Wastelander

Haisai, everyone! I'm curious to hear about your experiences with, and opinions on, karate organizations that you've been involved with, or looked into being involved with in the past. There are probably thousands of organizations out there, from competition-based organizations like the USKA and WKF, to style-specific organizations like the JKA and JKF, to style-agnostic organizations like the World Combat Association. These organizations almost always cost money to be a part of, like to have varying degrees of control over your curriculum and training methods, and sometimes even dictate your business practices. Essentially, I'm curious to hear the pros and cons from different peoples' points of view. From my own experiences, off the top of my head, I have this. Pros: Rank/instructor certification and validation as quality control Training and educational opportunities Propagation of consistent competition rulesets Cons: Political machinations and scheming High rank trading between friends Too controlling of curriculum or training methods Too expensive to be a member High testing/certification fees

And many people inside, as can be seen here in this thread. If they "don't care about rank," why did they wait until after making shodan first before deciding that? I can see not wanting to make a grade that requires greater involvement than showing up to train x number of days per week like everybody else. But staying a shodan for life in order to show off fake humility does the exact opposite of that. Personally, I made the decision that I didn't care about rank as a brown belt, rather than after Shodan. I spent 6 years as a brown belt, and I had no complaints, because my late Sensei had no problem teaching you if you wanted to learn, regardless of rank. He did eventually insist I test, so I did, but mainly only because I love teaching, and I know that people want instructors to have a black belt. I think it's less about humility and more about a lack of interest in the testing process. I was more interested in training than testing--sort of like I have no interest in competition. I also see the value, though, so if someone I respect wants me to give it a go, I will. It's just not something I seek out, myself.

If we're looking at this from the perspective of complete beginners, rather than people with an understanding of martial arts, I think credibility is honestly almost impossible for them to discern. All most untrained people looking for training know is that the instructor should be a black belt, and they'll generally assume that the longer that person has been training, the better, and if they're part of an organization, they must be legit. Of course, we know that anyone can buy a black belt, print a certificate, or make outrageous claims about their training history. There are also plenty of organizations that are nothing but belt mills, and anyone can create an organization. Most untrained people won't look into any of it--they will simply accept what the instructor says, especially if there are certificates and trophies up on the walls. The easiest things that an untrained person can go on with any real reliability with regard to an instructor's credibility are reviews from their students. Of course, online reviews can be fluffed up, but it's at least something where they can get the direct feedback from others as to whether the instructor is a good person to train under or not. They could also have a background check run, but that costs money, and most people aren't going to go out of their way to do that. They could also call up any supposed organizations or previous instructors of the instructor in question to try to verify their legitimacy, but that takes time and effort that most people aren't going to go through.

It does depend on what you're doing it for. If you just enjoy memorizing new kata, go for it. If you want to use it in a tournament, go for it. If you're looking to actually LEARN the kata and its material, especially if you want to teach it, you NEED direct feedback from an instructor, and you usually can't get that from videos or most online programs.

With this being your introduction, what do you think? Something you'd like to explore more, or not your cup of tea? Do you have questions about it? Looks like it has practical applications. Seems kind of interesting, based on what little I know I would likely enjoy trying it. I certainly encourage you to start playing with it, and I'd be curious to see how you feel as you develop that skill.

With this being your introduction, what do you think? Something you'd like to explore more, or not your cup of tea? Do you have questions about it?

This Okinawan martial concept can be translated as "sticky hands," "heavy hands," or "springy hands," depending on the context, which makes it a little difficult to pin down for those who aren't familiar, but it's based of of mochi--a pounded rice foodstuff that is somehow all three things at once. I'm curious as to how many of you incorporate muchimidi into your training, and how you do it? If you practice muchimidi, do you use any specific drills, exercises, or training tools? Is it just part of your kata application? I'd love to know! To give some examples from my own training: Solo drills using a kakiya/kakete-biki - Muchimidi as part of a lock flow drill - Partner drills based on kihon -

Required? No. Recommended? Yes! I have a fairely extensive list: Karate 1.0 by Andreas Quast Karate Uchina-Di by Itzik Cohen The Study of China Hand Techniques by Itoman Morinobu An Overview of Karatedo by Nakasone Genwa Okinawa Traditional Old Martial Arts: Kobudo, Karate by Nakamoto Masahiro Okinawa: The History of an Island People by George Kerr The Bubishi by Patrick McCarthy Ancient Okinawan Martial Arts: Koryu Uchinadi by Patrick McCarthy History and Traditions of Okinawan Karate by Hokama Tetsuhiro Okinawa’s Great Masters by Nagamine Shoshin The Essence of Okinawan Karate-Do by Nagamine Shoshin Okinawan Karate by Mark Bishop Zen Kobudo by Mark Bishop Bunkai Jutsu by Iain Abernethy The Way of Kata by Lawrence Kane and Kris WIlder My Journey with the Grandmaster by William Hayes The Essence of Goju-Ryu by Garry Lever and Richard Barrett Unante by John Sells Ryu-Te no Michi by Seiyu Oyata The Secret Royal Martial Arts Of Ryukyu by Kanenori Sakon Matsuo Naihanchi (Tekki) Kata: The Seed of Shuri Karate by Chris Denwood Okinawan Kempo: Karate-Jutsu on Kumite by Motobu Choki The Art of Hojo Undo by Mike Clarke Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts by Donn Draeger and Robert Smith Tales from the Western Generation by Matthew Apsokardu

I've never had an issue with just drinking water, honestly. Sometimes I'll have tea, but that's usually it. On the rare occasion I feel like I need a hydration boost, I'll usually go for Vitaminwater Zero--typically the Rise flavor, which is reminiscent of orange juice, but without the bite. My wife likes the Liquid IV water additives, though.

Welcome to the forum!

Studies have shown that personal rituals can have beneficial impacts on a person's mental wellbeing, as well as their performance in tasks they associate with the ritual. The example I remember from one study was putting on a suit and nice watch before giving a presentation, and it makes me think of putting on a keikogi and belt before training. While most of my solo training is done in street clothes, I do feel that my karate is better when I "suit up," lol. As for my own routine, I'm honestly not a very routine person. I tend to do things on whims instead of plans (which drives my wife nuts). Over the course of my day, I will run kata, at random, when I feel like it. I will stop by the kakiya and drill whatever comes to mind. I will hit a bag or makiwara as I pass by, and sometimes stop for a while to work them. I will pick up a chi-ishi or ishi-sashi and do a few exercises when I see them. I find that this approach breaks up the monotony of the day, and keeps me in a more positive mental state. When I set aside dedicated training time, I will generally warm up with some junbi undo, then work with the chi-ishi, ishi-sashi, or other weights, before running kata. Again, I hardly ever plan to work something specific, so it might be running all of the kata I practice, or it might be spending an hour on one kata. After that, I'll usually hit the bag or makiwara for a while as a cool-down. In a sense, it's a routine because it has a consistent pattern, even though the activities in the pattern change every time.

Welcome to the forum!

While I do tend to believe you can derive multiple practical applications for any posture or movement in kata, to include the Taikyoku series, I just don't like to double my work, if that makes sense? Here's an analogy: Children learn to draw shapes before they learn to write letters, because knowing their shapes makes it easier to learn how to write letters, which they will later use to write sentences. The Taikyoku kata were purpose-built to be the "drawing shapes" phase of learning. Those shapes are absolutely all in the alphabet, and while you COULD attempt to write sentences with just base shapes, it would be missing a lot of material. The material in the Pinan/Heian series, on the other hand, is part of the alphabet, and is built to be used, like letters in a sentence.

My late Sensei was working on putting together a program for this, actually, but he obviously passed away before it was ready. He had trained with FBI instructors and DEA agents, in addition to his diverse martial arts background, and spent a lot of time studying these sorts of scenarios. He and I discussed the tactics and techniques for such a thing, but it's certainly rare in a country where, unfortunately, it is sorely needed.

I no longer practice those kata, so I don't have any of my own content to really help you out, but I can say that they can be pretty directly compared to Pinan Nidan (Heian Shodan), and if you search for videos of application for those kata, you can get some ideas. I would say that the Taikyoku kata really only consist of two sequences, each. One is performing an uke-waza, followed by a strike, to each side, followed by a spin. The other is performing uke-waza or strikes in sequences of 3 straight forward or to the rear. If you look at them in this way, there isn't a lot you need to work out. If you assume that the attacker is in front of you, then the first sequence is telling you to get to the side of them as you perform the uke-waza, then seize control of their attacking limb to follow up with a strike, and if need be, grab them and spin them around--preferably to the ground. The second sequence is telling you that if you fail to get to the side, you should still apply the uke-waza, but then drive the opponent back with the forward pressure of your techniques, and the kata has you practice them in a series of 3 so that you work the transition from right to left, and left to right. Of course, there are many more ways to look at kata application, and you could certainly derive many more than what I've suggested here. This is really just a starting point.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

I found that the MMA club at ASU had both fun and difficulty with hikite--they kept wanting to grab punches out of the air instead of taking the initiative, but once they got the hang of it, they saw a lot of value in it.

I typically try to stick with a theme, as a few others have mentioned, so that there is a lot of crossover, even if we aren't necessarily working on the exact same thing all the time. I start classes with the same warm-ups every time, for the most part, and occasionally add a couple extra exercises if I feel it would benefit everyone going forward in that session. After that is hojo undo, which changes from day-to-day, but is usually some combination of two or three hojo undo kigu. After that we run through the solo kata--for beginners, we can do all of them, but for advanced, we can stick to just the ones we are going to pull from that day. All of that typically takes the first 30 minutes or so of my 90 minute classes. The rest of the time is partner work, from platform drills like kakie and parry-pass to bully sparring and kakedameshi. The vast majority of that partner work is focused on training to apply the movements and postures of the kata from various positions, points of contact, and directions of movement, as well as in response to different stimuli. That means that even though we might be working totally different drills each session, we are working a lot of the same material within those drills, so students get "repetition by stealth," as Iain Abernethy likes to put it. For example, let's say we're going to work on applying the "stacked hands" position in Naihanchi Shodan as an armbar. We could just practice that over and over again in a static manner until everyone has it, or we can work it into a variety of drills that give it context, and which we can build on to add resistance. We can work that armbar from kakie so the student develops tactile sensitivity in response to a clash of arms. We can work it from parry-pass so they can develop the hand speed necessary to capture the opponent's arms when they are moving quickly. We can work it from block-pass-check (hubud lubud) to give more variety to the entries available. We can work it from padwork whenever the padholder extends an arm. We can work it off of a strangle attempt, or a headlock. We can work it from bully sparring so they have to learn to apply it under constant forward pressure. We can work it from kakedameshi to really drive home the close-range fighting skills needed to apply it. We can work it from MMA-style sparring so they can learn how to do it when the opponent is skilled in a wide array of fighting methods. We can work it from groundwork so they learn how the mechanics change in that situation. We can work it from self-defense scenario drills, so they can learn how and when to apply it when someone is acting out pre-attack indicators and behaviors. The list goes on and on.

I haven't taught at an MMA gym on any regular basis, but I did recently teach a session for a university MMA club, which went great. I do think that practical, classical karate fits quite well into MMA training.

I think it's interesting to see the fairly consistent use of flow drills in grappling arts, but not striking arts, and not much in karate, because (for me) karate is very much an art that integrates striking and grappling. I've definitely done my fair share of flow drills in Judo, and even joint lock flow drills in karate, but the majority of the flow drills that I've worked have been combinations of grappling and striking--of course, they are generally based on kata, so that makes sense. While I definitely find value in flow drills, I've also seen some common issues with flow drills I've seen in use: [list=] Flowing without considering the feasibility of transitionFlowing without considering the opponent Training to be good at the drill Flowing without considering the feasibility of transition is common in a lot of the joint lock flow drills that I've seen. Often, the drills are structured simply to teach students a collection of locks they need to know at a given level in the curriculum, and it doesn't really matter that it wouldn't make sense to transition from one lock to the next, or that it's very difficult to change the grip or direction of pressure that the drill requires. This, IMO, leads to impractical drills that don't teach much beyond memorization. Flowing without considering the opponent often ties in with the previous point. Not only should a flow drill be designed around transitions that make sense, but they should also consider how the opponent might react and resist. I often see both lock flows and striking flows that suffer from this--the opponent just stands there and lets you do the drill. To be an effective drill, IMO, it needs to at least train to expect common forms of resistance and continued attacks. Of course, they can't account for every possibility, but that's what "breaking the drill" is for. Training to be good at the drill plagues most flow drills, in my experience. People want to memorize the drill, and get to where they can do it quickly, smoothly, and without thought. The trouble with this is that they have trained into themselves an expectation that it is always going to go exactly the way they want, and the moment something throws them off, they get hung up on it. I'm curious as to whether you all have seen these sorts of issues, and how you address them?

Hello, everyone! I'm curious to know how you all feel about flow drills? If you use flow drills, are they ones you were taught, or have you created your own? How are they structured? I think it would be an interesting discussion to have on how everyone utilizes this type of training.

For the purposes of this project, I'm going to include kata that I no longer practice. I'm going to include, in parentheses, who the kata were either known to have been created by, or as suspected to have been created by, as best I can recall off the top of my head (all my books are currently in storage, or I would reference them). Some of the translations may be iffy, as we don't have kanji for all of the kata names, because they were written in katakana for Uchinaaguchi, and the translations are no longer certain. Nakazato-Lineage Shorin-Ryu (Kobayashi-Ryu): Kihon Ippon/Nihon/Sanbon - Basic #1/2/3 (Chibana Chosin) Fukyu no Kata - Form of Fundamentals (Nakazato Shugoro) Naihanchi Shodan - Close Inside Fighting Level One ("Tode" Sakugawa) Naihanchi Nidan - Close Inside Fighting Level Two ("Bushi" Matsumura) Naihanchi Sandan - Close Inside Fighting Level Three ("Anko" Itosu) Pinan Shodan/Nidan/Sandan/Yondan/Godan - Peaceful Mind/Safe From Harm Level 1/2/3/4/5 ("Anko" Itosu) Passai Sho (Itosu Passai) - Lesser Fortress Storming ("Anko" Itosu) Passai Dai (Tawada/Matsumura Passai) - Greater Fortress Storming (Tawada Shinkazu or "Bushi" Matsumura) Kusanku Sho (Itosu Kusanku) - Lesser Public Official ("Anko" Itosu) Kusanku Dai - Greater Public Official (Chatan Yara or "Tode" Sakugawa) Chinto - Eastern Town ("Bushi" Matsumura) Gojushiho (Useishi) - 54 Steps (China via "Bushi" Matsumura) Gorin - 5 Rings (Nakazato Shugoro) Higa-Lineage Kishimoto-Ha Shuri-Te (KishimotoDi): Tachimura no Naihanchi - Tachimura's Close Inside Fighting ("Tode" Sakugawa) Nidanbu - Second Level Martial Skill (Kishimoto Soko) Tachimura no Passai - Tachimura's Fortress Storming ("Tode" Sakugawa) Tachimura no Kusanku - Tachimura's Public Official ("Tode" Sakugawa) Walker-Lineage Shuri-Ryu: Taikyoku Ichi/Ni/San - Taiji 1/2/3 ("Gigo" Funakoshi) Wansu - Prince/Dragon Boy Dumping (Wang Ji or Go Kenki) Anaku - Light from the South (Kyan Chotoku) Naihanchi Sho - First Close Inside Fighting/Missing Enemy ("Tode" Sakugawa) Empi Sho - First Flying Swallow (Wang Ji or Go Kenki) Seiyunchin - Pulling Battle (Higashionna Kanryo) There are more kata in Shuri-Ryu than I learned, so I'm not going to delve into those, but I hope this helps!

I don't think that traditional martial arts are dead, or even dying, but they are absolutely undergoing a divergence, and I think that we have reached a point where some approaches to the arts simply don't qualify as traditional/classical martial arts, anymore. Some are emphasizing aesthetic over all else. They may have fine looking kata, but no purpose or intent behind their movements. Some are emphasizing victory in competition over all else, and losing all of the curriculum that doesn't directly support that. Depending on the competition they train for, some aspects may be incredibly sloppy, or simply not present, at all. Some are emphasizing the discipline and personal development aspects of the arts, and remove the practical aspects, which often removes the functional intent and allows for form to suffer. Some are still trying to pass on the arts with practical functionality as the goal. In some cases, this will result in somewhat ugly performances, but the fundamental structures and mechanics should be sound, otherwise the movements and postures would not be able to work.

Technically, that's not accurate. The vast majority of Shuri-Te-based systems do practice Naihanchi/Tekki and Pinan/Heian, but there are some that do not--some branches of Matsumura Seito, Kojo-Ryu, and KishimotoDi, for example, don't practice the Pinan/Heian kata. Additionally, Naha-Te-based systems, like Goju-Ryu, To'on-Ryu, and Uechi-Ryu, don't practice them. If we want to talk about the most widely-practiced foundational kata across all styles of karate, the answer is actually Seisan--this is the one kata found in more styles than any other, statistically. Of course, I happen to practice two systems that DON'T practice it, so I get to be an outlier in that statistic. Naihanchi, Sanchin, and Gekisai are the other top most-practiced kata, and the Pinan/Heian series falls after those.