you don't see the kick landing it is blind, but: I want to add some spinning kicks to my moves just as a surprise I can use on occasion. I have consulted some of my Sensai's about the spinning hook back kick. They say it is ok as long as I see it landing, but I am wondering if I use it in a competition if they may think I cannot see it land and get disqualified? Is anyone here bound by this rule and do you have any experience with ruling on using these kicks?

Good point. In our dojo we only do sparring once a week, while I have Kata classes 3 or more times a week, plus I practice on my own. I need to add some sparring practise in between classes. I have a heavy bag that I used to do some extra practise on but with winter here my garage cannot be used right now and the rest of my house is too crowded. I am going to do some more thinking about where and how I can fit in some shadow boxing to work on the combos.

Congrats!

Well I have seen some very attractive women in MA, so I would not generalize about them being less attractive. For me I am attracted to strong, self confident women. Since MA reinforces this, it is natural for me to find it attractive.

The saying "one punch, one kill" is thrown around a lot in the dojo i go to. I do not know if it is officially our moto though.

Personally I practice Kata because I love trying to perfect something and it is great it has a purpose when you learn the bunkai.