Wastelander

I like my hemp gi from Datsusara (dsgear.com) and before I got that I just used a cheap Chinese judogi I found on eBay. Mizuno is extremely popular in judo, and many BJJ people also use them, and I know that Atama is a popular brand as well.

We work both thigh kicks and shin blocks, and to answer Dobbersky's question we train the shin block toes up, but I usually end up with my foot at an angle rather than up or down when I actually do them. I LOVE thigh kicks--they work really well in combinations and drop people who don't train for them pretty quickly. Ev mentioned doing a hook kick to the sciatic nerve, which is actually something I've been playing with but haven't done to anybody in sparring yet. It's kind of amusing how people who do not train for leg kicks (or at all) have no idea how effective they can be. My previous instructor actually told a story once about when he and a group of other American karateka were traveling around Asia to train and spar, and they ended up sparring with some guys in Thailand who smashed their legs. The story went that the karateka had never trained for thigh kicks and didn't really think anything of it when they started getting kicked there so they never bothered to block them because, "hey, they're just kicking me in the legs." When they sat down between rounds, though, they discovered that after a while they couldn't stand back up from their seat because the muscles in their legs knotted so badly. After hearing that story, though, it always made me wonder why we hardly ever worked thigh kicks at that dojo

I have found that this tends to be the case for MANY high level judo coaches--one of my instructors used it to win almost every competition he ever entered (he calls it the "big gun"). In any case, I trained in judo regularly for about 4 years, although now I just integrate it into my karate training. For self defense, I like deashi barrai, osoto gari, koshi guruma (although I tend to turn this into harai goshi if I need an extra boost of power), and a side-step uchi-mata. That's like four-and-a-half throws for self defense

It depends on how you normally train, what you will be competing in and how tough the competition will be. I generally try to practice my kata and spar enough on a regular basis that I do not really do anything special to prepare for tournaments, but competition also isn't really important to me. We have the kids on our Tournament Team meet up once a week (in addition to their normal classes) for 6 weeks to prepare for tournaments, generally, just so they can get extra practice in and also practice how to bow in, announce, get scores, etc.

I would like to help you, but I've never heard of shiho-empi-uchi. It means "four corners elbow strike", so perhaps it is an elbow striking drill for working a variety of strikes rather than a specific technique? I did a quick search on both YouTube and Google and came up with nothing definitive, so I suspect you will most likely need to ask your instructor what it is (which is always the best course of action, anyway). I'm a little concerned you are being graded without being conversant with YOUR syllabus! I know that some schools grade on a schedule and everyone tests together, ready or not--that was the way my previous dojo was. It really isn't so bad, so long as you understand that you definitely stand the chance of not passing.

I would like to help you, but I've never heard of shiho-empi-uchi. It means "four corners elbow strike", so perhaps it is an elbow striking drill for working a variety of strikes rather than a specific technique? I did a quick search on both YouTube and Google and came up with nothing definitive, so I suspect you will most likely need to ask your instructor what it is (which is always the best course of action, anyway).

No problem, I'm glad I could be of assistance!

The stances are quite different as they tend to be higher and more natural. You will also have to relearn some kata--the Pinan/Heian series are done differently, in particular, but I don't know what kata you know beyond those. Overall, I think you will also find Shorin-Ryu to be a bit more fluid and circular than you are used to, as well. We actually had a Shotokan black belt visit our dojo last night and these were the things he found difficult to adjust to.

Looks like everybody had a good time and the tournament went well! Thanks for sharing, Ev!

Do you want to train a second martial art for effectiveness or for art? If effectiveness, then judo or jujutsu. If art then I would say probably aikido.

I go to the dojo 3 days a week for about 3 hours at a time, but I do at least some kihon or kata practice on my own every day, as well as doing research and writing out my own thoughts on karate.

That is yama-uke (mountain receiving technique--it looks like the shape of a mountain, so it's easy to remember) and I do a slightly different version of Seiunchin ( ) but it does have that in it after a push. I use it to break down someone's grips on my neck, shirt or arms and pull them down into hiza-geri (I know there isn't a hiza-geri in the kata, but I am of the school of thought that neko-ashi-dachi signifies that you should be using the lead leg for something). The motion does not necessarily have to be done with both hands, at least not for my application for it since how you use it depends on how they grab you. Since that version goes straight into fist-to-palm yoi, you can always grab their face and smash it with your fist in case smashing it with your knee didn't work.

Basically, karate camps are intended to give you long periods of serious training where you are away from all of your normal distractions--how the camps are run depends upon the person running them. Shorin-Ryu karate camps tend to be a little less hardcore than that --Hanshi Perry's camp, for example, is in the woods down South and everyone stays in cabins overnight and more-or-less trains from sunrise to dinner time. Lots of kata, bunkai and kihon! My sensei loves that camp but I haven't gotten the chance to attend, myself.

What he meant was, did you tell the Kyokushin people that you have a background in Go-Kan-Ryu? The reason that he asked was because most people who do not do GKR believe that GKR is not good, and if you had told the Kyokushin folks that you are a GKR student they may have decided that you were also not good, which might be why you had the experience that you did. It is a little harsh, but it is certainly a possibility.

I'm out of state without my webcam at the moment, but I'm hoping to be on around 3pm PST periodically once I return.

http://i50.tinypic.com/5zjd3o.jpg Sometimes you have a need for certain training equipment, but don't have the funds to acquire professionally made gear. That was the case with these "blockers" that I made with some PVC pipe, foam pool noodle, contact cement, duct tape, and cloth tape. It was a very simple process--cut the 1" PVC pipe to the desired length, put a small amount of contact cement on it, slide the foam pool noodle onto the pipe, leaving enough pipe left at one end for a handle, then cut the foam off about 2" or 3" past the end of the pipe and use contact cement to fill the hole in the end of the noodle with extra foam. I could have left it that way, but discovered that the foam tended to tear when I grabbed and pulled on it, so I broke out the duct tape. After I wrapped the foam, I decided that the PVC was too slippery and would generate too much static, so I wrapped it with some athletic tape. I already had all of these things sitting around at home, with the exception of the pool noodle, which I purchased at a 99 cent store. After I took this picture, I put a PVC cap on the ends of the handles, too, but you get the idea. All told, each blocker probably cost me about $2 to make, and they may not be pretty but they do work quite well for conditioning and blocking drills!

shuto uke is knife hand block, however shuto uchi is knife hand strike - they are different as a block comes from a different part of the body moving in a certain way that is different from the strike which comes from another place to ensure maximum damage I respectfully disagree, actually. In your style it may be important to perform them differently, but in my dojo we do not make the same distinction during kihon practice or kata. In the air, a shuto is a shuto--it only becomes a shuto-uke if we are actually using it to receive a technique, and it only becomes a shuto-uchi if we are actually using it to strike. We generally call it shuto-uke for simplicity's sake when beginners or people from other styles are around, but the more advanced students tend to just call it a shuto unless we are actually applying it as an uke or uchi at that moment.

Thank you very much!

Sorry to hear that! Unfortunately, that is certainly something that you can run into--just because someone practices a solid art and is good at it doesn't necessarily mean that they are a good teacher, or have a teaching style that will work well with your learning style. Hopefully you have better luck elsewhere!

Welcome back to karate, and to the forum!

Honestly, to not know that Shorin-Ryu exists you would almost have to have absolutely no interest in karate--it's a pretty major system. That said, spreading awareness is always good, and if the people in your area aren't aware of it then you are doing them a service and maybe you'll pique their interest and they will research it more, and maybe even stop by your dojo to workout every now and then. As far as your competitions go, Shorin-Ryu as a whole tends to emphasize kata, which is excellent for self defense but not terribly useful in competition sparring unless grabs, sweeps, throws, chokes and joint locks are allowed . Kicks are certainly a very useful tool in sparring (and I love them to death) but I would argue that hand techniques are more important. Try this when you get a chance--ask someone to spar with you using only kicks while you use only hands, and then vice versa. You'll see what I mean

Congratulations on doing so well at your first tournament! As far as how much sparring you should do, it really depends on what your goals are for your training. If you want to do a lot of competitions and want to compete in the kumite divisions and do well, then you will probably need to do more sparring. If you just want to do competitions every now and then it isn't really an issue.

Correct. That is what I tend to do, but you may find that it doesn't work well for you, so it's something to try out and make your own decision about. For me, it makes it much easier to explode to the outside of my opponent, but I know some people prefer to use the same stance as their opponent and take a lunging step with their rear leg (thereby switching their stance and getting to the outside of their opponent).

First of all, welcome to the forum! Angles are your friend--if you move straight forward to attack or straight back to defend you will get stopped by kicks and run over by your opponent. It's unfortunate that you can't do any sweeps or grabs, but even so, you'll be in a much better position of you use angles. I like to use the opposite stance from my opponent and shoot to the outside of their body, which makes it easy to avoid or deflect kicks and then sets me up to hit them in the ribs or side of the head. I also like to throw roundhouse kicks to the stomach from that step and follow up with my hands.

Looks like Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Matsubayashi-Ryu and Kyokushin are all in your general area: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Canberra%2C+Australia+karate Also some Muay Thai: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Canberra%2C+Australia+muay+thai There could be more that simply don't have a web presence, as Dobbersky said, but that's a start. Goju-Ryu, Shito-Ryu and Matsubayashi-Ryu may or may not spar, at all, and if they do spar it may be no-contact or light-contact point sparring, so you would need to go watch class to find out. Kyokushin and Muay Thai will generally have full contact sparring.