Killer Miller

WKF is only a "recognized" organization. It does not mean that they are the "sole" governing body slated for the olympics. Any other organization can submit their organization as a "Recognized" organization for a given sport or art and long as they meet the criteria for becoming a recognized organization. Olympic Sport: WTF - Taekwondo (179 affiliates) Recognized: WKF - Karate (173 affiliates) IWF - Wushu (101 affiliates) A sport has to be practised in 25 or more countries on three continents to be eligible for the Olympics. So the question becomes, how many countries and continents is the WKF practiced? The structure of the WKF has nobody significant affiliated with the traditional structures with the historical teachings of the art of karate. It is possible that the WKF may meet the requirements and become an olympic sport, and I'm sure they are a legitimate organization. But there are other organizations working on meeting these requirements as well. Whom will be excepted as the official olympic sport? We'll have to wait and see. These organization also have to meet financial and orgainzational requirements for a pre-determined number of years prior to be excepted as the official olympic sport too. My point is that the IOC did not choose or appoint the WKF as the official representitive of Karate. The WKF submitted their application as meeting the requirements of becoming an IOC recognized IF. Now the WKF has to work on meeting the requirements as becoming the governing body to represent Karate in the Olympics. Will they become that governing body? Perhaps? But the race to become the governing body is not over until that happens. Will it be WKF, WUKO, ITKF? Who knows, we'll just have to wait and see. The big issue that hurt JKA was the friction between WUKO vs ITKF/ITKF. I'm sure they would had become a recognized IF by now had this friction not occured... - Killer -

Karate in the olympics has been Nishiyama's goal since I can remember. He has always been heavily involved with the IOC and the Pan American games. Which organization is the originator, I don't really feel like getting into the politics of the matter on this forum. However, there were, and I'm sure there still are, various representing organizations internationally representing their chapter for their region of the world. Nishiyama is the U.S. chapter of representing Olympic Karate - I'm sure some will disagree with that statement, but I know it to be true. When the BIG SPLIT of JKA happened, there were many written claims stated as facts that were not necessarily facts of what truly occured and whom was in charge of what. Only those involved will know the truth. - Killer -

Fact: It is 18% faster. Fact: Video quality is poor. Fact: There are a couple of glitches in the video. Fact: The speed of the Kata is a realistic speed. Considering the facts, this video is not a big deal. The speed is realistic wether it was sped up, a faulty video, etc. I personally can perform a kata with that speed with no problem, and I don't feel that issue is a big deal. I feel it was just a bad video of an honest attempt to demonstrate the kata. No foul play, no intentional deceit, just a bad video... - Killer -

Nice article! Very well written. - Killer -

I understand where you are going with the Lose concept. But I think the concept is to be comfortable to where you achieve a comfortable calm when sparring and not becoming gun shy and making mistakes. Another concept to achieve a similar result is to work on a lot of combinations in real sparring situations - meaning not as much free sparing. Practising "bits" of sparring in a realistic sparring environment allows you to prepare for tournament sparring, but less gun shy to where you can reach the same calm, be as confident, and hone in technique as well. You touch on working on one or two (maybe three) combinations or concepts. I absolutely agree with this. And I also agree that you don't have to be even on both sides. Tanaka and Oshishi were by no means "even" on both sides, yet two of the best there's been in a long time. They too had two or three combinations or techniques that they perfected from any or favorite positions and would nail the point(s) every time on their oponents. - Killer -

Like everyone says, practise, practise, practise. Visualize as you practice though. Secondly, the day before and the day of, don't do anything but stretching and relaxing... If you don't know it by then, you won't know it at the tourney. Save your energy for the tourney the day before and day of. The rest is just going to come with experience. - Killer -

Cool. Glad to have you around. I would love to see you write an article in the articles section. ISKF, is that Dalke's group too? Years ago, I trained a little bit with a couple of Okazaki dojos - good guys... I was AAKF, Nishiyama and Matsura mostly, and all the other guys at Central in the 70s and 80s. Haven't been there is quite a while. Our bigs heavy-weights, so to speak, use to be Smith, Fields, and Dalke. There was a lot of talent back then - I don't know about now?? - Killer - Lots of people actually. I was stationed in Japan at Camp Zama from 1988 till 1996. Use to train with Masahiko Tanaka quite a bit as well as some guys from Asai's dojo before he broke away. When I got back to the states in 1996 joined the ISKF and trained under Mr. Okazaki for a while as well. Are you JKA? Tomo

Who did you train with in JKA? - Killer -

I watched the video again. Although the video is about 18% faster than it should be at normal, the movements are normal and natural. The speed is realistic, and is not edited in my opinion. However, it's possible that the speed of the video was affected by the poor video quality and how the video packets are processed over the internet. Although the kata did not impress me much in terms of technique, speed, etc. for a high level performer, I still feel it was an honest attempt to demonstrate correct technique and speed. - Killer -

It's real. This is a common speed of high level performers. This is where visualization of technique comes in to play. - Killer -

The "formal" is Domo Arigatou Gozaimashita which is Thank you for what you have done or presented to me. This is used frequently in corporate business. Less formal amognst equals or friends is Domo, Arigatou, Domo Arigatou, etc. Osu is used in a wide varitey properly and improperly - but mostly an aknowlegement to a higher rank in karate or military, or a greeting with fellow ranks and friends as hi or what's up. - Killer -

1. Gankaku 2. Unsu (but only a hand-full in the world do it any justice...) 3. Gojushiho

Nice article. When I tell someone that I do/did traditional karate, I don't really think of it in the physical sense of the word. You are right in the sense that you can't say that physical attributes are necessarily traditional. Traditional karate is a training concept, an art, and most importantly a "way of life." Traditional karate is not really taught as a sport for trophies, belts, fame or money. You are learning a new way of thinking, learning, training, etc., that has the training concepts and attributes of the art of traditionally taught karate. You never fully learn the art, because the art is always evolving and there are always new things to learn. So this means that the physical aspect of karate are not really that important as a whole. As far as Kata, kata is historical in the sense that when martial arts was outlawed, kata was the form of training karate without getting arrested. It was trained in the form of a traditional dance. However, it contained all of the elements of normal karate training. Lets compare this training concept with todays modern or "non-traditional" martial. One you have achieved your black belt, 52 trophies on your mantle, $$$ in prize money, etc., there is a tendancy to stop progessing or training. This would be considered non-traditional because it has not become your way of life, for the rest of your life, with the goal to always train and learn with the traditional concepts of the art. So traditional karate is truly more than the word "traditional" or the difference of the physical attributes, it's truly the traditional art of karate - or whatever traditional art you train... - Killer -

Welcome Back... I use to really enjoy the BB and the website was full of great content. Keep up the great work! - Killer -

Osu, Jion... - Killer -

It will take you about a month or two of training to learn the outside movements of your first level. Then a couple of more months to learn and understand the inside movements to be ready to test. Now notice that I used the words to "learn and understand." However, I did not use the word "perfect." It takes about a year to actually perfect your first level kata, techniques, and "inside movements." - Killer -

Traditional JKA is 8 Kyus of White, Green, Brown, Black. Some dojos choose to provide their own incentive colors for various Kyus and Pre-Kyu levels of progression. It's the Kyu level that's actually recognized by the JKA and not the belt color. Belt color is a matter of interpretation by each dojo in relation to the actual Kyu ranking. You could have your students wear all white belts untill black if that is your choice to do so... - Killer -

Thanks Menjo... - Killer -

Are you sure you are talking about shotokan??? That wouldn't be very effective against any of the shotokan karate-ka I've ever seen or practiced with. Also, front leg kicks, sweeps, and inside round houses to the groin area are very common in shotokan - we block these effortlessly... - Killer -

Yes, it is the standard basic reverse punch in shotokan. Except, your hips do move first. Although, the hips can actually move when ever you want to move them depending on when you want to apply energy or force. Nothing new, old school... What he describes would be the method used more for free style sparring when the timing of the execution is not always pre-determined. - Killer -

G95, You know me... But I don't have ICQ or any of the other chats. - Killer -

I think you all are missing the concept of point sparring altogether. Point sparring is not on the premise of "tag, your it!" Point sparring tournaments and competitions is based on "one" point as a perfect killing technique (some styles go with two and three point matches - Traditional is one point). Now this means perfect timing, perfect speed, the right technique in a killing zone, perfect stance, perfect stability, etc. In all the tournaments I seen and participated in, you will only see one or two Ippon(s) (one full point) in the entire tournament - and generally only at higher levels. However, two Wazari (1/2 point) equals one Ippon. So, in the traditional sense, you may be stopped if you get a wazari and continue until you get another wazari or an ippon. What's the point of this to the thread? Point sparring is not easy to do and only the best of Karate-ka are skilled enough to acquire an Ippon in a tournament. and in real life, even on the street, you don't want to mess with these persons becauce they are capable of killing you in a blink of an eye. They have trained all, or most, of their lives to reach this level of expertise. Now let's compare this level of expertise with the average "Joe Karate-ka" that you will commonly see in tournaments where the tournament director doesn't have this level of competition or the T.D. is just doing the tournament for $$$. They are going to be awarding a lot of wazari(s) and hardly, or if none at all, any Ippon. The skill level is very low and inexperienced. The large part of these persons probably couldn't punch their way out of a paper bag much less in a street fight... This is the level that most see and compare statements with as being poor street fighters, "tag, you're it," can't punch their way from a paper bag. And that is mostly true at that level. But the purpose of the art is that when you train hard and long enough, become skilled enough to be awarded Ippon on a regular basis, you are one skilled dude or dudet and are not someone to be messed with on or off the dojo by anyone. Fuel for thought on this discussion thread... - Killer -

This post was originally published as an article in a dedicated KarateForums.com Articles section, which is no longer online. After the section was closed, this article was most to the most appropriate forum in our community. It's a typical Friday afternoon after a very hard day at work. Several of us fellow Karate-ka gather and argue as to whom has the junkiestvehicle. "Let's take your car. Not mine, I just bought new rims for mine. Let's take yours…" We flip a coin. "You loose, we'll take your car. Let's go, we're running late." We head out in heavy Friday traffic for downtown L.A. - tonight is Friday night. Team training. We arrive in downtown LA - streets appear to be empty. Gangs, weirdos, bums, thieves, to name just a few, are waiting as prey for their daily meal eying salable parts on our vehicle during our approach for a parking space. We decide that it's best to park on the main highway in front of our dojo – a car full of black belts has no defense against invisible thieves of downtown LA. We walk up to the dojo hearing kiais that echo blocks away. Supposed white belts with perfect technique and lightning speed – the black had worn off the belts years' prior... "Ah, Central. Can you feel it, Joe?" Joe replies, "Yeah, magical isn't it!" We watch the wrap up of the afternoon advanced class for a few minutes to ingest the energy before us that will soon be expelled through our souls. "Hidetaka Nishiyama - The master of masters!" Nishiyama was teaching the class as the students (mostly other instructors) are flush white from exhaustion and dripping wet like an over soaked sponge. We all work our way to the back locker room and get our gis on for training. Class is now over and it is time to enter the dojo as Nishiyama-sensei takes a break in his office. We enter the dojo and immediately bow before entering further. Quiet sets in now, no talking, as we empty our minds in preparation for the intense 3 hour plus training session we are about to enter into. We do a combination of relaxation and stretching as a way of channeling out our nervousness/jumpiness from affecting our training session. The team captain enters the dojo with two pails of water, rags and a touch of bleach in the water. "Everyone grab a towel!" "Osu!" is replied as we grab a damp towel. We take a towel and run up and down the wood dojo floors with the rag in both hands and bent over like a bunch of dogs at feeding time. This is a tradition to strengthen our legs as well as clean the floor before training from sweat and bacteria. Next enters Nishiyama-sensei to the dojo floor, a small fit Japanese man that carries an edge of the old Samurai – he is a descendant of a long line of Samurai. "LINE UP!" shouts the team captain. Everyone quickly lines up in order of rank, then quickly into kneeling position – which is difficult to figure out at times considering that 95% of the team training class are black belts and many of those belts have turned white as well. The team captain loudly echoes through the dojo "Mokusoh!" (Note: Many westerners have a tendency to say "Mo Kuso!" which is not a good thing to say and will give us a good, private chuckle as we are trying to clear our minds). Everyone is dead quiet starting out with heavy breathing and then greatly slowed down for a pin drop to be heard – this is to clear our minds of everyday events so that training is the only thing in our thoughts. "Yame!" "Otagani rei!" We now bow to the picture of Funakoshi on the wall, again to Nishiyama-sensei and then turn to our right corner and bow to the team captain and guest/assistant instructors as well. Karate-ka quickly spread out for warm ups – starting with stretching. We do all of the typical stretches, then a few Nishiyama specialties – Nishiyama was a chiropractor, as I recall or a similar profession and would make you feel like a new man or woman prior to obtaining your sore bones and muscles through training. It was almost worth the beatings just to get stretched out. We would spend between 15 to 30 minutes stretching out, depending on how hard we would be training that night. "Yohi!" shouts Nishiyama, "Hidari Gedan Barai." Left leg forward, downward block and kiai was always a given... "Five-way kicking both sides – slowly and perfectly" as Sensei would say with his gruff voice and poor broken English. Five way kicking would be front kick, side snap, side thrust, round house, then back kick without your foot touching the ground and maintaining a freestyle sparring stance during and when done kicking – then the same thing on the other side. "Ichi, Ni, San, Shi, Go, Roku, Sichi, Hachi, Ku, Juu" as Nishiyama-sensei counts to ten. Each count of one, in Nihongo (Japanese), would represent all five kicks on both sides. Then, after the count of ten, "Now, full speed with kiai!" Again, we hear a faster version of counting which sounds like "Ich, Ni, Son, Shi, Go, Rok, Sich, Hach, Ku, Chu," except much faster. The 10th kick would be a loud roar of kiais that would almost scare away the thieves about to strip our cars outside the dojo (although, our radios and wheels would still come up missing after training). Then in Sensei's classic samurai style of voice, "Ah, poor spirit. Ten more, KIME!" We would do ten more full speed. Our legs are starting to get warm and tired, but maintaining good technique still. Then, "I said more spirit. TEN MORE, KIME!!" We do ten more – our legs are turning into rubber at this point and most gasping for air as we dance in a puddle of sweat. Most kicks are starting to look like leg jerks now instead of actual kicks. "Last Ten. Full speed!" Now we are about to drop as we think we are going to get to rest. "Last Ten." Now our legs are starting to hurt. "Last Ten. Now use hips to raise knee to target" As we all think that we are going to drop dead, we start to get our second wind, and the kicks actually start looking like kicks again. "Last Ten. Breathe from stomach." We finish the fourth set of "last ten" quite impressively! Now shake it out. We bounce around, shake, take some deep breaths and then about a minute later "Sanbon tsuki, kiba-dachi!" says Nishiyama. "Slowly." This is straddle leg stance, 3 time punch – starting with the right side punching, then left. Our slow execution of technique, after our previous warm-up, is actually our rest. Nishiyama does not believe in breaks between training sets and teaches to rest through slow movement and breathing. The slow breathing allows oxygen to the blood stream for a clear mind; good blood flow and prevents lactic acid from forming in muscles. Additionally, the slow movement keeps the muscles warm and not tensing or pulling in the process. After a set of ten, then it's "Full speed with kiai!" After about four sets of ten, then it's the infamous "Last ten." We do another three or four sets of last ten with kiai on the last punch. Note: in team training class, we always finish a technique, or combination of techniques in a sharp, fast, strong freestyle position and stance – as if you are executing another punch. Nishiyama-sensei feels that you must "always" be ready for the next action and also that the freestyle position, or block return, could also be used as a punch – e.g., Kizami Tsuki (short jab). He was very adamant about this and would make a point of this every time you forgot to do it! Next warm up would be combinations. It would seem that Nishiyama's warm ups were few, but there is a lot of activity crammed into the warm-ups. We would pair up, facing a partner on one side of the training hall (if Nishiyama was in a festive mood, we would do the short distance of the walls. Otherwise, the long method was in store for us!) and Sensei would say, "Do your favorite combination and kiai on the last technique" – again returning to a stout free sparring stance with conviction. He would have the person you are attacking literally run back wards until he or she bounces off the other wall. The attacker would have to keep up attacking the other person using their favorite combination, and yet maintain continuity, speed, sharpness and purpose of what you are doing. Nishiyama would get out his well known and well used Shinai (the bamboo Kendo swords) and poke you in the buttocks or backside if you weren't keeping up with the pace or getting sloppy in your technique. Again, "Ichi, Ni, San..." then "last one." We knew by now what that really meant! A good hour to hour and a half has passed now, thinking what's next? "Five minute break." He meant five minutes only! We all quickly bow out at the door and take our break. Five minutes have passed: "Line up!" Everyone rushes in the doorway and quickly bows in. Since we have taken our break and we are somewhat refreshed, Nishiyama-sensei uses this time to explain a new concept or two (actually one concept with two variations). "Kake-waza and Sasoi-waza" he explains – one is to quickly fake a three quarter punch to draw in your opponent and quickly counter after their technique is executed in their relaxed stage. The other is to create a realistic fake three quarter punch and quickly counter in a split second before they can react. The object was to pick up their breathing timing to catch them in a non committed relaxed state for the advantage. Again, we would start off doing these drills slowly – emphasizing breathing and breathing timing. Now "Full speed with kiai." We drill and drill and drill – rotating partners after each set of ten. "Last time." Here we go again! What's unique about Nishiyama's methods of competition training is he would only work on one or two concepts for the entire night. However, he would make us do those one or two concepts every possible way and under every possible scenario... you would truly learn or program the concept into muscle memory (or subconscious) where it became a natural reaction and felt comfortable using it at any time – without thought. Slowly at first to understand the outside movements, then full speed to develop continuity of technique and write the techniques into memory. There is not much talking in Nishiyama's classes, but full of learning and experience when you are done. He believes in teaching by doing and not by talking – you can only write concepts into muscle memory through repetition of technique. He also believes that you will execute or perform in real life situations and tournaments with the exact quality that you practice. If your conscious mind becomes confused, distracted or goes blank, you revert back to your subconscious database of techniques. Basically only executing the technique as good or bad, fast or slow, stable or not stable, as you did when you practiced. Do it perfect in training, you will execute it perfect in real life or in competition or don't train for that day at all! You will have wasted your time and everyone else's time as well. We are now at the last part of training for the evening, Kumite (tournament style free sparring). This was typically only for the last 15 minutes of the night – but you would think longer. Nishiyama's philosophy is to not get his team members gun shy of being hit too much during the learning process and provide a little sparring to apply what you have learned to real sparring situations. Although, there are nights with the major focus of the evening being tournament sparring – TRUST ME, you went home HURT and BRUISED! "Jiyu Kumite! Focus on Kake-waza and Sasoi-waza!" shouts Sensei. Now we apply the concept we have been working all night on in a tournament sparring situation. This is entertaining, educational and awe inspiring to watch. Other Karate-ka whispering, "What a putz" or "That guys awesome!", etc. Then it's their turn to spar. All that cheap talk goes out the window because it's time to see what you are made of as well - they are typically not as good as they thought... Finally, the last part of training we've all been waiting for and really enjoy is our warm down for the evening - our stretch down. Sensei would spend another 15 to 30 minutes stretching. It would be some of the best and most unusual stretching you've ever done. He would work out every sore muscle and sore bone you acquired through the evening. Cracking backs, necks, deep tissue techniques, etc. You felt like a new person – or at least until you woke up the next morning. Anyhow, training was complete. We would all retire to the nearest restaurant draining their water dispensers, chat about training, have a few beers and head on home looking forward to the next training session. Hidetaka Nishiyama is one of the true hard core instructors left from the old days and methods – a true Samurai by character. He is a very unique individual and has committed his entire life to maintaining the philosophies, skills and training methods of traditional Karate. He grants very few interviews, not in arrogance, but because his way of life and philosophy of maintaining the traditional spirit of the art is more important to him than developing a sport or fame of media. He is a very stern individual, yet a very compassionate individual as well. Nishiyama has trained and coached many national and international champions over the years. Students travel from many states and many countries to have an opportunity to train with him. He touches everyone's life in a way that could not be explained without experiencing his greatness. I write this article to give those a "small" glimpse of what it is like to train with Nishiyama-sensei and share my gratitude as to how he has shaped my wonderful life as well. Thank you Nishiyama-sensei!

I'm with you ZakariRu. I don't know where Gankaku is a Godan Kata either... I think, if I recall, I tested for Shodan with Kankudai. However, my primary kata was Gankaku and my secondary kata was Kankudai. Nishiyama, nor any of the other JKA instructors, or affiliates, ever had a problem with Gankaku being practiced or performed by us - nor they any of the ever indicate it was a Godan kata. I would love to see this point elaborated on for clarification. - Killer -

To the original post: You never try to overpower a more powerful oponent. So how do you take the advantage? Being with Oyama's group you should be be familiar with Sen (before oponent comitts to an action), Sen no sen (same time oponent commits to an action), and Sen go no sen (after oponent commits to an action) concepts. With the first two concepts your longer armed, bigger, more powerful oponent will have a definate advantage over you and will win. However, the third concept (Sen go no sen) you now have an equal advantage. Your oponent has already comitted his body weight, size and power to or towards you and can not expend any more force as an action to you. The nano-second after he contracts from comitting to a technique, this is exactly when you attack back and either take him/her down or kick/punch them out. They are totally helpless at this point. After this, you create your distance back just out or their range and be creative to force them to commit to another action towards you - then you attack again after their technique has completed. There are many drills for Sen go no sen, but I don't have time to expand on them at the moment. Perhaps when I have more free time. - Killer -