Hey guys!
This is going to be fairly long, I apologize beforehand. I've definitely got some questions to ask about Shotokan, but just as much I want to express my excitement. I'm 35, have been interested in martial arts for much of my adult life, but haven't had a great deal of success in finding good instruction in Karate. As a teenager I got a "black belt" in a shopping mall school, and basically forgot everything I learned as I went to college and became an adult. For a while I tried another school, and even signed a contract for a few months, where it soon became apparent that the teacher was an abusive jerk who routinely mocked a fellow student with brain damage from a car accident. I decided I could not continue attending there in good conscience, though I was stuck in the contract. When I moved to my current city I started at a boxing gym, which was awesome, did that for a year and a half, switched to Muay Thai, which was also awesome, but never really fell in love with it. Then, last week, I happened upon an SKA club just up the road from me. A little skeptical, I nonetheless went and watched a class. Then I came back and watched a second class taught by the school's senior instructor who is Godan. It was great. I really loved it. Afterwards we talked, the guy struck me as being very genuine and talented, and the terms of the dojo (no contract, reasonable pricing, etc.) was just what I wanted so I signed up.
Now I'm excited, but I do want to start off on the right foot. I've re-learned how to count to ten in Japanese, have begun doing basic stance stuff again just to get my legs used to it, and have been reading all I can find about Shotokan on the web. At some point I'll start purchasing Funakoshi's books. One thing I worry about though is general conditioning. From what I can tell the heavy component of conditioning present in boxing and Muay Thai is less emphasized in Karate so I expect to have to do it myself, and I'll presumably just do the regular jumping rope, body weight and dumbbell exercises, and other calisthenics that I'm already used to. Does this seem fair? Also, I know I'm going to have trouble adapting to the different philosophy of striking. I got so used to to regular boxing stance and boxing blocks that I'm going to have to re-learn every bit of that. Any tips? More importantly, what else can I do, given that I don't even know what I don't know, to best prepare myself to take full advantage of being a white belt beginner with no useful knowledge to speak of? Unfortunately, for at least a few weeks, I won't be able to make every single class each week due to work and personal obligations.
Anyway, thanks!
This is going to be fairly long, I apologize beforehand. I've definitely got some questions to ask about Shotokan, but just as much I want to express my excitement. I'm 35, have been interested in martial arts for much of my adult life, but haven't had a great deal of success in finding good instruction in Karate. As a teenager I got a "black belt" in a shopping mall school, and basically forgot everything I learned as I went to college and became an adult. For a while I tried another school, and even signed a contract for a few months, where it soon became apparent that the teacher was an abusive jerk who routinely mocked a fellow student with brain damage from a car accident. I decided I could not continue attending there in good conscience, though I was stuck in the contract. When I moved to my current city I started at a boxing gym, which was awesome, did that for a year and a half, switched to Muay Thai, which was also awesome, but never really fell in love with it. Then, last week, I happened upon an SKA club just up the road from me. A little skeptical, I nonetheless went and watched a class. Then I came back and watched a second class taught by the school's senior instructor who is Godan. It was great. I really loved it. Afterwards we talked, the guy struck me as being very genuine and talented, and the terms of the dojo (no contract, reasonable pricing, etc.) was just what I wanted so I signed up.
Now I'm excited, but I do want to start off on the right foot. I've re-learned how to count to ten in Japanese, have begun doing basic stance stuff again just to get my legs used to it, and have been reading all I can find about Shotokan on the web. At some point I'll start purchasing Funakoshi's books. One thing I worry about though is general conditioning. From what I can tell the heavy component of conditioning present in boxing and Muay Thai is less emphasized in Karate so I expect to have to do it myself, and I'll presumably just do the regular jumping rope, body weight and dumbbell exercises, and other calisthenics that I'm already used to. Does this seem fair? Also, I know I'm going to have trouble adapting to the different philosophy of striking. I got so used to to regular boxing stance and boxing blocks that I'm going to have to re-learn every bit of that. Any tips? More importantly, what else can I do, given that I don't even know what I don't know, to best prepare myself to take full advantage of being a white belt beginner with no useful knowledge to speak of? Unfortunately, for at least a few weeks, I won't be able to make every single class each week due to work and personal obligations.
Anyway, thanks!
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