Work on the Karate techniques that you need to improve

I know this sounds really simple when I say work on the Karate techniques that you need to improve but I know that I often fall into the trap of only working on what I am good at and giving only the minimum time and effort to improve what I am not good at. Since I started learning Karate back in 2004, I realized that there were some techniques that I excelled at and other techniques that I am really bad at. For example, I quickly learned that my left hand jab is one of my cleanest and most effective techniques when sparring but using a side thrust kick or a roundhouse kick always gets me hit. Needless to say, over nine years later, my left hand jab has gotten even better but my kicks are still, maybe, a level above 5th Kyu. I tried to do the kicks but …

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A kata a day makes Karate good

I have something that I want to share with you that I know will help your Karate over the next 12 months or less. In late 2011, I set a goal to do at least one Karate kata (and one Iaido kata, the other art I am studying) every day going forward. My thoughts are that every day I do not train is a day that I cannot get back. That training time is lost and I do not like to lose things. I also felt that doing the kata would improve at the very least my mind but also just moving would improve my body. From that time until the first day of 2013 I missed doing kata on six days. I did that one kata almost any time during the day. I could have been 6 pm, midnight just before going to sleep, 4 am or any other …

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Do not leave a Black Belt standing.

One of the rules of Karate etiquette, in the club I belong to, is never leave a black belt standing without a partner when you are told to get a partner. This is extremely disrespectful to the black belt and to the Sensei teaching the class. Even if you are brown belt or below and you already have a partner who is brown belt or below you need to make sure that the black belt without one has a partner. This means you might have to leave your partner to go with the black belt but it will certainly show that you respect the higher rank student and maybe keep the entire class from doing many push ups.