Wastelander

While it is certainly important, we generally consider hojo undo (supplementary training) to be something students should do on their own time. Class is for learning material and working with partners, and the more time you spend exercising, the less time you spend training. In the kids' and family classes, we do spend 5-10 minutes on it, because kids aren't very good at taking it upon themselves to stay fit and strong. The teen and adult classes very rarely include any supplemental fitness/strength work, except when Sensei is teaching how to use some kind of equipment, or how to do some particular exercise. Every now and then, we will do a 15-20 minute workout just because Sensei feels like we need it, but it's very rare.

The belt washing one really gets to me--I actually made a "how to wash your belt" video on YouTube for that reason! Another M&M that gets me is "karate was developed by farmers to defend against samurai."

Our dojo is about 6400 square feet, total, but that includes office space, a couple massage rooms, a storage/weight room, and the front lobby area. We have two narrow rooms with hardwood floors that we run smaller classes in when the main mat area is in use. The main mat is about 1200 square feet, arranged in an L shape. I'm not sure how large the room, itself, is.

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I would have told them that, yes, I am creating an army of tiny, blood-thirsty monsters. You can see two of my most ferocious creations here (if you're logged into Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=918109418234459 In all seriousness, violence is an intent as much as it is an action. When we teach kids martial arts, we teach how to do violent things, but we do not teach the intent to BE violent. In fact, it is by going through hardships and pain in training that they learn humility and restraint.

Well, I don't do Wado-Ryu, so my input may not be worth anything to you on the subject. I will say that my old style teaches Enpi, which is a variation of this kata, and they taught that technique as evading and deflecting a punch as you strike a pressure point on the opponent's thigh. I don't like it, personally, because you could go for better targets, but I suppose it does technically work. My preference would be to use it as an armbar. Your hands come together, first, in such a way that they could be initiating the lock. While the right arm thrusts downward, the left hand appears to touch the right arm just above the elbow, which could indicate where your right hand is supposed to be on your opponent. The stance shift helps drive the opponent to the floor.

YMAA publishes some good content, and some less-than-good content, on DVD. These days, though, I think most people are making their own videos to sell. It's easy enough to do, with technology the way it is. I know that Paul Enfield Sensei's Goju-Ryu DVD's are great, for example, and he records them at his dojo, himself, and sells them on his dojo website.

We have a couple of left handers in our dojo, and it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. The only time you even notice is when you have them attack in self defense drills, and they throw a left punch where most people throw a right. Conveniently, most of our techniques work either way.

I take it you train with Victor Smith Sensei? Or one of his students? I've never met him, personally, but I have followed his blog for years, and am connected with him on Facebook. He has always been an open, sharing, passionate karateka, in my experience. It doesn't surprise me, at all, that he uses video to help his students . I will say that I'm certainly not qualified to comment on the mechanics of Isshin-Ryu. From my perspective, it always looks a bit strange--not "wrong," or "bad," of course, but different in a way that I can't quite place. One thing I will say is that it seemed like in some sequences you were generating power more efficiently than others. That is to say, you know how to do it, but it isn't showing up in every sequence. Now, that may be the way the kata is supposed to be done, so my comments on that may be irrelevant. As for the re-gripping, I'm in complete agreement with sensei8. It's a totally natural thing to do, and will be something you'll make more subtle over time. Check out the videos on YouTube of most old Okinawan masters, and you'll see it, if you really look for it. I definitely recommend shortening the gi sleeves and pant legs, but I tend to prefer the old-school Okinawan cut (long jacket, short sleeves/legs). I find that longer sleeves and legs tend to hide parts of movement that can be useful to see. They also exaggerate motion, because they keep moving after the limbs have stopped. All of that is fine for tournaments, of course, but for analyzing your kata on video, it can make things hard to see. And, of course, it's just more practical for training, as you already know, since you roll them up for training .

I have a central nervous system issue that causes something like that. My situation is highly unusual, though, so I wouldn't expect you to be experiencing the same thing. I would definitely recommend getting a workup done by your doctor, though--you could have a hormone imbalance, or a nutritional deficiency, or something like that. If your health checks out, then I would say you may want to start a HIIT (high intensity interval training) regimen. Start out with something short, and work to progressively increase the length of the session. This is probably the most efficient form of exercise for overall fitness, and helps your body deal with relatively short bursts of exertion (kata, drills, etc), as well as building endurance.

I know some people who have had success collecting old t-shirts from garage sales and thrift stores that are too stained or torn for them to sell, and cutting them up to fill bags. As for how to hit the bag--hit it the way you train, and it will help teach you how to hit better, if you pay attention.

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It sounds to me like you have been locking your elbow while doing air-punching (kihon and kata), and have managed to damage the joint. You should never fully extend your arm to the point where the joint cannot flex any further when you are punching the air, for that reason. That said, I'm not a doctor--I highly recommend you go see an orthopedic surgeon and have them check it out.

Thanks, everyone! Wado_Heretic - I specifically wanted to start off with something plausible(ish), before getting into the really crazy stuff. If you look at the other Waza Wednesday videos on our dojo YouTube Channel, you will see that I followed pretty much the exact same format. As for the people who got mad--they seemed to think we were making fun of Aikido, for some reason.

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Lol, I'm glad you all enjoyed it! I've only had two people (that I know of) get mad about it, so far

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Everything in the video was intentional, from the location of the poke, to the use of a fan to make the hakama flutter, to the black dragon totem at the end . Thanks!

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For those who don't know, my Sensei and I have been putting up a "Waza Wednesday" video every week, to show some of what we do at our dojo. This week, we have a very special "secret techniques" episode to share with you, that shows some ki-jutsu (energy skill) techniques. We hope you enjoy it, and train wisely!

If it makes you feel any better, my shodan test cost $140. Our organization requires $100 per dan rank you are testing for, if you want to be recognized by the organization. I think this is to make up for the fact that they don't charge any membership dues, and dojo dues are very cheap. Getting a nice certificate written up by the head of our style is $40, but your rank would be recognized without it, so it isn't a necessary thing. My Sensei ate the cost of the embroidered Shureido belt he got for me.

I think those are lovely symbolic interpretations, but I stopped valuing such interpretations about 7 years ago. Usually, the people who told me those kinds of interpretations seemed to use them for movements they couldn't explain from a practical standpoint. I have since learned practical combative applications for them, so I feel no desire to fill in gaps with pretty imagery. All that said, I do think that, sometimes, the initial and final hand position in kata can be symbolic. Usually, your hands are in some form of "hands-ready position" (http://cryptome.org/info/usss-hands/usss-hands.htm) at the beginning and end of kata. This provides you a useful, practical starting point. Some people have been known to use Buddhist hand positions for this, as well. This also fits with Chibana Chosin's teachings; "There is no kamae in a karate kata, except for the beginning and end of the kata. Everything else is transition and application.

For what it's worth, most versions of Kusanku that I have seen which feature leg techniques in that sequence of the kata use the nami-gaeshi movements found in Naihanchi Shodan. This is the only one I've seen where the heels come up behind like that. Just some food for thought--I find that looking at other versions of a kata can help improve my understanding of the possible applications of the kata.

That's an interesting point that many people have brought up about Kusanku over time, and they think it means it is meant to teach fighting at night. If I remember correctly, Shimabukuro Eizo Sensei (the brother of the founder of Isshin-ryu) used to say that, too, but there was a bit of miscommunication that he had to clear up. I think it was Bill Hayes Sensei who said that Shimabukuro had to clarify it to him by saying, "No, no! Not FOR fighting at night. LIKE fighting at night!"

For Shorin-Ryu, we have a "holy trinity" of kata, so to speak--Naihanchi, Passai, and Kusanku. The Naihanchi kata provide the foundation of our style, Passai builds upon that, and Kusanku builds upon that. Here is the founder of our style performing Kusanku Dai, as it was passed down to him from Chibana Chosin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2InmORSoo0 Personally, I don't enjoy performing Kusanku (Sho or Dai). It doesn't feel right for me, the way Naihanchi and Passai do. Even so, it's an important part of the system I practice. From an application perspective, I like to keep in mind that the Kusanku kata is a codified system of fighting that represents the methods of Kusanku, the man. According to the Oshima Note, he specialized in grappling techniques.