hi im new hear, my name is michael, from the yorkshire shotokan karate group (YSKG) this is a long post, Ive been doing Shotokan karate for 4 weeks because i wanted to learn self defense because i live in a rough neiborhood and i didnt want to do traditional defense training e.g muay thai or boxing i wanted to train different, so im really learning fast, my sensei said he sees alot of spirit and determination and the natural explosive power to be a great fighter in me, but my sensei is a 6th dan black belt in shotokan and has done aikido and ground grappling, and he said he isnt going to train us for tournments he's training us to be protected on the street, so we can disable our opponent(s) really quickly, so do you think i have a good sensei as he is a high rank and trained in other martial arts? he told me he's used shotokan in street fights and he came out on top easily, he een fought a gang who wanted to fight him in his DOJO! he destroyed them lol but is shotokan usefull for street fights? he really trains us to be extremly fit for fighting and strengthens us to take hits, like today we had to lie on our backs and raise our feet six inches off the ground (like a leg raise) whilst he stomped on our midsection to strengthen us, and we have to do lots of speed training and flurrys of random moves, for example for the last hour we'd do this:- 1min speed punching (if we stopped before one minute we would be punished) 30sec speed punching supersetted with 30 seconds high knees 1min RIGHT side snap kicks (close range - 1-2feet) 1min LEFT side snap kicks (close range - 1-2feet) 1min fury attacks (any moves we've been trained and more in any order) - my FAVORITE (personal one) is, right jab, left jab, right elbow to the face, elbox to top of head, fast knees into mid section, uppercuts, left side snap kick to lower body or head thats just a basic one that we do, but he said when we get our floor mats were doing takedowns and grapples (submissions) the first hour is intense warmup, 15-20mins of stretching and HIIT intervals, and same at the end, today was brutal we had to get into a horse stance but everyone exept me was cheating so only me (whilst screaming in pain) managed to hold it for 10min, so thats when i stood out from the rest with my heart. but do you think hes doing everything right with the street fighting training mixed with shotokan, aikido (from his experience) and other grappling is good? and i train 5-6 days a week, practicing, (2-3 times at dojo, rest at home as i have a 5ft heavy kickboxing bag with fitted pullup bar) he really is strict like a real sensei he could have u in the horse stance and stretching for over 2 hours, he nearly did today now all my body hurts lol he showed me how to take someone apart in 1-2seconds from top to bottom, and he showed me a demonstration to myself aas i was doubting and he destroyed me all over! legs, stomach, spine, neck, face, he got me in wrist locks with 2 fingers!!! and i was on my knees! so do you reckon he's a good sensei for street fighting training (he's late 40's and hes been fighting since the age of 4 years old) What do you think, because i see alot of negative comments due to the fact most sensei's only train for competition and not street fighting. Mikey. (sorry for the long post)
