Wastelander

Congratulations! Sounds like it's going well!

That version of Passai (you would probably call it Bassai) only exists within the Shorin-Ryu passed down by Chibana Chosin. He learned it from the Tawada family, who had passed it down within their family after learning it from Bushi Matsumura. Chibana showed it to his teacher--Itosu Anko--who told him to preserve it in his curriculum and call it Passai Dai. Originally, Chibana had learned the same Passai Sho and Passai Dai from Itosu that Funakoshi and his other students did. When he brought in Tawada Passai, he dropped Itosu's Passai Sho and changed the name of Itosu's Passai Dai to Passai Sho. Because of this switch, you would recognize our Passai Sho as being very similar to most styles' Passai/Bassai Dai.

Congratulations!

I joined one at my last dojo, and I enjoyed it, but there is no standard for what a martial arts "SWAT" is. At my old dojo, it was an extra class every month with a special theme that the team voted on, so we could work on extra material that was different from the regular curriculum. Other schools may do something completely different.

I don't do tournaments, but if I did, my go-to kata would probably be Tawada Passai. Here is a video of me running it last May, while I was feeling very ill:

I don't know how many people here follow Sumo, but this past Basho was won by yokozuna Hakuho, making it his 33rd Basho victory and breaking his mentor's record of 32. Pretty cool! http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/jan/25/hakuho-rewrites-sumo-history-with-record-breaking-33rd-championship

This is incredibly common--the vast majority of people who make shodan will never make nidan, because they will quit first. I've only been training for about 8.5 years, and only just earned my black belt last Summer, but I've certainly seen it happen. From what I've seen, there are two main reasons for this: 1. Their goal was "black belt," and now that they have it, they feel as if they "finished what they started." 2. They are bored with the yudansha curriculum, if there is any. With the people who fall into number 1, nothing can typically be done. They had a goal for their training, they achieved it, and they have decided not to set any further goals for their training. I have never seen these people be convinced to stay. They do, however, sometimes come back after a decade, or so. With the people in number 2, you have options to keep them. Repetition is important, of course, but even the most dedicated karateka can become bored. Some dojo take the "easy" route and just add more kata or formal partner drills (like yakusoku kumite or ippon/sanbon/etc. kumite) for yudansha to learn. The trouble with this is that, by the time someone has earned their black belt, a new kata or partner set is usually pretty easy to learn and doesn't really add much value for them. I once heard it put this way; "if you train for 30 years, and look back on it, have you really trained for 30 years, or have you trained 3 years 10 times over?" The yudansha ranks should not just be repeating kihon and kata all class, every class--they should be exploring and experimenting with them, and challenging yourself in new ways. Here is my challenge to you, for when you have achieved your shodan rank: Pick a kata that you feel comfortable performing without thinking--that is, a kata you can run and have a conversation at the same time. Make it your goal, in the following year, to figure out your own applications for the movements in the kata. These should not be simple applications where a "block" is a block and a "punch" is a punch, but more advanced applications where you're grabbing, throwing, choking, breaking joints, etc. Do your best to figure out the context of your kata, and see if you can find applications that connect to each other, so that if your opponent counters or blocks your first technique, you can use the next technique to address that obstacle. This is very difficult to do, but I personally find it very stimulating and helpful to my training. As you work on them, test them with partners and see if you can make them work under pressure. If you can, then start visualizing those applications when you practice the kata, and I think you will see a positive change in your karate.

Congratulations, and thanks for sharing the video! I'm not a Goju guy, but it looks solid, to me!

My recommendation would be to see an orthopedic doctor and physical therapist. They are professionals who can really diagnose your issues and help you to recover.

I know some people who reject the dan ranking system and just stop testing for new rank, although they keep training and teaching. Usually, they do this around 5th or 6th degree, but I've seen people do it at lower ranks. You can simply ask him, in private, what rank he is--it could simply be that he doesn't like to talk about it in front of a bunch of people, but will gladly discuss it in private. I will say that if he is still elusive about it in private, it may not hurt to contact his instructor and ask. Alternatively, most instructors have their most recent certificate of rank hung up in the dojo, somewhere, and that would say what rank he holds. It really doesn't matter unless he's lying about it. The important thing is that you like him and what he is teaching, and he isn't lying or misrepresenting himself and what he does.

This is the only website I am aware of for our style, and it is maintained by the North America branch of the organization, although our organization and style are based in Naha, Okinawa. http://www.karateshorinkan.com/

Agreed, for instance the gedan barai in a form/kata could be interpreted as a downward block or an arm lock. That is certainly true. Taira Sensei has a very thorough system for breaking down his kata, so everything adheres to those principles. Enfield Sensei just uploaded a video collection of excerpts from the seminar, where you can see some of the material we covered--including gedan-barai

A 100% cotton gi can usually be shrunk some by washing it in hot water, or even soaking it in boiling water. If it's really too big, though, there's only so much you can do. You may have to have it altered by a tailor, or return it.

I would agree with you, mal103, that all styles should have those qualities. The difference is in the emphasis and approach to using them. We certainly get up-close-and-personal and in-your-face, and we use limb control quite a bit, but we go about it a bit differently than Goju-Ryu. Still, there was a great deal of cross-over, and the seminar actually helped me understand my own style better, not just the kata we were covering. Cross-training is good stuff!

Over the weekend, I attended a Seiyunchin bunkai seminar via Skype with one of Taira Masaji Sensei's senior students, Paul Enfield. Although I am a Shorin-Ryu practitioner, I have picked up some other kata throughout my karate journey, and Seiyunchin is one of them. I've been working on correcting it to be more like the Goju-Ryu version, since it was changed to be more like the style I used to practice (which was not Goju-Ryu). The seminar was actually very helpful for my understanding of how to practice the kata, since knowing the applications of the movements is key to understanding how you are supposed to move. The applications, themselves, were great! Goju-Ryu is a very up-close-and-personal, in-your-face system, and Taira Sensei's approach is heavily reliant on limb control and breaking the structure of your opponent. So much so, in fact, that videos of it always end up recieving "looks like Wing Chun" comments . I know that Taira Sensei's approach is not necessarily the same as all Goju-Ryu instructors, even amongst other current and former Jundokan members. Does anyone here on KF have experience with Taira Sensei's methods? If not, I would also be interested in hearing about other branches of Goju-Ryu, and how they approach the application of Seiyunchin.

This kind of thing happens to me all the time. I have dislocated a rib twice--once by setting down our rabbits' water dish, and once by reaching to the top shelf for a box of cereal. I regularly put a kink in my back by getting up out of bed, or leaning over to pick up something light.

The advice you've gotten about hydration and electrolytes, so far, is solid--that will solve most cramping issues. A trick I learned from my sister-in-law, who is a competitive runner, is to actually eat a banana before a workout. It has all the electrolytes you need, along with some sugar to keep your blood glucose levels from dropping too far, and the Potassium also helps prevent muscle cramps. Also, you might just be squeezing your hands too hard

We don't have a slogan, but there are some phrases that float around the dojo an awful lot. "Every movement has a purpose." "You have to hit things to be good at hitting things." "Pain does not exist in this dojo!" Etc.

Welcome to the forum!

Congratulations, Brian! This is a huge accomplishment--thank you for all you have done!

My question, with this, is "why are you not happy about this?" Is it because you can't train properly with those partners, or is it because you don't like being partnered with a child when you are an adult? This is an important distinction, in my opinion. If you legitimately can't train properly because your partner is too small, too weak, or not serious enough, then that is certainly a problem that your Sensei should address. If it is just that you do not like working with someone so young (and I can understand why you would feel that way), I would urge you to try to overcome that feeling.

Congratulations!

Welcome back!

A study was recently published in The Journal of Neurophysiology by a group of researchers at Ohio University regarding the effect of mental training on physical strength. Their study used wrist strength as their metric, and had three groups of people participating--one group that simply had their wrist strength tested with no interference (control group), one group that had their wrist strength tested before and after wearing a brace that immobilized their wrist for several weeks, and one group that did the same thing but also went through mental visualization exercises. The study found that the group who used the mental visualization exercises lost about half as much strength as the other group that had their wrists immobilized. Here is the article: http://jn.physiology.org/content/112/12/3219 I found this to be very interesting, for a couple of reasons. First of all, this is great news for anyone who is injured or sick! I've suspected this for quite a long time, actually, so it's nice to see a scientific study back it up. In addition, I know that mental visualization is commonly practiced by high-level athletes (including martial artists) to improve their performance. I recall a quote from Motobu Choki, where he said that he would break a sweat just thinking about practicing kata, and I feel that this trick has been known for a very long time.

Welcome to the forum!