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Greatly appreciate what it took for you to amass all of that information, Patrick. Thank you for posting and sharing, Patrick.

GO KNIGHTS!!

Yes, I do. I won't be using them because I wanted them for a collection piece; they set in one of our hutches.

It’s not testing anxiety, but recently I get the same sense of dread before a record attempt (with a barbell) as I do before a fight.

Follow every thread tied to our 25th birthday celebration in one central spot: https://karateforums.com/topic/52570-kf-25-follow-the-karateforumscom-25th-birthday-celebration/

Hey all, As we continue our month-long celebration of the 25th birthday of KarateForums.com, I wanted to provide a central place where all of the announcements, articles, interviews, and retrospectives can be found, in addition to the threads you can participate in. This is that place! We'll keep it updated throughout our celebration. Announcement Celebrating 25 Years of KarateForums.com Participate 25th Birthday Check-in Answer Our Member Interview Questions Member Interviews aurik JazzKicker KarateKen Wado Heretic Wastelander Articles Whether You've Been at KarateForums.com 20 Minutes or 20 Years, You've Had an Impact by bushido_man96 Retrospectives KarateForums.com Awards Retrospective: 24 Years of Award Once our celebration is complete, this thread will serve as an archive where we can continue to look back in the future! Thanks, Patrick

Yes, I've had to deal with performance anxiety, not so much with martial arts, but with music performance. More specifically, playing trumpet at a jazz jam. A jazz jam is a perfect storm for it. No rehearsal, you don't even know which tune you might play until you all agree on one everybody knows, and you may also be playing with people you haven't before- and if they're really good, it's intimidating, too. I did a lot of research and soul searching to figure out how to overcome it, and while it took many months, I've made progress. Performance, a test, is a challenge, right? It puts you on the spot. If you feel under-prepared for the challenge, if the environment is unfamiliar, distracting, these factors can induce anxiety as a real physical symptom. You may not even have negative thoughts or fear of failure- but your brain short-circuits, your muscles tense up, etc. You can do positive self-talk, breathing exercises, visualization. But the best cure is to get out there and do it, enough times that you get used to it.

Sport/competitive tournament karate is very much a double-edged sword. If it had not come into being, there would be far less people learning it or attracted as much interest. Eventually it likely would have been lost to time. This is also what has happened to almost all armed or unarmed systems of defense/fighting. Many of these have been completely replaced by a competitive version becoming a sport. In our times one would have a very difficult time finding anyone teaching or training savate(, any school of fencing or boxing with its original, non-sporting purpose.

I would be reticent to agree wholly with the logic that we can split front kicks into Snap or Thrust purely based on encountering kicks which do not fit either concept wholly. That does come from my understanding of thrust meaning to penetrate forward through the target though, so this could be a difference in lexicon. That said I would make the following arguments. Tsumasaki Geri, or a Stab Kick to use the current Kick-Boxing/MMA Meta, is a snap kick. In the sense that the foot is snapped out to make contact as quickly as possible to cause pain on impact. It is, traditionally, aimed up into the soft tissue of the body most easily struck from below. This is also why the snap motion is functional as it allows the scoop up and under and use at extremely close range. In my experience with the Shogen-Ryu (Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu) version the foot is also lifted back and under, rather than chambered forward, to minimise the space needed and maximise the eventual snap. Looking at the current Kick-Boxing/MMA approach as well, it is a snap kick too being used for speed of delivery versus the Teep/Front Thrust Kick for distance control or the traditional roundhouse for knockout potential and damage. In my experience, the use of the ball of the foot for a front kick appears to be a Shotokai-Ryu/Japanese Mainland Karate innovation. And although, on the surface, it snaps up the actual motion is to thrust through with the ball of the foot leading. Otherwise, you will hit with your toes or heel or miss entirely. Thus, on the surface the technique is snapped, some what like the Teep uses a lift of the foot to get the heel in line with the target, the snap up is to get the ball of the foot on target when connecting. As a result, it moves like a snap kick but is delivered with a thrust of the hip going forward to push through the target. Thus, I would argue it does not truly fit either descriptor entirely. I had mixed guidance in Okinawa to be wholly honest. I was first introduced to Kobayashi-Ryu Kodokan by my instructors that had ventured to Okinawa and brought back what they learnt. I then had the chance to train with Arakaki Sensei when he visited the United Kingdom, and I also went to Okinawa and studied with him directly. During those experiences I was directed to try and land the kick with the heel, so it is a definite snap of the leg up to get the arc to hit with the heel first. Also, you lead with the hip, so the twist of the hip is used as much to get the leg into the air as it is to follow through to deliver power. The guidance was always to chamber the knee above the waist, and to aim the knee at the final target before releasing the kick. The second time I trained with Arakaki Sensei himself, he was already quite ill, and we spent most of my time there on my fundamentals and Naihanchi Kata. He himself tended to kick low (Except during a demo), but recommended practicing kicking high to develop power and flexibility. Point being, I did not spend significant time on kicking with him to be certain I have been handed down the proper guidance. Furthermore, my instructors who trained him were themselves passed their days of high kicking, or were more focused on understanding the principles and getting the kata correct than kicking. That said, watching what footage of him there is of him doing Sochin he kicks with the heel, and footage of Sempai who spent more time with him also use the heel, so that is what I have settled on. Either way, a snap front kick. On my second journey I had the opportunity to do classes with several styles but eventually settled on a Kobayashi-Ryu Dojo for my second week when I got tired to the tour group. The dojo I settled at, run by Uema Sensei, taught to kick with the toes with a swift snap motion thus different to how I was shown or directed previously. But it was a different line down from Chosin Chibana. One Matsubayashi-Ryu Sensei I studied with, and I am inclined to say it was a Shinzato Sensei, taught kicks I felt were relatively modern in execution. A lot of driving the hip, hitting with the ball of the foot with front kick, and the inside of the foot for round house kick. With regards to Shogen-Ryu and Goju-Ryu I also found some that advocated the heel or the toes but always a snap kick. There did not appear to be a consensus. The only consistent one was Shorinji-Ryu where each teacher advocated to connect with the heel. Not unlike Shorinji Kempo to be fair. Overall, the theme seemed to be to get force up and into the body, thus the more subtle use of the hip. Controlling distance or doing damage through thrusting seemed to be the domain of Sokuto Geri or punching. I have only visited Okinawa twice for a total of six weeks and only trained with Arakaki Sensei for a fortnight when he visited the UK. Much of my knowledge comes from training with others with more time there than myself or relying on public materials.

That is groovy. Do you like em?

The Carolina Hurricanes finish off the Candianos in game five 6-1, outscoring Montreal 10-2 in the final two games. They will face the Golden Knights in the Finals. Here is the schedule for the finals: Game 1: Tuesday June 2 in Carolina (fun fact: June 2 is also the birthday of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman) Game 2: Thursday June 4 in Carolina Game 3: Saturday June 6 in Vegas Game 4: Tuesday June 9 in Vegas Game 5: Thursday June 11 in Carolina Game 6: Sunday June 14 in Vegas Game 7: Wednesday June 17 in Carolina All games are at 8pm eastern time and can be watched on ABC. You can also stream them on Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, and, I believe, ESPN+. Games 5.6. and 7, are if necessary, as always. The final battle for the 2026 Stanley Cup winner is set.

Hey guys, one of my friends is moving to Lexington, KY and is looking for a BJJ or Judo school to train at. I wanted to extend this to you guys and ask if anyone knew of any good BJJ or Judo schools in Lexington. Thanks!

Hey all, As we celebrate 25 years of KarateForums.com, I thought it might be fun to take a look back at the KarateForums.com Awards, our yearly awards program where members honor their fellow members, through a carefully-considered series of nominations and votes. It's a beautiful and probably my favorite time of year here. Beginning in 2002, we've held the award series 24 times, with our 25th edition coming this October. By the Numbers Iterations: 24 Unique Categories: 14 Current Categories: 7 Total Awards Offered: 183 Total Votes: 2,534 Total Awards Won: 211 (more than 183 due to ties) Members Who Have Won: 69 Members Who Have Been Nominated: 169 Categories Our current categories, how many times they have been awarded, how many different members have won the award, and who has been honored in those categories the most (if there is an honoree that has received it at least twice): Member of the Year: Offered 24 times and won 29 times by 23 different members; most by @Spartacus Maximus, @sensei8, and @Zaine with 3 Community Spirit Award: Offered 22 times and won 24 times by 8 different members; most by @bushido_man96 and @sensei8 with 9 Staff Member of the Year: Offered 24 times and won 29 times by 13 different members; most by @bushido_man96 with 9 Funniest Member of the Year: Offered 24 times and won 31 times by 22 different members; most by @MasterPain with 4 Karate Contributor of the Year: Offered 13 times and won 15 times by 8 different members; most by @sensei8 and @Wastelander with 3 Health and Fitness Contributor of the Year: Offered 13 times and won 17 times by 8 different members; most by @bushido_man96 with 7 Instructors and School Owners Contributor of the Year: Offered 13 times and won 15 times by 6 different members; most by @sensei8 with 6 We have retired the following categories: New Member of the Year: Offered 16 times and won 17 times by 17 different members Equipment Contributor of the Year: Offered 6 times and won 6 times by 5 different members; most by @JR 137 with 2 Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling Martial Arts Contributor of the Year: Offered 5 times and won 5 times by 1 member; all by @tallgeese with 5 Article of the Year: Offered 14 times and won 15 times by 11 different members; most by @tallgeese with 3 Korean Martial Arts Contributor of the Year: Offered 2 times and won 2 times by 1 member; all by @DWx with 2 Thread of the Year: Offered 3 times and won 3 times by 3 different members Funniest Thread of the Year: Offered 3 times and won 3 times by 3 different members Top 10 Members by Number of KarateForums.com Awards Wins 1. @sensei8, 28 wins 2. @bushido_man96, 27 3. @tallgeese, 15 4. @DWx, 12 5. @Wastelander, 11 6. @JR 137, 8 7. @Spartacus Maximus, 6 8t. @DarthPenguin, 5 8t. @Zaine, 5 8t. @MasterPain, 5 Top 10 Members by Number of KarateForums.com Awards Nominations 1. @bushido_man96, 68 nominations 2. @sensei8, 54 3. @DWx, 32 4t. @Wastelander, 24 4t. @tallgeese, 24 6. @Spartacus Maximus, 22 7. @JR 137, 21 8. @Zaine, 14 9t. @aurik, 13 9t. @Nidan Melbourne, 13 For a full list of all previous nominations, nominees, and winners, please see our awards page. Special Thanks One final note: The KarateForums.com Awards would not be fun without the members who take the time to nominate and vote. It's your nominations that lead to our ballots, and it's your votes that determine the winners. Some of the people who participate in this way are never nominated for our award themselves. The entries that are submitted during the nominations period are the backbone of these awards. When you nominate, you convey to a fellow member a special honor. If you have ever been nominated, that means that another member, when faced with a blank screen and asked to think of a name, thought of you first. That really speaks to how they value the contributions that you have made to this community. Thank you to everyone who has played this role.

I used to experience testing anxiety long, long time ago. Testing Cycles take care of themselves; one will either pass or fail. Why make things worse by worrying I learned that the more I worried about the test, the more anxiety I experienced, which lead to my failing said test.

Running in the pool is one of my most favorite training to strengthen my legs because the water offers quite a lot of resistance. Running in the shallow water of a beach can offer even more resistance than the swimming pool because that water is alive.

In a forward manner, ball of foot, heel, or top of foot. All can be snapped or thrusted. Ball of foot for the front snap kick, lead or back foot. Heel, for the most, is used in a thrusted manner at its target. Top of foot, for the most, to the groin. This is true for most MA, and I'd not be surprised if it's for all MA; one can never be absolute because no one has seen every MA style.

Thursday 05/28/2026 Rest day, I did not train. Breakfast - Nothing Lunch - Buffalo Chicken salad and two string cheese. Dinner - Three Birria Tacos Snack - Pistachios

From my understanding and discussions with different karate instructors, except for a few of the most traditional Okinawan schools; the front kick either snaps or thrust. The difference is from the ankle down. The ´weapon’ is either ball-of-foot, toes or the top part of the foot. Perhaps someone can shed some light on this, but Okinawan styles appear to have less obvious, more subtle hip action in their kicking than Shotokan or even TKD(heavily influenced by Shotokan), for instance.

“Monogoto ni suki konomu koto nashi (In all things have no preference)” – Dokkodo, Miyamoto Musashi It is a long time since I sparred for my own benefit. In the sense that I have not sparred to “win” in a while. We are all on the older side, and spread quite far and wide, in the association I belong to so when we get together sparring is far from our priorities. it is more to focus on refining the fundamentals, as it is easy to let bad habits form when you are not regularly scrutinised by your seniors, and learn new Kata and explore application idea. Thus, all my sparring is with my students who are much junior to myself, and my goal is to help them improve. The core of what I do when we spar is Sen Sen No Sen. Most use Sen Sen No Sen to mean the ability to anticipate and pre-empt an opponent’s action. However, in truth, if one studies the Kata of traditional Nippon Bujutsu, what is at play is guiding your foe towards what you want them to do. This can be seen in the Kumigata of Wado-Ryu and Kumitachi of Kendo to give more accessible, modern examples. With regards to free-sparring or fighting, Bas Rutten talks about this a lot where he works to put into his opponent’s minds an expectation which he then defies when the opportunity presents. For example, throwing low kick after low kick until the opponent starts to flinch in response to the sign of a low kick, and then throwing a high kick over the flinch response to guard low. To apply this to sparring, when I spar my students, I build my tactics and choice of techniques around two questions: 1. What are their bugbears and bad habits? 2. What are their strengths and best techniques? I try to do things which punish their bad habits in a manner that helps them correct them. And I also give them plenty of opportunities to use their strong points, so I am helping them gain confidence. In this approach it is important to consider a student’s level and confidence coming into the spar. A very confident student I may balance my approach to 80% punishment and 20% giving them opportunities to work their techniques. Someone who has little experience sparring before I might invert that entirely and only focus on punishing mistakes that would get them hurt in a competitive bout and otherwise let them practice landing their strikes or making their techniques work. Thus, I try to have no character to my sparring style beyond what my students need at the time. And so it is all sen sen no sen: my aspiration is to make them do what I want to make them better fighters. Which might be tactical, or I might go into it with a strategy based on what I know they need to work on. In terms of types of sparring, I use most of the time it is two forms of isolation sparring: 1. Kakei-Kumite 2. Renzoku Kumite Kakei-Kumite may be best understood as varieties of Sticking Hands/Pushing Hands. I tend to think of them as gamifications of various positions you can end up in during close quarter fighting. Single hand representing a single wrist grab or when your opponent has moved offline relative to you. Double hand representing a double wrist grab or even an attempt at a lapel or throat hold. Collar and Elbow, and backhold representing being caught in a clinch. And so do and so forth. I use them to isolate and practice grab releases and guard passes found in our Rolling Bunkai (We have association wide standard applications for the pinangata), against active and evolving resistance. Once students are confident in the gamified, back and forth, we then move onto versions where one starts in the actual, disadvantaged position the game reflects, and have to learn how to fight out of it. Also, I have introduced Kakedameshi, as mentioned by Wastelander and I highly recommend looking at his material on it, to my more advanced students. I use it as a means to explore applications from kata for which we do not have a set curriculum. Sometimes I also add Sumo rules to encourage active attempts to knock down or push the training partner because I often see a lot of positivity. For more advanced students I also allow them to continue on the ground, though the goal is to be the first to get back to their feet rather than focus on pinning or locking techniques. Renzoku-Kumite can have many meanings because Renzoku is largely translated as Continuous. The version I use in the dojo is a type of continuous, free-moving, isolation sparring. As in kakei kumite, for students, there are five rule sets each corresponding to a pinan kata. The attacker can only use the attacks practiced against in the Rolling Bunkai, and the defender is to try and use the deflections and receiving techniques from the kata and return with the practiced application. Depending on the students level, the attacks either come in the rehearsed order and as done in the basic exercise, or the attacker chooses an attack and may perform a variation on the foot work as long as the angle remains the same. I have other rules I apply as well when I want to get students working on a particular weakness or strength. We sometimes do light-sparring under what I would call free-style boxing rules when I want people to work on their hand techniques. In that if it is done with a closed fist, I consider it legal, and I allow some limited arm control and fighting in the clinch. Though if people are grabbing more than punching, I will pull it back to classical boxing. Coming up to and during gradings, or when I feel it is time for people to learn to spar, we do classic Sundome Jiyu-Kumite. With regards to ground work, we occasionally do a kind of isolation sparring where we start on the ground from different control positions, and the goal is for the one in the control position to work towards a finish, and the one at a disadvantage to escape the situation. For full-contact free-sparring I use Bogu Kumite under Nippon Kempo rules. This I usually reserve for my more advanced students coming up to grading for brown belt or black belt level. Stikes are to anywhere on the body, bar the usual banned targets, and takedowns and fighting on the ground are allowed. I allow controlled striking to a downed opponent, but it has to be to somewhere armoured, and from knee control, standing, or mount, to a maximum of five seconds. The only locks expressly banned are knee bars and neck and spinal cranks, but I tend to encourage my students to stay away from injurious techniques anyway, and when caught to tap before risk of injury. I am hesitant to offer my own selection of toys and tricks, but that is probably the old cynical competitor in me creeping out. One I find useful as a teaching tool is a reverse ridge hand swung up to head height from low. It is good for reminding a student to keep their hands up, because it can come very quickly from a blind spot and has more reach than a conventional hook. I used to use it in competition a lot too. I would throw a lot of straight techniques and get them used to watching my front hand and back foot for a jab or front kick. Then I would throw the ridge hand, let them see it at the last second, apply the Stockton slap to keep the guard high, and then come under it with a front round house or reverse punch. In terms of grappling, a tool I use with students is to brute force my way to controlling a limb or the trunk, make it obvious what I am trying to do, and the moment they fight that slip to another control position or path to a submission or takedown attempt. A hip toss to a body-lock take down is a favourite combination of mine. Mostly because they try to dance around my getting my hip in, which just lets me slip to the back. Anyway, those a couple of things I use as coaching tools.

Thank you for the the kind remarks. It was an honour and a pleasure to be asked to take part. To many more years of Karate Forums

I definitely get anxiety when performing in front of people, when I competed I would also get super nervous and it would affect my performance. For my Shodan, I had to read an essay about what Karate meant to me in front of everyone testing and I was sweating bullets. I think the biggest thing to remember is that no matter what happens, you just have to do your best and be confident.

I agree, I really try to focus on real world application, especially with Kobudo. I know that I’ll likely never use Kobudo like I could use my Karate, but I still think the application should be as real as possible.

I've got a copy. It seems decent but is also a little old fashioned; could do with a few more pictures. I have tried to follow the principles a few times but not really noticed any difference tbh. Though the issue is likely with my performance of the requirements. It feels to me that it could do with a more up to date version with more detail etc