Kuma

I've done that stretch before without too many problems, just go easy as Jay said. After you finish try practicing your front kick and roundhouse kick with the ball of the foot lightly on the wall and you'll see a big difference.

From my limited knowledge, I do know that Kyokushin has incorporated Yiquan standing poses into our training to help our balance, posture, breathing, and whatnot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7kJNjZrB2k Since a lot of our goshin-jutsu also came from Daito Ryu Aikijutsu, I'm sure getting trained in that would also be a huge revelation as to why we do what we do. Just from my background in Goju Ryu and from my short time of cross-training in Muay Thai, I managed to see parallels between some of the things there in our Kyokushin syllabus as well, which consequently made me understand things a bit more.

Maybe not in Shuri-te styles, but in Naha-te styles that may not be the case. We were actually just talking about this on another forum, but basically Naha-te karate styles were influenced a lot by Fujian White Crane, which does have roundhouse kicks in its system (though I don't know what it's called or where admittedly). Since the Naha-te styles tend to be more circular, it would make sense that mawashi geri was around a lot longer than before.

I second Jay's recommendation, that's a good stretch and it works well.

I'm 5'8" and was 145 pounds when I got out of the Marine Corps. I now walk around at about 200-205 pounds thanks to weight training. It's amazing what can you can do. Your body's the metal, and training is the forge, so you can make it into what you want to be if you keep working at it.

And that's what self protection is all about. Not every single thing can fit neatly into every box. What works surprisingly well in one situation may be an utter failure the next, and what doesn't work well one time may be incredibly successful the next. Some techniques may be lower percentage than others, but if you train them constantly to use in a real fight then you will have a much higher chance of pulling it off than Joe Kyu from Smith's Karate down the street. Sure it may not be the safest approach, but I've met some very fast and powerful kickers who could pull it off. Some have even had that mutant flexibility where they could kick you upside the head while you're practically standing on their foot. I've always been a low kicker myself (chudan is pretty much the main level for me) so I'm obviously biased towards low kicks, but if you have the skill, flexibility, speed, and power you could pull off a high kick in a real fight far better than I could.

Training from a street perspective still does not allow you to ignore those rules in training either. Using those targets, then you can only go through the motions. The beauty about sparring for self defense is then it simply boils down to target selection. A low kick to the outer thigh can now easily become a low kick to the outside of the knee. The push kick to the midsection can now become a front kick to the groin. Your jab to the nose can become a finger jab to the eyes. The attributes are all there, it's just adapting to the situation. In the reverse, if you only train techniques that are "too deadly" for the dojo you now have in essence actually limited yourself. Now you cannot respond to a situation that might involve a lesser use of force than what you have trained for. Also, once you realize that it's actually quite difficult to hit a person in some of the large targets while fighting, you realize some of the smaller targets that are often espoused as fight enders in self defense (in actuality, quite not as often as we are led to believe) are even harder to strike. All training boils down to the fact that we need to recognize the limitations of what we are training for. Whether you train in a "combat sport" or a "street fight only" martial art, both have already restricted what you can actually train simply by the nature that you, along with your other fellow students, are a willing participant and thus will not be maiming or killing each other that day.

I've personally never noticed this. I've met and trained with some great karateka, and all were friendly and approachable. I'm respectful towards them as they're providing me a service (teaching me) and in the system I'm training they have a higher status than me. Perhaps it's my military background, but to me that's an important thing and worthy of respect. I'm glad I've never had that kind of negative treatment by any senior instructors I've been fortunate enough to train with.

Since I'm not familiar with the rules of that tournament, let me ask you. 1. Do they allow full power groin techniques? 2. Do they allow full power kicks to the knee? 3. Do they allow sweeps to the supporting leg? Basically, are there rules? If so, then they negate the premise that the martial arts are based upon. That being no rules for selfdefense purposes. Anytime you train in a class, you automatically place a ruleset on yourself. Competition is no different. As far as the above: (1) In sparring, no, but can you name any martial art that spars with full power to the groin on a regular basis? (2) Again, name one martial art that spars with full power to the knee on a regular basis. Although, since they do allow low kicks to the thigh (gedan mawashi geri), it's just a matter of target selection by that point. The same applies to attacking the groin area: it's target selection, not the technique itself. (3) Actually, yes they do. Ashi barai (leg sweep) is a popular technique among some of the more technical fighters.

Anything that can improve your balance can work well. Despite my flat feet, I can manage several reps per leg in the pistol, the one-legged squat.

This video of Ryu Narushima might give you an idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipq64oY7iKQ

Gedan mawashi geri is the best example for what I mean. When you're executing the kick in a downward chopping motion, you want to move your weight forward and down into it. By leaning back you sacrifice some of that power by taking your body weight out of the kick. It's not really a lean per say, but more like a subtle shift forward. Though some leaning back occurs for high kicks, we try to minimize it. The philosophy is to keep all your body weight going forward rather than sacrificing some doing a backward motion while executing a forward one.

I changed organizations about two months ago, so I'm actually re-learning some of my kihon right now. Fortunately it's to my benefit, as before I was learning under a 2nd dan and now I have access to an 8th dan and a 5th dan. So far I've made positive changes to several techniques (some being my chudan uchi uke, yoko geri kekomi, and morote chudan uchi uke) and it definitely is that light bulb moment. Rateh - To me that's strange about not leaning into the kick, as it's the opposite in Kyokushin. We get yelled at if we lean back, and are encouraged to lean forward to get more body weight into the strikes. It's always interesting to see how two arts can have different approaches to the same thing.

Mine was the opposite way for me initially, I kept wanting to lift up the outside part as it felt like I kept falling forward and wanted to keep my balance. It took a lot of time. Lots of stationary and moving kicking, fast and slow, kicks for loads of reps and multiple kicks at the same time. Admittedly I hated kicking for a while and would only kick gedan and didn't train geri waza too much. Fortunately I got my head on straight again and began training kicks again with the desire to kick head height without falling over. Now I can. Heck, I can even throw axe kicks and some spinning kicks (though I don't train them much). A big part that also helped me was working a lot on Sanchin kata, and working on gripping the ground lightly with my toes for support.

I currently pay $5-10 a class to train with an 8th dan and a 5th dan. A lot of it depends if they're running it as a place to train together, or as a way to make money.

Ah, OK. Still, you miss out a bit with the chest protector on though. No good solar plexus or liver shots that way.

I wouldn't go that route when you're so close to shodan. I have flat feet too thanks to the military so I know where you're coming from. The thing that helped me the most was the three way kicking drill (start with right leg, front kick, side kick, back kick, down, then repeat with the left). I was so wobbly I had to stay at gedan level for a long time. It took me almost five years to actually kick with speed and power at the jodan level.

What do they mean by "lethal spots"?

To me, sparring is different than fighting in a competition so the most I usually go in class is light to moderate. Depending on my partner sometimes we may bang it out a lot harder than usual, and the occasional high kick does get through that clocks you a good one, but fighting in class is always different than fighting in a competition. Your partner dictates how hard you will go. I do agree with what was said earlier though: it's bad news to go full contact all the time, every time, as it'll eventually wear you down. You can train hard, you just need to train smart as well.

Fitness-wise, there actually is a pretty decent workout DVD out there called "Simply Karate." I use it from time to time to mix things up as a workout. http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Karate-DVD-Mark-Richardson/dp/1741570131 The author, Mark Richardson, is a Kyokushin karateka who gives you a pretty good overall workout while introducing you to what karate really is. Though it definitely can't top an instructor, it's actually pretty decent.

I lift 205 pounds out of bed every day. I think that should count for something.

Tell your instructor/s your problem and ask them to watch you. They will be a better resource than us, because without actually seeing you we can only speculate.

Heck, I feel like I'm going backwards every time I train with our Kancho. The main thing is to keep training and stay persistent.

Funakoshi shared a few grappling techniques in his book "Karate-Jutsu". Check out this link for some pictures from it: http://www.chinte.net/funakoshi.html

Any striking art should be focused on improving your footwork. You can have the most powerful punch in the world, but if you can't move into range to use it, what good does it do you?