Wastelander

I've made a makiwara, a kakiya/kakete-biki, several chi-ishi, some nigiri-ishi, a couple tetsutaba, and some padded weapons for sparring. Although it isn't technically necessary, I feel like at least making your own chi-ishi is almost a rite of passage for karateka, nowadays

I imagine you have probably damaged your rotator cuff, but that's only because some of what you describe is like what I have experienced with that injury. You should really get it checked out by a doctor--they may give you anti-inflammatories and a physical therapy regimen that can help.

Well, in an interview in 2012, he said he started training with the Machados "28 years ago," which would be 31 years ago, now. That means that, at the very least, he's been training since 1984, and he would have been 44 at the time.

I haven't, but my instructor has. He was given a Godan certificate several years ago by a man he highly respected, and did train with periodically, so he accepted the certificate and keeps it at home. He does not claim that rank, though, because he wasn't tested for it, and because it is for another style--albeit, one that he earned Shodan in before he switched to Shorin-Ryu. He just keeps it as a kind of momento from a mentor.

Congratulations!

Congratulations on your promotion! Unfortunately, none of us can really tell you why you didn't double grade, because we weren't there. Perhaps you did very well for a 9th kyu, but not quite well enough for 8th? Perhaps you simply haven't been training long enough to meet the requirement for 8th? Maybe you don't know the new material needed to test for 8th? Maybe the panel was tired and wanted to go home early? Who knows! In the end, it's not that important, so I wouldn't worry about it

Welcome to the forum, and welcome back to karate!

I'm in agreement with Wado Heretic--the first two seasons were great, but it seems to have gone a bit downhill. That said, my Sensei's girlfriend managed Master Ken's tours for a while, and we like him anyway

As with a lot of the terminology of karate, different people prefer different names for the same thing (uchi-uke vs. soto-uke, anyone?). It is, admittedly, a bit harder in this case, because I have no idea what the word "tou" translates to! As far as I can tell, it's an Uchinaguchi word, not a Japanese one. It seems, to me, that "tou" is a catch-all category for impact training tools that are post-like and attached to the ground. I have seen the word "tou" used to describe bamboo bundles, solid wooden posts, split wooden posts, and wooden posts with arms. The word "taketaba" literally means "bamboo bundle," and is technically the most appropriate term for that tool. "Ude-kitae" seems to almost exclusively be used to describe a solid wooden post with no arms, but I have also seen it used to describe the bamboo bundles. "Ude-makiwara" is generally used to describe wooden posts that have been split several times down the middle to add flex, and these also do not have any arms. It is fairly rare that I hear someone call a solid wooden post with arms anything other than a "tou," although it does occasionally happen.

I'm not that big into podcasts, honestly, but I do follow Iain Abernethy's podcast, which I highly recommend. A couple of my karate friends also have podcasts--KversusJ and Chop Talk.

I've used a mook jong (Wing Chun dummy) in the past, but I didn't like it very much. I haven't used a sagi-makiwara, except for when I use a smaller heavy bag as one, and that's not exactly the same. I would like one, but just haven't gotten around to making one. I will say that karate does have two types of traditional training dummies, that I'm aware of, but they've largely fallen out of use. The first is the tou, which is a solid round post that usually has one arm, but sometimes more (like a mook jong), and often they have various types of padding added to strike. These are two examples of tou from Garry Lever Sensei's dojo. The first is a very simple one--just a rope-wrapped post with one arm and a tire for kicking/sweeping. The second is fancier, and features moveable arms made of spa tubing so they can be bent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTw_qfIMJbY The other type of traditional karate training dummy is the kakiya, or kakete-biki. It is also a round post with some type of padding (usually), but it features an arm on a hinge that can be moved up and down, and sometimes slightly side-to-side. That arm was traditionally weighted down with stones, to give it resistance, but these days people tend to use springs or bungee cords. This article from Chris Denwood Sensei discusses this type of training dummy: https://www.chrisdenwood.com/blog/kakiya-the-okinawan-wooden-man

I don't disagree that karate, as a whole, could stand to have more contact. We have run into an awful lot of people at karate tournaments who simply can't handle being hit, at all--even at intermediate and advanced levels. This gets interesting, because we train with a medium level of contact, and people at tournaments notice the difference. My Sensei has been asked, on numerous occasions, if we train full-contact. We don't, but we certainly train with harder contact than the average school at these competitions. Some people want to learn martial arts for the art of it, and for the health benefits, but not the martial part. I would like to think that everyone can benefit from martial arts, even if they don't want to fight. If they insist on no contact, or only very light contact, then they will be limited in what they can learn, but that doesn't mean that they can't benefit from it at all.

I don't use a speedbag, but I certainly use heavy bags--I'm partial to the 6ft 150lb Muay Thai bags, myself. That allows me to work strikes all along the height of a human body, and the weight gives good feedback, although I wouldn't mind it being a bit heavier. As far as workouts go, I mix it up. Sometimes, I just work stationary kihon-waza on the bag. Sometimes, I work techniques from kata on the bag. Sometimes I work sparring combinations on the bag. Sometimes, I tie a belt to the bag and work in joint locks. Sometimes I take the bag down and work sweeps, throws, and ground-and-pound with it. Just depends what I feel like working on at the time!

Nishiuchi Sensei has a few videos on YouTube that are pretty good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg_ILTyfjyc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDA5kacuvRc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6QbRgi4wO8

Grabs? joint locks? Low kicks? Why doesn't anyone do tournaments like that!?!?! Well, knockdown styles allow low kicks, and some allow limited grabbing. Then there's Daido Juku, which is basically MMA in a gi with headgear. Those kinds of tournaments are just not very popular here in the US, at least from what I've seen. I suppose part of it could simply be that people don't like that level of contact, but I don't think that's the whole story. The types of tournaments we mostly see, today, are evolutions of the sport fighting that the Japanese (largely Shotokan) karate styles did when karate was being spread to America. It was what people recognized, so that is what became popular. The knockdown styles came later, after that was already established, and MMA came even later than that. Now, joint locks are a bit tricky, because it's just difficult to do standing joint locks without injuring your opponent. You can see some of it in the pushing hands competitions of Chen Tai Chi, along with a variety of throws and sweeps. Honestly, I would really like to put together a kakedameshi competition, which would be something like those pushing hands competitions, but with striking and kicking allowed. I rather doubt I would get much participation, though.

I used a bit of a mid-length stance, because my opponent was a wrestler and I didn't want to be too high. That said, the adrenaline dump I experienced really messed up my depth perception, and I got hit and taken down, and then punched a lot--I didn't do much striking, at all. I only landed three strikes in that fight; a leg kick that just barely caught him with the toes, a short shot behind the ear on the ground, and the roundhouse kick to the head that knocked him out. I certainly had plans to hit with fast, relaxed strikes, rather than go for power, but it didn't work out that way.

I believe that, aside from the sword and stick methods (I believe walking stick fighting was very common in Ireland), martial arts from that area tended to be rather like Pankration--sort of a boxing/wrestling hybrid with a few submission holds, but with only a little kicking. I could certainly be wrong, but even so, that seems like a fairly reasonable guess for most regions. Looking at old illustrations of fighting from all over the world, from Egypt to Greece to China, much of the same material appears over and over. I suppose you could take a bit of a kali approach with the stick methods, though, and make it so that the same movements work for the stick and the empty hands.

Well, I can say that MMA gloves are firmer and smaller, and in comparison to boxing gloves, I would say that MMA gloves feel like a *thud* while boxing gloves feel like a *thump*, if that makes any sense? The amount of force transferred is almost the same, from the measurements I've seen, although it feels different. Of course, the adrenaline dump in competition meant that I didn't really feel the punches in my MMA fight all that much--they just felt like sudden pressure, really. I didn't get knocked out in my fight, but I did get hit a lot, and saw stars. I did knock out my opponent, but it was with a single strike, and from what I understand, you don't really notice being knocked out. You just suddenly wake up on the floor. I can say that being knocked around and dazed is kind of sickening, but not really all that painful during the fight (again, adrenaline). As far as fighting style goes, don't let your build keep you from fighting like a Shotokan guy. If that's the way you want to fight, you might be able to make it happen, if you work at it.

Of course not--I'm the last person to steer someone away from old-school Okinawan karate!

Exactly. Competitive sport karate is a very specialized thing--especially when it's point kumite. It is modeled after kendo competition, and designed to be done at very long distance, with an emphasis on speed, clean engagement/disengagement, and the "one strike, one kill" concept that was adopted from Japanese swordsmanship (the same one you find in judo, in the form of the ippon). In contrast, old-school karate is actually a rather close-range system of fighting, and involves a lot of grabbing, low kicking, and joint locks, which aren't usually allowed in point kumite, and even if they were, they kind of require a fight to last beyond a single blow, which doesn't happen in point kumite because they reset after each landed blow. To be successful, you have to train specifically for that long range and speed, and to use only scoring techniques, but some of the skills you develop through old-school karate can certainly translate into the sport realm. It has some definite value in helping you develop the ability to close the gap between you and an attacker, and picking up body language and telegraphed attacks. Outside of that, though, there is much more to learn in the old methods, which provide a lifetime of study. I also happen to believe that the old methods are better for self defense, if trained properly.

I started training in Shuri-Ryu in 2006 at the age of 18, and continued for the next 4 years, although the last 2 years were entirely at home, because I had moved out of state. I can still perform most of the kata I learned in Shuri-Ryu, although I've altered some. I don't remember most of the partner drills. I started in Shorin-Ryu (Kobayashi) in 2010, and I have been training in it ever since, having earned my black belt last summer. During the two years I was practicing my Shuri-Ryu at home, I did a lot of studying and research online and in books, and discovered that Shuri-Ryu didn't really have what I was looking for. I started looking around and found my current dojo, and I saw the kind of karate I was looking for, so I made the jump I started learning a little KishimotoDi in 2014, through discussions and video exchanges online with one of the few instructors of that rare system. He flew out here for a few weeks to teach at our dojo, and during that time he gave me corrections and taught kata and applications. We still have discussions and video exchanges that are quite helpful, and I still practice those kata and applications. The next time he comes out, I'm supposed to learn the next kata in the system. After that, there is only one kata left.

I like it quite a bit, and do some conditioning to allow me to use it. I started off just hitting a maize bag with it, and tapping it on solid surfaces throughout the day. I've also added hitting my wallet, which works well as a conditioning tool for small-surface strikes, and sometimes I do planks or push-ups on Phoenix eye fists, as well.

Ah, right. Kenshin-kan is Kise Fusei Sensei's system, is it not? Yes, that wouldn't really be geared toward tournaments, from what I've seen. Even so, it wouldn't hurt to ask the Sensei at your dojo about it, because a lot of instructors have varied backgrounds, and they may be able to help prepare for a tournament, anyway. If not, then yes, it may be beneficial to find a local dojo that does tournament-specific classes, and ask to come to those every now and then. I would say your son probably won't be as good at it as the people who constantly train for it, but his training will have more depth.

Welcome to the forum!

Well, I found these listings: https://texaskaratedo.wordpress.com/events/ I don't know if there is a regular circuit in your area, but there do seem to be plenty of tournaments in Texas, generally. The vast majority of karate tournaments will have both kumite and kata, so you don't need to try to find kumite-specific tournaments. As far as organizations go, I'm familiar with WKF, USKA, ISSKA, USANKF, all of which (except USKA) have events in that listing. If you're ever curious about the organization an event is part of, you can always contact the people running the event and ask them.