I can't seem to keep my clothes on!

Glad you find all of us entertaining.

*Sigh*... U nfortunately i know too well the problems with keeping a gi on!!
When i did my fifth Kyu GRADING last year I had the lovely surprise of my pants tie coming undone and my pants slowly heading towards my ankles in a particularly crucial part of the grading. As i was the only person grading, i happened to have the attention of the whole dojo.
I statred thinking.."hmmm.. i am sure my pants are falling down.
1 Can anyone else tell?
2 Do i fail if i stop in the middle of my grading to tie them up?
3 Do i continue and show uninterupted mind?
4 Do i fail cause i can't tie up my pants properly?
5 Am i wearing decent undies?
6 Am i wearing any undies at all?
7 Can i sstop myself bursting out laughing right now?"
So many dilema's over a piece of string..

At my RECENT 2nd kyu GRADING i had the pleasure of expeiriancing my gi jacket (with modesty ties) flying open as my belt decided to literally fall off. Thank goodness for the black singlet i had on underneath ( which i tuck firmly into my undies b.t.w.)

Our senior instructor (female) came up to me after that and asked "Do you have to take off your clothes every time you grade?" *sigh*

So, i am gonna try that 'other way' of tying my belt, get a hakama, try velcro and now possibly SUPER GLUE! Because i too am sick of my clothes falling off!

I've learned tonnes from this thread...

Also think most pants will sag a bit after lots of vigorous ukemi... it might help to make sure the pants end above the ankles before practice
(either by alteration or lots of trips to the dryer )

... so a bit of sagging won't trip your feet

Sandy Tisdall-Tait wrote: I statred thinking.."hmmm.. i am sure my pants are falling down. 1 Can anyone else tell? 2 Do i fail if i stop in the middle of my grading to tie them up? 3 Do i continue and show uninterupted mind? 4 Do i fail cause i can't tie up my pants properly? 5 Am i wearing decent undies? 6 Am i wearing any undies at all? 7 Can i sstop myself bursting out laughing right now?"

That made me LAUGH!! I have had those thoughts exactly. I'm of the "no undies camp unless its a special date." I used to (well I still do but not so much) ride bicycles. You don't wear undies under bike pants. EVER. But my pants don't fall down usually so its not a problem. Still, in my dresser, I now have my special "Aikido drawer". That keeps my gi, my tank tops, sport panties, and my sports bras that I used for Aikido so I never have to wonder if I am dressed under my gi and am not wearing holey or too sexy underwear in case my pants do fall down.

I am getting paranoid lately that you can see what color my underwear is through my gi. I haven't checked because I keep forgetting- it only crosses my mind when I am being taken down in a strange position. I've also thought about finding adult Wonder Woman underoos lately just because it would be funny IF my pants DID come down. We'd all be truly laughing together, and I could forget how mortified I am!

Victoria Pitt wrote: I am getting paranoid lately that you can see what color my underwear is through my gi. I haven't checked because I keep forgetting- it only crosses my mind when I am being taken down in a strange position.

I actually have this problem. My husband and I have gi's from the exact same supplier, but for some strang reason my gi pants are quite thin and his are normal. I actually have to "test drive" underwear before I deam them dojo worthy. The last time I went shopping at Victorias Secret I thought "Will this show through my gi pants?"

I can only get away with light pink, nude and off white. I absolutely hate not wearing whatever underwear I happen to have on. I always get slightly jealous when I see another girl changing in the dressing room and she has on these dark plum underwear! I wanna wear dark plum underwear too............

Ashley Carter wrote: ..."Will this show through my gi pants?"

That's really funny. I was going to post about that today on the "You Might Be An Aikido Addict If" discussion. There are no classes today, so I'm wearing one of those Colors We Can't Wear Under a Gi. My underwear drawer is divided into two areas - Gi-Safe, and Other.

I've also thought about finding adult Wonder Woman underoos lately just because it would be funny IF my pants DID come down. We'd all be truly laughing together, and I could forget how mortified I am!

ROTFL!!!! That almost made me choke. What a great plan!

Yeah Linda that would definitely come under YMBAAAI

Ashley Carter wrote: I actually have this problem. My husband and I have gi's from the exact same supplier, but for some strang reason my gi pants are quite thin and his are normal

We do that on purpose!

haha ... this thread is very entertaining ... cause i do most of those things. Since day one at the dojo I have always chosen undies very carefully so as not to show through my gi pants AND so as to not ride in places I'd rather they not be ... doesn't feel good to have undies BETWEEN you bum instead of supporting your derriere .... and then you continue to train and all you can think of is "I have to get these things out of my butt soon or i am gonna freak" ... I must add here that I do not wear any panties whose purpose is to remain between my bum cheeks ... I go for comfort and cute soooooo, here is the second part of my experience. I recently (about 2 months ago) went to the dojo and got changed only to realize that I forgot to take spare "aikido" undies. All I had on was little pink low rise "boy cut" style undies completely adorned with little monkeys ... I was like "holy shit ... this is gonna show BIG TIME!!!" ... haha ... I am the only girl in my dojo and ofcourse the guys noticed ... I was like "whatever ... I forgot my aikido undies" ... we kinda laughed it off ... but they could definately tell there were little monkeys on my undies ... oh goodness ... only me!! LOL

Oh, I would be hella embarassed if that happened to me! I just know I would get a comment from a few people in the dojo. HAHA.

Chantal Amyotte wrote: I recently (about 2 months ago) went to the dojo and got changed only to realize that I forgot to take spare "aikido" undies. All I had on was little pink low rise "boy cut" style undies completely adorned with little monkeys ... I was like "holy shit ... this is gonna show BIG TIME!!!" ... haha ... I am the only girl in my dojo and ofcourse the guys noticed ...

OMG. You win. Actually LOLing over that. Pink, with Monkeys! Perfect.

LOL!!!! Oh jeez - none of this has ever happened to me. I wear plain white cotton undies and a white sports bra; my elastic waist pants stay up and my modesty tied top stays tied unless we are doing a lot of lapel grabs - but then sports bra covers pretty well... of course, at my age any exposure would probably just be an alarming atemi ; ;-)

Linda Eskin wrote: "You Might Be An Aikido Addict If" There are no classes today, so I'm wearing one of those Colors We Can't Wear Under a Gi.

LOL.. that's bewdifal.. and so appropriate.. Being an Aikido Addict myself and having the 'Special' undies section in my drawer I can really relate to that.

There is no question about it. Learning about Aikido appropriate underwear is a long, hazardous and often embarrasing path. How many times do you have to make the mistake of wearing the ones that slowly fall down, ride up, glow through your pants, twist around or generally get themselves tied in a knot while you are leaping about the mat? It's so nice to know I am not alone.

I've tied my belt every possible way and it always falls off. Always. It's to the point where in bjj or judo I simply stop putting it back on and just kick it off the mat ( note, most judo/aikido teachers get very angry at this, so it's probably a bad idea ).

As for my pants, I put them on, then I warm up. Usually this will cause the cotton to stretch out a bit. Then I untie them, pull the draw strings tighter, and retie it. This will usually last for the whole class.

My experience is similar to Don's with the belt, but I can recall only few times where the pants have come loose.
As a previous poster has mentioned - pull the drawstrings out sideways until the pants are TIGHT. Put the drawstring through one of loops in front to keep them from riding around. In judo I tied the know with the loop inside the bow, in aikido the knot is off to the side - I don't notice a difference. Tie a bow - make sure the strings are drawn tight enough so that at the end of practice it takes a while for the skin to recover its "strapless" look...
The hakama helps with keeping the belt on, but whenever I'm doing anything without the hakama, any belt I've ever worn - old, new, judo, aikido - works loose.
W

LOL monkeys...

Your post reminds me of my high school days. For some reason the girls in my school were fond of wearing bras that had these little designs on them like polka dots or little flowers. How did I know this? Because the school uniform for girls consisted (and still does) of a blue pleated skirt and a white blouse - a very thin white blouse. Sometimes I'd tease them, "ooooh, nice flowers" and they'd laugh along with me. Never seen any of them wearing monkey panties though. Then again, i never really tried looking.

Chantal Amyotte wrote: but they could definately tell there were little monkeys on my undies ... oh goodness ... only me!! LOL

Ashley Carter wrote: Glad you find all of us entertaining.

Not only entertaining, but also mentally stimulating. The thought of having special Aikido underwear never crossed my mind until I read this thread. You learn something new every day...

Have you tried duct tape? It comes in pretty colors.



dps

Well, if you think about it, e-bogu and the other martial arts stores could find another revenue to make money: Official Aikido Panties to wear under your gi- Guaranteed to be invisible, wick away sweat, and give +1 to skill.

I *might* actually buy them, esp. as that I have a rank test coming up and can use all the help I can get.

Great... now I'm going to be worried the whole time I test that my pants are going to fall down and that hadn't occurred to me until this moment. Great. Just great. =/

I know nike has some great sports underwear. I have their compression shorts and their normal boyshort underwear (wear them under my tennis dresses). Very breathable and they do come in white. I imagine they would work nicely for the white gi's. Mine isn't bleached though, so plain white would be blazing through my gi pants. You could always give those a shot! As for your pants during testing... hmm... you could always go with David's idea of duct tape! Use a pretty color though.

A quick question about your drawstrings, do they have knots at the end? If not, try tying knots at the end of each string. Maybe that will help.

Robert M Watson Jr wrote: Recently I've been going a bit higher on the belly and a bit tighter with the gi pants tie - the extra pressure from the belly really keeps the knot tight. I switched to this method of knotting the belt ~2 years ago and never had the belt come untied since. My gi jacket does tend to ride up a bit more with this type of knot compared to before when using a square knot. With a hakama the jacket rides up less but I still notice it a bit and adjust as needed.

This works great! I have been standing here in front of the computer tying and re-tying my belt, but I finally got it! It's good for crisp new belts!

Thanks!

Because I am paranoid, I did a check just now in full daylight. I know that you CANNOT see what color underwear is under gi pants from e-bogu. That doesn't mean that you cannot see a pattern. I can't test that theory as that I don't wear patterned underwear unless its lace, and lace would be much too uncomfortable for training in. So this means I cannot officially speak for monkey underwear.

I am happy because I DO NOT wear white underwear. EVER. It feels wrong to me somehow.

I will pretend when I take my test that it is fashion night and use the double sided tape that holds uh... "assets" in check to hold my pants up!

With regards to the pants staying up..... make sure you tie up pretty tightly....the tuck the tails of the tie INTO AND BEHIND ITSELF...ie down into the inside of the pants......I have NEVER had my pants come loose like that...
as for the belt (Obi) ensure you have tied it .... left over right.... then right over left......make sure you pull it tight... if it comes loose then tuck the tails into and under the the belt itself..... there is nothing that says you HAVE to have the tails hanging down.....

regards
Andrew

Victoria Pitt wrote: I will pretend when I take my test that it is fashion night and use the double sided tape that holds uh... "assets" in check to hold my pants up!

Have it video taped and share it with us on Aikiweb.

David

Just had to stop in and report... Garth was right.. Hakima really does keep everything in place. Wore one for the first time tonight. First time ever I didn't have to stop and adjust a thing during an entire class.