Kirves

In our dojo there's no choice. It must be traditional white.

Yeah, I find this page especially interesting: http://www.kyokushinmail.com/koya/Kyokushin.htm (It contains Mas Oyama's personal answers to some frequently asked questions, and some Mas video footage).

It is an old art from RyuKyu islands, the same archipelago where Okinawa is located. Thus it is a "cousin" of Okinawan karate. American kenpo draws more from Chinese kempo than Okinawan. (The term 'kempo' actually refers to "Chinese" arts, on Okinawa they studied some Chinese arts and called it kempo because the term referred to an art from China, much in the same way as the term karate originally meant "Chinese hand" until the kanji were changed less than a century ago to mean "Empty hand").

I've seen even jujutsuka do that. When you are throwing someone, or taking them down, you need the different stances. Problem is that many people have gotten the wrong idea that you should stay in that stance. It is just a transition (you block, close the gap, punch, grab, place your hip and feet and start throwing him - if now someone were to take a photograph right when his feet are starting to get off the floor, you'd be seen in perfect riding horse stance!). The stances aren't there for you to stand in them, they are for correct angling in the self defence techniques - and I said "in the techniques" not "prior to" or "after".

It is up to the instructor to make sure you do it the way it is required for your style. Some styles care less about proper kiai than others (some instructors don't even know much about kiai besides strartling the opponent and tensing the abs). It is okay as long as the style doesn't require more, but if you are interested, and/or if your instructor is incompetent on the subject, you need to look for someone else.

World Taekwondo Federation ? International Taekwondo Federation ?

It isn't about ability. It is about being nice. About noticing that there's someone else here too. It's like saying, "your hair looks nice". She doesn't need it, it just makes her smile for a second. That's all.

Ask your instructor.

Usually, only extreme feminists don't like being treated like a lady and have men open doors for them, carry their bags or give them seats. Some extreme feminists see it as demeaning towards women, while the rest see it as politeness and being nice.

See this previous thread on this same topic: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=1712

Well, it's good enough. Most of us never reach the skill level of world cup fighters.

Osu! I see your actual point, but I'm being nitpicky: karate is not a traditional Japanese martial art by any count. It was introduced to Japan less than a century ago. It is a traditional Okinawan art and there is a meaningful difference: the history of combat on Okinawa is very different from that of Japan and it means the arts and ways are very different too. Jujutsu (/bujutsu/kumiuchi/et. al.) is the traditional Japanese martial art.

An excellent page at: http://www.straightblastgym.com/questcuriculum.html Especially where Matt discusses how it's the training methods that count. You must train alive no matter what the style. He doesn't seem to like the "I'm too deadly for the ring" slogan... See the question "I don’t see what the difference is between what you teach, and NHB training. What about Self Defense! Some of us just want to go home to our families and don’t care about brawling it out in a ring."

Yes, and here's a quote from my previous post where I adressed that too: "- tightening the body in correct way to generate power for the technique, also protecting against counter techniques" And here he comes again, getting one post closer to black belt by merely repeating what he has already said previously!

Some people lack the confidence. They don't feel they have it in them to become something, except by imitation. So they imitate. And if it helps, then power to them. In psychology it is a known fact that if one imitates something (like happyness, or sadness) it may direct oneself to that direction. If you're sad, just by forcing yourself to laugh and smile, even by reading jokes or whatever, will usually eventually make you smile for real and vice versa. Another similar issue is the iris of the eye. If you're emotionally aroused, your iris is large. It works the other way around, if you make your iris large by force, you will be feeling emotional. This is the basis for "romantic lighting" and "candlelight dinner". So if you don't believe in your ability, imitate someone you believe in, try to feel as if you are identical to him. It works for some.

I'm sorry, it's hard to explain it in English as it isn't my native language... I'll try: "the pipe": The whole structure forming the passageway for the air from the bottom of lungs to the mouth, i.e. including throat, windpipe and down to the bottom of lungs/diaphgram. Similarly, as if you were to "swallow the sword" you keep the throat straight, in this case you keep the air passage straight. Very good posture for torso, neck, throat, the whole package so there's as direct a line inside for the air as possible.

I think the Chinese kiai is similar, but few actually do it right in any style. It's not just a shout while tensing the abs. You have to keep the "pipe" straight, tense the lower abdomen and the "crotch" muscles (much as in Pavel Tsatsouline's weight lifting book). And all that ki stuff to add in... The article I mentioned is good for basic intro what it's about, but not how to do it.

Kiai is a method of - focusing your concentration to the technique - tightening the body in correct way to generate power for the technique, also protecting against counter techniques - scaring the s**t out of the opponent, making his brain of thought freeze for a split second See article about the last part (unbalancing the opponent): http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=158

Sorry, lady, my bad.

I pay 30 per month.

Well, I as a karateka, believe judo would be a great addition to my skill set. It has those things that are lacking in my current art and my current art has those things that are lacking in judo. Which would win, me or someone with equal training history but in judo instead? Dunno, depends on who is better able to control the distance.

I studied the "Inosanto-blend" for some years about ten years ago. It has the same moves as it's knife fighting. So it has jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, elbows, headbutts, knees, roundhouse kicks (shin, instep), front kicks, side kicks, back kicks, stomp kicks, takedowns, joint locks, holds, strangleholds/chokes, wrestling.. The whole package, but usually it focuses on the standup stuff and some simple takedowns.

I think the difference is in that karate is budo while krav maga is not. If you are a budoka (a student of budo philosophy) then you should not use your belt for "showing off", nor should you care what other people think about your belt color/rank. In krav maga there are no such budo-based philosophies regarding to how and where you brag about your belt or rank. The thing you must realize is that there is no standard belt system. There are hundreds of different belt systems just in karate, not to mention jujutsu, taekwondo, aikido, and so on. In some styles there are 5 kyu ranks, in others 6, or 7, 8, 9 or some have just 3. And what about dans? Some styles say 1. dan is an instructor, some say 3rd dan, some say 5th dan. While in some styles 5th dan is the absolute maximum available, in others you can have 7, 10 or even 15! The belt system is only comparable inside the same style and art, you can't compare one black belt to another from another style, or one yellow belt from one style to a yellow belt from another. An example: a yellow belt usually comes right after white in many Shotokan organizations (not all!). What if you see a Kyokushinkai yellow belt? He has already been past two orange belts and two blue belts! How could you compare just simply "he's a yellow, and he's a yellow, so they are equal". Just can't compare. The belt system is only usable within the organization that uses it.

Well, yes, Ryukyu Kempo is similar to the traditional Okinawan karate styles (as opposed to Japanese styles) such as Seibukan Shorin-Ryu, Jundokan Goju-ryu, Matsumura Seito Shorin-Ryu, Uechi-Ryu, ... in that it focuses on infighting and tuite (standing grappling/joint locks). The Japanese styles and some very modern Okinawan styles prefer striking, kicking and blocking and contain almost no grappling. The Japanese modelled their karate styles in the tournamental fashion similar to Kendo and Judo. They wanted easy-to-look-at tournaments and fast action. Okinawans prefer to study the kata bunkai (= self defence applications cataloged in the ancient 'forms').

But if you were taught wrong kind as good? If some over-extended kime was taught to you as "good" so you see someone do it better than you and you think his technique is good, even in reality it sucks. Or your instructor taught you the stance all wrong, the angles and weight distribution completely distorted. Then you try to do it as he instructs, and you see someone succeeding better than you, then you think the guy is better than you are. But the whole technique just sucks because the instructor learned it all from a book and got it wrong. And take someone who has never grappled, show him a move and ask him for all the possible counters and reversals to it. He won't know them. So how can he judge someone's tehcnique for possible weaknesses if he doesn't even know what to look for? And that's the whole point: your instructor tells you what you should look for and how it should be done. If he tells you the wrong things, you will be looking at the wrong things, simple as that. Do you really think all the McDojo students are in their schools, fully seeing that the stuff is crap, yet deciding to stick to it? Of course not, they think they are doing it right, and they see the advanced students do it as the instructor tells them. They just don't know that the instructor is incompetent to start with.