sensei8

Yes...very cool stuff, and I too thank you for sharing it. Question: How do you think it would do against BJJ/MMA and the like?

Excuse me for asking this...have you asked your Sensei? I ask because the different viewpoints of any said Bunkai of any said Kata run a very wide gambit of its possibilities. I could say it's an escape release or I could say that it's a block [but I don't teach it that it is] or I could say that it's a way to do this or that. Ask your Sensei!!

Forward is bad enough, but backwards is nearly, at first, a nightmare, but quite invaluable to a karateka because it ensures that the karateka KNOWS the kata inside and outside, and that alone is a great teaching tool. I love it!! When I do it for the students right from their first glance at said kata, they're thinking..."OMG...I've got to do that?" Well...Yes you do, and you'll love it too.

Possibly "Practical" is nothing more than a "brand" to attract the consumer...possibly. After all, there are many, many ways to attract the consumer to take at least a peek.

Good luck with your Shodan, and the old saying says...Anything that good is worth waiting for!! 27 years for Shodan might shock a many MAists but I think that, with what you've posted, you've not allowed the breaks to break your spirit.

What I see is what it's like for Greg, our Kancho, and I when we're engaged with each other during sparring and the like; greatly intense. No, we're not even like this with anyone else on the floor, just with each other. We've both known each other for 50 years, and we've trained together for almost 49 years. We've always been this intense with each other and we wouldn't want it any other way.

The Unsu technique in the beginning was EXCELLENT...thanks for sharing the video...SUPREME!!

Way to go...3rd place is quite a respectful way to finish in Kumite/Kata. Be as proud of yourself as I'm sure your instructor is of you...AWESOME and CONGRATS!!

I thank each one of you...your words and expressions are heart felt!!

English/Japanese

For what it's worth... Karate is like a iron chain and it goes "wang". Gung-Fu is like a iron chain with a bar attached to it and it goes "wang"...and it hurts.~Bruce Lee I don't agree with this totally because, first, I'm a karateka, and I believe that karate goes "wang"...and it hurts...too! I'm sure that Gung-Fu hurts too, and I'm sure that many other styles of the MA goes "wang"...and they hurt too.

For what it's worth... Karate is like a iron chain and it goes "wang". Gung-Fu is like a iron chain with a bar attached to it and it goes "wang"...and it hurts.~Bruce Lee I don't agree with this totally because, first, I'm a karateka, and I believe that karate goes "wang"...and it hurts...too! I'm sure that Gung-Fu hurts too, and I'm sure that many other styles of the MA goes "wang"...and they hurt too.

By being himself...not acting as though he was better than anybody on and off the floor. Yes, he was beyond amazing in each and every way one could imagine and more than one could ever ask for in a Sensei. He was a taskmaster extraordinary, but not just with his students, but with himself, and then some. He had a unique way, that I still lack, in helping us to discover our most hidden "Aha" moments. In the 48 years that I knew him, he never once lied to me...he became a "dad" to me when my own dad, for some reason or another. He didn't "handle" us...he inspired and drove us to understand ourselves as human beings first, and MAists second, and in that we all learned that while karate-do was important, it was secondary to us becoming complete as human beings. I'd say that the very first time that I truly noticed it was when I was able to understand that while he was my Sensei, he was a nurturing soul not "AT" me, but "TO" me without any ambiguity whatsoever. This topic was both hard for me, yet it was easy for me. I miss him...I love him...I need him...I respect him...I always knew that he truly loved me first for who I am, and while my own mom molested me when I was 16 years old, and my dad just wasn't always there for me, and when he was, I felt that he tolerated me, BUT my Sensei, my Dai-Soke, my bestest friend...he truly showed me that his love for me was deeper than student and Sensei, it was what I needed and what I wanted. Please forgive me for lacking the vocabulary to properly convey to you that very moment, but know this, it meant the world to me as both a human being and as a MAist. Yes, he taught me Shindokan, but he taught me how to be a man...a father...a husband...a human being on and off the floor. I LOVE YOU DAI-SOKE...MY BEST FRIEND...MY SENSEI!!

Very nice article...very informative...I enjoyed it quite a lot!!

Yeah, it does feel a little "showy" but if their doing it in Okinawa/Japan, then it mustn't be "showy" after all.

Couldn't the power that be, whomever that was/is, have just added 'it' to "Karate", for example, instead of creating a different style by name?? Funakoshi Sensei could've just added his methodologies/ideologies to the existing "Karate" of his days. Then, as the years have passed, my Soke could've added his instead of creating Shindokan. Maybe, it's possible, isn't it?!? Then possibly the distance between one "Karate" style towards another "Karate" style wouldn't be so tilted, as it seems to be nowadays. Methodologies/ideologies/ranks/titles and the like could be "honored" across the board, and so on and so forth.

Happy Easter to everyone...be safe and have fun!!

There's still quite a lot of support for Nathan. As seen here... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151370472237543&set=t.100004627084323&type=1&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151370472132543&set=t.100004627084323&type=1&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151370472122543&set=t.100004627084323&type=1&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151370471917543&set=at.10151370434937543.1073741842.750537542.100004627084323&type=1&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151370472077543&set=t.100004627084323&type=1&theater https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=156329107864658&set=a.117469425083960.24803.100004627084323&type=1&theater The ball in Nathan's right hand was signed by every player on the Owasso Rams Basketball team. The ball in Nathan's left hand says... "O Rams" Logo at the top "Nathan Mitcham" just under the logo "#4 Owasso 75 Sand Springs 55" Just under that "February 12, 2013" Just under that "#25" the jersey number he wore that night He's now beeen immortalized in a case that's located in the main lobby of the High School.

I'm playing the entire MGS series. Loved them when I first played them, and I still find that I remember why. Started my love of SOCOM and the like!!

Seconded. Run everything past the doctor treating you first, and go with their recommendations. Better to miss a few weeks of training to heal up rather than permanently injure yourself and miss a lifetime of it. Solid post!! You said it a billion times better than I did!!

Solid post!! Train EVERYTHING, not just a few.

"...I believe there should be only one way of fighting and that is no way". ~Bruce Lee As Bruce said at the beginning of his quote; he didn't believe in a Chinese or Japanese way of fighting, therefore, he believed that NO WAY was the only one way of fighting. Labels, imho, can ruin a brand by the brand being the focus and not the context.

Clearly, they were necessary to someone. The evidence is that they exist. Helio found that a locked closed guard was highly effective for his small frame. It was an easier method of launching this techniques. So on for Funakoshi Sensei and so on. Once we're talking about different methods of the same doctrine, we are discussing differences in strategy. TKD and Shotokan are both percussion arts. But the strategies each employ are different (often). This is what separates them from one another. A more obvious or understandable example would be the difference between Army Rangers and Army Delta Force. Both are Army. Both are ground style forces. But the way they employ their weapons and actions are very different. But, it was still Jujitsu and it was still Shuri-te. Changed, but still core. WARNING: BAD COMPARISON... A Taurus, a Lincoln, and a Crown Victoria are brands of the Ford Motor Company, but, imho, they're all still Fords, and in these, they're all still automobiles. Please be nice...I did say it was a bad comparison!!

That's it right there, imho. Depending on the few over the many possibly is where a practitioner lacks. The few are drilled much harder than the whole, and in that, it'll be very difficult to properly react to any given moment. Train in everything so that everything is made ready!!

I agree that what's being taught nowadays wasn't addressed nor was 'it' thought of. The style evolves but the evolution of any said "style" shouldn't make it's core undesired to its practitioners. However, in my lack, I seek out something viable to fill that void instead of depending on what's right in front of me, and in that, to work on it so that my lack isn't a excuse or crutch.