Wastelander

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.

Well done, Drew! It looks like you kept your guard a bit wide and invited his jab straight in, but the hook-clinch-throw progression worked out very well--I love a good throw in MMA! I will admit that I was a bit concerned when you stayed in the scarf hold position up against the fence and he started working that escape to take your back, but you recovered well. It's not very often you see someone put to sleep by a Guillotine, too, so good on you! Hopefully my amateur debut this year goes as smoothly. Thanks for sharing!

Well, you could just ask what kyu rank you currently are--that would tell you what the next rank you will be testing for is. Honestly, that is more useful than the belt color until you get to shodan, because everybody arranges the colors differently until then, but they typically have a similar kyu level structure. Of course, rank isn't actually all that important unless you want to teach someday and have "credentials" so you don't really need to know what rank you will test for next. Just keep training and you will get there eventually, wherever "there" happens to be

I believe that depends on your organization and dojo. If you are a green belt and just had to demonstrate Saifa for that ranking, I would guess that you would be testing for a brown belt ranking--maybe sankyu (3rd kyu)--when you test with Seiunchin. I had to learn and demonstrate Seiunchin to earn my sankyu rank in Shuri-Ryu, but since it wasn't Goju-Ryu I can't say how accurate that is. You would be best served by asking your sensei

I have never studied Uechi-Ryu, but I do find it to be a very interesting art and I have read up on its history a bit. I have also watched quite a few videos and documentaries on it. The tactics and techniques are often quite different from the ones that we use in Shorin-Ryu, but I have incorporated several of the ones that are similar because I find them to be quite useful. Would you be willing to share some of your insights on the style, its kata, its bunkai, and its overall methods?

Is there proof to these claims? You lose range of motion by not stretching. Guys with big, strong legs can still kick high; Van Damme comes to mind. Wesley Snipes and Michael Jai White are big guys, too, but they kick well. I'm sure there are many more I am missing, but you can see big guys compete in the old K-1s, and they had some big, strong legs, too. Still kick high and kick well. I assume that you are referring to me saying "there might be a point where you get too bulky to move quickly"? If so, I can tell you that I don't have proof, which is why I said "might"--I have known a couple people who bulked up and got slower, but that's all. Just an anecdotal observation and musing on my part . I definitely agree that being muscular doesn't make you slow, I was merely thinking out loud that there may be a point of diminishing returns.

Normally, when you do uchi-mata, your body is in front of the person you are throwing. When you do tai otoshi, your body is slightly to the side of the person you are throwing. A side-step uchi-mata is, basically, doing an uchi-mata from the same place you would do a tai otoshi. There is a little more to it than that when it comes to how you use your arms, but it works well on bent-over people. It should land you in their half-guard.

I would highly recommend that you seek proper instruction for iron body training, because there is a lot that goes into doing it properly. You don't necessarily need to learn it from Chinese martial artists, however, if they are not available where you live. Goju-Ryu or Uechi-Ryu karate instructors can also teach a variation of iron body training, and it is typically one of the first things they teach.

Ultimately, it is your instructor's decision what color belt you wear. If he/she wants you to wear a white belt, then you should, but I would think you would progress through the ranks again fairly quickly if you pick it back up easily. If your instructor wants you to wear your rank, then go ahead and wear it but make sure that people understand that you've had quite a long break or they will expect you to be as knowledgeable and skilled as everyone else wearing that color belt. If your instructor does tell you to wear a white belt again, don't worry about it. Martial arts training is a life-long journey, so it really doesn't matter what color your belt is or how long it takes you to progress from one rank to another, as long as you keep training .

Well, I have trained in judo, not BJJ, but the BJJ people that I have grappled with have a tendency to grab me and pull guard or immediately shoot for double- or single-leg takedowns. When they don't get those, they tend to have a rather bent-over posture that lines them up perfectly for a side-step uchi-mata or a tai otoshi. As I said, though, I don't train in BJJ and I don't grapple with BJJ people on a regular basis, so take my advice on this with a grain of salt. If a side-step uchi-mata or a tai otoshi will work for you, then use it, and if not, don't .

Congratulations! Tournaments can be pretty stressful, so it's always more fun when you come out with an award for all your hard work

Some instructors don't see much point in ceremony when it comes to belt ranks--especially lower ranks. From the instructor's point of view, they are testing you every single day. They see how you progress from day one, and they know when you are ready to be grouped with the rank above the one you are currently at. The test is often a formality, because they already know you can pass it, and ceremony only makes sense if there is a collection of people to witness it.

To some extent, I would call myself experienced. In martial arts, I am more experienced than my kohai, and less experienced than my senpai and instructors, and outside of our dojo there are thousands upon thousands of people I am less experienced than. There are also some things about the martial arts that I have less experience in, or no experience in. It all really depends on how you view it

Happy birthday!