Returning after long break and to a new club

[martyn413]

Hi there,

Tomorrow I am attending a class at a new club (same style). I haven't properly trained for about 8 years. I got to Brown Belt when I was 15 (now 26.5).

I'm a bit nervous about going back, different people, trying to fit in etc. The main thing I'm worried about is my fitness left me when I got a car. My hamstrings are tight when kicking. I cannot kick high like I use to but that's probably due to lack of movement. I'm not over weigh, 5"10 and 165 pounds. Hopefully I'll tone up my belly. Hate that.

I hope I haven't forgotten too much. Still know the wado ryu kata's. My old club has 4 of their own. I still remember one of them (only learned one). I was told that I can keep my 3rd Kyu but will need to attend the lower grade class. I have to go through their syllabus (I hope that doesn't mean I have to wear the brown belt but have to grade from white to brown). If that's the case, I would just prefer to go and try out in a different style.

I wish I hadn't left it so late to return to Karate.

Anyone else had a long break then returned to Karate. Stories would be nice to read.

Martyn

[Lupin1]

I left for 10 years. I didn't get that high (I was a 6th kyu when I left when I was 12-- that's about four years of training), so I didn't have as much to work back up to. I rejoined in the same club but in the adult class (which is pretty different) when I was 22 and it took me only about three months to get back up to 6th kyu. I too remembered most of the kata, so it was just a matter of fixing everything I'd remembered wrong and polishing up my technique back to 6th kyu level.

It wasn't that bad going back into it from a social standpoint mostly because I was going back to the same club and I knew all be two or three people from when I was little (of course it was a little weird training with the people who used to be my teachers. I still can't break the habit of calling them "Mr. Soandso" while everyone else calls them by their first name). So it's a little different for me, but you'll make friends and fit right in after a month or two.

So, anyway. It's about a year and a month after restarting for me and I've continued moving ahead again and have worked my way up to 4th kyu. And that's my story.

[Taiikuka]

I did Kendo in the 3rd grade and had to leave but when I went back to Martial Arts I went on to do Jeet Kune Do. I much different style. I to was WAY out of shape for it at first but it only took a month or two to get back into the swing of things.

Your muscles will get their flexibility back soon enough. I know what you mean about having to grade all the way back to Brown. The reason my wife and I are not going back for Tae Kwon Do (Besides the fact that I like traditional Karate better) is that she got to an orange belt(not to far into the program but still) and the school we went to said she keeps the belt but has to do the promotion tests again. I feel it is just a way of them making even more money off of us and that isn't right.

Now i did say "Traditional Karate" for a reason there are far to many watered down schools in my area that call themselves Karate and are a mix of some Karate Tae Kwon Do MMA style that like to call themselves Karate and use a belt system to justify it but I really feel this is hurting Karate and many people only feel like Jujitsu and Kung Fu are true arts now.

[mindsedgeblade]

I did the same thing. Made 1st gup (kyu), started training for 1st dan test, then graduated college. Sure, I trained on my own, but after a while, I drifted away from forms, and there's only so much you can do at the Y.

Took four years off before starting at a new school. Different name but more or less the same style and lineage. From a TKD MDK base to WTSDA. Minor differences in all the forms, but same techniques. Kept my belt, but dropped me to 2nd gup. Been with this school about 6 months, and I think I'm finally comfortable with all the differences, and I'm getting ready to test for their 1st gup. Would have taken less time if I could make it in more often, but work and family gets in the way.

Just warm up and stretch (extra- most places don't do enough) and you'll be fine. I didn't lose too much flexibility, but I've got it all back now. You sholdn't have any real problems integrating.