Wastelander

The quality of the belt really doesn't matter too much, unless you compete a lot. I believe that Tokaido belts are fairly standard for WKF competitions, though: https://www.tokaidojapan.com/ntokaido/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=262

No, building strength in the gym will not be bad for your karate. I'm not sure when that idea came about, honestly--Okinawans have always done strength training with weights to improve their karate. I also find it surprising that this idea would have found its way to India, because your culture has a rich history of fighting arts that incorporate strength training. Just do your lifts quickly and stretch when you are done working out, and you shouldn't have any issues at all. As JusticeZero and your brother said, you will get used to the training after a few weeks, but it isn't fun. You will also get stronger, certainly, but it's easier to get stronger, faster, if you use weights. We recently had a rather lengthy discussion on the topic of strength here, if you are interested in some reading, but it can be a little hard to follow if you weren't participating: http://www.karateforums.com/building-muscle-that-directly-applies-to-fighting-vt44731.html

Congratulations!

Welcome to the forum! What art/style do you practice?

I second the warning that stretching machines are dangerous, but I will also add that more stretching injuries occur from partner stretching than just about any other stretching method. Communication is VITAL to stretching safely with a partner--you must NEVER let them push you too far, or too hard. Also, I recently read a study that found that holding a stretch for any longer than a maximum of 1 minute resulted in muscular deterioration. I never hold a stretch longer than 45 seconds, and usually not more than 30.

Practical karate is any style of karate that is taught and practiced in a way that teaches practical self defense and fighting techniques. It doesn't really matter what style or "type" (traditional, sport, etc.) of karate you practice--as long as you teach karate techniques in a practical way, then you are practicing practical karate.

Welcome to the forum!

Changing things up like that is good for the mind, both from an understanding standpoint and from a morale standpoint. As OP mentioned, doing things like this can really make you think about your martial art differently, and critical thinking is good! As mal103 mentioned, many people get bored of the repetition required for karate, so changing it up helps make it a little more fun and interesting. I like to have students occasionally run through kata as if they were in a mirror (if they normally start on the right side, they start on the left, etc.) and that tends to be both fun and interesting. We will also sometimes run through kata with tension (like Sanchin), totally relaxed (like Tai Chi), or as fast as we can.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

When I met my current instructor, I found him to be friendly and accepting, even though I cam from a different style, and he was open to hearing what I had to say about things from that perspective. That open and relaxed atmosphere really sold me on training with him.

We are part of an international organization that is headquartered in Okinawa, and I imagine we will probably continue to be part of it unless something drastic happens. The Shorinkan is really pretty relaxed when it comes to how you run your dojo and what you teach, as long as you include all the kata of the system and the yakusoku kumite sets, and the association fees are low. If they were to increase the fees too much, or become too strict, we might leave, but as it stands they aren't really stopping us from doing what we want to do. I will be honest, I probably won't be part of an organization if I ever break off on my own to teach. Even with the Shorinkan being as relaxed as it is, I don't really see value in the yakusoku kumite sets (as a whole--they have some good parts, but those could be short drills) and I feel that there are too many kata to really facilitate a deep study of their applications. I would like to completely cut out the yakusoku kumite sets, the Kihon kata, Fukyu no Kata, the Pinan kata, Passai Sho, Kusanku Sho, Chinto, Gojushiho, and Go-Rin. That would leave me with the Naihanchi kata, Passai Dai, and Kusanku Dai. I might also include Seiunchin, because I feel it compliments Naihanchi very well, despite being a Naha-te kata. That would still leave me with a very large amount of material, but not so much that you would have to skip over entire kata in your application studies. In the end, I think you can get away without being part of an organization as long as your lineage is still able to be confirmed. If any student or potential student of yours can call up your instructor or look on their website and confirm that you earned the rank you claim from them, and that can be traced back through a legitimate lineage, then I don't think you'll have any trouble. The only time I think you would have a problem is if your instructor were to "disown" you for leaving the organization, and start telling people you never trained with them or never earned the rank you claim.

We do Kusanku Sho, rather than the Shotokan version, but it does have a sequence at the beginning where you do oi-tsuki and then that turns over to chudan-ude-uke. We typically apply it as an elbow dislocation--you control their arm with the hikite of the punch, punch them to hurt/distract them, and immediately roll your arm over so that the top of your forearm presses against the elbow. We do the chudan-ude-uke movement pulling back into neko-ashi-dachi, which helps extend the arm for the ambar and also takes our weight off the lead foot so we can kick or knee with it at the same time. All that said, you have to remember that Kusanku/Kanku Sho was modified by Itosu (and then Funakoshi) to fit into his "school-safe" curriculum, so it's entirely possible that he always intended for it to really be a punch followed by a block. For practical applications, I would look more into Kusanku/Kanku Dai, instead. The same goes for Passai/Bassai. They were still modified, of course, but the Dai versions seem to have been changed less than the Sho versions.

Welcome back to karate, and welcome to the forum!

The names of techniques, forms, counting, and some etiquette, are all in Japanese. We make sure that the students also know the English translations, though, and the rest of the class is in English since it is our natural language. Someday, I think it would be interesting to transition to using Uchinaguchi (the Okinawan language) instead of Japanese, but it's really just a cultural exploration.

Yes, they are 1x6 inch (lumber inches). The problem I have with laminated makiwara is that the planks are glued to each other, so they tend to resist a little too much. With ours, the planks are two separate pieces so they can flex naturally.

A makiwara definitely needs to be springy, but it should still be able to push you off-balance if your stance is weak. At my dojo, we use red oak makiwara, but they are leaf-spring style makiwara--two 1x6 red oak boards placed back-to-back, with the back one shorter than the front one, and tied together with rope in the middle. You can see them here: http://budonokaizen.blogspot.com/2011/12/our-exercisemakiwarabag-station-56k.html Interestingly, Hanshi Doug Perry was just at our dojo a few weeks ago and he commented that "a dojo has to have a makiwara--if it doesn't, it's just a glorified dance studio" and when he tried our makiwara, he said they were perfect. That, right there, makes me pretty happy with the design of our makiwara!

Kris Wilder and Lawrence Kane do podcasts fairly regularly, which can be found here: http://www.martial-secrets.com/

I don't think that traditional arts are dying, necessarily, but they are certainly changing. The concept of "budo" and Zen in martial arts is really more of a Japanese addition to karate (since you were talking about Shotokan, I'll stick to karate for this) and wasn't really present in Okinawan karate. Conflict avoidance, respect, politeness, and self control were still taught, of course, but not in the same way the Japanese did it. To me, those things should be side-effects of your training, but that's because my goals in training are not the same as your goals. I want to train for combative effectiveness, so while I pick up the budo aspects along the way, they aren't my primary objective. For you, those aspects may be the most important thing and you couldn't care less about combative effectiveness. Or, of course, you could be somewhere in the middle, or have some other, completely different goal. I guess what I'm saying is that you should find what fits you. I've heard of MMA gyms that put the budo mindset foremost in their training, even if they don't do it in a traditional manner. I've heard of karate schools that don't deal with mental development at all, despite being "traditional" schools. The style isn't really important. What's important is that the way the school is run meets your needs.

Congratulations, Harlan!

I tend to agree that embroidery seems showy, but that's probably because the first dojo I trained at prohibited embroidery on belts. All yudansha had to wear plan black belts (no stripes allowed) and anyone 5th degree or higher also wore plain black belts, and only wore the kohaku obi (red/white belt) for official functions and seminars. When the day comes for me to wear a black belt, I'll probably just get my name embroidered on it really small in black thread so it doesn't stand out, but will still be able to be seen for practical purposes. All that said, I saw an interesting belt on the Facebook page of a custom belt manufacturer last week. The belt had the practitioner's favorite Bible verse embroidered (they did it in Korean script, but English or Japanese are available) all the way around the belt, from tip to tip. I thought it might be interesting to have your favorite inspirational quote, or perhaps your own "karate maxim" of sorts, embroidered all the way around your belt like that.

I was actually introduced to this concept in judo--tokui-waza, or specialty techniques. Top level judo competitors tend to only have 3 techniques that they use consistently, but they get very good at them and very good at applying them in any situation. I think that this concept can work well, but it can also cause problems. For example, if you only have those three judo techniques as your tokui-waza, you are quite unprepared for an encounter with a skilled striker. Similarly, if your tokui-waza consist solely of striking techniques, you will be quite unprepared for an encounter with a skilled grappler. Then, we can get into sport vs. self-defense, but I don't plan on it for this conversation. The point is, as long as you have covered all ranges of combat and can apply that set of techniques under stress in an "alive" situation, then they should be all you need!

I would be interested to see studies on this. Squats, both bodyweight and barbell, tend to get a bad rap as being harmful to the knees and back that is undeserved. I can see issues if you are relaxing your knees on the squat and/or hyper-extending your legs on the kicks, but if you do the squats and kicks properly I wouldn't expect to have any issues. I've certainly never had issues with them, myself, and neither have any of the people I've trained with.

Sounds like a good warm-up to me, and it covers just about all the muscles you need to get warmed up. I know several variations of all of them, and some are certainly more "evil" than others . I have to say, I haven't done A-frame fingertip pushups, though. I may have to try those!

It's important to learn about the history of your art--it helps you put it into context. If you'd like another little interesting tidbit, I can provide one: Prior to it's 600 year trade agreement with China, Okinawa had a similar trade agreement with Indo-Chinese countries (Siam/Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, etc.). I find it hard to believe that the Okinawans wouldn't have traded martial arts with the people of Indo-China (we know they at least did this with Siam/Thailand) just like they did with the Chinese, and if you look at Silat you can see quite a few similarities between their movements and movements found in Okinawan karate. Ah, how deep the rabbit hole goes