Wastelander

Welcome to the forum!

Congratulations! This is definitely a big landmark!

I wish I could, but I will be meeting with our insurance agent at that time! I hope it goes well!

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome back!

Thank you, everyone! Sorry for the late response--I was out of state with limited internet access on my birthday, and for the next week after, and I managed to miss this thread. For those wondering, I'm 28, now

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

It would be great to see you there! I'm planning to include an "open exchange" session, where we go around the room sharing techniques, so you'd even have a chance to teach us karate folks some grappling No kidding, I'm seriously considering this. I have to get ahold of a LE conference date that runs around that time that will have to take priority, but if it's a different set of dates... Awesome! I hope you can make it!

It is open to teens and adults of all ranks and styles, provided they have an interest in learning about Okinawan martial arts methods! Some of the material may be a bit tricky for less experienced practitioners, but that's no reason not to try! Yudansha struggle with things, too, particularly when working with material from other Okinawan styles.

It would be great to see you there! I'm planning to include an "open exchange" session, where we go around the room sharing techniques, so you'd even have a chance to teach us karate folks some grappling

Welcome to the forum!

Kihon 1-3 Fukyu no Kata Naihanchi 1-3 Pinan 1-5 Passai Sho/Dai Kusanku Sho/Dai Chinto Gojushiho Gorin Several of the instructors have some extra kata, which are taught from time to time, but those are the kata in our official curriculum.

Sparring people from other styles is fun--it gives you lots of new learning opportunities! As TJ-Jitsu said, we can't really judge how good either of you are, or how you did, since there is no video and we weren't there. From what you describe, though, it sounds like your opponent's range made you uncomfortable, and his leg kicks were problematic. Honestly, the leg kicks aren't such a big deal if you're just sparring a bit, but they definitely add up, so it's important to learn how to check them. The range is a bigger problem, since you sound like you mainly rely on long-distance techniques. You will need to learn how to keep him away with kicks, cut angles around him to get space back, or learn how to fight at close range. All three would be ideal, of course.

Yes, I heard about it from one of his students, otherwise I'm sure I never would have known about it. The man left embarrassed and never came back

Cross-training is very beneficial, but there is a fine line between cross-training and dojo-hopping. You really have to have some type of foundation before you cross-train, or you'll just end up with a confusing mess of material that you don't know how to utilize properly.

I don't think Shiroma Sensei would appreciate me going into details, but the young man was taught a lesson, very quickly.

Well I, for one, am thrilled with this turn of events! I think, for demonstration videos, that slow with metronomic timing is probably the best. It keeps things clear and simple for the viewer, and things can be fine-tuned from there.

I haven't been, although my Sensei was, once, under the guise of "wanting to learn to spar." I also know that Shiroma Jiro Sensei, here in Phoenix, had someone come and "watch classes" and when they shook his hand, tried to sucker punch him.

Turning around in circles on one foot has always been a bit of a problem for me. I have notoriously floppy ankles and have to concentrate on tensing the right muscles in my lower body to make sure my foot and leg stay together at all times despite the friction of the ground under me. It's good for me to face my weakness I think. There is a lot of room for me to grow there. I've heard of Gankaku a few times, but never saw it. Just watched it performed by Kanazawa on YouTube. Very cool kata IMO*.Not knowing anything about its history, I'm guessing Kanku/Kusanku has very similar roots, as it looks like Itosu and Funakoshi could have developed Pinan kata from it. Pinan is from Kanku, but looking at Gankaku, if I didn't know better I'd say Pinan came from Gankaku. *Kanazawa will make any kata look great. Gankaku is Funakoshi's name for the kata, Chinto. Legend has it that "Bushi" Matsumura Sokon confronted a shipwrecked Chinese man who had been stealing from locals, and we unable to apprehend him, in the end exchanging martial arts training for resources. Chinto is supposedly either the kata Matsumura learned from the man, or the kata that Matsumura made to record what the man taught him. Chinto may have also been the name of the shipwrecked man. All this is legend, of course, and pretty close to impossible to confirm, but it's a neat story. If you search for Chinto, you'll see a wider array of versions than you will get from searching for Gankaku Thanks for the primer! Say, Wastelander, do you know what the characters are for "Chinto" ? I'm having trouble looking them up. I ask because I had always assumed it was related to the kata "chinte" which means "unusual hands" ... but a man's name starting with "unusual" would be... well- unusual. Assuming this is not the correct character, I wonder what is. I also have very wobbly ankles--my feet are naturally pronated, fairly badly, and it messed up my balance quite a bit. As for the characters of Chinto, I'm afraid I don't know. As far as I'm aware, the Okinawans wrote all of their kata names with kana, rather than kanji/hanzi, until sometime after the Meiji Restoration. Really, they wrote almost everything with kana.

Welcome to the forum!

I've heard of Gankaku a few times, but never saw it. Just watched it performed by Kanazawa on YouTube. Very cool kata IMO*.Not knowing anything about its history, I'm guessing Kanku/Kusanku has very similar roots, as it looks like Itosu and Funakoshi could have developed Pinan kata from it. Pinan is from Kanku, but looking at Gankaku, if I didn't know better I'd say Pinan came from Gankaku. *Kanazawa will make any kata look great. Gankaku is Funakoshi's name for the kata, Chinto. Legend has it that "Bushi" Matsumura Sokon confronted a shipwrecked Chinese man who had been stealing from locals, and we unable to apprehend him, in the end exchanging martial arts training for resources. Chinto is supposedly either the kata Matsumura learned from the man, or the kata that Matsumura made to record what the man taught him. Chinto may have also been the name of the shipwrecked man. All this is legend, of course, and pretty close to impossible to confirm, but it's a neat story. If you search for Chinto, you'll see a wider array of versions than you will get from searching for Gankaku

Thanks for sharing, Patrick! We would love to have KF members attend, so if you can make arrangements to attend, definitely let me know!

Lately, Tawada Passai (which we call Passai Dai), has been the kata I find myself the most drawn to. Prior to that, I really had a thing for Seiyunchin. Of course, Naihanchi is every present in my mind, since everything is Naihanchi

It sounds like your question really boils down to "what do I call this thing I'm doing?" Now, I imagine it is pretty clearly karate, so you could just call it "Karate" and be done with it. Alternatively, I suspect that it is strongly based on Wado-Ryu, so you could keep calling it "Wado-Ryu," regardless of the changes. The important thing is that you are transparent and honest about what you do. Be truthful about who your teachers have been, how much experience you have, and how what you do is the same or different from what you've learned. As long as you're honest, I don't think you'll have a problem.