My body, my balance and Shotokan

Decided toput this here instead of karate forum because I wanna hear from all martial artspractioners.

I guess i could askmy sensei this too,and Iwill,but also wannaknow what you think.

I getmoreworried the higherup the ranks i go (as imneara green belt and thats somewherein the themiddle of basics neither high nor noob they'll grademe for that this year)

The fact is in additiontomy balanceissuemylegs arent flexible. Thatmeans I cannot turn my foot properly to do a proper side snap kick, I dontdo a proper mikazuki geri (I cannot hitmy hand with myfoot) and I cant stand on oneleg and do all the kicks (which is required of brown belts goingfor their black belt)

So I guessmyquestion is, Will thatmeanI would not beable to advance because I cantdo these things?

I know I dont have to worry about these things yet, But I do. I worry.

 

If you struggle with balance and flexibility then start exercises that will improve these areas. I am a fan of yoga so of course I would suggest that, but there are many exercises that could help. If you could advance or not depends on the what level of skill is required in your specific school to be green belt. I doubt perfect form is required but it would be impossible for anyone here to tell you if you are perfoming to the level required by your instructor.

 

people have gotten ahead while in much worse situations. train hard and train consistently and you'll get through it. the trick is, you HAVE to train hard in a regular basis, in order to be able to do so

 

The balance is congenital - that means I was born with it. Because we didnt have mri's in Newfoundland then, they never found the underdeveloped cerebellum until I was in my 20's.

I have tried to do what I want to do inspite of it - even studying karate.

I still HATE HATE looking at myself doing karate though whenmybud once taped me and I had a friend take video of me once - because my katas arealways shaky and slow.

 

Uh huh.

I know they are worth all kindsof salt sea salt, table salt........

But still I do worry about it.

 

Sometimes it's fine to modify your technique to overcome physical limitations. As long as you can distinguish between the problems that you can't overcome and the ones that you could overcome with training, I don't see a problem.

It's worth bearing in mind though that, as a green belt, it's fine to find side kicks difficult. They are difficult. I think they're difficult after 10 years training and I'm sure people with three times the training still find them difficult. Having a balance problem with obviously make it even harder for you but perhaps you can, for example, become more flexible through practice even if you can't improve your balance.

If it's any consolation, I can't pivot my supporting leg outwards on a side snap kick either. I have to keep it facing at 90 degrees, othewise my hip joint jams. But it's not something I'm going to beat myself up over because it's not something that can be overcome by training - it's just a physical limitation. I'd rather focus on all the many things that I can improve with training.

 

re: the supporting leg on snap kicks: it's not supposed to pivot out like that anyway, because human legs simply don't do that. you'd have to rotate it like on a roundhouse kick (which is actually more similar to yokogeri keage than one might ordinarily think).

an alternative you might want to look into would be supplementing your karate with tai chi. it'll be difficult to do both properly, but tai chi will help you build balance like nothing else will (you simply can NOT compare the balance of a karateka with that of a tai chi practitioner at equivalent skill levels in their respective arts). besides, you already have difficulties, or this thread would not be here, so might as well bear an extra one and get further ahead in the long run.

 

I have terrible flexibility yet excellent balance and progress well enough in my training. I have learnt that sometimes being able to understand how a technique works mechanically is key and is often different from what you perceived. For example being able to jump from move to move in BJJ can fail horribly until you realize it is about the direction of your hip before you extend.

Before I figured that out I was trying to move my foot 130' and hip zero, but my range of motion wouldn't go past 90' comfortably- I learnt that moving my hip 30' I could easily reach the 130' range. I later learned there was no limit to the hip movement since that wasn't a stretching motion, so I can move my foot/leg 360'

I personally think that flexibility is the single most important thing in any martial arts as being able to move comfortably in various positions will make sure you are in control of your body and covered all the time when moving, rather than struggling, so it is certainly a constant battle to improve, but in the interim learning how to work around your inadequacies is very important too.

 

in practical terms I always found mae geri and mawashi geri to be the kicks you want to be good at since they are typically the only ones seen in most kumite. my teacher had an awesome yoko geri keage but his kekomi was quite poor. my biggest failing in kicks was ashi barai. unsurprisingly i still find this difficult in judo.

in my last club we had a purple belt who could barely do chudan, so you're not unique. it was frustrating because my flexibility improved when doing taekwondo then ballet, but adding anything i learned from these classes didn't seem to help anyone else, so i think what works will often vary from person to person. for stretching i would try floor exercises with a resistance band, and for balance a tennis ball on a string.

start low, when a height gets easier raise it an inch. a similar approach in class or practicing with a friend is focus mitts which i did try since we used them in taekwondo for developing technique, usually for higher level and jumping kicks, works just as well in karate

 

Hi Blade,

to me this is a relative thing, and I think you might have to trust your teacher to see this. He or she would know that you struggle with this aspect of your practice, aso what they would be looking for is progress (hopefully) rather than rigid adherence to some kind of physical model or norm.

Pretty much everyone I have ever watched train in any art looks like an individual at some level. No two shotokan dan grades would look exactly alike performing a kata, and in a similar way you will look different to other people at your rank level. You will work out ways of compensating - you clearly already have to have progressed to the level that you have - self doubt aside. I have trained with folks who have had missing limbs, no, they didn't perform things the same way that I would, but they still could execute technique, and often had a bunch of ways of turning what might have been a disadvantage into an advantage.

paul

 

Thanks guys. You rock.

Hi Paul *waves*

Yeah Pretty sure thats what my senseis are. I been a member of the association almost 4 years now (training for 3 cause i missed a year) and while they do have high standards which is good, they do NOT hand out belts like candy, they are tough graders, but it seems like they wouldnt stick to the strict physical model where I'm concerned.

Still gets doubts at times though. i go what iffing and stuff like that.

I compensate. One of my strengths is that I am good at sequences and learn the katas pretty fast when they are being taught to me. (our sensei has us do Meikyo kata every class because as he put it, "something there for everyone". Im not being taught that kata, its something we're supposed to likefollow along. But when Im actually being TAUGHT a kata, I pick it up quickly the movements.

 

Ooh, I don't know meikyo, so you're a step ahead of me!

 

I'm a bit more Shotokanny than the Moosey??????????????????????? :wow:

 

Guess so. I'll post you my belt immediately!

 

Good enough

 

Hi Blade (waves back)

actually waving back at our range would need a very big telescope, I dont know if it is physically possible to live much furtheraway from Australia than you do.

It sounds a little like you are going through the imposter syndrome thing that dogs a lot of the stuff I do. It endlessly eats me and a bunch of my co-workers up as uni lecturers. And in music it is all over the place, most of the folks I play with have been hit by it at least a few times. Sometimes the sheer act of will that it can take to convince yourself that you are in fact ok, or heaven forbid, even actually good at something can be immense.
It sounds like you have a good dojo and good teachers, all will be well.

paul

 

Guess we will have to settle for forum waving then

Thanks Yes I have a good dojo andteachers, they are adorable

Moosey, I'm waiting for that belt

 

Interesting story there. Turns out that my belt it so loaded with chi that anyone else who touches it bursts into flames. You wouldn't believe how many postmen I got through trying to send you it.

 

Those fire fighters had their work cut out for them.