Wastelander

I found that the MMA club at ASU had both fun and difficulty with hikite--they kept wanting to grab punches out of the air instead of taking the initiative, but once they got the hang of it, they saw a lot of value in it.

I typically try to stick with a theme, as a few others have mentioned, so that there is a lot of crossover, even if we aren't necessarily working on the exact same thing all the time. I start classes with the same warm-ups every time, for the most part, and occasionally add a couple extra exercises if I feel it would benefit everyone going forward in that session. After that is hojo undo, which changes from day-to-day, but is usually some combination of two or three hojo undo kigu. After that we run through the solo kata--for beginners, we can do all of them, but for advanced, we can stick to just the ones we are going to pull from that day. All of that typically takes the first 30 minutes or so of my 90 minute classes. The rest of the time is partner work, from platform drills like kakie and parry-pass to bully sparring and kakedameshi. The vast majority of that partner work is focused on training to apply the movements and postures of the kata from various positions, points of contact, and directions of movement, as well as in response to different stimuli. That means that even though we might be working totally different drills each session, we are working a lot of the same material within those drills, so students get "repetition by stealth," as Iain Abernethy likes to put it. For example, let's say we're going to work on applying the "stacked hands" position in Naihanchi Shodan as an armbar. We could just practice that over and over again in a static manner until everyone has it, or we can work it into a variety of drills that give it context, and which we can build on to add resistance. We can work that armbar from kakie so the student develops tactile sensitivity in response to a clash of arms. We can work it from parry-pass so they can develop the hand speed necessary to capture the opponent's arms when they are moving quickly. We can work it from block-pass-check (hubud lubud) to give more variety to the entries available. We can work it from padwork whenever the padholder extends an arm. We can work it off of a strangle attempt, or a headlock. We can work it from bully sparring so they have to learn to apply it under constant forward pressure. We can work it from kakedameshi to really drive home the close-range fighting skills needed to apply it. We can work it from MMA-style sparring so they can learn how to do it when the opponent is skilled in a wide array of fighting methods. We can work it from groundwork so they learn how the mechanics change in that situation. We can work it from self-defense scenario drills, so they can learn how and when to apply it when someone is acting out pre-attack indicators and behaviors. The list goes on and on.

I haven't taught at an MMA gym on any regular basis, but I did recently teach a session for a university MMA club, which went great. I do think that practical, classical karate fits quite well into MMA training.

I think it's interesting to see the fairly consistent use of flow drills in grappling arts, but not striking arts, and not much in karate, because (for me) karate is very much an art that integrates striking and grappling. I've definitely done my fair share of flow drills in Judo, and even joint lock flow drills in karate, but the majority of the flow drills that I've worked have been combinations of grappling and striking--of course, they are generally based on kata, so that makes sense. While I definitely find value in flow drills, I've also seen some common issues with flow drills I've seen in use: [list=] Flowing without considering the feasibility of transitionFlowing without considering the opponent Training to be good at the drill Flowing without considering the feasibility of transition is common in a lot of the joint lock flow drills that I've seen. Often, the drills are structured simply to teach students a collection of locks they need to know at a given level in the curriculum, and it doesn't really matter that it wouldn't make sense to transition from one lock to the next, or that it's very difficult to change the grip or direction of pressure that the drill requires. This, IMO, leads to impractical drills that don't teach much beyond memorization. Flowing without considering the opponent often ties in with the previous point. Not only should a flow drill be designed around transitions that make sense, but they should also consider how the opponent might react and resist. I often see both lock flows and striking flows that suffer from this--the opponent just stands there and lets you do the drill. To be an effective drill, IMO, it needs to at least train to expect common forms of resistance and continued attacks. Of course, they can't account for every possibility, but that's what "breaking the drill" is for. Training to be good at the drill plagues most flow drills, in my experience. People want to memorize the drill, and get to where they can do it quickly, smoothly, and without thought. The trouble with this is that they have trained into themselves an expectation that it is always going to go exactly the way they want, and the moment something throws them off, they get hung up on it. I'm curious as to whether you all have seen these sorts of issues, and how you address them?

Hello, everyone! I'm curious to know how you all feel about flow drills? If you use flow drills, are they ones you were taught, or have you created your own? How are they structured? I think it would be an interesting discussion to have on how everyone utilizes this type of training.

For the purposes of this project, I'm going to include kata that I no longer practice. I'm going to include, in parentheses, who the kata were either known to have been created by, or as suspected to have been created by, as best I can recall off the top of my head (all my books are currently in storage, or I would reference them). Some of the translations may be iffy, as we don't have kanji for all of the kata names, because they were written in katakana for Uchinaaguchi, and the translations are no longer certain. Nakazato-Lineage Shorin-Ryu (Kobayashi-Ryu): Kihon Ippon/Nihon/Sanbon - Basic #1/2/3 (Chibana Chosin) Fukyu no Kata - Form of Fundamentals (Nakazato Shugoro) Naihanchi Shodan - Close Inside Fighting Level One ("Tode" Sakugawa) Naihanchi Nidan - Close Inside Fighting Level Two ("Bushi" Matsumura) Naihanchi Sandan - Close Inside Fighting Level Three ("Anko" Itosu) Pinan Shodan/Nidan/Sandan/Yondan/Godan - Peaceful Mind/Safe From Harm Level 1/2/3/4/5 ("Anko" Itosu) Passai Sho (Itosu Passai) - Lesser Fortress Storming ("Anko" Itosu) Passai Dai (Tawada/Matsumura Passai) - Greater Fortress Storming (Tawada Shinkazu or "Bushi" Matsumura) Kusanku Sho (Itosu Kusanku) - Lesser Public Official ("Anko" Itosu) Kusanku Dai - Greater Public Official (Chatan Yara or "Tode" Sakugawa) Chinto - Eastern Town ("Bushi" Matsumura) Gojushiho (Useishi) - 54 Steps (China via "Bushi" Matsumura) Gorin - 5 Rings (Nakazato Shugoro) Higa-Lineage Kishimoto-Ha Shuri-Te (KishimotoDi): Tachimura no Naihanchi - Tachimura's Close Inside Fighting ("Tode" Sakugawa) Nidanbu - Second Level Martial Skill (Kishimoto Soko) Tachimura no Passai - Tachimura's Fortress Storming ("Tode" Sakugawa) Tachimura no Kusanku - Tachimura's Public Official ("Tode" Sakugawa) Walker-Lineage Shuri-Ryu: Taikyoku Ichi/Ni/San - Taiji 1/2/3 ("Gigo" Funakoshi) Wansu - Prince/Dragon Boy Dumping (Wang Ji or Go Kenki) Anaku - Light from the South (Kyan Chotoku) Naihanchi Sho - First Close Inside Fighting/Missing Enemy ("Tode" Sakugawa) Empi Sho - First Flying Swallow (Wang Ji or Go Kenki) Seiyunchin - Pulling Battle (Higashionna Kanryo) There are more kata in Shuri-Ryu than I learned, so I'm not going to delve into those, but I hope this helps!

I don't think that traditional martial arts are dead, or even dying, but they are absolutely undergoing a divergence, and I think that we have reached a point where some approaches to the arts simply don't qualify as traditional/classical martial arts, anymore. Some are emphasizing aesthetic over all else. They may have fine looking kata, but no purpose or intent behind their movements. Some are emphasizing victory in competition over all else, and losing all of the curriculum that doesn't directly support that. Depending on the competition they train for, some aspects may be incredibly sloppy, or simply not present, at all. Some are emphasizing the discipline and personal development aspects of the arts, and remove the practical aspects, which often removes the functional intent and allows for form to suffer. Some are still trying to pass on the arts with practical functionality as the goal. In some cases, this will result in somewhat ugly performances, but the fundamental structures and mechanics should be sound, otherwise the movements and postures would not be able to work.

Technically, that's not accurate. The vast majority of Shuri-Te-based systems do practice Naihanchi/Tekki and Pinan/Heian, but there are some that do not--some branches of Matsumura Seito, Kojo-Ryu, and KishimotoDi, for example, don't practice the Pinan/Heian kata. Additionally, Naha-Te-based systems, like Goju-Ryu, To'on-Ryu, and Uechi-Ryu, don't practice them. If we want to talk about the most widely-practiced foundational kata across all styles of karate, the answer is actually Seisan--this is the one kata found in more styles than any other, statistically. Of course, I happen to practice two systems that DON'T practice it, so I get to be an outlier in that statistic. Naihanchi, Sanchin, and Gekisai are the other top most-practiced kata, and the Pinan/Heian series falls after those.

I disagree. I think the abolition of higher dan ranks doesn't mean that black belt isn't the beginning. Just because there are no more trail markers doesn't mean that there isn't a trail to walk. I suppose that if you're of the metaphysical mind, think in abstracts, etc... it's easy to look at it this way. However, for those who think strictly in the empirical (like myself), this is rather difficult. The great thing about starting martial arts at a later age is that there are dan grades that I will NEVER reach. I don't know what those grades are, because I don't know when my time on this Earth is up. But what I do know is that when I die, I'll die when I'm short of that next grade that I had yet to make. I can't imagine merely simply making "black belt" with nothing after that, and not being of the mind that "this is it." I suppose I don't see progress without rank as being metaphysical or abstract. You can, at any point, compare your current knowledge and skill to your past knowledge and skill, and see how far you've come. You can test your abilities, and any point, and see how you have improved. To me, that is plenty empirical. When I was still in the Shorinkan, the longwise red/white belts were for 5th and 6th Dan, but only in America--the Shorinkan didn't officially use them, but Americans (mostly) decided that they needed another fancy belt to entice people. It would be interesting if they have added more, or lowered the rank requirement for them, since I left, and not in a good way, IMO. Personally, I also much prefer the plan black belt over stripes or kohaku-obi, as well, if you ARE going to have additional yudansha ranks. So I've got two responses to this, first in speaking solely for myself, and the other in general. Speaking for myself I believe that every straight masculine man (and by that, I don't mean anything toxic; I just mean a typical guy who's into guy stuff. Even a nerd who's into anime qualifies) likes martial arts and wants to practice at least one. What man doesn't want to "kick butt," or at least know how to effectively do so? There's a reason I started martial arts so late in my life (at the age of 40): I have three degrees. A bachelor's, a master's, and an associate's (the order in which I got them, the associate's is in a major unrelated to the other two degrees). I promised my wife that I'd give her the rest of my GI Bill, so that she could use it to earn degrees herself. My dream of earning a doctorate? Gone. So what can I do instead? The thing I believe it's in every man to want to do: martial arts. So now, I'll always be in pursuit of SOMETHING. And that's how I like it. The fact that there are dan grades beyond my life expectancy ensures this. Speaking in general In the three years and some change that I've been at the dojo that I'm now leaving, here's what I've noticed: - People making black belt, and no longer showing up - People making black belt, and coming far less often - Random black belts that I've never seen or met before, who decide to randomly show up, and whom I've never seen again after that. My point is this: no matter how much you drill it into people that "black belt is not the end, it's only the beginning," there are more people too many that don't believe this. That's why I worry about the effects that eliminating dan grades might have. Because even among those that stick around after getting their black belt, how many might not by eliminating grades? I personally would love to learn Gojushiho and all those those other advanced kata that are normally taught at sandan or higher. But then there are the higher grades that are awarded based on your contribution to the art. I don't "need" my master's degree, as the job I've been working in for over a decade only requires a bachelor's. But I was really ecstatic when I got my master's, because of that sense of accomplishment and achievement. So that could be a motivator as well. If I won the lottery jackpot, and no longer needed to work, you can bet that I'd be working on my doctorate. In my experience, between several different styles and schools over the course of nearly 2 decades, so far, the vast majority of people are going to consider black belt to be "the end," regardless of how many additional dan grades come after it. I can't count the number of times I've encountered people returning to martial arts after long breaks to "finish what they started" (by which, they mean earning black belt, and nothing more). As you've said, people very often earn black belt and stop showing up. Heck, the general public who are looking for martial arts training, by and large, have no idea that there even ARE more ranks above black belt, and they have no sense of scale or import for such a structure. You've compared the dan grades to college degrees, and as someone who never went to college, I don't really have a proper frame of reference for that, but to me, the question is this: are you pursuing a degree/dan grade because you want to learn, or are you pursuing it to say that you got the piece of paper? I know what my answer is, and I know that not everyone is going to have the same answer, but as an instructor, I can tell you who I would prefer to teach.

I absolutely agree! We never called anyone "master" in my late Sensei's dojo, or the organization we were a part of, and in the dojo I was part of prior to that, I was taught that the term "master" was only used posthumously. I realize that some of the Japanese titles used in martial arts can be translated to "master," but if you break down the roots of the terms, that isn't really what they mean.

This is an interesting facet of the discussion, because I actually still see Shodan (which literally means "beginning level," after all) as having completed learning the basics and being ready to start learning, in earnest. To me (and my late Sensei), the solo kata, the training drills, and the example applications, are all "basics," in a sense. It isn't that you've mastered the curriculum, but you have memorized and gotten comfortable with all of the fundamental material of the style, which gives you the freedom to begin exploring and studying it in depth. The funny thing about this is that I acknowledge how different my approach is to what is generally done on Okinawa. There, Shodan is ACTUALLY considered to be a simple sign that you've learned the basics--the actual kihon, and a couple fundamental kata--and can be achieved in 2-3 years. In the West, we have long put black belt on a pedestal, and MANY schools already require as much for Shodan as someone testing for Nidan-Godan on Okinawa. I recognize that I've, essentially, built on that Westernization with my approach, rather than the Okinawan one, but I see that as part of the evolution of the art, in a way. Because Westerners have done that for so long, and because other arts, like BJJ, have taken the same route, it is often expected that a black belt have more of a "mastery" of their art than was traditionally required, and we should (IMO) maintain some quality control within karate by keeping up with that trend. I know that seems anathema to traditional karate, but the ranks were only added less than 100 years ago, in the first place, and even Judo, where they came from, has changed how they work in that time.

I've seen a lot of comments mentioning cross-training, which is great! I actually do require that students testing for black belt must go out and learn a form from another style, and be able to demonstrate application for it. I also take competitive fighting, like MMA matches, into consideration for grading. I suppose my question would be, "how do ranks accomplish what you're proposing?" With point A, it sounds as though the concern is that once someone reaches Shodan that there is nothing more to learn from the instructor, or no additional guidance from the instructor, unless there are additional ranks above Shodan. I don't personally believe that the ranks are necessary for continued learning and guidance. With point B, I think you hit the nail on the head with your very first sentence--TIME is the important thing. How do ranks change your perspective in a way that time, itself, does not? Especially if you require the full curriculum for Shodan, which would mean that it takes longer to achieve that rank, in the first place?

I've attended a couple of the openly-available webinars, but I haven't subscribed. There have been a couple people he has brought onto the platform who give me pause, but there are definitely some great ones on there, too. I suspect the lack of buzz about it is probably because of the target audience--people interested in classical and traditional Okinawan karate. It wasn't built for sport karate people, and although there have definitely been some solid bunkai sessions, it wasn't really built for practical karate people, either. The people that generally leaves are, in my experience, the quietest about their training. They don't share much on social media, especially. I have thousands of martial arts friends on Facebook, for example, and while I know for certain that at least two dozen of them subscribe to BujinTV, I have MAYBE seen 2 of them post about it, before.

I think it's pertinent to mention that adults like shiny things as much as kids do. The thing that adults have that kids don't is the ability to temper expectations and be swayed by cooler heads. I think the question, in this case, should be "What kind of attitude do we want adult black belts to engender?" I have spent the last 14 years as a Shodan and have been happy with that. It wasn't until I opened my own school that I began to desire a higher rank, for the sake of my students. I've spent that 14 years, off and on, enriching my own journey as a martial artist. Branching out and learning different philosophies and techniques has been a joy, and I don't feel weird telling people that I am still a Shodan after all this time. Rank doesn't matter to me, my experience does. I feel like it's a place that a lot of people reach at one point or another. Rank is not who we are, experience is. Rank, in a perfect world, exists only as a visual marker of that experience. However, as you pointed out, it often exists as a political tool. It serves only to show a hierarchy of power in too many organizations. Do they have the right experiences? Do they have the right temperament? These questions are thrown to the wayside when rank is a purely political thing. I agree with, all things said. The abolition of yudansha would be what is best for karate, I think, in general. I absolutely acknowledge that belts are a useful motivational and goal-setting tool for adults, which is why I still have a few before black belt--I have known a few people who want to do just white belts and black belts, the way Judo originally started out, but I think that's TOO limiting. As you mention, adults can be reasoned with, and can reason with themselves, with regard to the length of time it takes to achieve their goals. They can also be made to understand that the ranks aren't the important thing, but rather the experience, knowledge, and skill they build as they work to reach those ranks. I just feel that, once you have reached black belt, you really SHOULDN'T care about the belts, anyway--it's an almost universal statement from dan ranks to kyu ranks, but somehow once people become dan ranks, they often ignore their own advice and focus on belts again. With regard to opening a school/dojo, that's something that I've been frustrated by, as well. Most organizations require you to be a certain dan rank before you can open a school, or even test students for rank. The trouble with that is that the ability to effectively teach has absolutely nothing to do with the belt rank you have. There are 8th Dans who can't teach to save their lives, and 1st Dans who are fantastic teachers, and may even be professional teachers in their day jobs. It makes no sense to say the 8th Dan can have a school, but the 1st Dan can't--especially when you consider how long it would take for the 1st Dan's students to catch up to them in knowledge and skill, even if you assume that 1st Dan doesn't continue their own training. There's also the matter of how high a rank someone can test their students for, which seems to vary from 1 rank below to 3 below, on average, but if--like you--you've been a Shodan for YEARS, continuing your training and learning, then I don't see why you should be limited to ranking someone up to Shodan. You may not have the belt, but you do have the experience and knowledge. Yeah, like I mentioned in the OP, competition-based arts are a different beast when it comes to ranks. I am actually a green belt in Judo, and have been since 2008, despite training in Judo regularly until 2010, because although I learned all of the curriculum for Shodan, and could demonstrate it on request, I was just not a good competitor. My Judo sensei required you to win (in actual tournaments) around 6 matches out of 10 against people of the rank above you before you could be promoted, IIRC. I have gotten better at throwing people since then, but I haven't competed, and haven't been training directly under a Judo instructor, so there's no rank promotions in my future, and that's okay. I can still incorporate it into my training and teaching. I definitely did get the feeling, though, that if you come in with a low rank and sweep a tournament, it would not be out of the ordinary for you to be promoted on the spot. Heck, I even saw it happen at a tournament, once.

Thanks, Bob! I was curious as to your opinion on this, since you've gone through the ranks and organizational hierarchy to a very high level. A caveat real quick: I usually tend to read threads from top to bottom, seeing what other posters have said so far. I did not do that with this thread, because I didn't want to influence my answer in any way. I'll catch up on the replies after this post. So, when I read that section of your post, it really resonated with me. That's exactly the frustration I have with my school/organization at this point in time. For example, the GM added this series of three-step sparring; 18 of them if I recall, and the first 6 are required at the dan testings now. To me, this is frivolously adding worthless curriculum to give black belts some more busy work to do; more to memorize for testing. Compound that with the exorbitant testing fees (it would cost me more than a good car payment to test for 5th dan), it makes the thought of testing frustrating. Then you mentioned the politics; I wonder how others in the organization, especially ones that I've taught in the past who have now tested up to or past my current rank, look at me. I honestly don't care, but what does bother me is the expectation of "respecting the rank" when I don't honestly think they have more to offer than I do. At any rate, that a lot of me and my issues, but like I mentioned, your comment really resonated with me in that sense. I'm tired of busting my but to learn some new three-steps that I don't think are useful or beneficial training. The thought of exploring deeper into the style, and even learning from other stylists, really appeals to me. I like your idea, but it would definitely be a hard one to pull off. It will probably be relegated to a few stylists here and there that decide to go with this approach. There's a lot of merit in it; when practitioners start seeing each other more and more as peers as opposed to wondering where they fall into the hierarchy, then so many new things become possible. Like Bob always says, "Proof is on the floor!" I definitely think that the additional dan ranks encourage padding the curriculum. In my former organization, there was a set of 7 yakusoku kumite drills (same concept as your three-steps, but the number of movements varies) that we had to know, but after the founder of the organization passed away, his son introduced 7 more. And then 7 more. And then 7 more. These drills mostly ended with solid kata applications, but the rest was your typical long range, childrens' karate basics that don't (IMO) provide any real value besides some kote kitae. It felt like just another way to keep black belts memorizing material to earn ranks. I agree. The current CI at our school is interested in expanding our self-defense knowledge. However, ho sin sul (self-defense) is reserved for the black belt classes. How is that helpful or right? We had also talked about introducing some grappling drills, just to get some exposure to it, and to give our students some idea of how to deal with it. However, he had an issue with teaching it especially to some of the younger kids right away. Too advanced. I told him there are a BJJ white belts out there. Didn't seem to help much. Another issue I have is that the school is always worried about the next testing. I just don't care for that approach. The instructors always end up "teaching to the test," and therefore the classes are structured for learning testing material. So no exploration gets done. Self-defense should not be gatekept in that manner, IMO, and neither should fundamental grappling. You don't need to teach your yellow belts how to put a gogoplata on somebody trying to stab you, lol. For what it's worth, I had some disagreements with the other instructors at my late Sensei's dojo after he passed away, because he incorporated grappling material into his karate classes, but I was the only instructor doing that after his passing. I pushed to have grappling drills included as grading requirements to try and encourage the other instructors to include it, despite wanting to trim the grading requirements down. It's tough when you have organizational requirements that don't represent an efficient practical curriculum.

With regard to instructors, I did go with a certification for those who want to teach, as opposed to different belts. Essentially, you can earn a black belt in my adult curriculum, and if you want to be an instructor, there is more material (such as the childrens' curriculum, and the KishimotoDi material I teach) that you would have to learn, and be tested on. Rather than a new obi, you would be awarded with a shidoin (instructor) certificate. I'm sure the reduced number of belts and lack of dan grades probably would be a discouraging factor for some, so I agree that it probably wouldn't work well in a large-scale commercial school. With kids, I do have a separate belt system, entirely--also similar to BJJ and Judo--so there are more belts for children to work through. It helps to provide that tangible incentive. I just feel that adults shouldn't need as much of that as kids do, and I'd like to think that removing the additional dan grades would get rid of the "I should be a higher rank than so-and-so" factor simply because there ARE no higher ranks to be had.

We've had a couple discussions here in recent weeks about ranks, and I thought I would bring up a topic that might be worth some thought, which is the abolition of yudansha grades beyond Shodan. In other words, there would be a black belt rank, but no Nidan-Judan (2nd-10th degree) grades. This is something that I have personally done with rank in my dojo, in addition to trimming down the number of kyu grades. There are a few different factors to my reasoning, here, and I'm sure not everyone feels the same. For one thing, my late Sensei required his students to know the full curriculum by Shodan, anyway, which is the requirement most organizations (including the one we were part of) have for Godan. The idea was that you would then simply spend your time as a yudansha exploring and evolving your karate, rather than memorizing new material. Of course, that makes it tougher to grade someone, because they don't have to demonstrate new material at a test, and instead simply need to show improvement in skill/understanding. The second major factor is that rank is almost always used as a political tool, and a way for people to feel superior to others. That isn't always the case, of course, but far more often than not, that is what I've observed. Third, the dan grades don't serve the purpose in karate that they were intended for in Judo or Go, where the system came from. Requiring all of the curriculum for black belt does mean it takes longer to earn a black belt, but I don't see that as a huge issue, personally--people don't have any problem training for 8-12 years to reach black belt in BJJ or Judo, for example. I'm sure many people feel the dan grades are, or should be, merit based, but I honestly see them used more as a political tool for those who have already achieved a higher rank, because the more high ranks they have under them, the better they look. Additionally, there is a definite sense of hierarchy that stacks on top of organizational hierarchy when you have multiple dan grades, where the 3rd Dans feel superior to the 2nd Dans, and the 6th Dans feel superior to the 5th Dans, etc. The trouble is that the only difference between these grades is often the length of time someone has been training, rather than their skill or knowledge, but you end up with people making "corrections" that they really shouldn't be making, just because they have a higher number on their certificate than someone else. The third factor is probably the most universal one, but it doesn't get talked about much. I think most people realize that belt ranks are going to be completely different between styles, organizations, and even individual schools. The thing is that this isn't really the case with competition-based arts, because their competitions provide a universal standard against which participants are judged. This fits well with the kyudansei, because it was brought into Judo from Go, where it was used to handicap and bracket opponents for competition, and Judo uses it that way, as well--albeit less formally. Karate, on the other hand, is made up of so many disparate systems, and without any universal competition format to judge participants by, that the dan grades really don't mean anything, at all, outside of your school. What, then, is the point, since they don't signify what they were intended to (ie, your level of skill/understanding in comparison to others who are graded with the same system). Anyway, just some food for thought, and I'd love to hear what you all think!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Welcome to the forum!

I'm of the opinion that martial arts training must be approached with many overlapping layers of training methods in order to account for the compromises we make in those methods, and sparring is no different. Personally, I like to spend the most time sparring with kakedameshi (sticky hands sparring), and if we're going light with an emphasis on grappling, we'll do that without gloves or mouthguards, but if we are going harder, we'll put those on. I also use "bully sparring" (one person acting as the attacker who just keeps putting on forward pressure and doesn't stop hitting), and other asymmetrical sparring methods like boxer vs. grappler, or legs vs. hands, in order to expose my students to a variety of skillsets and challenges. I also like MMA-style sparring for covering all ranges of combat, and self-defense scenario training for the highest level of realism with regard to how self-defense situations actually happen. As a general rule, we use mouthguards and MMA sparring gloves, with shin/foot pads and headgear being optional (I generally recommend against it unless they need to avoid bruising or other marks on the face, as they've been shown to make TBI worse). Contact always starts light, and we slowly increase the contact to get people used to impact, although full-contact is largely unnecessary. I only allow light contact to the head, because we don't need anyone developing TBI. Techniques that are particularly dangerous (eye gouges, knee kicks, etc.) are either done slowly or with slightly adjusted target locations for safety.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum!

Thank you very much, Patrick, and everyone else, for the kind words, and the award! I was honestly quite surprised when I received it in the mail--it hadn't even occurred to me that I had been a moderator here for so long, already! I look forward to staying the course, and continuing to watch KF grow and evolve, along with its members.

As Bob said, I think the conditioning that Uechi-Ryu is known for is partially responsible for its lack of popularity. Both the finger conditioning and toe conditioning are rough, and most people aren't interested in that. I will add that Uechi-Ryu also does not have very many kata, and the kata they do have don't typically do well in kata competition. Like it or not, competition is how martial arts generally spread the most, and Uechi-Ryu just isn't one of the popular options for karate competition. It's unfortunate, for sure. As you mentioned, I am interested in doing a bit of cross-training in Uechi-Ryu, because I find it interesting (although I don't plan on picking up the entire style, or switching over to it). There is one Uechi-Ryu school in Arizona that I know of, and I have tried calling, emailing, and sending Facebook messages, but they never respond. I also know of Uechi-Ryu schools in other states, but they don't seem to do any advertising or promotion, so that may be part of the problem, as well.