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Hey all, It was on this day, 24 years ago, that we launched this community. Last year, at this time, I opened up public testing for a new version of KarateForums.com on modern software. We were still on our (very) old software that eventually would have led to this community breaking and simply ceasing to exist. After months of testing (between the staff and member testing periods) and years of testing behind the scenes that I had completed with @Chrispian, we migrated to our new platform over an intense 4 days culminating in an opening on September 9, 2024. Over 8 months later, it's clear to me that our combined efforts were a big success. Our slowly breaking platform is no longer breaking and, in fact, updates to the latest version of our software have been installed multiple times, helping to ensure our platform remains online and secure. All the work that @Chrispian and the folks at Invision Community did (along with my annoying insistence, ha) to ensure that passwords would work paid off. Whether you registered in 2001 or 2021, your password worked when our new site launched. It has all worked so well, and I'm grateful for your help and support. 24 years is such a long-time, and with it, there are so many people that have made a mark on this community over the years. I'd like to extend a thanks to all the members who made amazing contributions since our migration. This includes @ashworth, @aurik, @Bradlee, @bushido_man96, @Chuck, @crash, @DarthPenguin, @Drew, @Fat Cobra, @Himokiri Karate, @JazzKicker, @KarateKen, @Luther unleashed, @Montana, @Nidan Melbourne, @pandaGIRL, @Revario, @RJCKarate, @ryanryu, @sensei8, @Spartacus Maximus, @Wado Heretic, @Wastelander, @Wayofaswede, @Zaine, and others! Thank you! I celebrated today by uploading an avatar for the first time in several years, since I tried to change my old Yankees logo into something else and realized avatars were 100% broken on the old site! On that note, I'll continue to bring enhancements (mostly small, occasionally bigger than that) to this community, but the main thing I wanted to do was to get us on modern software that would be up-to-date, because that will naturally introduce new features over time, too! My ability to do things here always rests on the time I can squirrel away from chasing my toddler and other pursuits. Thank you to everyone who has made KarateForums.com a special place to be and, if you're reading this, that's probably you! This also means that next year will mark 25 years! Which is a massive milestone. Which means we now need to think about ideas to celebrate that! Please feel free to let me know if you have any. Thanks again, Patrick

After six pages of discussion, I think it is clear that the proposal is full of risks. Injury, cost, retaining students, ect, and furthermore is very limited in what it teaches the students. The risks are much higher than the reward. I encourage the OP to reconsider this proposal, if that has not been done already.

First of all, welcome to the forum! You sure are coming out swinging with this subject! What you are proposing is essentially pre-Queensbury bareknuckle boxing, with the slight modification of not allowing punches to the head instead of it simply being uncommon due to the danger of injury. That's fine, but it's not karate. The way I see it, Shotokan and Kyokushin both significantly diminished the effective curriculum of karate by focusing almost exclusively on kicking and punching in their sparring, to begin with. You are then proposing to take one of those arts and strip it down even more so that it is just punching the body. At that point, you're just doing bareknuckle boxing. Everything that makes it karate is gone. You essentially admit that you understand this when you point out that it isn't a style of karate, and that it can be slapped onto any curriculum. I am in no way trying to offend you when I say this, but it sounds, to me, as if you DON'T actually want to train in or teach karate. Nothing in your post suggests, to me, that you actually value the art, as it is. You just value full-contact fighting, and you don't like how people are doing it. I'm afraid I will have to contradict your position on protective gear and the value of body-only sparring, as well. The fact of the matter is that protective gear allows for more consistent sparring without injury, at all levels of contact, whether you like it or not, and sparring without punches to the head develops very bad habits that will carry over into every form of fighting you try to do. As others have already mentioned, you will also have a hard time dealing with insurance as a full-contact school that uses no protective gear. I just don't see enough value in this methodology to outweigh the issues, and I certainly don't see why it should be attached to karate, at all.

OH MY GOSH... I just realized that if you look closely at the URL of this thread: https://karateforums.com/topic/52125-24-years-of-karateforumscom/ "52125" 5/21/2025. Today! That is wild! That number is simply an accumulating number that counts upward with each new topic posted here. I can't even begin to fathom the odds of that happening, like having the exact number of threads/topics here over 24 years to lead up to the day we turn 24 where the number of this topic matches the day we turn 24.

CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE UPDATE: I saw my kidney doctor, Dr. Marwah Al-Khazaali, M.D., and she says that my last bloodwork shows that my numbers went down!! That means that I’m in between stage 3 and stage 2, which is great news!! My kidney doctor was very happy with my progress!! She wants to see me in 5 months!! She wants me to stay away from SALT!!!!! *NOTE: I’m sorry that I’m posting ALL of my different medical updates within my prostate cancer thread, and I know it might be quite confusing to follow, but I thought it might be best to post ALL of my medical updates here in this thread instead of starting new medical threads for each.

I have personally tossed around and dropped Kyokushin 1st, 2nd, and 5th Dans, while I was a 2st Dan, myself. These sorts of generalizations and style-vs-style claims don't hold up, and don't serve any real purpose.

You say "Always" but there is a flaw to your logic. Kyokushin in itself as a whole has their own specific rules when it comes to kumite in the dojo and for tournaments. In comparison to the "other" styles where they all often compete against one another with a unified ruleset. At tournaments here in Australia we have National All Styles (NAS); which all styles (including Kyokushin) compete under the same rules. And Kyokushin Fighters often are at a disadvantage when it comes to those bouts. Then we have Karate Australia; which operates under World Karate Federation (WKF) Rules. So no Kyokushin Dojos have joined or compete in those tournaments. So for your logic to work effectively; you would need fighters to fight on an even basis where the competitors can demonstrate their styles to their fullest. Which in my mind is close to the UFC. Now something I do when teaching, but with Adults with sufficient experience and their consent and forms signed stating that they didn't hold me, the club or the other participants liable for injury. Is to do rounds of sparring; but as close to realistic as possible so slaps, grabbing, pushing, shoving all that fun is ok. But to start our rounds we just bow to each other as a whole, and go. But we do also rounds with specific situations; but we don't give the "attackers" or "defenders" any guidelines on what to do. Just to either be a threat or stop the fight.

Thus far, you’ve received solid feedback to your OP question. Instead of providing more detailed information/explanatios to your enquirer, please allow me a more simplified answer… Whether a kata is or isn’t either “beginner” or “advanced”…one’s Governing Body makes that decision.

It sounds like your approach to the Pinans is the same as it was originally, for the youth. I agree with your assessment that if the applications can be found in other kata, then the redundancy just isn't necessary. I'm not a fan of curriculum for curriculum's sake.

Oh, it's definitely controversial. Some people get REALLY mad about it. My view, though, is similar to Yabu Kentsu, who said "if you have time to practice Pinan, practice Kusanku, instead," although there is also material from Passai and Chinto in the Pinan series. Basically, the Pinan kata were developed by Itosu for his school PE karate program, and while they do have valid and effective applications, almost all of those applications can be found in the older kata. Additionally, I've found that teaching the Pinan series and then teaching Kusanku, Passai, and Chinto actually makes it MORE difficult for students to learn the older kata, not less, as is often claimed. It takes a long time for them to be able to stop mixing up the kata, because there are such similar sequences. I don't have any issue with the concept of yakusoku kumite, but the way that most yakusoku kumite is designed is just bad. The distance is too large, the techniques are applied impractically, the attacks are unrealistic, etc.

My tried and true method: 1. Mix 1 part dish detergent (preferably clear, blue, green, or yellow. I worry about red "kool aid" looking stains from other colors) and 1 part peroxide. 2. Dip a toothbrush into the solution, and use the toothbrush to brush out as much of the stain as you can. 3. Put some baking soda on the wet area you just brushed, and rub it in with your finger. 4. Let it sit for an hour, clean the toothbrush. 5. Mix 1 part water and 1 part white vinegar. Also, have a separate cup of water and a cloth. 6. Dip the toothbrush into the vinegar solution and brush out the areas with the baking soda. You'll want to use the separate cup of water and a cloth to removed any baking soda from the bristles, as you don't want any baking soda to get into the vinegar solution. 7. Throw the gi into the washer. Every stain you can possibly imagine, I've removed with this method. Blood will take few washes after this to go away completely, but it still works.

I've been enjoying it immensely. It's can be hard to teach your children, especially at first. You're their parent, and kids have a hard time switching into that mode of learning rather than just being your child. Anyone with a child who was in school during lockdown can tell you this. However, it is very rewarding.

There are few things in martial arts practise that are as rewarding as the opportunity to share it with one’s own child. Generations ago it was much more common for parents skilled in something to actually pass it down and teach/train a son or daughter. The possibility of this is actually a great personal reason to keep practicing.

Been a while since I posted. So recent times, I got in to keto diets and surprisingly enough, its pretty darn good! Like I noticed use of carbs and fat is a moving target. If I carb up, I can go without carbs for few days and feel incredible if glycogen is full like having a dinner party but then I need to fill in my glycogen with carbs again. But I just noticed that this is a new dimension in to my karate training. Also I have been really working on my Himokiri Karate or should I say lots and lots of Nukite and I noticed its getting significantly better and actually training nukite really helps with accuracy in boxing and throwing punches straight down the pipe and the diet does help because you feel calm energy and I feel more of a relaxed/less excited and so I end up focused more on accuracy and laser focus strikes vs volume work. One important thing to mention is, I ease up on meat consumption. Still consume it but not in excess. I love to hear if any karateka has tried keto diets before? If so what did you eat? How did you feel? What did your karate turn in to?

My first student was my child. Unless you want a more philosophical answer, in which case I was my first student.

Key factors about Shindokan: 1) We never block an attack 2) We want to get behind our attackers 3) We want to be very close to our attacker 4) We don’t back up Today, I briefly want to address key factor #1: We never block an attack; we deflect said attack. Dai-Soke describes how we execute our Uke, deflection, in an interesting analysis. He says the Shindokan Deflection is similar to catching a football. A) Position Your Body Correctly!! Poor body position will greatly affect your effectiveness. Therefore, one’s focus should be towards improving your position. Your position should be facing directly towards your attacker. Why?? Shortest answer: Shortest path between two points is a straight line; anything else is unnecessary. B) Position Your Hands Correctly!! With your arms in front of you at a 45 degree angle network. Network for us means that your upper body and hands are in agreement. Whether you’re in a front facing, half-front facing, or side facing posture. In short, your position and hands should not be like you’re playing a game of Twister. C) Catch The Attack!! Hand usages are not arbitrary nor are they suggestions. Rather they’re directives towards to either accepting said deflection or seizing said attack. When deflecting, ones directing said attacking force where you want it to finish. Therefore you’re hands aide you to catch said attack. When thereafter, you seize the attack immediately either by with your hand(s) or your arm(s) or with your hand(s) and arm(s). Our strong desire is to not use our hands to seize said attack because a free hand is unlimited, while a engaged hand is limited; we hate to seize ourselves while we’re trying to seize said attacker. D) Tuck The Attack!! To control our attacker during a close range attack, we must tuck the attack like a football player would after they catch/receive the football. A football player doesn’t want that football to get away because if they do, either a incompletion or fumble will result. Well, once we deflect, we want to control, and to control we must tuck said attack into me, not away from me but making said attack a part of my body so my attacker doesn’t get away from me. All of those factors take minuscule amounts of time to execute. Our goal in any Uke for us is the setup that helps us to get behind our attacker. Shortly, I’ll briefly address key factor #2 about Shindokan: Getting Behind Our Attacker.

Here is an example of the wolf whistle. It got its name largely thanks to cartoons using the imagery of a wolf (sometimes having other cartoon animals morph into having wolf like features to do so) while whistling. I think it's less about wolf whistle being his biggest regret, and more about an acceptance of the past. I have things that are much larger and personal regrets than not knowing how to wolf whistle or roll my Rs. However, these regrets shaped me. Our regrets shape us all and it's up to us to find the positive lessons in those regrets. Regrets teach us about ourselves, they are the strongest way to understand who we are as a person. One of my biggest "regrets" was from when I was 14 years old and I became physically aggressive with my best friend's mom. The fallout of that taught me a lot about who I was, and how I wanted to shape myself going forward. If I could go back, I would change how I received that lesson, but I would not change what I learned. The situation actually brought me a lot closer to all involved parties after I got help with processing what it was that was going on with me internally. It also helped focus what I wanted out of martial arts.

I think to be a well trained martial artist of any type, you need to learn to fall- especially if you're a kicker! I started out with judo as a kid, and my first karate teacher was also a renowned Olympic Judo coach, so it's always been in my toolkit. But yeah, in TSD it wasn't covered much, either, and when I started Hapkido we did breakfalls, though with some differences.

I have attended plenty of seminars over the years (mainly BJJ ones) and usually i find the following things important : The level of the instructor delivering the session is important (eg i went to a couple of Rickson Gracie seminars which were superb and i signed up straight away based on who was teaching without even asking what the material to be covered was). He was also extremely personable when he delivered his seminars and genuinely cared that people were learning - i have never forgotten him asking a quite new white belt if he was ok with a technique, getting the usual mumbled "yeah it's fine" response and then calling the guy out and personally drilling it with him for 5min (both performing the technique so the student could feel what it felt like and being uke) until he was comfortable that the student was getting a handle on it. In most cases (after all most people aren't Rickson etc.) then the material to be covered is by far the most important thing to me. I don't attend every seminar that our BJJ school puts on (or my judo class) as while i know that the person teaching is infinitely more skilled than me and i would no doubt learn something, if it is something i don't think would be a good fit for me or something i would be able to use then i don't attend. e.g. i am reasonably large (6'4" and 105kg) so if the seminar is something on ultra flexible inversions and LW style BJJ then i am unlikely to attend, but the second i saw we had Jon Thomas teaching a Collar & Sleeve seminar (which was great!) i signed up instantly. Also what i think i would get from it in relation to the cost factors in - for me i am pretty new to judo so anything any good teacher shows me will be an improvement, i am not probably good enough to benefit from a seminar properly so it doesnt feel like a good use of money (though as i improve i am more likely to look into it over time) If it is someone who will be teaching regular seminars then it could also be good for the potential student body at the hosting school to have an input into what is being taught - that would definitely lead to a lot of buy in i think! Credentials are important too if someone isn't a famous name - eg if there are two black belts offering seminars in De La Riva and i have heard of neither of them but one of them is a black belt under the De La Riva lineage directly then i would opt for them - similarly a seminar on fundamentals of jiu jitsu and someone is under the Roger Gracie tree etc. etc.

NANI!!???? They CANNOT go 100 percent!!!! I train in sambo/judo and believe me, you cannot go 100 percent. In fact BJJ fighters get tons of injuries and ground fighting can be brutal because some people cant control themselves and spaz out big time trying to power through the next move. In judo and Sambo, you have to breakfall like a million reps for very long time and have EXCELLENT conditioning, you have to be very strong and flexible to endure all the turns, twist and high impact throws. This is not something you gain just walking to a grappling gym even if its a more of a lax ground style absent of big throws and takedowns. Also you can easily pull a muscle when you are defending submission attempts and getting suddenly reversed or countered in submission exchanges and scrambles. If you train with Japanese and Russians, they take conditioning VERY SERIOUSLY and are stringent with making sure students are well trained in the basics to keep themselves safe from the chaos of grappling and the intensity that comes with it. BJJ culture has a tendency to, how do I put this, glamorise what they are offering...

Obligatory: I am not a lawyer, and you must refer to the laws in your country/region/state/locality/etc, because they can be VERY different depending on where you are. Where I live, now, use of force in self-defense is justified if the victim sincerely believes there is a credible threat to their safety or the safety of someone else. This means that, in your hypothetical scenario, use of force is justified if you sincerely feel that your safety is threatened by the aggressive man invading your personal space. Generally, deadly force is only justified to stop grievous bodily harm or death, so it would not be appropriate to, for example, stab the aggressor in this scenario, unless they were larger/stronger, supported by a group, or had a weapon of their own, and you felt that your only way to stay alive was to end their life. You may have to testify to this in court. It's also important to bear in mind that, legality aside, maiming a person or ending their life with a weapon is VERY traumatic, and you will almost certainly need mental health services after the fact. As for the techniques or weapons you use, there is generally a force continuum that should be in place in your self-defense skill set to appropriately deal with threats, because if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and if all you have is a firearm, everything looks like a target. People like to say "there are no rules in the streets" and "better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6," but there ARE rules--they're called "laws"--and if you end up in prison, you didn't make it home safely, which is the whole point of self-defense. The force continuum that you use is going to vary based on your training, but for me, I like to group things as follows: Low-risk threats (verbally abusive, escalating speech, shoving, etc.) - Escape and evasion, or restraint using pins and joint locks Medium-risk threats (punches, kicks, headbutts, etc.) - Escape and evasion, or strikes, throws, joint dislocations, and strangleholds to disable/knock out attacker or deescalate threat level High-risk threats (significant physical disadvantage, group violence, weapons, etc.) - Escape and evasion, or purpose-built and improvised weapons, strikes, throws, joint dislocations, and strangleholds to potentially kill or disable/knock out attacker or deescalate threat level Now, escape and evasion isn't always possible, and sometimes even when it is possible, it may not be the best course of action, such as in the case of a home invasion where you need to protect your family from the threat. Additionally, everyone's lines between those levels of threats will vary, based on a number of factors, not the least of which will be physical characteristics and level of training. The more physically gifted you are, or more well-trained you are, the more intense a threat generally needs to be for you to consider it an escalation. Someone who is 5ft tall, 100lbs, with zero training, could see a threat as high-risk that someone who is 6ft tall, 200lbs, with 10 years of training would consider to be a low-risk threat. Of course, your level of awareness is also going to come into play, because someone with a heightened sense of awareness could notice a knife in someone's pocket, or someone circling to get behind them, raising the threat level to high, while someone with a lower level of awareness might completely miss those things and mistakenly believe that they are in a low-risk situation.

Statistically, the vast majority of male-on-male violence is made up of punches to the head, and I have seen many Kyokushin fighters struggle with defending head punches because of the emphasis on punching the body in their competitions, even though knees and kicks to the head are allowed. I expect this ruleset would have the same result.

It's been a full year now without a drink. I promise this is the final update

I would add a little subtle comment to this; figure out how to train around minor injuries and not make things worse.

That’s quite presumptuous to indicate because, again, it’s the practitioner that one must face on the floor of battle and not the style itself. Imho.

Also, at the risk of sounding slightly rude (if it is then i apologise) can i ask what level you have gotten to in Kyokushin and / or Shotokan? I am much junior rank wise to a lot of the people on here (people don't usually make comments here based on rank which is refreshing) but some of the sentiments i am hearing are similar to ones i have heard before from newer students / members who have not trained enough to work out why some things are as they are. Sorry if this embarasses them but @Wastelander has multiple dan ranks in a variety of styles (including practical karate ones) and @bushido_man96 is a 5th dan in TKD plus works as a LEO (so will have real hands on experience of defence situations) and they both have laid out cogent points as to why body only striking as you espouse may not work for self defence. If you are equally as credentialled / skilled then fair enough but it is possible that this is a case of "you don't know what you don't know".

Thank you all. This is quite the honour to have been awarded this five times. It is humbling. Again, thank you all.

Your statement that "fist fighting was far more common than it is today" is most likely true, in a broad sense, but I don't agree with the proposal that this means karate is "supplementary training for 'the guy who can already fight.'" I'm not sure where you got that idea from, as I have only ever heard that from people who train in MMA and have little to no actual karate experience. I can't think of a single reputable instructor or historian of karate that has made such a claim, and if we are looking specifically at the history of Okinawa and the development of karate, this is simply not the case. The form of combat that the majority of Okinawan people had exposure to and training in was tegumi/muto, a folkstyle no-gi submission grappling sport, meaning that if karate were supplemental to anything, it would be the ability to grapple, largely on the ground. Untrained people certainly got into fist fights, but there was also a saying in Okinawa that went something along the lines of "if you see people fighting with closed fists, move along, but if they fight with open hands, watch and learn." Despite how it is presented in the modern day, karate is much less about punching than people realize. We must also bear in mind that karate was developed by nobility for three main purposes; self-defense, law enforcement, and security/bodyguard work. None of these contexts is really best served by learning how to fist fight, and the people involved in developing these arts were not the sort of men to get involved in fist fights, more often than not. COULD you use the sparring format you propose to teach students "the bare instinct of how to 'fight,' with more traditional karate techniques being taught along side it as...supplementary knowledge?" Honestly, I don't think so. What I DO think you would get out of it is the development of grit and the mindset of aggression, which are definitely beneficial for people who want to learn to fight, and I think that's really what you're getting at, but I think the skillset developed by the format is too limited to actually teach someone how to fight effectively. It also doesn't matter how many other techniques you teach if this is the only type of sparring you do, because if you never use the other techniques in sparring, you'll never develop the skill necessary to use them, so all you will ever use is body shots. I realize that I'm not telling you things that you want to hear, but I truly don't think you're going to get the benefits you're looking for out of the format you've proposed. There is no singular sparring method which is perfect for pressure testing karate, which is why my late Sensei and I employ a layered approach where we employ multiple different sparring formats to develop different skills and attributes, and to cover gaps left by the compromises and limitations of each format. I'm not saying that you shouldn't spar the way you've described, but it has some glaring flaws that need to be addressed by other forms of sparring. I also don't think removing protective gear is beneficial, at all. If you want extra conditioning, do body conditioning bareknuckle in controlled training exercises, as it is traditionally done. Wear protective gear for sparring, not just for insurance purposes, but because it increases the safety, health, and longevity of those involved without significantly reducing the effectiveness of the sparring.

There was one Okinawan teacher who got rid of yakuza types who attempted to intimidate him thinking he was an easily scared old man. They would not so subtly remind everyone that the building where the dojo was and many other parts of the neighborhood was their turf, and therefore owed them something. They often showed up acting arrogant, threatening and belligerent demanding recognition and « respect ». Instead of cowering in fear, the 9th dan 70 something sensei invited the yakuza in and showed them his personal makiwara, which was basically a piece of iron/steel sheet. After striking it a few dozen times with his hands and then with his toes(similar to sokusen kick in uechiryu), he asked if any of the yakuza characters wanted to have a go. One tried to look tough not to loose face, but visibly winced and very obviously could not continue beyond a couple of halfhearted punches. The sensei asked if anyone else wanted to try, but they all looked at each other, gave a sheepish bow and left. They never bothered him afterwards, even ignoring him if they saw him.

I am nowhere even close to a black belt, ...if I do get to that point I'd like to stick around and help other students, but we'll see.

There is something to be said about finding the right community. Great people with great attitudes in a great atmosphere goes a long way in keeping people around.

"It may seem difficult at first, but all things are difficult at first." --Miyamoto Musashi

Hello you lovely people... Have you thought about any goals you have this year? I used to be rather big on setting goals for the year, don't always make a big deal if I didn't meet them, I didn't want to put unnecessary pressure on myself, just gives me something to work towards I guess. Also, since covid I think I have finally thought about setting goals like this again... since I have stopped my regular classes and focusing more on my training for the past 18ish months, I'm still constantly working on my own content and putting together sourcebooks for kata I practise, so some of my goals are more focused on that, but within my friends club that I have now become a part of, he is keen on having me share more of what I do, particularly with his black belts. So one of my biggest things I want to do this year is get myself to a place where I feel comfortable doing that. Since covid and stopping my club I did suffer with confidence issues and anxiety when teaching, but I do want to get back into it and especially give something back to this club for taking me in, so would like to get more comfortable there and start helping out a bit more, have done a few little bits one on one there and always get good feedback. Another thing is that I'm trying to do something exercise or martial art related everyday, even if it's just 5 - 10 minutes. Just to create a habit more than anything. Going strong so far! 6 days in and haven't dropped a day yet.

Something important to remember is that you're not alone. Everyone has gone through periods of feeling overwhelmed and disappointed. It can be tough looking at people who have already gone through what you're going through and think that they somehow were better at learning than you are. The truth is that they weren't any better, they just stuck with it.

Mine is to get back into BJJ. I trained in it for about 2 months in 2023, but eventually had to drop it because adding it to karate was keeping me out of the house too much and it was causing problems with my wife. However, I found a BJJ school that has 6 am classes, which will allow me to get back home when everyone else is waking up. And, most importantly, these morning classes will allow me to continue having the same number of evenings per week that I stay home with the family.

I don't have any martial arts goals this year. The only goal I set is to intentionally travel, by foot or bike, the distance from The Shire to Mordor, about 1779 miles (2863 km) over the course of the year.

Lots of great advice has been put forth already. As martial artists, we've all been there in that beginning phase. The truth is, it just takes time, and you have to tell yourself that you're looking years down the road, not days. It's easy for me to say, "don't be so hard on yourself," but the fact of the matter is everyone is different and this is tough for some to accept. I started Aikido back up very recently, and I get frustrated with myself in class at times because I just can't seem to make some things work. The sensei is good about telling me to not worry about trying to be as proficient at Aikido as I am with Taekwondo, so I try to take it all in stride. You need to do this for you; it's got to be your journey. You'll have lots of help on the way, but only you can put the work in. Try to take one positive thing out of every class. Just one. And focus on that. Keep a journal, and have an entry for every date that you go to class or practice something on your own. Write down little notes you remember. These could be feelings you had about a certain topic in class, or they could be tidbits you recall the instructor telling you to improve one aspect or another of a technique. Jot these things down, and you can look back on them for reference, and it's also a log of your progress. It also keeps you accountable. I've found it to be a very handy tool. Then, come back here to KarateForums and talk to us about it. Heck, start a thread that's a log of your training like several of us have done here. I've found this community to be very supportive, and coming here to discuss my thoughts on classes and testings really is a motivating factor in going back to class. I think you will find it to be true, as well. Go back to class. Believe in yourself. We do.

I hope that you do return! There's a reason that we're so passionate about it. Those who stick with it become incredibly passionate about it. There's just something about martial arts that keeps us coming back. Lean on how supportive the people are. They don't care about how good or bad you might be, they care that you showed up willing to learn. It can definitely be frustrating. I've been doing martial arts for 23 years and I still get frustrated when learning new things sometimes! I remember learned a set of kata and thinking that "I will never teach anyone these kata!" because it was frustrating to me. They're still not my favorite, but now that I'm a few years removed from that learning experience I see the value in them and would teach them to anyone who wants to know.

I also wanted to add - for most belt manufacturers, kanji characters are 2.5 cm tall on a 4.5 cm wide belt, and 2 cm tall on a 4 cm wide belt. Most will reduce them to 2 cm on a 4.5 cm wide belt if you go over a certain number of characters. To determine the proper length of the belt ends, multiply the number of kanji or katakana characters by 2.5. You'll need 5 to 10 cm of clearance above the kanji to prevent the embroidery from going into the knot. You'll also need 8 to 10 cm meters of clearance below the characters on the label side, and 4 cm on the non-label side. So: Length of label side end = 8 to 10 cm + (number of characters x 2.5 cm) + 5 to 10 cm Length of non-label side end = 4 cm + (number of characters x 2.5 cm) + 5 to 10 cm This assumes a 4.5 cm wide belt, so on a 4 cm wide belt, use 2 cm instead of 2.5 cm. Whichever side is longer, that's how long your ends should be. The belt size calculator on the Kataaro website assumes the ends below the knot are 30 cm. So adjust for that if your ends need to be longer. Kuro Obi Ya has a formula on the site as well, but it doesn't tell you how long the ends are when using that formula, so it's not of much use.

I'm not sure that we'd be having this debate outside of the English language. An example of this: in classical music, we don't translate the word "maestro." We just leave it in Italian. I think we're reluctant to call the conductor a "master." It's taboo in the English language, hence why we're so ready to dogpile anyone who uses such a title. Is it possible to "master" a martial art? If a martial art cannot be mastered, then what can be? Perhaps when the word "master" is used in martial arts, it means that someone has reached a particular level of authority within the art. I think it's fair to say that, in any subject, it's at least possible to do that. I say that if there's a problem with the word "master," then perhaps even a title such as "master instructor" doesn't adequately solve the issue here. Perhaps titles like "senior instructor" and "chief instructor" would be perceived as even less pompous and self-aggrandizing.

I look it at more as being a 'master instructor,' like how one might earn a master's degree in a field at college. I don't truly feel that I'm a "master" of the martial arts, but I do feel that I can competently teach another person at a high level.

We were very similar in this regard! and it's an aspect of my training journey that I regret. I chased that Sandan hard! I was already teaching at this point and felt like I needed that grade to ratify myself in the instructor world... I achieved my Sandan at the age of 21, faster than I should have done. But like yourself I completely gave up on chasing ranks. and the more time passed the more I realised there was no need to chase. 10 years later was the next time I graded when I got my Yondan. To be honest for me, my current training period is the one I want to relive... After covid and becoming a father, I have had to take a step back on the teaching side of things. for the past 18 months I have been training at a friends dojo, it's a different style but they have accepted my grade. I'm just happy being there and training as a visiting black belt, occasionally I help with the teaching, most of the times its a black belt group and the main instructor likes me to teach them something from my style to give them something a bit different to work on. But at the moment it's just nice to be focusing on my training just for the sake of training. One day I'll look into kick starting my club up again, but when the time is right

My answer is sort of bittersweet, I think. I would like to go back and relive my Shodan phase, for a number of reasons, but the biggest one is that my late Sensei was still alive and in good health, and I would love to have all that time to learn from him again. I would ask so many more questions, and workshop so many more things with him. There's also the fact that, for a long time after getting my brown belt, I just figured I would never actually earn my Shodan, both because I didn't really see it as very important and because I didn't think I was good enough.

空手の日, "karate no hi", or Karate Day, celebrates the meeting of karate masters on October 25, 1936, where the name 空手, "karate" was officially adopted for the art we know today. It also established the kyu/dan ranking system. In 2005, the Okinawan Perfectural Assembly officially established October 25 as Karate Day to celebrate this anniversary. Each year, karate-ka from around the world gather in Okinawa to celebrate, culminating with a massive group demonstration of kata in Naha, Okinawaa. In fact, the 2016 Karate Day celebration established a Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously performing a kata. This year, my CI and his wife went to attend the celebrations and to train with other high-ranking instructors in Okinawa. The video of this years' celebrations is posted below. The Uechi-Ryu contingent performs the kata Sanseiryu (三十六) at about 9:40 into the video. My CI is front and center in the contingent for most of that segment.

Patrick's belt should be gold color.

Anyone who's trained martial arts for a long time faces the day when they can't do it anymore, whether it's health, other responsibilities, etc. They just don't know if they'll get back to it or not. Change happens, and other things fill in. That's life. The beautiful thing about the more traditional martial arts (hopefully) is the spiritual side that teaches "going with the flow", adapting. You can still be a martial artist, just in a different way- this is unique. If you're a runner who can't run anymore.... you're a walker As to the memoir idea, My current instructor,age 76, wrote his memoir with editing help from a student, and also an editor with the publisher. It should be printed very soon, I hear. I hesitate to recommend AI help like Chat GPT, but this might be a case where it would be beneficial.

My new goals for 2025. Begin each day waking up with a pulse. Don't fall over putting my underwear, pants or socks on. Be able to manage any aches and pains encountered throughout the day. Resist the urges to strangle, beat, defame, belittle or run over the little idiot in Walmart with the purple mohawk, dozen piercings, tattoos up the wazoo wearing all black. That's about it.

I've been thinking about this question since you posted on Wednesday, going back through my training and trying to figure out if there was a "golden age" of my training. Or, if not a golden age, just a time when I was enraptured in training and want to go back. Or, maybe there could have been a time period that I would want to redo because I think that I could have done better. However, for me, I think I am in the golden age of my training. These are those halcyon days. I don't want to go back, I want to continue living in this moment. I want to continue to grow and learn.

I'm going to echo a lot of Bob's (sensei8) suggestions here. I have been studying Uechi-Ryu (another Okinawan style) for a little over 7 years now. Here is why Uechi Ryu works for me (and could possibly work for you): - We don't require a lot of flexibility in our techniques. Most of our techniques are done in a neutral, upright stance (Sanchin-dachi). We don't do a lot of kicks, and our preferred targets are at or below the waist: the bladder or front of the thigh for a front kick, the floating ribs or knees for a side kick, and the floating ribs, calf, or outer thigh for a roundhouse kick. We do occasionally use a "shiko dachi", or low stance, but it is always done for practical reasons; generally to do an elbow strike to the floating ribs or solar plexus, and to get underneath the center of gravity of your opponent for takedowns/throws. - Our techniques are intended to be practical. We practice our techniques through kata, hojo undo (supplementary techniques), yakusoku kumite (prearranged 2 person drills), and free sparring. When performing the techniques, we generally have 2 different ways of doing things, the "textbook" version, and the "practical version", which takes your strengths and limitations into account. This is most applicable to our two-person drills; we have specific adaptions for certain body types and combinations. For example, if you have a short defender against a tall attacker, there are specific changes to some of our drills we expect you to do. - Our 2-person drills encourage you to control and/or disrupt your opponent. Some styles expect your 2-person drill techniques to look pretty with perfect form without touching your opponent. We expect the defender to manipulate the attacker and keep him off-balance. You did mention that you are not fond of the idea of kata, but also keep in mind that kata is a great way of training without a partner. When we were under COVID restrictions, we were unable to actually touch our partners. I ended up learning the black belt level two-person drills by shadow boxing, and once the restrictions lifted, I pretty much had to re-learn the drill. With kata, I was able to train and build the muscle memory for the techniques without needing to rely on a partner. Once I've trained those patterns, applying them to a 2-person drill or self-defense situation involves adapting a sequence of moves I already know. What I would most recommend is that you find an instructor near you that you can train with at least occasionally in person. Training with a partner and a good instructor will increase your learning speed by leaps and bounds. Good luck in your journey!

First of all, Welcome to KarateForums.com, MartialAGuy; glad that you're here!! The Sai's in your pictures look like Shureido Sai's. They're not Century Martial Arts Supply Store Sai's, which have distinctive Tsukagashirs. The basic rounded look of the Tsukagashirs found in your pictures make me believe that your Sai's are Shureido Sai's. Enjoy them!!