likeke34

you should be fine in sport karate depending on your weight class... i'm 5 8" and fought against a few WKF medal holders (one of them a 2X gold medalist)... i fought at -65kg and some guys were taller some were shorter, i fell in the middle... in my final competition days i fought at -75kg (i was one of the shortest in the weight class however), surprisingly this weight class is where i had the most success as the speed gap seemed to be huge since i went up 2 weight classes... and if you're light enough i think there's even a -60kg class but i can't remember for sure since it's been a long time since i competed myself

here's my input... when teaching my class for tournament competition, i stress the body because, not only is it an easier target, but you don't really have to control as opposed to a face shot... in fact, in a lot of shobu ippon tournaments that were held here, you can win if you drop your opponent with a body shot... face shots you have to control and accidents do happen... also, i hate to say this but, i had opponents fake the extent of a face shot to either get me disqualified, or get warning's against me... so i started punching full blast to the body for tournaments that said, i bring in face masks at practice and have them gyaku full blast to face as well so they get practice doing both... in another forum i was a member of, someone had a lot of footage of lyoto machida in karate tournaments and he threw a lot of gyaku's to the body and sometimes to the face (and he was a successful tournament competitor)... but in MMA, he became famous w/his reverse punch but he always aimed to the face and although he doesn't have a lot of finishes, he has dropped majority of his opponents w/his gyakuzuki to the face just my 2 cents

UPDATE: if anyone is interested, or just in case someone experiences something similar, I went to see a sports medicine specialist the other day and apparently I have hip bursitis... I got a cortisone shot directly into my right hip (he only did one side to diagnose), and today, about 36hrs later, my flexibilty is back! Not exactly like it was over 10 years ago, but the limits I had in my hips are gone now... i was told that i shouldn't be stopped by my hips when i try to do the splits, but rather my groin should feel it... but with me that was never the case and it's because of my bursa What's weird is he said only my right side should get better since that's where the shot was, but both sides are better... there was also this lump on the outer upper thighs (where it hurt) that i thought was muscle, but they're gone now...

you'll get a lot of different opinions on training/overtraining, so the best thing to do is what works for you... i know there are those who think they have better ways of doing it, but this worked for me and is how i did it, so it's just a sample and i'm not here to argue the benefits or negative effects of it lol... what happened was i had a match against a 2X WKF world champ and it motivated me to train this way (and he was kind enough to offer me tips/pointers)... so back when i was really getting competitive (i was also lucky that i was able to devote my time to training rather than working or doing other things), i'd train at the dojo mondays and weds, for 2hrs each, and on tues/thurs for 2-3hrs each... i'd also run 5 days a week for about 3miles... on fridays, i'd train on my own doing competition specific training... i'd usually have my sensei point out what i need to work on and i'd spend about 2hrs on fridays working on it, whether it be footwork, speed, or timing etc... this was the only day that i'd turn on music and workout hard to it as i worked on my drills on my own saturdays i spent doing kihon/kata (i'm a big advocate of kihon and kata, plus it's a great workout)... Also i always competed in both kata and kumite... sundays i just watched a lot of tape/footage (both of me, and top level competitors) and i'd stretch (i stretched everyday after my workouts)... i may have overtrained at times as well... there were days when i'd just get back from the dojo and i'd still have my gi on, then i'd just continue my training at home on my own... i was obsessed to be honest... i even watched tapes during most of my free time, studying techniques that worked in the world championships and techniques that often failed... well, that's a sample of how i used to train, here's what it looked like: Mon - ran 3miles in morning, 2hrs at the dojo tues - ran 3miles in morning, 2-3 hrs at the dojo wed - ran 3miles in morning, 2hrs at the dojo thurs - ran 3miles in morning, 2-3hrs at the dojo fri - ran 3miles in morning, 2hrs on my own working on things that were lacking at the dojo to music sat- 2hrs on my own doing kihon/kata sun- watched tape/footage, and stretched let me add that i did throw in some weight training here and there, but not as consistent as most top competitors... i did a lot of calisthenics however

Another fancy combo i've seen people do is an ura mawashi and then transition right into an osoto gari... I've seen it work quite a few times however i've seen people get reversed on the osoto gari as well (fail at it and ended up having it done to them instead) 1:17 mark

I'm one of the head instructors at my dojo, and i'll just say this. When you first start, teaching is exciting, however, with kids, you'll soon find that a lot of them don't want to be there, or don't want to learn lol. Many of them have short attention spans, or their parents just drop them off to be babysat. So it does become easy to lose that motivation you had when you first decided to teach. Adults and older teens who want to learn become a breath of fresh air haha. Also, a good competitor or karateka, doesn't always = good teacher. You need to learn how to teach IMO. If you're too strict or too hard on the kids, parents tend to complain. If you go too easy on them, they think it's a mcdojo and look elsewhere. You need to find the right balance and how to teach to keep the kids motivated. Some tips. -Make sure you have extra high-rankers there who are willing to teach in case you can't make it. You really never know, w/traffic, getting sick and so on -Also, you will need people to help you out because you can't teach kids who are of higher rank, the same thing as a new white belt every single day. You will need to split the class up at times. -Don't snap at the kids (i've seen people break before and it does not look good for him and your dojo) so keep your cool. -Understand that people are there for different reasons. Some want to get in shape, some want to learn self-defense, some may want to compete and then there's those who really don't want to be there lol That's all I can think of for now

kanazawa actually still performs them according to their original names... lol, i find these things interesting his gojushiho sho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLNddYfuH18 and his gojushiho dai and the reverse that most people (as far as i've experienced) perform gojushiho sho gojushiho dai

thanks for sharing! i tend to be drawn to techniques that are all about timing. funny story, over 10yrs ago i competed in a local tournament and i beat a couple of guys my age from a different dojo and the very next day, they came to our dojo w/their sensei. what had happened was, the sensei seen my patch and apparently, he was originally from our dojo way before i was even born lol. so he came to visit w/his students and we got to spar. again, i was pretty much toying w/his students, (who were new brown belts and i've been shodan already for a while). finally, i sparred w/the sensei and i thought, "i'm going to run through this old chubby man," boy was i wrong hahaha... he wiped me out completely and made me look stupid. he'd counter me and just kick me in the butt and then laugh. i got so frustrated and couldn't figure out how he was catching me. he told me, (and a higher ranking sempai from my dojo told me as well), that i telegraphed certain movements and he watched me fight and pretty much had my timing down. back then i relied on pure speed but after that day, i became drawn to techniques/counters that required a lot of timing... well, that's my long story lol

i read a lot of books when i was young, but it was just a supplement to the classes i was taking... it's been awhile but i remember that i always thought, "Dynamic Karate," by Nakayama was one of the best books i had... it was a long time ago, but from what i remember, it was extremely detailed w/tons of pictures, descriptions, photos from old JKA tournaments, scientific studies on techniques etc...

thanks! just out of curiosity, where do you train? i'm from Hawaii too actually but i understand if you rather remain anonymous, but just curious as to what style or dojo you train or used to train at?

i hope i understand correctly, but here's an example i'm thinking (as well as a technique i've used successfully)... what i do sometimes is, i fake a gyaku zuki a few times but my feints are just slightly too far for a good gyaku zuki BUT i could throw a perfect kizami zuki from this distance with a slight back leg 1/2 step (this kizami zuki borders an oi zuki since i lunge), and for the actual attack, i'll fake the gyaku zuki, which puts me in perfect position to launch out a kizami zuki because w/my fake, my hips rotate into position and i take a slight half step w/my back leg, but since i stopped in that position, my opponent tends to think it was just another feint (gyaku), so naturally he relaxes then i launch out the kizami in time w/the end of the feint (also, the 1/2 step makes the distancing a lot closer as well)... this has cost me at tournaments so i don't use it because i've had opponents actually move into it and it's hard to control an all out attack when someone moves forward so i only use it in the dojo and i throw it to the side of the head now but when we use face masks, heads snap back hard... but i hope i understand it lol... also i hope what i wrote is understandable because it's really hard to explain technical techniques online

what i'm thinking is, when you say telegraph a distance, maybe you mean you show off a distance you're going to attack from to get your opponent thinking that's your range when in fact that's not your attacking distance?

this sounds really interesting, is it possible to elaborate a little more so i can get a better idea? i'm always looking for new techniques to try

i was just talking with my instructor today, his dad was taught by kanazawa, mori and finally asai sensei, (he even taught 2 of them how to drive lol) and he was telling me that most people don't know that gojushiho sho and gojushiho dai is actually mixed up... what supposedly happened was, a high ranking instructor (i can't remember who he said it was) performed one of the two but called the wrong name, and since he was of high rank, no one corrected him... and this led to the mix up which is performed mostly everywhere today lol... i looked it up on google to confirm it, and on another forum it is mentioned as well, but the forum is dead now and i can only see the google results which shows a short paragraph of pretty much what my sensei told me... he also told me a bunch of other stories about asai sensei, kanazawa, why some of the movements in different katas are practiced the way they are and why they were changed etc... was an interesting day lol

I'm sure this has probably been done before, but i double posted by accident and it would be nice to see some of the current techniques used now, in dojo kumite and competition... i love osoto gari because it's so easy to use... i also use a snappy jab a lot because a lot of people get too close... and of course, counter gyakuzuki... my most favorite though is ashi barai... i use it as a counter or in a combination attack

oh and to better answer your question, in the japanese alphabet there is katakana, and hiragana... katakana is for non-japanese words/names, and hiragana is for japanese words/names

yah, i'm sure... but there are those who use it just cuz they think it looks cooler... say if you're writing a word like orenji (means orange), notice how it's similar, orenji/orange, you'd use katakana, not hiragana or kanji... same for names that aren't japanese... for example, richard is pronounced richaado, it's written in katakana not hiragana or kanji... but a japanese word like te (hand), can be written in kanji or hiragana, not typically katakana but there are those who will do it just because... haha i really hope that makes sense because i'm not good at explaining these things... but i'm japanese/english speaking

the 1st one is katakana for "te." Katakana is used typically for non japanese words... the 2nd one is the kanji for te, that's the one used for kara te... i hope that made sense

I liked the way the throws were set up. Getting to practice something like that would be a lot of fun. On another note, I wasn't impressed by his celebratory actions after scoring a point. How is that different than from what many run down MMAers for doing? Anyways, back to the topic at hand. i agree about the post scoring celebration... when ever i compete internationally i experience this amongst competitors... not saying it doesn't happen here, but just from personal experience in wkf competition, it gets taken to a whole new level because they want to win so bad... i've had guys scream at the judges for a call they thought was wrong, refuse to bow or shake hands after they lose, storm off, coaches getting involved and ready to fight the refs... i've never really experienced these things in ippon kumite... it's sad in my opinion that karate competition is now turning this way... it's like karate competitors are going the exact opposite of what Funakoshi said, "The ultimate aim of the art of karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the characters of its participants." but now they are more concerned w/victory and defeat, rather than perfecting their character... as corny as that sounds lol

osoto gari is my favorite because it's so easy to use... i always react to a missed kick or punch with this throw if someone lands in a specific zone right in front of me after their missed attack... at 40sec and 1min 28sec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6sfguR-wdY i also like to use a straight ashi barai in a combo after i through a double gyaku, or kizami zumki gyaku zuki combo... anything to get an opponent backpedaling, and if their feet are close together i throw the ashi barai, if not i'll throw a chudan mawashi

we practice low kicks a lot in our dojo (Shotokan)... I've had the opportunity to spar w/a lot of kyokushin guys and we also had a kickboxing champ from our dojo as well and when they taught or we sparred w/them, we used a lot of leg kicks... also, our sensei's cousin (whose base was shotokan), opened his own muay thai gym and trains mma fighters... I think it's a very good thing to know how to throw and how to check leg kicks... i don't throw them too often because i tend to be more competition oriented, but once in a while i'll change things up and throw hard leg kicks... our sensei was a crafty guy lol, he had a way of throwing leg kicks but disguising them as sweeps for tournaments... he taught it to me but it doesn't quite hurt when i throw it like it does when he throws it... he's a huge fan of clinch work, elbows and knees... he was a tournament champion but when i was little and lost to a guy i literally beat up, he told me that he'd rather have me lose a match in a tournament but know that if it was a real fight i probably would've won... well, that's my take on it haha

thanks, i started doing strength training for my outer hip muscles (where the pain is)... i can see now that all of my problems w/flexibility come from internal hip rotation... i have almost none lol, and i have no idea how that happened

thanks for the replies, and that seems interesting, stretching when the muscles contracting, i can see how it would work

FSKA, (started from JKA as our shihan was taught by kanazawa, mori, and asai) off of memory white to yellow, oizuki 4X forward and back age uke 4X forward and back soto uke 4X forward and back uchi uke 4X forward and back gedan barai 4X forward and back gyaku zuki both sides 10X Taikyokushodan stationary mae geri 10X both sides

Here's a little background info on my situation... started Karate about 21yrs ago (when I was 8yrs old), and I always worked on static stretching and getting really flexible... I could easily drop down into a full split, even cold... fast forward 11yrs, i'm 19yrs old, still extremely flexible... I take 1 yr off of karate and played a lot of basketball... I come back to karate, try to stretch and the farthest I can spread my feet apart is about 3 ft lol... not exaggerating either... and it's not my groin, it's my hips that i feel the extreme tightness... so i focused most of my kumite on footwork, sweeps and punches, avoiding high kicks because it seemed that no matter how i tried to work on lateral stretches, it didn't help... anyways, i went to a physical therapist finally and they have no idea what's up... i was told that i have no inward hip mobility though, and that's very strange... after 3 sessions, there have been 0 improvement... so i was just wondering if there's anyone out there w/something similar... the tightness is along the outside of my upper leg (equal on both sides)