Wastelander

For whatever reason, my washing machine eats dogi on any cycle. It's very strange. One thing I can recommend is to keep bleach away from your gi! I had always used hydrogen peroxide to treat blood stains, but one time I was out and tried using bleach. Bleach weakens natural fibers, so that was the next spot my washing machine decided to destroy. Now I have a hole in my gi.

Congratulations!

In addition to Jesse Enkamp's list, shared by RAM18, I like Ryan Parker's list: http://ryukyuma.blogspot.com/2012/01/old-style-karate-top-12-ways-it-differs.html These are all general differences between Okinawan karate and Japanese karate. To get more specific to Okinawan Goju vs. Japanese Goju, you would really have to ask a Goju-Ryu person, so I'm not much help, there.

Welcome back!

Since Patrick is out at SXSW right now, I wanted to wish you a happy birthday in his absence, and thank you for everything you do here at KF!

I've read bits and pieces of it, but I'm more of a karate guy than a kobudo guy, so it's not really my thing. We do have a very extensive list of recommended literature, including books on Okinawan arts, here: http://www.karateforums.com/martial-arts-research-library-vt8082.html

I can't really speak to how well it fits the intentions of the kata, since that isn't a kata that is part of my system. The whole "jumping to get back to where you started" could legitimately be why those jumps are in that kata, but there are other ways they could have adjusted the kata to make that happen without adding the jumps. Iain's application certainly seems reasonable, to me. I have also heard of it being applied as a jumping neck-crank from behind your attacker, which also seems reasonable. Someone I know who studies Onaga Sensei's Shinjinbukan system insists that it is a form of evasion, which I suppose it is, but it doesn't really make sense to me to use it in such a way.

I have, in the past, run through my empty hand kata with weapons. It's an interesting exercise, and can be fun to do. Personally, I think tonfa, sai, tekko, and hanbo work best from an application standpoint, because you can pretty much just use all of your empty hand techniques with them and they enhance the techniques. Kama can work, too, but their angled blade kind of change things. Nunchaku can also work, but your strikes change drastically. I have found that longer, two-handed weapons, like bo, jo, eku, and nunti, don't really fit the empty hand kata as well. All that said, the same concepts can be used.

I'm not really a kobudo guy but, as I understand it, your weapons should not clink together for no reason. With the sai, for example, there are trapping techniques where you interlock the sai. In that instance, they would clink together.

Yes, he seems to have cut out a few techniques and, at least for the video, only did the first half, since the second half is just the same thing done on the opposite side, anyway. Still, it's certainly recognizable as being Naihanchi Shodan! We also use a haito-uchi hand position for that part, but you have to pass through the haishu-uchi position to get there, so I don't consider that to be a major difference.

It could just be the local branch of the WKF--I have heard several local officials, on numerous occasions, refer to it as "Olympic-style" in a variety of ways. As for the people asking, it has been martial artists from other schools around the US. Within our dojo, everybody pretty much knows what is going on. We do know the ruleset, but knowing it and following it are different things . Our dojo only has one class per week to focus on tournament material, compared to our competition who all do nothing but tournament-focused training. The rest of our classes focus on more old-school karate for the teens and adults, and more traditional karate for the kids. Even so, our competitors do pretty well! Sometimes we get a lot of penalties for hitting too hard or using illegal techniques (like knee strikes, leg kicks, and uppercuts), but we're getting better about that. Thank you! I'm afraid this tournament circuit doesn't do scores--they set up a bracket system where you run kata head-to-head with your opponent, and the judges simply hold out a blue or red flag to indicate who won that round. I believe he won this round.

I only added the "Olympic" part because that's what they're calling them, since they started their whole "The K is on the Way" thing to try to get karate into the Olympics. I only pointed out the belt color thing because I've gotten a surprising amount of people asking why he is wearing blue or red belts in photos and videos . We are new to the WKF ruleset, having only started competing in this circuit last year when the regional "Open Karate" competition circuit shutdown. It has never had much of a presence in our area until that happened.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Personally, I no longer have any interest in karate competition, but I do still support my dojo family when they compete. This past weekend was the USA Karate Arizona State Championships, which also act as a qualifier for Nationals, and we sent a team to compete. My Sensei even took a break from coaching and judging to compete, himself. Here is a video someone took of him running Kusanku Dai, with altered timing for competition. In case you're wondering, USA Karate uses the WKF "Olympic" ruleset, so each competitor is assigned a color--either blue or red--and wears an appropriately colored belt for their assignment. That's why he is wearing a blue belt. Supposedly, this is to help prevent judges from scoring people higher because their belt looks older, or has more stripes on it, and also helps the audience keep track of which competitor is which.

Welcome to the forum!

I have the same thing, and I also found that stopping conditioning--and even stopping hitting things, at all--didn't make it go away. In the end, I decided that if it didn't hurt, it wasn't a problem. My doctor didn't seem concerned, but you may still want to check with yours.

You're definitely getting a good opportunity! One-on-one training is invaluable, as sensei8 said. Enjoy it, and soak it up!

I'm 6'1" and my bo is 6'6" long. As Harlan said, if we look at proportions, you and I should be using bo that are around 7' in length. In the end, it really isn't all that important. I would recommend practicing with everything from a 5' bo to an 8' bo, if you can.

Congratulations!

Welcome to the forum! That sounds about right. I had a 4.5 Tokaido, but at 6'1" it was a bit shorter on the body than I would have liked. A 3.5 or 4 would probably be a good fit for someone your size, but everyone is built differently, so it's hard to say for certain. In all likelihood, you'll need to have the sleeves and pant-legs hemmed.

I haven't started my own style, and I don't plan to, although one day I'm sure I will customize what I teach to my own students. I'm not fond of the idea of "creating styles," honestly, and I like bushido_man96's approach better. I do know someone who started his own style, though, for whatever that's worth. What he did was take the karate he learned, changed the body mechanics and some of the movements to be more like the Chinese arts that he studied, and added a bunch of drills/techniques from American Kenpo and Filipino martial arts. He also did not promote himself to a higher rank--he holds a Nanadan (7th dan) ranking in karate, and that is the rank he goes by. I will say that people who are looking to train, or sign their kids up to train, are looking for something they can Google. Things like "karate" and "kickboxing" are much more widely searched for than specific styles. Calling what you do "modified karate" or "modified kickboxing" is going to get you more hits than "chrissyp-ryu." It isn't really selling yourself short when you simplify what you call it, so long as you are open and honest about your background and influences on the art.

I have the same pet peeve, actually. We don't use those titles in our style, which I'm happy about. My previous style did refer to the founder as "Grandmaster," but only after he passed away, which doesn't seem as bad. I do think that people can "master" something and still be learning and refining. In that, there are people that I would describe as being masters, but I would not use "master" as a title to refer to them. For example, Taira Masaji Sensei is a master of Goju-Ryu, but I wouldn't call him "Master Taira." Nakazato Shugoro Sensei is a master of Shorin-Ryu, but I wouldn't call him "Master Nakazato."

Congratulations!

I think it is human nature to be drawn to groups of people that are like us, and people we are familiar with. In martial arts, I think most of us could say that we are most comfortable with our classmates--the people we train with all the time. We are less comfortable with dojo-mates that we only work with occasionally. We are another step away from comfort when we have to work with people in our organization, but from another dojo. Once you step outside of the organization, you've removed that security blanket, and it makes people nervous. This is exactly why I think it is important for instructors to take responsibility for getting their students out of their bubble. My Sensei and I are known for going to other dojo to work out with people from other styles, and inviting people from other styles to come to our dojo. We don't do this to steal students, but to build relationships. We've never had anyone quit training at their old dojo to come train with us (or vice versa) because of this cross-training. What we have done is develop a level of comfort where people from those other schools can come train with us, and we can go train with them, and everyone can benefit. I'm sorry that ATA school would not allow you to come work with them--they certainly missed out on a great opportunity! We have had some schools refuse us, as well. Hopefully, over time, people will open up more and see the benefits of building relationships with other schools.