Himokiri Karate

I remember in the mid 2000s, many karate dojos went out of business because MMA's rise to the main stream. The attitude revolved around being ultra tough, brawling and being aggressive. Everyone thought Karate and traditional martial arts was ineffective. Meanwhile as of recent times, the MMA stars of mid 2000s are not doing well. Bad health problems and they seem to want to distance themselves with the term "MMA" because they don't want their students to venture in to that world since it takes much out of you and leaves you broken. They prefer the term martial arts academy. Now this brings us to karate. An MMA gym in my hometown is slowly introducing gi and the karate culture to their Thai Kickboxing classes. They seem to want to incorporate the culture of traditional martial arts. I am curios to know... are we seeing the resurgence of Karate and the fall of MMA?

I agree now whole heartedly. We are human beings and martial arts is a social activity. But most importantly comes down to productivity. I excel with a teacher who is proactively checking my form. I also like the fact that my current teacher is my junior in age but is very open minded and actually likes some of the Tang Soo Do stuff that I do. The ability to analyze and compare creates a broad perspective. Solo training cannot measure up to a dynamic. Thank god that its super affordable private lessons. I am in Canada and we are still in lockdown mode and our policy is that, private lessons are alright but adult classes are a big no. I am taking advantage of the situation to learn as much as I can in a private setting with a great teacher who has great passion for martial arts.

Yes its very relevant because it is the glue that can bind boxing with traditional martial arts together. Tang Soo Do is a mixed traditional martial arts. For an MMA fighter who wants to learn some traditional martial arts can enjoy the colorful techniques of Tang Soo Do since it has hand techniques, various kicks from taekwondo and old school karate as well as various moves from Kung Fu. In a way, Tang Soo Do is a form of karate that is more flexible in ideology and in kicking techniques. Yet its not free style karate. Also there is different Tang Soo Do styles. Some are more like karate and some look like modern taekwondo but most look like a bit of both with kung fu flavor. Its a beautiful art form and it has the perfect blend of being open minded but also rooted in a culture.

IMHO, if you're training/learning totally online, without a partner to practice techniques on, you're wasting your time (and money). You learn the moves, but you're not getting the experiences of someone actually attacking you to see how the technique works. Without a qualified teacher to critique you, how do you know your doing techniques flawlessly? You may think you are, but ... IMHO, if you're getting certification from some online course, it's only worth the paper it's printed on. I had a guy come into my dojo years ago claiming he had an 8th Dan in karate. being ever the skeptical person I am I asked a few obvious questions, like "What system?" He didn't know. "Sensei's name?" He didn't know. I said "How can you become an 8th dan and not know the name of the system or your sensei?" He said it was online and took him ALMOST a year to get the rank. I asked him to show me a kata, he had no idea what that was. He did show me some stances and blocks, but they were very, very sad, slow and weak. His punch would have broken his wrist and hand, his kicks lacked any semblance of power or control, and he stood with straight legs. I asked him why he was there and he told me he wanted to be an instructor at my school. (I'm trying really hard not to laugh through all this). I asked him if he knew any of our katas, of course he didn't. Asked him to show me blocks, not even close. Philosophy? Nope. After about 45 minutes I sent him on his way with a little lesson on taking online course. I told him he's going to get himself killed if he started telling everybody he was an 8th dan black belt, because eventually somebody was going to challenge him and he was going to get a severe beating. I did offer to let him into my class as long as he NEVER mentioned his 8th dan or online training again. He left and I never saw him again. UPDATE: So I havent logged in for a while and now I have an update about this situation. After doing some soul searching and a very fortunate opportunity, I found a Taekwondo school that are well known for their fighting ability and super inexpensive private lessons. Currently I am doing the private lessons and the conditioning is beyond difficult. This was the right move. Some private sessions are about technique and other is about non stop cardio and volume kicking. I now know for a fact that online program is WRONG! Now my goal is to teach Karate but its going to have to be a mish mash of boxing, taekwondo and tang soo do that I know. My rank will come from Taekwondo/Hapkido and every move in Tang Soo Do can be found in Hapkido. Of course Tang Soo Do is Korean karate and that is the style I plan to represent as a teacher.

This popped up recently. I love Kenichi series because of different martial arts styles like karate, sambo, kung fu, muay thai and jujitsu among few. Baki and Kengan are more MMA. I will check this out but the trailer reminds me of Afro samurai.

So to give you an update for those familiar with my situation, initially I wanted to teach karate but not having a belt was a bit of a problem because previous organization disappeared ( hence my belt threads) and a month ago I found myself in an unpleasant situation that could have gotten physical which made me lose interest in having a belt system. I also made a thread about grappling in karate thread. This + having a talk with my sambo instructor and my experience with stand up fighting. I came to a conclusion that I am more fitted to teach Shootfighting (palm strike version of MMA) Now this is where things get weird. The term Shootfighting is trademarked and that is extremely bizarre because its a fighting style and the person who trademarked it is not the founder. If we go back from the beginning, Victor Koga brought sambo to Japan, one of his students started Shooto which led to Shootfighting when Karate stylist who fought in Kyokushin and kickboxing got curios from sambo and catch wrestling inspired grappling and Shootfighting was born. The term shoot meaning "real" since it was suppose to be the real version of what pro wrestling is. Now I need to ask all of you, is the style of karate you practice trademarked? Can someone copyright or trademark the term Karate? Or is there a loophole if the name is Shindokan or Kyokushin or Shotokan? If a person is a black belt in a popular karate style like Shotokan, do they have to be part of the organization that is the official Shotokan organization?

I kid you not I thought your going to write, because of property tax but then what I read literally made me lol What made me wonder was, what was up with the neighbors? Do they live in a purge or something? Like no one bothered to call the cops and the noise must have been out of control.

Since 2005 until this very moment, I told myself that if I ever got rich, I would be buying Terry Silvers home or should I say, mansion! Right now the mansion is for sale and it recently sold for 18 million. Its called the Ennis House and it has its own wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ennis_House Regarding Daniel Larusso, I agree with the courtyard but the inside feels off. Based on the picture, it feels like short celling height and it has so many windows everywhere. Its too easy to snoop around. Of course this is my personal preference. But I just love great celling height since it makes it easier to breath. The price is pretty darn good though. 2 and half is not bad at all. I moved back to my parents home to save money 2 years ago and they bought their house when it was under a million and now its worth 3 million and ours has 3 bedrooms and no upstairs, basements, attics or anything. Just a flat in a nice secluded part of town in one of the most expensive province in the country which is sad since my city is paradise in nature but full of angry, stressed out folks.

Hi, First of all, its an honor for me to be replying to this thread because I was wondering about Korean kung fu as well. Now myself, I consider myself a karate guy but my style is Tang Soo Do which means "the way of the Chinese hand" and if you look at history, you see that Taekkon is the original martial arts of Korea. But then it got mixed with Kung Fu and some say it was the northen style known as Nei-ga-ryu under master yang. This korean man who ventured in to china is by the name Hwang Kee and so perhaps he is the one to look in to. Afterwards when Japan invaded Korea, The Taekkyon and Kung Fu got mixed with Karate aka empty hand or originally known as Chinese hand. Hence Tang Soo Do. Now after Japan left, Koreans did not want to be tied down to china or japan and wanted their own identity. From there, many folks were encouraged to rename Tang Soo Do to taekwondo aka "the fist of foot way" I have often heard the term "every martial arts has its origin in shaolin" but reality is, every martial arts has borrowed or been inspired by shaolin kung fu. Now to your original question,

I remembered Bruce Tegners Jukado and how he combined karate with judo. In sambo you can punch and kick in the combat version. I always wondered if karate had a combat curriculum that addressed throws and grappling.

I understand that karate is a striking art but I am wondering which style of karate is grappling heavy in terms of throws and takedowns and maybe ground or newaza as the judokas like to call it.

A bit off topic, but if you are still interested in pursuing a legitimate certification in strength training, you should check out the Starting Strength Coach Certification. It sounds exactly like what you were looking for. Now, it's not an easy certification to obtain by any stretch, but it would be well worth your time. I would probably in the future but I really got in to yoga big time when I started re-exploring my kung fu roots since now that I no longer want to teach a belting system. My focus is stance, posture, flexibility and foundation for boxing and kung fu. Certification for strength training is weird due to covid situation but in the future if I have my own place, I would like to become certified.

Sorry if its a late reply but here is my thoughts on it: Internal means energy and life force as well as organ health as well as healthy heart and brain as well as digestion. External means strong, powerful and durable. Like Muay Thai fighters shin or Kyokushin fighters ability to take body shots or a boxers ability to deliver power. Same with grapplers being able to be dynamic, strong and powerful on top of their technique. Internal spiritual thing to me means psychology. Few days ago I got shook up by a street thug. Now I am suppose to be a martial artist and yet, I felt like I could have been more aggressive, even though I stood my ground, I could have been better. But my personal example. Universal example, staying cool under stress, not having shaky legs, handling yourself however you feel is best regardless if its right or wrong. What matters is, you followed up with your conviction without hesitation and did what you had to do with a level of proficiency that is on par with your skills. External is tangle because it means muscle gain, better bone density, stronger muscle fiber, greater posture and luster to go with it. If we want to be esoteric, its possible that internal can compliment the external. But I am just speculating. Internal is very important more than ever. Lots of pro fighters go broke, end up in a bad shape. Internal keeps your inner being intact, it gives you purpose and a reason to evolve and self perfect and that is important because as human beings we need to be engaged in activities with a purpose or else we fall in to depression and despair of living a life that has no meaning or that our life has no direction or adventure.

I am revisiting this thread for re-reading it so that I know there was someone here who remembers this story because sometimes I feel like I made it up in my head and its only in my head. I have such a deep and intense fascination for this story. It has become a part of me and it is something that I think about alot.

Sorry if its a late response. I have been meditating more and more with passing of years. First it was me being discontent with life, then Covid 19 and now running in to bad people as of recent which makes me have very dark and raging thoughts. If I meditate, the rage does not go away but it allows me agency to control and apply it in to my conversation ( becoming boisterous and strong voice) and helps me want to push myself in training.

Strange business model but more power to him. I understand and even support his horse stance challenge for beginners. In near future I plan to teach and I want to incorporate a foundation program for the beginners that revolves around boxing foundation+ kung fu stance training as well as yoga. I also expect to get tons of people losing interest but the point is, the better the foundation which is strength, balance and flexibility, then the ceiling potential of the student is going to be legendary. Due to recent event that I mentioned, I want my students to be molded in to the ultimate weapon because to be blunt, my town has become dangerous and I would hear stories but few days ago I got a preview of what could have been if I did not stand my ground. Now I see the importance of stance, foundation, aggression on top of technique. Technique falls apart and skill becomes useless if the students body, mind, heart and soul is not molded to an evolved state. The pain of holding a stance and the willpower as well as concentration requires for exertion allows evolution of skill and a solid base line. With that being said, after this incident, I feel like a beginner again in a different way and I look forward to exploring the deepest aspect of psychology and even developing the mental power to engage in difficult stance training and hopefully developing nerve of Steele.

Thank you for the reply and man I have no real knowledge of the ninjutsu culture. I just heard it being mentioned by folks posting online about it. Also an Update: So ever since I made this thread I asked around different places that are kung fu historians. The talk is that its a local folklore style. This means that spider style may have existed among few kung fu masters who claimed it as a personal style. But that, there was never actually a cultural kung fu style that was based on spider only local kung fu folks who adopted the idea of spider characteristic within their style. This meant that one spider kung fu master had a different spider style than another spider style kung fu master. Its more like a personal interpretation as oppose to a tradition.

There is a hapkido place in my town and the owner is referred as "The supreme grandmaster" As for me, I thought about this long and hard. This decision of mine also was influenced from being in boxing. My feeling is, I think that what Cobra Kai does in terms of terminology culture is the best because it works as a filtering process. My personal experience is, often times, a foul mouthed individual with a lack of respect might want to join an art that lets him be himself which is an unpleasant individual. But I feel that if I am called "sir" and "sensei" then its fair because its not overly grandiose. In a way sensei is teacher and not master and that would describe my occupation accurately. Sir means you respect me enough to surrender certain amount of social dynamics so that I can serve you by being your teacher and you as my student. Also being called teacher is fine. That being said, I recently experienced a bit of situation which maybe potentially violent if I run to this person again. So there is a chance that I might just opt for a casual culture and that in the near future, my teaching revolves around reality fighting which is creating scenarios with students experiencing loud screaming of profanities so that if they encounter it outside, they wont be shook up. This means that my teaching also has to reflect the psychology of the streets and so this means that the training culture has to be significantly altered and this includes if I am called by my first name or sensei.

Two options for your question: 1. Finding a form of MMA wrestling like catch/submission/shoot wrestling or also trying out sambo which is basically wrestling and old school judo. 2. If you want Greco or folk which is your choice, you can go to universities and talk to the coach. Sometimes, some coaches are open minded and they might allow you to join in on the side IF its off-season competition. During season things are intense and its pretty much wild and crazy but off season its more welcoming depending on the coach. Good luck.

Yesterday I had an incident of sorts that kind of has me shook up. The thread was made few days ago but this incident completely extinguished any interest I have in a rank or belt and it did so completely. At the end of the day, I train in boxing but my martial arts style is karate/Tang Soo Do and Kung Fu mix. Karate means Chinese Hand, Tang Soo Do means The way of the Chinese hand and my kung Fu revolves around conditioning the body and stance training. Right now, I want to fight and regardless if I win, I want to show spirit and aggression because I am pretty shaken up right now. I also want to make sure I am generating maximum power and my feet are gripped strong on the floor and that I can punch and defend a tackle or a takedown of sorts. Its amazing, my perspective changed 100 percent yesterday morning. Today I was at a secluded area in the park practicing horse stance and some of the yoga/pranayama breaths to calm my self down. I found my self making eye contact and saying hello to people with supreme confidence just to assure myself the incident that happened so fast is not going to deter me and take my power away. So just like that, attaining of belt became completely meaningless. I also realized the importance of palm strike and the accuracy it has and its more natural thing to perform under stress. In turn, my focus is to study the classical style of MMA known as shootfighting which is palm strike based fighting. I plan on teaching but I have to strategize. I plan on starting my students out with boxing foundation and the tons of yoga and kung fu exercises for balance and stability. Originally I wanted to teach Korean Karate ( Tang Soo Do with a twist) and hence I was looking for rank through Taekwondo but that is no longer the case. I am planning to do the private session with them but I have no desire for belts any more. Just a curiosity in difference between Tang Soo Do and Taekwondo. Amazing how one incident shook me up and changed my plans.

I appreciate it, I plan charging an extremely small fee or donation for people I know. The goal is to teach them what I learned and I insist they train at other places so they feel like what they are learning is of value to them. This clears my conscious of knowing that no one is getting ripped off. Another thing is that today, I had an incident with a random person. Both were walking, we cam close, he stepped on my shoes, I looked on instincts alone, he started going off on profanity and I stood my ground letting him know if he wants to make a move that I am here and he walked away cursing. Today I was able to apply psychology of not being able to look like a victim and get pushed around. This was in a rough area which is where my boxing gym I train at is and this stuff never really happened all that much until Covid. Now afterwards I was pretty shook up, boxing workout helped but I was pretty livid and this is where breath work came in handy. But it also opened my eyes that in my dojo I wish to incorporate profanity training. This revolves around real life situation with an assailant screaming and yelling with profanity, tons of top martial artist get shook up and this incident opened my eyes to not just skill, conditioning and fighting but also psychology of combat and becoming immune to someone yelling and screaming the nastiest words in the loudest tone. This can be scene with UFC star Conor McGregor who used to resort to these tactics early in his career. The Diaz brothers of the early UFC era also did possess this type of edge to them that would fluster athlete based fighters. Today, I realized that I still have ways to go in street psychology. Some folks can and have a knack to say things bizarre or acting in a way that throws the opponent off. I am not sure if I have the affinity for it. My thing is, I for some reason can raise my voice extremely loud and in a very hostile manner like some steroid freak hopped up on street drugs despite having a meek appearance. For my students, I have to discover what they possess that they can use as a psychological weapon to make themselves more formidable but today was extremely eye opening. Sorry for the rant but long story short, I now have to add psychology to the mix of my three original criteria. Solid post!! The bold quotes above are quite telling about you as well as your teaching abilities and concerns for your Student Body. Thanks man and I have so much to learn. Yesterday an incident happened that was about to become violent until I decided go against my training of de-escalation and I went the opposite and I became confrontational. The result... It worked when I was holding my ground and not being the better man. This has created a conflict within me because I resorted to a method that was the opposite of what I learned. Now I have much learning to do in regards to psychology of combat.

I appreciate it, I plan charging an extremely small fee or donation for people I know. The goal is to teach them what I learned and I insist they train at other places so they feel like what they are learning is of value to them. This clears my conscious of knowing that no one is getting ripped off. Another thing is that today, I had an incident with a random person. Both were walking, we cam close, he stepped on my shoes, I looked on instincts alone, he started going off on profanity and I stood my ground letting him know if he wants to make a move that I am here and he walked away cursing. Today I was able to apply psychology of not being able to look like a victim and get pushed around. This was in a rough area which is where my boxing gym I train at is and this stuff never really happened all that much until Covid. Now afterwards I was pretty shook up, boxing workout helped but I was pretty livid and this is where breath work came in handy. But it also opened my eyes that in my dojo I wish to incorporate profanity training. This revolves around real life situation with an assailant screaming and yelling with profanity, tons of top martial artist get shook up and this incident opened my eyes to not just skill, conditioning and fighting but also psychology of combat and becoming immune to someone yelling and screaming the nastiest words in the loudest tone. This can be scene with UFC star Conor McGregor who used to resort to these tactics early in his career. The Diaz brothers of the early UFC era also did possess this type of edge to them that would fluster athlete based fighters. Today, I realized that I still have ways to go in street psychology. Some folks can and have a knack to say things bizarre or acting in a way that throws the opponent off. I am not sure if I have the affinity for it. My thing is, I for some reason can raise my voice extremely loud and in a very hostile manner like some steroid freak hopped up on street drugs despite having a meek appearance. For my students, I have to discover what they possess that they can use as a psychological weapon to make themselves more formidable but today was extremely eye opening. Sorry for the rant but long story short, I now have to add psychology to the mix of my three original criteria.

See your not wrong in essence but sad truth is, it is for sale whether its wrong or right. Martial arts is a billion dollar industry and people want to "buy" their way to confidence and personal power. These industries that spawn organization understand this psychology and look towards capitalizing it by creating ranks which leads to goals and hierarchy so that folks who lack purpose and belonging can look towards reaching a rank in order to find their own identity. Few years back, I was taking a course on being a personal trainer. When I went in I went in expecting to learn proper grips, positioning and form for proper execution of various free weight exercises. But then, reality kicked in...HARD! Instead of learning proper form and mechanics of deadlifts and squats. I learned that personal training is about capturing clients who are lonely and insecure. You are there to be their pseudo friend/therapist. Best trainers that make six figures are folks who are charismatic and socially well versed and great at being an extrovert. This was in 2015 and I decided to discontinue the program because at the time I could not be a cheerleader and not know how to teach correct forms in weight lifting. Never the less, it was a reality check that as unfair and unjust as it is, having some certification does and is something that people look as impressive and it carries weight. Now the whole thing was eye opening, for martial artist, if they have a title or a rank, it does work in a business sense. Hence my two latest threads revolves around the correct criteria of being qualified to teach because unlike 2015 I have gained skill in teaching and teaching I believe is a skill itself that requires an exertion in effort and character trait in patience, honesty and importantly knowledge of passing respectable material that is fulfilling and high in quality that the students can derive true value from it from all direction and dimension. This is the core of martial arts regardless of style. Never the less, I also carry with me the wisdom that I was exposed which is charisma, psychology and having a hierarchy does play a factor in winning the "business" aspect of martial arts and just like war, its fought on different fronts. As the infamous words of George Estabrooks "War is a grim business"

My personal dilemma here: Besides boxing, I have always been very fond of karate ( also kung fu exercises) in terms of technique and combat application as well as it blends well with certain aspects of boxing. To that end, I sought karate/kickboxing hybrids because I wanted to learn the traditional techniques of karate but also to know that my teachers understand or enjoyed boxing technique. Hence karate/kickboxing. Long story short, in my town, all these guys retired from teaching because MMA/Muay Thai came in and took over. Now everything is Brazilian jujitsu and thai kickboxing which is fine but its not my style, not my tradition. I returned to boxing but really became fond of Korean Karate aka Tang Soo Do which few decades ago, they renamed it to Taekwondo as I researched the history to separate themselves from the Japanese and to have their own national identity. So me in current time: I have decided to take the skill that I have and attain a rank in Taekwondo with the karate and boxing skills that I possess. Realistically, I can teach boxing but the nature of boxing culture is dog eat dog world while I want to make sure all the students do well learning technique, physical conditioning and a sense of renewed spirit. A place of technical and physical mastery if you will. Karate offers so much amazing benefits and it really allows students to nurture their spirit and I feel like its important to have a belt just to be able to call myself a teacher at the very least. With that being said, self promotion is unacceptable to me. Changing organization is fine but self promotion is completely mad logic since martial arts is a human business and at least let someone "bless" you with a new belt.

Truth is, if this was Pre-covid, I could care less, I would do what I always do when I train in boxing and karate, which is teach them the move and then have them perform it many thousand of times until its muscle memory. Of course I would teach them the foundation of stance and footwork but endless reps is something I aim for. No belts, no nothing but truth is, belts hold a lot of water. I also had few instructors who trained me well but their business and organization went under before I could get ranked properly.