Wastelander

I think there are different expressions of styles for different stages in life, mostly. A dojo-mate of mine is also a Sandan in Aikido, and he trained in a system of Aikido that was hardcore, with a chief instructor known to knock people out and break bones in training. That kind of Aikido might be fine for a younger, fit, tough person, but not so much so for older folks, or people who are less fit or more fragile. This can be applied to most other arts, because every school goes about them a bit differently, and every person who trains does it to fit their needs. Even at 30, I don't find myself throwing that many high kicks, anymore, but I don't feel the need to change styles--there is plenty within my style I can continue to explore and develop. The same is true of other styles, as well.

We have had a number of people complain about the length of our syllabus--not just overall, but for each individual rank. We recently went through a revamping of the syllabus, which actually added a few more things. I've heard INSTRUCTORS say that they would rather have less on the syllabus to avoid trying to make students "jacks of all trades, master of none" (nevermind the fact that the full phrase is "better to be a jack of all trade, master of none, than a master of one"). It's disheartening. To me, all a long syllabus means is that it might take you longer to earn your next rank which, to me, doesn't matter.

If you would like to go back to the original black belts, the only criteria was that they knew how to fall well enough to not get injured when Kano Jigoro or one of his Kodokan representatives was teaching and needed someone to demonstrate on. Most people don't like to think of black belts that way, though. It loses its mystique. These days, there are too many criteria to ever boil it down to just one. I couldn't possibly do it, personally.

If I recall correctly, the Shorin-Ryu/Shorei-Ryu divide was Funakoshi's own classification of material, and not a historical one. He didn't even break it down consistently across his books, as he was re-evaluating it over time. He did tend to put Naha-Te kata in the Shorei-Ryu column, though. One of my former sensei’s colleagues* is in the Masaji video. *Would you call a karateka you work out with and exchange information with regularly a colleague? Very cool! And yes, I would call that a colleague

Your TSD background is going to be easier to adapt to Shotokan or a Shorin-Ryu system. Goju-Ryu will be very much like starting over. As for characteristics of Goju-Ryu, I would say it tends to be heavy and sticky. These are components of Shorin-Ryu, as well, but not to the same degree that they are present in Goju-Ryu. It is plenty credible, although as with most Okinawan karate styles, it has a bit of a muddled history, in places, and political in-fighting that caused a good amount of "no, MY sensei was the true inheritor of Goju-Ryu." Even so, every branch of Goju-Ryu has good material stemming from Miyagi Chojun and Higashionna Kanryo. As has been mentioned, of course, every dojo is going to teach things differently. In general, though, if you want to carry over your TSD training, and just make some small tweaks and keep going, Shotokan is probably the better bet. If you want to "empty your cup," so to speak, and start fresh, Goju-Ryu would be the way to go since, if nothing else, you will have to learn entirely new kata, which will help you adapt to the different mechanics and methods. In addition to P.A.L.'s recommendations for Goju-Ryu references, I would add Kuba Yoshio Sensei, and Paul Enfield Sensei. Enfield was a senior student of Higaonna Morio, and acted as his uke and narrator for his instructional videos, before transitioning to the Jundokan and becoming a senior student and translator for Taira Masaji. His take on Goju-Ryu is something like a blend of the two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWIW3xOBdMI

Welcome back!

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Retreating has its uses, but obviously the over-use of any tactic can be problematic. You did definitely get the chance to play with the benefits of forward pressure, which is good. That kind of thing is exactly what sparring in the dojo is for--trying new things!

I'm a major proponent of ensuring that the knees always track in-line with the feet, since I have pronated feet and bad knees (from birth). You can do that with the toes pointed in but, as you said, you have to turn the femur, not just the feet, and be aware of your structure to ensure that is happening with the inward-pointed toes. Interestingly, at least based on how we do Naihanchi-dachi, I would disagree with your PT friend--I'm decidedly LESS mobile in that stance than, for example, a shiko-dachi with the toes pointed out

Welcome to the forum!

Thank you, everyone, for your replies. @barefoot-kohai - I'm familiar with the stance used in Shotokan--it's the same one used in Shuri-Ryu when I learned Naihanchi, there, and it hurt my knees and ankles. I was really looking for the reasoning behind using the stance, rather than just which stance you use, though @MatsuShinshii - I've seen varying degrees from Matsumura Seito folks, but it does tend to be a stance with the toes pointed outward enough for me to consider it a shiko-dachi, for the purposes of this thread. Do you know what the reasoning is, in your style, for using that stance as opposed to a stance with the toes forward or inward, by chance? @Kusotare - It sounds like you're saying the Naihanchi-dachi you use in Wado-Ryu is purely for biomechanical study purposes? To address your question about the stances, the feet tend to be twisting inward while exerting enough outward pressure to maintain a springiness to the stance, but as MatsuShinshii says, the stance pressure changes based on the applications for us. The solo kata is not divorced from the application in the way we train

Hello, everyone! I apologize in advance for the long post! There are, in general, three stances used in the practice of the Naihanchi/Tekki/Chulgi/etc. kata, which go by different names depending on the style you practice. For simplicity's sake, I will use the names I am more familiar with: Shiko-dachi = Horse stance with toes pointed outward Kiba-dachi = Horse stance with toes pointed forward Naihanchi-dachi = Horse stance with toes pointed inward When I first learned Naihanchi, I was practicing Shuri-Ryu, and they did it in a very deep kiba-dachi. In training on my own for two years, I adjusted it to a higher kiba-dachi to experiment with that. When I started training in Shorin-Ryu, I was introduced to Naihanchi-dachi, which I was allowed to play with and adjust to fit my build and physical limitations. When I started training KishimotoDi, I learned a version of Naihanchi that uses shiko-dachi throughout. From what I have been able to gather, Naihanchi likely went through a progression from shiko-dachi to kiba-dachi to Naihanchi-dachi over time, and different instructors stuck with what they liked, personally, for various reasons. You can actually see these changes over time in historical photos, which is especially interesting. In one of Funakoshi Gichin's (founder of Shotokan) books, he performs Naihanchi in shiko-dachi, and then later photos show him using kiba-dachi, which of course became wider and lower as his son, Funakoshi Gigo, started changing things. Konishi Yasuhiro (founder of Shindo Jinen-Ryu, and a student of Funakoshi, among others) also taught Naihanchi in shiko-dachi, and has photos of him demonstrating applications on Motobu Choki using shiko-dachi. Photos of Motobu Choki (a student of Itosu Anko and Matsumura Sokon), himself, show him using a high kiba-dachi for Naihanchi, although he can be seen using shiko-dachi for some of his applications. There is a photo of Kentsu Yabu (also a student of Itosu and Matsumura) teaching a class full of students working Naihanchi in shiko-dachi. Hanashiro Chomo was a student of Itosu, but taught Naihanchi in shiko-dachi, according to the Bugeikan, which still passes along his material. Some practitioners of Matsumura Seito (which describes its lineage and being non-Itosu Shorin-Ryu) use shiko-dachi in their Naihanchi practice, although I have also seen some use kiba-dachi, and some use Naihanchi-dachi. Various practitioners of Okinawan kenpo or Tomari-te (such as Oyata Seiyu and Yamashiro Yoshitomo) use a stance that I would call barely a shiko-dachi, as the toes point out just slightly, and it is also a style that does not come from Itosu. Kojo-Ryu, at least the version of it taught by Hayashi Shingo, which is also a non-Itosu system, uses shiko-dachi for its Naihanchi kata. KishimotoDi is a style that not only bypassed Itosu, but also bypassed Matsumura, coming from a contemporary of his named Tachimura, and it uses shiko-dachi for Naihanchi. The inward-pointed toes of Naihanchi-dachi start showing up later than either shiko-dachi or kiba-dachi, as far as I can tell by looking at historical photos/footage and styles of various lineages. Possibly as recently as the 1930's, as that is as far back as I have seen photos of it, which show Chibana Chosin (Dai Senpai of Itosu's dojo) using it in Naihanchi. Interestingly, Motobu specifically derided the "pigeon toed" version of the stance that Itosu had started teaching later in life. All three of these stances, while similar in nature, have some slightly different capabilities and limitations, and having played with all three of them, myself, I've tried to explore those and make note of them. I'm curious as to which stances people here use in their Naihanchi kata, and what purpose they ascribe to that stance beyond "it's the way Sensei said to do it."

The depth I go into depends on the size of the class--for private lessons, I can obviously go into more depth than a class of 20. For us, getting people started on kata application is pretty easy, because the first movement of the first kata tells you exactly why you pull your hand to your hip when you punch. It's very clear, and easy to see and understand. We teach the application right alongside the kata for that. In general, as we go through teaching a kata, we will go over an application here or there, to give them an idea of what they are doing. The larger the class, the fewer examples we have time to give them to practice, but we still get a couple in there each time. Beginners get fairly basic applications, intermediate students get more in-depth/dangerous applications, and advanced students have to start working out their own applications based on the examples they have learned and the concepts/principles that come with them.

We slide our feet as we step, but we don't always necessarily use the heel--depends on what you're trying to do.

Congratulations!

We tie ours the first way you describe, and I like mine to be a bit longer than mid-thigh. Interestingly, although you're describing a specific process in your second method, you can get the same result by just feeding your belt together as you wrap from the front, which is how I was originally taught, and did for the first four years of my training. Now, if you grapple a lot, you might start tying it the first way, but with a lock-down version of the knot. Comes in handy!

There is a difference between "fighting" or a "fighting stance" and the way that traditional arts are intended to be used

I'm totally in agreement with you, as a general rule. Your original question, though, was whether the literal "block" application of jodan-uke could be used in a right, and it can. Admittedly, I'm not talking about a picture perfect jodan-uke in complete isolation, but I have absolutely seen and used a single-arm jodan-uke in conjunction with dropping levels beneath an attack and throwing a simultaneous punch. It's sporty, but it works in the longer ranges of fighting. Once you're in close, of course, it's back to the old-school material.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum! I started at 18, for what it's worth

Welcome to the forum

Southern Illinois, actually! Now I'm wondering if we might know a few of the same people. Lol, it's certainly possible! And I have family in Southern Illinois, as well. I trained in Shuri-Ryu in Morton and Peoria, IL. The Peoria dojo was just a street over from Koeppel Sensei's dojo.

I'm in agreement on firearms training, knives, and sticks being the most practical for modern people. That said, I think it's easy to overlook traditional weapons without realizing that the techniques used with them can be applied to other things. What functional difference is there between manipulating nunchaku and manipulating a belt or length of chain? What difference is there between the techniques of kama and striking and hooking with a hammer? What's the difference between blocking and striking with a sai and blocking and striking with a tire iron? Honestly, not much.

Welcome to the forum! With that combination, I'm curious if you're from Central Illinois