evergrey

OSU, No. Absolutely not. That is a Kyokushin kanku badge, with a yellow border around the edge, which is the bit of alteration on the design that Don Buck made. Don Buck (not to be confused with Fred Buck) met Sosai in 1955, and started learning from him back then. Sosai was in the San Francisco area visiting Duke Moore, who was a Judoka. Buck was taining under him, and he and Sosai became friends at that time. Buck because a branch chief on the West coast for a while. Sosai would visit from time to time and train with Buck, from the late 1950s on through the 1970s, especially the early 1970s. They had a disagreement and didn't speak for a while, and at that time Buck just had his own school, which is probably when he added a yellow border around the kanku. Eventually he rejoined IKO and Sosai, however, and was awarded a 7th dan by Sosai. Shihan White was Don Buck's student, and he trained under Sosai when he came and visited here as well. So, I'm not sure why he has a black dogi. I guess I'll ask him, heh! He'd worn one since at least the mid 1970s though. Sosai never complained about it, far as I know. *shrugs* Also note: this photo is from the early 1990s. I don't remember if it was 1991 or 1993. Sosai came over to watch a tournament on Hamilton air force base. OSU

Yeah I think I would basically refuse to train in a loincloth.

Yep! Shihan, now, not Sensei. He was my Sensei's Sensei back in the late 70s, actually. :} But yeah, his students wear a white dogi. Once they have their own schools, I think they get to wear whatever they want. The origin of the dogi itself is pretty hotly contested. I still want a black one.

OSU! Actually, Sosai never had a problem with it. http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/Misc/WhiteandOyama.jpg That'd be Sosai in the blue suit, and my Shihan in the black dogi, heh. You can see the kanku patch on his arm, a bit. This was in I think 1991 or 1992. My Shihan trained with Sosai from time to time, way back in the day. OSU

I would prefer a black gi. I would then perhaps not look like a giant meringue, and I wouldn't have to worry about stains as much. Oh well, Kyokushin has white dogis. :/ Our Shihan wears a black gi, even though it isn't traditional Kyokushin... but who is going to tell him he can't? The man can bench press 3 sets of 12 at 600 pounds. He has been practicing martial arts for like, 45 years. He has been teaching for like, I don't know, 35? 38 years? He gets to wear whatever he wants, lol.

I usually tell them if they want to be able to fight in order to defend themselves, it will likely take years for them to learn to do it properly (I'm probably not a good enough fighter yet, to defend myself against a truly determined assailant, unless maybe they were small and weak in ADDITION to being untrained) and that showing them something offensive (as opposed an a defensive escape that MIGHT come in handy some day) would be more likely to get them hurt than anything. There are no true magical shortcut montages in the martial arts, as a high ranking student should know. Just time, practice, sweat, sweat, maybe some blood and tears, and more sweat. And if you think your friends are going to honestly attack you to harm you later on... get better friends. Seriously. If you are honestly concerned that they will willfully try to harm you... maybe they are not your friends? OSU

Allrighty! Maybe sometime next week, haha. So crazy busy with training and stuff this weekend! OSU!

Haha, yeah, alcohol can do some really bad things. I think if someone doesn't have a LOT of self control, or if they have an addictive personality, they should really just avoid the stuff. The dojo was fully prepared to deal with him if need be. We are full of law enforcement officers, some of whom carry off duty, if it really comes down to something THAT bad. We also have a 7th dan and a 5th dan, in Kyokushin. I feel really safe here! Though I was still ready to jump in if need be. Hyper-vigilance'll do that.

OSU, it's usually useful when you are just so nice (but firm) that they can't figure out how to pick a fight with you! I remember once being at a street faire, and suddenly somebody took my hand. I looked over and it was some really drunk guy who I had never met before. He was just standing there, smiling, all blissed out, holding my hand, lol! I basically said "hi honey, how are you?" *smiles* "goooood!" "Okay, good! Hey let's turn around! I'm gonna send you that way. You have a great day now," and I steered him around and sent him back off into the crowd. Of course, if he had done something really really inappropriate, like sexual assault, it'd be all over for him, heh. But if they aren't threatening anyone, it's better to just do some mental aikido with them and redirect them. :}

Stupid: Being really drunk/drugged in public. REALLY stupid: stumbling into a full contact knockdown dojo and raising a ruckus. Darwin award candidate: one of the students remembers you getting processed in jail less than a week ago, where you tried to punch a female officer, and got your behind kicked. Guy stumbles in, reeking of booze, slurring, wearing a white tunic and baggy green pants. Where did he even find that outfit? I guess he decided going and watching karate would be a great way to spend his time while he was trashed. The dude got so very very lucky, because he let our head instructor gently escort him out. Head instructor is very good at deescalating bad situations, and is excellent at being extremely polite. He's good at convincing people to be good without having to threaten. He's also a law enforcement officer, and he can seriously throw down if need be. It's funny, seems like usually the people who have done this a really really long time and have an incredible amount of potential for destruction are usually the ones who are also smart enough to try to avoid going there if at all possible. :} Ever have a drunk or druggie wander into your dojo? What happened? This guy got a grin and a "thanks for stopping by! GOODBYE NOW!" Guy had nothing he could get belligerent about, hah!

What times are you usually on?

LOL, awesome.

You don't need to get offended, haha! That isn't all I got from your post. It's something I'm coming up against a lot while I do weight training, specifically to improve my power in knockdown karate.

Gods, can we PLEASE talk about how people are wrong when they say "don't strength train! Don't lift weights! IT WILL ONLY MAKE YOU SLOWER!"

My little dojo's ADULT class is so full that we barely manage to fit on the mat for a lot of drills, and kumite when the whole class is doing it at once gets pretty crazy! I think we'd be pretty surprised to find out that we're "dead."

"Do you, as teachers and students, expose yourself to the opposite end of the martial arts world?" Absolutely. Not only do many of our good fighters cross-train in a grappling art, but we also have an open sparring day every month where martial artists of any style and rank are welcome to come play, so long as their leave their ego at the door and keep it friendly. We do stand up, rolling and stand up/rolling. We go pretty hard, unless our partners do not wish to. It's an important part of Kyokushin, we feel. Sosai was constantly testing himself and his students against other styles, and learning from them, so we endeavor to do so as well. It's a great way to see what works against different techniques, and where we are as martial artists overall. " Do you make sure that you or your students understand the principles of the other styles?" I do my best to, and my instructors do as well. " Most importantly, are you and/or your students sufficiently equipped for a challenge such as this?" I'm just a 6th kyu, lol! Our liability insurance is cheap, and therefore doesn't really cover the hospital bills of whoever would attempt this. I believe that my instructors could handle a challenge like that, if they felt the need to, but given that we have students, myself included, with chronic injuries that have to be protected, I don't think it would be allowed. That's just not what we're about. We have a lot of people who are law enforcement officers at my dojo. At least 5 or 6. They have very important day jobs, and their skills are tested often out on the street, at least the ones who work the really bad areas that have a lot of drug use. We also fight at full contact knockdown tournaments. Pretty much, our head instructor would ask someone like that to leave, and if they didn't, they would have to take him on first. They wouldn't like it.

Yeah that's pretty normal actually. It just happens so fast, we can't see it!

ev.lokadottr is my skype ID, sent an invite to you, Bob!

1 Have you ever trained with a different style of martial arts? Yes, at open sparring I learn a little of this, and a little of that, and when I was a kid I did a bit of shorin-ryu but that didn't work for me. 2 Have you ever trained in another country? Not yet. 3 Have you ever trained outdoors? Many, many times. 4 Have you ever trained so hard you couldn't stand? No. I've fallen down though! Usually because of pain. Unless you count my ACL snapping during kumite. I couldn't stand after that, lol. I've had the feeling that I couldn't stand any longer many times, but I'm really really stubborn! 5 Have you ever had dreams about training? Oh yes! 6 Have you ever been knocked unconscious during training? Not yet. 7 Have you ever intentionally lost a fight? I let the little kids try to beat me up, if that counts for anything. 8 Have you ever run from a fight? Not in the dojo. "On the street" I tend to avoid fights, heh. It doesn't tend to come up though. 9 Have you ever cried during training? Yeah, a bit. And a few times, after training when I got into my car, a lot. 10 Have you ever saved your own life with martial arts? Yeah sorta, thank goodness for the elbow block, which saved me from a hoof to the face. 11 Have you ever saved another person's? Not yet. I hope I won't have to ever try, but if I do have to try, I hope I succeed.

Really it depends on how strongly my instructors feel I need an object lesson, lol!

OSU, you can't learn to ride a horse by reading a book and sitting on a log, in my opinion.

OSU Bob! Heeeey can you get on facebook chat? Pretty please?

Also I discovered that if one of my instructors is HOLDING a board, and I punch through it and go a bit far, punching THEM as well, well... I shouldn't apologize. If I apologize, I have to do push ups. So boards can kind of give you push ups too, lol!

OSU, you are welcome. It may be that there is some other reason the adult class doesn't do much kumite. Perhaps you could politely and respectfully ask? Perhaps phrase it as, "OSU Sensei, I would like to work towards the goal of fighting in a tournament. Is there any way I can get more time and experience in kumite, so I can work towards that goal?" Also ask if perhaps it would be okay for you to spar with willing partners after class, if it is not done often in class. It is a bit odd that an adult Kyokushin class doesn't do kumite very often. Ours doesn't every class, but we have a number of outstanding injuries amongst our adult ranks right now, and our instructors have been dealing with crazy work schedules a lot. Still, usually there are people who will spar after formal class is over, if someone has a dojo key. Practice, OSU

Our Shihan is 60 years old. Once, at a ranking, a 22 year old said "well I feel okay but when it comes to being a fighter, it's all downhill after you're 21!" Our Shihan stood up and said "OH REALLY? Well then, you won't have a problem with this old man, now will you?" What happened after that, well... the young man got a lot of flying lessons, and he can probably sing a lot higher too. I don't think he'll ever make the mistake of saying something like that again, though. Punch the bag. Just punch it. Use proper technique, but punch until you're sick of it. Punch until you can't help but relax. Same with kicking. Develop good technique, good form. And spar as often as possible. How old are these people that you say are too old for kumite? 75? 80? Would you say Steve Arneil is too old? Cameron Quinn, maybe? Judd Reid? (lol) Practice. OSU