Neil

Look one little sentance I made has escalated into something I really wasn't interested in discussing. I only wanted to point out that kata is not a bunch of techniques or 'shadow boxing', kata does not represent a fight by any means of the imagination. They are however SYMBALS and meant to be worked out to what a particular movement is teaching you to do, and then the movement is adapted in knocking hands and brought alives and in the end it looks nothing like it did in the kata. Then I wanted to point out that some parts of the kata such as in Goju Ryu where after bowing and naming the kata the hands come up to the head and push through the body to the groin to symbalise that you are taking in the knowledge of the teacher and putting it through. My point was here that a lot of teachers teach that the reason you have your hands in front of your groin at the start of the kata is to block a kick to the groin, which is pathetics, it is has absolutely no correlation with fighting what so ever, and if anyone does think that it shows the incapability of that man as a fighter. Religeon was there before kata was as far as I know, Zen Buddism was a big part of Okinawa which I know from a book entitled 'Tales of Okinawa's Great Masters' by Shoshin Nagamine. So Zen Buddism was a part of Okinawa and I geus this had no influence in the kata. The start of the kata is a religeous ceromonial movement with no fighting application what so ever. It is no denying it is ceromonial-that is for sure, so why is it not religeous? Okinawa had deep Zen Buddism in it and one thing I do know is that buddist hands are in the kata Sanhcin and other katas which I repeatedly do every morning at 4am. My interest does not lie in the historical details of the kata, but you have to know the difference between what is ceromomial and religeous to which is meant to be worked out and can be used in a combative conrontation, that is where all you who have been led by a bad sense of smell like a pig and made to do unnatural movements of the body and then lied to saying that there is no rleigeous base in Martial Arts, when blatentley there is, not only from movements that replicate movements that can be seen in statues all over asia since nobody here has boviously been to preferring to surf the safety of the web and listen to their teachers every word even though he has no idea or is lying to his students in order to make a living. I'm sorry but you need to open your eyes. I may be wrong about the religon thing a bit, but you must undersytand what kata is for and what it is not for that somew parts of the kata are purely ceremonial and others are meant to be worked out as fighting application on the street to drop the guy in 3 seconds flat yet sadly more of you if not all are probobly going around being lied to and now your beleif is so strong you are not even listening to what I am saying. http://www.zhongding.fsnet.co.uk/Warrior%20Tim%20Nicklin.pdf

I might have misuntepreted what my teacher said that I will admit but my teacher certainly is not a fraud such as the JKA. He has been doing Martial Arts since he was six years old and he is now 40. Every year he has gone to asia and physically trained out there, not read how to do books such as a lot of your senseis do. But I do know that there is buddist hands in sanchin since I have perform sanchin every day, history is not my thing, I'm 16 years old, I know I should stick to what I do know, but I thought I might aswell have a go. The only history I know is what my teacher knows, I have not done any of my own research, the only research I do and the subject which I can defend and understand is the human body and how it moves and how we can teach ouselves how to fight. That is what I study and know, so forgive me if I angered anyone, but if it is wrong hat I have said, it was due to ME misintepreting what he said. He is in no way wrong. So what I got wrong was the religeous dance, yes, but the fact that kata is all about symbals definately is right since I know that myself, but it still has some religeon mixed in with some katas, theres no denying the buddist hands!

The bow is not a religeous thing, true, but there is buddist hands in the kata sanchin, saifa, gekisai kata 2 and other katas I have seen. So there is no denying that there is religeous basis in Martial Arts. And talking about misinformed if you actually went to asia like my teacher you would see the buddist statues and see the link between religeon and kata. Think about where the katas first came from. They came from China. Each karate system had certain animal forms in it and with that religeous aspects. Shorite is made up of white crane and snake, nahate is made up of tiger and white crane with religeon being present in katas. If you think kata is just about fighting then you are the one who is "mistaught". The start of the katas in Goju with the hands being pushed through the body has absolutely no fighting application what so ever, although many modern day Okinawan and Japanese and western teachers, or should I say instructors since that is what they do 'instruct', teach these as fighting applications and who have absolutely no fighting ability what so ever. Religeon is present in kat, I'm sorry but it simply is, it always has. Neil

I think you will find these katas are religious dances. There are certain movements that you will find in Buddism and religions across India and China. They are definately intwinned in religion. As I have already stated the kata begins with religeous movements such as bringing the heands from the head through the body in front of the groin going through the chakras of the body. This is in no way a fighting technique. Anyone that thinks that karate has no religion in it has no idea what he is doing. True we can just 'DO' the kata but whats the point if you don't know WHAT you are doing. Karate and religion are inseperable. When you bow at the start of the kata you are not bowing to the teacher, you are bowing to the people who have gone before you. Katas are deeply rooted in religion, or is it just coincidence that some katas just happen to have buddist hands in it? You don't have to be religeos to do the katas, but it is intwinned in religeon non the less. Neil

Actually Justfulwardog the largest muscles in the human body are the glutes (Gluteus Maximus, Gluteus Minimus, Gluteus Medius). Power comes from the ground. The more you push your legs into the ground (by bending the knees) the more power you reap. Yes thank God you use the waist! I am so tired of repeating my self when people think you punch with the hips, if you were meant to punch with your hips they would be on your shoulders! The trunk, which contains the strongest muscles in the body (which women have stronger stomach muscles than men for obvious reasons!) are pulled up and pushed down. The waist does turn the punch and the shoulders in turn twist, the pectorials -(chest muscles)- sqeeze together, you want to keep your body as tight, compact and heavy as possible, your elbow stays connected to the body so that you are punching with the body and utilisiing the strength of the trunk muscles. The head is the thing that turns first. When we walk are head moves from side to side. It is an automatic thing we do, you see it in animals as well. The head moves to the left if you are punching with your right arm, and the waist moves the body, but the head initiates the movement. But in boxing I am being taught to bring the shoulder up to protect my jaw, which causes my elbow to come up, so at the moment I geus combat effectivness takes over biomechanics. Neil

ygrgeg

Hi, I made this post after looking at the Goju post and other postings made and just want to make it a little clearer on what the katas are actually for and how they are supposed to be used for maximum affect. NHB and other combat sports are against kata because they see kata as fighting technique as do Martial Artists themselves. But kata is not techniques. KATA IS A RELIGIOUS DANCE THAT CONTAINS SYMBALS NOT FIGHTING TECHNIQUES, FIGHTING TECHNIQUES ARE DERIVED FROM THE SYMBALS, FROM THE KATA! Karate is kata. End of! That is it. Kata is all that is karate. Kata or karate, is a thinking mans game, not a flippy floppy sport where we score a point and get a trophy for are flippancy. Kata is a studying game, you must think, 'what is this movement teaching me to do?' but when you apply it it will LOOK nothing like it was in the kata. Fighting will never look like a kata do in million years, thats why when people rush through the kata, the stronger the faster the better, they have completely missed the point. Kata are symbals for you to make the best application for your own body type, that is why certain katas are meant for different size people. I think from this, katas are grouped together into a system to fit a certain body type, buts thats just me hypothesising, but to me it makes some sense as to why we have styles. Anyway back to kata, this way of thinking that kata are fighting techniques have lead to innapropiate applications that we can see across virtually every dojo in the world. Such as the upper forearm block, age uke. That was never made to be applied as a block but to smash your forearm into the person neck. And what is the hikate for every time you punch. Its application is pulling their pectorial muscle or kidney, and pulling that muscle, bringing the person in close to smack, so you have a pull push affect to take someone out. gedan barais can be throws, not just the attck to the groin, which I personally don't like, because you have kicks to do that for you, and it certainly isn't a block! You reall have to analyze why the kata is making this movement, it is not clear-cut. Because a symbal looks like a block, think, use-your-head, remember there is no time for a block in a street confrontation, your only self defence is your offence, preemptive strikes work a lot better, the most violant and aggresive and co-rodinated man will always win, not the one who can put a wrist lock on! But certain parts of kata are to be respected as religious and not fighting and this is in the goju katas from the bow, and the hands going from the top of the head to the groin, and at the end with the bow and yoi. People have said you have your hands in front of your groin to stop someone kicking you there. I would love it if someone would be willing to try that out. The only way to stop your self getting kicked in the groin is to move it! Anyway just thought I might cover briefly some aspects of the actuall point of doing kata and what kata is not. Neil

Hi, I'v finally managed to see Rocky Marciano on this show called Boxing Classics which was on Eurosport GB. It was a highlited match between Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis. Rocky seemed to get in close with relative ease. His guard was the most important thing I picked up on. His guard was in front of him, but they were just under his chin. I tried this and it works for me. The typical boxing guard where you have your fists right up beside your temples is useless to me, I can't seem to box properly, its more of a defensive gurad. Rocky developed a guard that always alowwed him to attack. To get in close he leaned to his right, and then found a jab to the body, and then charged in all over him and then backed of again. Neil

Awful. See this is the krap being taught throughout the world. She is totally uncoordinated, she is literally wobbling in her over stretched stances, making all these hand moves that aren't even needed, seperating the 3 bows of her body, and generally is just a s*** kata. There are moves she was doing that aren't even in the kata! Too stiff and too strong. The still pics is awful. I am not familiar with the isshinRyu version, but what relates to any kata is that you are always pushing your body into the floor, via bending the knees. Yamaguchi Gogen always said karate comes from below the knees.

Yeah I prefer Union to league. Union from what I see has a requirment for more power and strengh (rucks and mauls), wheras league has a requirment for greater pace and VO2 MAX. But league is fun to play as there is more action going on since the rucks and mauls in union is what slows the game wright down. I found out the club matches are on sky sports, and so I can't see any of the matches. Which team do you think has the best forwards? Neil

I'v actually only recently got into Rugby, so I'm eager to support a club, since I don't support any footbal clubs, but I don't know who to support, I don't know which channels show club rugby. I looked at the 12 clubs, but I think I need to watch the teams to know which one to support. Why do you support the titans? Neil

Yes, brilliant. I was exhausted at the end, the adrenalin was pumping. It was a horrible game in the way that it was so close, I just couldn't bare to think that we could lose, but we one, the best victory we could posssibly hope for! Its still hard to sink in that England has one, do you play rugby? Neil

I got hercules.

Same here. I still can't explain why but I'v done about 3 years of weightlifting, and after my first bodyweight calisthenics routine I felt much stronger, and explosive like I had springs in my legs. However you should not neglect weights. I have found that bodyweight calisthenics is better for building strengh, endurance, power etc but you need weights to co-ordinate the body such as using dumbells to punch with, and using chshi aand barbells to co-ordinate throws etc. You need to put movement patterns under pressure to know how to co-odinate the body, you need weight for this. But yes, anyone who sais bodyweight exercises are a waste of time has not PHYSICALLY done it, that is for sure. Neil

Tibby, nice post but actually when in an actual fight and flight encounter consious thinking is the last thing you do, it blocks your nervous system and physical brain from performing the automatic responses to the presentenvironment. The time for thinking is in training, but when it comes down to the fight, you just do it.