Wastelander

It was actually a mawashi-geri, not a hiza-geri, but thank you! If you watch the full-length video of my fight, you'll see that people keep coming up and asking me questions, and I keep pointing to my foot. They were asking what I hit him with, because knees to the head were illegal. I knew I hit him with the bony part where the ankle and foot meet, but we were at such an angle that the spectators and cameras couldn't tell. Some people said it was a knee to the head, some saw that it was a kick, and some thought I dropped him with a kick to the body, depending on where they were watching from. It took a while before they finally went frame-by-frame through an alternate video camera that they saw what happened. In that video, if you break it down, you can see that when my foot makes contact, the shadow of his arm is on my calf, so my knee is clearly past his head.

Welcome to the forum!

First of all, welcome back to karate, and welcome to the forum! I'm guessing Pacific Sports is an Australian brand? I haven't heard of them, and have no experience with their gi. I can say, however, that I'm quite happy with my 16oz Ronin! Just don't bleach it, and it holds up well.

Your situation is certainly a frustrating one, but take heart in knowing that you became aware of a problem, and have taken steps to fix it! You may not have the same rank you once held, but you do still possess the knowledge and skills gained during that time. This is something you can really build on! I have to say, as part of Chibana's lineage through Nakazato Shugoro, I have seen some of the same things you have. Out of Chibana's senior students, there are huge differences in the knowledge they have passed on, and how they pass it on. That said, there are definitely people within every system who know and can teach you what you seek, and there are people within every system who do not, and cannot. Be glad you found someone who does and can!

For the most part, no one knows who created the older kata. Even some of the newer kata are in question. There has long been a legend that "Bushi" Matsumura created Passai, supposedly to record techniques for guarding the king. This cannot be true, however, because "Bushi" Tachimura was also a student of "Tode" Sakugawa, and said that he learned Passai from his teacher, along with Naihanchi and Kusanku. At this point, all we can say is that those three kata were taught, together, as far back as that. Before that, we don't know. I am familiar with Mr. Clayton's work, although I haven't read it, myself. Those I know who have read it found it to be interesting, but said that he bases his theories on legends rather than documented facts and historical evidence. I would have to read it to make my own judgement, of course.

Right now, I'm 6'1" tall and around 195lbs, with about 17% body fat. I can do 10 pull-ups without stopping, unweighted, and 5 or 6 with a 30lb vest. Of course, this varies day to day, but that's my average. Honestly, I urge you to not worry about the number on the scale, or even the body fat percentage. Your weight is not really an accurate reflection of how you look (or should feel about yourself), and unless you go to a professional facility with a water tank, any scale or sensor with a body fat option is going to have a fairly wide margin for error. If you are wanting to look more fit and muscular, go by how you look, not by numbers.

Happy birthday to KF! Congratulations and thanks to you, Patrick, for providing such a great forum!

Kata are changed for a great many reasons, but rarely to "get back to its roots," at least not on a large scale. Admittedly, in my system we do have the left hand (and thumb) wrapped around the outside of the right fist at the beginning. That said, other old/older versions of the kata hold the hands more like the "cupped hands" Buddhist meditative posture, and others hold them flat and open with the back of one hand in the palm of the other, like Naihanchi. Neither of those resembles holding a sword. For what it's worth, Funakoshi coined the Bassai name, and its associated kanji characters, because it sounded like the Okinawan name (Patsai/Passai) and had a poetic meaning. The Okinawans write Patsai/Passai in kana (パッサイ) which have no meanings except to represent sounds. This means that we actually have no idea what the kata was originally for, if we're trying to go by its name. It's certainly possible that the word "Passai" meant something in Uchinaguchi, but even the Okinawans who still speak it don't seem to know what it would have meant. It also could very well have been a name, like Kusanku. Unfortunately, unless someone discovers a lost text written by Sakugawa, we may never know. Looking at the kata from the perspective of a bodyguard is all well and good for expanding your approach, though.

Welcome to the forum, sultaanpk! I'm afraid there are many different "world championships" for karate, because there are many different styles, organizations, and rulesets. We would really need to know that information before we could work on figuring out dates.

I do think that practicing empty hand kata with weapons can certainly be an interesting and enlightening experience. Indeed, some weapons (tekko, tonfa, sai, etc.) are excellent force multipliers that can be used with the same techniques the kata is teaching empty handed. There are also occasional movements in kata that could possibly be seen as references to the use of a concealed weapon, such as a hairpin or small knife. That said, I've never been sold on the "empty hand kata are secretly weapons kata" idea. Even after the Japanese Satsuma conquered the Ryukyu islands in the 1600's, they left the Okinawan nobility to continue their role of policing and defending the islands. They also continued managing their trade and envoy ships traveling to and from China (which was the reason Japan largely left them alone), and they had to protect those ships from Wokou (pirates). We know that Okinawan weapons systems, including sword and spear systems, were passed down through Okinawan nobility and military for these purposes. They simply had no reason to hide weapons systems within empty hand kata, at least not beyond a quick "by the way, if you have a hairpin, you can stab them here" movement or two.

Honestly, from talking to non-martial-arts people, I've found that they generally don't even know there are different levels of black belt. Even if they see that someone is described as an "X Degree Black Belt," they don't understand what that means, or how it's any different from "black belt." What tends to catch people's eye more is how many black belts someone has, rather than how high a level of black belt they are. Of course, we all know that neither a high level black belt, nor a bunch of black belts, mean that someone is a good instructor. Calling an instructor's organization or teacher can help, somewhat, because you can at least confirm some information about training history, knowledge, etc. Even then, though, you have to trust other people whom you can't confirm the credibility of. The organization might have some actual documents that could help, but that will usually be in the form of certifications, or "hall of fame" entries. You can pay to have a background check done, if the organization/teacher doesn't do them, but that is limited to criminal history, and doesn't vouch for skill or knowledge. Competition records for the instructor and their students can be a good guide, if you're looking for competition, but that's about it. People really have to go on trust, for the most part.

I think it's a neat idea! Thanks! This is my Sensei, Richard Poage, competing at a recent tournament with Kusanku Dai: This is his Sensei, Eddie Bethea, competing with the same kata at a tournament about 15 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1KntGGXuSo His Sensei, Nakazato Shugoro, demonstrating the same kata for an event on Okinawa: His Sensei, Chibana Chosin, demonstrating the same kata for a student in his back yard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t4eKs8Qhno

Congratulations, and welcome to the forum!

When I started training in martial arts, I gave up a lot of the time I used to spend playing video games and watching anime/movies. There is some sacrifice of time away from my wife and our pets, but I've cut that time down since I first started, to try to balance things.

I've heard of the sword idea, before, but it doesn't fit with my kenjutsu experience, or my interpretation of kata. Granted, my kenjutsu experience was limited to about a year and a half of training, but it also doesn't look like the Jigen-Ryu I've seen, which is the sword style Matsumura supposedly practiced. On top of that, older versions of Passai don't hold the left hand up with the right fist--they hold hold it down by the elbow in meotode-gamae, which is a definitively empty hand fighting method. As far as the stacked-hands postures in kata, they can certainly look like drawing or sheathing a sword. That said, I don't really see that as something that necessarily adds value to the kata. We already have effective empty handed applications for that posture passed down by various masters. It isn't exactly a mystery. I suppose I see no reason to incorporate a sword technique when I have perfectly good empty hand applications.

Sounds like you lucked out! Congratulations on finding a new dojo to train at!

Haha, yes, my Sensei goes through a wide range of hairstyles throughout the course of the year. Right now, he has a 90's hairstyle. For a while, he had a samurai hairstyle with a topknot

We have had good experiences with KI International at my dojo. My Sensei got one of their higher end dogi, recently, and he really likes it--maybe even more than his (several) Shureido dogi. They don't last quite as long, but they are still pretty durable and comfortable, in addition to being cheaper.

The Pinan kata are certainly built out of techniques from Passai, Kusanku, and Chinto, but I'm in agreement with Mark B that the Pinan kata aren't necessary prerequisites for the older kata. Because they contain many similar movements, I do think they can make it easier to learn the older kata, but that's kind of grading on a curve. In the time it took the student to learn all five Pinan kata, they could have simply been refining the older kata to begin with. In the long term view, a student will become more proficient with the older kata sooner by not learning the Pinan kata first. Now, that isn't to say that the Pinan kata have no value. While I certainly prefer older kata, the Pinan series contains a lot of good fighting techniques. I just don't feel that they are required steps on the ladder. Instead, I feel like they are extra steps. My Sensei feels the same way, and if they weren't a requirement in our organization, we would probably have stopped teaching the Pinan kata, completely.

Congratulations, Heidi! This is a huge accomplishment, and we are all very glad to have your support here! Thank you!

In addition to what has already been mentioned; battle ropes, nigiri-game, and pull-ups on a gi. You will also see improved grip strength through barbell deadlifts, which have the added benefit of improving overall strength at the same time.

The only sites I regularly read and post on are KF, Iain Abernethy's forum, and Sherdog, unless you count Facebook groups. There are two of those which I regularly interact with, called Ryukyu Martial Arts (Research and General Discussion) and Ryukyu Martial Arts (Practical Applications and Training). I do jump into a few other sites on occasion, though, and I follow a great deal of blogs.

I agree that the stationary drill is technically an unnecessary step, and I often skip it. Really, this is for people transitioning from doing the head-on drills to doing more realistic drills. Instructors sometimes like to test student's uke-waza during solo practice by walking up and punching them, forcing them to block. The trouble is that they usually do this head-on, which reinforces the wrong idea to the student. The reason I show the angled version is more for the instructor's use than anything. If you incorporate realistic angles early on, already, then it's not much of an issue. As for drilling the footwork and body movement separately, we do that, as well. We work through a variety of stepping drills, and work them into different deflections and receptions, much as you describe. We are not so different

Welcome to the forum!

Very cool! Congratulations! My wife has, a few times, had me show her a few things. She doesn't actively train, though. It's usually just helping her hit pads or the heavy bag, or showing her some self defense techniques. Whatever she feels like doing. It doesn't happen very often, though, unfortunately.