When You started What was

[masherdong]

Kenpo stances. Especially the neutral bow.

 

[Shodan]

When I first started Kenpo, I was 13- still had a lot of energy, flexibility from gymastics.......so really the hardest thing for me was remembering all the new technique names.

I still do Kenpo twice a week now......but have just started another new school on alternating days......also two days a week. I am now 32, have old Kenpo injuries against me, not as energetic as I used to be........and am in class with a bunch of teens!! So now the hard part is trying to keep up with the cardio. they do in this new class, trying to learn something new and not pop into my Kenpo stuff right in the middle of a new technique and remembering the new names for things.

Also, I wear a white belt for this new class and honestly, don't get a whole lot of respect from the teens.......like I do in Kenpo where I am a higher rank. Maybe it has nothing to do with rank, maybe they just don't respect new people......but that has really changed since I started Kenpo back when I was a teen......everyone was respectful, regardless of rank.

 

[Aikikitty]

Good thread!

My mom and I never had done any sports or anything martially related before we started Aikido. Learning how to roll was very hard for the both of us, especially for my mom who was 49 at the time, but it still took me 2 months just to do a summersault (sp?). I remember what was also really hard for me was just getting used to the contact and being so close to all the other students. Aikido is definitly an "up close and smell 'em" type of art and I had to get used to touching other people when I previously wasn't comfortable being hugged by friends, much less almost strangers. I'm still working on the fear of being hit. I flinch a lot!

Robyn :asian:

 

[DutchKenpo]

For me the hardest thing was, putting my fist from my hip to in front of me, using it as a check. I did Wado Ryu karate for a few years and then started EPAK, what a difference.

But also hitting women, was a hard thing to do, that changed when one of the women hit me in the groin with a ballkick, without wearing a cup.
Time for payback!
No seriously, i still find it though sometimes

grtz, Bob

 

[Gemini]

The other thing I found tough was getting over my own self conciousness of doing techniques in front of others, I always felt like such a dork

Yep. That was me. Very difficult. Now I make it a point to make the newbies as comfortable and relaxed as possible. To let them know we've all been through it. Seems to help.

 

[Laborn]

I didn't want to get nailed by one of the heavy hitters. I had a fear for along time of being hit, I hated it, well 9 years later, now it's almost like living a daily life, food, pain, sleep, lol.

 

[kenpo tiger]

Like Opal's mom, I was in my 40s when I started. Walking onto the mat with all those 20-somethings...

 

[Raewyn]

hardest part for me...finding a partner to practice with, it is the same today though, so it is still very hard...

I don't have a partner any more which makes it really hard to train as I had gotten so used to her we pretty much new each other and the way we trained. It is hard to find someone else to trust.

 

[terryl965]

The thing for me was not letting my father down. He was a rock when it came to training and I was scared and pretty much intemitated by him after the first couple of years it become how can I be him instead of how I can I be me, then by the time I hit16 i understood it was not to be him but it was about how I can over come myself, later in life I find me and the rest is history.

Terry

 

[Navarre]

Although I wasn't in great shape when I started, the physical conditioning wasn't unbearable. I did find myself to be very stiff and uncoordinated, partly because I wanted to do everything so "perfectly" that I impeded myself.

So, physically and mentally I suppose that's the answer. Once I started training for its own sake and not because I had to "succeed", everything came much faster and easier.