evergrey

OSU Does anyone know if there are any dojos near Fort Lost-in-the-woods? Or Kyokushin folk stationed there who could train? Have a dear friend who I would love to hook up with Kyokushin, he's perfect for it. Thanks! OSU

I'm getting the calluses either way from push-ups, haha.

Trust your gut. It's what keeps you alive during a fight. It's what keeps your spirit healthy.

Lazy people who do nothing whenever their instructors are not on top of them, and who show no respect? They do annoy me, heh.

Oyama also had cancer in his later years. Our shihan is 60 and his hands are doing great. Fast, good mover, strong too. I don't set out to TRY for iron hands, but the Kyokushin style of training that we do, in particular in my school, tends to lead to a toughening of the knuckles. We don't use padding and all that... but if something starts to split, I bandage it. I don't particularly want to get staph or hep-c myself...

OSU! The long-time members of my dojo, and of course all the instructors, have what I call "warrior's hands." The first two knuckles of their hands are all tough and calloused and scarred up. I'm slowly working on that, and those knuckles are getting nice and rough and scarred, between knuckle push-ups and punching people, bags, and makiwara. So, do you have warrior's hands? How long did it take for you to stop bleeding and getting raw on those knuckles? OSU

If your instructor allows you to compete, you might want to see what the Kyokushin dojos are doing. They (except for IKO1) tend to have open tournaments, which let people of any style compete. Contact ranges from medium to full, generally.

Get hit a lot more, and eventually you won't bruise quite so readily.

It's really up to the whims of our shihan, who tends to carefully plan each class, though he sometimes makes it seem as if it's whatever comes to mind. Usually, it goes like this- individual students stretch a bit before class, off the mats because there's a kid's class. Once we've lined up and the kids are dismissed, we "start the falls," where we go around the mat twice practicing four different falls. Then we do dive-rolls, then walk on our hands. After that, we often run around the mat for a number of laps, mayb e10 or so, and then we do push-ups, on the knuckle, arms shoulder-width apart, elbows brushing the ribs. After that warm-up, there are any number of things we might do, but most of the time it's kihon- we drill the basics. Sometimes we line up and drill, and sometimes we partner up and drill with contact, starting with one side punching and the other side blocking (high, middle, low) and then one person will punch the other, say, 100 times in the stomach with half-inch penetration, and then the partners will switch. Then we might punch to the chest, or do mawashi geris, or mae geris, or what have you. We might practice something like uraken and then two middle-place punches, 10 times each back and forth, or a grab and a throw, or whatever. Then we usually form two lines, low ranks on one side and high ranks on the other, and we do kumite. Fight for a couple minutes, stop, one of the low ranks runs down to the other side of the line, everyone on that line moves down so they are facing the next person, fight again... often until everyone in one line has fought everyone in the other line. Then it's usually the "end of basics" and we are welcomed to keep practicing on the mat once Shihan has left, until the last key-holder goes home.

OSU, Some of the other women in my class like to chat quietly. I don't mind that, so long as we're still drilling, and drilling properly. I also don't mind not speaking. Standing around though, I don't go in for that unless they are having difficulty and need a break, which I can certainly understand. If the talking makes the training suffer, however, that's not so cool. OSU

We use the ball of the foot in Kyokushin, though it is hard to learn to get the toes back. Mine still don't bend back well, but I prefer to not use the top of my foot... Elbows huuuuurt! http://www.niceboots.org/~evergrey/Kyokushin/0311/anklebruise.jpg My ankle was so swollen... Shins can be powerful, but the ball of the foot is great for penetration- getting in there and tagging the nerves on the sides of the legs. It's really effective! I prefer to use my shins, but I have to admit, getting hit by someone's shin doesn't phase me as much as a really hard ball of the foot does. That, and a hard well-aimed hook kick or axe kick with the heel- there's more time to see it coming, but it can be tricksy!

There's at least one MMA gym in a Wal-Mart. Tons of places are cashing in on the MMA craze without REALLY knowing how to do it properly. Just as there are tons of McDojos and belt factories. And tools with tap-out shirts starting fights in What-A-Burger, heh. But there can be found great martial artists in a variety of styles. Sometimes it comes down to the instructor and the martial artist themself more than the style... though some styles are a little more practical than others, and some focus more on fitness, or looking pretty, or self-esteem. Meh. Focus on your own training. That's the really important thing. OSU!

Sit in seiza but put the balls of your feet on the ground behind you, with your toes bent forward. Do that as a stretch every day... it helps a bit, eventually. :}

In my class we usually don't take water breaks, but if someone requests one, they can take it. I make sure to load up on water before and after class though.

OSU, Train. Train more than you sleep. Training is essential, outside of the dojo as well as in it. Living the martial way takes more than a couple of hours a week in a class. Every night, when he leaves, our Shihan always says the same thing: "PRACTICE! OSU!"

At this point, OSU has become so natural-feeling for me that I have a hard time remembering to not use it when interacting with non-Kyokushin types. It really kind of flows out of the gut and off the tongue. It's so much simpler than "yes sir" or "okay I understand" or "hi, it's good to see you!"

An interesting subject for me, because I have three instructors, and they all teach kihon a little differently. Part of the idea in Kyokushin is "do what works... and what works FOR YOU." So you follow what your instructors teach you, but eventually you adjust to what is the most effective thing for you. In the meantime, it gets interesting when one will come up to me and say "no no, do it THIS way," and then another will come up and say "No no, THIS way." I'm so new, I usually don't manage to do it quite like any of them are telling me to do it, but the way I see it, they are all giving me a different piece to the same puzzle, and they are all giving me solid advice. It is up to me to find just the right way. My instructors are a 2nd dan, a 5th dan, and a 7th dan. They all come from different eras of training, though the 2nd dan is in some ways the most old school, since he took a 23 year break from Kyokushin, haha. My primary sensei says "sometimes, you just have to listen, say OSU, and go back to doing what feels right." I said "OSU!" He said "Okay, don't take my advice THAT quickly!" Hahaha.

Politics are a poison, no argument here.

In my Kyokushin dojo, the OSUs are pretty constant. It does seem like, from the videos I have seen, they use it a fair amount in the Kyokushin dojos in Japan as well, however.

Hugs! I've gotten a hug from all of my instructors. Shihan, just the once though. I got all excited and bounced up and down while he hugged me. Made him laugh. :}

Haha, that sounds familiar... Though I met my sensei's sensei. And now get hook kicked by him on a fairly regular basis. He certainly can be really intimidating. But I trust him.

Now, I know that my instructors can all take me down. I know that they could easily do me serious harm. Maybe they could even kill me! But! This actually makes me feel kind of safe. Being someone with PTSD, for me, my biggest fear isn't getting hurt. My biggest fear is losing control and hurting someone innocent. I know that my instructors would never allow this, and it makes me feel safer. If I was really truly scared of them, I wouldn't train there... being in a full contact style, I am putting my life in their hands. I had better be able to trust them. Plus, I know that while they do have a lot of power, they also have the maturity, the humility, the goodness, and the training to not abuse it! OSU

Yes, in my dojo (which I've been at for a while now) we tend to go medium. Certain pairs of people will go at it a lot harder than others, and there can be a lot of bruising and some minor injuries from this, but the key is to learn, not to harm. It's no good actually badly injuring your dojo-mates. Plus, they might remember it and return the favor if you're a real jerk about it... there are certainly people who are happy to go to the level of energy you go to during kumite. I do have to say that my favorite sparring partners are the ones who DO hit me hard. Hard enough, sometimes, to give me pause. Hard enough to knock the breath out of me if I am foolish enough to not tighten my muscles when they strike, or to run straight into their kick. I WANT to get hit hard enough to bruise, because it teaches me how to process the blow, how to overcome the pain (and my pain threshold slowly rises) and it stops me from "cheating" or doing foolish things as much, because pain is a great teacher. You fight how you train. Okay, on the street it's different and you are going to go even harder, and use the nasty tricks that injure and disable if the situation is bad enough... but with extremely light contact, the response and processing isn't really "honest," if that makes sense. It isn't realistic enough, and it doesn't, I think, teach as much. It IS, however, important to develop fine control. To know EXACTLY where your fist is. And to, at will, strike a tiny space away from the body, strike so lightly that it feels like a feather, strike with a half inch of penetration, strike with two inches of penetration, or more. Control and technique are very important. I would also say that, even more than the people who don't take me seriously enough to actually strike me with any force at all, I dislike the people who have no control, and can ONLY hit hard, and do things that can and do cause injury and harm. This is careless and thoughtless and has no place in the dojo. It is disrespectful of the other students, it is dangerous, and it is thuggish. Luckily, that sort of behavior is not tolerated here. One problem in a full contact or hard style is that occasionally someone will be a bully to the kohai, who will not speak up because they believe that it is normal, or they don't want to be seen as not tough enough for hard training. OSU!

Loyalty and the promise to pay it forward and pass along the knowledge of your instructor and his or her instructor can be highly valued as well, however. For some, it is not about the money, and they have resources that give them the luxury of not having to be as concerned about the money, though you should always keep in mind that they make sacrifices to you, and even when you pay money, what they give in time and knowledge, wisdom and effort, is worth far more than the cash you pay to help keep the doors open. I have been very, very blessed with good and wise instructors who have given me so much of their time and effort and passed along so much of what they have learned even though I am very poor. For this, I owe them all a great deal, and I will never forget it. Some day, when I am an instructor, (life and gods willing,) I will look at someone with fire in their heart and an honest love and passion for Kyokushin, and I will tell them, "it isn't about the money. If you want it badly enough, a way can be found. Just come to class tomorrow. I hope, original poster, that someone will say that to you as well! OSU!

Mark one more down in the category of "I used to be fatter so I associate a short belt with an improper fit due to being overweight" category... though I don't take the same view with others, just with myself. It's a preference. I kind of like it hanging low, seems more graceful than when it sticks straight out! Also, it's how my sensei prefers it, so it seems "normal" to me. I think my belt hangs to about mid-thigh. I do a striking art, so it doesn't get in the way, and looks kinda neat swinging around in a kata. It's also some extra distracting movement during kumite, and I'll take whatever I can get there!