Wastelander

It's not strictly necessary for a karateka to practice other arts, or even be familiar with them, but it's certainly beneficial! I know that I've really gained a great deal from training in other styles, and familiarizing myself with even more. Every new experience can unlock aspects of your own art you never realized were there, and can add to your personal approach to your karate.

A friend of mine showed me this video of Guru Maul Mornie, who is a well-known silat instructor that I follow, using the Wall Dome training dummy. I love training dummies, but I honestly am not that fond of this design. Regardless, Guru Mornie shows a lot of great limb control techniques in this video--many of which can also be found in karate--so I thought I would share it here.

To each their own of course (I suppose if it gets you training its not a bad thing). Personally, I don't think it would be making the best of my time. I see you challenged Mr Abernethy... I wouldn't mind seeing his kata. K. This type of thing may seem silly, but it's a bit of fun that helps get people to do a little extra training, and doesn't hurt anything. It could be seen as a waste of time, but it doesn't really need to take much--certainly, nobody has to make a video as involved as the Karate Culture one, or mine. Regardless, it's not something people have to do if they don't want to Unfortunately, Iain had to decline, as his schedule is currently jam-packed with traveling to seminars. I kind of figured that would be the case, but I was interested to see him perform a kata, as well. The most I've seen is a few moves here or there, rather than an entire kata.

As someone with some experience with knifemaking, I'm familiar with the ulu as a tool, but not it's use as a weapon. This is very interesting, and I thank you for sharing it! Out of curiosity, did your teacher use "true time" with her techniques, in the same way European martial arts emphasize with their weapons?

Congratulations!

I do like that idea--we could use this thread, since it's already here, if anyone wants to kick things off?

You could challenge someone on KF, or you could challenge people in other places. Since I uploaded my video to YouTube, anybody can view it, and I just sent the link to the people I called out. I just figured that people here might be interested in doing it, as well, so I wanted to share it As far as pulling videos off your camera, if you send me a PM with the model of camcorder you have, I can see if I can help you out!

In celebration of Karate no Hi (Karate Day), which is on October 25th, I was challenged to a Kata-Off. While I'm passing it on to three people, I also think everyone should participate and spread the love around! Just record a video of yourself running kata, and challenge someone else to do the same!

I'm glad things are looking up! I've had trouble putting things on Wikipedia, in the past, and have pretty much given up on it. Shorin-Ryu Shorinkan is a pretty large system, as far as the number of practitioners worldwide. Our style originates from Chibana Chosin, but the Shorinkan, itself, was founded by Nakazato Shugoro, one of Chibana's senior students. We practice all of the kata that Chibana learned from Itosu Anko, except for Itosu's Passai Sho. Chibana learned the Passai that was passed down from Matsumura Sokon through the Tawada family, and Itosu told him to pass it on to his students, instead. We also practice the three Kihon Kata that Chibana created, the Fukyu no Kata and Gorin no Kata that Nakazato created, and Gojushiho, which Nakazato learned from his first teacher, before he became a student of Chibana.

Welcome to the forum!

Aside from our system's kata, we occasionally teach other kata. My Sensei and I both know several kata from other systems. We've taught Sanchin, Tensho, Seiyunchin, Wansu, Enpi, Rohai, Seisan, Rokkishu, and Hakutsuru. There may even be others that I can't think of right now. These aren't kata that we regularly teach, though--just when they would fit someone in particular.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

The equipment is similar to the Olympic TKD body pad, although the headgear is more like the Kudo headgear. The organization doesn't ring any bells for me--they probably just named the organization after the competition format, since it was being called koshiki to begin with. I know Robert Trias of Shuri-Ryu had at least something to do with the koshiki competitions in the USA.

My old dojo allowed some people to do it--the head instructor won the first koshiki tournament in the US, back in the day. It seems to be a modern resurrection of the bogu kumite that was advocated for by the likes of Mabuni Kenwa and Nakamura Shigeru in the early 20th Century. From what I saw of it, koshiki does allow hard contact and throws, but it's still a rather restricted ruleset that focuses on modern tournament-style fighting methods, and they still pause the fight to assign points. That said, I don't believe there is a single overseeing organization that handles koshiki, so different groups may be doing it differently.

Well, I assume "Ueshiro Shorin-Ryu Karate USA" would be an organization that teaches Ueshiro Ansei Sensei's brand of Matsubayashi-Ryu. If so, then I suppose I've heard of it--he was a rather well-known instructor under Nagamine Shoshin, if I remember correctly.

I started out blogging on Blogger about 7 years ago, and posted pretty regularly for a while. Then, I took a couple years off, and then started up a new blog on Blogger, which I kept up with better. Recently, I upgraded to using WordPress. Personally, I think blogging is a very healthy way of delving into your own thoughts on your training.

The Gracies actually did start the UFC, and they did it to showcase Jiu-Jitsu--that WAS the whole purpose of the tournament. Royce also won UFC 1, 2, 4, and fought to a draw in 5. That said, MMA has evolved quite a bit since those early tournaments, and Jiu-Jitsu does not hold the power it once did inside the cage. Honestly, wrestling is beating BJJ more often than not, these days, and striking is slowly becoming more dominant as fighters become more well-rounded. It may have started as a marketing tool for the Gracies, but it isn't anymore.

I love watching MMA, and I even participated in an MMA bout, once. Certainly, MMA is not a perfect representation of self defense, but there is still value in an arranged fight between trained opponents--especially in a venue where the ruleset is relatively open, and allows for many types of fighting, the way MMA does. The pressure testing aspect of it, if nothing else, is very valuable. Interestingly, the more MMA develops and evolves, the more old-school karate techniques I see showing up. I've written a variety of articles on the topic, and I routinely save animated GIFs of fighters using these techniques, even when they have no idea that those techniques exist in karate. Think of how popular shovel/oblique kicks and side kicks to the legs are becoming. Trapping and limb control are also showing up more and more often. I think the more fighters grow and evolve, the more we will see the more advanced aspects of traditional martial arts. The image is one I've seen thrown around Facebook an awful lot, but it's just marketing. Traditional schools are often worried that MMA schools will steal their students. There is definitely a difference between the training in traditional martial arts and the training in MMA, but the image is sensationalist and biased. I've met and spoken to a lot of very respectful, humble MMA fighters, and to say they aren't disciplined is ridiculous! Also, the MMA fighter pictured is Jeff Monson, who is quite intelligent and articulate. Besides, I don't know about anyone else, but my karate is pretty brutal.

I'll be honest--organization and planning are NOT my strong suits! I train at least a little bit every day, but it's pretty random. A kata here, a drill there, an exercise there, all scattered throughout the day. Sometimes, I will set aside a long block of time for training, but most of the time I just wing it and do what feels right, when it feels right. Efficient? Maybe not, but it works for me.

Wastelander, thank you for sharing that. Is bridge a more appropriate term for the chamber or are you referring to something different? Can you provide a youtube sample? Does this help at all?

Well, I suppose I can put in a word for Chibana Sensei, as my style comes from him. Our chamber would be closest to the "punch-style chamber" you mention, although it really tends to be more of a "bridge" than a "punch"

Well, if you're interested in Gojushiho, I prefer the Shidokan Shorin-Ryu version (even over the version I practice in the Shorinkan): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRMaXKtVy9Y Paiku should be relatively comfortable for you, as you're a Goju-Ryu stylist, and Ryuei-Ryu is a Naha-Te system, too. As a Shorin-Ryu guy, I have to plug Naihanchi, Passai, and Kusanku--they are the core of our system. Naihanchi is relatively consistent across most Shorin-Ryu styles, except for KishimotoDi. Passai and Kusanku have LOTS of versions, but most of them are good. I'm particularly partial to Tawada Passai and Chatan Yara Kusanku.

To the best of my knowledge, those techniques exist, in some form or another, in every karate style. They may call them something different, or do them slightly differently, but the general movement and idea is there. The trouble is that there are going to be lots of variations, so it's going to be hard to figure out exactly what you're looking for. If this is any help, "soto-uke" is "outside receiver," and "uchi-uke" is "inner receiver." The trouble is that some people name the technique based on the movement, and some name it based on the part of the body being used. If you're naming it after the movement, then "soto-uke" moves across the body toward the outside, and "uchi-uke" moves across the body toward the inside. If you're naming based on the part of the body, then that can be reversed, because "soto-uke" would use the outside of the arm, while "uchi-uke" would use the inside of the arm.

Well, there are many "minds" in grappling arts and in striking arts, so it's hard to say. Generally, grapplers wants to get in close, and strikers want to stay at a distance, so that can be pretty widely applied to your subject. For more specifics, you really have to consider how each school approaches their art. For example, I studied judo in two different dojo, and the mindset was quite different in each place, despite teaching the same art! Likewise, I've studied karate in two different styles/dojo, and visited many more, and the mindset is vastly different between all of them. For example, my first judo dojo taught very formal, precise judo--the kind you see in the demo videos from the first half of the 20th Century. They also spent every other class working newaza (groundwork). In my second judo dojo, they taught very dynamic, Olympic judo, with an emphasis on winning competitions, and in 2 years I was there for two classes where they did newaza practice. While both required you to get in close, and the emphasis was on throwing your opponent, after that the mindsets were totally different! At my first karate dojo, I developed strong basics and body mechanics, and learned to do long-range point sparring. At my current dojo, I've learned to explore the kata for practical self defense and fighting techniques, and I've learned how to apply karate up close and personal, and deal with an ugly fight. Those are two very different worlds.