Shizentai

My kyu rank certificates were destroyed in a flood that took most of my possessions almost a decade ago now. My shodan certificate survived because it was still on order from Japan when it all happened. I had only tested for shodan a short time before I became a homeless martial arts nomad at the tender age of 19. Now I keep both my shodan and nidan certificate in the same frame, pressed between acid free pages that are secretively tucked behind my late uncle's ink drawing of a boat that used to be owned by my great grandfather. I really like that drawing ...even though I never rode on that boat myself it resounds of happy times of a family raised at the water's edge. It seemed like a good place to keep them.

The thing I like the most about my style is my sensei. For all that can be said comparing between styles, that's what it really comes down to sometimes, not what is best for everyone, but who is best for you.

My other impressions aside, I do like that he discusses the legal implications of self defense scenarios, and what to do after a fight. All too often those things are left out.

This... K. Men are so fascinating. Self defense scenarios often seem to revolve around bar fights for them. I have never been attacked in a bar. On the street, yes. In a house, yes. In high school, yes. Stranger walking into the dojo and challenging me, yes. The worst I ever had to do in a bar was just a few wrist releases on men who REALLY wanted to dance with me. If frequent bar fights are a major reason for your wanting to learn karate, I would first of all highly recommend finding a better bar.

I don't know the Americans, but the Japanese instructors I could see clearly were: Kanazawa, Yahara, Naka, Osaka, Kagawa, Enoeda (RIP), more Naka, Demura, Kobayashi, Taniyama, Nakayama (RIP), Funakoshi (RIP), and even more Naka... Demura is shitoryu, but had close ties with several shotokan groups.(Maybe that's why he is there?) Either way, he is an awesome karateka. You'll remember him from doing stunts for Pat Morita in the Karate Kid movies. Everyone else in this list is shotokan and is either formerly or currently in the Japan Karate Association, although some of the breaking practitioners in the beginning I couldn't see or ID clearly. Great video! Thank you for sharing!

I like the "Karate Masters" series by Jose Fraguas. They are gorgeous large paperbacks that come in 4 volumes, which cover a wide range of western and eastern masters from days of old and modern times in various styles. Each chapter is about 20 pages long and discusses the life of each master. Many of these chapters include actual one-on-one interviews between the masters and the author. They have three volumes available on amazon right now. "Perfection of Character: Guiding Principles for the Martial Arts & Everyday Life" by Teruyuki Okazaki is another good autobiography.

Agreed. I think this kind of question has a similar pitfall as ones like "Who would win in a fight, karate or kungfu?" Despite the greatness that exists within any martial art, a practitioner stands alone in a fight. On the street your defense is your body, your mind and what you've put time and effort into learning. All metaphor aside, I am a shotokan practitioner. Though I am not a prison guard, nor a policeman, nor a man that discusses bar fight self defense. I am a 115lb woman and I have never been left wanting in a self defense situation.

I do a fair bit of Rock climbing and I hike a lot. Sometimes I just feel in the mood, pack a lunch and go off in some direction for 6 or 7 hours. Over the summer I've been hiking a lot at high elevations carrying equipment for work. I notice it's improved my stamina a fair amount. Rock climbing keeps me limber and helps me build a lot of upper body strength. Gardening is also a nice workout. ....for me that means chopping apart fallen trees with a machete.

In my dojo we never train with pads. Instead we must learn and practice control. The kids use pads, but usually just small ones on their fists. On the other hand, in recent years I've discovered that I have a congenital defect in my connective tissues that causes me to hemorrhage easily from blows to the stomach. I'm thinking seriously of investing in a torso guard lately, but I have no idea where to start.

I have a few belts now, but the ones I've been wearing lately are completely blank. No name, no organization name, ...means I can use it in multiple dojos

I was thinking these exact things. As usual, Sensei8 says it all. Just some personal thoughts to add... I think that in general leadership is not as clear-cut as many people would like to think. Outside of the dojo, no one is given kyu or dan rank in life. We may place titles on our names like "Professor" or "Director" or "President" but even so, you can't truly say that without such a title a person cannot lead. Neither can you say that just having the title, or even being elected into the position makes you a good leader. Being a good leader has little to do with rank in my opinion (although in the dojo we strive to make them more connected). I believe that it has more to do with the desire to help others work together effectively. So what to do in a situation like that? That is your chance to step-in and be a good leader to him and everyone else in the class. You don't have to be a high rank or order people around to do that though! Just be kind and respectful to everyone and be serious and confident with your own training and who knows, maybe even that red belt will want to take a page out of your book.

Well, if we're going for over-the-top chair demonstrations, I personally like this one the best:

Tokaido gis are great, but as the op has mentioned he's on a budget, I would sooner recommend: If you are someone with broad shoulders for your height, the Tokon Europa is a heavyweight gi with a nice cut... though I wouldn't recommend it for someone of a tall&slim build: http://www.tokon.com/shop/shop/item.aspx?itemid=3 If you are tall and slim, I highly recommend Mugen yellow label (they're affordable and fit AWESOMELY): http://www.kiintl.com/1/catalog/MUGEN-Yellow-Label-white-karate-uniform-Karate-gi-p-16211.html If you want to see my blog about size comparisons you can find it here: http://www.orangemari.com/blog/index.php?m=11&y=09&d=02&entry=entry091102-134739

Sensei was the first person who genuinely expected anything of me. Having been a kid most people wrote off, that meant the world to me. It made me want to work as hard as I can to repay him for all that he has done for me.

Karate-wise I mainly study JKA shotokan. Although when I was 17 in Japan I also trained ashihara karate for about two months.

Mine was kanku sho for a while, but lately I really like bassai sho. I also like gojushiho sho, but I don't really have it quite down yet. sho sho sho...

My friend and I started together, but I forgot to quit. It was a lot easier to stick with it because my family didn't want me to. Everything I did was on my own effort, so I valued it more than I would have otherwise.

I can sometimes tell just by looking at someone on the street whether they train or not, but a person's chokuzuki tells pretty much everything.

Thank you all for the words of encouragement. I will definitely continue with aikido. No worries there. Judo, however, may not be in my future I think lol. Last night after my aikido class had finished, a friend of mine who came to observe talked me into trying judo training as well right after (not my original plan, but what can I say? It sounded interesting). In judo while attempting my very first newaza, I managed to dislocate my shoulder. I can't help but laugh now because the Aikido instructor last week specifically predicted that shoulders might be a problem for me. Having never dislocated a shoulder before, I was doubtful and dismissed it, ...and yet here I am today. Ha! My friend was kind enough to help me put it back into place, which helped. Today is sore and stiff, but I think it could have been worse. I can only imagine what it must feel like to someone with tighter ligaments. It must be awful!

Thank you for your concern, but I'm sorry if I worried you too much. It was a good number of years ago now that this happened. Everyone I know has settled back down there (well, everyone but me). Luckily when it happened I was at an age when being abruptly ousted from one's house is a natural progression.

Being a graduate student, this semester I unfortunately have to take classes at night when I would normally train karate. However, for several years now, I have wanted to improve my ukemi so I thought I would try joining the Aikido club, which luckily meets on days when I don't have class. My first day was pretty good. The instructor is a kind woman who seems very comfortable with the techniques and appears quite knowledgeable about human anatomy. She conducts a somewhat informal class that has a nice atmosphere for entering beginners. At one point my partner was executing a wrist technique in which I was told to tap out as soon as it felt uncomfortable. Unable to put me in such a state, he called the instructor over, who proceeded to execute the technique with a bit more success. However, even though I was immobilized, I felt no pain at all. Intrigued, the instructor proceeded to check the full range of motion of my arm, and informed me that I was in fact dislocating several joints as she twisted, which may make it dangerous to be the receiver of certain locks and wrist throws. I am kind-of bummed, as one of the main reasons I was interested in Aikido was to learn how to fall better in various situations. I've known about my hypermobility for a while. When I was a kid, I used to be so overly flexible that I had trouble walking down stairs without spraining my ankles, or bowling without dislocating my wrist, or swimming without dislocating toes. I used to wear braces on my wrists and ankles and sometimes my knee.... but when I started training karate more than a decade ago, all of that went away! Increased muscle stabilized my joints and I learned to put my body in positions where it was least susceptible to joint injury. As my body became stronger I began to think of my natural flexibility as a good thing for a change, and used it to my advantage in many situations. I really didn't expect that being super flexible would be such a strike against me in aikido, but then again, I've never done Aikido before either. My question for you all is: Is this a problem you've ever encountered? If so, what compensations should I make in training to protect myself?

5 years, perhaps a bit under. I started when I was 14. I "barely passed" black belt at 19 (my sensei told me).... three months later when a natural disaster smashed my home town I began traveling the world to train.

Being a smaller-than-average female I know I am not going to intimidate anyone. Like it or not, that's the way it is for me. I think a lot of men should realize that even though women are underrepresented in many martial arts, we are often more targeted by people looking to take advantage of others, and thus most in-need of a life of training. Part of training is simply having the presence of mind to make good decisions quickly in a stressful situation. As easy as it would be for me to make some rules that would govern how I should behave in the presence of a person who wants to do me harm, when that situation comes along, all of that goes out the window. The only view that is 20/20 is hindsight. As for that I can relay with some detail: Situations where I have fled: - when a van with no plates pulled up while I was walking the dog late at night, the door slid open and someone from inside reached out towards me. - when a creepy tall man tried to follow me home from the grocery store one evening while I was living in Japan. - when a teenage boy tried to steal my bike (just rolled him over and kept going). - when I was outside of a gas station in Alabama and a man pulled a gun out of his car and started pointing it around at people (incidentally, I am told he proceeded to put it away and pay for some gas after that, so I ended up just looking like a wuss watching the scene from behind a dumpster, but I still think I made the right decision). Situations where I have fought: - when a fellow high school student groped me (unfortunately I may have overreacted, and subsequently gained a reputation after that, so I decided not to fight anymore unless it was absolutely necessary). - when a person I met at a party in college came up to me, grabbed me by my hair, smacked my head against a marble counter and then sat on top of me (poor boy, the types of injuries I proceeded to give him I'm sure did not heal quickly). Situations where I have had the presence of mind to talk myself out of a bad position without either of us being harmed in any way: - 2004 mugging - 2004 attempted bike theft - 2002 kids from another neighborhood trying to bully me

A good bit of what I have to pay for a test is money to send forms to Japan, have them processed, have a new certificate printed, then mailed back. So in my dojo we break the cost up into two parts, one smaller fee (which pays for Sensei's gas and meal money) is paid beforehand, and the dan registration is only paid in the event you pass. That is usually about $100, which I find to be ridiculously expensive, but that cut goes towards headquarters in Japan.

First of all... JEEZ! Is that true? Did you start super young or do you just have a short program? I'm not due to get mine at least till I'm 30 in 2016! Lol! As for the actual topic, I agree with the OP that the idea of a blackbelt being some kind of magical state in the eyes of students is problematic. However, I don't think that making belts easier or harder to achieve is really solving or even addressing the main problem. I'm going to be a dork and quote something I said on the matter in 2009: I think the strongest thing that can keep a student coming back is when they change their minds from loving achievements (of any kind) to a love of the process. That is when karate becomes karate-do.