Otto

Unless you want to. Yes, there is that!

You interpret correctly! They are indeed opinions. As I said, these were taken from a Martial Arts forum in Japan, which, like this one, is all about opinions. None-the-less, you don't wash Karate belts.

True, we all do. But, brother, trust me on this, if you have to fight, not in the dojo, but out in the real world to defend yourself or a loved one, and if you are lucky enough to have a chance take a stance - your favorite side will come out quickly and there would be nothing you could do to change that. It's hard wired from your survival training in the dojo. Your body knows.

Washing belts isn't a very big deal, really. Here is a good article on the "not washing belts" condundrum: http://www.24fightingchickens.com/2005/09/09/urban-legends-of-karate-belts/ That was a great article, thanks for turning me on to that. (it was a fun read, too!) But I'm a stubborn old Dojo Rat. So I e-mailed a friend of mine who lived in Japan for twenty years. He did Aikido for ten years or so, but that was a while ago, but he went on Japan's internet and went to, of all places, a Martial Arts forum. This is what he e-mailed me back today. It's all in Japanese, but I figured you might get a kick out of it. He loosely translated some of the posts that concerned the "washing of belts". I'm waiting to hear back from another friend who still lives there. I'll report back when he does. This is what my friend Miles e-mailed me- In our Aikido dojo, belts were generally not washed. We practiced 3 hours a day, 6 days a week, and despite all of that training, never washed them. I did a quick search in Japanese, and the consensus is not to wash them: http://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q1410883514 http://sports.2ch.net/budou/kako/1018/10187/1018734398.html Some of the replies from the second link (roughly and quickly translated) 2. In Judo we never washed them. 3. The white belt naturally becomes brown, then black through blood and sweat, so I heard they are not washed. But it looks like some women wash them when they stink. 4. Sometimes I wash mine. 5. I don't wash mine. 8. I think a frayed belt is cool, so I wash mine. My sempai thinks a soiled one is cool, though. 15. You don't wash hakamas either. 18. I think generally they are not washed. Sincerely, Miles

I think I've heard every form of kiai over the years. Even some of the same kiais sound different from two people who train at the same dojo. Although they all come from deep within, some people are blessed with that James Earl Jones or Vin Diesel voice and their kiais just sound better to me than mine do. But the sound is just the potatos, not the meat.

The first style I studied was Greek Gojo Ryu. The very first technique we practiced was a block that had an "initial protector". Ill try to illustrate - You're in a stance with your right foot back. An attack is coming at your head from the left. Before your left (forward) arm goes up to block, your right hand pushes across your body, palm facing the attack - immediately (less than a beat) followed by your left arm doing a hard block. In effect, it was a double block. It didn't seem to take any longer than the arm blocking by itself would have because the pushing up of the hand is quicker than the "outside" block with the left arm. This was forty years ago that I last did this as a form of practice, but I remember it well because it was the first thing I ever did in Martial Arts, and I have done it playing around on occasion ever since. I am as far from a practitioner of classical Martial Arts as one can possibly get, and Greek Gojo was very classical, but I've always kind of liked this double block concept.

What a great debate this is. Rock on, fellas. (Gals, too)

I'm not sure how to post multiple quotes yet, so I copied and pasted the following two, which I thought were fantastic! "To me the point of breaking in a belt is not so I can look cool and like I've had it for a long time, but for simple practicality. Usually we recycle colored belts and you can get a used one, but for one of my colored belts there were no used ones available in my size. The new one was so stiff that I literally had to keep on retying it throughout the class -- like every minute or so! This got really frustrating, so here's what I did. I took it home and tied up up in a ball of knots, then soaked it overnight in cold water, then let it air dry. (This required some preplanning, as it took a couple of days to dry.) This helped a lot, and then I did it again the next week when I had a few days between classes. Then it was nice and soft, and stayed tied throughout the class!" What a great idea that is! Nicely done, brother. The second one was - "Can't remember whether it was on this forum that I mentioned this before, but a good way to overcome the problems that "wearing in" a new belt sometimes brings, is to tuck the ends back under the waist of the belt. In fact it was originally the way that belts were tied apparently The "hangy down ends" as a way to tie your belt was invented by the young bucks of the Japanese Universities that had Karate clubs, such as the Tokai and Nichidai as I understand it... seems that students were rebels back then also. If you look at some early photos of the likes of Funakoshi and Mabuni for example, this is the way they seem to tie their belts for training at least. It does help stop it from coming undone, also stops the belt ends from flapping around." Outstanding. Thanks for pointing this out to me!

I've been teaching Martial Arts since 1972. It IS okay to wear your gei outside of the dojo.....if your mom is driving you to class.

None of you should be washing your belts. EVER. Or throwing them in the dryer. Want to break it in? Do a couple hundred pushups a day for six months. That, with your regular training and it will break in just fine.

Everybody has a favorite side. Everybody. Even if you use both sides a lot, when danger comes a-calling, when you are really pressed - you'll go to your favorite side every single time.

Having competed at all levels for over twenty years, I can tell you - you're body type is the single most difficult to fight against. And the only thing worse that fighting a Shotokan fighter is fighting a Shotokan fighter with your height and weight. (you guys give us fits!) Best of luck on your search. I think you're going to have fun.

Couple of thoughts - If you're a fairly athletic kicker, throw your roundhouse with the INTENTION of getting it trapped. Immediately spin, throwing either a spinning hook, wheel or reverse crescent kick (obviously depending on distance). It's a great trap/set up. The counter to this would be to LET GO of the caught leg, in which case the kicker would spin himself into the ground. As a counter to a roundhouse kick (instead of trapping it)....from a side stance (or close to it) when someone roundhouses to the head, especially with the front leg, use your front hand to slap block and use the slap block to propel you into a sinning hook kick to the face of the kicker. Obviously, you have to have a proficient spin kick, but if you do you'll find you'll hit with the spin BEFORE their kick can retract to the ground. The slap block is more than a block, it is what starts your spin. The block is almost an afterthought compared to the rotation.

Ahhh, pushups. Not to sound like a preachy old man, BUT...as far as Martial Arts are concerned - pushups are the cornerstone of discipline upon which the Arts are built. Keep at this program, you guys! Go get it! Try this as well if you like - do sets of ten pushups, (or five or two) do these sets all day. As many times as you can. After going to the bathroom, before eating, when you laugh, anytime during the day. Do them all day, every day. Just doing sets like this will increase your optimum number in a few short months. Think of it this way....are you going to do Martial arts for a long time? If you are, might as well start doing the extra pushup sets as a regular habit. Especially when you're tired. Do them fast and do them nasty. Keep this in mind as well... Jack Lalane set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes 50 seconds at the age of 42. If you young guys don't know who he is, look him up. Now go do some pushups right now. No, really, go ahead.

The sport of kickboxing was outlawed in Massachusetts back in the 1970's. Not training or teaching, just holding contests for money. It was done by the Department of Public Safety - which also included the boxing commission. The boxing commission ruled that since kicking was considered dirty fighting by boxing rules, it should not be done in the state. The ban lasted ten years or so. Why was it done? Because kickboxing shows were starting to outdraw boxing shows. Recently, (two years ago) the State of Mass decided to no longer sanction MMA shows. They didn't ban them, just decided to no longer sanction them. The shows still went on to sold out crowds, but the state was no longer involved and cost the state much needed revenue. Then, the City of Boston decided to no longer grant any licenses to hold MMA shows within City of Boston limits. Why did all of this happen? The boxing commission again. They were drawing about fifty people to boxing shows and MMA shows were turning away hundreds after being sold out. All this is about to be overturned thanks to Dana White and some hard lobbying. I know this is different than this thread was originally talking about - but I figured you guys might find it interesting to see how politicians can screw up anything, especially Martial Arts.