Wastelander

I believe there is a group in Fort Lauderdale, but their instructor passed away. They may still do private training sessions, but you would have to get in touch with them to be sure. I don't have their contact information, but you can email the RyuTe Renmei at admin@ryute.com to see if they can help you. Best of luck!

Congratulations!

Being able to beat someone in a fight is being a better fighter than they are but, as has been mentioned a few times in this thread, there is more to martial arts than fighting. Someone might have greater knowledge of fighting than you, even if they can't apply it for one reason or another. Someone might have more efficient body mechanics due to their study of motion. Etc. There are also vastly different TYPES of "fighting" that a martial artist may be good at. For example; a champion karate fighter could lose to a champion Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor, and that wouldn't necessarily make the BJJ competitor a better martial artist. The same would be true in reverse. In addition, someone might be very good at self defense--dealing with aggressive, but untrained, attackers--but get beat in combat sport competition regularly.

Congratulations, and welcome to the forum!

We aren't required to do it, but we do try to greet students, at some point, before classes start. Sometimes, we are busy doing other things, or training, ourselves, but usually one of the instructors, at least, still greets them.

I won't be able to train it with any regularity, but I do hope to make it down every now and then to work with them. Italian longsword has a LOT in common with karate, I found! The instructor and I actually joked about the body only moving so many ways, Zaine. Did you happen to see the same Naihanchi stuff that I did from the bind?

Welcome to the forum!

I will admit that I grew up with an obsession with knights and dragons, so I've always had a soft spot for medieval European arms and armor. That may be why I have downloaded so many medieval fighting treatises to compare with karate--there is a LOT of overlap, by the way! Well, this weekend, I took a trip down to our local HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts) club, and took an introductory lesson on Fiore dei Liberi's system of longsword fighting. Very interesting stuff, and the sparring looked like a ton of fun, although I didn't get the chance to try it. Anyone here have HEMA experience?

Sometimes I can tell, and sometimes I can't. I honestly can't say how I identify it, either. If someone comes to class, for the first time, it's really easy to see if they have previous training or not, just by the way they move.

I'm in agreement with Rateh. While you may have been in the right, and the parent may have been rude, I think you could have handled it better. The phrase "don't you know who I am?" is a pretty universal set of "fighting words."

So, every now and then, I like to search YouTube using kanji/kana instead of English, just to see what I might otherwise be missing out on. Since I don't speak/read Japanese, except for a few words/phrases, I'm pretty limited when it comes to making use of Japanese material, but Google Translate does help. Over the weekend, I searched for ナイハンチ, which is the katakana for Naihanchi, and I came across this hidden gem: The man demonstrating in this video is Ikeda Hideyuki, and he is primarily a Taiji (Tai Chi Chuan) instructor. Honestly, I could have figured out he was a CMA practitioner just from watching his kata, even without him wearing the Chinese-style shirt. Clearly, he has some training in Okinawan karate, as well--he runs Naihanchi in this video, and Seiunchin in another, and has a black belt rank in Uechi-Ryu, according to his website. Still, it seems that Taiji is the lens through which he views things, and it definitely comes through in this video. Interestingly, the applications he shows are quite similar to ones I've learned in Shorin-Ryu and KishimotoDi.

I don't train in boxing, but I have actually discussed this with some people who do, including a couple boxing coaches, and it's not so different from the way judo or karate do things. The foot pivot you're talking about teaches you an exaggerated version of the body mechanics necessary to throw the strike effectively. As you get better at applying those mechanics, the motion gets smaller and smaller. Along the same lines, movements become constricted under stress, so in competition, they get even smaller. If you started off with the small motion, it would be more difficult for you to develop the mechanics necessary to be effective, and under stress, you wouldn't do enough and would be left with a weak strike.

You will get better at sleeping, over time. I can't promise that you won't dream about it, though! Your punches can make noise without a gi, but it's usually from your skin slapping together--even if you don't think it is, a high-speed camera will show that it is happening. That's perfectly normal. If there is any sort of grinding from your joints, then you should have a doctor check those joints to make sure they are in good condition.

My karate instructor also teaches a family style of Japanese jujutsu, which he has blended a bit with his other grappling experiences. I help teach the grappling classes--there is a lot of carry-over from my judo, as well as the tuidi of our karate style--but I have no serious interest in testing for rank in Japanese jujutsu. He also teaches kobudo, and I'm not interested in testing for rank in that, either. Training is good, though!

Welcome to the forum! I'm afraid you are experiencing the symptoms of EKS--Enthusiastic Karateka Syndrome. This disease is fairly common amongst new karateka, and most people with this affliction will go on to live healthy, productive lives.

Datsusara has some pretty sweet gear, and since they make it out of hemp fabric, it's tougher than cotton, naturally antimicrobial, and UV resistant. If you have the money to spend, I would highly recommend them. They're good people, too.

I think I'm going to have to retire this gi, pretty soon--at least the top. As you can see from this video, it's kind of falling apart, now. I'm pretty hard on dogi. http://youtu.be/ZkmSg95TEsI

First of all, welcome to the forum! I don't practice Kyokushin, and I'm not an expert, but I would like to think I know a thing or two about mawashi-geri. There isn't any real shortcut to opening/turning-over the hips--you have to spend a lot of time practicing kicking properly. A big thing to keep in mind is that the foot of your supporting leg is going to have to turn as far to the side as you can get it, or your hips will be locked up. Something that helped me was actually practicing turning my kick over so that it makes contact at a downward angle. In order to do that, you HAVE to turn your hips over, so it forces you to do it.

They've been working on that for quite a while, and they've made some good progress this year. That said, all the demonstrations I've seen of someone being struck while wearing it has been done with a very flexible waxwood bo, not a hardwood bo. If it can stand up to use with hardwood weapons, then I definitely see it as useful for weapons training.

Hi everyone, This tournament has been going on all week, and ends on the 28th. If you're interested in checking out high-level sumo, I definitely recommend watching some of this tournament. This YouTube channel posts daily updates with highlights of the tournament: https://www.youtube.com/user/kintamayama A lot of people just think of sumo as two fat men trying to push each other out of a ring, but it really has a lot more nuance and technique to it than that. There have been some very interesting matches, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the tournament, even though I'm only a very casual fan. It's great to see the display of strength, kinaesthetic awareness, technique, and determination.

My Sensei pays the other instructors at the dojo for their teaching time. That said, he can't afford to pay a lot because the dojo doesn't make a huge income. We do it because we love it, though, so nobody has been offended, as far as I know. My pay was equal to my dues, so I just opted to barter for classes instead of cashing a check and then writing a check. If I had taught more classes, or taken fewer, then the equation would have been different, but I like the balance I have. I do still get paid in cash for any private lessons I teach, though, since those are extra.

Aikido, judo, hapkido, Japanese jujutsu, BJJ, or the tuidi of karate would all be reasonable sources to work from for teaching people how to deal with aggression in that environment. One of my former training partners used to work in precisely the environment that you describe, and she used her judo training on more than one occasion to avoid injury to herself and her clients, and control them until help could arrive. The key thing is to be sure that anything that is taught, is taught and trained properly and appropriately for the environment.

As sensei8 points out, aggression certainly gives you a serious leg-up in self defense. A large part of your response to aggression is going to depend on what the attacker is doing. A tackle, as you describe, is best dealt with by either getting out of the way, sprawling, or counter-throwing--in that order. This kind of attack is actually very easy to deal with, as long as you see it coming.

Very thoughtful--thank you for sharing!

Hand conditioning is a pretty vast topic--it's been the topic of countless books and videos, nevermind all the arts that teach it. There are lots of ways to go about it, but how you do it is dependent on how you are planning to strike; punches, small-surface strikes, palm strikes, slaps, etc. Since this thread is pretty much about punching, I'll assume you're wanting to condition your hands for punching. The first step is typically knuckle planks or push-ups. The key to these is to focus on making your striking knuckles bear your weight, since most people will let their fists collapse flat onto the ground. Hitting the heavy bag without gloves or wraps is also a good starting point, but you have to work up to hitting hard. Hitting too hard, too soon, will result in injury and will set back your conditioning, rather than accelerating it. You can also use a maize bag (a head-sized bag filled with corn, beans rice, sand, or some combination of those things), since it will have more give than the heavy bag. Karateka tend to jump straight for the makiwara when discussing hand conditioning, but I want to stress that the makiwara is NOT meant for hand conditioning! It does toughen the skin and bones through impact, but that is a side-effect. Its real purpose is strengthening the entire structure/power chain of your strike, and giving you feedback as to where weaknesses are in that structure/chain. Be careful with the makiwara, and be sure to start out slow--I usually have people start by just putting their knuckles in the pad and pushing the board back. Once they are comfortable with this, they can start striking it lightly, and work their way up over time. Too much power, or too many repetitions, will lead to injuries and setbacks.