Kuma

Depends on the region you live. In my state, we have assault charges for the act of actually injuring someone, and for threats it's a different charge (either harassment or terroristic threats, depending upon the severity). I'd like to know what if any action was taken as well.

A lot of what you can do from this point depends on which state you live in. And you absolutely should do something.

What is your definition of it then?

Any proper strength training routine will develop "functional" strength. Is there such a thing as dysfunctional strength? A solid foundation in basic compound exercises will have a huge carryover to your everyday strength.

Hi Fang - Fortunately I'm actually a police officer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania so I can give you and your dad some options about what to do with this particular incident. First of all, thank goodness you left that environment and have found a new one. Now on to the legal side of things. No one has a right to touch you when you don't want to be touched. In Pennsylvania, this is known as indecent assault and is actually a misdemeanor in Pennsylvania. Being that these boys are over the age of 10, they are liable for their actions. I think you and your father should contact the police and file a report to the best of your ability. Try to sit down beforehand and write down the times when it has happened and who did these things, names, and the like. Make mention that you reported this to your instructor and that he did not do anything about it. Keep the letter and show the police as well, because this could also be considered harassment. Once the police get all this information from you, they will do a follow up investigation at the school. Due to the fact that you reported the incidents to your instructor and that he did not take you seriously, he may now be liable for a civil suit as well but that's not really my specialty. I also think you should share your story any place you can review the school online to further prevent anyone else from undergoing the same mistreatment you did as well. He has no right to be an instructor if he's not going to look out for the safety and well being of his students. Best of luck, and if you need any more info you can private message me.

Yesterday's training (08/27): Judo class, 1 1/2 hours. Afterwards I came home and worked the makiwara a bit, trained the basic kicks from a deep front stance, planks, and did a yoga workout with my wife.

Something to also consider - Funakoshi was just one ambassador of karate and not everyone agreed with him. In fact, his biggest rival was Choki Motobu who was all about practical karate and fighting prowess. They had quite a colorful rivalry and it seems absolutely despised each other. So while Funakoshi does have some ideas, due to his views and "Japanese-ing" karate it may not always be true to what real karate is.

Karate is a civilian self defense system and was not designed for military use. So technically it's not a martial art. Iain Abernethy agrees: http://iainabernethy.co.uk/content/karate-not-martial-art

Great post yamesu. Oh and pers you're confusing me with Hawkmoon. If you really want to get technical, karate isn't really a martial art either but that's for another day.

And everything you say applies to all karate, not just Shotokan. Sosai Oyama was a big believer in ichi geki hissatsu, winning many of his challenge matches over the years with just one punch. You're focused too much on the competition side of an art, not the art as a whole. Oyama continued training and sparring on a regular basis into his late 60s before his death. Sensei Liliane Pierron just recently earned her 4th dan at the age of 83, which included a kumite requirement. My own instructor is in his 70s and is right there with us banging away every time we get to train together. Just because younger men and women like to compete doesn't mean it's inapplicable for everyone. If that were so, Judo would not be good for older folk either but between my two main Judo instructors alone they have over 100 years in Judo and aren't slowing down.

And this I agree with 100%. To me it is not the style that makes an effective fighter, it is the training methods used. There are many methods out there that work wonderfully, but there are also many methods out there that instill false confidence and can develop bad habits. Getting comfortable fighting from an unrealistic range, modifying techniques for tournament scoring purposes, lack of pressure from your partner, and so on.

I can't seem to find any link for that. Everything I see is pretty much what I shared. He earned his shodan around the same time Oyama began training there, so I'm sure he did have some input into Oyama's training. There's a lot of accounts saying he later went to learn under Oyama too, so I'm sure there's some truth to both. http://www.dynamic-karate.com/karate-legends-taiji-kase.html We've had this conversation before. Personally when I watch Shotokan matches I feel they are far too linear and rigid compared to other systems which do engage in full contact fighting. As for the comments about the style, Kyokushin fighters each develop their own individual styles much like any other fighting art so there is no one style that fits all fighters. A fighter like Hajime Kazumi will use footwork and counterattacks, combining powerful punches with just low kicks and foot sweeps. You'll also have a fighter like Kenji Midori, who due to his smaller stature relies on his fast high roundhouse kicks and footwork to take out his opponents. You will have your power fighters who are ultra aggressive and relentless, like Makoto Nakamura or Hiroki Kurosawa for example. They are always moving forward and attacking, never giving any ground. You may also have a fighter like Norichika Tsukamoto, who fights primarily from the outside and hardly every punches yet has an impressive array of kicks he uses very effectively. Just like in boxing, there is no one style of fighting in Kyokushin. Heck, in a previous thread, you actually thought a Kyokushin fighter was Shotokan so you can't even tell the difference yourself between the two. As for the techniques - a lot of arts say that they are so powerful they will seriously hurt an opponent, yet reality is far different from fantasy. Oyama didn't believe that either, hence why he wanted to train full contact. Initially they allowed bare knuckle blows to the head, but for a number of reasons (specifically, illegal prizefighting laws forbidding bare knuckle fighting in Japan, as well as students having to go to work with busted mugs, black eyes, and missing teeth) Oyama decided to take away head punches to keep the fighting as karate. If he added gloves, Oyama thought, it would just become like kickboxing which he didn't want. Knockdown fighting is popular, so it still sticks around as a tournament format. Many Kyokushin organizations are moving back to the old ways though of utilizing head strikes (with light gloves) and have for over a decade now. Oyama actually wanted to change the rules to be a more realistic fight and had one of his students, Takashi Azuma, come up with a more realistic ruleset. Once Azuma presented it to Oyama, Oyama liked it but knockdown fighting had grown so popular he couldn't change it so with Oyama's permission Azuma went off on his own, forming Daido Juku Kudo. Knockdown fighting may not be as realistic as a real fight, but it's certainly more realistic than the sophisticated game of tag many karate styles play now. If you can lose a match for excessive contact, it's definitely not being realistic. Add in the stop and start every time a point is scored, and it's now a game, not fighting. It's going to develop bad habits that is going to carry over into your karate, and pulling your punches or kicks when fighting for your own survival doesn't seem like a good idea to me. I think this would apply to any karate style, not just Shotokan. Kyokushin is karate, and shares the same basic principles as any other karate style. If size was all that matters, then how did the renown Kyokushin fighter Kenji Midori, who weighed under 70kg, routinely drop fighters much heavier than him with his powerful strikes? I think his kicks are pretty darn quick in this video: You seem to have a bone to pick with Kyokushin for some reason, pers, even to the point of starting threads to degrade it. Insecurity maybe?

Proper knuckle conditioning will protect your hands and make them denser, which can add power to your punches. However, you need supervision by a qualified instructor to train your hands properly. Punching an immovable object is a terrible idea.

Actually Oyama was a student of Funakoshi, earning his nidan under him. Oyama and Kase were students together at roughly the same time. Years later, Kase and the legendary Judoka Masahiko Kimura briefly trained under Oyama for a time. Funakoshi was actually quite disapproving of Oyama's concept of jissen kumite, and it was the lack of realistic contact in training that made Oyama want more. As for the title, Muhammad Ali claimed he was the greatest and beat just about everyone he faced. Regardless of whether he really was or not, he's still considered the greatest.

Oyama first began advertising Kyokushinkai as the strongest karate in the late 1950s and accepted all challengers to come prove them otherwise. They had many takers as it was a bold challenge, but no outside student ever won. In fact, virtually all challengers ended up as Oyama's students afterwards. For the time and in most ways it still has some of the most realistic karate training methods out there. It's definitely better than the point fighting formats which are about as close to a real fight as a tickling match.