jsteczko

These of you who train Shotokan know that it is totally forbidden to lift your heel. They must touch the ground almost all the time. In that way you're more stable and your punches are more powerful. But if you have trained boxing or muay thai you know that they say to actually lift your heels. In that way you gain more power in your strikes. I think they lift heels in kyokushin too but I'm not 100 % sure because I haven't trained kyokushin. Did you also hear about that difference before? What do you think, is it better to lift your heel or not? Who is right?

I don't participate in competitions... I don't know why, I think it is because I was never really interested in this subject. You know, competitions sounds fun but still it doesn't motivate me to participate in them.

Your training sounds nice. I also like the fact that your sensei is teaching you grappling. My karate sensei has no idea about grappling... which is bad. I like high intense trainings. And your training seems to be good.

Well, some people may not like it, but in general there's nothing wrong with relationships in the dojo. Everyone has a different view on this. If there are people in the club we don't like it, maybe then the couple should not show their relation in the dojo. In that way they would show respect to others. Everyone in the club would know about the relationship but they wouldn't see it with their eyes. And then it does not hurt that much.

Well, because I don't know much about Zen Shin Ryu I would choose Kyokushin. But who knows, maybe Zen Shin Ryu is also a good style.

I don't see any connection between driving and martial arts but if it works for you, congratulations.

It's hard to tell. I don't think this would matter for me but I think "knowing" would be better because that gives me time to prepare.

I think there must be an age limit. 18 or something similar. But maybe it will be "ok" if the kid was training since he/she was 5 years old. Very hard to answer this question. A kid can get a rank, but he will have to grow up to gain more respect from adults.

We train on some special mat. I don't know what it's called, it's soft but looks like grey wooden floor. It has some special material underneath it to make the floor even softer. Well, at least I can guarentee it is not traditional floor

Well, what can I say... Congratulations! Who knows, maybe he deserved it.

Yea, a big discussion was created about muscles, flexibility, speed etc. Stamina, speed and strength are important in MA. Probably everyone agrees with that. To gain strength you must train weight lifting (or something similar to that). People train weight lifting for one of these two purposes: increase muscle size or gain strength. You can train so you mainly gain strength as an athlete. Or you can train as a bodybuilder and gain muscle mass. Which one is better? From logical perspective strength would be better for a martial artist, right? But muscle size can give you weight which some people want. Some people also want to look nice in the mirror. And you won't gain good look quickly by training strength. I was wondering if to create a new thread about this but I decided to discuss this here. My question is, what is better from your point of view? Is it to gain strength or to gain muscle size?

I have only trained no gi and I like it that way. I don't like the idea of training with gi but perhaps it's worth trying. You can always learn something new.

Well, I'm not training Judo so my answer may be not the right one... I wouldn't care if something was "rude". There is no such thing as rude. If the other person says "it hurts".. well it's not my problem. The most important thing is to escape his guard etc. I'm not very experienced in BJJ so my point of view is a little bit different. If this hurts your partner, isn't it something positive then? Because your partner can then train how to manage pain. When you get more experienced and find something better, then you can stop grinding your elbows. I don't see anything wrong with using elbows.

Google and Wikipedia can help you. It is a self defense martial art. Aikido is like judo, you use your opponent's power against him. But I think there are more joint locks in aikido then judo. They also practise more standing fight than grappling. It was created because its creator though karate was too brutal. Try aikido yourself and see if it fits you.

There are a lot of applications to every kata. And you probably founded the next one! I will tell you this: if boxing guard fits you, then make it work. If you like it, then do it. And I agree with a few persons who spoke before me. There are not only punches and kicks in katas. Locks and takedowns can also appear. But sometimes it's hard to see them and you must use your imagination.

What you can do is to go up at 6 a.m. and train outside. This is what I do on weekends. And the strange thing is, after the training I feel better than ever. MA workout right after you wake up is very nice. But this works only during summer time.

Many people here say that big muscle can slow you down. I don't know from where this opinion comes from. It's probably very old one since the birth of weight lifting. Here is a video where the strongest man in the world fights in MMA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b7-kntLj60 If you prefer to not click, go to youtube and type "pudzianowski vs najman" and the video should show up. Those of you who are MMA fans maybe heard about Pudzianowski before. He was the strongest man in the world 5 times. Now he wants to train MMA. I think he weights around 280 pounds. On the video you can see that even if he is very big and strong, he is FAST. He's got bad stamina and techniques but he is fast. I think this is a good proof that shows that strong does not equals slow. I think that all aspects matter. Stamina, strength, techniques, speed. Mindset is also important. If you are scared of a bigger opponent then chance is big you lose. If you just train strength and do not stretch or train stamina, then you will have bad stamina and flexibility. In martial arts you cannot train and concentrate on just one thing. All aspects must be practiced. Runners and slim because they only train running. Strongmen are big because they only train strength. A person who trains both, will have both.

Hello We all here are martial artist at some point. I was wondering what is more important for a martial artist? What does a martial artist want most? Is it to gain muscle and be strong? Or is it just about being slim and lose fat? When I think how I feel about this subject, I think it is muscle gain. Because strength is needed. Of course you must be fast and have right timing in MA but without proper strength you may not be an effective martial artist. Technique itself cannot do all the job. Fat loss is perhaps more for obese people. I can rarely see anyone obese on martial arts classes. At some point muscle gain and fat loss are the same thing (when you train in the gym you build muscle and burn fat right?) but when you go deeper in it, these two are different things. I know this from bodybuilding ebooks. I asked some women how it works for them. They wanted to be slim or "flatten their stomach". They didn't care much about muscle gain. My question is, what do you think about this? What is more important for a martial artist, is it strength and muscle gain or fat/weight loss? Does it depend on sex?

Because I train Shotokan style, the katas I know are: All Tai kyuku All Heian All Tekki Bassai Dai Empi Gihon That's 14 katas. I also started to practice Kanku shu Sorry if I misspelled one or more names. I don't know Japanese.

If you feel great with 1st Dan, then stay there. But some people would not feel happy with only one Dan. Let's say one trains for 10 years and he is still 1st Dan while his friends go up. Maybe his skills are good but on the outside they're not. If you stay on 1st Dan you won't clearly "see" your development. This matter depends on what you feel is best for you. Right now you think like this but maybe in about two years you can feel different. We all change with time.

I don't care much. A good thing about it is that in Japanese you have names on everything. If you don't want to use Japanese definitions, you must replace them with your own terms. For some techniques it is easy, like "front stance", "front kick" etc. But for some other techniques it can be hard to find a good and short name. Japanese is a totally different language and that can make it hard to learn. I am not talented when it comes to language learning. Sometimes I forget what the name is and I show it instead. But when you want to communicate quickly with other karatekas, the Japanese terms can help you. But there are also long Japanese names in karate, like "Heian Shodan" in shotokan karate. I prefer to say just "1" because it is much faster to do so...

I always tell the truth. There is nothing wrong with it. Most of people in my environment don't train karate (they don't train martial arts at all) but I'm always honest if they ask. Because they don't train it I'm not talking about it unless they show interest. I don't want to bore them with my training. In most cases they prefer to talk about soccer. Be strong and be yourself!

Well, if you just train sparring on Shotokan classes, take it easy man. It's a training, not a competition. But I know how you feel from your point of view. I don't like Shotokan competitions. You just have to do a little skin-touch. Training for such competitions can make you used to light punches. And when you train for these competitions, you can only exercise a few punches and kicks, while in karate has a big variation in strikes. On competitions you can only see a few of what's available. There is nothing wrong in training for Shotokan competitions, the problem is that it is not enough. After some time you will get tired, because competition-Shotokan is so poor. This is what happened to me. So I talked with my sensei and now we train with much bigger variations of strikes. And there is no skin-touch and we train leg-kicks as well. If you want my opinion, I would say you don't have much to improve. But if you want to be on Shotokan competitions, take it easy. Train by giving light punches, try to make a skin-touch. Your arm must be a little bit bent then. When you hit your opponent, take back your arm right after the strike. It is hard to give advices like this because I don't know what you can. Simply have control.

But you still can train these takedowns on judo classes? This is just tournaments... and martial arts tournaments are in most cases just a sport and not a martial art. This is the same thing in karate, they remove a lot of techniques in karate competitions. Unfortunately judo or any martial art that is practiced as a sport is not effective. This is at least my opinion, because in martial arts sports you don't learn many things. Too many techniques are removed.

Your situation is very similar to the situation my sensei has. My sensei trained with his instructor for almost 30 years but now he wants to change his karate style. His instructor created his own version of Shotokan but my sensei found a much better Shotokan form. First he didn't know what to do. Stay in the old style he does not like? Or shift to a new one where he can expand his skills? My highest recommendations to you is to do what you want. It can be hard if you have been loyal so far to your sensei. But I think that if you do not learn much in your old style, it is better for your development to change the style. You should always search for new ways of expanding your skills. If you think that the new style is better, then train the new one.