Really want to get into this, but I have a few concerns

[JCavin]

It is if you don't practice at home...

[luca61]

Hello NoLifeKing, are you attending the SantaAna College? I graduated there in Occupational Therapy about five yr ago. If I am not wrong there is A Shito Ryu just in front of the College, have you checked it out?

[Throwdown0850]

Hello everyone,

I really want to get into martial arts and I did take a karate class at my college which I enjoyed. The style was genbu-Kai. While taking the class, I did enjoy it, but I wasn't super dedicated to it. But then I saw a certain piece of media that actualy inspired me to really dedicate myself to it (no, it was not the karate kid). It had a very good message about what martial arts can give you and how it can help you grow.

My only issue is I can never seem to get myself to practice at home. I just think it's going to be too hard or I'll do the techniques wrong. Also, I simply do not know where to practice. The dojo of the style I'm studying is rather far, so I'll have to do it at home or something.

Another worry I have is that the classes I will take have rather large groups of people, so I'm worried that the lack of individual attention will hurt my progress.

And finally I'm mainly worried that ill just give up on it, because I tend to do that with things that are hard.

If I can get some advice from people who do this, that would be great.

Thank you.

What do you mean by grow? Are you wanting to study karate so you can learn to fight? Please elaborate for me.

[TheNoLifeKing]

Hello everyone,

I really want to get into martial arts and I did take a karate class at my college which I enjoyed. The style was genbu-Kai. While taking the class, I did enjoy it, but I wasn't super dedicated to it. But then I saw a certain piece of media that actualy inspired me to really dedicate myself to it (no, it was not the karate kid). It had a very good message about what martial arts can give you and how it can help you grow.

My only issue is I can never seem to get myself to practice at home. I just think it's going to be too hard or I'll do the techniques wrong. Also, I simply do not know where to practice. The dojo of the style I'm studying is rather far, so I'll have to do it at home or something.

Another worry I have is that the classes I will take have rather large groups of people, so I'm worried that the lack of individual attention will hurt my progress.

And finally I'm mainly worried that ill just give up on it, because I tend to do that with things that are hard.

If I can get some advice from people who do this, that would be great.

Thank you.

What do you mean by grow? Are you wanting to study karate so you can learn to fight? Please elaborate for me.

Well, maybe I have the wrong idea, but I thought that, while karate can certainly teach you to protect yourself, it can also help you grow as a person as well by giving you discipline, focus, and confidence.

[TheNoLifeKing]

Hello NoLifeKing, are you attending the SantaAna College? I graduated there in Occupational Therapy about five yr ago. If I am not wrong there is A Shito Ryu just in front of the College, have you checked it out?

Unfortunately my college is in walnut, California. I believe that's the dojo your speaking of, though.

[Montana]

Well, maybe I have the wrong idea, but I thought that, while karate can certainly teach you to protect yourself, it can also help you grow as a person as well by giving you discipline, focus, and confidence.

This is absolutely correct. As for practicing outside of the dojo, I used to practice in the gym, my home, the park..whereever I had a little room to move.

Having a place to practice should not be a problem. Motivation to practice can be, but that's entirely up to you and nobody is going to force you to take the time and energy to practice outside of class except for you. That's the decision you need to make.

[bushido_man96]

Well, maybe I have the wrong idea, but I thought that, while karate can certainly teach you to protect yourself, it can also help you grow as a person as well by giving you discipline, focus, and confidence.

This is absolutely correct. As for practicing outside of the dojo, I used to practice in the gym, my home, the park..whereever I had a little room to move.

Having a place to practice should not be a problem. Motivation to practice can be, but that's entirely up to you and nobody is going to force you to take the time and energy to practice outside of class except for you. That's the decision you need to make.

I agree with Montana here. I'm a bit confused though; are you actually able to get to the dojo? If so, then go, whether or not the classes are huge or not. Just pay attention, and try as hard as you can. If you're that worried about screwing something up at home, just use that time to practice what you already feel you have a good handle on. Use it as review time, not learn new stuff time.

You've asked a bunch of questions to try help you get confident and motivated, and that is great, but in the end, its your decision alone. We can't motivate you, take the class for you, or learn for you. That has to come from within.

I'm a short, heavy-set guy. I'm 5'7" or 5'8", and weigh about 255 lbs. I've always been short, and kind of heavy. TKD is not easy for me. But I do it. I love it. I want to show others what a short, stumpy guy is capable of. If someone wants to doubt me, then that's just bonus motivation for me.

Get out there and just do it!

[JohnASE]

It's funny you mentioned "The Karate Kid" movie. Fumio Demura, the head of Genbu-Kai, was the karate double for Pat Morita in the old movies.

Back on topic, wherever you train, you should probably be doing a fair amount of practicing at home anyway. You don't need much room for working on basics. Kata is tougher, but there are ways. In class, they show you how to do something, then at home, you do it over and over. If you're doing it wrong, they'll correct you in class.

Self-motivation can be tough though. I don't know what to tell you. If you want to improve, you have to do the work. Maybe if you made friends in the class it would help. You could work out together in off hours, or at least help motivate each other to do it.

I don't think training at a college should be much of a disadvantage, even if you have large classes. More personal attention is better, of course, but again, you're still going to have to put in the time.

I'd guess that part of what you want to get out of karate is discipline and the ability to set goals and accomplish them. So, go do it!

[JusticeZero]

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.

If it's worth doing, it's worth flopping around and looking inept at. If you ever find something that you can do perfectly the first time and look good doing it, give it up - it won't impress anyone.

See the people in class that move like something out of a chop socky movie? To them, they still are flailing around badly. It's just that their idea of what constitutes 'bad" has glacially advanced to where they are now.

When they came in the first time? They were out of breath and flailed around and generally made a fool of themself. They aren't thinking 'Wow, that new guy is a fool', they are thinking 'Wow, I remember when I was that bad.. hey, he got that technique kind've sort've vaguely right! It must have took me WEEKS to figure out how to do that that well!'

Why worry about looking like a fool at home? Where nobody can even see you? Go to class, do your best, try to take something away from each lesson. Then go home and practice it. If the best you can manage to do is vaguely directed flailing, then flail in a vaguely directed manner. You'll get better, I promise. Each flail, on average, will be infinitesimally better than the last until suddenly you're like "What the..? You mean i'm actually good at this? How did that happen?"

[UselessDave]

You shouldn't make yourself train at home if you really don't feel like it. You can try to look for a motivation that would make you want to train though.

How long have you been training? In the start it is normal that training by yourself is difficult on many ways. And anyway, one can learn to that too. When practicing yourself it becomes clear while doing, how it's best for you in the situation. Like what you can train effectively without getting any bad habits.. It's unnecessary to worry about the mislearning too. If it's big somebody will notice it sometime propably, and you can search from the internet stuff to help you.

For some people training place matters.. If training at home doesn't work, it doesn't work! Gotta find another place. (Maybe some other people in your training know a place to train?)