StrangeBacon

I put a couple of places teaching kyokushin in london into your introduction thread, go take a look

Happy Bday, hope you have a great day!

Nice intro Snake, i beleive theres Bethnal Green Kyukushin near Victoria Park http://www.bethnalgreenkarateclub.com/ And another one in Finchley http://www.kyokushinkai.org.uk/ Both are within walking distance of underground stations. Hope this helps and welcome to KF

Welcome to KF

I've said it before somewhere but most styles of karate have their small nuances such as more punches, more kicks, different stances ect, but at the end of the day a kick is a kick and a punch is a punch, some are more focused on modern day combat techniques and some are more traditional. Shito-ryu is an interesting one, its got elements of Shotokan such as the long stances and bits of Goju-ryu, i beilive you spar alot too. Best thing, as you said is to try some out and see what you like the look of, most websites will say their style is the best and will give you 10000000x more self confidence and insane powers ect which is logical because that sort of stuff attracts people to the style, they've got to make money somehow afterall. More important would be finding a club you like with friendly people you get on well with, you're far more likely to stick it out and progress well. Good luck Bartrum

We usually tell students in the middle of a grading "Show us how much you want this, i want to feel your energy fill the room" the kiai is, 9 times out of ten, the easiest way to express how much you want the next grade while you're performing a kata, when performed at specific points however, just kiai'ing randomly shows me that a student doesnt understand what the kata was designed for i.e number of attackers, sections ect.

57kg in pounds is about 125 if my math is on target, thats quite light, im 75kg and by no means a big guy (9% body fat) so that puts it into perspective a little Do you have problems in your area, as in is it rough? Like Joesteph said arts that incorporate self defence are a great choice, try to find one with a mix of Aikido, the joint locks and momentum based throws are brilliant for taking on heavier people. Not sure on which styles have more punching than kicking, all i remember is that TaeKwonDo is predominantly kick based and Kickboxing for obvious reasons. Hope this helps!

Congrats

Thanks for the well structured reply ps1, you have some great points in there and im sorry if i came across brash or arrogant! Perhaps if i rephrased it, the meaning i was trying to get across was in a street situation say a general practitioner of both arts not nessessarily a BB, the complexity of a certain throw or submission hold seems a great deal harder to achive than a punch, kick or scrape from a standing position, now there are obviously going to be variables in every situation but i was thinking more of a fight outside a bar i saw recently one guy tried to throw the other over his hip (forgive the lack of terminology i havent studied Judo) the second guy reached over his shoulders and dug his fingers into his eyes. While not pleasent to watch, it made me think about this very discussion and all the things that could go wrong in a street scenario. On an ending note, i would love to study at a BJJ or Judo school for some extra experience, unfortunatly there isnt one within about 2 hours drive from me (i live in the countryside) and my work keeps me tied down As i said in the beginning however, thank you for giving me a different side to the discussion and something to think about!

This. We mix Aikido in with the karate too, it may be more to your liking since you mentioned you are quite slight and have trouble throwing burly men, Aikido is more momentum and balance based, a big burly man off balance.....if anything his weight is going to work against him

I must say im quite sad this isnt more popular, its a great film, one of Antonio Banderas' best performances aside Assassins and Once Upon a Time in Mexico

The missus wants to see it and i liked the first, and like jackie chan so im sure i'll find it enjoyable. Great review btw

Solid post Sensei8, posted as i was writing mine, just pipped me to the post

Just out of interest what types of school are they, your Isshinryu school and this new one? Large organisations or small run ones, i ask because the main difference i can think of is the style of teaching the tuition i have now in our smaller dojo is much more productive than when i did kickboxing in a large hall with maybe 20+ students. The sticking point is usually down to the student anyway, theres lots of styles but when you boil it all down a kick is a kick and a punch is a punch, im sure if you're willing to train and keep an open mind you'll be able to do just as well. Must have been hard leaving your old dojo due to a job though

The area you're refering to is known as the Occipital Ridge, its a light force knockout point (a strike here can be known as a brain shake for obvious reasons) and as such causes a blackout when correct force is applied, sufficient force could indeed cause death. Hope this answers your question too dwarf2

I'll try to help with what i know. I suppose you have the traditional form of Aikido seen in most videos and demostrations, and the other that i have experience with is something we do, its basically combative aikido. It takes many of the techniques and puts them into more realistic situations such as street fights with a commited attacker, the main criticism i hear alot is that the attacks initiated by uke dont have enough commitment and lead to training becoming rhythmic and losing the sponteniety of a real assailant. These are just criticisms however and its up to you to decide which suits you better, having done both and thoroughly enjoyed them i'd have to say the deciding factor is what you want to get out of the martial art in the first place. Hope this helped

In a street scenario alot of the rules of judo could get in the way, in many of the submission holds you could easily be eye gouged or bitten, alot of them arent too hard to get out of either if you have a good understanding of bodily mechanics again due to the MA not being designed for those type of scenarios. Im not putting it down at all however, i would love to give it a try it looks a great deal of fun and even with my above points i certainly wouldnt want to fight a good judoka in the street

We recently had a guy join that used to do Wado-Ryu, now i dont have personal experience with it but he was very profficient with his wrist locks and joint manipulation style takedowns, it actually has alot in common with Jujutsu in that theres alot of balance, leverage and momentum work as opposed to the more traditional karate styles that focus on developing power, strength and speed. It comes down to what you think will suit your preferences most and what you want to get out of MAs. If anyone has anything to add to that or feels i've missed the point somewhat with the styles, feel free to correct me, just fishing off the top of my head here Hope this was helpful

This.

I dont so much stay in the "Danger Zone" constantly as much as im quite light and agile (75kg) so i tend to "snipe" as it were, skirting in and out of that zone and taking shots as they present themselves, im only 5'8" but i've got long legs so i tend to keep just within mae distance and bait the opponant, reacting accordingly.

Pretty sure theres a books and literature thread in one of the sub forums somewhere, have a look see if you can find it, i remember finding some very useful information there

Haha aint that the truth

Started out in Bushido for the first few years, but due to a personal decision from my sensei he moved away from the organisation. He was one of those people that you just seem to click with and he had affected my life in a profound way in the short time i had known him, so naturally i followed him and ended up being one of the founding members of his new style which is a combination of traditional karate and aikido mixed with knife defence and street fighting and also the weapon styles like sword and staff in there too. I found it to be not only a style that encompassed all the things i wanted from martial arts (the art side but also the reality based combat) but also the fact that i was following and staying loyal to my sensei was very important to me. To this day the journey continues!

Having seen Adrian Brody in The Pianist before this, i was astounded by his transformation from gentle war refugee to action hero so flawlessly, he stole the show imo, well that and the "samurai" style fight without ruining too much

Annoyed that its in two parts however seems like they're trying to milk the franchise for all its worth since they wont be able to take from the books anymore, it'll still be great though.