dmacdonal9

At one point in time our whole club was doing weak little half-hearted kiai's, and generally only at the points in kata when they are required. We had a very senior Sensei visit us and he really cracked down on that nonsense. He gave us a lot of information on the intent and meaning of kiai on various techniques, how it can help with power, disrupt an opponent's technique, etc. After that, the whole club started bellowing very enthusiastically in lots of different areas, and it really changed the atmosphere in the dojo. It helped people focus and really put a lot of spirit into things. Personally, I seem to have developed two different kiai, one is a 2-syllable noise like "ee-saw!" that I use when there's a significant windup and delivery, like on a shuto strike. The other is very short and sharp, just an "ei!" noise for basic quick strikes like punches and elbows.

I believe I agree with what's being said here.... I am interested to hear though what the hospital authorities and the police (assuming they became involved) have to say about it. As I understand these things, it's unfortunately all too often the "winner" that is treated suspiciously in these situations. I wonder what kind of things would the law consider here? Would it be relevant if the guy was so drunk and/or injured that it was unreasonable to expect he could do any damage? Do you have to be able to prove that you were in significant danger of injury? Does "reasonable force" come into play in a self defense situation like this?

Great idea for a warmup, but I think if you drill kihon in a complex random sequence people will not be able to put their minds on autopilot and just drill technique, they're too busy trying to remember the next move. In fact, I find that by establishing a kihon "routine" order of technique, people know what's coming and are able to focus better. I would suggest changing that sequence only infrequently enough to avoid boredom.

The question I struggle with is whether kata had a fixed bunkai when they were originally created. If so, and we don't know it anymore, we're missing something that the originators had in mind for us. For example, Abernethey believes many of the nukite strikes in kata are not direct strikes to the body, because the fingertips are not the best choice of weapon for a target in the abdominal region (sure, you could make it work after a fashion, but why not use seiken or haito)? Instead, his bunkai assumes that a previous technique has moved the opponents head down to chudan level, and the target for the nukite is therefor the throat or eyes. For example, you might have pulled them in or down with a hikite, or maybe a low leg kick, or they've doubled over in reaction to a chudan strike, etc. It makes a lot of sense to me... If this is true, then anyone practicing kata imagining nukite strikes to the solar plexus is a little off base, no?

The other side of the coin is that this make me wonder why it would be the norm to "respect" higher graded belts more than lower. The only difference I see between junior and senior ranks at my club is the material we work on hen we break up by rank, and how much teaching we do to the lower ranks. If lighter belts perceive any kind of class system in the dojo, then I would think it'd encourage them to leave, and that's not good for any club. If by "treat him as a white belt" you mean help him more than he really needs and explain things more thoroughly than he needs, then I think that's exactly how it should be, because they have no idea where the gaps in his knowledge are. If you mean yell at him and make him do pushups when he does something wrong, then not so much. If that's the norm at a dojo (and I'm not saying that's wrong, there's lots to be said for strictness and formality), then I think everyone should get it, regardless of age/rank.

If you relocate at some point in your life and have the misfortune to move to a new city that doesn't have a good school of your particular style, it can mean a lot of training time down the tubes. It's far less likely to happen with Shotokan, there are clubs everywhere. At our club we just had someone get a job in a new city and the nearest Wado school is two hours away. He just started over in Shotokan because there was a good club next door Hes got a lot of stuff to unlearn. Sure, he'll progress quicker, but it'll still be a pain.

I had the same problem until around the time I got my green belt. One day it struck me that the problem had faded away and I could come down out of a kick with excellent balance. I had almost become used to having problems, so it was a big surprise to realize it had gone away. I think the body has a way of finding the proper way to do something, all on its own, and sometimes the mind just interferes. I had a similar experience with learning to flick my hips when punching. My Sensei would tell me all the time to use my hips more. I knew exactly what he meant, but my body didn't. I fixed this (unintentionally) by hitting a heavy bag. I could feel and hear the impact on the bag, and by unconsciously varying my technique bit by tiny bit, I got excellent feedback on what worked and what didn't. My body eventually found a way to relax and generate that flicking motion we need in our punches. I still couldn't consciously describe exactly what I am doing differently, but it makes a huge difference.

If it's a physical thing, plyometrics like squat jumps, side box jumps ladder jumps and the like will make a big difference. If it's a technique issue, then concentrate on moving from tanden. Visualize a lead ball embedded in your pelvis, 2 inches below your belly button. Every time you move, your whole purpose is to move the ball in the desired direction but without making it rise up or down by even a millimeter. Move as fast as you can without moving this imaginary spot up or down. Do some footwork drills using this imagery while moving forwards, backwards, along angles and then combinations of sudden changes in direction.

I like using a quick maegeri on the lead leg when the opponent is close. People don't expect kicks then, but you can make it work with the lead leg, just snap the knee up nice and high first . It's very quick and people are often surprised. Catch 'em just as they're disengaging, they're not well prepared then.

Yep, I know every time I see a video of him in action, I have to go and check the date to see how old he was. I can only hope for a small part of that kind of old age. We do maegeri in wanshu. I had heard it was one of the differences between organizations, but I don't know which one added it vs took it out. Apparently there's some confusion over it. Here you can see Suzuki doing it without: And Fukazawa doing it with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmKYDG_TkUM I think the Suzuki footage is older though...

No, I've never met Suzuki Sensei. My instructor recently attended the Suzuki Cup in Texas, where he was lucky enough to drop in on a relatively private training session and he got a good grilling on the status of our club and such He managed to get a few belts signed too. Apparently the word there was that Suzuki will likely not visit North America again. I'm not sure how firm a decision that is, but hopefully it's not true.

Right, it's kind of complicated for two reasons: one is that when people today think jujitsu, they think of UFC guys rolling around choking each other, but it apparently isn't about that in classical schools of Jujitsu. The other is that jujitsu principles were incorporated into Wado more so than actual techniques (for the most part). Principles are obviously less visible than techniques. Here are some of the important principles that I've been told come from Jujitsu (by no means exhaustive, these are just the ones I happen to know): - Taisabaki, where we incorporate techniques to move off the line of attack to achieve some advantage (deflecting, dodging or parrying). As a result, our blocks are more deflective than most. - We use higher, lighter stances from Jujitsu, and not the deep "rooted" stances you see in Okinawan karate. - Sen. Timing and awareness are used so that we allow an attack and then counter, counter and attack simultaneously, or we attack as a pre-emptive counter. I think this is one reason why some people claim Wado looks "faster". - Noru, where we use mobility to "float" around a technique, like performing a spinning backfist as we dodge an attack. - Nagasu, where we evade and/or deflect as we attack. We have a punch called nagashizuki, where we shift off the line of attack, and deflect the opponent's punch with our own punching motion. - Irimi, a particular flavor of taisabaki where we enter an opponents fighting space off the line of attack for some advantage (also seen in Aikido as I understand). This shows up often in our partner work in preparation for a throw or takedown. - There are a few specific techniques like hand turning (Kote Gaeshi) and arm locks (Wan Kansetsu) that I think are Jujitsu that you see in some of our partner work. - I suppose the spirit of Japanese budo that we (hopefully) see in Wado comes from Jujitsu as well. I think this is why some people say Wado is the most "spiritual" of the big 4 styles. This depends largely on a person's particular experience and intent though. - We learn specific kneeling, knife, and sword defences that I believe came from Shindo Yoshin Ryu Jujitsu. There are more, and I am sure some of these ideas are probably also seen in other styles. But these are all very difficult things to see. I would bet that the most the casual observer might notice is that our stances are higher, which they probably interpret as us being "lazy"