Wastelander

The definition I like for "technique" is "to apply procedures or methods so as to effect a desired result." By that definition, a technique is most likely not going to be a singular movement. Every technique is made up of many parts, but because they are all working together to achieve a specific goal, they are one.

Have someone watch you kick and make sure that you aren't pointing your foot down when you chamber it. No matter how far back you pull your toes, if your foot is extended you are going to hit with your toes. If you have your foot correctly positioned (about a 90 degree angle to your shin) and still hit with your toes, then you may need to work on your toe flexibility. This will require stretches and static holds over a long period of time. While I can hit with the ball of my foot just fine on front kicks, I still have a hard time on roundhouse kicks, and I'm 7 years into my training. Don't expect massive leaps in progress--everything takes time

My experience with JKD is limited, but as far as I am aware, JKD is not a style. JKD is Bruce Lee's philosophy on martial arts training, with regard to how it should be approached, but it was never a system of techniques and concepts meant to be passed on and preserved. I believe he even specifically requested that people not teach anything he taught them under the name "Jeet Kune Do" for that reason.

I'm familiar with the sequence of movements in the kata, I'm just having a hard time figuring out how you're applying them. What is the attack you are defending against, what do you do with that attack when you receive it, what is the target you are striking with the hammer fist, and what is a "stepping arm smash"? It almost sounds like a Naihanchi application If you're not comfortable sharing more details, that's perfectly fine--I'm just perpetually curious when it comes to kata application

Since my Sensei goes over kata applications all the time, I'm rarely surprised when he shows us something new. Sometimes, they are very straight forward and practical, and sometimes they are more advanced (take more skill to do under pressure), and sometimes they are just fun . What was the application, out of curiosity?

I understand that--for us, the numbers I listed are general guidelines for how long it takes the average student to get to the level of skill required for the next rank. We certainly do have students who test before they have reached these numbers, and students who do not test until they have far passed these numbers.

Here is a list of our ranks, with the time you need to have been training between each one. So the amount of time/training I have next to "Yellow" is the amount of time/training you need to have done as a white belt in order to test for yellow belt. The time I listed next to "Orange" is the amount of time/training you need to have done as a yellow belt in order to test for orange belt. Etc. This is all approximate, though--people who are fast learners and dedicated to their training tend to move through the ranks more quickly up through blue belt. White Yellow - 4 months or 80 class hours Orange - 4 months or 80 class hours Purple - 6 months or 80 class hours Blue - 6 months or 120 class hours Green - 8 months or 180 class hours 3rd Degree Brown - 8 months or 180 class hours, plus 20 teaching hours 2nd Degree Brown - 8 months or 180 class hours, plus 20 teaching hours 1st Degree Brown - 8 months or 180 class hours, plus 20 teaching hours Shodan - 1 year or 240 class hours, plus 30 teaching hours Nidan - 2 years or 400 class hours, plus 50 teaching hours Sandan - 3 years or 600 class hours, plus 70 teaching hours

Samantha is a very interesting martial artist, and a great role model for young women. Personally, I think she has a great attitude when it comes to facing superior size/strength! As someone who is fairly large, but not very strong, I can appreciate both sides of this particular subject. On the one hand, it is definitely an advantage to be bigger and stronger than your opponent. That said, having to constantly face bigger and stronger opponents does force you to improve your technique to compensate for your disadvantage. That improvement gives you an advantage.

By "blood bubble" do you mean a bruise/contusion? The word "bubble" makes me think of a blood blister, which would be quite a different thing, and I'm not sure how you would get it from karate training. At my dojo, and at home, we always have band-aids, ice packs, athletic tape, and ACE compression bandages. I also have a bottle of liniment from Thailand called Fighter Fix that I use to clear up bruising and promote the healing of muscles. Other than that, there isn't much else you should need, I don't think. A set of popsicle sticks to make finger splints might be good, though.

when you say sport-style grappling what do you mean exactly? Whenever we do groundwork we do learn how to escape from having someone on mount (i knew prior how to do it due to my BJJ training) and how defend from guard. Takedowns we do a fair bit of in the higher grades when it comes to Kyogi, otherwise i'm left in charge of teaching it (even when i'm meant to be training). and locks & holds i also have to teach with my sensei When I say "sport-style grappling," I am referring to groundwork where you are working to set up transitions and submissions as you would in a grappling competition, with no striking allowed and without the goal of regaining a standing position. In our karate training, takedowns/sweeps/throws are very commonly practiced, as are standing limb controls, joint destruction techniques, and chokes. The actual "groundwork" portions are typically limited to defending takedowns and working on sweeps/transitions to get back to your feet, with striking included.

so you have made some slight variations between the styles to create your current version of it? Correct--after working both the version I originally learned, and the version that my Goju-Ryu friends do, I decided that there were some things I liked better about their version and included them. I haven't actually settled on doing the same thing every time, though, so it's still a bit experimental. My instructor is planning to ask Hanshi Perry about learning his version of Seiunchin, which is from an old Okinawan family style. If I get the chance to work that, I will probably tweak what I do some more. I'm a terrible traditionalist

We have two classes a week specifically for working grappling. Outside of that, it is pretty much up to Sensei's discretion. Sometimes we will go a month without working any groundwork of any kind, and sometimes we will do it two or three times a week for a month. The groundwork we practice in karate is always focused on takedown defense or fighting off an attacker from the ground so you can get back to your feet as quickly as possible. In the grappling classes, it is more sport-style grappling.

Okinawan karate masters of old were well-known for their grip strength. You can't control someone if you can't hold onto them, so it makes sense that this would be very important. Of course, it also indicates strong fingers, hands, and forearms, which would allow you to hit harder and with a wider variety of strikes.

I would leave now, despite what the contract might say. If you do decide to stay until November, definitely keep every note they leave you. I also recommend making an incident journal--write down the date and time (or as close to the time as you can remember) of everything they say/do that is hurtful and offensive, and write down what they said/did. I would also try to get someone to write a letter that they have witnessed these things happening. Once you have that, take all of it to your instructor's organization and his teacher, if at all possible, in addition to filing a report with the police.

It's hard for me to say, because I like a lot of kata for a lot of different reasons. If I had to pick the one I enjoy doing the most, I would say it is probably Seiunchin. I originally learned a version of it from my Shuri-Ryu instructor that was very similar to the Shito-Ryu version. I have since worked it a bit with Japanese Goju-Ryu people, and have modified the way I do it.

Welcome to the forum!

Hi Dianna, Hanshi Doug Perry's website has some historical information on our style that might be beneficial to you: http://shorinryushorinkan.com/ There are some videos on YouTube of Shorinkan kata being performed, but I can't think of any off the top of my head that go over terminology. Much of the terminology is going to be similar to other styles, but sometimes terminology is different depending on who is teaching it.

Welcome to the forum, Adamantis! Aikido and karate are certainly quite different from each other, and can blend well together, but there is also a lot that could conflict. Karate employs joint locks that can be very similar to Aikido, but they tend to be used differently and that could cause some confusion. The footwork may also mix you up. I have also found that Aikido people sometimes have a very unusual idea of how a strike or kick should be done because of the way they do attacks in that art. I think that, after a year of Aikido, you will probably be able to cross-train in karate and benefit from it. That said, it will be important for you to go into the karate dojo with shoshin--a beginner's mind. Forget Aikido while you are in the karate dojo. Approach your karate training as if you have never done a martial art before. Then, when you are back in your Aikido dojo, you can experiment with incorporating karate into what you do. Later, as you become more comfortable with karate, you will be able to bring your Aikido into your karate training. Over time, they may even blend together entirely. Enjoy your training!

I can't either, but we were taught how to use it properly . It sounds like Ruben has skipped all the way to conditioning like Morio Higaonna without proper training, which is dangerous to say the least.

As two completely unrelated martial artists that I know have both said recently--you can't hit things hard if you never hit things! Hitting thing, like the heavy bag, is vital to developing power. In the process, you will certainly strengthen the structure of your strikes, which means you can transfer more energy (power) into a target without the structure (wrist, elbow, shoulder, etc.) collapsing. That does not, however, build full-body strength. You need to be lifting, or at least doing intensive body-weight exercises, in order to really get stronger.

As Kuma said, there are certainly benefits to conditioning your hands for striking, but that is something that you really need proper guidance for. Without the right tools, technique, and knowledge, you can damage your hands beyond repair. I highly recommend that you seek out a reputable traditional karate instructor in your area if this is something you are interested in. While pretty much all karate styles include it, Okinawan Goju-Ryu is probably the most consistent branch of karate when it comes to incorporating body forging into their training. Chinese stylists who train and teach iron palm would also be a good option.

Welcome to the forum, and welcome to karate! I hope you enjoy your time in both!

Another interesting and enigmatic topic from sensei8! I suppose it isn't fair for me to answer this question, because my right arm is about an inch longer than my left . I will give it a shot, though. Two arms are "longer" than one in the sense that you will cover more distance with your entire body in order to bring both arms to bear than you would if you just used one--it makes your attack longer, essentially. Conversely, one arm would be "longer" than two, in the sense that the body does not need to travel as far to bring it to bear, since one arm can be extended in one direction further than two at once. Of course, if you are simply trying to span a distance with your arms, two arms are always going to be longer than one.

Thanks, Patrick! He was out for quite a while, and was transported to the hospital after the fight. I looked into the gym he was representing to see if I could contact them, but they don't seem to exist so I wasn't table to. My wife tracked down his girlfriend on Facebook and saw that the Tuesday after our fight she had changed her profile picture to a webcam photo of the two of them together, so as far as I know he is fine.

Congratulations on the progress! I also noticed a decline in my endurance when I started lifting--I think that is pretty normal. I recommend continuing with Stronglifts until you no longer increase your strength, and then look into a more advanced routine. For endurance, I'm afraid I am not one to recommend running--it's very hard on the body, and (at least for me) its endurance benefits don't really carry over into karate that well. If you can, I would say that swimming is a better option for endurance than running. Personally, though, I would recommend adding an intense bagwork session between lifting and karate training, or after karate training. What I typically do is Tabata-style bagwork, so I will throw hard and fast combinations on the bag for 20 seconds, then rest for 10 seconds, and then repeat that as many times as I can. Every session, try to get in one more set of 20 seconds. If you have a partner, padwork can be done the same way and is even more intense because you can move around a lot more. Doing all of this, plus karate, in a single day is going to leave you exhausted that day and sore the next. Get lots of sleep and eat lots of clean food, and you will improve!