kittyblue-eyes

Be ware of playing favorites, or anti-favorites. One of our sensei's has an obvious dislike for a student he feels 'doesn't try'. He pounds on him (yellow belt) and picks on him. On the other hand his (sensei's) wife is also in the class and he pays far more attention to her than other students. For example he'll watch 4 people do the same kata and the critiques will go, one for wife, one for the other three in general, one for wife, one for other three in general etc. She's a very good karate-ka, but that's partly due to her always receiving specific feedback on all of her tecniques while the rest of us just try to apply the general stuff to ourselves. It's a small class, so there is plenty of time to critique everyone in detail.

Thanks again, everyone. I do appreciate your taking the time. Do guys just have an easier time with this? I find our sensei's talking about how the women in the class never seem to 'get it' when they talk about this, where as most of the men seem to have it pretty well down by green or purple belt. I'll look into plyometrics, thanks. I do think lack of strength/power may be part of my problem. What is a ladder jump? What kind of foot work drills would you recommend?

The few TDK'rs I've seen are all feet. Someone else already mentioned it, I know, but it just seems it's what they do. It seemed that any opponents who were afraid of the flying feet, lost. Those who were willing to block or evade and drive in with a counter, won. I haven't seen much of the other styles, except on TV. Not sure I should give much credence to what is on TV.

Thanks everyone for your input. I'll give it a try. It just seems that with out the hop, which I know is bad, I don't actually get anywhere. Ossu.

I hear Catherine Pinch is coming out with a good one. Not sure about the name, it's about one of the masters...Darn, I wish I could remember the name for you. I've read excerpts from it and they were good, though more entertainment than educational. Something about someone hating snakes, so a few senior students recommend the younger student impress him with snakes. There's more to it than anecdotes. If I think of it, I'll pop back in.

Augh, my drive is horrible. I know it's not b/c of my height (or lack there of) b/c there are other people in my class roughly my height and they drive forward, laterally and back and they actually move. I barely move unless I do more of a long hop-which I know is wrong. Any suggestions on how to improve my drive? Thank you.

Being able to realize that just b/c a student doesn't 'get it' doesn't mean they aren't trying.

One of my sempai frequently says 'good' for every tecqnique when watching us. I don't think he really means it any of the times, but it can be confusing. For example, we were practicing front kick using a pad as a target, with every kick he said 'good', almost automatically. Each kick felt very different to me and I doubt they were all actually good. I know I would benefit more if he corrected the bad ones. If he isn't comfortable doing that, he could just not say anything on the less good ones and save the 'good' for the ones that actually are good. But how do I tell him? Is it disrespectful? Out of my place? Thank you.

I am a student of Shotokan, but realize like all MA's it has both strengths and weaknesses. Any ideas on which MA is a good compliment to Shotokan? Thank you.

Hello everyone. Sorry about the kind of cheesy name. Everything I tried was already taken and the spam-inator test had a bunch of blue eyed kitties staring at me, I have blue eyes, I like kitties.... it just happened. Anyway. I'm fairly new to karate, I study Shotokan. I hope to learn some things and maybe make an e-friend or two. Off to check out the other forums now.