jsteczko

I have never practiced aikido. I heard some positive opinions about but I can't tell personally what I think about it. I heard that there are two kinds of aikido. One you can use in competition and the second one that is traditional and much more dangerous. Maybe it is true, but I was never interested in aikido either. Listening to other people's opinion will not make you certain about aikido. You must go yourself to the dojo and try it.

You are arguing which martial art is better but the biggest asset everyone has is his own mind. If you are very skilled martial artist but you cannot push yourself to victory you may not succeed. You must believe in yourself. On the other hand you cannot be too optimistic because then you may not respect your opponent and be beaten up. Sometimes you can meet people who have strong minds. You can just see it on the way they move, speak etc. Very much depends on the mindset. Discussions about which martial art is better will never end.

I train Shotokan Karate and BJJ (sometimes MMA grappling). I think the biggest difference between judo and BJJ is that in judo they train more takedowns. On my BJJ classes we do not practice takedowns which is a negative thing. I heard that this is a common "problem" in many BJJ clubs. But I cannot be 100 % sure because I did not train in every BJJ club on earth. Maybe it depends on the teacher. I would gladly test judo because then you can be sure you will learn how to take people down to the ground. How about the grappling part? Judo and BJJ have the same roots which means their grappling techniques are very much the same. So, everything depends on what you want to practice. If you want to learn both takedowns and ground fighting you should go for judo. If you want to put 100 % of your efforts on grappling you should train BJJ. If I could go to a judo class I would do it. But I live in a small town and there is no judo here...

Yes, you are right I have never been in a street fight. But... I respect that you have been in several fights on the street and you are more experienced in this? What I mean is a street fight when someone is attacking you with a e.g. knife. When the other guy is armed you must use completely different techniques than these you use against a "normal" guy. BJJ does not look like a martial art where you can take a guy with a knife to the ground and do a renaked choke on him while he is stabbing you with his knife. But as I said before I didn't fight on the street so I cannot be 100 % sure. Maybe you know? I also train BJJ so I can protect myself if the fight was on the ground. But I don't think this would be in my plans.

I think this is a karate thing to twist your palm when you strike. When you attack with your basic strike yako-tsuki (seiken) you rotate your wrist. So this might be a common "thing" in karate that you rotate your wrist when you attack. Of course some people prefer to not do that. I tested a little bit and it feels more comfortable for me to rotate my palm when I strike with my elbow. I feel more power then, that I engage my body much more. But it might be just my psychology. So I agree with "CTTKDKing", it depends on how you feel when you strike. I tried to hit in both ways with just my hand (seiken) on a training bag. I could see that I was a little bit faster when I did not rotate my palm. But maybe I lost some power if I did not turn it? Don't know. It might be also different from person to person. Call National Geographic and tell them to make some tests they have a professional equipment to test such things.

As people before said, you should do it. It is good to train a martial art for stand fight and another martial art like BJJ to ground fight. This is a smart step. It is going to give you respect from MMA fighters. Some people who train MMA think they are just better because MMA is a "good mix" of martial arts and that they can fight on the ground. Even if BJJ is effective against these who do not practice ground fighting, it is unpractical on the street (who wants to roll in the dirt?) against several attackers. But, as I said before, BJJ is going to give you some respect. You are also going to be safe (in case one ground fighter attacks you). And there are no age limits. Start training but be careful so you do not start training too many things at once. You might be overwhelmed then.

We always have traditional white gi. But I see that some people are saying that they wear different kinds of wardrobe on their karate classes. I cannot imagine a karate session where people have T-shirts or various types of gis. In my club we accept T-shirts and "normal" cloths only if someone is a beginner. I wonder, if you can have what kind of gi you want, which style are you training then? Is this appearing in all kinds of styles or only in these modern ones? I watched not so long ago a video where a black belt was showing a kata. He had a black t-shirt and red pants on him. I do not know what kind of black belt he is but this view was really strange.

Critics, who do not practice karate will always find a way to criticize karate. I have a friend who trains MMA and he very often says "Muay Thai, boxing and BJJ is the best, this is proven in MMA". I avoid these discussions because they are meaningless. Even when I say to my friend "karate is used by Bas Rutten and Lyota Machida" he will find an excuse that it is not karate they are training. His reply mostly is "Yes, but they train a special style and it is not karate". Funny... Lyota Machida is a good example of that karate can be used in MMA. But I believe the biggest asset you can have is your own mind and not the style. There are many other great martial arts than these which are used in MMA but mostly they are not allowed. Because they may focus on killing your opponent. In UFC you do not want to see these guys killing. Hitting each other e.g. in the throat or any other surface that can really hurt. You maybe say "But they throttle on the floor!". Yes they do, but they don't do it in the middle of the throat where Adam's apple is but on the sides where veins are. In BJJ they just stop the flow of the blood to the brain and this is not as dangerous as hitting one's Adam apple. On one side MMA is a good martial art, but on the other side it is a sport and they may be not that effective as other real fighting styles. And when I go back to your question, more karatekas in UFC would be nice. But I don't care too much because I don't watch UFC.

Most people are afraid of mistakes. We all have dreams and we want to make them happen. Unfortunately 90% of the population is afraid of failure. Many people want to: 1. Become an actor 2. Or a singer 3. Run their own business. 4. Start training. But they don't do it. Their fear is telling them that they may not succeed. And so they do nothing. If one wants to be successful, he must understand that when he makes a mistake he must learn from it. If one thing does not work, maybe something else will. Let's say you want to train martial arts. But then some questions pop up in your mind "what if I get hurt", "I don't have time", "what if my friends don't like it?" etc. And them you do not do anything. And this holds you back. What Bruce Lee is trying to say it that you should have a goal and go for that goal. Never give up. If one thing does not work, something else will. I read books written by motivation speakers and they always say that mistakes are a blessing. They make you learn new things. They make you mentally "sexy".

Oyama, the creator of Kyokushin was a student of Shotokan creator - Gichin Funakoshi. Yet their styles are not the same. Why? Oyama had a vision, where he crated his own style and where people were training sparring. There is not much kumite in Shotokan clubs. Of course very much depends on the teacher. There are Shotokan clubs where people train kumite, with that little skin-touch which is somehow useless on the street (are you going to use skin-touch strikes when someone attacks you?). I trained before in such club, but I switched to another Shotokan club. There, people are not training kumite but they focus on bunkai, breating, deeper stances and their style is not a sport. They call it budo (the way of the warrior). This means they are training something that you cannot use too much on sport events. You train to really damage your opponent. As you see, two shotokan clubs but different types of training. This is because one sensei thinks one thing is better, another sensei things something else is better. Oyama wanted a style where you could train sparring but still hit hard and be tough. And he did it. I do not know much differences there are between kyokushin clubs but I would gladly try out kyokushin some day. When you will be a black belt you will be able to create your own style as well.

Because every individual is different. Everyone creates sooner or later his own style and adapts techniques to his own body. As you can see, very often karate styles are not that much different. I know that sometimes the only different thing can be the name. There are also many opinions and discussions which techniques are best. One might prefer traditional karate with deep stances and katas. Another guy may want to train sparring instead of katas. But they both train the same martial art. Some people can have a vision where they create their own style with their name on it. For example, my name is Smith and I create Smith Karate. Because I want others to train my style. Another example: think about catholic church and protestant church. There are not many differences, except some details. But still they are not counted as the same thing. The reason to so many karate styles is as always, the fact that every individual is different.

Yes, very much depends on your sensei. I train shotokan and my sensei would not be glad to see me in a black gi. But I know him well and he would not be that mad. His instructor would kick me out of the dojo if I had a black gi. Many instructors are really extreme when it comes to this and they only allow white gis. One of my friends had once with him a band which he tied around his head. He was not allowed to train... But as you can read here on this forum, some people say that black gis are allowed. This depends on your trainer. Some are a little bit more modern others want to stick to the tradition. My sensei prefers tradition but sometimes he accepts changes. For example, we started to use names like 1,2,3,4,5 instead of heian shodan, heian nidan etc. Later, an instructor from another style came to our club and was guest training. When he realized we use "1,2,3" and not traditional names he started complaining. I also think that everyone should use white gi. Then you know that he/she is training karate. I would not understand a karateka who has a gi of different color or a T-shirt (an exception can be beginners).

In karate you use both sides. But of course it is your choice which side you will use. I am also a left-footer plus I am right-hander. But I train both sides. Remember that if you are weak at something this is exactly what you should train! I heard once a story. Think about it this way: You train weight lifting. You have strong arms and weak legs. You decide to concentrate on training your arms because you know that your legs are weak. What happens soon? You will have extremely big arms but you will not be able to walk. Do you like sound of that? This illustrates that you should keep balance and when you see that you are not good at something - you should train more that part where you are weak at. Unfortunately most people do the opposite - they concentrate on something they are good at and ignore the worse part. But you know now that this leads to handicap...

Oss! It depends on what you mean by "always a part of karate". I know that mageri was always in karate while mawashi-geri is only 100 years old. It is hard to find out today if high kicks were always in karate. This martial arts have existed in around 500 years now. If you cannot do a head kick it does not matter so much. Not too long ago a sensei from another karate club came to our club to train together with us and exchange experiences. I talked a little bit with him about techniques and he said that you don't have to make a head kick in order to defeat your opponent. It is enough to kick him in his leg or knee. That way you make HIM go down to your level But yes I agree that such research is interesting. I was always interested in history.