Karate or Muay Thai? I have been conducting self-training since the pandemic lockdown in late-March 2020. That is when the Singaporean government announced an emergency lockdown for COVID-19, in which I returned to Taiwan in early May. Technically, I have finished my CAS requirement for activities, as the end of the second season was early…

Preparation For Grading As the Christmas holiday approaches, so does the December grading session. In my weekly Wednesday training sessions, Shihan has taught other blue-black belts and I the three sets of kata we need to know: Pinan Sono Ichi, Pinan Sono Ni and Pinan Sono San. Pinan Sono Ichi mainly focuses on arm defences,…

Grading Session As a higher-belt member, I had to wait for the lower-belt members to finish their grading sessions first; I warmed up outside the room and went through all my katas. When it was the blue-black belt’s turn, we gathered around and started doing the standard stretching exercises. Then, just as I thought we…

Gym Training & Diet With a good idea of what I need to work on and a few trial gym sessions, I can now build a workout routine of my own. I was able to find a decent youtube channel by Jeremey Ethier, a professional gym trainer, and learned numerous useful tips. I mainly focused…

Change of attitude After two years of participation in the Budokan Karate-Do Club, I noticed that I had made somewhat little improvements. When I was still in IGCSE, I followed orders from Shihan to train and learn new katas, but I didn’t think about how to make myself physically stronger; most of my external training…

How It All Started Martial arts is something that I have always been interested in. I started practicing taekwondo back in first grade while studying in a Taiwanese traditional school. As you might have expected, my parents encouraged me to do so because it would aid my understanding of self-protection. For me, though, it was…