help for a beginner in Shotokan

[shotokanbeginner]

I am a bit of a beginner in karate, I've been studying for slightly over a year now and am a fifth kyu. My question is do you ever feel incompotent at what your doing in karate? Lately I have been feeling like I am constantly doing terrible at it and I don't know what to do. I'm studying outside of the dojo more than usual because of it which isn't a bad thing at all, but I constantly feel like I'm a let down to our club, to make things worse my knee is starting to screw up for some reason. What are some tips you could give me?

thanks for whatever help you can provide (':D')

[Menjo]

I am a bit of a beginner in karate, I've been studying for slightly over a year now and am a fifth kyu. My question is do you ever feel incompotent at what your doing in karate? Lately I have been feeling like I am constantly doing terrible at it and I don't know what to do. I'm studying outside of the dojo more than usual because of it which isn't a bad thing at all, but I constantly feel like I'm a let down to our club, to make things worse my knee is starting to screw up for some reason. What are some tips you could give me?

thanks for whatever help you can provide (':D')

I always feel like I'm never doing enough, thats a good thing in some cases. In order to cope with never having perfect technique I thought, well I'll just try as hard as possible and I've been doing that for years now. Eventually youll discover how much you've accomplished. The way I've learned is just through perserverance and hard work, do the techniques over and over again, constantly. Do little things at home like punches, I used to only do about 50. Now I end up doing about as many as I can plus 100 more(by then there probably not punches). Do as many as you can properly and build from there, It'll show in the dojo.

In answer to your question, yes I feel 80 percent of the time like its not good enough(you have to be proud a little), but thats what drives me. My advice is try to find out what drives you in life, then possibly try to apply it to Karate.

As for the knee problem, I wouldn't be of much assistance due mainly to the fact I've never had problems with my knees.

[Killer Miller]

The knee will screw up in the first year or two if you are not developing proper technique. Be sure you are using proper tension at the proper time - especially with the snap kicks. See how fast you can pull the leg/hips back to ready position with proper tension. This will help from over-extending the knee. Also, if your stance is too long or short, you will also over-extend the knee and put unessary stress on the knee - stand in kiba dachi at exactly two shoulder widths, then turn into zenkutsu dachi (front stance) at that time with the exact same footing. This will be the exact length that your stance should be. Also, use proper breathing from the lower diaphragm so that you properly tense all body muscles which keep joints tighter, and from over-extending, which in return protects joint from abuse.

So as you can see, there are many non-medical reasons why your knees can be bothering you from training. Make sure this is not the reason why. And like I said, this typically occurs in the first year or two of beginners. Once you learn proper technique, these problems usually won't return.

Of course, medical issues are a whole nother story...

- Killer -

[palatoss]

I had similar problems with my knees when I started doing Karate four years ago. Today I don't have any problems. I think the key here is correct technique. Shotokan stances are low and long and feel quite unnatural in the beginning. They can also feel bad for your knees in the beginning because your leg muscles are not strong enough. But if you keep training your muscles will develop and the stances will feel more natural. Actually now that I've trained more the stances feel good for my knees

In Shotokan techiques, I find it important to keep your knees always pointing to the same direction as your toes. This prevents knees from "twisting" unnaturally.

[weaponless]

I've found my knee problem has gotten better through karate. Now, I'm not a Shotokan practicioner, but the stances in the Goju that I take has very low and deep stances, so I can relate to having to do low stances.

I had a serious knee problem (I turned it over while wrestling with a 200 lb man up on my shoulder years ago). I had problems with everything. A simple hop in the air could buckle my knee, stepping off a stair, anything. When I first started karate, I was constantly worried about my knee and "buckled" it several times early in my training. I wouldn't go to class if I didn't have my brace, I just wouldn't go.... I was too afraid of hurting my knee without it. Then the best thing happened to me....

I lost my brace for a month. So I went to karate anyway, at first very tentatively. Then, after kumite, it occured to me. While I was sparring, I wasn't thinking about my knee at all. And after several side kicks, including a tobi yoko geri, and worry free footwork, it occurred to me that my knee wasn't that much of an issue anymore, at least so long as I didn't make it one. I was told by my sensei when I began training that the karate would be good for my knee, for strengthening it, etc., and I didn't think it would ever happen until I turned around one day and realized that all the kicks and stretches did, in fact, strengthen my knee, and without the worry of hurting it, it doesn't get hurt. I found the brace a month later, but never put it back on again. Now it sits, unused, not needed. My knee is no longer an issue, I won't let it be. One of my peers a long time ago said to me one day when I was worried because I couldn't find my brace right before class ( I found it when I got home) and I was planning to take it easy and was worried about hurting it, said to me when I said I couldn't believe I lost my brace... "Maybe you lost it because you no longer need it." His words ended up being prophetic, as when I would later on lose it for a month.... that was the month that I needed away from the brace in order for me to realize that I really didn't need it anymore, that the karate had made it better.

Now I don't know if your knee is starting to act up because of some kind of flawed technique... I can't speak to that. But I can offer up that if the techniques are done right, it should make your knees strong and put you a leg up ( so to speak) on the non-karate practicing population.

[shotokanbeginner]

I've found my knee problem has gotten better through karate. Now, I'm not a Shotokan practicioner, but the stances in the Goju that I take has very low and deep stances, so I can relate to having to do low stances.

I had a serious knee problem (I turned it over while wrestling with a 200 lb man up on my shoulder years ago). I had problems with everything. A simple hop in the air could buckle my knee, stepping off a stair, anything. When I first started karate, I was constantly worried about my knee and "buckled" it several times early in my training. I wouldn't go to class if I didn't have my brace, I just wouldn't go.... I was too afraid of hurting my knee without it. Then the best thing happened to me....

I lost my brace for a month. So I went to karate anyway, at first very tentatively. Then, after kumite, it occured to me. While I was sparring, I wasn't thinking about my knee at all. And after several side kicks, including a tobi yoko geri, and worry free footwork, it occurred to me that my knee wasn't that much of an issue anymore, at least so long as I didn't make it one. I was told by my sensei when I began training that the karate would be good for my knee, for strengthening it, etc., and I didn't think it would ever happen until I turned around one day and realized that all the kicks and stretches did, in fact, strengthen my knee, and without the worry of hurting it, it doesn't get hurt. I found the brace a month later, but never put it back on again. Now it sits, unused, not needed. My knee is no longer an issue, I won't let it be. One of my peers a long time ago said to me one day when I was worried because I couldn't find my brace right before class ( I found it when I got home) and I was planning to take it easy and was worried about hurting it, said to me when I said I couldn't believe I lost my brace... "Maybe you lost it because you no longer need it." His words ended up being prophetic, as when I would later on lose it for a month.... that was the month that I needed away from the brace in order for me to realize that I really didn't need it anymore, that the karate had made it better.

Now I don't know if your knee is starting to act up because of some kind of flawed technique... I can't speak to that. But I can offer up that if the techniques are done right, it should make your knees strong and put you a leg up ( so to speak) on the non-karate practicing population.

thanks I am sure that that is the case and it will get better. I really like the Goju style that I saw when these japanese people came to where I live and demonstrated it. so in the end I think a person who does goju aikido and jui jutsu must not only have good taste in martial aarts but knows what he is talking about.

thanks

[karate kid 1]

i wouldnt worry about it im sure its just a phase plz correct me if im wrong

[shotokanbeginner]

i wouldnt worry about it im sure its just a phase plz correct me if im wrong

yeah mine do too, but it always feels like I'm doing bad even after they help but I'm sure it will pass. You seem to have a lot of your future in karate planned out, which isn't a bad thing at all I am currently fourteen, I've been studying a little bit over a year now and am at fifth kyu, I hope to be a black belt as soon as I am able to be ready for that.

[karate kid 1]

well good luck with tht

[weaponless]

All the best of luck to you. If you are only 14, well then without getting into a silly puberty talk, your body is going to be going through some changes right now.... don't be dejected if it somehow feels that your techniques are getting sloppy. Your still growing into your shoes, so to speak, and sometimes it can be a hard thing thing a young man of your age to be graceful on his feet, so don't feel that you're not cut out for karate anymore if things get tougher for you over the next while. Besides, everyone goes through a phase where it seems to them that they're taking 2 steps back.

You are still moving forward.... Just think of it like you're walking backwards for a few steps, you are still heading in the same direction as you always were. Don't let the search for a black belt blind you, it is the journey that karate ( and for that matter life) is all about, not the destination.

Honour, integrity, and time.......

If doing karate was easy all the time, then everyone would do it and all those cats you saw wearing white belts beside you when you started would all still be there.

Being 30, I grew up on Star Wars, and quite frankly, I'm still a junkie ( I build EL and LED lightsabers and everything, LOL), so I'm going to relate a story about Yoda I read in a book once. Yoda was sitting by the river with one of his pupils when the darkness came. There was a latern a few feet behind him, and Yoda reached and reached for that lantern, trying to hook onto the handle with his cane and pull it to him. He tried and tried for several seconds until his student, using the force, levitated the object and it floated into Yoda's hand. As Yoda let out a sigh, his student asked him, "Master, you could have easily brought it right to your hand. Why struggle with it, when you could have done it the easy way?".... Yoda responded by saying, "It was exactly because it was easier that I didn't do it!"

Anyway......

May the Force Be With You....

P.S. Killer Miller had some really good advice. I don't know him at all, but in reading through all these different posts since I've been on this site, it is clear he knows what he is talking about... Plus, he's a Shotokan guy too.

Osu.