Is anyone into karate or on a tournment circut?

[Lolita Banana]

I am seriously into karate You could can me an addict. I have been taking karate for 6 years, am testing for my second degree in the fall and have been instucting karate for almost 4 years at karate america. I was just wondering if there is anyone out there who shares my interest.

[Ju-DedoH]

I did so;e thing like 3 years of Aikido, and surely will get back to it next year

[Lolita Banana]

Sweeet. What is your location? What karate school?

[Ju-DedoH]

I'm in france, not a very big school anyway

[Lolita Banana]

Awesome. Do you do tournaments? Dumb question but do you speak French as well?

[Gwared]

I did Tang Soo Do for about 6 years, got my blackbelt at thirteen and competed until 16.

Instructed a lot and came third in a national tournament once...(damn regionally biased judges!).

Then I stopped all excersise went from 9.5st to 13st in 2yrs (including 2st in 6 months!!!!) and have only just recovered any semblence of an atheltic figure...

[Ju-DedoH]

no tournaments, it's just for me, concentration, relaxation, calm movements ... and I do speek french, been here for 10 years now ...

[Marcus Baker]

I used to do Tae-kwan do in the us, but i stopped. I did it for 3 years and got up to green belt..so its not that much, but i can say i idid!

[Hermione Weasley]

I took Shalion Kempo for like 4 years and i have a brown belt in it and I have a yellow sash in kung-fu. I would say that I am slightly addicted to karate but my favorite part is forum i can't really fight in the dojo very well.I had to quite b/c I moved and i miss it!!I LOVE kung-fu!its my favortie type of karate and i am trying to find one where i am currently at.I love tournaments but i always get a little mad b/c I would have to compete with the guys in forms and they thought since I was girl I couldn't do it, but I showed them up I got second place with my kung-fu form and third place with my kempo form in one tournament.

[Lolita Banana]

Gwared~ which tournament?

That sounds really cool you guys. I am currently planning on going to the Diamond Nationals with my team forms partner. (See saint mungos "help me please" for more info on that.
We are going to compete in team forms against Ryan Pinkston (Arnold on Spy Kids 3D)~I really hope we win this time last time we tied against him and anthony adkins but lost after having to go again and have the judges decide. Hopefully it's us this time. Ryan's a cool guy though and I am so happy for his sucess.
I will also be sparring and do traditional form
I don't do traditional form alot. I think that is so cool that you guys have way different styles then me, perhaps you can fill me in a little more in what you specialize in (in your form of martial arts. )I.E Sparring, self-d fence. Stuff like that. Thanks for reading my thread. Come back often. Love and hugs...

[Gwared]

The title wasn't anything fancy, just national finals #28 or something like that...I'd have to go check my medals for the exact years I've competed but the year I came third nationally I'd only been back in training 6 months after a 3 year break.

Ah...so many things weird happened that day I can still remember them all...that's an achievement in itself...I got called 'master' by a guy probably 4 times my age as he opened the door for me (or was that the qualifiers???)

[choki]

I only learnt tae-kwan-do for 2 yrs, up to green belt because I don't have the time to continue...I did sparring before, and got kicked really hard into my abdomen by another fellow female studentI almost felt like throwing up my dinner. I tried fighting back but she blocked all my kicks...That was tough because she was one of the top fighter but i hanged on till the instructor separated both of us...other than that, I guess I'm quite a good fighter

[Hermione Weasley]

the best thing that i learned with sparring is I don't eat dinner right before I go to class I eat like at least two hours ahead of time so if i get kicked or punched in the abdomen ar gut i am not in serious pain.

The only bad thing about karate though is that my knees are horrible now.Mainly b/c I had to get spinning kicks down and my instructors were way confusing on how to do them so now if I do to much excercise my knees are in so much pain I have to sit down for a long time.

[Gwared]

I always used to hate fighting the girls...for the obvious reasons of men can't hit girls as hard, but they gave their all! And they all had really bony shins that hurt to block. Still, they were a great laugh!

[Lolita Banana]

Well yea my team forms partner also helps me and sparrs every now and then i get a good hard turn side or side kick. It makes me better though. Gward~about girls honestly don't worry about hurting us, in fact I hate it when guys don't fight us they way they would another guy. I know you are trying to be respectful and I guess it depends on the girl but usually they won't mind if you sparr foreal.
That stuff sounds interesting guys. Keep it comin'