Wastelander

I highly recommend researching Dillman's history and claims. With pressure points in grappling, they can be useful against some people, although since BJJ doesn't allow striking, for the most part, you are a bit limited. I routinely use the pressure points of the calf, inner thigh, ribcage, and neck during grappling. They aren't fight-finishers that are going to make your partner tap out, but they do help get them to move where you want them and create openings.

As I understand it, Fallon Fox has been on hormone replacement therapy for over 10 years. That is a long time to be on female hormones and blockers for male hormones, and it will have a significant effect on the body. I remember seeing a progression video of a young transgender who underwent a change from male to female, and the difference in just a few years was astounding. There are a few things, such as greater lung capacity, that may linger after such hormone therapy, but I doubt that the muscles are getting enough male hormones for that to be a factor. As long as she continues her hormone therapy as prescribed I have no problem with her competing with women, but if she tests too high for male hormones she should be punished just like any other female fighter would be. The Olympic committee already has rules in place for transgender athletes that would be applied in boxing, wrestling, judo and taekwondo, so I see no reason they can't be carried over into MMA. I completely understand where sensei8 is coming from with women and men of all sizes being able to defend against anyone, but I see combat sports as a totally different thing. When you choose to be locked inside a cage or a ring with another, similarly trained fighter, it is meant to be a sporting contest and there should be some sort of level playing field for such a thing.

Well, a lot of the stuff I want that is related to martial arts these days costs more than $20. That said, I would most certainly find a good book that isn't currently in my collection. Most of the stuff that you can buy may be helpful, but it isn't generally necessary. At some point, additional knowledge is necessary to continue your training effectively, and sometimes a good book can provide that--or, at least, it can provide some insight or inspiration to help you along the way.

Welcome to the forum! I'm looking forward to learning from you in the discussions we have here--you have listed Wing Chun and Krav Maga in your "Styles" section, so you may have quite a different perspective from many of the folks here.

Kyusho is a great addition to your martial arts repertoire, although as others have mentioned, it is not something you can rely on without the support of the rest of your training. It is also not an art unto itself, because it is just another set of techniques, so I would avoid anyone claiming to have a rank in kyusho--that would be like having a rank in kicking, or in joint locking, which is just a bit silly. Kyusho also isn't mysterious or magical, and if you see any demonstrations that look magical, they are probably the result of mass hypnosis. People can be made to believe so strongly that these things work that their body will actually react the way it is "supposed" to for the demonstration. Pressure points are simply places where nerves end, cross, or branch out, or where a large nerve or bundle of nerves is relatively unprotected, and they are particularly sensitive in those areas. Some are susceptible to being struck, some to being rubbed on, and some to simply being pressed, depending on the nerve and its surrounding environment. For the most part, they cause extra pain and not much else. Some can cause the nervous system to "short out" (for lack of a better term) which results in legs getting wobbly, arms going numb, or a "flash knockout" where the person loses consciousness for a short period of time, depending on how the pressure points are used. Also, remember that kyusho includes sensitive targets, not just pressure points, so the liver, spleen, kidneys, groin, and base of the skull are all part of it. Basically, employing kyusho enhances the techniques you are learning by providing you with extra knowledge to make your karate more effective. If you miss or the kyusho points fail to work, the technique should still be sound enough that you will not be put at a disadvantage by using it. For example--a solid strike to the neck feels pretty terrible, even if you don't hit the vagus nerve, and it puts the striker in a good position. Hopefully this helps you out a bit! @ bassaiguy - I actually took a seminar with Vince Morris, the founder of Kissaki-Kai, earlier this year. He was an interesting character and his techniques and principles were good. They also included the use of kyusho as I've described here, so he and my sensei are actually on the same page in that regard, despite their differences in style.

I actually had never done anything special with my rank certifications until my most recent one, which is framed in my office hanging below my 1897 map of Asia. Up until that one, all of my rank certificates went into a folder. My most recent certificate was for Nikyu in Shorin-Ryu, and it was my first rank in that system, so to commemorate that I actually requested a certificate from Nakazato Shugoro. I got the certificate from my sensei, of course, but he had his sensei request one of the fancy, hand-written ones from the hombu dojo in Naha for me. It marked an important moment to me, so I framed it. I will likely do the same when I reach Shodan, but I think I will mount it to a plaque instead of using a simple frame.

We incorporate kyusho into our training, but I definitely wouldn't call it "pressure point karate." Pressure points are simply another tool that we use in conjunction with our strikes, joint locks, and takedowns. Did you have something in particular that you wanted to know about the use of pressure points?

I am not particularly fond of the idea of Olympic karate for a couple reasons, although I understand where people are coming from with wanting karate to be an Olympic sport. There is a great deal of exposure to be had, and we could definitely use that momentum to help spread the art the way taekwondo and judo (the two most popular martial arts in the world) have done. This is a pretty controversial topic, so I won't go into great detail on my opinions here--I'll write up something for my blog instead--but I will give a brief overview of my thoughts. I think that putting karate sparring into the Olympics doesn't make much sense because the non-martial-artist public can't tell the difference between it and taekwondo. I think that kata competition in the Olympics would promote showmanship and karate as a performance art rather than a practical martial art. If they could figure out a way to make effective karate an Olympic sport, I would be all for it, but I'm not sure how the would accomplish that.

Lupin1 is absolutely correct. For better or worse, there is no governing organization for the martial arts world that prevents anyone from starting their own style. Personally, I don't necessarily have any problem with people founding their own style--if your training and experience has caused what you train to develop into something unique, then you've created your own style whether you name it or not. That said, I can't stand people granting themselves ranks, because it's highly disingenuous. I personally know someone who founded his own style, but he only claims ranks that he was given by his instructors, and that seems like the best way to go about it, in my opinion.

First of all, welcome to the forum! The rest of the techniques in karate are far from useless! Generally, though, clinching with your opponent and throwing a shovel kick to the inside of their knee before dislocating their elbow or dropping an elbow on the back of their head is frowned upon in kumite--it's a little messy, ugly and dangerous In general, karate was intended for use against an untrained attacker that is threatening your life/health/safety. This is generally done at close range with committed attacks, and so the techniques of karate deal with those situations. Some techniques carry over into modern kumite, and more, still, carry over into open formats like MMA, but a lot of them just don't really fit into competitive fighting with another, similarly trained person. Over time, you will probably see the concepts of the techniques when you watch sparring, rather than seeing the specific techniques.

In my opinion, the belt system really isn't all that interesting--as PS1 and JusticeZero explained, it was created by the founder of judo as a simple way of signifying who you could ask questions and who could be used for demonstrations. Personally, I think it would be better for you to study the development of your martial art--who taught who, what martial arts did they study, where did those arts come from, etc. Tang Soo Do is an art made up of Shotokan karate (so you have a LONG history to dig into regarding the karate roots of your style, if you wanted), Chinese martial arts and Korean martial arts, so you have plenty of material to choose from. If you wanted to do your report specifically on another style, I recommend choosing one that is related to the development of your art, just so you can have that piece of the puzzle for later

I filled out the survey--you had some very interesting designs on there! Thanks for involving the martial arts community!

Squats, squats and more squats, plus some deadlifts. From there, throw in some pushups and weighted ab work. Google can provide a wide array of great ab exercises--just make sure you include exercises that work your obliques, too!

A mouthguard is definitely vital for sparring! I hated the boil-and-bite type, but I couldn't afford a dentist-made one, so I went with Gladiator Guard. They send you a kit to mold your teeth, which you then send back and they use it to make a custom-fitted mouthguard like you would get at the dentist, but for about half the cost. A nice bonus is that they keep the casting of your teeth, and if you ever need a replacement mouthguard you can order one for half the original price because they can use that casting they already have. If I ever wear out this one, I may try one of the other custom brands, or a dentist-made one, but after using a custom-fitted mouthguard, I'll never go back to the boil-and-bite ones.

Welcome to the forum, Mike, and congratulations on your tournament success!

We have a requirement to spar once you get to 5th kyu, if I remember correctly, but we allow people to spar before that. It's a combination of whether sensei thinks they are ready and if they think they are ready, and they always have their first sparring match with a brown or black belt to acclimate them to the idea.

Zentokukai is a great group--check out One Minute Bunkai on YouTube and you will see Sensei Lemus demonstrating some of the basic kata applications of their system. Good find!

All of our classes are an hour long, with the exception of our class for students 6 years old and younger, which is only 45 minutes long. Typically we will do about 10 minutes of warm-ups and general exercise before getting into the lessons, but we don't have a regular breakdown beyond that. In the adult classes there is usually not a warm-up because the adults come in early and warm themselves up in advance. Again, we don't have a regular breakdown of how lessons go--they are at least a little different every time.

I completely agree that you should have a style that you call "home" and should have a "solid base" in that art before you cross-train, but I think it is a mistake to put a rank on it. Everyone has a different idea of what shodan means, and what is required of someone in order to become a shodan. For example, I know someone who won't test you for shodan until you have been training for a minimum of 15 years. Similarly, I've known people who earned shodan in one or two years in Japan. Every martial artist is going to have different levels of skill, knowledge and comprehension, as well as different levels of dedication. Because of those factors, I don't think we can't even really put a time limit on it. A martial arts prodigy may be able to start cross-training after two years and do very well, and someone else may not have any success with cross-training after 8 years. I suppose that what I'm saying is that what constitutes a "solid base" in an art is subjective, whether you base it on rank or time. When I say "solid base" I think of it like this; you understand the basics of how your art work and can physically demonstrate them naturally (without thinking about it), and you are able to filter new martial arts experiences through the lens of your base art to determine what is useful to you, what might be useful to others, what doesn't fit your style, etc. I realize that my description somewhat goes against the "empty your cup" mentality, but I suppose I have a different outlook on things.

Cross-training or changing styles can be a very valuable experience for a martial artist, but I highly recommend developing a solid base in one art before you start dabbling in others. How strong that base should be depends on your skill level and ability to learn, as well as on how similar the arts are. For example, I started training in judo after only training in karate for 6 months, but I didn't have any problem with that. On the other hand, if I had tried taking up another striking art, it would have been much more difficult because I was still just learning the basics of my style of karate.

Hello Phalanx, I don't know how many members (if any) we have from Delaware, but according to Google you do not have any Okinawan karate schools in your area: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=newark%2C+de+martial+arts There are, however, other martial arts available to you. I notice that there are a couple places that teach kickboxing, although that isn't a particularly "traditional" art like karate would be, as well as a couple places that teach kenpo, and a couple that teach Taekwondo or Tang Soo Do, both of which are related to Japanese karate (Shotokan). I highly suggest that you visit some of the schools in your area and get information on the school itself, the style, and the instructor, and also get a feel for how the classes are. The style is not nearly as important as the instructor and the atmosphere of the school, when all is said and done.

Sweeps are great, and I love using them in bunkai drills and sparring--they can be quite effective in both! In addition to the advice you have received so far, I would recommend that you seek out a judo instructor if you really want to improve your foot sweeps. One neat little trick I will throw out there for sweeping someone when they have weight on the leg you want to sweep actually comes from Okinawan tegumi/shima--knee the leg you want to sweep and then sweep their foot from that motion. I recently learned this little trick, and it works quite well, although it's a little painful to practice for any length of time without thigh or knee pads.

I was actually talking with someone about this yesterday in regards to some people I know who train somewhere else. It brought to mind something that I read from someone on a martial arts forum--I can't remember which one, though it could have been here--that said something like "when you look back on your training 20 or 30 years down the road, will you be able to say that you were learning that whole time, or were you just practicing the first 3 years over and over again?" Technique is obviously very important, as it gives us a foundation to build upon, and it should never be neglected. That said, I wholeheartedly agree that there is so much more out there to be learned and if we do nothing but perfect the foundation then we will never get our house built.

I had wanted an Earth Gi back in 2007 but couldn't afford it, and in 2008 I was able to get a hemp gi from Datsusara (made for BJJ but I used it for judo) and that one is still going strong. About 2 years ago I decided that I could afford to finally get my hemp karate gi, but by then Earth Gi was out of business, so I ended up contacting someone on Etsy to make one for me. The person who made it makes a lot of clothing items, had good reviews and claimed to be a martial artist, but he used the wrong hemp fabric (a very soft hemp linen instead of the 14oz hemp canvas I requested) and he didn't reinforce the lapel at all. I have never heard of Gassho, but I really appreciate you posting about it! I would love to replace my floppy, flimsy hemp gi (which is still plenty durable and isn't showing any wear-and-tear, despite being abused) with one that looks nicer and is made of heavier fabric. I think I will send them a message and see what it would cost to buy just the top of their heavyweight hemp karate gi and have it shipped here, and I'll have to ask what the difference is between the "Karate Standard" and the "Karate Tokaido" versions.

Replace it with a natural-fiber rope (I like hemp rope for this) and it will stay tied MUCH better than the flat draw strings.