Wastelander

My name is not martial arts related, unlike most people here. I am a fan of the post-apocalyptic genre of books, films, and video games, which is one influence. I also live in Phoenix, which I consider to be in the middle of a wasteland (the Sonoran desert) compared to where I'm originally from. In addition, I do custom leatherwork to make a little extra income every now and then, and I'm known for my heavily distressed apocalyptic style, so I brand my work as "Wasteland Leatherwork."

Ah, so just a massive number of repetitions of a technique, then! When I started training, we would do that in class, but over time it got phased out of class-time in favor of partner drills and kata, and I started doing that on my own time.

When you talk about doing separate days for "skills" and for "striking," I assume you are talking about partner drills and solo basics? If so, I don't separate them at all--I typically practice my solo basics before and after class, and I try to include solo practice of techniques from my partner drills. That way, I get the best of both worlds. It is definitely good to have your muscle memory "programmed" to automatically do what you need to do, and impact training is vital.

Welcome to the forum!

Enter the Dojo is great stuff! We did have Master Ken do his first ever "seminar" at my dojo, as ShoriKid mentioned, and my Sensei's girlfriend is actually his tour manager for the seminars he is traveling around for at the moment. Definitely wishing them great success!

3-4 years is a pretty average amount of time to earn a black belt in Japan, as far as I am aware, and you can do it in less than that if you compete (and win) a lot. Outside of Japan it seems to be fairly uncommon, outside of McDojos, to earn your black belt in less than 6 years, but it isn't unheard of and doesn't immediately set off warning bells in my head. I would have to see their karate to know if they were watering it down.

I believe in those cases the stripes represent the titles of Renshi, Kyoshi, and Hanshi. If we're thinking of the same thing, that is--it could certainly be something else. My sensei told me about an organization where they give one stripe for every 3 dan ranks, so they could really be anything.

As an IT person, myself, I really don't have any need to use my training except for self control. That said, I used to train with a woman at my old dojo (who still trains, as well) that was a nurse at a home for elderly people with dementia. She was on the "restraint team" and had to make use of her training fairly frequently. She has since retired from that job to sew full time--much less stressful

Kicking the bag is going to be just as safe as punching it, as bushido_man96 mentioned. Just make sure the bag is secure (not going to fall down when you kick it) and check to see if the sandbags that add weight to your bag have shifted to the outside. If they have, then a kick (or punch without gloves) that lands on a sandbag is going to be quite painful. I prefer bags that do not have sandbags in them, for that very reason.

As long as you know how to hit the bag safely and effectively, there is no problem with using it. I train in Shorin-Ryu and regularly work on a 6ft 150lb heavy bag. Sometimes I do sparring-type strikes on it, and sometimes I work self defense techniques from kata on it. A good heavy bag is an excellent impact training tool, along with makiwara and focus mitts.

I'll be perfectly honest--I absolutely hate stretching. I'm not sure why, but I do. That said, I had to research it while I was going through personal training/fitness classes in High School, and then I've done a little more throughout my martial arts career. I do know how to stretch, and I try to do at least a little bit of stretching after every workout. Many martial artists tend to do something that really gets to me when it comes to stretching, though--stretching BEFORE working out! Stretching before you are warmed up at all can cause injury (I've subluxated a rib and torn a hamstring doing that, in fact) and stretching after warming up, but before your workout, makes your muscles less efficient, and you have to warm up again before you get into your serious workout or you can end up with joint issues. I know I'm probably going to hear from people who have been stretching before they work out for decades and have no issues, and that's great for them, but I'm going to side with science on this one. University studies have shown that stretching before your workout is a bad idea, and I'm not going to do it or advocate it.

I spar my sensei every time I attend a sparring session at my dojo. Of course, being a yondan who has trained for as long as I've been alive, and still being as young/fit as he is, he is incredibly difficult to actually hit cleanly. There are some days I can't really hit him at all. I can occasionally land an over-extended punch or a glancing kick, or if I clinch up with him I can sometimes throw/sweep him, and on the ground I can sometimes submit him, but much more often than not he is the far superior fighter. That's what I expect, though! In my old dojo, sparring the sensei was also a fairly regular thing, but it was touch-contact point sparring so it was a bit of a different animal. I was lucky to ever land a single punch on my sensei at that dojo while doing point sparring. I recently visited and sparred with him in a continuous format (first time I ever saw that from that group of schools) and was able to land much more because I didn't have to stop when I was hit. It's amazing what a difference the ruleset makes in your rate of success, even within the same general field (karate, in this case). Sparring is all about learning, adapting, and overcoming obstacles. In my opinion, your sensei is the perfect person to spar for those purposes--they are experienced enough to give you learning opportunities and provide you with enough difficulty to push your limits. There are certainly instructors out there who are unable to spar due to age or health issues, and that's totally fine, but I think if you are the sensei, and you are able to spar, then you should do it.

Maybe his way works fine for what his student want--if you're just training for the culture/experience of it, or for fitness, or just for fun, then it's not an issue at all. I wouldn't be terribly happy with it, if I were his student, but that's my own opinion--your training should not include anything that is useless, or that has only intangible benefits that can only be applied years down the road, when you are training for self defense. Bad people don't check what rank you are before they assault you to make sure you know how to defend yourself properly.

I agree with Kuma 100%--awareness drills, crowd escape drills, environmental navigation drills, and memorizing where the embassy is, how to get there, and how to call it. I might throw in some training against grabbing attacks--body grabs/bear hugs to pick her up or drag her away, grab around the neck from behind, and arm grabs are all common attacks on women.

I'm afraid this is a bit tough to answer, since it depends on what I'm striking. I suppose I prefer palm heel strikes and hammerfists, as a general rule, but there are definitely exceptions.

Welcome to the forum, and congratulations!

Congratulations!

Shorin-Ryu has plenty of applications for the kata beyond block-punch-kick karate--especially when you work with instructors who have cross-trained. It sounds like your instructor was never taught anything but block-punch-kick karate, and so he is passing on exactly what he was taught. Any student contradicting that is going to seem like they are insulting not only him, but his instructor and all of the years they dedicated to their training. That makes it a pretty touchy subject. All-in-all, it doesn't sound like you and your instructor are really on the same page. It may be time to find a new instructor.

I was originally taught to completely overlap my belt in the Japanese manner. As I've transitioned to Shorin-Ryu, I've started crossing my belt in the back--the senior members of our organization in Okinawa cross their belt, including the head of the organization and his teacher (Chibana Chosin) before him. I've heard the "back support" thing before, but I don't believe it because the fabric just isn't stiff enough. I think it is simply an aesthetic preference.

Yes, we do, but I think that if I ever branch out to teach on my own, I will take them out of the curriculum. There is plenty of great stuff in Naihanchi, Passai, and Kusanku--and even Chinto and Gojushiho, although I'd probably take them out, too--that I just don't see the need for the Pinan kata. Most of the techniques found in them can be found in other kata, or the situations they address can be addressed with techniques from other kata, and they are so widespread I don't feel obligated to preserve them simply for the sake of tradition.

We have some women in our dojo that wear KI brand, and I haven't heard them complain. That said, just try and find a middleweight or heavyweight gi that fits your shoulders and hips, and you can have it tailored to fit better if you need to. There's just not much sense in getting a lightweight gi tailored, since it's going to get destroyed pretty quickly.

Throws and takedowns are most certainly present in karate, but many karateka don't practice them or try to improve them. The kata contain placeholders for throws more often than they have you perform the actual throws in the air because it would be awkward to do so, and Okinawans regularly competed against each other in tegumi (a native Okinawan grappling system). The kata told you when you could employ a tegumi technique, but being effective with that technique required tegumi practice. Today, we have access to all sorts of grappling arts to cross train in and plug into our karate, even if tegumi isn't around anymore. For myself, I studied judo for 4 years, and have since been constantly integrating it into my karate practice. Thanks to judo, I can see throws, sweeps, takedowns, locks, and chokes in kata where I didn't before, and thanks to judo I can actually perform the techniques properly. I also recommend watching videos of shima (Okinawan sumo) which evolved from tegumi, to get a sense for what kind of throws the kata might have originally contained. I've added a few to my practice thanks to that research.

I'm with Danielle on this one--I don't see asking a dan grade to spar as being disrespectful, and it happens all the time at my dojo. In fact, I'm a kyu grade at the moment, and I ask dan grades to spar just about every time there is sparring being done. I'm respectful to dan grades, but asking people to spar is completely normal to us, regardless of rank. If I were the chief instructor in your scenario, I would be having a talk with the dan grades about humility and mutual respect.

He shouldn't have gotten to the rank he has to begin with, in my opinion. That said, we really aren't going to be able to do anything about this situation--the only person who can do that is your instructor. If disciplining him isn't working, talking to him doesn't do anything, and talking to his parents doesn't help, I would be immediately kicking him out of class every time he was disruptive. Either his mom will get mad at him for wasting her money and discipline him as well, or she will get mad at me for kicking him out of class and take him somewhere else.

At my dojo, brown belts and higher can teach private lessons, and the students seeking private lessons pick who they would like to teach them. The private lessons are done for additional, one-on-one training to supplement normal classes. Students who do private lessons are typically either capable of progressing faster than the rest of their class and want to push themselves, or students who are wanting extra preparation for a rank exam or tournament.