Martial Arts

lizagna, you said:

I always wanted to try martial arts but I'm scared to feel stupid if I end up in a class where everyone knows what to do and I know nothing. Sounds really stupid but its kept me from trying it.

Do they have classes for adult beginners?

I started just taking my kids to our class. But it brought back my passion from when I was younger and would copy the moves I would see in movies. But yes they do have begginers that are adults. I started off at 36 and very close to 400 pounds. I am the oldest in our class. But I had watched them and the class fit well with my family. Check around your area at the diffrent choices. Some will not be right for you but hopefully you could find sone that is. Most places will allow a visit to either do one class for free or just watch it to see if it is the right one for you. Believe it or not the weight or age isn't my biggest problem. I am almost deaf in the speech range. So that is where I have most of my trouble (especially now) because my instructors have to act everything out for me. I had asked the owner specifically about taking on the challenge of training me with my many "challenges" and he was up for the job. Whwn I started I had to crawl to the side to use the wall for support to get up and down. Now I have very little trouble getting up. I am still slower than the others but progress is imprtant.


DaniNei, you said: I know what you mean, I don't want to be 15 years older than the kid next to me.

It really isn't a problem if you get the right class for you. They have beginners come in all the time. We had a new guy a few months ago who looked in pretty good shape that was there for a while. He was much younger than my years and a LOT smaller. But he was having a very hard time with flexability and was amazed that the fat woman, me, was able to almost touch my toes and he could barely get past his knees. He dropped as many males do after they learn that they are not going to come in and start sparring right away. Only one male has remained in class long enough to progress and he is now a brown belt. But is surrounded by us ladys ranging from 16 to 37.

Moogle It sounds like you have avery full schedule. Keep it up, it sounds great. By the way we have an 11 year old in the JR class that is a black/red belt. I figure he started about the age of 5.


kitty_cat023: Our school is a USTT specifically a Christian TaeKwonDo one. At the last tounament (my dd competed but I just watched. I could not yet fit into my dobak bottoms) Our ladies went up against a lady trained in jiujitsu and ours all had the chest protectors but she didn't and would grunt and groan at being kicked in the chest. Which is where you aim for the points. But afterwards one of our cometitors overheard her telling a friend that she had got the 1st place trophy because she knew if she left her chest guard in the car the opponents would not like kicking her chest unprotected. That was the reason for the exageratted grunts. If that is a common tactic that is trained in that branch I see why you prefer TKD. I am hoping that was just her personal tactic, not one she was taught. It is not very sportsmanlike. I hope you find a class for yourself that you enjoy before long. I LOVE mine and would hate to have to leave it. As far as how many calories are burned I found one free place on the web that I could put in my weight and type of activity as well as duration of it and it calculated up how many calories get burned. For my 1 hour I typed in ( I left out time for the sitting while others went) it said I would burn over 1600 calories a:noway: t my weight. I did the calculations for my 17 year old and she was mad because hers was much less calories burned. I told her that the heavier burns more because it uses more muscles just to move all that poundage. At 370 (at the time) that is a whole lot to have to manuver around. But she was saying there is no wonder she is always hungry after class.

chgudnitz: There were several factors in my chice of martial art. One big one was the area I live in des not have a lot of martial arts to choose from. I have noticed that within an hour drive there are several more studios popping up. Another factor was that my ds is homeschooled and really needed to get around kids. So when my dd came in from school after having talking to a girl in one of her classes and asking about taking the TKD class, I agreed to loo into it. I got the instructors email and asked him questions before we even went. I had to do that instead of just asking in person due to my hearing loss. We were invited to have a class to see if we would be interested. I was also told not to worry about my deafness, they have a blind blackbelt. So I knew after that and watching the one class it would be a good fit for my kids and I. The higher belts were messing up a bit on the forms and he never belittled, he just showed them step by step until they got past their block. If we had tried a diffrent place I am sure I would never have gotten to where I can do any of it. But this dojag the instuctors care about the students and even though there is the "one more" doing drills once we think we are done, it is where if we really are spent they say next time we need to do one more than this time untill we are caught up to the others.

When we started our drills for the yellow belt I am at now it involves ajump kick. For a while I was having to "fake" it. I was told to only do it if I was felling confident that I could without hurting my knees. As it is I have to have a wrap on one ankle and one wrist each class anyway. So they didn't want me to blow out my knee. But I'm sure you all know what I mean about this. But when you get presented with the challenge you just have to figure out a way to overcome it. So I was wrapping my knees at the first few times trying it. But I no longer need those wraps. And can get the kick almost hip high. WHich for such a size is a decent kick. It is cool to see our red and brown belts do the kick. Oh and I have even seen our blind black belt do it and hit the target with no problem.

Don't worry that I may have taken offence about the trophy remark. I knew exactly to what you were refering. I think I'm going to search up some about these other martial arts you all are into. Not that I want to change I don't. But I think the diffrent cultures and diciplines are neat to learn about.


djjustjohn: It is good you found one to start doing. As soon as you get going I think you will realize how much you really missed it. It looks like it was a part of your life for a long time. Have fun.