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Yeah. He learned it from Tetshuhiko Asai. You can see it in the first few seconds… Asai JKA

I've been very remiss in updating this thread. Kenneth is in his sophomore high school season. He started the season at heavyweight, and wrestled one tournament at that weight, taking first. Then he dropped to the 215 lb weight class, and has been experiencing success there. His first few meets were rough, but he's placed 3rd in 4 tournaments so far at 215. We just had a really tough tournament here in town this weekend where Kenneth went 5-4 over the two-day meet. He's edging closer to 30 wins on the season.

I have to agree with some of the other posters here. Mugen is a good deal only if you don't need anything altered. Depending on the size of the gi and how much alteration you need, you could end up spending roughly $200 before that Mugen is ready to be worn on the floor. Even with international shipping, you'll end up spending a similar amount or less on a Shureido or Tokyodo (both companies hem pants and sleeves for free). The cut of both Shureido and Tokyodo are known to be big-boy friendly. The lack of in-house alterations doesn't make Mugen the worst deal, though. The title of "worst deal" goes to Arawaza. That Black Diamond is nice, but by the time I'd get one altered at the local shop, the overall cost would be ridiculous.

I am a fourth dan in Shorin-ryu Shorinkan and a fourth dan in Goju-ryu under Hokama Sensei. Sensei Hokama says, "Goju-ryu is a bottle of water. Sanchin is the bottle, Tensho is the cap, and the water represents all Goju-ryu methods, all mixed." I like this analogy. My Sanchin dachi and Naihanchi dachi are essentially the same ,both shoulder-width, with heels slightly out. In both of them, I am sitting heavy and compressed. I am absolutely comfortable staying or stepping. My weight is right in the middle. If I am pulled, I am not going to use my toes to stop it; I try to go lower. The length of my Sanchin stance is toe to heel plus 2-3 inches.my back hip is pushed forward and engaged . in my opinion, Sanchin is a fundamental kata as it is all about structure. Tensho and Naihanchi are not fundamental kata unless you do them and treat them as such; otherwise, both are fighting kata. For me, Sanchin is about muscles and bones, and Tensho is about tendons. Naihanchi is my self defense kata along side Seisan.

What the instructor said makes sense if omitting things is for a purpose other than reducing or eliminating redundancy. And I’m all for that, though not to the same extent as Wastelander. I’m a bit of a traditionalist, so I’d limit the elimination of kata to only the ones developed after karate was introduced to mainland Japan. In my opinion, the Pinans are defining katas of Shorin-ryu. Tatsuo Shimabuku didn’t teach the Pinans, so it would make sense that he would differentiate his style by calling it Isshin-ryu.

I consider ukemi to be one of the absolutely most important lessons I ever learned in martial arts. It literally saved my life once. About 15 years ago, I was visiting family near Aspen, CO. I was carrying a large box in both hands on an icy patch of ground. My feet slipped out from underneath me, and I went from vertical to horizontal in an instant. If I had not known instinctively to land flat on my back with my chin tucked firmly to my chest, I would likely not be here today.

This came up once and our instructor said that he teaches his students everything he knows, rank appropriate of course. He said "any instructor that does not teach their students everything they know is cheating both the students, and the art." Not saying I agree or disagree, but that was his take on it.

This would be tai sabaki, correct? When I teach DT, I focus on this a lot. I don't want to be in a "fair fight," where two people are squared off and it becomes a match of skill on skill. I want my deputies and detention officers to get to the flank or behind and then overwhelm then and get them to the ground and get them secured.

Indeed, but it can also be seen in the older sparring footage from the earlier Japanese karate tournaments. Several well known karateka from that era were especially adept at this…Yahara Mikio of Shotokan comes to mind.

If I understand what you're saying, we call that body shifting, or "change of body". EXAMPLE: Instead of stepping back away from the attack, there are several ways, but you can step forward at an angle, shifting your body away from the attack and placing yourself closer and simultanously attacking them. Easier to demonstrate than to write it out. Old style Okinawan karate does a lot of this. Kinda hard to get the timing down, takes a lot of practice to do it automatically and correctly, but once you get it it's like a lightbulb going on and it's very effective. More for self-defense, but I have used it successfully in sparring.

There is another concept in Okinawan karate and related martial arts which agrees with getting behind the attacker. The idea is that the most advantageous position for counterattacking and defending is always at an angle or offside instead of moving straight backwards or meeting the attacking force straight on. This is especially important if the attacker is much bigger and stronger. This means moving out of the attacker’s direct line of sight and into the “blind spot” so that the counter will be much more difficult to see coming. Moving behind or as close as possible to the attacker’s back is the ideal application of that strategy.