sensei8

I'm a very firm believer that the practitioner is at fault, and not the style!! The style that YOU, whomever YOU is, are in right now...it's solid, it's effective....but are you?? If not, then the blame might be as close as the nearest mirror.

10,000 punches, kicks, blocks, and strikes later; we're still forging forward to...1,000,000 punches, kicks, blocks, and strikes much later because that's become so engraved in me, what else do I know!!

I started at that age, age 4 full fledge black belt at 18. Shows the patient that a child can have if a donor makes them wait till adult age. Imagine how many adults would wait 14 years, I'd say a low number. To the bold type above... Yeah, not many at all. The battle of apoplectic from a parent(s)/guardians begins at the very first failed Testing Cycle, for an example.

Let us not forget to consider the maturity of the parent(s)/guardian as well. In short time, the CI will eventually have to calm down the parent(s)/guardian due to the fact that their kid(s) have just failed a Testing Cycle and/or the like. Oftentimes, I wonder, who drove whom to the dojo?!?!

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. ~ Unknown We MAists, from day one of our MA journey, learn our core style and the like, whatever that might be, without any ambiguity at all. We drill a quite vastly varied amount, as well as narrowly as necessary, of required floor work, that a MA practitioner might cautiously consider it to be an almost unmanageable, and oftentimes, redundant exercise of futility. And for what purpose?? To perfect that which we've been taught, and are being taught, ever since the very first day that we shadowed the door of some MA school, for whatever that reason(s) might or might not be. So are we crazy or what?? Over and over and over and over and over and over...[breathing in very deeply]...and over and over and over and over again...well...you get the point. That's what we MAist do, without expectations...without notification...without aspirations beyond the desire to improve across the horizon of knowledge and experience; to be complete in ones MA totality, no matter how long that takes, if it takes at all. Our insanity is not insane!? While we do the same thing over and over, with an unprecedented resolve of determination, expecting our repetitiveness to yield different results, if and when this/these/those results are possible. We oftentimes wonder if every morsel of training that we gladly do, is worth it all. To have a CI inform us, many years later, that we've still not greatly, if at all, improved in this and that. We believe that our whatever it is pretty darn great...feels great...looks great...to only have the CI dash our hopes and dreams of thinking that I'm showing a modicum of improvement. Still, I return, more determined than before to improve my MA betterment. This means...and you guessed it...doing even much more of the same things over and over and over and over again, and then some. Well, I suppose I'm certifiably insane because I've been doing the MA for over 5 decades. Yeah, I must be crazy!! BUT I WOULDN'T WANT IT ANY OTHER WAY!! How about you??

Frugality within the MA begets immeasurable limitations on that MAist!! Frugality and the MA; it's an oxymoron, to say the least!! One can't expenditure anything of important value in the MA, in which knowledge and experience must be attained at all costs. Imho!!

Every dojo within the SKKA network participates in the 100 Kata during the annual Karate Day in October. In order that every student can participate in the event, we often choose a Kata that all can perform, with it usually being Pinan Shodan. It's a great time for everyone, both the Student Body as well as the visitors; a well meaning opportunity to come together across the network as one, in one cause. We look forward to the event each and every year with bated breath!! I speak about the event, briefly... https://www.karateforums.com/did-you-celebrate-karate-day-vt50069.html?highlight=100+kata

Interesting suggestion.... Unfortunately for your argument I used to be a prison guard. I've got some insight for you- being a felon or a "bad dude" doesn't instill magical fighting prowess. In fact if you want to see some interesting examples you can even look up felony fights on YouTube. There was one where a modestly trained mma fighter in shad smith fought a guy who "just didn't care" because he was "crazy." As you would have guessed, shad toyed with the guy, because he's a pro fighter. You're failing to justify any arguments you make and are trying to appeal to fantasies "These guys MUST be crazy killers because they're in PRISON" I fail to see the correlation between being a criminal and being a skilled fighter. Watch those felony fights. Those guys are- you guessed it- former felons. You'll see just how "not professional" they are.... So you are saying that, the best fighters are cage fighters due to practicing resistance training with each other; whereas traditional martial artists are below them in every way, skill wise due to this reason?I know that this question isn't directed to me. I apologize for my perked up ears on the bold type above... I'm a traditional MAist, and I'm not below anyone; I can not, and I will not subscribe to that, nor will my resolve subscribe to that either. Shindokan is all about resistance training from day one. That's the point I'm trying to make... Which is what? So I can better understand your point. Shindokan's resistance training, as I've mentioned here at KF often times, is barbaric, at best. Our resistance training is not for everyone due to the way that we teach it to our students; raw as raw can be, without any ambiguity whatsoever. Everything is expected on both sides of the resistance. Both sides, as the command of the CI, resist each other from the onslaught of the starting point of the drill. I hold your right wrist, with my left hand...what happens after that is a barbaric form of tug-of-war, in which, the fights not over until a deciding winner has emerged. With Shindokan, it's not the fight, but the escape to freedom, that's most desired. In that, if you escape from me, and you do not flee when you had the chance, then the fight continues. The battle of resolve begins and ends with heart!! Toy with me during resistance training, I'll guarantee you that you'll not do that again. One step and so on are fine tools, but with the addition of effective as well as believable resistance training, discoveries are in the horizon. Just short of stomping a mud hole in you, our method is cruel and unapologetic, but for a reason, and not for a season. Shindokan is traditional, and we're below no style...no practitioner!!

"Better" is an illusion, at best; an opinion. For something to be "better", it can not have an equal. Bruce, himself, puts it better than me. with this... "I personally do not believe in the word style. Why? Because, unless there are human beings with three arms and four legs, unless we have another group of human beings that are structurally different from us, there can be no different style of fighting.” Imho!!

Then I suppose that every style of the MA has died with its founder as well?!?

Interesting suggestion.... Unfortunately for your argument I used to be a prison guard. I've got some insight for you- being a felon or a "bad dude" doesn't instill magical fighting prowess. In fact if you want to see some interesting examples you can even look up felony fights on YouTube. There was one where a modestly trained mma fighter in shad smith fought a guy who "just didn't care" because he was "crazy." As you would have guessed, shad toyed with the guy, because he's a pro fighter. You're failing to justify any arguments you make and are trying to appeal to fantasies "These guys MUST be crazy killers because they're in PRISON" I fail to see the correlation between being a criminal and being a skilled fighter. Watch those felony fights. Those guys are- you guessed it- former felons. You'll see just how "not professional" they are.... So you are saying that, the best fighters are cage fighters due to practicing resistance training with each other; whereas traditional martial artists are below them in every way, skill wise due to this reason?I know that this question isn't directed to me. I apologize for my perked up ears on the bold type above... I'm a traditional MAist, and I'm not below anyone; I can not, and I will not subscribe to that, nor will my resolve subscribe to that either. Shindokan is all about resistance training from day one.

That's one of the reasons why I keep my hair cut very short; can't pull what one can't latch upon.

To the bold type above... ...Or it could be viewed as a means of complimenting the original; depending on how ones viewpoints in this regards are taken. I'm not loyal to my core style, Shindokan, at all. Why?? Because while it's effective across the board, imho, that effectiveness, like in every MA style known to mankind, is limited. Hence, the creation of styles, and the desire to cross train in other styles of the MA.

Tradition is part of the human condition; people don't usually like change.There is a tug of war of sorts with tradition and change. Very good points to consider singularity6 Martial arts is no exception to the complexities of tradition and changing with the times. Tradition is usually trying to hold on to things that are good things or habits; passed on from one generation to the next. Change is inevitable but too quickly is just as bad as stuck too deeply in tradition. The Chinese deal with this in, how will the decisions today (change) effect the future generations. Change for today might be a temporary good but bad in the future; very difficult to reverse once set in motion. No matter how one slices it, change, as you've said, is inevitable; time is a beast that takes no prisoners. And whenever that inevitable change occurs, one had better decide which side of the equation that one want to end up on. And once that change occurs, go with it or run the high risk of being left behind.

I most assuredly concur with Brian's assessment through and through.

Can't excel at the MA if one doesn't have fun while training; might as well not even pursue it at any level. And in a way, as the owner and CI, I'm not only doing the MA for fun, but I'm also doing the MA for money; dojo/retail is there to make a profit at the end of the day. NO!! A MAist is a MAist!! No! While a pro-fighter might have an edge, that edge can be dulled forthwith at any moment; can't win every time, and that right there, is where the rubber meets the road in the human factor that we all share...from time to time. Interesting how you worded that question. Any training is worth doing is worth doing it right. In one way or another, that sadistic streak is in all of us, and not just in MAists. That too, is an interesting wording of a question. It's proper to learn how to defend oneself effectively, and to do that...guess what?? My attacker's going to get hurt, even if it's only in the slightest. Comes with the territory. I can be the most violent person that you can ever meet whenever I have to defend myself; I don't apologize for that because all's fair in love and war. Imho!!

I'm not in law enforcement, nor am I in physical education directly. However, I do run both a MA governing body, as well as a dojo. Abeit, my MA training does compliment what I do for a living, I suppose.

That was then, so short lived... ~Kaicho of the SKKA/Hombu ~Owner and CI of the Kyuodan Dojo

TKD was my first cross training, and the thing that sticks out the most that I learned outside of Shindokan is the kicking arsenal of TKD. You see, Shindokan is 85% hands, 15% feet, and our kicks are no higher than the stomach, moreover, our kicks are primarily for checking and directing/redirecting. In my Weekend Warrior days, I came up against some solid kicks mainly from the TKD practitioners. Change-up roundhouse kicks...blew my mind. Axe kicks...blew my mind even more so...Jump spinning back kick...blew my mind into the next world. Shortly thereafter my initiation against a TKD competitor, I felt the best way to understand the competition is to learn their core. And that's what I did. Not to toot my own horn, I'm a solid kicker...and that drove Soke and Dai-Soke absolutely insane to the Nth degree. Was it fun driving them crazy? It seems that it would be. Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe...ah...yes it was; I seemed to live for the moments.

JKD, imho, will never die because it's been to much ingrained into the MA society. For JKD to die...interest towards JKD must no longer be of interest for the entire world.

TKD was my first cross training, and the thing that sticks out the most that I learned outside of Shindokan is the kicking arsenal of TKD. You see, Shindokan is 85% hands, 15% feet, and our kicks are no higher than the stomach, moreover, our kicks are primarily for checking and directing/redirecting. In my Weekend Warrior days, I came up against some solid kicks mainly from the TKD practitioners. Change-up roundhouse kicks...blew my mind. Axe kicks...blew my mind even more so...Jump spinning back kick...blew my mind into the next world. Shortly thereafter my initiation against a TKD competitor, I felt the best way to understand the competition is to learn their core. And that's what I did. Not to toot my own horn, I'm a solid kicker...and that drove Soke and Dai-Soke absolutely insane to the Nth degree.

I take child students at the age of 4; and I don't apologize for it. My dojo...my rules...my P&L's Bottom Line. Our Soke's rule was that the child had to be in the first grade, as a minimum.

Not even in the slightest, whatsoever!! Not yesterday, not today, and not tomorrow. The MMA craze is the rage on the page nowadays, and there's nothing I can ever say that will convince the proponents of the MMA, and especially MMA fans. No matter the style of the MA, I believe that this idiom fits well... “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”~John Lydgate Say what you want to say, whomever you are, I don't give a bent pin what's in the mind of those who have already written off traditional MA. Why?? Because it just isn't that important.

Welcome to KF, JazzKicker; glad that you're here!!

Thanks, LLLEARNER!!