Kruczek

Karate, especially Shotokan, is a bit deeper stances than Muay Thai, but I think you will find a happy medium for yourself. Definitely don't dismiss it as not being as tough as Kyokushin - it will all be what you make of it. Karate sparring can be a knock down drag out match or it can be that in and out style of techniques you mentioned you had in TKD. Will largely depend on the school. Worst case scenario, learn the techniques, but don't do the sparring if it isn't enough like the kick boxing you want to do. Best of luck.

That one would not be. You would need to shift your weight. You can start in that position, shift weight, kick, shift back to back stance. All of these sound like awkward positions designed to build leg muscle. Good luck with them.

Hopefully this is a good place for this. I am trying to get some data on how much people pay for monthly training and their belt fees. This is completely anonymous and would help me a lot with an article I am working on. If you would like to help: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDBRV1pRck9hSWlsY0FRSm9kam5FMWc6MQ#gid=0 If not, thanks for reading .

Little late on this, but I wanted to pipe in and mention that my instructors (multiple ones) used the stripe method in between ranks to, as someone earlier mentioned, keep track of who was getting closer to testing. We would use two stripes of the next belts color (electrical tape) to signify progress through the material and a red one two-ish weeks before testing. The fact that they considered 7th Kyu with two stripes higher ranking than 7th Kyu with one stripe would fall under the Mon Kyu system. They didn't charge for testing, this was again just to keep track of 50ish people's progress visually.

It is unique to the style. It is similar to a sports camp for sports. What do they do - depends on the sport, but the general idea is a lot of time to do karate. Do you have a specific karate camp in mind? Maybe we can give you more specifics on that.

This came up last year on these forums so hopefully the few karateka who commented will make another appearance. Short Answer: Yamashita Shorin-ryu is a branch of Shorinkan Shorin-ryu, which is a branch of Kobayashi Shorin-ryu. Long Answer: Yamashita teaches his own style. While Hanshi Nakazato is his sensei, he has formed his own style similar to Sokuichi Gibu of Butokukan (classmate of Yamashita). I have seen Yamashita's style referred to as Suibukan. There are many people who can give you more insight on the political stuff, but I am very confident that Yamashita and Nakazato are still on good terms. One of the reasons he remains a 9th Dan, despite having his own style, is out of respect to Nakazato. Secondly, I know that many people left his organization to return to Shorinkan over differences in policies regarding money. I personally witnessed people being promoted to shodan without knowing the curriculum, and attributed it to money. There was also an incident, to speak general, involving an instructor doing a demonstration and Yamashita arguing that portions of the money were his despite not being present at the demonstration. I think someone said it best - politics.

Let me offer a unique perspective. I am think learning online is a great venue for people who do not have access to a traditional school (find a local school if you can). The biggest limitation however is not having a partner. Karate training without a partner is like basketball class with no ball. You can only get so far. That site however, looks like so many others. It offers information easily found for free online for $10 a month. It is your money, but I would use youtube and other free venues to find the same information. One other thing I would like to toss out there - forget styles. Shotokan is an adaptation of Shorin-ryu...which is an adaptation of Kung Fu and indigenous Okinawan fighting. Learn the best techniques you can. Practice them with a partner often. Build around your strengths. Forget the notion that "this style is better than all the others". It isn't true. Hope that gives you another perspective.

Since I am the only person doing the testing at my school - they test when I feel they are ready to move on. Bit of a contradiction with what still kicking just said - mine will almost always pass because I don't "test" them until they know everything they need well enough to pass. I agree though, if it is a real test, then everyone shouldn't pass. Mine is a formality to ensure the students see their progress - otherwise I wouldn't even do "tests". What makes the difference I think is the number of instructors/testers. If you train with the same guy every day - he will know you are ready without a test. If you only see the head instructor once in a while - then the test is your chance to prove you learned enough from the other instructors and it is important. Last thought - I agree the most with still kicking's last comment - what is the hurry? Train and learn - belts are meaningless.

I would offer to you that the most helpful thing you can do is be available for partner work. You can't each them Japanese (maybe you can), you can't teach them how to do their kata better. If you could, you would have already. They know what they need to do - often the toughest part is finding someone to work with.

Chinese buffet.

That is super interesting...correlation for sure - but is it a cause and effect situation?

I would argue that the Americans changed the name of football to soccer - does that mean we were the first to play soccer? Funakoshi changed it to help promote it among a nation of people who felt they were better than the Chinese (who it was originally named after). I don't think anyone can be sure which really came first, Shuri-te, Naha-te, or Tomari-te. We do know however that all three were there before anything that we now call "....-Ryu" (in the realm of Karate). I voted for Shuri-te because there was no way to pick more than one. Just because the name is different, doesn't make the concept different. When Sokon Matsumura introduced Bushido elements in to Okinawan Tode (he would have been in Japan in the 1830s - from memory) he made it what we think of as Karate-Do. Chibana never called it Koybashi - his students did. Itosu didn't call it Shorin-ryu, his student did. Maybe Itosu didn't call it Karate and his student did - but does that mean that Itosu never practiced Karate? That is my spuratic thoughts on it. If I was confusing I can clarify.

I went through a very very similar situation when I tested for my Sandan. I waited about 3 years between my Shodan and Nidan test, and then 2 years after my Nidan, my instructor wanted to test me for my 3rd Dan (mainly because I was leaving the state for school). He did not charge a test fee, so that was never an issue. I knew I was completely competent in both the curriculum and my ability to teach. My concern was that, unlike in the past, I was being tested by a board of local black belts (1st - 5th dan) rather than a single 10th Dan. This isn't a problem, but I was concerned with the legitimacy of my rank should I join another school or work with other black belts. What is important to remember, if you know your stuff - no one cares your rank. If you don't know your stuff - again - no one cares what your rank is. If you would recognize a third degree with the same knowledge, it seems reasonable that we would recognize you as a sandan. Please shoot me a PM if you want to talk more about this as I was again in the same situation. I would also love to see what you consider a sandan "should" know. Maybe we can compare. Good luck either way.

I just call it Mae Tobi Geri. I have seen it used once or twice - but not in the same manner as the Karate kid. It is good to give you a little reach.

I can go along with this - youtube is a cool thing after all. My channel is https://www.youtube.com/user/TheKruczek. I am sending out the friend requests as we speak.