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ANGLES!! Overall, great stuff from those videos especially for that genre. Our Tuite, needs those angles, and in that, we must expose/manipulate those angles. Great stuff! Thanks for them all, Brian!!

Try to look up that Pro TKD, Bob. I think you will like and appreciate what you see. Its essentially Olympic TKD without the chest protectors and pads, like IcemanSK mentioned. Really was good stuff; lots of contact, not so much of the tip-tap look. It was a full-contact venue that allowed the counter-kicking and jump-spinning kicking to be showcased, along with the power they really put forth.Cool...thanks...I'll look it up!!

They have banana trees inside of their school?? Cool!

We may have discussed this, Bob, but I have forgotten if we did... What form do you teach at white belt? And is there a set amount of time you wait, to let them learn the moves of the form, before you start teaching bunkai? Great question. Taikyoku Shodan Pinan Shodan Normally, I will wait about 1 month before I introduce white belts to the Bunkai of either. In that first month, I'll fine tune them in their stances, turns, posture, hips, transitions, rhythm, proper execution, breathing, and kiai.

I wholeheartedly concur with both Brian and ps1...solid points, solid posts!!

Learning the steps of practically any kata/form doesn't take to long to learn. What takes so long, is the fine-tuning that takes some time. Even then, it might takes years to understand said kata/form, and this doesn't include all of the Bunkai/Oyo.

How many faction splits? Beyond the amount I care to even guess. Good point!! Just drives me wacky crazy!! LOL!!

Again, too much time is spent in the typical class on "learning" the kata. I can teach you to walk through Kanku Dai, considered a very advanced kata in many styles, in an hour or two. Then 10-15 minutes to tweak it to get improvements as long as you are spending time on your own practicing and get massive improvements in a month or so. Alternately, I can get you walking through a short section in 5-10 minutes and then spend the next 2 hours teaching the application with a partner. And then add another section the next time in the same fashion. And in a couple of months you have the full kata and hours and hours of partner drill under your belt and with them solid fighting/self defense techniques. It's the teaching format that is wrong, in my opinion, not the kata. The change in teaching format had a lot to do with this I think, and you hinted at it as well. Once karate was taken into schools (and I mean middle/high and university), in my opinion, you had to change the teaching format. Larger classes demand a different teaching format and style than small groups. When you make that shift you can't spend the time to break kata into small chunks and teach the applications. It's teach line basics and kata predominantly. And you keep the emphasis on the appearance, the look, of what's being done instead of the bones of it and functionality. Lots of time on kata in the class because you can teach and observe it to a larger group than watching lots of pairs work application. A couple of generations of that teaching format and you have a karate culture that is divorced from it's roots as a hands on, practical self defense system. It had then become one that produces students who are judged on how it looks, not how it works, are concerned with preserving the appearance of kata and not it's content. But again bushido_man, I'm the guy I've voted most likely to be kicked out of traditional karate for my beliefs and practices in pursuit of traditional karate. Heck, I shocked our handful of students last night by telling them that if it were up to me we would do 4, maybe 5 kata total. Not just to black belt, but total. Very solid post!! "It's the teaching format that is wrong, in my opinion, not the kata." That statement of yours hits the nail right on the head, imho. And your statement here, supports your first statement, imho..."It had then become one that produces students who are judged on how it looks, not how it works, are concerned with preserving the appearance of kata and not it's content." This is one of the reasons that I've not embraced a rotating curriculum. Not that teaching in a public school and a university is a bad thing, but a rotating curriculum seems to work well in that environment.

For those who enjoy the Kung-Fu genre type movies, a legend of those types has passed away at 106 years old. Here's the link... http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/movies/run-run-shaw-movie-mogul-seen-as-creator-of-kung-fu-genre-dies-at-106.html?ref=martialarts&_r=0 Rest in peace!! My prayers go out to his family, friends, and fans the world over.

Having thought about this, I agree that there are exceptions to self-promote ones rank/title. 1) You've founded a new MA = Rank & Title 2) Founded a new governing body = Title ONLY Those are about the only ones I can thing of. Now, if the second one above occurs, I suppose that one MIGHT be able to create a new set of By-Laws, which could state that the "President" of said new governing body MUST hold the rank of Judan, for example. That could be an exception, maybe. If so, a Godan could be the new President, and under the By-Laws, attain Judan. Also, one could, as the new President of said new governing body, appoint a new Administration, and then that new Administration could then promote Judan to the new President. Imho, this still lacks integrity. But, that's just me!

I believe that the judges got it right...Japan!! Thanks for the video!!

I truth, I'd rather do TKD sparring because of its constant sparring ideology. I have to admit that I don't like karate sparring because of its one and two step-sparring likeness. If I want to do one or two step-sparring, well, I'd do that instead.

Glad to see you again!! Congrats to your Blue Belt!!

I concur!! So, you're saying that the change(s) were made before money seeped its way into the fray?!? I think the changes were made when the instructors began introducing the arts into schools.Schools, like public schools for K-12?!?

Enough knees to the ribs will catch up. That's true of mostly everything MA.

Thanks for the video's...loved them all!! Kendall's got that fighter heart, and I love the way he drives...fearless. I bow to KENDALL!! As his dad, you must be so very proud of him across the board!!

I concur!! So, you're saying that the change(s) were made before money seeped its way into the fray?!?

You lost me here. That's not hard to do, lose me.

I concur!! Notice, when watching an Aikido demo, that the Uke "goes with it", right. I think they're doing that to keep themselves from being broken. It's the..."go with it, or you'll get hurt" thing, and that's what a Aikido demo looks like to me. Makes me wonder if the Aikido master would torque "all the way" to ensure the success of said throw, while the Uke starts to seriously resist? I don't know! Serious resisting might cause the Aikido master to seriously torque.

Exceptions? What would those be? How does self-promotion not lack integrity?

Yes...Yes...Yes...Yes...those were the days, my friend, I wished that they never ended, oh yes those were the days!! Money, changes a lot of things, imho.

Not being an Aikidoist, I'm thinking that the unresisting training of the Uke is cool while ones learning the mechanic and the like of it. Possibly, the "go with it" to avoid any injuries, that I'm sure would occur at full speed/power/etc. As you know, Brian, we teach both unresisting as well as resisting training because it's important to know what to do when things don't work out as they do on the floor. Teach=unresisting Application=resist However, when it's time to test the application, do not do it in such a way that injuries will occur. There's a difference from experiencing the application than from seriously injuring the student. Of the latter, there's no excuse for that from anybody, especially an instructor of the MA.

Possibly...maybe...the correlation is based more on ones experience level. Sure, the Sensei teaches said kata to the student, but in doing that, he/she insures that the student is capable of it. Surely, for example, a white belt isn't ready for a Green/Brown/Black belt kata for the lack of experience. Unsu demands much more than a Shodan can muster, in that, Unsu is usually reserved for the Yondan, 4th Dan, level of experience. Rank does correlate to the Kata, and visa versa, but, not for the pure sake of a testing cycle.

This post makes me giggle... I can't believe that people are that fixated on the stripes on a belt, where someone wont respect someone for it, or tell them to "get out of my life". It's not the identifiers on said belts, it's the self-promotion that's the problem. That's what I don't respect; it's the self-aggrandizement of it all. And yes, I don't want to be around those types, which is my right. Imho!! sorry, but this sounds like a child who gets mad at his parents and says i hate you, get out of my life. few things in life are as serious to tell someone "get out of my life" and if someone promoting themselves or putting more stripes on their belt gets you THAT fired up, i would like to see how mad you get at things that really matter in life. Rank/Title Self-Promoting really matters to me because, imho, it's wrong. It's wrong because, imho, it lacks integrity!!

I believe that it could be beneficial to you.