Wastelander

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

Welcome to the forum!

Nicely done--thank you for sharing!

Facebook is a great option, but I would also recommend setting up a basic website, and get yourself put on Google Maps. One of the first things people do when they are looking for something these days is Google it, and if you don't have a website and location on Google Maps, you might as well not exist.

A heavyweight gi is going to work just fine for your training and hold up very well over time, but it is going to be warm! I second MasterPain's suggestion of getting a rashguard to wick sweat away from your body and help you cool off. The use of weapons could also be an issue, but with a little ingenuity you can sew some ties on the inside of the sleeves so you can flip them up and tie them in place when working with weapons. I'm guessing that "Bondo" is actually Bando, which is Dr. Gyi's fighting method based on Burmese martial arts, if I remember correctly.

I practice kata, or bits and pieces of kata, and I go through bunkai in my head. I also like to do research--reading books and articles on martial arts, watching videos of kata, bunkai, drills, and history, and discussing techniques, concepts, and methods with other martial artists through forums and Facebook. Phalanx - Welcome to Shorin-Ryu! The good thing about remembering half of Naihanchi is that it means you remember all of Naihanchi, because the sequence repeats going the other way once you get half way through the kata

Welcome to the forum!

That could be, but a bronze medal in judo didn't help Ronda Rousey at all--shortly after she won it at the Beijing Olympics she was homeless and living out of her car. It seems that Olympic medals only benefit you if you were able to get attention drawn to you while you were competing (Michael Phelps, Gabby Douglas, etc.). I just don't see karate being enough of a draw to really benefit the competitors after it is all over.

Welcome to the forum!

Welcome to the forum! Knockdown karate stylists are fun to have around here, and I'm looking forward to seeing your contributions. I also like your signature, although I had to put it through Google Translate: I fight with passion, win with pride, lose with respect, but never give up. Is that right? I think you should put it in the signature in English as well, so nobody misses out on it

Hello everyone, Last night, my dojo had a visit from Doug Perry (Hanshi, Kudan in Shorin-Ryu) who taught a kobudo class and a karate class. He is a very skilled and knowledgeable karateka, a great teacher, and an entertaining speaker, so it was great to have him here to teach again. The pictures my wife took of the karate class can be seen here, if anyone is interested! All that said, I ran into a bit of an issue that occurred the last time he was in town, although it had nothing to do with Hanshi Perry or his teaching. Just like the seminar last year, all of the black belts immediately partnered with each other--none of them partnered with anyone that wasn't a black belt. All but one other brown belt in the class were 14 years old or younger, and they all partnered with each other for the most part. I had really been hoping to work with an adult martial artist with as much (or preferably, more) experience as me, so that I could really dive into the material. I ended up partnered with an adult orange belt and helped him through a lot of the techniques, which is fine because I do love teaching and I have no problem working with less experienced people--it just wasn't what I was hoping to do in this particular class. So, that brings me to my question--who do you prefer to partner with for seminars and special classes? Obviously, it would be a little difficult to list ALL the possibilities of people you could work with, so I tried to list options based on experience and skill level. Of course, I'm also aware that there are two sides to every coin, so I would expect there to be conflicting answers on this. I'm really interested in getting the opinions of the KF community on this one!

Thankfully, this is nothing like the novel I'm planning at the moment . This sounds like a fun book, although I definitely agree with JusticeZero that the traveling aspect will likely be more interesting to read than the training, itself. Training is pretty repetitive and, from a literary perspective, fighting can be hard to describe effectively and make it interesting because if you break it down too far it becomes boring, and if you don't break it down enough it seems pointless. I think the biggest thing that you need to develop is a primary conflict. If you just have a collection of smaller conflicts (travel issues, challenge matches, injuries, etc.) then you don't have anything really driving the story. Basically, we need to know why the main character is doing what he is doing, and what are the consequences if he doesn't.

Most of the black belts in my system have their name on one side and the name of the system on the other side.