Wastelander

That's great to hear, Joppe! Thanks for the update!

My Sensei has higher standards than most in our organization seem to, so as long as I tried my best, I think I would be just fine. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Nakazato Sensei isn't going to kick me out of the organization and ban me from training if I fail the test, after all. If I failed, I would just keep on training and test some other time.

When I practiced Shuri-Ryu, kobudo was taught as sort of a sister-system in the curriculum, in a rotating style. Instead of belt ranks, they tested you on each weapon, individually, and gave you a patch for each test you passed to certify that you were ranked with that weapon. Passing all six would earn you the rank of Tasshi in the Shuri-Ryu kobudo system, and the right to wear a black gi. I passed the test for bo, and I passed everything but one requirement in the test for sai (impractical weapon manipulation--which is the most ridiculous requirement, in my opinion). At the time, I had learned three bo kata and two sai kata: Shushi no Kon Sho Shushi no Kon Dai Donyu no Kon Nicho Sai Sancho Sai I also learned the basics for kama, tonfa, nunchaku, and jo. At one point, I took a jo seminar, and learned 5 jodo kata (they are short) but absolutely hated the material, so I didn't keep up with it. During my time in Shuri-Ryu, I also practiced a branch of Shinkage-Ryu iaijutsu that my teacher learned during his visits to Japan over the years. I learned all four of the tachigata (standing forms) for that system, and one of the kneeling kata, but there are two other three other kneeling kata, and some wakizashi and partner kata that I never got to learn. When I transitioned to Shorin-Ryu, I got to learn a little more about trapping/locking/sweeping with weapons, which was interesting, but I have been completely focused on my karate. I did learn on kama kata, Nakaima no Kama, and started to learn a nunti kata that comes from a family system, but it's long and complex, so I've forgotten it, now.

SteyrAUG definitely gave a great explanation of how to avoid a lot of problems during training! In addition, there are plenty of accidental injuries that can occur, even when your attitude is good and everyone is doing their best to train properly and the sensei is giving proper guidance. Hawkmoon mentioned a few--I would say, by far, the most common injuries (unless we're counting bruises) are going to be jammed/twisted fingers and toes! If you do a lot of sparring/grappling, then black eyes, bloody noses, and split lips are going to be fairly par for the course, as well. Thankfully, these are all very minor, and barely register on the injury scale. The jammed/twisted fingers and toes can sometimes end up as broken fingers and toes, but that isn't the end of the world. One warning I will give you is that, if you work any grappling techniques (and you should), then it's important to keep joint injuries in mind. Joint locks and throws can be pretty rugged, and can effect joints you don't even think about if you're not accustomed to them. Broken bones heal stronger than before, but damaged joints will never be the same.

Welcome to the forum! I think we may have actually crossed paths elsewhere on the internet, judging by your username.

I see that you practice Goju-Ryu. I am not a Goju-Ryu practitioner, but as I understand it, they subscribe to the same belief I do about hikite--it is used for what it says (pulling). When I explain it to people, I ask them how they do rows when they exercise. Everyone is built slightly differently, so everyone has a different zone of strength for pulling in a row. That is where you should pull to in hikite. Normally, that will not be to your hip, but closer to your lower ribs/chest.

Welcome to the forum!

Ahh, sorry, I missed that part. I've never heard of an organization being awarded an honorary rank. I'm honestly not sure how that would even work?

I've heard of it happening, from time to time. My Sensei was actually given an honorary Godan certificate by a man that he highly respected before that man passed away. He keeps that certificate in a frame at home, but doesn't claim that rank, or really even tell people about it. Since he didn't test for it, he doesn't consider himself a Godan.

I do, and have for quite some time. The link is in my signature block Thanks for setting up a topic for this, Patrick--great idea!

That is really something for your doctor to tell you. If they tell you that it's okay to put weight on it, but not expose it to impact, then you'll probably have to stick with hands-only sparring until it heals.

I use so many online resources that it isn't really feasible for me to list them all, and how I found them . Forums, blogs, and Facebook groups are at the top of that list, certainly. Since we're all on KF, already, I'll list some of my favorite online resources that I use, in no particular order: Ryan Parker Sensei's Blog, YouTube Channel, and Facebook Groups: http://ryukyuma.blogspot.com/ https://www.youtube.com/thecontemplative2 https://www.facebook.com/groups/501758733240876/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/160114070866098/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/457739570935457/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/271652302979441/ Iain Abernethy Sensei's Articles, Podcasts, Forum, and YouTube Channel: http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/articles http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/audio-list http://www.iainabernethy.co.uk/forum https://www.youtube.com/user/practicalkatabunkai John Titchen Sensei's Blog and YouTube Channel: http://johntitchen.wordpress.com https://www.youtube.com/user/jwtdart Matthew Apsokardu Sensei's Blog: http://www.ikigaiway.com/ Angel Lemus Sensei's "One Minute Bunkai" YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Oneminutebunkai Paul Enfield Sensei's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/GKCgoju Stephan Kesting's GrappleArts.com YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/StephanKesting Dan Djurdjevic Sensei's Blog: http://dandjurdjevic.blogspot.com/ Mario McKenna Sensei's Blog: http://www.kowakan.com/ Giles Hopkins Sensei's Blog: http://goju-ryu.blogspot.com/ Mike Clarke Sensei's Blog: http://shinseidokandojo.blogspot.com/ Jesse Enkamp's Blog: http://www.karatebyjesse.com/ Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu's Blog: http://8limbs.us/ Patrick McCarthy Sensei's Blog: http://irkrs.blogspot.com/ Victor Smith Sensei's Blog: http://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/ Kris Wilder Sensei's Podcasts: http://www.martial-secrets.com/

Congratulations! That is certainly an impressive accomplishment!

Welcome to the forum, and to karate!

I've made no secret about my belief that karate should be practical and effective, so I'm totally with you on that--and so was Bushi Matsumura! He supposedly complained about how the nobles made their art ineffective by making it so much like dancing. That said, I'm also of the opinion that you can find combative value in most martial arts, if you look hard enough. Personally, I believe that it is important to remember that karate is a puzzle whose pieces have been scattered over time. Udundi, despite it's overly compliant nature and dance-like approach, has similar origins to karate, so it can be a useful resource. The trick is separating the wheat from the chaff, as it were, and figuring out which techniques can be made to work under pressure against a resisting opponent. In that video, you can see a mixture of both impractical techniques and very practical techniques. Some of the techniques just work, and that's great! Some of the techniques work, but are shown in improper context. Others work, but not the way they are shown. Others simply don't work, or are the beginnings of techniques that are never finished in the demonstrations. Sorting these things out is all part of putting the puzzle back together. I consider this analysis to be a form of mental training, which I can then take to the mat and work out in a physical sense

I'm a member of some martial arts study groups on Facebook, and occasionally, some unusual and interesting content comes up. Over the weekend, this video was shared: For those who are unfamiliar, this is a demonstration of udundi techniques. Udundi is a generic term (like "karate") for the martial arts of Okinawan nobility, and is translated as "palace hand." As it shares a common root with karate, I thought it might be of interest to folks here.

I focus on the chest, but I'm sure to be visually aware of as much of my opponent's body as possible. Focusing on the eyes is fine if you are sparring/fighting someone who is relatively inexperienced, but an experienced fighter will notice eye contact and look at one target to get you to react so they can attack the resulting opening.

When I first started training in martial arts, I was told that lineage only matters in martial arts and music . I do think that lineage is somewhat helpful, but only to a point--if you are claiming a certain lineage, then you should be able to prove that, but if you are simply claiming to provide good training, then you can prove that "on the floor" (sorry for stealing your motto, sensei8). All that said, I do think that studying the lineage of your art can be very interesting. I also believe that it is important to know where your art came from. A while back, I discovered a website called the Martial Arts Lineage Project, which actually supports that idea. It's actually pretty neat--you can map out your entire lineage like a family tree, and if people in your lineage have already been added to the database, then you can just connect to them and have that section automatically completed. If you have a complicated lineage, it will chop it down into a smaller, summarized family tree, but it's still cool. Here's mine: http://www.malineage.com/martial-artists/Noah-Legel

At this point, there are only two things you can do to improve your sparring: 1. Spar more 2. Stop "losing"/trying to "win" Since it's still new to you, any advice we could give you about distancing, feints, combinations, etc. would be lost on you once you bowed in. You need to get more comfortable with it, and that means doing it more. I also noticed that you said you "totally lost," which isn't true--you can't "lose" in sparring, because it isn't a competition. Sparring is a learning experience for both parties.

This is the website for the organization that runs the competition: http://ec-random-attacks.com/

I don't think that any competitive karate sparring format is really ideal for improving self protection skills. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages, and each of them is excellent at what they do. Since real self defense scenarios occur at a wide variety of ranges, and include everything from strikes, to grappling, to weapons, it doesn't really help to specialize. Kudo/Daido-Juku is probably the closest thing we have to ideal in the karate world, at the moment, and it's still far from perfect. MMA-style sparring, in general, is a bit better but still has its flaws when it comes to a self defense perspective. Of course, all we can do in the dojo, if we're being honest with ourselves, is get as close as we safely can. I think that if you thoroughly drill and spar in all ranges/types of fighting, then you will be decently prepared. Doing things like John Titchen's DART simulation training, or high-stress competitions, can also help immensely when it comes to dealing with the adrenaline dump and emotional response.

Welcome to the forum!

As I said, it certainly has its flaws! It would be nice for it to be more realistic, with attackers that resist and don't stop after one attack, but I don't know how you would do that in a competitive format without having designated 3rd party attackers. I suppose that would be a viable option! Still, I think the rules could be worded in such a way that it promotes more realistic techniques over flashy ones. While I'm not personally a big fan of karate competition, I do think that this at least gives people who are something that they can work on that is closer to what karate actually is.

When discussing practical applications and training, I don't typically discuss karate competition, because the standard competitive formats for karate simply don't fit our idea of what karate is. That's why I was quite intrigued when this video came up in my Facebook feed today: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200571820351079 When I watched it, I was skeptical of the "random attacks" claim, since the competitors seemed to be teammates, so I checked out the website. Apparently, there are 40 "approved" attacks that this organization uses, and the referee picks one at random for the attacker to execute, which the defender then needs to deal with (without knowing what attack was chosen). Reaction time and technique effectiveness seem to be the key criteria for judging. I, personally, think this seems like a fun/interesting competitive format. Even more importantly, though, it will promote the practice of effective, practical karate, because if people want to win (and, let's face it, people like winning) they will have to explore and drill practical self defense techniques. It certainly has its flaws, as all things do, but from the looks of it, I think it's much better than the competitive formats we currently have in karate. What do you all think?

If it makes you feel any better, my left leg kicks used to be weaker than my right leg, and now they are just as strong, if not stronger. I'm afraid I don't have a magic pill for that, though--it just took LOTS of practice! The heavy bag is your friend. Kick the stuffing out of it