Wastelander

It depends on the context and which open hand strikes you're comparing to which closed hand strikes, but there are definitely pros and cons to each. Consider a simple punch vs. palm heel example: The punch has several inches of reach advantage over the palm heel, and makes contact with small, bony surfaces that can cause a lot of damage, BUT the small bones of the hand are prone to breaking if they make contact with a harder surface or at a bad angle, and the wrist can be prone to injury if it can't withstand the strain of the impact, and for those reasons it is more difficult to learn to punch correctly. The palm heel takes the small bones of the hand and the complex joint of the wrist out of the equation, meaning that you can now strike with more power than you might have with the punch, without having to worry so much about injury, but you have lost several inches of reach and are now hitting with a larger, softer surface that will do less damage to the target, although this is easier to learn how to use properly. This starts to change when you compare other strikes, like shuto-uchi vs. tetsui-uchi, for example, and you have to weigh the pros and cons based on what your intent is with them. Competition fighting often benefits significantly from a reach advantage, for example, where self defense benefits less.

Many thanks for all of your years of dedication, Devin!

According to the WKF judging class I took some years ago, the throws are not allowed to lift both of the opponent's feet off the floor (other than sweeping someone who is kicking), because it makes the throw "dangerous." The problem I found with this, in practice, is that people proceeded to do hip throws incorrectly, making them more dangerous, rather than less dangerous.

I'll be honest; I have no idea what your Sensei means by that statement, so I'm also not sure how it would apply to the ADA. I mean, you use stances throughout karate, regardless of where you practice it or use it. Someone in a wheelchair, for instance, would have a "stance," but it would be the stance of their wheelchair, rather than their legs. And are we actually talking about "stances" or are we talking about "postures," or about more generally moving bodyweight?

I have both a rope bundle pad and a leather pad, and I can slip a piece of floor mat into a pocket in the leather pad for when my knuckles are sore. They each have a different feel.

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Well, it would certainly make starting my own dojo MUCH easier, once the pandemic subsides. I could actually buy my own space, instead of renting, which would be awesome! Not to mention all the equipment I could buy outright, brand new.

Personally, I have found that people who have an interest in developing a well-rounded skill set should be engaging in a variety of sparring methods. As with ALL training methods, there are different pros and cons to each, and all of them compromise something, so by using different methods, you can get overlap that makes up for what would otherwise be gaps caused by those compromises. That said, I certainly have methods I like better than others. My favorite is probably kakedameshi, which is close range sparring where you maintain contact with your opponent's limbs at all time, and focuses on tactile sensitivity, muchimidi, and limb control. It's an excellent sparring method for working your kata applications against resistance, and because of the close range, you can adjust the contact level of the strikes as necessary. My second favorite is MMA-style sparring, with more open rules to allow for some more "dirty" methods--still done with enough control to be safe, of course.

I'm glad you think so highly of me, but I wouldn't call myself amazing . I can say that, for the most part, you are likely going to have issues finding video examples of applications for the rest of the kata because the instructors teaching them are keeping that reserved for seminars and in-person students. The opening movements are the teaser material to get you to buy the rest, so to speak. You might also find scattered examples, and if you took the time, you could probably put them together to get a full picture of the kata (that's sort of how we approached Waza Wednesday). I know Iain Abernethy and Arakaki Kiyoshi Sensei have put out a couple videos on YouTube where they go over drills that span the entirety of Naihanchi, and Iain has quite a bit for the Pinan, as well. There are LOTS of bits and pieces to be found, but they are scattered because, again, for the most part you are looking at freely available content from people who charge money for instruction. I do believe that Michael and Aaron of Karate Culture made their Naihanchi and Pinan instructionals available for free on their website some time ago, though.

A very impressive milestone! And I'm happy to have been a part of it!

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I've actually visited and trained at the Shidokan school Bob suggested--very nice people, and interesting material! I also know some kali folks over there, but unfortunately, I don't know of any Goju-Ryu practitioners in the area.

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I absolutely agree. Plus, you can be an excellent instructor without being terribly skilled at applying things under pressure, yourself, or having a competition record. Unfortunately, competitive success is still the majority of people's method of measuring the effectiveness of a martial art, for better or worse.

You've already had some good responses to consider. I would add to that the recommendation that you don't name it after something that exists in fictional media, and if you intend for the art to be taken seriously as a fighting or self defense art, then you need to prove that it works, somehow. Competition is the most popular way to do that, but you would also need to do it in a competition format that has credibility in the type of martial art you are trying to build (eg. point fighting competitions will not give you any credibility as a self defense art).

I do practice Sanchin, but it's been an evolving kata for me. The version I first learned in Shuri-Ryu had been modified pretty significantly from the Goju-Kai version it originated from. After I left the style, I started trying to adapt what I had learned to fit the Jundokan Goju-Ryu version. Recently, however, I've been working on the Bugeikan's Shuri Sanchin, and that will probably become my default version of practice. I honestly prefer Tensho, because it combines not only the structural development but also softer muchimidi components.

I've done a wide variety of tactile sensitivity drills and exercises, and I think they are incredibly important, if often out of context. Karate has a variety of kakie/kakidi drills for this purpose, which build up to kakedameshi, which is a free-form sticky hands type of sparring. You can also press a ball against a wall and move it around the wall just with pressure from your body, or work sticking and moving with a swinging bag, or tie a rope to something and manipulate it without grabbing it or letting it fall, etc.

This topic sort of revolves around the Shu-Ha-Ri learning concept. First, you learn by copying (Shu), doing exactly as you are told and shown, until it comes naturally. Then, you start to adapt (Ha) what you learned to be more suited to you, personally, which is where self expression starts to come in. After a while, you learn to break free (Ri) from what you were taught to be able to come up with your own material, while still holding true to the fundamentals that you built up over time. This is a process that is constantly happening as you learn; not just in the overall process, but in every individual technique and nuance, as well. After a few years of consistent training and learning, your karate should begin to take on its own unique flavor, without violating the overall principles you've learned.

To add to Wado Heretic's response, I would say that the kata in the video is nothing I have seen before, either. It does have bits and pieces of several kata put together, and they are assembled in a pseudo-Naihanchi style enbusen, but structurally and mechanically, it doesn't look anything like the Shorin-Ryu that I learned. I would tend to agree with the theory that it was a modern creation.

I learned the KishimotoDi versions of Naihanchi, Passai, and Kusanku, which are definitely recognizable but quite different from the versions I learned in Chibana-lineage Shorin-Ryu. I also had a sort of reverse situation, where I learned weirdly modified versions of Wansu, Sanchin, Tensho, and Seiyunchin, and then later adjusted them to be more like the versions I had seen in other styles that I preferred.

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I know that some people see "old-school karate" as referring to what is affectionately known in the US as the "blood and guts era" of karate here in the States, which was mostly the 1970s. They talk fondly of the hard training, with Sensei that were almost abusive to their students, and point karate tournaments where people lost teeth and broke bones. Personally, that's not "old-school," to me, at all. I see old-school karate much the same way that Spartacus Maximus describes; Okinawan methods that primarily carry over from before karate's introduction to the school system and mainland Japan. It's superficially characterized by having more angles/circles than straight, hard lines, along with higher stances, but beyond that it tends to include a great deal of grabbing, locking, and throwing. It also tends not to incorporate point fighting, but since that's the popular karate thing, most schools do it, even if they teach otherwise-old-school methods.

Well, you could wear instep pads, I suppose, if you want to keep kicking with your instep. That's a sport karate tactic for getting more reach, though, not for power--if you want to kick hard, you should really be hitting with your shin. You may also be kicking a bag that has sandbags that have shifted to the outside, so you're hitting packed sand instead of padding. Eventually, your body will adjust, but if you're doing full contact, I don't see the extra reach of kicking with the instep as being that beneficial compared to the added power you can put in by hitting with the shin.

I'm going to disagree with you, here, Bob. It seems, to me, that you are conflating "size matters" with "size trumps training," just judging by your reasoning that if someone believes that size matters then they shouldn't bother with martial arts. That isn't really an accurate connection to make, in my opinion, and I think that to say that size DOESN'T matter can be doing a disservice to one's students by not effectively communicating the importance of training to overcome a size difference, or the fact that starting training doesn't instantly overcome size difference. You can teach methods for doing it as a standard part of your curriculum, but it's still up to the student to take responsibility for their training and the effort and time they put in, and without a proper understanding of the context and possible hurdles they are training for, how can they be effectively motivated to train appropriately? Why does size matter? Because any given level of technique and tactics can only overcome so much size and brute strength. As you improve in martial arts, the amount of size and brute strength you can overcome increases, but there is still a tipping point for most of that journey. You can't tell a 90lb white belt that size doesn't matter, because they haven't had the training to overcome a size/strength disadvantage. Even a 90lb blue or green belt should understand that, while they might be able to overcome some size/strength difference with their training, there still comes a point where they can't. Sure, they can beat that 120lb untrained person, even if they are grappling, but they may not be ready for that 200lb untrained person, yet. Even once you have reached a point where you have the technique and tactics down so well that you can use them to overcome an opponent of any size, that doesn't mean you will always be successful in doing so, depending on what happens in the fight, because fights are chaotic. One mistake can leave you in a bad position where the opponent's strength or sheer size can stop you from doing anything, technique or no. Understanding this possibility is vital to ingraining a sense of urgency and the right mindset to do everything to avoid such problems.

Well, a lot of my world is hinging on getting a house sold and moving to a new one, at the moment. Provided that happens, though: 1. Get back to working on my fitness, as best I can while dealing with Ehler-Danlos Syndrome 2. Open my dojo in my new city of residence 3. Continue to refine my practical-focused karate curriculum for that dojo 4. Train with various instructors in several styles, including Shorin-Ryu, Goju-Ryu, and Uechi-Ryu (already going to hit KishimotoDi when my instructor comes out for a seminar next month)