After a 4 hour and 16 minute grading, I passed and got my black belt in Shito-Ryu Shukokai karate

Ask me anything 😀

I’m 43 and have been learning Uechiryu for the last 6 months. I did Kanshu kata in the 35+ Novice division. I just wanted to thank everyone here that supported and encouraged me in my previous post. You guys are awesome!

Two-person demo from Shōrinji Kenpō.

Long time lurker, first post.

My kids were training in Shotokan for about a year and struggled to practice at home on their own. They were mostly going through the motions, not focused on Todome waza (finishing blows). I decided I’d join so I can learn and help out. This was last January.

We competed at the US Budo Karate National Championship last May and took home a few 3rd place medals 🏅 which definitely boosted their confidence.

The boys just earned their green belts, and I earned the blue. It’s been such a great experience training with them. We can’t wait to compete again this upcoming May.

The hardest thing at my age has to be flexibility. I spent most of last summer learning to stretch, working on hip flexors, and practicing roundhouse kicks. It’s definitely a work in progress but I physically feel the best I’ve ever felt.

If you’re on the fence about starting now, whatever your age is, don’t hesitate. It’s really changed my day to day life!

Osu! I got my 1st dan in Sentou Karate!

Before anyone asks, yes in our style it’s different. A normal blackbelt and 1st dan are a different rank. I had to do 16 katas and a couple of kumite for my 1st dan. To anyone curious about Sentou Karate it’s a full contact hybrid karate (like mma with gi). Easy search on google too!

Short story time: I started when I was 4 yrs old cause my dad trained me (he’s a 3rd dan shotokan blackbelt and a kyokushin blackbelt) and even though he’s the founder of our org, he didn’t make it easy on me just because i’m his son. It took me 20 years before I got my full fledged blackbelt 2 years ago (2024) and last month I just passed the test for my 1st dan. No shortcuts and no special treatment. Just wanna share my achievement!

I started in 2007, then stuff happened. Church service, marriage, school, kids , divorce, left the church, went bankrupt... Got fat... You know... Life stuff. I came back last February. This was the first belt exam I've ever done.

Did not expect the result.

A lot of things have been going right for me lately and I feel very humbled. I thought at a stretch that sensei might award me Orange, never expected this.

For the test he asked me what Kata I was going to perform, I didn't want to shy away from a challenge so I chose Nihanchi Shodan (tomarite version, not shorin) and then he asked me to show him Seiyunchin. Then just an arigato and went on with life.

I'm feeling grateful. Inknow it's just a colour, but I also know it's recognition of hard work. I'm happy.

Osu everyone.

Today we of the mod team bring you all an announcement that has nothing to do with our beloved martial art but that, unfortunately, has become necessary again after a hundred-something years.

The heart of the matter is: from today onward any and all links from X (formerly Twitter) have been banned from the subreddit. If any of you will find some interesting material of any kind on the site that you wish to cross-post on our subreddit, we encourage you instead to take a screenshot or download the source and post that instead.

As a mod team we are a bit bewildered that what we are posting is actually a political statement instead of simply a matter of decency but here we are: we all agree that any form of Fascism/Nazism are unacceptable and shouldn't exist in our age so we decided about this ban as a form of complete repudiation of Musk and his social media after his acts of the last day.

What happened during the assignment of Donald Trump as president of the U.S.A. is not simply unacceptable for the substance (which wouldn't have influenced our moderation plans, since we aren't a political subreddit), but for the form too. Symbols have as much power as substance, and so we believe that if the person considered the richest man in the world has the gall to repeatedly perform a Roman salute in front of the world, he's actually legitimizing this symbol and all the meaning it has for everyone who agrees with him.

Again, we strongly repudiate any for of Nazism and Fascism and Musk today is the face of something terribly sinister that could very well threaten much more than what many belive.

We apologise again to bring something so off-topic to the subreddit but we believe that we shouldn't stand idly and watch in front of so much potential for disaster, even if all we can do for now is something as small as change our rules.

As usual, we'll listen to everyone's feedback as we belive we are working only for the good of our subreddit.

So today marks a huge milestone in my training! I finally made Shodan today. I'm so proud, for some reason it hasn't sunk in yet.

To anyone who asks the question "am I too old to start karate?" The answer is no, I'm 41 years and started in my mid thirties.