Kuma

They are, Traymond. Shotokan and Goju though are different. Add em together though and you get Kyokushin, which eventually leads to Ashihara. But then that's just getting nitpicky on my part.

At first you think "Hey, check out the cute little guy!" Next thing you know, he taps you with a gedan mawashi and you want to cry home to Mama. Amazingly powerful for his size.

I think that the idea of using the word style to refer to kata came from the time when it wasn't unusual to learn just one kata from a master, spend your training time on it, and the applications found therein. Abernethy has spoken about the probabilities of this. There's a great book about this too. "Five Years One Kata" by Bill Burgar. He studied Gojushiho for five years straight and came up with an entire self defense system just from it, and gives you his blueprint on how to work on your own. Pretty interesting stuff.

Pretty similar to my wife and I, since she's from the Ohio Valley and moved to the Burgh shortly before we met. Small world. It is a very small world. Where at in the Ohio Valley? Bellaire.

Oh where at in Japan...I been to Okinawa for a while but not to much in japan, I think I spend two weeks in japan, Kyoto to be exact. Traymond, we'll be in the far north of the main island, In the Aomori Prefecture. A little town called Misawa. Lots of farmland, little country towns and one US military base. If you can make it down to Camp Foster and are interested in some good karate training, look for either Wade Chroninger (Goju Ryu) or Eddie Erazo (Kenpo Karate and kickboxing). Wade Chroninger...wasnt he on the documentary about all the martial arts...what was it called...whuh...it even had uechi ryu in their...Hmmm...I forgot the name of that documentary...was it way of the warrior, I would like to learn from him. Yes he was actually. He's with the Mei Bu Kan Goju Ryu, a student of Sensei Ikemiyagi Masaaki. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXY4FgKlLok

I believe it's in some of Funakoshi's first books, but you can also see some kata referred to as "styles", which might be a bit of an idea as to what they were originally seen as. Possibly, rather than being a set pattern you actually "use" against others, it could instead just be a collection of a system's techniques put into one easy rote way of learning.

That's why I said legend. They have proof of Chinese MA before the existence of the Shaolin Temple, but I don't know too much more than that. Not really my area of interest, I prefer Japanese arts.

I prefer the outside, but a lot of that is due to training with one of my former senseis who was big into the Enshin karate philosophy of the sabaki method. You're away from most of their weapons, free to counterattack on a wide open target, and then they just have to turn and orient themselves towards you once again.

Kung fu has the whole Bodhidharma legend where he brought kung fu to the Shaolin temple. The Shaolin Temple has been involved in battles (anywhere from fighting off bandits and pirates, to battling alongside warlords and the like). So yes, you could say kung fu was used. As for karate, it started off as Te in Okinawa (where they got it from the Chinese). There was many different styles, and since weapons were banned in Okinawa empty hand combat naturally became popular. I don't think it was designed necessarily for war, but it was for self protection. Tae Kwon Do I don't know too much about, just that it's something like a combination of Taekkyeon and karate from when they were occupied by the Japanese. As for zenkutsu dachi, the super low stance you see is actually a Japanese thing. In Okinawan karate, you'll see a much narrower front stance. In their kata, you'll see about 70% hand strikes (rough estimate, but I think close) so it makes sense for them to have a stance similar to a boxer, with more weight on the front foot than on the back foot.

My point of view warrants a bit of background. During my last yearlong deployment to Iraq, I focused a lot on kata, specifically Sanchin kata. As per some words of wisdom I had read, it was advised for karate fighters to practice Sanchin kata 3 times a day, every day. So I focused extensively on Sanchin, and a good bit on the others I knew. One of the books I used a lot was "The Way of Sanchin Kata", which had a great quote in it (rough idea only, not a direct quote): "Sanchin kata teaches you the mechanics behind the fight. The other kata teach you the content of a fight." By training hard on Sanchin kata, I've noticed I've developed better balance, body mechanics, footwork, breathing, muscular endurance, and power. All things important to any karateka. I personally feel that without kata, karate is just kickboxing. All of the greats that I truly respect and admire do lots and lots of kata, compared to the average MAist who does it rarely and you can see the huge difference in skill and understanding. Kata is one of the "three K's" of karate (the other two being kihon and kumite). With only two of the K's, all you have is a straight line that will fall over. But with the three K's, you have a solid foundation that can help you reach the top.

Oh where at in Japan...I been to Okinawa for a while but not to much in japan, I think I spend two weeks in japan, Kyoto to be exact. Traymond, we'll be in the far north of the main island, In the Aomori Prefecture. A little town called Misawa. Lots of farmland, little country towns and one US military base. If you can make it down to Camp Foster and are interested in some good karate training, look for either Wade Chroninger (Goju Ryu) or Eddie Erazo (Kenpo Karate and kickboxing).

Pretty similar to my wife and I, since she's from the Ohio Valley and moved to the Burgh shortly before we met. Small world.

My wife says I dress like a lumberjack during the winter, since I prefer flannel shirts, jeans, and work boots. Most of the other time I'm either in suits or shorts and a T-shirt, no real brand preference.

Actually sensei8, in the Kyokushin Budokai since they allow open hand strikes to the face you may sometimes see shutos and haitos used. It tends to be shuto uchi uchi primarily but they do occasionally occur. I've only seen shuto hiza uchi used a few times during jissen kumite myself, never to any real effect though. Back in the old days, maybe more, but not much now.

One I really like with the rope and bag is to do a good 2-minute round on the heavy bag and then skip rope for 1 minute after, then repeat until I get tired.

Usually the only people I've sparred with for a while are those I know well. As a general rule though and out of occupational necessity, I tend to size everyone up to some degree though. I'll look at height, weight, apparent fitness level, which side they tend to lean more of their weight on, what hand they use, how they act, how they hold themselves, etc.

Tekken is awesome. King was always my favorite, but once Tekken 4 came along I went right to Jin. I love it when he steps into Sanchin dachi and then blasts off a double seiken tsuki.

Being a former boxer myself, I know why often a person with a martial arts background will go into a boxing session and feel more tired than one of the guys there. Boxers typically wear gloves on their hands when doing their techniques, anywhere up to 1 pound (16oz), whereas your typical martial artist doesn't. 1 pound may not seem like a lot, but it actually provides great conditioning. Despite the fact that in Kyokushin we don't wear gloves when we spar, I still enjoy shadowboxing in a pair of 16oz gloves just for the conditioning effect.

Situps are still good to do, but they're going to strengthen your midsection, not reduce it. For that, you want to do cardio and diet a bit.

What do you mean by inhale on soft and exhale on hard? Also, the "breathe from the hara" always troubles me. It means breathe more from your diaphragm than your chest. When most of us think "take a deep breath", our shoulders rise and our chests expand. That's not optimal breathing. When you see a baby, you'll see that they breathe naturally. The stomach expands on the inhalation (not the chest), and on the exhalation it contracts. By doing this you not only breathe better and fatigue less quickly but since it's also near the center of your body (the hara) you tend to feel more rooted. Some powerlifters do a similar type of breathing when squatting or deadlifting. As for inhale on soft and exhale on hard, that was from my Goju days. It basically means on hard striking attacks and blocks, you want to exhale, but with circular blocks and controlling techniques. "Inhaling is soft" because it's relaxing and also the weakest link in someone's ability, and "exhaling is hard" because through that you get your power.

Waist fat is reduced by cardio and diet. Situps only strengthen your midsection, they don't tone it down. 100 situps burns approximately 9 calories. A pound of fat is 3500 calories. So to burn a pound of fat with situps alone would require almost 39,000 situps.

That's because everyone knows if you got kicked by Chuck Norris, you would explode!

Same with us. We do anywhere from light to hard contact, but kicks and knees to the head are always light. When we put on gloves and incorporate head shots, it's usually light to medium as well.

Everyone has their own opinion, but if it works for you keep doing it. I just try to eat healthy and don't concern myself too much with how much fat/protein/carbs I'm getting per day.

Actually I think karate and judo are an excellent mix. Especially the more one trains in judo, the more movements in kata you see that appear to be throws and takedowns. For instance, one day I was doing several repetitions of Pinan Sono San as part of my home training. As luck would have it, the day before I was cross-training with a Judo friend of mine. We were working on his strikes and he taught me two different throws, one of which was Ippon Seoi Nage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQxQDqgAFS8 It just "clicked" that the movement at 0:40 in Pinan Sono San was so similar to an Ippon Seoi Nage that it couldn't be a coincidence. Personally I enjoy both and think it's a fantastic mix. Shihan Jon Bluming, a well-known karateka and judoka, actually made up the Kyokushin Budokai organization in 1980 which incorporates knockdown karate with judo throws and newaza.