brickshooter

IMHO, for those starting out, I'm unsure whether there's a real concern that a Dojo is a McDojo. In the 1st year, it's not really going to make that much of a difference because one is still working on the basics. And unless you're extremely deficient, it's difficult to screw it up. Just my 2 cents that people are generally concern about something that they shouldn't worry about that much.

You probably need to cheat a little on your weight transfer everytime you execute a technique. Here's what you do, every time you attack you take a baby step into your target whether its a punch or a kick. What this does is it increases your hitting weight. Stand still and front kick = 100lb kick. Step and kick = 150lb kick. Ask you instructor about bicycle inner tube training.

You'll learn the same punch kicks and blocks. And similar kata as well. In these days of free information exchange, instructors tend to bring in what ever techniques they think will benefit their students the most. The biggest difference IMO is that Kyokushin do require their students to be some what athletic. And some schools tend to drop you into the water and expect you to swim. Shotokan went away from that practice decades ago, and will hold your hands more.

Doesn't look fake. But it also didn't look like any sort of challenge match as one guy didn't put up one ounce of resistance. Even an untrained person understands the concept of self-preservation. IMO. That one guy became a human punching bag for what ever reason. I feel bad for him. I doubt that it was done voluntarily I guess this is the reason character development is stresses in most martial arts.

I guarantee you that both the axe kick and ridge hands are controllable techniques. The knockouts aren't as accidental as you think. I agree with you on the ridge hand, never said it was not controllable, however I disagree with you on the axe kick. You bring your leg up as high as you can and drop it...well you can pick your target but that kick is going to land and it is not going to be friendly. Show me how you are going to stop it a half inch or abouts from the target to show control...you are going to hit someone....and if your target is the shoulder but you nail the back of the head on a bent over partner...well it aint going to be nice. I suggest that you either talk to or train with the TKD people where the axe kick is a staple technique. They land axe kicks on each other all the time in a friendly way without hurting each other. How? They don't drive their hips into their kicks when they don't want to hurt someone and hey make contact with the area between their calf and heel, rather than their heel. There is still some contact, but to those on the receiving end it feels like a slap. Sometimes the make contact then drive their hips in and push you to the ground just to make a point. But it's an intentional push intended to not harm you. Control for snapping techniques such as front and round kicks is "pulling" your technique so that there is often no contact. Control for power techniques like side kicks, back kicks and axe kicks is "pushing" a target after making soft contact. At least that's how it's done in my neck of the woods.

I guarantee you that both the axe kick and ridge hands are controllable techniques. The knockouts aren't as accidental as you think.

Shuhokai is a solid school. The primary difference is hype they generate power. They work more on torso rotation than Shotokan, except for the Asai- Yahara followings which also put a heavy emphasize in torso rotation. About go size. Most USA companies make large gi with plenty of room around the back so finding a gi that fit isn't a problem. About the weight. Pack some aspirin. And start out all drills at 75% effort then increase intensity as the muscle heat up. Cold-then-heat showers afterward really helps

Sorry. I failed to read your name properly and mistakenly thought you were a male. I apologize if my response seemed sexist. Go with the less pricey school. Gotta face reality in tis type of economy is my answer.

Go to the instructor you like the most regardless of style. In this age of MMA and free information exchange, there's a good chance that you will try new styles now or later. Everyone wants contact to test their masculinity. But I find that most have a change of heart when they're having their face stitched back together or their nose re-set.

Go down to your local Community College and join an MMA club. They generally provide free instructions, free gear, free mat time, and a free referee. Well, almost free. Club fees generally run $20 for 3 months. Just keep in mind the difference between a strike with pads versus a strike without pads. For example, most people can take a punch to the face from a gloved hand. Most can't from a bare knuckle. Hence the difference between sport and self-defnese.

Well a professor is not teaching you research material, he is teaching you theories and facts he knows to be concrete and he will use what he deems to be the best methods possible to convey this knowledge to you. He's been around the block and is at a much higher level than you so can use that knowledge to help you learn in the best way possible. Whereas he may have had to read 25+ texts, conducted his own experiments and consulted many other experts on the subject, he can help make your journey that much more direct and show you exactly what's what so then you can go on to develop on your own. He's also has probably taught 100's of students prior to you and his teacher's taught many more 100's prior to that so they know what works and what doesn't work with regards to teaching methods. If you rely on that one textbook you may be stuck in a rut for a very long time if that textbook just can't convey the knowledge well enough. Say we take something like the sciences, up until Copernicus in the 1500's, the textbooks of the time still taught the idea of geocentric cosmology. Would we have put man on the moon if we just followed the one textbook which said the earth was the centre of all things instead of finding better sources of information? Maybe then you could say that Karate must have kata if we're preserving the old ways and not delving into new material and ideas? So then are they still practising Karate? Something like this would to me be considered more like formalised drill work and not a kata per se. How can we say that without kata Karate is souless when there isn't even consistency to as what kata is in the first place? I used an analogy to simplify my position. It's not my intention to run into a grand debate about analogies. I think we should agree to disagree. I'm sure that your instructor is brilliant and that his path is the correct path for you.

Could you elaborate on this as I'm unsure what you mean? Do you mean the student collecting more kata that their instructor? Or just delving into the kata more than their instructor? IMO, skipping Kata is like taking a university class and not buying the textbook. When taking a university class, the professor takes from the text book the things that he finds the most useful based on his most current personal experience. He explains it to you, assigns homework and provides examinations on what he lectures on - but just the things he finds to be the most useful, and skips the rest which is roughly 1/2 of the textbook. But if a student wants to have a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter, he needs to spend the time and dig into the textbook, look at opinions of people other than the teaching professor. Great thanks for explaining I like the analogy. But continuing the analogy, the professor may disregard parts of the textbook because he knows it to be an outdated idea or that there are better ways (other textbooks, practicals, his own material etc.) to teach it. The textbook is supplementary but it isn't the core of what he's teaching. Also, would this analogy be relying on the fact that those learning the kata would be exploring bunkai? If so not all forms of Karate look at bunkai in the same way. For example Kyokushin don't really look at bunkai as much as other forms of training (someone correct me if I'm wrong). In your opinion would those that don't do the practise be practising soulless Karate? IMO, a professor may disregard parts of the text book because he thinks that he knows what is outdated. Whether he is correct often depends on who you ask. Ask the professor's own students, the professor is correct. Ask the book publisher, the professor is incorrect - they too have their experts. Regarding Bunkai, I don't assume that Kyokushin dismisses Bunkai. In Shotokan itself, I've heard that bunkai is taught at the 4th/5th dans is vastly different from what is taught at the lower dans (if at all). Just because it's not taught at a person's particular level, it doesn't mean that it's not taught. It can also be because one is not priviliged enough to get the information. Regarding souless, I've no idea what that means. I just see that the teaching of Karate without Kata is like sending a student to class without a text book. You are limited to what the instuctor tells you that he "thinks" he knows.

Could you elaborate on this as I'm unsure what you mean? Do you mean the student collecting more kata that their instructor? Or just delving into the kata more than their instructor? IMO, skipping Kata is like taking a university class and not buying the textbook. When taking a university class, the professor takes from the text book the things that he finds the most useful based on his most current personal experience. He explains it to you, assigns homework and provides examinations on what he lectures on - but just the things he finds to be the most useful, and skips the rest which is roughly 1/2 of the textbook. But if a student wants to have a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter, he needs to spend the time and dig into the textbook, look at opinions of people other than the teaching professor.

IMHO, Kata allows the student to surpass his instructor faster than it would be without Kata. Most instructors are limited to what they themselves have personally experienced.

From my own experience, wrestlers feel like they're tripple their weight when they're on top. Pretty interersting use of leverage.

At 29, you'll learn faster because you'll be able to understand body mechanics better. Younger practioners tend to learn by mimic. You actually get to think as you learn. Besides, most people today are coming back to Karate at 29 after they likely took their 20s off doing something else.

Anyone have an update on Demura?

Good luck. Try to go first. Unless one really screws up, the first ones are generally graded easier. Since they set the standard, they usually get the medium grade which is the passing grade.

Anyone see how Jones used the low side kicks agaist Belford? Then proceeded to drop Belford with a TKD type side kick to the liver? I didn't get to see the Jones-Evans fight, but it was reported that Jones also used the low side kicks to give Evans tons of trouble. After watching it, the only logical conclusion as to why the low side kick isn't use is because everyone is exclusively learning Muay Thai where the side kick is not taught. Some writers are even reporting that Jones used Belford a "push-kick" instead of a "side-kick." Frankly, I think that some of these writers have never seen a side-kick. So they're calling it a push-kick, which is what is taught in Muay Thai.

I think this is where the rules of the game start to change the martial art into something else. Seems like the Olympic TKD rule book is a work in progress.

In competition kata, one has to worry about a middle to old aged judge with likely bad eyesight sitting about 20 feet away, seeing your kata done for the 100th time. A lot of motions has to be exagerrated to score points. But it can't be too much exagerrated otherwise it looks obnoxious.

Instructors are like "trainers." Cus D'Amato wasn't exactly built like Mr. Universe when he trained Mike Tyson to be world champ. I think that most people have a "Karate Master" mentality when it comes to Karate instructors. We have unrealistic expectations. We want 100 years of wisdom in the body of a 20 year old athlete. It's a little too much of hero worshiping. It's difficult to hero worship a fat instructor.

No one is crazy enough to go bareknuckles to the head. You're going to have to find an organization that gears up for sparing. I don't know how popular it is where you live, but look up Daido Juku. You can find videos of what they do on youtube. It's basically Kyokushin + Judo. You do gear up with bubble masks to protect your face. It's a new organization. But with better popularity in Europe. There is another school from Japan that does full contact. They wear what looks like Kendo masks and breastplates. But its popularity is limited to the South Eastern Asian countries.

My doubt in my Shotokan Dojo started after studying lots of articles about Karate training and reading the views of many respected martial arts forums members. Yes the techniques taught are highly effective if mastered and performed by a reasonable athletic person, but really do you believe that the average person needs 3+ years to master the ~10 most common punches+kicks you would use in free sparring? There is a mix of athletic and non athletic people in my dojo but that is not the point. The point is that the dojo does not spar at all except once a week in what they call 'Competition Class' that is light point sparring and only black belts allowed from what i guess. I wouldn't mind going full contact on a friend as long as he is too and we both wear prot. gear. In kick boxing they start sparring usually after the 3rd month. Why in Shotokan we have to wait 3+ years?! Most dojos I've been to start sparing around 6 months. But it depends on the individual. If you have enough control on your techniques, they start you earlier. If you don't, they start you later. Sparing is generally done every class, and it takes up 1/3 of every class. It's not the style that limits sparing. It's your particular dojo.

Don't get so caught up in what one style does and another style does based on videos. Look at the make up of the students. If they're mostly young, athletic men in their 20s, you're going to get more kumite. And more contact kumite. If the students are made up of a mix of old, middle, and young then you're going to get less kumite with less contact. And there's a big difference in tournament contact versus club contact. At a club, you'll likey fight friends. You will likely apply almost full contact to body shots. But you will likely pull your punches to the head. This is even truer the less protection you wear. The truth is that no one really trains in full contact. We may fight full contact tournaments versus strangers. But we don't actully do that to our friends day in and day out. This applies to MMA gyms and kick boxing as well.