LOL @ Butterflypalm

thankyou!

MiddleEarth is a few kms down the road from me, well bits of it are, - the Hobbiton part anyway. Other bits are a bit further south, but you're all welcome to come.

When are you all coming?? Just so I can be there...

I regret to announce that the meeting has been postponed because I've just being diagnosed as suffering from "poithiphobia" -- fear of pointy things. Prognosis is not encouraging.

I think I'm the baby here. Only 7 months! I suck, I know, but I love it. I can't imagine stopping! It is so awesome to meet these people who've been doing this longer than I've been alive! (I'm turning 18 tommorow) I love Karate. How did I ever live without it?

Perhaps I stand corrected.

Going down the List, I've discovered another phobia which have recently being the low point of my life due to my semi-retirement which reguires a drastic down-sizing of many hitherto taken for granted activities ---- Medomalacuphobia.

Please keep this to yourself.

I feel young and ignorant.

I did classical foil fencing, weekly, for a couple of years as a teenager. Couple of terms of tai chi weekly when I was 16 (v. badly taught).

Then as an undergrad at Keele, from '95 I trained more rigorously, (2hr twice a week), in the JKA Shotokan university club. Stopped owing to pressure of academic work after 18 months. It was a very good club and kind of spoiled me in terms of looking to restart. However, after about a decade, I am restarting the karate, I am hoping to make a long term habit of it this time.

This one's rather tricky, technically I have 7 years of experience, but I only consider 2-3 of them to have been of any use.

I believe I started in 1975 and that was on my own. I bought a book , Jet ken do and read and practiced. Then that year I met a guy in school that was a BB and he helped me with some training. In 1976 I moved and ended up just gravitating to guys that did MA. When we became friends I didn’t know they were in MA but it was meant to be. The styles were TDK and Shorin Ru. I worked out with my friends until I entered a formal class in collage in 1979 and that style was WTF TKD in Moorhead Minn. I only did that for a year and I joined the USAF and was sent off to the Philippines for 3 yrs. I practiced off and on for that time, but not to serious. Then I moved again and tried to find a good school in Austin TX. I moved again and started up again in 2002 and did ATA for a while and now am back to WTF. Lots of ups and downs in between but I always studied the arts.

Ive been involved in one art or another which puts me at 16 years. Amazingly small percentage there but only half way down the list. Interesting. Just one more thing to show me that I have a long way to go.

As a kid, i did 3 years of karate

As a teen, i did 3 years of boxing

I've now been doing jkd for 7 years

So 13 years in total, but it's only been in the last four or five that i started practicing every day, so i feel i've only really been a MAist for that long.