Wastelander

I would absolutely continue trying to teach everything, for the very reason you mention. I would rather have the possibility of sparking someone's interest and dedication to the art, then just assume they are going to leave and abandon them.

Everyone is going to have their own perspective on that, and it will also change depending on the person performing the kata. For me, you have to bear in mind that I practice Shorin-Ryu, so from my perspective Shotokan took the kata I practice and did weird things to them. Now, that is nothing against Shotokan practitioners--I am friends with a number of them, and they are dedicated, hard-training, knowledgeable people, and they are very good at Shotokan. Shotokan just doesn't look that good from a Shorin-Ryu perspective, at least to me. My opinion doesn't matter, though, to anyone but me in this regard. I hope that everyone practicing Shotokan enjoys it, and feels good about it!

Obviously, material has to be taught in a certain progression in order for understanding to really be developed, but I don't consider that holding back. If someone asks a question that would result in an explanation they may not be able to understand, I'll still show them, or at least give a basic explanation, and tell them that we will build up to that eventually. Personally, I think the "hold things back until a successor is chosen" is a bad idea. The situation with Oyata Sensei and Logue Sensei, for modern example.

You certainly fight how you train but, as I mentioned, self defense situations are quite a bit unlike sport fighting and the way most people spar. The longer, lower stances are often used in a very close-range context--standing grappling, or clinching, for example. Sometimes, they are used to take the opponent down, or move the opponent, or prevent yourself from being moved or taken down, for example. The kokutsu-dachi you point out as being someone nobody would use in a no-holds-barred fight, for example, is absolutely a stance I have seen used in mixed martial arts, as well as judo, sumo, wrestling, boxing, Muay Thai--the list goes on. Next time you watch an MMA fight with lots of clinchwork or fighting against the cage, take some time to watch it frame by frame, and you will be surprised just how many karate stances show up. As I said before, though, the stances of karate are NOT meant for you to just stand in and move around. They are snapshots of positions used to make your techniques work, and you may only be in them for a split second.

I used to train in a style that was very exacting with positions--feet had to be at exact angles, body parts had to be at exact distances from other body parts, etc. This is something I have found to be a very Japanese approach to karate, and is mostly for aesthetics, or for their understanding of the mechanics of a technique, which is often (as Wado Heretic suggests) based on the wrong context. Now, there are certainly some important angles and positions in Okinawan karate, and they will be checked and corrected as needed, but I have found this to not happen at the same extremely granular level that Japanese karate does it. With regard to application, specifically, it's important to remember that the "stances" of karate are not like a "fighting stance" that you use in sparring. You aren't supposed to maintain the stance and move around like you do in jiyu kumite. You are much more likely to have to transition from a natural standing/walking position quickly into one or more stances as you perform defensive techniques that require certain types of weight distribution or structure. The stances are meant to facilitate the applications, which means they are transitory, and meant to tell you how you need to move your body in order to get the technique to work. They are also often exaggerated in order to ensure that the student moves their weight in the proper manner without losing structure. It's also important to note that, under stress, movements tend to get smaller, whether you like it or not, which means that some degree of exaggeration in training is needed to account for that and make sure the technique will still work.

Welcome to the forum!

Not to sound ignorant but what is a Kane and wilder book? Lawrence Kane and Kris Wilder, who practice and teach Goju-Ryu, and both have a good deal of experience doing security work of various types, wrote a book called "The Way of Kata," which goes over some fundamental concepts for bunkai.

Everything has its place, and "sparring" is a pretty varied category of training methods. I would agree that too many people train to deal with unrealistic attacks, or even if they work against realistic attacks, they may not move from compliant drilling to resistant drilling to free practice. We have some formal drills in our organization that use the typical "step back, down block, step in, lunge punch" types of attacks to introduce some basic concepts and techniques, but we don't limit ourselves to that in our practice of those drills. Additionally, since we have a heavy emphasis on bunkai and kata application, we do a lot of training with that material using some simplified attacks for introduction purposes, and more realistic attacks as well. From compliant drilling, we move on to semi-resistant drilling, where the uke may block, or fight back out of the joint lock, or not fall down, etc., so that the technique was mostly successful, up until the very end. This gives students an opportunity to learn how to counter such resistance, and how to continue if their technique fails. From there, we increase the resistance in two ways. Sometimes, we simply have the uke attack again in some way after doing what I previously described, so the student has to learn to deal with that type of failure. Other times, since we know the technique they are trying to do, we will do something to stop it earlier, or throw it off--moving differently, grabbing when there wasn't a grab before, throwing an awkward strike, or a flurry of them, etc. From these, you get a pretty good base of skills to work with. This feeds into kakedameshi, kata randori, and "bully sparring" as I call it, as well as giving you the skills to cross over some of that material into more MMA-style sparring. These are sparring methods that allow you to work your techniques against resisting opponents in relative safety. Of course, everything I've described can only work in conjunction with supplemental training methods for developing the skills to actually use the techniques you learn in these types of sparring. I find that this varied approach addresses a lot of the shortcomings that come from more rigidly-structured methods.

Welcome to the forum! Personally, given that your current options seem to be "current dojo" and "nothing," I would stick with the current dojo until you move. When you do move, I would try out all of the schools you are interested in--do a couple classes and see what you like. You may find that you love Uechi-Ryu, or hate Goju-Ryu, or the Muay Thai school is a great fit, or you just want to go back to Shotokan, etc. You'll have to try them to figure that out

That would be the "block/punch/kick" type of application, yes. Old-style Okinawan arts commonly use the elbow movement you use to block to apply an armbar, as a comparison.

Some instructors did not teach the applications and others would not teach them until a student was awarded Yudansha. This was for a multitude of reasons, for which I've heard plenty. We teach along with the kata. Hachikyu start learning Pinan Shodan, and immediately learn the applications and are taught two person drills so they can apply what they've learned. To each their own. I feel that teaching the applications while learning the Kata gives the student a deeper understanding. Just for the sake of information... Oyama was reportedly nanadan (or possibly hachidan) under Gogen Yamaguchi when he left to start the Oyama dojo. I highly doubt Yamaguchi would bestow that rank on anyone who didn’t have a through understanding of bunkai and how to teach it. Why he abandoned bunkai really makes me wonder. Oyama had hundreds, if not thousands of high ranking yudansha under him at the time of his death. Yet there’s not a single report of him teaching bunkai that I’ve seen nor heard of. Everyone’s got their own philosophies and methods. For what it's worth, some people simply don't care about bunkai/oyo. Oyama liked his kumite approach, and perhaps enjoyed the practice of kata for health and personal development, but didn't care about how the movements were supposed to be applied. The modifications he made to the kata certainly seem to suggest that, since the motions no longer fit Okinawan methods. It's also possible that Yamaguchi didn't care that much about the application, and didn't teach much of it. It's also possible that Yamaguchi didn't learn much application in his time with Yagi and Miyagi, and therefore didn't teach much of it. There is a whole chain of possibilities, but I doubt we will get a definitive answer. Even within my organization, you can ask the head of the organization what the application for a move is, and he will show you a practical self defense technique, and you can ask one of his Okinawan 9th dans and get a basic block, or some such thing.

Just as different instructors do things differently today, different "founders" did things differently back then, too. Was kata a huge part, historically? Yes! The thing I feel the need to point out is that the 3K division (Kihon/Kata/Kumite) was not a standard practice back then, and certainly nowhere near as popular as it is, today. Many instructors considered kumite to simply be part of kata training, because the kumite came from the kata. Kihon was similar. Some instructors chose to heavily focus on physical development before ever getting to the fighting methods, which is what you have essentially described with Miyagi. Others did not, although you will often see statements about having to study certain kata for a long time before learning anything else--as I mentioned, though, that kata study INCLUDES application and kumite, rather than being separate from it. Each instructor had their own reasons for doing things the way they did. Some focused heavily on physical development. Some focused heavily on the practice of solo kata with no application. Some focused heavily on kumite of various types. Etc.

That ligament sometimes gives me trouble, but so far not too bad. I'm sorry to hear about you having to go through this! That said, 3 months isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, and I know you'll get back to training as soon as you can

It is going to take time. There are plenty of things you can drill, and I'm sure your instructor has you drilling them, but it will still take time and practice to develop the skills and reactions you need. You'll start learning how to set up your combinations so your opponent moves their guard for you, or how to slip past it when they don't think you can. As far as sparring with women, you aren't doing them any favors by only using kicks and mostly blocking--they are there to learn martial arts too! Every person is different, regardless of gender, and some will be okay with higher levels of contact than others. Just talk with them, and maybe ask them to hit you in the arm or body as hard as they are willing to get hit, and go from there. You are still new, so you will still have to be very cautious with your control, both with men and women.

Those kids aren't too terribly young, so you can sneak in some talking, but don't lecture--make it fit with what you're doing. This means you can get in little snippets of cultural and style information. Not enough to bore them, but enough to give them an idea if they decide to look into it further. This is generally what we will do. We tell them to bow in, and quickly say why we do that. We take them through simple warm ups and say why we are doing them (make your legs ready to kick, make your arms strong to block, etc.). As far as technique goes, for kids that age, we would usually go through how to stand in a basic "fighting stance," how to do a basic middle "block," how to throw a basic straight punch, and how to throw a basic front kick, and have them do that on pads. Making it a game by moving the pad, or doing "Sensei Says" makes them forget they are learning stuff, which is helpful. This also gives you time to tell them this is kihon, and briefly what that is. From there, it's on to the first kata we teach, which is very basic and uses the punch and block ( ). That obviously lets you mention what kata are for. From there, we usually show some sort of application for the kata, and if they do well with it, add some sort of gentle takedown. Inevitably, the kids get a kick out of the takedowns. This also lets you introduce the idea of kumite, as well.

I do, and although I'm sure I have bowed "incorrectly" at various dojo, nobody has ever said anything about it to me. We also don't say anything if visitors at our dojo don't bow where/when we do. The intent of the bow is the same, whether it's at the door, at a designated mat, in a certain direction, etc.

Welcome to the forum!

The elastic band he is talking about is just a hair tie of the same color as the belt--for most people who do this, it's red or blue for WKF competition. They seem to like having extra thick, stiff belts in that circuit, so breaking in the belt and cinching it tight doesn't seem to be all that popular.

To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a big trick to this--you tie the belt in a normal knot, and then you just hold the ends together, slide the elastic band up to the knot, and secure it behind where the ends come out of the knot. Now, since I don't compete I have never done this, and nobody in my dojo does this, but I've seen it done by WKF people. I just tie my belt tight enough to stay put, personally.

Well, as sensei8 suggests, I would do what your instructor says. That said, I'm also not entirely sure I understand what you're describing. Even so, your chief instructor is the one who sets the standards for your school

Train? No. Aid in recovery? Possibly. It's used by physical therapists the world over, at this point, and I felt that it helped me recover from my last knee dislocation. I know a number of athletes who use it to add in recovery from DOMS as well. It's not going to make your muscles stronger.

While I would say that karate has been too political for a very long time, I think what you described is less politics and more ego. There are plenty of people out there ready to rip you apart for how you do things, but they are also not willing to post a video of themselves for comparison. Keyboard warriors and kuchi-bushi (mouth warriors) show up all the time on the Internet. As someone who posts videos of himself doing karate pretty often, I get some of that, as well. Thankfully, that can usually be resolved by ignoring it, or responding with WHY we do something the way we do it, because most people making those types of comments can only answer "why?" with "because Sensei said so."

We only do light contact to the head, and we require everyone to wear gear on their hands and feet--headgear is required for everyone under the age of 12, and optional above that, although I have pointed out that studies show headgear only protects from aesthetic damage, and may actually increase the risk of concussion. Even so, concussions have been VERY rare in our dojo. In the 7 years I've been training with my current Sensei, there have maybe been three concussions, and none of them were Grade 3 that I know of (loss of consciousness). Accidents happen, of course, and its a martial arts school, so that is a risk that must be assumed. Despite that, it is significantly safer than football, or boxing, which are both quite popular.

I find that the vast majority of people who say that knowledge of the applications comes naturally through practicing the kata have no idea how to apply the kata. I'm sure there are some out there who were able to do that, but I would say that most people do not get revelations on kata application without putting conscious, structured thought into it, and they certainly don't develop the skill necessary to apply the techniques under pressure by practicing the solo form. There are also people out there who might know applications, but insist on holding them back until a certain rank, or holding them back entirely and telling their students to figure it out themselves. I do not find that to be helpful for karate, or karateka. On the other hand, there are instructors out there who teach applications, but don't teach the underlying concepts, or how a student could have found that application by following certain guidelines, so the students may be able to repeat applications by rote, but not figure out alternatives for themselves. I don't think that is helpful, either, although it does at least give students SOMETHING to work with. The kata give you a method of practicing the applications without a partner, which has a number of benefits. First, and most obviously, you don't need a partner for it, which means you can practice at any time. Second, it means you do not have to have concern for a partner's safety, so techniques you would normally have to do carefully, slowly, or incompletely, can be done full speed, full power, with full intent. Third, it gives you a method of practicing the ideal form and body mechanics to make the technique work as efficiently as possible, without having to make adjustments for an opponent's body weight, height, strength, etc. I think asking your Sensei for applications (if they know them) is a great idea, as is seeking out seminars from other instructors in various arts, and looking at examples in books and videos to bring back to your own training. This should all be building toward a conceptual approach to karate and the application of its kata, though, and you should work to build an understanding of how kata can be broken down and analyzed for potential applications.

I have had this problem with every gi I have ever owned, so far, except for my Century Kata Elite gi, which has very soft, thin webbing for drawstrings. That said, I solved it pretty easily by just taking out the drawstrings and replacing them with rope.