Grading was meant to be last month but the instructor went to Thailand so it was put off. Now its on the 20th of November and mum and I are so excited. We have a four and a half hour karate seminar on Sunday and will spend an entire 90 minutes of that time just on our kata. We are also going to be training at least twice a week now, probably three times, as well as our Tuesday class, there are two classes running on Thursdays. With work and all it will be very exhausting but I love how I am picking up everything. Whenever we get corrected on something its always something minor, so we are getting the hang of it!
Had another grading this morning, and I have my orange belt now! I am so excited now. I was a bit worried because I thought I wouldn't pass but we all did. It was a small group, just white and yellow belts so it was easy.
Oh yeah. I hope to get my green by the end of the year. The karate World Cup is in Sydney next year, so I am going to start training for it. I want to perform Saifa there, which if you watch the below video, you'll see what I'll be learning next: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmMs1pWkiAU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmMs1pWkiAU[/ame] Its a truely beautiful kata, and I am thrilled I finally get to learn it!
You should fight as well. Win or lose, you'll feel great afterwards. It's scary to think about, but you'll be ok! I wore a grin on my face all the way back home after competing in my first tournament.
Growing up back in the day, things like Karate were not available to folks like they are today. So we had to learn to survive with the skills that we had learned on the streets. For instance, if we had to fight, we fought to win no matter what it took.
My mum will attend a kumite tournament in Melbourne next month. She likes kumite, whereas I love kata. I haven't liked kumite since I sparred with someone for the second time and got smacked in the face by him. Guy had the gall to blame me for not blocking him, and I said I didn't know how to yet. He was a green belt, I'd just got my yellow. Since then, I've been afraid of it. I'll have to deal with the fear eventually, but for now, kata is my focus. I have 18 months to train, so hopefully I'll get there, and then convince mum to drive 12 hours to Sydney with me...
The basics should be learned first. And karata being one of the oldest tradional martial arts is a good example of this. Especially if have a qualified instructor.
I can't edit my own above post for some reason. I wanted to say after reading thru this topic again. That some advice is terrible. Some forum members giving advice to train in MMA! Now MMA is fine, if like the brutal side to training and are good with pain. But not everyone wants that form of intensity. Also it is a 'sport' in recent development, designed for cage fighting not basic protection. Now Karata for a beginner is a much saner view and far more learnable. Also: as some put it, training for a real fight. Then why bother with mma, it relies too much on submission holds. Instead, train in ninjit-su. As my instructer put "If your oppenant is screaming in pain, he can't fight" It relies on breaking body parts, to end the 'fight' in the shortess time possible. Although i always remember the sickening sound of one poor chaps arm beaking broken in training. But for fun and basic defence, stick to the traditional mainstream MA
I graded to my green belt on Friday, and on Sunday I went to tournament and came away with two Bronze medals.
