Wastelander

I just recently got one, after passing my shodan test. It's between my shoulder blades, and it has a lot more meaning to me than it sounds from the description--it's a tree with the mitsudomoe (the symbol Spartacus Maximus described) carved into the trunk.

We have requirements for each rank, with a total of 9 kyu ranks, and for children we have intermediary "training belts" to keep them interested. We aren't super thrilled about doing the training belts, but it's kind of a necessary evil to keep kids coming in. For your example of a white belt going to the next rank (yellow, for us), they must be training for at least 4 months, or 80 class hours. That's a long time for a kid to be doing something without getting a tangible reward. For the curriculum they need to know, we are flexible with how proper everything needs to be in the lower ranks. For each rank, they have to be able to show us certain stances, blocks, strikes, kicks, sweeps, breakfalls, self defense techniques, and kata, and they have to be able to answer some questions. As long as they get pretty close to what it should be, we're okay with that. The standards get more strict as the students go up in rank, though. By the time they get to 5th kyu, we will have really started working on cleaning up their technique and form.

I found out about the fight the day after it happened, but I was surprised that I hadn't seen any advertising leading up to it, even though it was in Russia. People were saying it looked fixed from the get-go, so I checked it out. Rourke dropped his opponent with a body shot, but that punch looked like it landed on his opponent's elbow/arm, not his body. Kind of suspicious. Rourke, to his credit, seemed legitimately surprised and happy--if the fight was fixed, I doubt he knew.

I understand what you're trying to do, and why, but I'm afraid it's only going to lead to frustration and confusion. Many people have tried to match Okinawan kata with their Chinese origins, and they have failed to come to any sort of consensus. We do not have written records that really connect any of them, the Okinawans changed a great deal of the material they received from China, and the Okinawans developed their own fighting arts independent of Chinese influence, as well. With the exception of Sanchin, I do not know of any mainstream karate kata that has an extant Chinese counterpart--I've certainly not seen one. The Pinan kata (what you call Heian) were developed by Itosu based on Passai, Kusanku, and Chinto, so you can essentially cross 5 kata off your list straight off the bat . For what it's worth, Matsumura Sokon supposedly brought Gojushiho (called Useishi in the Okinawan language) back from a trip to Beijing. One of the biggest problems with this type of project, is that people try to compare the appearance of the forms, themselves. The appearance of the forms change from person to person, nevermind how much they change over the course of generations. What is more important is the applications of the movements--there, you can find better links. Even so, the body only moves so many ways, so there is a great deal of cross-over. On top of that, there is a lot of misinformation out there (including from some well-respected martial artists) as to the origins of kata and techniques that just doesn't hold up under scrutiny. Basically, you're trying to put together a puzzle that is missing so many pieces, and has had so many pieces re-painted, that it can never be put back together unless somebody finds a key that tells us what all the missing pieces are, and what changes were made to the remaining pieces.

We require a little knowledge of the history of our style, and some terminology. Not as much as I would like, but I'm also a karate nerd. I will sometimes quiz students at the end of class about our lineage, what a Japanese word means, what a technique is called, or where a kata came from. During tests, you will be asked these kinds of questions, and the shodan test includes a written exam where you have to be able to answer them. We've discussed holding an extra class every now and then to cover history and philosophy of karate, as well, but haven't implemented it as of yet.

There will be those who disagree, but I personally believe that you do not need to wait until you have a black belt to start working bunkai and tuidi/torite (tuite is Oyata Sensei's word for it, which is a combination of the Okinawan "tuidi" and the Japanese "torite"). The bunkai (analysis) process is very helpful for students' understanding, and I feel that keeping the applications to kata secret is harmful to the development of the art. Some of the applications, including tuidi, can be difficult for a beginner to grasp, but that's because they've never done anything like it. I've seen people with decades of experience who struggle to learn tuidi techniques. Starting earlier simply means that it will get easier sooner. You can learn some material from books and videos, if you have a partner to work it with. It isn't the most efficient way to do it, though, and is made much easier by having a solid understanding of similar material, already. If your instructor doesn't have the knowledge, it makes perfect sense to seek it out from someone who does, in order to enhance your training. Seminars and cross-training are very valuable--for a lot of it this kind of stuff, you have to feel it and have the finer points broken down for it to make sense and work for you.

I think that there is often a tendency for traditional martial artists to believe that martial arts are sacred, in some way, and that no one should make a living by teaching them. I'm not sure where this idea comes from--as far as I know, masters all over Okinawa, Japan, and China required some form of payment for training. Sometimes it was simply payment in the form of dedication, yes, but more often it was money or food. Paying your instructor a fee for his/her time and the use of the dojo is perfectly reasonable. That said, there are certainly instructors out there who price gouge, up-charge, and add fees just to make more money. That is how capitalism works, so they are free to do it, but I don't like it. Making a living is one thing, but gaming the system is another.

Almost all of the people that my Sensei has promoted to shodan have quit, or took a long hiatus. This has nothing to do with his teaching style, an emphasis on attaining a black belt, or not having material to teach them. It was simply because they personally set "get a black belt" as their end goal--at that point, they had "finished what they started." While I do consider passing my shodan exam to be an important milestone in my journey, I really saw the shodan rank as more of an obstacle than a goal. My long-term goal is to one day be a skilled, knowledgeable, open-minded instructor. Not having a black belt was a roadblock preventing me from reaching that goal. I still haven't reached my goal, and each dan rank above mine is pretty much just another obstacle between me and that goal. Of course, I suspect will never really feel like I've totally achieved that goal, regardless.

These are grappling techniques, albeit practiced as part of a striking-focused art. Hence it is simple repetition of the point that against a grappler it is best to have some grappling experience of your own. As I was training tuite last night in my Kyusho class, my Sensei told me a story. His son is an MMA fighter whose base is TKD. He also trains in BJJ and wrestling. Both he and his son are about the same size (6'0, 210). His son was in town last week, and they decided to do some ground work. His son took him down and started doing what he was taught to do in BJJ. Sensei Defrene said that even though he was in a vulnerable position, he said his eyes opened up because of all of the targets he had available. He took his elbow and pressed it on the inside of his son's thigh as his son was attempting a RNC, and his son yelled and let go of the hold. He said that was the easiest one to hit, but he saw about a half dozen other techniques he could have used. His son had a bruise a for a week from just applying a little pressure while on defense on the ground! That's the beauty of Kyusho that I'm finding. No matter what situation you're in, there are multiple ways to get out of it. Now, I can't say that I'd be able to prevent an olympic level wrestler from throwing me once he gets a double leg on me. But before I land, you can be assured that I will have activated at least 2 points on him, and he will be affected by it. Once we get on the ground, if I'm still conscious, and if I can still move my arms, he is at as much of a disadvantage as I am because I know how many targets I have available. And unless he has trained as I have, he doesn't! So he may think that his ability to keep me on the ground puts him in control. But once I dig my knuckle into spleen point 6, he'll have to seriously evaluate whether or not it's in his best interest to stay there! The attack to the inside of the thigh that you mention has been used in MMA--it's no secret--but I would say that it works maybe 1 time out of every 10 attempts. A friend of mine is quite good at tuite, kyusho, and kiko, but ended up pinned and eventually choked out by a judoka in an MMA fight. He landed several strikes to effective kyusho points, but they didn't work for him on that person in that environment, and he didn't have the grappling fundamentals to escape the position he was put into. Kyusho is helpful, but it is not a panacea. Grapplers are very skilled at grip fighting, and usually have a good understanding of limb control and body weight distribution. These things make it very difficult to apply pressure to a point for any decent length of time, and being on the ground limits the power and speed with which you can strike. On top of that, in a high-stress environment like a real fight or self defense situation, kyusho points are less effective thanks to adrenaline and other "fight or flight" chemicals rushing through the body.

I would train at whichever one has better instruction and a better atmosphere for me, personally. To figure out which one that is, you'll have to visit both and try out classes at both. As Lupin1 said, those are both good deals for most of the US--that many classes costs over $100/month on average, in my area. To figure out if the classes are worth the cost, though, you really have to visit and try classes.

RAM18 - Your version isn't all that different--I'm just doing all three Naihanchi strung together. Our Naihanchi is also completely lateral:

I don't know of any canvas bags that really last--they aren't really built for it. Unless you hit like a freight train, or you had defective bags, I'm still not sure how you have destroyed them as quickly as you have. My recommendation would be to get/buy a canvas maize bag, and fill it with sand. They tend to be fairly durable, since they aren't supporting as much weight as a heavy bag. You'll get the conditioning from the density of the sand and the texture of the canvas. You could also look into iron palm bags.

sensei8 - Haha, well, I recorded it on an old iPhone 4S, so the quality isn't great. The editing I did in Sony Movie Studio 12. This one seemed a bit more awkward to me. Why is the sabaki in the spots that you show? Have you also been using these changes in any applications? I'd be interested to see those. Thanks for sharing the videos with us, I think its a very cool idea. I haven't been doing that exercise as long as I've been doing the mawashi exercise, but I actually like it more. The basic idea is that your attacker is coming from straight in front of you, wherever you happen to be standing. Essentially, we've simply turned Naihanchi at every step into kosa-dachi, so that you enter side-on into your opponent's attack. We do work applications that use that exact footwork. In fact, it's actually the primary entry used by KishimotoDi for all of its Naihanchi applications. For simplicity, I only let my body lean forward as I moved, but different applications will have you lean differently, or not lean at all. We also work applications that use the mawashi footwork--usually joint dislocations and throws.

I'm curious as to how many of you change your footwork in kata training, in order to further your understanding of the kata, its applications, and variants of those applications. My Sensei and I occasionally work Naihanchi, in particular, with different footwork than normal--we still transition to kosa-dachi (cross stance) and then Naihanchi-dachi, as the kata says to do, but we get to those positions differently. We aren't actually changing the kata, but we are exploring it in a different way than normal. Here are two kind of awkward examples I recorded a couple weeks ago (sorry for the poor video quality; I used a smartphone):

All I know about it is that it is a blend of Shorinji Kenpo and Aikido. You say that sparring is encouraged, and I'm interested to hear what type of sparring you do. Aikido isn't really suited to sparring, so I'm curious as to how that works in. A quick Google search seemed to show mostly bogu kumite matches, but I couldn't watch them here at work to see what they are like.

Although it isn't really within my control, all that much, my biggest goal is to find a solution to my ongoing health problems, which have been plaguing me for over a year, now. That isn't directly martial arts related, but those health problems have been preventing me from training as often or as intensely as I want/need to. For more direct martial arts goals: 1. Memorize the rest of Sensei Bethea's kata yakusoku kumite drills and Nakazato Minoru Sensei's yakusoku kumite drills. 2. Compete in at least one grappling competition 3. Attend at least one Shorinkan training camp

Judo belts are definitely harder-wearing than karate belts. Shureido is pretty much the standard for quality karate black belts, but I've actually been impressed at how well Pine Tree Brand belts wear! My old instructor preferred them over Shureido for himself, although he bought Shureido belts for all his black belt students. I use a hemp black belt from Datsusara. I do feel the need to mention this, again, though: please stop this "tradition" of not washing your belt! The belts were invented for judo, and judoka wash them every time they wash their gi--if you don't, you're putting yourself and others at risk for skin infections! Their belt tradition is older than the karate tradition, if tradition matters to you, and it's much more hygienic. It's not a magical piece of cloth that loses its power when exposed to detergent, and it's not going to fall apart when you wash it.

Congratulations!

1. Sort of done--I attended two seminars, but that's not more than the year before. 2. Done! 3. Fail. I participated in one freestyle judo scrimmage, but no other grappling competitions this year. My health hasn't been up to it, the timing hasn't been good, or the cost has been prohibitive

Definitely--I would love to meet and train with more people, too! You're not outside the realm of possibility, for me, either. I'm originally from Central Illinois, my work has properties in the Quad Cities and Chicago, and Sensei Stolsmark puts on a Shorinkan gasshuku in Milwaukee every year, so I have plenty of excuses to be in your general area, eventually

Wow! I was not expecting that, considering the other members who were in the categories that I won. Thank you, everyone! And congratulations to all!

Harkon72, I would say that it isn't just harsh--it's rather short-sighted. If you truly believe that, then you are going to miss out on a vast wealth of knowledge. Following that line of thinking, one must believe that Freddie Roach should have retired the moment he was diagnosed with Parkinson's, because he couldn't properly demonstrate because of the shaking. Cus D'amato never should have trained Mike Tyson, because he was out of shape and old. Chibana Chosin should have given up his rank and stopped teaching when he was diagnosed with cancer that caused him immense pain and sapped his strength. Besides, you may someday be the elderly, injured, out-of-shape one with lots of knowledge and experience, but without the body to demonstrate it. How would it make you feel to have all your years of dedication considered irrelevant by people you are teaching? Do you really think you wouldn't be able to help them improve, just because you can't physically do everything, anymore? There are a good number of teachers who have taught students that went on to greatness, even though the teachers, themselves, were unable to do so.

Oh, for sure! They're a very tough bunch, and they incorporate face punches and grappling in their sparring, too, unlike some Kyokushin dojo. Thankfully, I've never felt like I've been in over my head when sparring with Kyokushin people--except in the fitness department! They can go forever!

Not much that I didn't already know about from having researched and cross-trained with Kyokushin people, before. What I forgot about was the pace of kumite. In our dojo, kumite tends to be done at a more measured pace, and there aren't as many techniques thrown per round. It's been a while since I've sparred with Kyokushin people, so I forgot about how many techniques they throw in such a short amount of time . It was good fun, though!

I think you would be best served by visiting all three schools, talking to the instructors, and watching classes. That will help you make your decision much more than our advice! There are good schools and bad schools for all three arts you list. We won't really be able to tell you if the ones you're looking at are good or bad. I will say that JKD is probably going to cover more material than the other two, so it has that going for it.