Wastelander

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That is very terrible news, Bob, and I'm very sorry for your loss! It's bad enough to lose one friend and colleague, but to lose 6 at once must be devastating, and I can imagine how much turmoil it causes in your organization, as well. I hope you are doing alright, and are able to pull things together.

Congratulations and many thanks, Brian!

We have found that the WKF shin/foot gear is actually very good. It protects well, holds up to abuse well, and stays in place pretty well. It's also pretty light, so it doesn't really impact your strikes too much. Personally, I don't like the gloves, but I also don't do point sparring, and tend to spar more like MMA. They keep your hands partially curled the whole time, which protects your partners from accidentally getting fingers in the eyes, and the padding is sufficient for keeping your hand protects, but the thumb is definitely completely exposed.

As martial artists, I would like to think that we have the control and composure to walk away from unnecessary confrontation. That said, sometimes you can find yourself drawn into an argument, and sometimes those can get very heated. In this week's Waza Wednesday video, we look at when one of these heated arguments becomes a physical confrontation, with the possibility of a weapon becoming involved. Bear in mind that, of course, leaving the situation is going to be the best course of action for self defense. This is primarily looking at what to do if you don't have that option, for whatever reason.

I'm certainly not offended, and everyone has their own views on their martial arts. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of techniques in the Bubishi are grappling techniques, or defenses against grappling--not just in appearance, but also in their actual description. This is something that my Sensei and I discussed quite a bit as we were putting this video together. Now, that isn't to suggest that karate is all grappling and no striking. It is definitely a percussive art. That said, developing the ability to strike someone hard enough to do damage doesn't really require kata or technique manuals. It also doesn't really require technique breakdown videos, so while we teach more striking than grappling in our dojo, it can sometimes appear to be the opposite if you just go by our videos. Dealing with grappling situations can be more complex, and require more complex responses, and that's where kata and manuals can be more helpful. We don't just see this in karate, either. Many Chinese martial arts are considered to be "striking arts" and yet are filled with grappling applications. Even Muay Thai, which is currently considered to be one of the best striking arts around, in the sport fighting world, contains a lot of grappling techniques in the clinch, and even more in its older (Muay Boran) iterations. I also practice KishimotoDi, which is very old-style Shuri-Te which has had its applications passed down without being lost over the generations, and it contains an awful lot of throwing for what most would consider to be a striking art. There are those who choose to place karate into a very defined box, which is fine for them, but I don't like such limitations on my study.

So, I tested for my Nidan (2nd Degree Black Belt) on Wednesday, July 20th, along with another Nidan candidate, two Shodan candidates, and several brown belt candidates. The testing panel consisted of: John Dominguez, Shodan Jim Mitchell, Shodan Richard Poage, Godan Michael Newland, Rokudan Jeff Allred, Rokudan Eddie Bethea, Hachidan We started off with a calisthenic and aerobic circuit that completely wore out my arms and made my calves cramp, before getting into demonstrating curriculum material. The material covered included all 19 kata in the Shorinkan curriculum, 14 yakusoku kumite drills, somewhere between 30-40 self defense techniques, bunkai, and sparring. I'm still sore all over and exhausted, 4 days later, but I made it through and was awarded my Nidan. Everyone else who tested also passed, which was great for them! Here is the whole group after the test, minus Newland Sensei, who had to leave a bit early: And here is me with my Sensei, Richard Poage, and his Sensei, Eddie Bethea:

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Welcome to the forum!

Congratulations!

Welcome to the forum!

I think that the tradition of practicing karate against straight punches comes from the idea that the attacker "gets to practice punching" when you do it that way. Personally, I think there are better and more consistent ways to practice punching, and defensive drills should be focused on developing defensive skills. In my dojo, we practice against, straight punches, haymakers, "hockey punches," etc. We also tend to mix them up somewhat randomly, as well as incorporating grabs into the punches, because real fights are chaotic like that.

The release date isn't actually until next Tuesday, the 21st, but I do have an advance copy to review for my site. I haven't read it all, just yet, but the new forewords are interesting.

Thank you, everyone! It was very cool for us to get props from McCarthy Sensei, and I'm glad that people are finding the material interesting and valuable! We wanted to make something that would showcase not only the original material from the Bubishi, but expansions on the material and examples of similar methods being used in other arts, to show how fighting is connected.

Hello, everyone! We are thrilled to share this video, which is a special presentation of our intrepretations of techniques found in the Bubishi--the "Bible of Karate"--as well as connections to kata movements and comparisons with a variety of other martial arts. We are also honored to have an introduction from Patrick McCarthy, Hanshi, Kudan, who wrote the English version of the Bubishi that most karateka refer to, today!

Thank you for the input, everyone! There is absolutely a connection between verious Crane styles and Naha-Te styles of karate--especially Goju-Ryu, due to Miyagi Chojun's connection to Gokenki. Just comparing Goju-Ryu, Uechi-Ryu, and Ryuei-Ryu to Crane styles makes that fairly evident, I feel. They also have written histories that support the connection. That said, I can't help but think that this connection tends to get stretched to incorporate ALL styles of karate. As a Shorin-Ryu practitioner, from all I have been able to find, there is nothing to suggest that Crane styles had much--if any--impact on the development of Shuri-Te systems of karate. Personally, I believe that the proposed connections between Crane systems and Shuri-Te came later, and were especially promoted after the original Karate Kid film. The late 80's started a trend of all sorts of Hakutsuru kata coming out of the woodwork, with little to no legitimate origin, and these were often included in the curriculum of Shuri-Te lineage schools. This is the problem that I have with the proposed connection--it is absolutely there when talking about Naha-Te styles, but not when looking at Shuri-Te styles. Sure, there is going to be some overlap just due to the nature of fighting, but that's about it. With that in mind, I feel that the inclusion of Crane kata and history in Shuri-Te systems is disingenuous. What are your thoughts?

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Hello, everyone! This is a topic that I have a tendency to avoid, but it recently came up in a conversation I had with a fairly high ranking member in my organization, and I wanted to put it to the sounding board here at KF. Many karate people have a tendency to, at some point in their journey, research the origin of their art. Some stop at the founder of their organization, some go back to the early 1900's, when karate became public. Others, however, want to go back as far as they can, and that is where things become foggy. I have seen countless people on this search be told that White Crane is the origin of karate, or that the real secret to good karate is found in White Crane. I have my own opinions on this, but I want to see what the folks here have to say on the matter, first. Do you think that White Crane is the source of all karate? Some karate? None? How much of an impact do you think it had on the development of karate? Do you think that "White Crane" kata found in karate systems are links to this mysterious past? I look forward to hearing what people have to say. Thank you for your time!

I wish I could have made it for the live stream, but I'm enjoying watching the replay! I'm 2 hours in, so far!

Jesse Enkamp, of Karate by Jesse fame, recently posted a video outlining his views on the matter: https://www.facebook.com/karatebyjesse/videos/1235511743128516/ While I understand his perspective, I disagree with it. That said, I also understand that everyone--on both sides of the argument--is just speculating and sharing opinions. We don't have any facts to back us up, at this point, and we won't until after the 2020 Olympics are said and done. Even then, unless every karate school out there starts recording each student's reason for starting, we won't have solid facts.

Good stuff, Alex! We work VERY similar methods for this scenario, actually, which I find to be really interesting since we aren't a BJJ school, although my Sensei did train at a shootfighting gym when he was younger. It's nice to see the same types of methods being developed by different arts, and you've given me some little differences to play with. Thanks!

Makiwara and punching bags are both very valuable training tools, but they serve different purposes. The key benefit of makiwara training is that it provides progressive resistance--the harder you hit it, the harder it pushes back. People often talk about the knuckle conditioning aspect of this, the real benefit is that it teaches you how to better align you body, how to better generate power, and it strengthens the power chain of your strikes. Punching bags, on the other hand, swing away from you as you hit them, so they don't provide progressive resistance. They do, however, provide good feedback for the feel of a strike that hits a moving target, and it provides a good surface for striking from a wide variety of angles. This means that you can work combinations and movement that you simply can't work against the makiwara. Additionally, you can hit a bag full power, which is something that is harder to do with a makiwara.

I personally believe that withholding kata applications is a terrible idea. It weakens karate, as a whole, and holds your students back. To a degree, yes, every student should develop their own personal approach to kata applications. That said, they won't have the underlying knowledge to do so if the instructor hasn't taught them the process of bunkai, and taught them a variety of examples.

Welcome to the forum!